The aim of the project, funded by the DFG from 2012 to 2024, was to comprehensively catalogue the vocabulary of Sabaean inscriptions in an online dictionary. With over 8,000 inscriptions spanning 1,400 years from the 8th century BC to the 6th century AD, Sabaean, which originated in what is now Yemen, is the best-documented language variety within ancient South Arabian. In addition to extensive corpora of building, dedication and commemorative inscriptions,legal texts and several hundred letters and economic texts written on palm leaf stalks and wooden sticks are also documented.

Designed as a reference dictionary, it not only provides translations of individual keywords, but also shows the meaning of a term embedded in its linguistic and cultural context. Using a detailed Sabaean text quotation with a German translation, it provides examples of the use of the respective lemma in various syntactic contexts. In addition to the meaning of a lemma suggested by the editors, older and alternative translations found in the specialised literature for the lemma in question are also displayed. In addition, the dictionary provides parallel formations from other ancient South Arabian language varieties and Semitic languages, as well as all grammatical forms of a Sabaean word documented to date in the edited corpus.

For a complete overview of all features and contents of the dictionary, see the FAQ (in german) on the Sabaic Dictionary website.

The project was completed on 31 August 2024. The recorded text corpus represents the material published in the summer of 2024. Unfortunately, inscriptions published later could not be included.

→ to the Sabaic Online Dictionary (in german)