History of the Arabic alphabet
This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2010) |
Arabic alphabet |
---|
Arabic script |
It is thought that the
Origins
The Arabic alphabet evolved either from the Nabataean,[1][2] or (less widely believed) directly from the Syriac.[3] The table below shows changes undergone by the shapes of the letters from the Aramaic original to the Nabataean and Syriac forms. The Arabic script shown is that of post-Classical and Modern Arabic—notably different from 6th century Arabic script. (Arabic is placed in the middle for clarity and not to mark a time order of evolution.)
It seems that the Nabataean alphabet became the Arabic alphabet thus:
- In the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, northern Arab tribes emigrated and founded a kingdom centred around Petra, Jordan. These people (now named Nabataeans from the name of one of the tribes, Nabatu) spoke Nabataean Arabic, a Northwest Semitic language.
- In the 2nd or 1st centuries BCE, This cursive form influenced the monumental form more and more and gradually changed into the Arabic alphabet.
- Laïla Nehmé has demonstrated the transition of scripts from the Nabataean Aramaic to the recognisably Arabic form that appears to have occurred between the third and fifth centuries CE, replacing the indigenous Arabic alphabet.[7]
Pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions
The first known recorded text in the Arabic alphabet is known as the
Phoenician | Aramaic | Nabataean
|
Arabic | Syriac | Latin | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Image | Text | |||||
𐤀 | 𐡀 | ﺍ | ܐ | A | ||
𐤁 | 𐡁 | ٮ | ܒ | B | ||
𐤂 | 𐡂 | حـ | ܓ | C | ||
𐤃 | 𐡃 | د | ܕ | D | ||
𐤄 | 𐡄 | ه | ܗ | E | ||
𐤅 | 𐡅 | ﻭ | ܘ | F | ||
𐤆 | 𐡆 | ر | ܙ | Z | ||
𐤇 | 𐡇 | ح | ܚ | H | ||
𐤈 | 𐡈 | ط | ܛ | — | ||
𐤉 | 𐡉 | ى | ܝ | I | ||
𐤊 | 𐡊 | كـ | ܟ | K | ||
𐤋 | 𐡋 | لـ | ܠ | L | ||
𐤌 | 𐡌 | مـ | ܡ | M | ||
𐤍 | 𐡍 | ں | ܢ | N | ||
𐤎 | 𐡎 | — | ܣ | — | ||
𐤏 | 𐡏 | عـ | ܥ | O | ||
𐤐 | 𐡐 | ڡـ | ܦ | P | ||
𐤑 | 𐡑 | ص | ܨ | — | ||
𐤒 | 𐡒 | ٯ | ܩ | Q | ||
𐤓 | 𐡓 | ﺭ | ܪ | R | ||
𐤔 | 𐡔 | سـ | ܫ | S | ||
𐤕 | 𐡕 | ٮ | ܬ | T |
Many thousands of pre-Classical Arabic inscriptions are attested, in alphabets borrowed from
- Safaitic (over 13,000; almost all graffiti)[8]
- Hismaic in the southern parts of central Arabia
- Preclassical Arabic inscriptions dating to the 1st century BC from Qaryat Al-Faw
- Nabataean alphabet
- Pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions in the Arabic alphabet are very few, with only 5 known for certain. They mostly use no dots, making them sometimes difficult to interpret, as many letters are the same shape as other letters (they are written with rasm only)
Below are descriptions of inscriptions found in the Arabic alphabet, and the inscriptions found in the Nabataean alphabet that show the beginnings of Arabic-like features.
