Sabaean (Sabaic), also sometimes incorrectly known as
Ḥimyarite (Himyaritic), was an
Old South Arabian language spoken in
Yemen from c. 1000 BC to the 6th century AD, by the
Sabaeans; it was used as a written language by some other peoples (
sha‘bs) of Ancient Yemen, including the
Ḥimyarites, Ḥashidites, Ṣirwāḥites, Humlanites, Ghaymānites, and Radmānites. The Sabaean language belongs to the South Arabian subgroup of the Semitic group of the
Afro-Asiatic language family. Sabaean is distinguished from the other members of Old South Arabian by the use of
h to mark the
third person, and as a
causative prefix; the other language all use
s1 in these cases; Sabaean is therefore called an
h-language, and the others
s-languages.