South Arabian alphabet

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History of the Alphabet
Middle Bronze Age 19-15th c. BC Proto-Canaanite 14th c. BC Ugaritic 13th c. BC Phoenician 11th c. BC Samaritan 6th c. BC Aramaic 9th c. BC Brāhmī 6th c. BC Hebrew 3rd c. BC Syriac 2nd c. BC Avestan 3th c. Arabic 4th c. Greek 8th c. BC Old Italic 8th c. BC Latin 7th c. BC Runes 2nd c. Gothic 4th c. Armenian 405 Glagolitic 862 Cyrillic 10th c. Iberian Celtiberian South Arabian 9th c. BC Ge'ez 3rd-4th c.
Meroitic 3rd c. BC
Complete genealogy

The ancient South Arabian alphabet (also known as musnad) branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in ca. the 13th century BC. It was used for writing the Old South Arabian dialects of the Sabaean and Minaean kingdoms on the southern Arabian Peninsula. Early forms dating to the 8th century BC are found in Babylonia. Its mature form was reached around 500 BC, and its use continued until the 7th century, when it was displaced by the Arabic alphabet. The alphabet spread to Ethiopia, where it evolved into the Ge'ez alphabet, the basis of the modern Amharic, Tigrinya and Tigre alphabet.

Sign inventory

sign	transliteration
Image:Himjar ha.PNG	h
Image:Himjar lam.PNG	l
Image:Himjar ha2.PNG	ḥ
Image:Himjar mim.PNG	m
Image:Himjar qaf.PNG	q
Image:Himjar wa.PNG	w
Image:Himjar sin.PNG	ś
Image:Himjar ra.PNG	r
Image:Himjar ba.PNG	b
Image:Himjar ta2.PNG	t
Image:Himjar za.PNG	s
Image:Himjar kaf.PNG	k
Image:Himjar nun.PNG	n
Image:Himjar kha.PNG	ḫ
Image:Himjar shin.PNG	š
Image:Himjar fa.PNG	f
Image:Himjar alif.PNG	ʾ
Image:Himjar ajin.PNG	ʿ
Image:Himjar za2.PNG	ḍ
Image:Himjar djim.PNG	g
Image:Himjar dal.PNG	d
Image:Himjar ghajn.PNG	ġ
Image:Himjar ta1.PNG	ṭ
Image:Himjar dhal.PNG	z
Image:Himjar tha.PNG	ḏ
Image:Himjar ja.PNG	y
	ṯ
Image:Himjar sad.PNG	ṣ
Image:Himjar dad.PNG	ẓ

External links

• http://www.ancientscripts.com/s_arabian.html
• http://www.mnh.si.edu/epigraphy/e_pre-islamic/musnad-al-janubi.htm
• http://www.crystalinks.com/arabian.html
• http://www.omniglot.com/writing/southarabian.htm

de:Sabäische Schrift