Mandaic alphabet

Mandaic
Type
Alphabet
Languages Classical Mandaic
Neo-Mandaic
Parent systems
Direction Right-to-left
ISO 15924 Mand, 140
Unicode alias
 Mandaic
U+0840–U+085F

It is difficult to determine the parentage of the Mandaic alphabet.[1] The alphabet is thought to have evolved between the 2nd and 7th century CE from either a cursive form of Aramaic (as did Syriac) or from the Parthian chancery script.[2][3] It was developed by members of the Mandaean gnostic religion of southern Mesopotamia to write the Mandaic language for liturgical purposes.[2] Classical Mandaic and its descendant Neo-Mandaic are still in limited use.[2] The script has changed very little over centuries of use.[1][2]

The Mandaic name for the script is Abagada or Abaga, after the first letters of the alphabet. Rather than the ancient Semitic names for the letters (alaph, beth, gimal), the letters are known as a, ba, ga and so on.[4]

It is written from right to left in horizontal lines. It is a cursive script, but not all letters connect within a word. Spaces separate individual words.

Mandaic chart

Letters

The Mandaic alphabet contains 22 letters (in the same order as the Aramaic alphabet) and the digraph adu. The alphabet is formally closed by repeating the first letter, a, so that it has a symbolic count of 24 letters:[5][6]

Mandaic alphabet
# Name[1] Letter Joining behavior Transliteration IPA[1] Unicode
code point
Right Medial Left Latin[1] Hebrew[5]
1, 24 a ࡀ ـࡀ a א a U+0840 HALQA
2 ba ࡁ ـࡁ ـࡁـ ࡁـ b ב b U+0841 AB
3 ga ࡂ ـࡂ ـࡂـ ࡂـ g ג‎ g U+0842 AG
4 da ࡃ ـࡃ ـࡃـ ࡃـ d ד‎ d U+0843 AD
5 ha ࡄ ـࡄ ـࡄـ ࡄـ h ה‎ h U+0844 AH
6 wa ࡅ ـࡅ ـࡅـ ࡅـ u ו‎ u, w U+0845 USHENNA
7 za ࡆ ـࡆ z ז z U+0846 AZ
8 eh ࡇ ـࡇ -ẖ ח‎ U+0847 IT
9 ṭa ࡈ ـࡈ ـࡈـ ࡈـ ṭ ט t̴ U+0848 ATT
10 ya ࡉ ـࡉ i י‎ i, j U+0849 AKSA
11 ka ࡊ ـࡊ ـࡊـ ࡊـ k כ k U+084A AK
12 la ࡋ ـࡋ ـࡋـ ࡋـ l ל l U+084B AL
13 ma ࡌ ـࡌ ـࡌـ ࡌـ m מ‎ m U+084C AM
14 na ࡍ ـࡍ ـࡍـ ࡍـ n נ n U+084D AN
15 sa ࡎ ـࡎ ـࡎـ ࡎـ s ס‎ s U+084E AS
16 - ࡏ ـࡏ ـࡏـ ࡏـ ʿ ע‎ e U+084F IN
17 pa ࡐ ـࡐ ـࡐـ ࡐـ p פ p U+0850 AP
18 ṣa ࡑ ـࡑ ـࡑـ ࡑـ ṣ צ‎ s̴ U+0851 ASZ
19 qa ࡒ ـࡒ ـࡒـ ࡒـ q ק q U+0852 AQ
20 - ࡓ ـࡓ ـࡓـ ࡓـ r ר r U+0853 AR
21 ša ࡔ ـࡔ š ש ʃ U+0854 ASH
22 ta ࡕ ـࡕ ـࡕـ ࡕـ t ת t U+0855 AT
23 adu ࡖ ḏ- ד̌ U+0856 DUSHENNA

Vowels

Unlike most other Semitic alphabets, vowels are usually written out in full. The first letter, a (corresponding to alaph), is used to represent a range of open vowels. The sixth letter, wa, is used for close back vowels (u and o), and the tenth letter, ya is used for close front vowels (i and e). These last two can also serve as the consonants w/v and y. The eighth letter corresponds to the Semitic heth, and is called eh; it is pronounced as a long i-vowel but is used only as a suffix for the third person singular.[6] The sixteenth letter, e (Aramaic ayn), usually represents e at the beginning of a word or, when followed by wa or ya, represents initial u or i respectively.

