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Blemmyan, Blemmye, Old Beja or Old Bedauye is an extinct Afroasiatic language of the Cushitic branch that was spoken by the Blemmyes in the Eastern Desert. Its identification as an early form of Beja is generally accepted.

Classification

Multiple researchers have proposed that the language of the Blemmyes was an ancestor of modern Beja. Francis Llewellyn Griffith identified the language of an ostracon discovered at Saqqara as "probably in the Blemmye language." Nubiologist Gerald M. Browne and linguist Klaus Wedekind have both attempted to demonstrate that this language is an ancestor of Beja, and were both of the opinion that it represented a fragment of Psalm 30.

The Egyptologist Helmut Satzinger has analyzed Blemmyan names from Egyptian, Greek, and Coptic sources, and similarly concluded that the Blemmyan language is an ancestor of Beja.

Meroiticist and archaeologist Claude Rilly concurs:

The Blemmyan language is so close to modern Beja that it is probably nothing else than an early dialect of the same language. In this case, the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay.

References

1. Quibell, J.E. (1909). Excavations at Saqqara (1907–1908). Cairo: L'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale. p. 109.
2. Browne, Gerald (2003). Textus Blemmyicus aetatis christianae. Champaign.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
3. Browne, Gerald (March 2004). "Blemmyes and Beja". The Classical Review. 54 (1): 226–228. doi:10.1093/cr/54.1.226.
4. Wedekind, Klaus (2010). "More on the Ostracon of Browne's Textus Blemmyicus". Annali: Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo, Sezione Orientale. 70: 73–81.
5. Satzinger, Helmut (1992). "Die Personennamen von Blemmyern in koptischen und griechischen Texten: orthographische und phonetische Analyse". In Ebermann, E.; Sommerauer, E.R.; Thomanek, K.E. (eds.). Komparative Afrikanistik. Sprach-, geschichts- und literaturwissenschaftliche Aufsätze zu Ehren von Hans G. Mukarovsky anlässlich seines 70. Geburtstags (in German). Vienna: Afro-Pub. pp. 313–324. ISBN 3850430618.
6. Satzinger, Helmut (2012). The Barbarian Names on the Ostraca from the Eastern Desert (3rd Century CE). 'Inside and Out: Interactions between Rome and the Peoples on the Arabian and Egyptian Frontiers in Late Antiquity (200–800 CE). Ottawa.
7. Rilly, Claude (2019). "Languages of Ancient Nubia". In Raue, Dietrich (ed.). Handbook of Ancient Nubia. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 133–134. ISBN 978-3-11-041669-5.

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