The 'Ammonite language' is the extinct
Hebrew Canaanite language of the
Ammonite people mentioned in the
Bible, who used to live in modern-day
Jordan, and after whom its capital
Amman is named. Only fragments of their language survive - chiefly the 9th century BC
Amman Citadel Inscription, the 7th-6th century BC Tell Siran bronze bottle, and a few
ostraca. As far as can be determined from this small corpus, it was extremely similar to
Biblical Hebrew, with some possible
Aramaic influence including the use of ''‘bd'' instead of commoner Biblical Hebrew ''‘śh'' for "work". The only other notable difference with Biblical Hebrew is the sporadic retention of feminine singular ''-t'' (eg ''’šħt'' "cistern", but ''‘lyh'' "high (fem.)".)
Sources: F. Israel in D. Cohen (ed.), ''Les Langues Chamito-semitiques'', Paris: CNRS, 1988.
F. Aufrecht: ''A Corpus of Ammonite Inscriptions''. Lewiston: Mellen Press, 1989.