Samaritan script
| Samaritan script | ||
|---|---|---|
| Font | Abdschad | |
| languages | Old Hebrew | |
| Usage time | since about 600 BC Chr. | |
| Used in | Israel, Samaria | |
| ancestry |
Phoenician script → Old Hebrew script → Samaritan script |
|
| Derived | Samaritan script | |
| relative | Phoenician script | |
| particularities | written horizontally from right to left | |
The Samaritan script is a consonant alphabet script in the order of the Abyads , which is used by the Samaritans to this day for religious scriptures, in particular the Samaritan Pentateuch is written in this script. It is based on the ancient Hebrew variant of the Phoenician script .
In Judaism , the ancient Hebrew script was gradually replaced by the Aramaic script , which was widely used in the Achaemenid Empire , and around the time after the Bar Kochba uprising it was completely abandoned for religious texts. The old Hebrew script was retained by the Samaritans, but the shape of the letters has changed over time compared to the old Hebrew script.
The alphabet was first reprinted in 1631 by Jean Morin. The Parisian Polyglot first printed the entire text of the Samaritan Pentateuch in Samaritan script in 1631. Before and in many later editions, the Samaritan texts were and are reproduced in print using the square script.
Since 2008, the Samaritan script has been included in Unicode in block 0800-083F.
Samaritan manuscript from the 12th century
Jean Morin 1631: First print of the alphabet, including in square script
Letter table
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Remarks
Web links
- W. Gesenius, Hebrew language teaching building p. 8
- omniglot.com: Samaritan alphabet (English)
- ancientscripts.com: Samaritan (English)