South Semitic scripts
Family of writing systems that split from the Proto-Sinaitic script
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The South Semitic scripts are a cluster of alphabets that had derived from the Proto-Sinaitic script by the 10th century BC.[1] The family has two main branches: Ancient North Arabian (ANA) and Ancient South Arabian (ASA).
Script type
Period
c. 10th century BCE to 6th century ADDirectionRight-to-left
LanguagesOld South Arabian, Ge'ez, Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Dumaitic, Thamudic, Safaitic, Hismaic
| South Semitic scripts | |
|---|---|
| Script type | |
Period | c. 10th century BCE to 6th century AD |
| Direction | Right-to-left |
| Languages | Old South Arabian, Ge'ez, Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Dumaitic, Thamudic, Safaitic, Hismaic |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Egyptian hieroglyphs
|
Child systems | |
Sister systems | Phoenician |
The scripts were exclusive to the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. All the ANA and most of the ASA scripts fell out of use by the 6th century AD.
The exception was Geʽez, a child of ASA in use in Ethiopia. It and its variants remain in use today for various Ethiosemitic languages. In Arabia, the South Semitic scripts were replaced by the Arabic script, which is descended from the Nabataean script.[2]
