The 'Philistine language' is the extinct
language of the
Philistines,
along the coastal strip of southwestern
Canaan. Very little is known about the language, one dialect of which is referred in the
Bible as "Ashdodit" (i.e., from the city
Ashdod).
There is not enough information of the language of the Philistines to relate it to any other languages. One theory is that the language is part of the
Canaanite dialect continuum or may have been related to
Mycenaean Greek, due to the "
sea peoples" origin theory (see
Philistines).
The
Ekron inscription is the first body of text to be identified as 'Philistine' text.
External links
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The Canaanite Dialect of the Dedicatory Royal Inscription from Ekron, 2004 - A summary of articles about the Ekron inscription.