Syriac alphabet

The Syriac alphabet (ܐܠܦ ܒܝܬ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ ʾālep̄ bêṯ Sūryāyā) is a writing system used for the Syriac language since the 1st century. It is one of the Semitic abjads and comes from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet. It looks similar to the Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic and Sogdian scripts, and it is related to the traditional Mongolian scripts.

Syriac is written from right to left. It is a cursive script, meaning most letters connect within a word. There is no letter case difference between big and small letters, though some letters look different depending on where they appear in a word. Spaces separate words.

All 22 letters are consonants (called ܐܵܬܘܼܬܵܐ‎, ˀātūṯā). There are optional marks (called ܢܘܼܩܙܵܐ‎, nuqzā) to show vowels (ܙܵܘܥܵܐ‎, zāwˁā) and other features. The letters can also be used as numbers, like in Hebrew and Greek numerals.

Besides Classical Syriac Aramaic, the alphabet has been used for other languages. Several Christian Neo-Aramaic languages, from Turoyo to the Northeastern Neo-Aramaic language of Suret, started being written with it in the 19th century. The Serṭā version was made to write Western Neo-Aramaic. When Arabic became more common in the Fertile Crescent, some texts were written in Arabic using the Syriac script; these are called Karshuni or Garshuni (ܓܪܫܘܢܝ‎). The Syriac script has also been used for Semitic languages, Sogdian, and Malayalam, called Suriyani Malayalam.

Alphabet forms

There are three main types of the Syriac alphabet: ʾEsṭrangēlā, Maḏnḥāyā, and Serṭā.

The oldest type is ʾEsṭrangēlā, which means "rounded." It is no longer the main way to write Syriac, but people still use it for special work, titles, and carvings. The East Syriac way of speaking uses the Maḏnḥāyā type, also called "Eastern." It looks more like ʾEsṭrangēlā than the Western type. The West Syriac way is written in the Serṭā type, meaning "line." This simpler style became popular from the 8th century because it used less space on parchment.

Summary table

The Syriac alphabet is a special set of letters used for writing the Syriac language. These letters change shape depending on whether they are standing alone or connected to other letters in a word. Some letters, like kāp̄, mīm, and nūn, are often shown linked together. Other letters, such as ʾālep̄, dālaṯ, hē, waw, zayn, ṣāḏē, rēš, and taw, do not connect to the next letter and are marked with an asterisk (*).

For more details, see below.

Contextual forms of letters

The Syriac alphabet has special shapes for letters depending on where they appear in a word. These changes help make writing easier and faster.

Some letters also join together in special ways called ligatures. In ligatures, two or more letters combine into one shape when they appear next to each other. This makes the script interesting and unique.

Letter alterations

Three special letters in the Syriac alphabet can show vowels instead of consonants. The first letter, called ʾālep̄, can sometimes be a vowel, especially at the start or end of a word. The letter waw normally means the sound "w" but can also be the vowels "o" and "u". The letter yōḏ usually means "y" but can also be the vowels "i" and "e".

To show sounds not found in older Syriac, writers sometimes add small marks above or below certain letters. These marks change how the letters sound. For example, adding a mark to the letter gāmal makes it sound like "j", and a mark on kāp̄ makes it sound like "ch". There are also special marks to show when letters can sound softer or harder, using dots above or below them. Dots above letters can also show that a word is plural, like adding an "s" at the end in English. There is also a special line used to show silent letters in some words.

Latin alphabet and romanization

In 1930, a Latin alphabet for Syriac was developed. It was used until about 1938. After that, it was replaced by a Cyrillic script. Even today, the Syriac script is still used. But many people in the Assyrian diaspora in Europe and the Anglosphere now use the Latin alphabet.

When writing Syriac with Latin letters, some letters have special marks. These marks show different sounds, like long vowels or soft sounds. This helps keep the meaning clear in books and formal writing.

Unicode

The Syriac alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in 1999. In 2017, more letters for Suriyani Malayalam were added.

Blocks

Main articles: Syriac (Unicode block) and Syriac Supplement (Unicode block)

The Unicode block for Syriac is U+0700–U+074F. There is a special control character called the Syriac Abbreviation Mark (U+070F). The Syriac Supplement block is U+0860–U+086F.

HTML code table

Note: HTML numeric character references can be in decimal format (&#DDDD;) or hexadecimal format (&#x_HHHH_;). For example, ܕ and ܕ both represent U+0715 SYRIAC LETTER DALATH.

Ālep̄ bēṯ

Vowels and unique characters

Comparison of scripts

The Syriac alphabet has been used to write the Syriac language since the 1st century. It is related to other old writing systems like the Phoenician, Hebrew, and Arabic alphabets.

One example of the Syriac script is from Matthew 5:8 in the Bible, written in the Urmi dialect. The script is written from right to left in horizontal lines.