| Ancient South Arabian script 𐩣𐩯𐩬𐩵 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | |
Period | From late 2nd millennium BCE to 6th century CE |
| Direction | Right-to-left,boustrophedon |
| Languages | Old South Arabian,Ge'ez |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Egyptian hieroglyphs
|
Child systems | Geʽez[1][2] |
Sister systems | Ancient North Arabian |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Sarb(105), Old South Arabian |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Old South Arabian |
| U+10A60–U+10A7F | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
TheAncient South Arabian script (Old South Arabian:𐩣𐩯𐩬𐩵,romanized: ms3nd; modernArabic:الْمُسْنَدmusnad) branched from theProto-Sinaitic script in about the late 2nd millennium BCE, and remained in use through the late sixth century CE. It is anabjad, a writing system where only consonants are obligatorily written, a trait shared with its predecessor, Proto-Sinaitic, as well as some of its sibling writing systems, includingArabic andHebrew. It is a predecessor of theGe'ez script, and a sibling script of thePhoenician alphabet and, through that, the modernLatin,Cyrillic, andGreek alphabets.
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The script is really two variants: the monumental and the miniscule script, the former for inscriptions, the latter scratched with wooden sticks. The scripts have a common origin but evolved into separate systems.[3]
The earliest instances of the Ancient South Arabian (ASA) script are painted pottery sherds from Raybun in Hadhramaut in Yemen, which are dated to the late 2nd millennium BCE.[3] It is anabjad script, meaning that onlyconsonants are usually written in the script, with vowels inferred from context; it shares this feature both with its predecessor, theProto-Sinaitic script, and modernSemitic languages. It is unclear precisely how and when the ASA script diverged from Proto-Sinaitic script, as inscriptions from its earliest days are rare.[3] As with these other abjads, some vowels can be indicated if necessary, by includingdiacritical markings, calledmatres lectionis.[citation needed]
Its mature form was reached around 800 BCE, and it remained use in more or less the same form until the 6th century CE. In those centuries, it was used to write multiple languages of the Southern Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa, includingSabaic,Qatabanic,Hadramautic,Minaean,Hasaitic, andGeʽez. It was eventually displaced by the modernArabic alphabet during the early years of the spread of Islam.[4][3] The modern Arabic writing system is related to the ASA script, as both are children of the Proto-Sinaitic script, but modern Arabic derives from thePhoenician andNabatean scripts rather than ASA.[1]
TheGeʽez script is the sole extant writing system that derives from ASA.[1][2] Unlike ASA, Geʽez is anabugida; the primary characters are pairs of consonants and vowels, with each character representing asyllable. Geʽez has been used to writeAmharic,Tigrinya andTigre, as well as other languages (including variousSemitic,Cushitic,Omotic, andNilo-Saharan languages). ASA is also a sibling of thePhoenician – the ancestor of most of the modern European alphabets, such asLatin,Cyrillic andGreek.
The Musnad script differs from the Arabic script, which most linguists believe developed from the Nabataean script in the fourth century AD, which in turn developed from the Aramaic script. The languages of the Southern Musnad script also differ greatly from the Northern Arabic language in terms of script, lexicon, grammar, styles, and perhaps sounds, and the letters of the script increase. The Musnad is derived from Arabic with an extra sibilant letter (some call it sāmikh) or the third sīn.[5][6]
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| Ancient South Arabian Letter[7] | Phoneme | IPA | Corresponding letter in | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient North Arabian | Ge'ez | Phoenician | Aramaic | Arabic | Hebrew | ||||||
