Aramaic alphabet

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Aramaic alphabet (22 characters)

The Aramaic alphabet was originally adapted from the Phoenician alphabet about the 8th century BC.[1] It was first used to write the Aramaic language.[1] It was also used to write several other languages and alphabets including the Hebrew square script.[2] It was also developed into the Nabataean, Syriac and Mongolian writing systems, among others.[1] The modern Arabic alphabet is also descended from the Aramaic alphabet.[2]

The Aramaic alphabet contains 22 characters used mainly to indicate consonants.[3] However, some symbols can be used to indicate long vowels.[3] By comparison the later Hebrew and Arabic scripts use only consonants. Hebrew uses 22; Arabic 28.[2]

References[change | change source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Aramaic (ܐܪܡܝܐ‎, ארמית, Arāmît)". Omniglot. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Book: A Global History, eds. Michael F Suarez; H R Woudhuysen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), p. 13
  3. 3.0 3.1 Languages from the World of the Bible, ed. Holger Gzella (Berlin; Boston: Walter de De Gruyter, Inc., 2011), p. 131

Other websites[change | change source]