The population, the language and the history of Yadiya/Sam’al

Abstract: in this contribution, we will examine the historical, cultural and linguistic data from the multicultural and multilingual city of Yadiya/Sam’al during the Early Iron Age. We will also examine the peculiarities of the variety of Aramaic that was used in the Sam’alian documents, and we will argue that it was influenced both in its lexicon and in its grammar by the presence of other languages spoken in the region.