It was used in the Kingdom of Hadhramaut and also the area round the Hadhramite capital of Shabwa, in what is now Yemen.

Noteworthy characteristics of Ḥaḑramautic include its tendency, especially in inscriptions from Wadi Ḥaḍhramaut, to represent Old South Arabian ṯ as s3: thus we find s2ls3 ("three"; cf.

)[1] There are also instances where ṯ is written for an older form s3; e.g. Ḥaḑramautic mṯnad ("inscription"), which is msnd in the rest of Old South Arabian.

[1] Potsherds with Ancient South Arabian letters on them, found in Raybūn, the old Ḥaḍramitic capital, have been radiocarbon dated to the 12th century BC.

As in other Semitic languages n can be assimilated to a following consonant, compare ʾnfs1 "souls" > ʾfs1 In Ḥaḑramautic the third person pronouns begin with s1.