Punic

Punic is an umbrella term used in classical and modern scholarship for things related to ancient Carthage and its culture, and most often to its language. The term derives from Latin Punicus and is used to describe the Punic language, a variety of Phoenician, and the Punic-speaking population that once dominated parts of North Africa and the western Mediterranean from roughly the 9th century BCE to the early medieval period.

Punic is a Northwest Semitic language within the Phoenician repertoire. It is known primarily from inscriptions and corpus such as tombstones, altars, and ostraca. It remained mutually intelligible with other Phoenician varieties but developed its own vocabulary and phonology. It was written using the Phoenician alphabet; later Neo-Punic varieties persisted in inscriptions into late antiquity.

Geographically, Punic was associated with Carthage and its territories, including parts of Sicily, Sardinia, Iberia, and coastal North Africa. It served as the language of everyday life, commerce, and administration within many Punic communities, though Greek and later Latin were used in official or formal contexts in some regions.

Historically, Punic developed in the Carthaginian sphere of influence and persisted after Carthage’s rise and after its destruction by Rome in 146 BCE. The language gradually declined as Latin spread through administration and daily life in the western Mediterranean. Neo-Punic continued in some communities into late antiquity, and Arabic eventually supplanted Punic following the Arab conquests in the region.

Scholars study Punic to understand Carthaginian society, religion, trade networks, and connections with other Semitic languages. Evidence consists of inscriptions, coins, and linguistic analysis, with limited native literature and much information drawn from Greco-Roman sources and archaeology.