Ancient South Arabian script

Script used for Old South Arabian languages

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|

Ancient South Arabian script

Script type|

Abjad

Time period

| 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

* Proto-Sinaitic
* South Semitic
* Ancient South Arabian script

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

Unicode range

| U+10A60–U+10A7F
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
South Arabian inscription addressed to the Sabaean national god Almaqah

The Ancient South Arabian script (Old South Arabian: 𐩣𐩯𐩬𐩵 ms3nd; modern Arabic: الْمُسْنَد musnad) branched from the Proto-Sinaitic script in about the late 2nd millennium BCE. It was used for writing the Old South Arabian languages Sabaic, Qatabanic, Hadramautic, Minaean, Hasaitic, and Geʽez in Dʿmt. The earliest instances of the Ancient South Arabian script are painted pottery sherds from Raybun in Hadhramaut in Yemen, which are dated to the late 2nd millennium BCE.[3] There are no letters for vowels, though some can be indicated via matres lectionis.

Its mature form was reached around 800 BCE and its use continued until the 6th century CE, including Ancient North Arabian inscriptions in variants of the alphabet, when it was displaced by the Arabic alphabet.[4] In Eritrea and Ethiopia, it evolved later into the Geʽez script,[1][2] which, with added symbols throughout the centuries, has been used to write Amharic, Tigrinya and Tigre, as well as other languages (including various Semitic, Cushitic, Omotic, and Nilo-Saharan languages).

History of the alphabet

* Egyptian hieroglyphs 32nd c. BCE
* Hieratic 32nd c. BCE
* Demotic 7th c. BCE
* Meroitic 3rd c. BCE
* Proto-Sinaitic 19th c. BCE
* Ugaritic 15th c. BCE
* Ancient South Arabian 9th c. BCE
* Geʽez c. 5th c. BCE
* Phoenician 12th c. BCE
* (see below)
* Hangul 1443
* Thaana c. 1601
* Adlam 1989

* * *

* Phoenician 12th c. BCE
* Paleo-Hebrew 10th c. BCE
* Samaritan 6th c. BCE
* Aramaic 8th c. BCE
* Kharosthi 3rd c. BCE
* Brahmi 3rd c. BCE
* (Brahmic)
* Pallava 4th century
* Cham 4th century
* Dhives Akuru 6th century
* Khmer 611
* Tibetan 7th century
* ʼPhags-pa 1269
* Devanagari 10th century
* Canadian Aboriginal 1840
* Hebrew 3rd c. BCE
* Square Aramaic 2007
* Pahlavi 3rd c. BCE
* Avestan 4th century
* Palmyrene 2nd c. BCE
* Nabataean 2nd c. BCE
* Arabic 4th century
* N'Ko 1949
* Syriac 2nd c. BCE
* Sogdian 2nd c. BCE
* Old Turkic 6th century
* Old Hungarian c. 650
* Old Uyghur
* Mongolian 1204
* Mandaic 2nd century
* Greek 8th c. BCE
* Etruscan 8th c. BCE
* Latin 7th c. BCE
* Deseret 1854
* Great Lakes Algonquian 19th century
* Blackfoot 1888
* Fraser 1915
* Saanich 1978
* Osage 2006
* Runic 2nd century
* Ogham 4th century
* Lycian 5th c. BCE
* Coptic 3rd century
* Gothic 3rd century
* Armenian 405
* Caucasian Albanian c. 420
* Georgian c. 430
* Glagolitic 862
* Cyrillic c. 940
* Old Permic 1372
* Libyco-Berber 10th c. BCE
* Tifinagh 4th century
* Neo-Tifinagh 1970
* Paleohispanic 7th c. BCE

You may need rendering support to display the uncommon Unicode characters in this article correctly.

## Properties

[edit]

* It is usually written from right to left but can also be written from left to right. When written from left to right the characters are flipped horizontally (see the photo).
* The spacing or separation between words is done with a vertical bar mark (|).
* Letters in words are not connected together.
* It does not implement any diacritical marks (dots, etc.), differing in this respect from the modern Arabic alphabet.

