File:Estrangela.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Syriac alphabet
Sign in to saveAlso known as Syriac script, Syrc, Syriac
writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language from the 1st century AD
Key facts
- Script type
- Impure abjad
- Period
- c. 1st century CE – present
- Direction
- Right-to-left script
- Languages
- Aramaic ( Classical Syriac , Western Neo-Aramaic , Sureth , Turoyo , Christian Palestinian Aramaic ), Arabic ( Garshuni ), Malayalam ( Karshoni ), Sogdian
- Parent systems
- Egyptian Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Aramaic Palmyrene Syriac alphabet
- Child systems
- Sogdian Old Turkic Old Hungarian Old Uyghur Mongolian
- Iso 15924
- Syrc (135) , Syriac Syre, 138 (ʾEsṭrangēlā variant) Syrj, 137 (Western variant) Syrn, 136 (Eastern variant)
- Unicode alias
- Syriac
- Unicode range
- U+0700–U+074F Syriac U+0860–U+086F Syriac Supplement
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- unicase alphabet
- Subclass of
- abjad
- Named after
- Syria
- Country
- Syria
- Based on
- Aramaic alphabet
- Image
- SyriacJohn.svg
- Has use
- Semitic
Show 10 more facts
- native label
- ܐܠܦ ܒܝܬ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ
- topic's main category
- Category:Syriac alphabet
- Commons category
- Syriac script
- Commons gallery
- Syriac alphabet
- facet of
- Arabic
- script directionality
- right-to-left
- Unicode range
- U+0860-086F
- name
- syriaque
- language of work or name
- Sogdian
- inception
- 0001-00-00
via Wikidata · CC0
~21 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Syriac alphabet (ܐܠܦ ܒܝܬ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ ʾālep̄ bêṯ Sūryāyā) is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language since the 1st century. It is one of the Semitic abjads descending from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet, and shares similarities with the Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic and Sogdian, the precursor and a direct ancestor of the traditional Mongolian scripts.
Syriac is written from right to left in horizontal lines. It is a cursive script where most—but not all—letters connect within a word. There is no letter case distinction between upper and lower case letters, though some letters change their form depending on their position within a word. Spaces separate individual words.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Syriac alphabet” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.