The Ammonite language is an extinct Canaanite language spoken by the Ammonite people , mentioned in the Bible , who inhabited the region of present-day Jordan – whose capital, Amman , is named after him. Only fragments of the language have survived until today – mainly the Inscription of the Citadel of Amman [ 1 ] from the 9th century BC , the bronze bottle of Tell Siran, from the 7th and 6th centuries BC, and some ostraca . From what can be determined from this small corpus , it appears to have been extremely similar to Biblical Hebrew, with a possible Aramaic influence – including the use of the verb ‘bd instead of its most common Biblical Hebrew equivalent, ‘ śh , meaning ‘to work’ (a similar Aramaic influence can be seen in modern Hebrew , in which ‘bd can mean “work”, such as the name of the labor Party of Israel , `Avoda ). The only other notable difference from Biblical Hebrew is the sporadic retention of the feminine singular -t (eg ‘šħt “cistern”, but “lyh ” alta “.