## Characteristics

[edit]

### Difference from the Arabic script

[edit]

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 one sibilant letter (some call it samikh) or the third sīn.[5][6]

## Letters

[edit]

Sabaean letter examples on page 274 of the book "Illustrirte Geschichte der Schrift" by Carl Faulmann, 1880 Sabaean letter examples on page 275 of the book "Illustrirte Geschichte der Schrift" by Carl Faulmann, 1880 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
𐩦 | s² (ś)  | [ɬ] | 𐪆 | ሠ | 𐤔 | 𐡎 | ش | שׂ
𐩯 | s³ (s)  | [s̪] | 𐪏 | ሰ | 𐤎 | س | ס
𐩪 | s¹ (š)  | [s] | 𐪊 | 𐤔 | 𐡔 | שׁ
𐩻 | ṯ | [θ] | 𐪛 | 𐡕 | ث
𐩩 | t | [t] | 𐪉 | ተ | 𐤕 | 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
𐩳 | ḍ | [ɬˤ] | 𐪓 | ፀ | 𐤑 | ض | צץ
𐩮 | ṣ | [sˤ] | 𐪎 | ጸ | 𐡑 | ص
𐩼 | ẓ | [θˤ] | 𐪜 | 𐡈 | ظ
𐩷 | ṭ | [tˤ] | 𐪗 | ጠ | 𐤈 | ط | ט
𐩴 | g | [g] | 𐪔 | ገ | 𐤂 | 𐡂 | ج | ג
𐩸 | z | [z] | 𐪘 | ዘ | 𐤆 | 𐡆 | ز | ז
𐩹 | ḏ | [ð] | 𐪙 | 𐡃 | ذ
𐩵 | d | [d] | 𐪕 | ደ | 𐤃 | د | ד
𐩺 | y | [j], [iː] | 𐪚 | የ | 𐤉 | 𐡉 | ي | י
Wikipedia, written with musnad letters, from right to left on the upper line and from left to right on the bottom one. Notice how the letters are mirrored.

## Numerals

[edit]

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 to Roman numerals to represent any number (excluding zero). Two examples:

* 17 is written as 1 + 1 + 5 + 10: 𐩲𐩭𐩽𐩽
* 99 is written as 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 5 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 50: 𐩾𐩲𐩲𐩲𐩲𐩭𐩽𐩽𐩽𐩽

Sample numbers from one to twenty  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:

* Smaller values are written using just the 1000 sign. For example, 8,000 is written as 1000 × 8: 𐩱𐩱𐩱𐩱𐩱𐩱𐩱𐩱
* Larger values are written by promoting the signs for 10, 50, and 100 to 10,000, 50,000, and 100,000 respectively:
* 31,000 is written as 1000 + 10,000 × 3: 𐩲𐩲𐩲𐩱 (easily confused with 1,030)
* 40,000 is written as 10,000 × 4: 𐩲𐩲𐩲𐩲 (easily confused with 40)
* 253,000 is written as 2 × 100.000 + 50.000 + 3 × 1000: 𐩣𐩣𐩾𐩱𐩱𐩱 (easily confused with 3,250)

Perhaps because of ambiguity, numerals, at least in monumental inscriptions, are always clarified with the numbers written out in words.

## Zabūr

[edit]

Zabur inscription

Zabūr, also known as "South Arabian minuscules",[9] is the name of the cursive form of the South Arabian script that was used by the Sabaeans in addition to their monumental script, or Musnad.[10]

Zabur was a writing system in ancient 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 in palimpsest form written on papyri or palm-leaf stalks.[11][12]

## Unicode

[edit]

Main article: Old South Arabian (Unicode block)

The South Arabian alphabet was added to the Unicode 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

1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0

## In modern culture

[edit]

Yemeni archeologist and linguist Mutaher 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 the North Yemen Civil War against the Kingdom of Yemen. The inscription was published in a scientific article written by the Frenchman Christian Robin as the last official Musnad inscription.[13]

## Gallery

[edit]

* Photos from National Museum of Yemen:

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

* Photos from Yemen Military Museum:

*   *   *

* Photo from the British Museum

* Incense burner, from Yemen, 5th-4th century BCE. An ancient South Arabian inscription about the names of incense

## See also

[edit]

* Ancient North Arabian script
* Arabist and archeologist Eduard Glaser
* Geographer Carl Rathjens
* Paleo-Arabic

## References

[edit]

### Citations

[edit]

