[5] In Meroitic, this city is referred to as bedewe (or sometimes bedewi), which is represented in ancient Egyptian texts as bꜣ-rꜣ-wꜣ or similar variants.

[6][7] The classification of the Meroitic language is uncertain due to the scarcity of data and difficulty in interpreting it.

For example, she notes that very rarely does one find the sequence CVC, where the consonants (C) are both labials or both velars, noting that is similar to consonant restrictions found throughout the Afroasiatic language family, suggesting that Meroitic might have been an Afroasiatic language like Egyptian.

[9][10] Semitist Edward Lipiński (2011) also argues in favour for an Afro Asiatic origin of Meroitic based primarily on vocabulary.

He finds, for example, that word order in Meroitic "conforms perfectly with other Eastern Sudanic languages, in which sentences exhibit verb-final order (SOV: subject-object-verb); there are postpositions and no prepositions; the genitive is placed before the main noun; the adjective follows the noun.

[14] It can be assumed that speakers of Meroitic covered much of that territory based on the language contact evidenced in Egyptian texts.

[26][27] Both the Meroitic Period and the Kingdom of Kush itself ended with the fall of Meroë (ca.

[31] The language likely became fully extinct by the 6th century when it was supplanted by Byzantine Greek, Coptic,[32] and Old Nubian.

[34] Below is a short list of Kushite words and parts of speech whose meanings are positively known and are not known to be adopted from Egyptian.