Name | Whereabouts | Date | Language | Alphabet | Text & notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Al-Hasa | Nejd, Historical Bahrain region
|
4th century BC | 3 lines in Hasean | Epigraphic South Arabian alphabets
|
A large funerary stone is inscribed in the Hasaean dialect using a variety of South Arabian monumental script, with three inscribed lines for the man Matmat, that records both patrilineal and matriarchal descent:[9]
1. "Tombstone and grave of Matmat," 2. "son of Zurubbat, those of 'Ah-" 3. "nas, her of the father of Sa'ad-" 4. "ab.." (Dr. A. Jamme) |
Qaryat al-Fāw
|
Nejd
|
1st century BC | 10 lines in Arabic | Epigraphic South Arabian alphabets
|
A tomb dedicatory and a prayer to Lāh, Kāhil and ʻAṯṯār to protect the tomb:
"ʿIgl son of Hafʿam constructed for his brother Rabibil son of Hafʿam the tomb: both for him and for his child and his wife, and his children and their children's children and womenfolk, free members of the folk Ghalwan. And he has placed it under the protection of (the gods) Kahl and Lah and ʿAthtar al-Shariq from anyone strong or weak, and anyone who would attempt to sell or pledge it, for all time without any derogation, so long as the sky produces rain or the earth herbage." (Beeston) |
Ein Avdat | Negev in Israel | between AD 88 and 150 | 3 lines Aramaic, then 3 lines Arabic | Nabataean with a little letter-joining | A prayer of thanks to the god Obodas for saving someone's life:
"For (Obodas -the god-) works without reward or favour, and he, when death tried to claim us, did not let it claim (us), for when a wound (of ours) festered, he did not let us perish." (Bellamy) "فيفعﻞُﻻفِ ًداوﻻاثرافكاﻦ هُنايَبْ ِغنا الموﺖُﻻأبْ ُغاﻪ فكاﻦ هُنا أدادَ ُجرﺢٌﻻيرْ ِد" |
Umm el-Jimal | northeast of Jordan | roughly end of 3rd century - 5th century | Aramaic-Nabataean, Greek, Latin | Nabataean, much letter-joining | More than 50 fragments discovered:[10]
1. "Zabūd son of Māsik " 2. "[.]aynū daughter of MuΉārib" 3. "Kawza' peace!" (Said and al-Hadad) "([Th]is is the tomb which SHYMW … built … (2) … [for P]N, hisson, through (the help of) the god of their father … (3) … king Rabel, king of the Nabataeans …" (Butts and Hardy) "This is the memorial of Julianos, weighed down by long sleep, for whom his father Agathos built it while shedding a tear beside the boundary of the communal cemetery of the people of Christ, in order that a better people might always sing of him openly, being formerly the beloved faithful [son?] of Agathos the presbyter, aged twelve. In the year 239 [of the era of the Provincia Arabia = 344 AD]." (Trombley) In the 5th century barracks were built. In their southeast tower, which stands to a height of six stories, the names of the archangels—"Michael, Uriel, Gabriel and Raphael"—are inscribed. (Micah Key) |
Raqush (this is not a place-name) | Mada'in Saleh in Saudi Arabia
|
267 | Mixture of Arabic and Aramaic, 1 vertical line in Thamudic | Nabataean, some letter-joining. Has a few diacritic dots. | Last inscription in Nabataean language. Epitaph to one Raqush, including curse against grave-violaters:
"This is a grave K b. H has taken care of for his mother, Raqush bint ʿA. She died in al-Hijr in the year 162 in the month of Tammuz. May the Lord of the world curse anyone who desecrates this grave and opens it up, except his offspring! May he [also] curse anyone who buries [someone in the grave] and [then] removes [him] from it! May who buries.... be cursed!" (Healey and Smith) |
an-Namāra | 100 km SE of Damascus | 328–329 | Arabic | Nabataean, more letter-joining than previous | A long Imru'ul-Qays , describing his war deeds:
"This is the funerary monument of Imru' al-Qays, son of 'Amr, king of the Arabs, and (?) his title of honour was Master of Asad and Madhhij. And he subdued the Asadis and they were overwhelmed together with their kings, and he put to flight Madhhij thereafter, and came driving them to the gates of Najran, the city of Shammar, and he subdued Ma'add, and he dealt gently with the nobles of the tribes, and appointed them viceroys, and they became phylarchs for the Romans. And no king has equalled his achievements. Thereafter he died in the year 223 on the 7th day of Kaslul. Oh the good fortune of those who were his friends!" (Bellamy) |
