OLD NEGEV TRANSLATION TIPS.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How do I tell when to read from the right to the left or where to start?
This is perhaps the first obstacle to reading the script because the authors, at that
time in history, had no solid agreement of which direction their symbols would be
read or written. It appears that there is a preference for writing from right to left,
opposite of what westerners are familiar with doing, and from bottom to top in the
script associated with the Purgatory River area in Colorado. Another thing to keep in
mind was that, quite often, the script is written in a deliberate and clever way so
that the meaning of the phrase is more or less the same, no matter which direction
it is read.
When it comes to the holy name of God, "Alef" or a circle is used to denote "Yah" or
"El."
How do I tell when I have come to the end of one word and the beginning
of the next word?
Ligatures are when two or more symbols are connected together to form a
single shape. When grouped together like this, the entire ligature is
usually a single word. Ordinarily, in old Negev script, the final letter of a
word is repeated, signaling the end of the word. If there is more than one
variant to any particular letter that terminates a word or phrase, the
alternate sign is often placed next to the original sign. Another way that
word breaks are indicated is in the deliberate rotation or enlargement of
the last letter in a word string. It appears that each author had their own
set of preferred rules but, with a little patience, the correct patter can
usually be found with a little effort.
Many of the translations give me a collection of possible phrases -- how do
I know which ones are correct?
Old Negev is a Hebrew dialect that was originally written without vowels.
As variations in Hebrew dialects began to grow, vowel sounds were later
added to standardize the exact sound of certain words and phrases. As a
result, today there are several different words which have the same order
and number of consonants but have different vowels. As a result, all of the
possible words and meanings must be given equal weight. This may sound
problematic but it is not. The different vowels that have been added to
root words made of similar consonants all have similar root meanings so
that the translation will usually be apparent regardless of the difference in
vowels.
The order of concepts and grammar can vary as much as English. The
subject, verb and object can be inverted (i.e. "I went to the store to buy

OLD NEGEV TRANSLATION TIPS.

bread," could also be written as "For bread I did go to the store," or "I go
for bread to the store..."). It takes some practice and familiarity with the
habits of the author(s) of the region in which the Negev script is found.
Back to Translation Program
Observing the inadequate translations of Winnett, Harris was encouraged to begin
with a careful study of the signs and the result was that the abundance of archaic
letter forms and archaic construction and usage demanded that this script be
considered an early post Proto-Canaanite script and not a pre-Arabic dialect script.
As a post Proto-Canaanite script it was best translated in Hebrew (i.e. pre Massoretic
Hebrew).
In the years that followed James R. Harris and Dann W Hone expanded their corpus
of "Old Negev" inscriptions. They abandoned the misleading word "Thamudic"
because Old Negev (1200 BCE) is the ancient parent of the Arabian Scripts, while
Thamudic (pre-Christian) is a late offspring.
We have discovered a script in the Negev of Israel that appears to be a local
variation of Proto-Canaanite [a generic formative script widely used among
Canaanite peoples during the second millennium B.C.]. This local variation, which
we call the Old Negev script, was widely used by Negev Canaanites (such as Kenites
and Israelites) from 1200-600 BC. In the interest of not straining the strong
indications from archaeology, inscriptions, and the Bible that the major carriers of
this script were Midianites we call this script Old Negev and identify its carriers as
ancient Canaanite people or peoples.
This Old Negev script not only has a distinctive sign system with features that go
back to it's Proto-Sinaitic parent script but also a grammatical structure persisting
from Proto-Sinaitic through Proto-Canaanite to Old Negev. These distinctive
characteristics were not passed on to Canaanite/Phoenician or to Old Negev's
offspring scripts of the Arabian desert. Therefore these features will become "ear
marks" for the identification of this script where ever it may be found and must be
clearly presented so that all may judge the certainty of our observations.
With a collection of over one hundred and thirty inscriptions this study has opened a
small window to the early (pre-Exile) history of Canaanite peoples of the Negev. And
since twenty-five percent of the inscriptions contain names of the God of Israel (Yah,
El/Yah, Yahu, and Yahh) it seems fair to say that these Canaanite speakers had a
covenant relationship with Yahweh.
The Shechem Plaque:
Proto-Canaanite:
Old Hebrew:

OLD NEGEV TRANSLATION TIPS.

The second letter from the right (above) is an intrusive abstract resh placed in the
inscription at some later period, therefore we will simply ignore it. [From Benjamin
Sass, (1988) pp. 56-57, translation by Harris and hone. ]
Some General Characteristics of Old Negev:
(Some General Characteristics of Old Negev that were not continued in
Canaanite/Phoenician or in the pre-Arabic scripts of the Arabian Desert.)
1. Sign Rotation; the orientation of a sign can signal the reader that, when in
horizontal position, it represents an inseparable preposition or an article.
2. When in an upside down position it represents the end of a word or phrase.
3. When a letter is larger or smaller than the preceding letters it indicates the end of
a word or phrase.
4. The numbers 2 & 3 above also indicate the direction of language flow.
5. All West Semitic alphabets (emerging after Proto-Canaanite) utilize the abstracted
forms but Old Negev retains in use a very large number of archaic forms (i.e. ProtoSinaitic and Proto-Canaanite forms).
6. Old Negev also retains an elaborate use of ligatures to create symbols that often
complement or enhance the inscriptions. [This form of composition was especially
useful when a population was a mix of literate persons and persons with varying
levels of illiteracy.