Ancient South Arabian

Even though it has been now accepted that the four main languages be considered independent, they are clearly closely related linguistically and derive from a common ancestor because they share certain morphological innovations.

One of the most important isoglosses retained in all four languages is the suffixed definite article -(h)n,[citation needed] another proposed common innovation being the formation of 1st and 2nd person perfect verbal forms with -k (which is also a feature of Yemeni Arabic attributable to a Sayhadic substrate).

Sayhadic had its own writing system, the Ancient South Arabian Monumental Script, or Ms3nd,[11] consisting of 29 graphemes concurrently used for proto-Geʿez in the Kingdom of Dʿmt, ultimately sharing a common origin with the other Semitic abjads, the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet.

Although the inscriptions from ancient South Arabia were already known by the 18th century, it was Wilhelm Gesenius (1786–1842) and his student Emil Rödiger who finally undertook the deciphering of the script, actually independently of each other, in the years 1841/42.

Then in the second half of the 19th century Joseph Halévy and Eduard Glaser brought hundreds of Old South Arabian inscriptions, possible tracings and copies back to Europe.

A completely new field of Old South Arabian script and texts has opened up since the 1970s with the discovery of wooden cylinders on which Sabaean has been written with a pen.

The unknown script and numerous incomprehensible words present Sabaean studies with new problems, and to this day the wooden cylinders are not completely understood.