Jtc1/sc2/iso/iec Jtc1/sc2/wg2 N
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2311
2001-01-08
Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set
International Organization for Standardization
Organisation internationale de normalisation
Doc Type:
Working Group Document
Title:
Roadmapping early Semitic scripts
Source:
Michael Everson
Status:
Expert Contribution
Date:
2001-01-08
John F. Healy’s Early Alphabet and M. O’Connor’s “Epigraphic Semitic Scripts” (ch. 5 in
Daniels & Bright’s Writing Systems of the World) help us to determine how to encode early
Semitic scripts. Tables in this document are taken from O’Connor. The UCS already
encodes four of the six Semitic scripts in modern use. Of these, one is a Southern Linear
script:
1
Ethiopic
Three are Northern Linear scripts:
2
Hebrew (square (see table 5.5) and modern)
3
Arabic
4
Syriac, which encompasses Estrangelo,
Serto, Nestorian (Eastern Syriac), Jacobite
(Western Syriac), and Manichaean, Christ-
ian Sogdian.
The two scripts in modern use which are not yet
encoded are also Northern Linear scripts:
5
Samaritan
6
Mandaic
The remaining historical Semitic scripts can be
divided into three groups.
Southern Linear scripts (see table 5.7):
7
Old South Arabian, which encompasses:
Epigraphic South Arabian
Later South Arabian
Thamudic Ethiopic
Consonantal Ethiopic
Page 1
8
Old North Arabic (see table 5.6), which
encompasses:
Dedanite
Lihyanite
Thamudic
Safaitic
A cuneiform script:
9
Ugaritic
Northern Linear scripts:
10 Nabataean (see table 5.5)
11 Palmyrene (see table 5.5)
12 Hatran/Armazi (used in Armenia and
Georgia)
13 Elymaic
14 Aramaic forms a rather complex family of
scripts, with a number of descendants.
Certainly there is a basic Aramaic, but it has
many descendents (including Mongolian
and possibly Brahmi) which are unique
enough to merit their own encoding (see
table 5.5). More research is required.
However, Aramaic is expected to encom-
pass at least:
Aramaic proper
Middle Persian
Parthian
Sogdian
Edessan is likely to be either Aramaic or
Syriac. More research is required.
15 Phoenician is the catch-all for the largest
group of related scripts including its
ancestors, Proto-Sinaitic/Proto-Canaanite.
Looking at tables 5.1, 5.3, and 5.4 (below)
most of the scripts are so similar that there
doesn't seem to be any point in trying to
encode them separately.
Page 2
Phoenician encompasses:
Proto-Sinaitic/Proto-Canaanite
Punic
Neo-Punic
Phoenician proper
Late Phoenician cursive
Phoenician papyrus
Siloam Hebrew
Hebrew seals
Ammonite
Moabite
Palaeo-Hebrew
Note that Jony Rosenne once suggested that we
should not encode Phoenician because it is a
glyph variant of Hebrew. This is not true,
despite the one-to-one correspondence of
character entities. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, for
instance, where the Tetragrammaton is written
with Palaeo-Hebrew letters, it is (in UCS
encoding terms) the Phoenician script in which
the Name is written.
In the chart on the next page, note that Linear Hebrew and Palaeo-Hebrew derive from
Phoenician, while Square Hebrew (see table 5.5) and the modern script derive from
Aramaic.
Page 3
Figure 4 is taken from O’Connor but I have modified it to show the scripts to be encoded
by enclosing them in boxes.
Page 4
