Aramaic alphabet - Definition


Aramaic alphabet - Definition

Aramaic was for a long time (between the later Assyrian empire and the Abbasid Caliphate) a lingua franca in the Middle East; its alphabet, though itself derived from the Phoenician alphabet, therefore superseded the Old Hebrew alphabet that had been independently descended from the Phoenician alphabet. It is no longer the case that Aramaic has a single alphabet; rather, just as Aramaic has diversified into a family of closely related languages, the Aramaic alphabet has likewise become a family of closely related alphabets, chief among them Syriac alphabet, Mandaic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Palmyrenean alphabet, Nabataean alphabet. However, before splitting up, the Aramaic alphabet went through two principal stages: an early period, during which it closely resembled its ancestor the Phoenician alphabet, and the later period known as Imperial Aramaic, very closely resembling its descendant the modern Hebrew alphabet. The Aramaic alphabet is generally accepted as the source of the Orkhon script, the Arabic alphabet, and, ultimately, the Mongolian alphabet, and more controversially may be the ancestor of the Indic alphabets.

Imperial Aramaic alphabet

Redrawn from A Grammar of Biblical Aramaic, Franz Rosenthal; forms as used in Egypt, 5th century BC. Names as in Biblical Aramaic.

Letter name ta	Letter form	Equivalent Hebrew	Pronunciation
Aleph		א	glottal stop; ā, ē
Beth		ב	b, v
Gimel		ג	g, gh
Daleth		ד	d, dh
Heh		ה	h
Vav		ו	v; ō, ū
Zayin		ז	z
Heth		ח	H (voiceless pharyngeal fricative); kh in modern pronunciations
Teth		ט	emphatic t
Yodh		י	y; ī, ē
Kaph		ך / כ	k, kh
Lamed		ל	l
Mem		ם / מ	m
Nun		ן / נ	n
Samekh		ס	s
Ayin		ע	voiced pharyngeal fricative
Pe		ף / פ	p, ph
Sade	,	ץ / צ	emphatic s; ts in modern pronunciations
Qoph		ק	q (voiceless uvular plosive)
Resh		ר	r
Sin/Shin		ש	usually sh; in some words s (probably originally a lateral fricative)
Taw		ת	t, th