1. ^ a b Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William, eds. (1996). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press, Inc. pp. 89, 98, 569–570. ISBN 978-0195079937.
2. ^ a b Gragg, Gene (2004). "Ge'ez (Aksum)". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages. Cambridge University Press. p. 431\. ISBN 0-521-56256-2.
3. ^ Stein, Peter (2013). "Palaeography of the Ancient South Arabian script. New evidence for an absolute chronology". Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 24 (2): 186–195\. doi:10.1111/aae.12024. ISSN 0905-7196.186-195&rft.date=2013&rft_id=info:doi/10.1111/aae.12024&rft.issn=0905-7196&rft.aulast=Stein&rft.aufirst=Peter&rft_id=https://www.academia.edu/7131233&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Ancient+South+Arabian+script" class="Z3988">
4. ^ Ibn Durayd, Ta‘līq min amāli ibn durayd, ed. al-Sanūsī, Muṣṭafā, Kuwait 1984, p. 227 (Arabic). The author purports that a poet from the Kinda tribe in Yemen who settled in Dūmat al-Ǧandal during the advent of Islam told of how another member of the Yemenite Kinda tribe who lived in that town taught the Arabic script to the Banū Qurayš in Mecca and that their use of the Arabic script for writing eventually took the place of musnad, or what was then the Sabaean script of the kingdom of Ḥimyar: "You have exchanged the musnad of the sons of Ḥimyar / which the kings of Ḥimyar were wont to write down in books."
5. ^ "موسوعة علوم اللغة العربية 1-10 مع الفهارس ج5 - إميل بديع يعقوب ،الدكتور - كتب Google". 2020-03-18. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
6. ^ حبش, حسن قاسم (2020-03-18). "رحلة المصحف الشريف من الجريد الى التجليد - حسن قاسم حبش - كتب Google". Retrieved 2024-05-04.
7. ^ Official Unicode Consortium code chart
8. ^ a b c d Maktari, Sultan; Mansour, Kamal (2008-01-28). "L2/08-044: Proposal to encode Old South Arabian Script" (PDF).
9. ^ Stein 2005.
10. ^ Ryckmans, Müller & ‛Abdallah 1994, p. 43.
11. ^ Ryckmans 1993, p. 127.
12. ^ S. Horovitz, Koranische Untersuchungen, p. 70
13. ^ Robin, Christian Julien. "« Le texte de fondation en langue sabéenne de la nouvelle digue de Maʾrib, inaugurée en 1986 », dans Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 18, 1988, pp. 115-122". `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help)

## References

[edit]

* Stein, Peter (2005). "The Ancient South Arabian Minuscule Inscriptions on Wood: A New Genre of Pre-Islamic Epigraphy". Jaarbericht van het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap "Ex Oriente Lux". 39: 181–199.181-199&rft.date=2005&rft.aulast=Stein&rft.aufirst=Peter&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Ancient+South+Arabian+script" class="Z3988">
* Stein, Peter (2010). Die altsüdarabischen Minuskelinschriften auf Holzstäbchen aus der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek in München.
* Beeston, A.F.L. (1962). "Arabian Sibilants". Journal of Semitic Studies. 7 (2): 222–233\. doi:10.1093/jss/7.2.222.222-233&rft.date=1962&rft_id=info:doi/10.1093/jss/7.2.222&rft.au=Beeston,+A.F.L.&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Ancient+South+Arabian+script" class="Z3988">
* Francaviglia Romeo, Vincenzo (2012). Il trono della regina di Saba, Artemide, Roma. pp. 149–155.149-155&rft.date=2012&rft.au=Francaviglia+Romeo,+Vincenzo&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Ancient+South+Arabian+script" class="Z3988">
* Ryckmans, Jacques (1993). "Inscribed Old South Arabian sticks and palm-leaf stalks: An introduction and a paleographical approach". Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. 23: 127–140\. JSTOR 41223401.127-140&rft.date=1993&rft_id=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41223401#id-name=JSTOR&rft.aulast=Ryckmans&rft.aufirst=Jacques&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Ancient+South+Arabian+script" class="Z3988">
* Ryckmans, J.; Müller, W. W.; ‛Abdallah, Yu. (1994). Textes du Yémen Antique inscrits sur bois (in French). Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Publications de l'Institut Orientaliste de Louvain.

## External links

[edit]

* Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Archived 2010-06-16 at the Wayback Machine
* Omniglot's entry on South Arabian
* Carved, Signed, Crossed Out – Documents on Wooden Sticks from Ancient South Arabia – Peter Stein – ANE Today – Oct 2022

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* Siglas poveiras
* Testerian
* Yerkish
* Zapotec

Logograms

| Chinese family of scripts|

| Chinese characters|

* Simplified
* Traditional
* Oracle bone script
* Bronze scripts
* Seal script
* large
* small
* bird-worm
* Hanja
* Kanji
* Chữ Nôm
* Sawndip
* Bowen

|

Chinese-influenced|

* Jurchen
* Khitan large script
* Sui
* Tangut

Cuneiform|

* Akkadian
* Assyrian
* Elamite
* Hittite
* Luwian
* Sumerian

Other logosyllabic|

* Anatolian
* Bagam
* Cretan
* Isthmian
* Maya
* Proto-Elamite
* Tenevil
* Yi (Classical)