Jabal Ramm
|
50 km east of Aqaba, Jordan | 3rd or likelier late 4th century | 3 lines in Arabic, 1 bent line in Thamudic | Arabic. Has some diacritic dots. | In a temple of Allat . Boast or thanks of an energetic man who made his fortune:
"I rose and made all sorts of money, which no world-weary man has [ever] collected. I have collected gold and silver; I announce it to those who are fed up and unwilling." (Bellamy) |
Sakakah | in Saudi Arabia | undated | Arabic | Arabic, some Nabataean features, & dots | Includes diacritical points associated with Arabic letters ب, ت, and ن [T, B and N]. (Winnett and Reed) |
Sakakah | in Saudi Arabia | 3rd or 4th century | Arabic | Arabic | "Hama son of Garm" |
Sakakah | in Saudi Arabia | 4th century | Arabic | Arabic | "B-`-s-w son of `Abd-Imru'-al-Qais son of Mal(i)k" |
Umm al-Jimāl | northeast of Jordan | 4th or 5th century | Arabic | similar to Arabic | "This [inscription] was set up by colleagues of ʿUlayh son of ʿUbaydah, secretary of the cohort Augusta Secunda Philadelphiana; may he go mad who effaces it." (Bellamy) |
Zabad | in Syria, south of Aleppo | 512 | Arabic, Greek and Syriac | Arabic | Christian dedicatory. The Arabic says "God's help" & 6 names. "God" is written as الاله, see Allah#Typography:
"With the help of God! Sergius, son of Amat Manaf, and Tobi, son of Imru'l-qais and Sergius, son of Sa‘d, and Sitr, and Shouraih." (C. Rabin) |
Jabal Usays | in Syria | 528 | Arabic | Arabic | Record of a military expedition by Ibrahim ibn Mughirah on behalf of the king al-Harith, presumably Ghassanid vassals of the Byzantines :
"This is Ruqaym, son of Mughayr the Awsite. Al-Ḥārith the king, sent me to 'Usays, upon his military posts in the year 423 [528 CE]" |
Harrān | in Leija district, south of Damascus | 568 | Arabic, Greek | Arabic | martyrium. It records Sharahil ibn Zalim building the martyrium a year after the destruction of Khaybar :
"[I] Sharaḥīl, son of Talimu built this martyrium in the year 463 after the destruction of Khaybar by a year." |
Cursive Nabataean writing changed into Arabic writing, likeliest between the dates of the an-Namāra inscription and the Jabal Ramm inscription. Most writing would have been on perishable materials, such as papyrus. As it was cursive, it was liable to change. The
Phonemes / letters inventory
The Nabataean alphabet was designed to write 22 phonemes, but Arabic has 28 consonant phonemes; thus, when used to write the Arabic language, 6 of its letters must each represent two phonemes:
- d also represented ð,
- ħ also represented kh %,
- ṭ also represented ẓ,
- ʕ also represented gh %,
- ṣ also represented ḍ %,
- t also represented θ.
In the cases marked %, the choice was influenced by etymology, as common Semitic kh and gh became Hebrew ħ and ʕ respectively.
As cursive Nabataean writing evolved into Arabic writing, the writing became largely joined-up. Some of the letters became the same shape as other letters, producing more ambiguities, as in the table:
Here the Arabic letters are listed in the traditional Levantine order but are written in their current forms, for simplicity. The letters which are the same shape have coloured backgrounds. The second value of the letters that represent more than one phoneme is after a comma. In these tables, ǧ is j as in English "June". In the Arabic language, the g sound seems to have changed into j in fairly late pre-Islamic times, but this seems not to have happened in those tribes who invaded Egypt and settled there.
When a letter was at the end of a word, it often developed an end loop, and as a result most Arabic letters have two or more shapes.
- b and n and t became the same.
- y became the same as b and n and t except at the ends of words.
- j and ħ became the same.
- z and r became the same.
- s and sh became the same.
After all this, there were only 17 letters that were different in shape. One letter-shape represented 5 phonemes (b t th n and sometimes y), one represented 3 phonemes (j ħ kh), and 5 each represented 2 phonemes. Compare the Hebrew alphabet, as in the table:
Early Islamic changes
The Arabic alphabet is first attested in its classical form in the 7th century. See PERF 558 for the first surviving Islamic Arabic writing.
