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Aramaic alphabet
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The Aramaic alphabet has been called (by Peter T. Daniels) an abjad--that is, a consonantal alphabet -- used for writing Aramaic. It is adapted from the Phoenician alphabet, and became distinctive from it by the eighth century BCE. As with other abjads, the letters all represent consonants, some of which are matres lectionis, which also indicate long vowels.
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Encyclopedia
The Aramaic alphabet has been called (by Peter T. Daniels) an abjad--that is, a consonantal alphabet -- used for writing Aramaic. It is adapted from the Phoenician alphabet, and became distinctive from it by the eighth century BCE. As with other abjads, the letters all represent consonants, some of which are matres lectionis, which also indicate long vowels. The distinction made between "abjad" alphaphets and later alphabets like Greek that incorporate vowels more systematically, however, tends to confuse alphabets with "transcription systems," and there is no reason to relegate the Aramaic or Phoenician alphabets to second class status as an "incomplete alphabet" (see the critique by F. Coulmas, Writing Systems [Cambridge University Press, 2004], page 113).
The Aramaic alphabet is historically significant since virtually all modern Middle Eastern writing systems use a script that can be traced back to it, as well as numerous Altaic languages of Central and East Asia. This is primarily due to the widespread usage of the Aramaic language as both a lingua franca and the official language of the Neo-Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Empire. The holy texts of Judaism and Islam, as well as certain Christian and Buddhist texts are written in scripts which are known descendants of Aramaic.
History
The earliest inscriptions in the Aramaic language use the Phoenician alphabet. Over time, the alphabet developed into the form shown below. Aramaic gradually became the lingua franca throughout the Middle East, with the script displacing cuneiform as the official writing system of the existing empires. Its widespread usage led to the gradual adoption of the Aramaic alphabet for writing the Hebrew language. Formerly, Hebrew had been written using an alphabet closer in form to that of Phoenician (the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet).
Legacy
The Hebrew and Nabataean alphabets are little changed in style from the Aramaic alphabet. The development of cursive versions of Aramaic led to the creation of the Syriac, Palmyrenean and Mandaic alphabets. These scripts formed the basis of the Arabic, Sogdian, Orkhon and Mongolian alphabets. The Aramaic alphabet is also the forebear of the Indic alphabets, on the basis of certain strong similarities between the Aramaic and Brahmi script.
Today, Biblical Aramaic, Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects and the Aramaic language of the Talmud are written in the Hebrew alphabet. Syriac and Christian Neo-Aramaic dialects are written in the Syriac alphabet. Mandaic is written in the Mandaic alphabet.
Imperial Aramaic alphabet
Redrawn from A Grammar of Biblical Aramaic, Franz Rosenthal; forms are as used in Egypt, 5th century BCE. Names are as in Biblical Aramaic.
Matres lectionis
The letters Waw and Yudh, put following the consonants that were followed by the vowels u and i (and often also o and e), used to indicate the long vowels û and î respectively (often also ô and ê respectively). These letters, which stand for both consonant and vowel sounds, are known as matres lectionis. The letter Alaph, likewise, had some of the characteristics of a mater lectionis: in initial positions, it indicated a specific consonant called "glottal stop" (followed by a vowel), and in the middle of the word and word finally it often also stood for the long vowels â or ê. Among Jews, influence of Hebrew spelling often led to the use of He instead of Alaph in word final positions. The practice of using certain letters to hold vowel values spread to child writing systems of Aramaic, such as Hebrew and Arabic, where they are still used today.
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