Logoconsonantal|

* Demotic
* Hieratic
* Hieroglyphs

Numerals|

* Hindu-Arabic
* Abjad
* Attic (Greek)
* Muisca
* Roman

Other|

* Sitelen Pona

Semi-syllabaries

| Full|

* Linear Elamite
* Celtiberian
* Northeastern Iberian
* Southeastern Iberian
* Khom
* Dunging

|

Redundant|

* Espanca script
* Pahawh Hmong
* Khitan small script
* Southwest Paleohispanic
* Bopomofo
* Quốc Âm Tân Tự

Sign languages

* ASLwrite
* SignWriting
* si5s
* Stokoe notation

Syllabaries

* Afaka
* Bamum
* Bété
* Byblos
* Canadian Aboriginal
* Cherokee
* Cypriot
* Cypro-Minoan
* Ditema tsa Dinoko
* Eskayan
* Geba
* Great Lakes Algonquian
* Iban
* Idu
* Kana
* Hiragana
* Katakana
* Man'yōgana
* Hentaigana
* Sōgana
* Jindai moji
* Kikakui
* Kpelle
* Linear B
* Linear Elamite
* Lisu
* Loma
* Nüshu
* Nwagu Aneke script
* Old Persian cuneiform
* Sumerian
* Vai
* Woleai
* Yi
* Yugtun

* v
* t
* e

Braille ⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑

Braille cell|

* 1829 braille
* International uniformity
* ASCII braille
* Unicode braille patterns

Braille scripts|

| French-ordered|

* Albanian
* Azerbaijani
* Cantonese
* Catalan
* Chinese (mainland Mandarin) (largely reassigned)
* Czech
* Dutch
* English (Unified English)
* Esperanto
* French
* German
* Ghanaian
* Guarani
* Hawaiian
* Hungarian
* Iñupiaq
* IPA
* Irish
* Italian
* Latvian
* Lithuanian
* Luxembourgish (extended to 8-dot)
* Maltese
* Māori
* Navajo
* Nigerian
* Philippine
* Polish
* Portuguese
* Romanian
* Samoan
* Slovak
* South African
* Spanish
* Taiwanese Mandarin (largely reassigned)
* Turkish
* Vietnamese
* Welsh
* Yugoslav
* Zambian

| Nordic family|

* Estonian
* Faroese
* Icelandic
* Scandinavian
* Danish
* Finnish
* Greenlandic
* Northern Sámi
* Norwegian
* Swedish

|

Russian lineage family
i.e. Cyrillic-mediated scripts|

* Belarusian
* Bulgarian
* Kazakh
* Kyrgyz
* Mongolian
* Russian
* Tatar
* Ukrainian

Egyptian lineage family
i.e. Arabic-mediated scripts|

* Arabic
* Persian
* Urdu (Pakistan)

Indian lineage family
i.e. Bharati Braille|

* Devanagari (Hindi / Marathi / Nepali)
* Bengali (Bangla / Assamese)
* Gujarati
* Kannada
* Malayalam
* Odia
* Punjabi
* Sinhala
* Tamil
* Telugu
* Urdu (India)

Other scripts|

* Amharic
* Armenian
* Burmese
* Dzongkha (Bhutanese)
* Georgian
* Greek
* Hebrew
* Inuktitut (reassigned vowels)
* Khmer
* Thai and Lao (Japanese vowels)
* Tibetan

Reordered|

* Algerian Braille (obsolete)

Frequency-based|

* American Braille (obsolete)

Independent|

* Chinese semi-syllabaries
* Cantonese
* Mainland Chinese Mandarin
* Taiwanese Mandarin
* Two-cell Chinese (Shuangpin)
* Japanese
* Korean

Eight-dot|

* Luxembourgish
* Kanji
* Gardner–Salinas braille codes (GS8)

Symbols in braille|

* Braille music
* Canadian currency marks
* Computer Braille Code
* Gardner–Salinas braille codes (science; GS8/GS6)
* International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
* Nemeth braille code

Braille technology|

* Braille e-book
* Braille embosser
* Braille translator
* Braille watch
* Mountbatten Brailler
* Optical braille recognition
* Perforation
* Perkins Brailler
* Refreshable braille display
* Slate and stylus
* Braigo

People|

* Louis Braille
* Charles Barbier
* Róża Czacka
* Valentin Haüy
* Harris Mowbray
* Thakur Vishva Narain Singh
* Sabriye Tenberken
* William Bell Wait

Organisations|

* Braille Institute of America
* Braille Without Borders
* Japan Braille Library
* National Braille Association
* Blindness organizations
* Schools for the blind
* American Printing House for the Blind

Other tactile alphabets|

* Decapoint
* Moon type
* New York Point
* Night writing
* Vibratese

Related topics|

* Accessible publishing
* Braille literacy
* RoboBraille

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