This page brings together basic information about the Mandaic script and its use for the Neo-Mandaic language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Mandaic using Unicode.
Sample
Select part of this sample text to show a list of characters, with links to more details. Source
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The Mandaic script is used for writing Mandaic, an Iraqi language spoken by about 5,500 people, and is also the script of Classical Mandaic, the liturgical language of the Mandaean religion. Persecution and war over a long period has reduced the language to a severely endangered level. There may be 200 or less first language speakers of Mandaic.
ࡀࡁࡀࡂࡀābāgāMandaic alphabet
The origins of the script are not clear, but many scholars believe it to be descended from Aramaic via Parthian. Research has indicated that it has remained relatively unchanged since its initial development between the 2nd and 7th centuries CE.
The Mandaic script is an alphabet. This means that it is phonetic in nature, where each letter represents a basic sound. This is unusual among scripts of semitic origin. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the modern Neo-Mandaic orthography.
Mandaic text runs right-to-left in horizontal lines, but numbers and embedded Latin text are read left-to-right.
Words are separated by spaces, and contain a mixture of consonants and vowels, with diacritics to indicate vowel quality, gemination, or foreign sounds.
There is no case distinction.
The script is cursive, but basic letter shapes don't change radically. In some letters, the joining edge of the glyph adapts to join with an adjacent character.
The standard Mandaic alphabet consists of 24 letters, since 24 is a significant number to Mandaeans, however this is only achieved by repeating the first letter of the alphabet, ࡀ[U+0840 MANDAIC LETTER HALQA], at the end, and including a ligature, ࡗ[U+0857 MANDAIC LETTER KAD].
Mandaic has 20 basic consonants. Repertoire extension for many additional sounds used in Arabic can be achieved using an affrication mark added to consonants and one extra character. ❯ consonants
Mandaic is an alphabet and vowels are written using 4 vowel letters, which are derived from what used to be consonants. ❯ vowels
Letters representing vowel sounds are somewhat ambiguous, but can be clarified for educational purposes by a combining mark.
Character index
Letters
Show
Consonants
ࡐ␣ࡁ␣ࡕ␣ࡃ␣ࡈ␣ࡊ␣ࡂ␣ࡒ␣ࡎ␣ࡆ␣ࡑ␣ࡔ␣ࡄ␣ࡌ␣ࡍ␣ࡓ␣ࡋ
Vowels
ࡉ␣ࡅ␣ࡀ␣ࡏ
Other
ࡖ␣ࡇ␣ࡗ␣ࡘ␣ـ
Combining marks
Show࡙␣࡛␣࡚
Punctuation
Show࡞
Other unconfirmed
،␣؛␣«␣»␣؟␣﴾␣﴿
Other
Show
To be investigated
(␣)␣,␣.␣/␣{␣}␣٠␣١␣٢␣٣␣٤␣٥␣٦␣٧␣٨␣٩␣٪␣۔␣‘␣’
Items to show in lists
Phonology
These sounds are for the Neo-Mandaic language.
Click on the sounds to reveal locations in this document where they are mentioned.
Phones in a lighter colour are non-native or allophones
.
Vowel sounds
Plain vowels
The vowels i, u, and ɔ, are lengthened in open, accented syllables to iː, uː, and ɔː or ɒː. i and u are realized as ɪ and ʊ when they occur in closed syllables. The other three principle vowels, o, e, and a, appear only exceptionally in open, accented syllables. e is realized as e in open syllables and ɛ in closed syllables. a is realized as ɑ in closed accented syllables, and as a or æ elsewhere.h
Diphthongs
Consonant sounds
labial
dental
alveolar
post-
alveolar
palatal
velar
uvular
pharyngeal
glottal
stop
pb
td
kɡ
q
ejectives
tˤðˤ
affricate
t͡ʃd͡ʒ
fricative
fv
θð
sz sˤzˤ
ʃʒ
ɣ
χʁ
ħʕ
h
nasal
m
n
approximant
w
l
j
trill/flap
r
Tone
Neo-Mandaic is not a tonal language.
Structure
tbd
Vowels
Vowel letters
The Mandaic Unicode block uses just 4 characters for vowels.
Click on the characters in the lists for detailed information. For a mapping of sounds to graphemes see vowel_mappings.
ࡉ␣ࡅ␣ࡀ␣ࡏ
The letters used for vowels all have their origin in consonants.
This section maps Mandaic vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Mandaic orthography, grouped by word-initial ( i ), medial ( m ), and final ( f ) types. Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.
Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc.