The Quran was transcribed in Kufic script at first, which was then developed along with the Meccan and Medini scripts, according to Ibn an-Nadim in Al-Fihrist.[11]
In the 7th century, probably in the early years of
The first surviving document that definitely uses these dots is also the first surviving Arabic
The alphabet then had 28 letters, and so could be used to write the numbers 1 to 10, then 20 to 100, then 200 to 900, then 1000 (see Abjad numerals). In this numerical order, the new letters were put at the end of the alphabet. This produced this order: alif (1), b (2), j (3), d (4), h (5), w (6), z (7), H (8), T (9), y (10), k (20), l (30), m (40), n (50), s (60), ayn (70), f (80), S (90), q (100), r (200), sh (300), t (400), th (500), dh (600), kh (700), D (800), Z (900), gh (1000).
The lack of vowel signs in Arabic writing created more ambiguities: for example, in Classical Arabic ktb could be kataba = "he wrote", kutiba = "it was written" or kutub="books". Later, vowel signs and
All administrative texts were previously recorded by
When new signs were added to the Arabic alphabet, they took the alphabetical order value of the letter which they were an alternative for:
Some features of the Arabic alphabet arose because of differences between
- tā' marbūta: This arose because, in many dialects, the -at ending of feminine nouns (tā' marbūta) was lenited over time and was often pronounced as -ah and written as h. This pronunciation eventually became standard, and so to avoid altering Quranic spelling, the dots of t were written over the h.[citation needed]
- y (alif maksura ى) used to spell ā at the ends of some words: This arose because ā arising from contraction where single y dropped out between vowels was in some dialects pronounced at the ends of words with the tongue further forward than for other ā vowels, and as a result in the Qu'ran it was written as y.[clarification needed][citation needed]
- ā not written as alif in some words: The Arabic spelling of Allāh was decided before the Arabs started using alif to spell ā. In other cases (for example the first ā in hāðā = "this"), it may be that some dialects pronounced those vowels short.
- hamza: Originally alif was used to spell the glottal stop. But Meccans did not pronounce the glottal stop[citation needed], replacing it with w, y or nothing, lengthening an adjacent vowel, or, intervocalically, dropping the glottal stop and contracting the vowels. Thus, Arabic grammarians invented the hamza diacritic sign and used it to mark the glottal stop.
Reorganization of the alphabet
Less than a century later, Arab grammarians reorganized the alphabet, for reasons of teaching, putting letters next to other letters which were nearly the same shape. This produced a new order which was not the same as the numeric order, which became less important over time because it was being competed with by the
The Arabic grammarians of North Africa changed the new letters, which explains the differences between the alphabets of the East and the Maghreb.
The old alphabetical order, as in the other alphabets shown here, is known as the
Arabic | Hebrew | Syriac | Greek | Value | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ʾalif | ا | ʾālep̄ | א | ʾālap̄ | ܐ | alpha | Α | 1 |
bāʾ | ب | bēṯ | ב | bēṯ | ܒ | bēta | Β | 2 |
ǧīm | ج | gimel | ג | gāmal | ܓ | gamma | Γ | 3 |
dāl | د | dāleṯ | ד | dālaṯ | ܕ | delta | Δ | 4 |
hāʾ | ه | hē | ה | hē | ܗ | epsilon | Ε | 5 |
wāw | و | wāw | ו | wāw | ܘ | wau | Ϝ | 6 |
zāy | ز | zayin | ז | zayn | ܙ | zēta | Ζ | 7 |
ḥāʾ | ح | ḥēṯ | ח | ḥēṯ | ܚ | ēta | Η | 8 |
(Note: here "numeric order" means the traditional values when these letters were used as numbers. See Arabic numerals, Greek numerals and Hebrew numerals for more details)
This order is much the oldest. The first written records of the Arabic alphabet show why the order was changed.
