Scripts
Aramaic Alphabet
air-uh-MAY-ik
Also Known As Imperial Aramaic Script
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An abjad adapted from the Phoenician alphabet, rising to prominence as the administrative script of the Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid Persian empires after Assyria's conquest of the Aramaean states in the ninth and eighth centuries BCE. Its own oldest known inscription dates to around 850 BCE. The Aramaic alphabet is the direct parent of several later scripts, most importantly the Hebrew square script, and also of Nabataean, Syriac, Palmyrene and Mandaic; Nabataean in turn gave rise to the Arabic script. Jewish scribes adopted Aramaic script for writing Hebrew itself in the centuries after the Babylonian exile, gradually replacing the older Paleo-Hebrew script; the sages later called the result Ashurit, "Assyrian script," in recognition of its Mesopotamian origin.
Facts
Disputed
In Use Since (Year)Omniglot dates the script's adaptation from Phoenician to around 800 BCE, with its oldest known inscription circa 850 BCE; Encyclopaedia Britannica's account places its emergence somewhat earlier, in the tenth to ninth centuries BCE, rising to prominence after Assyria's eighth century BCE conquests. Directionality Cross-Tradition Connections
Ancestor Of
Corrected from a direct Phoenician link once the intermediate Aramaic alphabet stage was minted: the Hebrew square script descends directly from the Aramaic alphabet, adopted by Jewish scribes after the Babylonian exile and gradually replacing the older Paleo-Hebrew script; Phoenician remains its more distant ancestor through Aramaic.
Why this is disputed. The direct intermediate is the Sogdian script, cursive Aramaic-derived and not yet a live entity here (entity request filed alongside this batch); this edge records the real but indirect Aramaic ancestry until Sogdian is minted.
By way of the Palmyrene alphabet, an intermediate Aramaic-derived form.
Associated With
This source names Hebrew directly: "later scripts, most importantly the Hebrew square script, and also of Nabataean, Syriac, Palmyrene and Mandaic; Nabataean in turn gave rise to the Arabic script."
Descends From
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