A mark similar to an underscore (U+085A ◌࡚ MANDAIC VOCALIZATION MARK) can be used to distinguish vowel quality for three Mandaic vowels. It is used in teaching materials but may be omitted from ordinary text.[7] It is only used with vowels a, wa, and ya. Using the letter ba as an example:

Gemination mark

A dot under a consonant (U+085B ◌࡛ MANDAIC GEMINATION MARK) can be used to note gemination, indicating what native writers call a “hard” pronunciation.[7] Sample words include ࡀࡊ࡛ࡀ (ekka) 'there is', ࡔࡉࡍ࡛ࡀ (šenna) 'tooth', ࡋࡉࡁ࡛ࡀ (lebba) 'heart', and ࡓࡁ࡛ࡇ (rabba) 'great'.[7]

Ligatures

The 23rd letter of the alphabet is the digraph adu (da + ya), the relative particle[2][5] (cf. Arabic tāʾ marbūṭa, Coptic letter "ti", and English ampersand).

In addition to normal joining behavior, some Mandaic letters can combine to form various ligatures:[1][7]

Both adu (U+0856 ࡖ MANDAIC LETTER DUSHENNA) and the old ligature kḏ (U+0857 ࡗ MANDAIC LETTER KAD) are treated as single characters in Unicode.

Extensions

Affrication mark

Postclassical and modern Mandaic use many Persian words. Various Mandaic letters can be re-purposed by placing two horizontally-aligned dots underneath (U+0859 ◌࡙ MANDAIC AFFRICATION MARK). This idea is comparable to the four novel letters in the Persian alphabet, allowing the alphabet to be used to represent foreign sounds (whether affrication, lenition, or another sound):[7]

Ayin

Mandaic ayin (ࡘ) is borrowed from Arabic ayin (ع)[2]. Unlike in Arabic, Mandaic ayin does not join with other letters.[7]

Punctuation and other marks

Punctuation is sparsely used in Mandaic text.[7] A break in text can be indicated by two concentric circles (U+085E ࡞ MANDAIC PUNCTUATION).[2]

A horizontal low line (U+0640 ـ ARABIC TATWEEL) can be used to justify text.[2]

Magical and religious use

Each letter of the Mandaic alphabet is said to represent a power of life and light.[6] Mandaeans view their alphabet as magical and sacred.[6][2]

The Semitic alphabet contains 22 letters. In order to bring this number to 24, the number of hours in a day, adu was added and a was repeated as the last letter of the Mandaic alphabet.[4][6] Without this repetition the alphabet would be considered incomplete for magical purposes.[4]

Unicode

The Mandaic alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 2010 with the release of version 6.0.

The Unicode block for Mandaic is U+0840–U+085F:

Mandaic[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+084x ࡀ ࡁ ࡂ ࡃ ࡄ ࡅ ࡆ ࡇ ࡈ ࡉ ࡊ ࡋ ࡌ ࡍ ࡎ ࡏ
U+085x ࡐ ࡑ ࡒ ࡓ ࡔ ࡕ ࡖ ࡗ ࡘ ࡙ ࡚ ࡛ ࡞
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 10.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William, eds. (1996). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press, Inc. pp. 511–513. ISBN 978-0195079937.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Chapter 9: Middle East-I, Modern and Liturgical Scripts". The Unicode Standard, Version 10.0 (PDF). Mountain View, CA: Unicode, Inc. June 2017. ISBN 978-1-936213-16-0.
  3. ↑ Häberl, Charles G. (February 2006). "Iranian Scripts for Aramaic Languages: The Origin of the Mandaic Script". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (341): 53–62. doi:10.7282/T37D2SGZ.
  4. 1 2 3 Macúch, Rudolf (1965). Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 7–26.
  5. 1 2 3 Drower, Ethel Stefana; Macúch, Rudolf (1963). A Mandaic Dictionary. London: Clarendon Press. pp. 1, 491.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Drower, Ethel Stefana (1937). The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran: Their Cults, Customs, Magic, Legends, and Folklore. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 240–243.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Everson, Michael; Richmond, Bob (2008-08-04). "L2/08-270R: Proposal for encoding the Mandaic script in the BMP of the UCS" (PDF).
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