, showing the regions heavily influenced by Imperial Aramaic. The evolution of alphabets from the Mediterranean region is commonly split into two major divisions: the
Phoenician-derived alphabets of the West, including the Mediterranean region (
Anatolia,
Greece, and the
Italian peninsula), and the Aramaic-derived alphabets of the East, including the
Levant,
Persia,
Central Asia, and the
Indian subcontinent. The former Phoenician-derived alphabets arose around the 8th century BC, and the latter Aramaic-derived alphabets evolved from the Imperial Aramaic script around the 6th century BC. After the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the unity of the Imperial Aramaic script was lost, diversifying into a number of descendant cursives. Aramaic script and, as ideograms, Aramaic vocabulary would survive as the essential characteristics of the
Pahlavi scripts, itself developing from the
Manichaean alphabet. The orthography of Imperial Aramaic was based more on its own historical roots than on any spoken dialect, leading to a high standardization of the language across the expanse of the Achaemenid Empire. Of the Imperial Aramaic glyphs extant from its era, there are two main styles: the
lapidary form, often inscribed on hard surfaces like stone monuments, and the
cursive form. The Achaemenid Empire used both of these styles, but the cursive became much more prominent than the lapidary, causing the latter to eventually disappear by the 3rd century BC. In remote regions, the cursive versions of Aramaic evolved into the creation of the
Syriac,
Palmyrene and
Mandaic alphabets, which themselves formed the basis of many historical Central Asian scripts, such as the
Sogdian,
Uyghur and
Mongolian alphabets. The
Brahmi script, of which the entire
Brahmic family of scripts derives (including
Devanagari), most likely descends from Imperial Aramaic, as the empire of
Cyrus the Great brought the borders of the Persian Empire all the way to the edge of the Indian subcontinent, with
Alexander the Great and his successors further linking the lands through trade.
Hebrew The
Babylonian captivity ended after
Cyrus the Great conquered
Babylon. The mass-prevalence of Imperial Aramaic in the region resulted in the eventual use of the
Aramaic alphabet for writing
Hebrew. Before the adoption of Imperial Aramaic, Hebrew was written in the
Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, which, along with Aramaic, directly descended from
Phoenician. Hebrew and Aramaic heavily influenced one another, with mostly religious Hebrew words (such as "wood") transferring into Aramaic and more general Aramaic vocabulary (such as
māmmôn "wealth") entering the local Hebrew lexicon. Late Old Western Aramaic, also known as Jewish Old Palestinian, is a well-attested language used by the communities of
Judea, probably originating in the area of
Caesarea Philippi. By the 1st century CE, the people of
Roman Judaea still used Aramaic as their primary language, along with
Koine Greek for commerce and administration. The oldest manuscript of the
Book of Enoch (c. 170 BC) is written in the Late Old Western Aramaic dialect. The
New Testament has several non-Greek terms of Aramaic origin, such as: •
Talitha (ταλιθα) that can represent the noun '''' (Mark 5:41). •
Rabbounei (Ραββουνει), which stands for "
my master/great one/teacher" in both Hebrew and Aramaic (John 20:16).
Nabataean Aramaic Instead of using their native
Arabic, the Nabataeans would use Imperial Aramaic for their written communications, causing the development of
Nabataean Aramaic out of Imperial Aramaic. The standardized cursive and Aramaic-derived
Nabataean alphabet became the standardized form of writing
Arabic for the
Arabian Peninsula, evolving on its own into the
alphabet of Arabic by the time of
spread of Islam centuries later. Influences from Arabic were present in the Nabataean Aramaic, such as a few Arabic loanwords and how "l" is often turned into "n". After Nabataea was annexed by the
Roman Empire in 106 AD, the influence of Aramaic declined in favor of
Koine Greek for written communication.
Manichaean The Manichaean
abjad writing system spread from the
Near East over into
Central Asia, travelling as far as the
Tarim Basin in what is now the
People's Republic of China. Its presence in Central Asia lead to influence from the
Sogdian script, which itself descends from the
Syriac branch of Aramaic. The traditions of
Manichaeism allege that its founding prophet,
Mani,
invented the Manichaean script, as well as writing the major Manichaean texts himself. The writing system evolved from the Imperial Aramaic alphabet, which was still in use during the age of Mani, i.e. the early years of the
Sassanian Empire. Along with other writing systems, the Manichaean alphabet evolved into the
Pahlavi script and was used to write
Middle Persian, and other languages which were influenced by Manichaean include:
Parthian,
Sogdian,
Bactrian, and
Old Uyghur. ==Unicode==