The Mandaic alphabet contains 22 letters (in the same order as the Aramaic alphabet) and the digraph
adu. The alphabet is formally closed by repeating the first letter,
a, so that it has a symbolic count of 24 letters:
Vowels Unlike most other Semitic alphabets, vowels are usually written out in full. The first letter,
a (corresponding to
alaph), is used to represent a range of open vowels. The sixth letter,
wa, is used for close back vowels (
u and
o), and the tenth letter,
ya is used for close front vowels (
i and
e). These last two can also serve as the consonants
w/v and
y. The eighth letter corresponds to the Semitic
heth, and is called
eh; it is pronounced as a long
i-vowel but is used only as a suffix for the
third person singular. • /kd/, /kḏ/, /ki/, /kl/, /kr/, /kt/, and /ku/ • /nd/, /ni/, /nm/, /nq/, /nt/, and /nu/ • /pl/, /pr/, and /pu/ • /sˤl/, /sˤr/, and /sˤu/ • /ut/ Both
adu () and the old ligature kḏ () are treated as single characters in Unicode.
Similar characters Due to their similar shapes, certain Mandaic characters are sometimes confused with each other by both historical Mandaean scribes and modern scholars, particularly in handwritten manuscripts. These include the following. • /d/, /r/, /e/, /q/ • /u/, /i/ • /m/, /t/ • /k/, /n/, /p/ • /pa/, /ana/, /ʃ/ • /sˤ/, /hn/ ==Extensions==