Política de Sudán

The history of the Arabic alphabet watch that this Abjad was not written since the origins such as one currently reads it.

One considers that the Arabic alphabet is a derivative of the Aramean alphabet in its syriaque alternative nabatéen or , itself going down from the phenician (alphabet which, inter alia, gives rise to the Hebrew alphabet, with the Greek alphabet and, therefore, with the Cyrillic , the Latin letters, etc).

A innovating alphabet

If one compares the current Arab alphabetical order with that of other alphabets resulting from the phenician, like the Hebrew , the syriaque or the Greek , one notes that the Arab order is original:


¹ Digamma

The alphabetical order old, known as Order Levantine, represented by the other writings, was thus modified. If this time one classifies the letters by respecting the numeral order (to consult Arab Numération , Greek Numération and Hebraic Numération for more details), one notes that the old Semitic order is restored:


¹ Digamma

This order is well oldest. To include/understand the reasons of a reorganization of the alphabetical order, it is necessary to return to the first written certificates.

Antiquated model

The first certificate of a text in Arabic alphabet would go up with 512 Christian era. It is about a trilingual dedication (Greek, Syriaque, Arab) found with Zabad, in Syria. The model used includes/understands only twenty-two characters of which only fifteen have a different layout, being used to note twenty-eight Phonème S.

Origins

The alphabet is an evolution either of the nabatéen, or of syriaque (thesis however less widespread). The table opposite makes it possible to compare the evolutions undergone by the layout of the letters since the prototype araméen until the writings nabatéenne and syriaque. Arabic is placed between the two at ends of legibility and not to mark a chronological evolution.

It seems that the loan of the alphabet nabatéen by the Arabs proceeded as follows:

  • 6th-5th centuries before the Christian era, installation of north-Semitic tribes and foundation of a kingdom centered around Pétra, in current Jordan; the people in question, named Nabatéens now (of the name of one of the tribes, Nabaṭu), speak probably a form about Arabic;
  • at the 2nd century of the Christian era, first certificates of the nabatéen. The written language is presented in the form of a araméen (language of communication and trade) tinted Arabisms. Nabatéens thus do not write their clean langue.  The C-W communication is that of the Aramean alphabet which continues to evolve/move;
  • the C-W communication separates in two alternatives: one intended for the inscriptions (known as “nabatéen monumental”) and the other, more cursive and whose letters unite, for the papyrus; it is this cursive alternative which, influencing the monumental C-W communication more and more, could have given rise to the Arabic alphabet;
  • the Arab language replaces with the writing the language araméenne; the last inscription in nabatéen (araméen Arabist) date of the 4th century;
  • the inscription of Zabad is the first, at the 6th century, to mark the resurgence (or the emergence) of the nabatéen now become of Arabic;
  • at the 7th century, the Arabic alphabet is attested perfectly.

In fact especially the considerable time were passed between the last inscription in nabatéen (355-6) and the first sure Arabic texts (VIIe century) who allow to doubt such an evolution; the inscription of Zabad (512) could be the missing link between the two and the time of “silence” of the writing to explain itself by the fact why it is the cursive nabatéen which gave rise to Arabic; in fact, such a writing getting busy especially on perishable materials, like the papyrus, it did not remain many testimonys about it.

Ambiguities and ambivalence of the first models

The model nabatéen (if one considers that it is indeed the starting model) were already, through evolutions, characterized by many characters become fortuitously similar. Evolving/moving from cursive, the prototype of the Arabic alphabet accentuates even more these resemblances. To that is added that if the nabatéen includes/understands twenty-two phonemes, Arabic has twenty-eight of them; thus, among the twenty-two inherited letters, seven are ambiguous and six phonemes do not have a devoted letter: it was thus necessary to use preexistent letters, become in fact ambivalent.

The letters of the antiquated model, in the following table, still placed in the Ordre traditional Levantine but are written in their current layout, for reasons of simplicity. The ambiguous characters are announced by a coloured bottom. The second value of the ambivalent letters is indicated after comma.

With final, if only the different layouts are kept, ambiguous or ambivalent letters confused, one obtains only sixteen independent characters, four ambiguous letters and six ambivalent (ambiguity and ambivalence not being excluded).

Let us compare with the Hebrew alphabet:


Les tables is available in version text in the page of discussion.

The alphabetical orders are, mutatis-mutandis , identical, as well as the number of letters. It easily is seen, however, the Arabic alphabet is rich in graphic ambiguities (announced in the table by means of the colors): it is not for example not possible to differentiate bāʾ , nūn and tāʾ , all represented by ں (a ب without point). Moreover, all the Phonème S of the current language are not transcribed.

Addition of the points

It is at the 7th century that one became aware of the limits of such a too ambiguous alphabet and not including/understanding enough signs for the sounds suitable for the Arab language: the model araméen has less phonemes than Arabic and the writing of the origins thus had to confuse by the same letter several Phonème S. Of twenty-two signs, the alphabet had to pass to twenty-eight (the Hamza being an invention even more recent and being used to replace ʾalif , whose phonological value grew blurred).

One thus created new letters, simple alternatives of old, which one distinguished by known points, under or registered voters and which one placed at the end of the alphabet (just as the Greeks placed at the end of theirs a letter created tardily like Ω omega ). The use of such diacritic S - that they are used either to distinguish from the letters already present like ب bāʾ , ت tāʾ and ن nūn , or to create new ones like غ ġayn or ض ḍād starting from ع ʿayn and ص ṣād - is probably an imitation of syriaque and nabatéen:

The alphabet being composed then of twenty-eight letters, that made it possible to use it to note the numbers: from 1 to 10, then from 20 to 100 and 200 to 1000 (to consult Arab Numeration ). The Arabic-speaking people were satisfied to plate the values in question on the letters, by respecting the order in which they were presented. Following equivalences were thus obtained:

fatty En new letters: ʾalif (1) bāʾ (2) ǧīm (3) dāl (4) hāʾ (5) wāʾ (6) zāy (7) ḥāʾ (8) ṭāʾ (9) yāʾ (10) kāf (20) lām (30) mīm (40) nûn (50) sīn (60) ʿayn (70) fāʾ (80) ṣād (90) qāf (100) rāʾ (200) šīn (300) tāʾ (400) ṯāʾ (500) ḫāʾ (600) ḏāl (700) ḍād (800) ẓāʾ (900) ġayn (1000)

Reorganization of the alphabet

A great modification intervened less than one century later when the Arab grammairiens reorganized the alphabet, for teaching reasons, while placing the new letters beside the old ones from which they were graphically drawn, with the detriment of the numeral order, itself competed with by the use of the figures arabo-Indians (even Greek in certain cases). They supported the training by gathering the letters by formal similarity:

  • ع and غ;
  • بت and ث;
  • جح and خ;
  • دذر and ز;
  • س and ش;
  • ط and ظ.

By doing this, the numeral value was preserved, so that the numeral alphabet did not follow any more the new alphabetical order. Moreover, the grammairiens of North Africa changed that of the new letters, which explains the differences between the alphabets of the East and the Maghreb.

Lastly, when new signs enriched the alphabet, they accepted the value of the letter from which they were drawn where of which they were an alternative: the tāʾ marbūṭa took that of normal tāʾ , for example (and not of a hāʾ ). In the same way, the many diacritic ones do not have any value: a redoubled consonant, which indicates a šadda , does not count doubly.

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