Quae lingua si improbatur abs te, nega Punicis libris, ut a viris doctissimis proditur, multa sapienter esse mandata memoriae. Poeniteat te certe ibi natum, ubi huius linguae cunabula recalent.
And if the Punic language is rejected by you, you virtually deny what has been admitted by most learned men, that many things have been wisely preserved from oblivion in books written in the Punic tongue. Nay, you ought even to be ashamed of having been born in the country in which the cradle of this language is still warm.
-- Augustine of Hippo, Ep. XVII, circa 401 AD
Quel mystère que cette langue, et comme j'aimerais essayer de la découvrir entre les fragments épigraphiques qui nous sont parvenus !
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/punic.htm
http://ancientcarthage.wikispaces.com/Phoenician+Language+and+Plautus%27+Poenulus