Abbasid standardizations
Arabic script reached a climax in aesthetics and geographic spread under the Abbasid Caliphate.[11] In this period, Ibn al-Bawwab and Ibn Muqla had the most influence on the standardization of Arabic script.[11] They were associated with al-khatt al-mansūb (الخط المنسوب), or "proportioned script."[15][16]
Adapting the Arabic alphabet for other languages
This article possibly contains original research. (January 2021) |
Language family | Austron. | Dravid | Turkic | Indic | Iranian | Germanic | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Language/script | Jawi
|
Pegon | Arwi | Azeri | Ottoman | Tatar | Uyghur | Sindhi | Punjabi
|
Urdu | Persian | Balochi | Pashto* | Kurdish | Afrikaans |
/t͡ʃ/ | چ
| ||||||||||||||
/ʒ/ | ∅ | ژ
| |||||||||||||
/p/ | ڤ
|
ڣ
|
پ
| ||||||||||||
/g/ | ݢ | ؼ | ࢴ
|
ق
|
گ | ||||||||||
/v/ | ۏ
|
و
|
ۋ
|
و
|
∅ | ڤ
| |||||||||
/ŋ/ | ڠ
|
ࢳ
|
∅ | ڭ
|
ڱ | ن
|
∅ | ڠ
| |||||||
/ɲ/ | ڽ
|
ۑ
|
ݧ | ∅ | ڃ
|
ن
|
∅ | ||||||||
/ɳ/ | ∅ | ڹ
|
∅ | ڻ
|
ݨ | ن
|
∅ | ڼ | ∅ |
When the Arabic alphabet spread to countries which used other languages, extra letters had to be invented to spell non-Arabic sounds. Usually the alteration was three dots above like ژ, ڠ and څ or below like چ and پ.
- Brahmi)
- This bookTatars living in Poland.
- There are broadly two standards for Pashto orthography, the Afghan orthography in Afghanistan and the Peshawar orthography in Pakistan where /g/ is represented by ګ instead of the Afghani گ.
Decline in use by non-Arabic states
Since the early 20th century, as the
Area used | Arabic spelling system | New spelling system | Date | Ordered by |
---|---|---|---|---|
Some constituent republics in the Soviet Union, especially Muslim States | Persian-based spelling system, later Ottoman Turkish alphabet with alterations | Cyrillic
|
1920s (to Janalif )1930s (to Cyrillic) |
USSR government |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | Ottoman Turkish alphabet | Gaj's Latin alphabet | 1870s-1918 | |
Brunei Indonesia Malaysia Philippines (Mindanao) Thailand (Pattani) |
Jawi (still widely used in Brunei and Patani) and Pegon script | Latin alphabet and Thai script | 19th century | European ( Dutch and Spanish) colonial administrations
|
Turkey | Ottoman Turkish alphabet | Turkish alphabet (Latin system with alterations) | 1928 | Republic of Turkey government after the fall of the Ottoman Empire
|
See also
References
- ISBN 9781555407100.
- ISBN 9780863568817.
- ISBN 0803291671.
- ^ "Nabataean abjad". www.omniglot.com. Retrieved 2017-03-08.
- ^ Naveh, Joseph. "Nabatean Language, Script and Inscriptions" (PDF).
- ISBN 9781860645082.
- ^ Rose, Christopher; al-Jallad, Ahmad (27 April 2016). "Episode 82: What Writing Can Tell Us About the Arabs before Islam". University of Texas, Austin. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
- ^ Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2015). An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions. Leiden: Brill., 11-14
- ^ "CuratorsEye.com". curatorseye.com.
- doi:10.1093/jss/fgl003. Archived from the original on 2006-09-27. Retrieved 2022-04-22.)
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help - ^ OCLC 191880956.
- ^ Yūsofī, Ḡolām-Ḥosayn (December 15, 1990). "CALLIGRAPHY".
- ^ "Ibn Muqlah | Islamic calligrapher". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
- ISBN 978-0-520-21086-8.
- ^ Hallikan, 'Abu-l-'Abbas Sams-al-din 'Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibn (1843). Kitab Wafayat Ala'yan. Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary Transl. by (Guillaume) B(aro)n Mac-Guckin de Slane. Vol 1-3. Benjamin Duprat.
- ^ "في يوم اللغة العربية، الخط العربي حضارة تركت معالمها على أطراف الصين وحتى غرب أفريقيا". أخبار الأمم المتحدة (in Arabic). 2020-12-17. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
- ISBN 0-19-285344-9