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Aramaic alphabet

Aramaic alphabet
Type
Languages Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Mandaic, Edomite
Time period
800 BC to 600 AD
Parent systems
Child systems

Hebrew
Palmyrene
Mandaic
Pahlavi
Brāhmī
Kharoṣṭhī
Syriac
 →Sogdian
   →Orkhon (Turkic)
     →Old Hungarian
   →Old Uyghur
     →Mongolian
 →Nabataean alphabet
   →Arabic alphabet

     →N'Ko alphabet
Direction Right-to-left
ISO 15924 Armi, 124 Imperial Aramaic
Unicode alias
Imperial Aramaic
U+10840–U+1085F

Hebrew
Palmyrene
Mandaic
Pahlavi
Brāhmī
Kharoṣṭhī
Syriac
 →Sogdian
   →Orkhon (Turkic)
     →Old Hungarian
   →Old Uyghur
     →Mongolian
 →Nabataean alphabet
   →Arabic alphabet

The ancient Aramaic alphabet is adapted from the Phoenician alphabet and became distinctive from it by the 8th century BCE. It was used to write the Aramaic language and had displaced the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet for the writing of Hebrew. The letters all represent consonants, some of which are also used as matres lectionis to indicate long vowels.

The Aramaic alphabet is historically significant since virtually all modern Middle Eastern writing systems can be traced back to it as well as numerous non-Chinese writing systems of Central and East Asia. That is primarily from the widespread usage of the Aramaic language as both a lingua franca and the official language of the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires, and their successor, the Achaemenid Empire. Among the scripts in modern use, the Hebrew alphabet bears the closest relation to the Imperial Aramaic script of the 5th century BC, with an identical letter inventory and, for the most part, nearly identical letter shapes.


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Wikipedia

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