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.
Multiple researchers have proposed that the language of the Blemmyes was an ancestor of modern Beja.
"[1] 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.
[2][3][4] 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.