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The ancient South Arabian alphabet (also known as musnad المُسند) branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in ca. the 9th century BC. It was used for writing the Yemeni Old South Arabic dialects of the Sabaean, Qatabanian, Hadrami, Minaean, Himyarite, and proto-Ge'ez (or proto-Ethiosemitic) in D`mt. The earliest inscriptions in the alphabet date to the 9th century BC in Akkele Guzay, Eritrea[1] and in the 8th century BC, found in Babylonia and in Yemen. Its mature form was reached around 500 BC, and its use continued until the 7th century AD, including Old North Arabian inscriptions in variants of the alphabet, when it was displaced by the Arabic alphabet. In Ethiopia it evolved later into the Ge'ez alphabet, which, with added symbols throughout the centuries, has been used to write Amharic, Tigrinya and Tigre, as well as other languages (including various Semitic, Cushitic, and Nilo-Saharan languages). A highly cursive zabur script—also known as "South Arabian Minuscules"[2]—was used by the ancient Yemenis to inscribe everyday documents on wooden sticks in addition to the rock-cut monumental musnad letters displayed below.
[edit] Sign inventory
| sign |
transliteration |
 |
h |
 |
l |
 |
ḥ |
 |
m |
 |
q |
 |
w |
 |
ś |
 |
r |
 |
b |
 |
t |
 |
s |
 |
k |
 |
n |
 |
ḫ |
 |
š |
 |
f |
 |
ʾ |
 |
ʿ |
 |
ḍ |
 |
g |
 |
d |
 |
ġ |
 |
ṭ |
 |
z |
 |
ḏ |
 |
y |
 |
ṯ |
 |
ṣ |
 |
ẓ |
- ^ Fattovich, Rodolfo, "Akkälä Guzay" in von Uhlig, Siegbert, ed. Encylopaedia Aethiopica: A-C. Weissbaden: Otto Harrassowitz KG, 2003, p.169.
- ^ Stein 2005.
[edit] References
- Stein, Peter (2005). "The Ancient South Arabian Minuscule Inscriptions on Wood: A New Genre of Pre-Islamic Epigraphy". Jaarbericht van het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap “Ex Oriente Lux” 39: 181–199.
[edit] External links