| 𐩠 | h | [h] | 𐪀 | ሀ | 𐤄 | 𐡄 | ه | ה | |||
| 𐩡 | l | [l] | 𐪁 | ለ | 𐤋 | 𐡋 | ل | ל | |||
| 𐩢 | ḥ | [ħ] | 𐪂 | ሐ | 𐤇 | 𐡇 | ح | ח | |||
| 𐩭 | ḫ | [x] | 𐪍 | ኀ | خ | ||||||
| 𐩣 | m | [m] | 𐪃 | መ | 𐤌 | 𐡌 | م | מם | |||
| 𐩤 | q | [q] | 𐪄 | ቀ | 𐤒 | 𐡒 | ق | ק | |||
| 𐩥 | w | [w],[uː] | 𐪅 | ወ | 𐤅 | 𐡅 | و | ו | |||
| 𐩧 | r | [r] | 𐪇 | ረ | 𐤓 | 𐡓 | ر | ר | |||
| 𐩨 | b | [b] | 𐪈 | በ | 𐤁 | 𐡁 | ب | ב | |||
| 𐩯 | s³ (s) | [s̪] | 𐪏 | ሰ | 𐤎 | 𐡎 | س | ס | |||
| 𐩪 | s¹ (š) | [s] | 𐪊 | 𐤔 | 𐡔 | שׁ | |||||
| 𐩻 | ṯ | [θ] | 𐪛 | 𐡔/𐡕 | ث | ||||||
| 𐩦 | s² (ś) | [ɬ] | 𐪆 | ሠ | 𐡔/𐡎 | ش | שׂ | ||||
| 𐩩 | t | [t] | 𐪉 | ተ | 𐤕 | 𐡕 | ت | ת | |||
| 𐩫 | k | [k] | 𐪋 | ከ | 𐤊 | 𐡊 | ك | כך | |||
| 𐩬 | n | [n] | 𐪌 | ነ | 𐤍 | 𐡍 | ن | נן | |||
| 𐩰 | f | [f] | 𐪐 | ፈ | 𐤐 | 𐡐 | ف | פף | |||
| 𐩱 | ʾ | [ʔ] | 𐪑 | አ | 𐤀 | 𐡀 | ا | א | |||
| 𐩲 | ʿ | [ʕ] | 𐪒 | ዐ | 𐤏 | 𐡏 | ع | ע | |||
| 𐩶 | ġ | [ɣ] | 𐪖 | غ | |||||||
| 𐩮 | ṣ | [sˤ] | 𐪎 | ጸ | 𐤑 | 𐡑 | ص | צץ | |||
| 𐩼 | ẓ | [θˤ] | 𐪜 | 𐡑/𐡈 | ظ | ||||||
| 𐩳 | ḍ | [ɬˤ] | 𐪓 | ፀ | 𐡒/𐡏 | ض | |||||
| 𐩷 | ṭ | [tˤ] | 𐪗 | ጠ | 𐤈 | 𐡈 | ط | ט | |||
| 𐩴 | g | [g] | 𐪔 | ገ | 𐤂 | 𐡂 | ج | ג | |||
| 𐩸 | z | [z] | 𐪘 | ዘ | 𐤆 | 𐡆 | ز | ז | |||
| 𐩹 | ḏ | [ð] | 𐪙 | 𐡆/𐡃 | ذ | ||||||
| 𐩵 | d | [d] | 𐪕 | ደ | 𐤃 | 𐡃 | د | ד | |||
| 𐩺 | y | [j],[iː] | 𐪚 | የ | 𐤉 | 𐡉 | ي | י | |||
Six signs are used for numbers:
| 1 | 5 | 10 | 50 | 100 | 1000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 𐩽 | 𐩭 | 𐩲 | 𐩾 | 𐩣 | 𐩱 |
The sign for 50 was evidently created by removing the lower triangle from the sign for 100.[8] The sign for 1 doubles as a word separator. The other four signs double as both letters and numbers. Each of these four signs is the first letter of the name of the corresponding numeral.[8]
An additional sign (𐩿) is used to bracket numbers, setting them apart from surrounding text.[8] For example, 𐩿𐩭𐩽𐩽𐩿
These signs are used in an additive system similar toRoman numerals to represent any number (excluding zero). Two examples:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 𐩽 | 𐩽𐩽 | 𐩽𐩽𐩽 | 𐩽𐩽𐩽𐩽 | 𐩭 | 𐩭𐩽 | 𐩭𐩽𐩽 | 𐩭𐩽𐩽𐩽 | 𐩭𐩽𐩽𐩽𐩽 | 𐩲 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 𐩲𐩽 | 𐩲𐩽𐩽 | 𐩲𐩽𐩽𐩽 | 𐩲𐩽𐩽𐩽𐩽 | 𐩲𐩭 | 𐩲𐩭𐩽 | 𐩲𐩭𐩽𐩽 | 𐩲𐩭𐩽𐩽𐩽 | 𐩲𐩭𐩽𐩽𐩽𐩽 | 𐩲𐩲 |
Thousands are written two different ways:
Perhaps because of ambiguity, numerals, at least in monumental inscriptions, are always clarified with the numbers written out in words.
Zabūr, also known as "South Arabianminiscules",[9] is the name of the cursive form of the South Arabian script that was used by theSabaeans in addition to their monumental script, or Musnad.[10]
Zabur was a writing system inancient Yemen along with Musnad. The difference between the two is that Musnad documented historical events, meanwhile Zabur writings were used for religious scripts or to record daily transactions among ancient Yemenis. Zabur writings could be found inpalimpsest form written onpapyri or palm-leaf stalks.[11][12]
The South Arabian alphabet was added to theUnicode Standard in October, 2009 with the release of version 5.2.
The Unicode block, called Old South Arabian, is U+10A60–U+10A7F.
Note that U+10A7D OLD SOUTH ARABIAN NUMBER ONE (𐩽) represents both the numeral one and a word divider.[8]
| Old South Arabian[1] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+10A6x | 𐩠 | 𐩡 | 𐩢 | 𐩣 | 𐩤 | 𐩥 | 𐩦 | 𐩧 | 𐩨 | 𐩩 | 𐩪 | 𐩫 | 𐩬 | 𐩭 | 𐩮 | 𐩯 |
| U+10A7x | 𐩰 | 𐩱 | 𐩲 | 𐩳 | 𐩴 | 𐩵 | 𐩶 | 𐩷 | 𐩸 | 𐩹 | 𐩺 | 𐩻 | 𐩼 | 𐩽 | 𐩾 | 𐩿 |
Notes
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Yemeni archeologist and linguistMutaher al-Eryani was keen to record a memorial in the Musnad script and in the Sabaean language, commemorating the renovation of the Ma’rib Dam in 1986, which was carried out at the expense of Sheikh Zayed and in conjunction with the celebration of victory in theNorth Yemen Civil War against theKingdom of Yemen. The inscription was published in a scientific article written by the Frenchman Christian Robin as the last official Musnad inscription.[13]
_in_the_National_Museum_of_Yemen.jpg)