The Mandaic block has 17 basic, native consonants:
ࡐ␣ࡁ␣ࡕ␣ࡃ␣ࡈ␣ࡊ␣ࡂ␣ࡒࡎ␣ࡆ␣ࡑ␣ࡔ␣ࡄࡌ␣ࡍࡓ␣ࡋ
Special characters
ࡖ␣ࡇ␣ࡗ
ࡇ[U+0847 MANDAIC LETTER IT]ẖ only appears at the end of personal names or at the end of words to indicate the third person singular suffix.
ࡖ[U+0856 MANDAIC LETTER DUSHENNA] has a morphemic function, being used to write the relative pronoun and genitive exponent ḏ-, eg. ࡖࡍࡐࡀࡒࡕḏnpāqtdinpaqtwho left youࡖࡎࡉࡍࡀḏsinādisinaof hatred
Häberlh,729 provides some detailed information about rules for consonant clusters.
Consonant length
࡛[U+085B MANDAIC GEMINATION MARK ] indicates gemination of a consonant (referred to by native writers as 'hard' pronunciation), eg. ࡋࡉࡁ࡛ࡀlib˖ālebbaheart
Note that geminated ࡕ࡙tˑθ is pronounced χt.h,728
Consonant sounds to characters
This section maps Mandaic consonant sounds to common graphemes in the Mandaic orthography. Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.
Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc.
This section brings together information about the following topics:
writing styles;
cursive text;
context-based shaping;
context-based positioning;
baselines, line height, etc.;
font styles;
case & other character transforms.
The script is unicameral and needs no transforms to convert between code points.
Cursive text
Mandaic is cursive, ie. letters in a word are joined up. Fonts need to produce the appropriate joining form for a code point, according to its visual context.
The cursive treatment doesn't produce significant variations of the essential part of a rendered character (unlike Arabic). In some letters, the joining edge of the glyph adapts to join with an adjacent character. Two examples show how strokes away from the baseline are typically shortened to create joining shapes.
Two examples of small tweaks to glyphs when joining.
Other small adaptations may occur between certain adjacent characters, such as kl, wt and mn.d
The cursive treatment produces only minor changes to glyph shapes in most cases. fig_joining_forms and fig_right_joining_forms show all the basic shapes in Mandaic and what their joining forms look like.
isolated
right-joined
dual-join
left-joined
Mandaic letters
ࡐ
ـࡐ
ـࡐـ
ࡐـ
ࡐ
ࡁ
ـࡁ
ـࡁـ
ࡁـ
ࡁ
ࡕ
ـࡕ
ـࡕـ
ࡕـ
ࡕ
ࡃ
ـࡃ
ـࡃـ
ࡃـ
ࡃ
ࡈ
ـࡈ
ـࡈـ
ࡈـ
ࡈ
ࡊ
ـࡊ
ـࡊـ
ࡊـ
ࡊ
ࡂ
ـࡂ
ـࡂـ
ࡂـ
ࡂ
ࡒ
ـࡒ
ـࡒـ
ࡒـ
ࡒ
ࡎ
ـࡎ
ـࡎـ
ࡎـ
ࡎ
ࡑ
ـࡑ
ـࡑـ
ࡑـ
ࡑ
ࡄ
ـࡄ
ـࡄـ
ࡄـ
ࡄ
ࡌ
ـࡌ
ـࡌـ
ࡌـ
ࡌ
ࡍ
ـࡍ
ـࡍـ
ࡍـ
ࡍ
ࡓ
ـࡓ
ـࡓـ
ࡓـ
ࡓ
ࡋ
ـࡋ
ـࡋـ
ࡋـ
ࡋ
ࡅ
ـࡅ
ـࡅـ
ࡅـ
ࡅ
ࡏ
ـࡏ
ـࡏـ
ࡏـ
ࡏ
Joining forms for shapes that join on both sides.
isolated
right-joined
Mandaic letters
ࡆ
ـࡆ
ࡆ
ࡔ
ـࡔ
ࡔ
ࡉ
ـࡉ
ࡉ
ࡀ
ـࡀ
ࡀ
ࡖ
ـࡖ
ࡖ
ࡇ
ـࡇ
ࡇ
Joining forms for shapes that join on the right only.
Context-based shaping & positioning
tbd
The position of diacritics may vary according to whether or not the glyph of the base character extends below the baseline. The diacritic also needs to be positioned horizontally underneath the character in the appropriate place. Several such variations are shown here:
Diacritic placement varying horizontally and vertically.
Font styling & weight
tbd
Graphemes
Grapheme clusters
tbd
Punctuation & inline features
Word boundaries
Words are separated by spaces.
Phrase & section boundaries
࡞
Mandaic uses sentence punctuation sparselye. ࡞[U+085E MANDAIC PUNCTUATION] is used to start and end text sections. Everson describes a smaller version of this symbol that is used like a comma.e There is no Unicode character for the smaller version.
The smaller size is also used in colophons (historical lay text added to religious text).d
Observation: The keyboard at MandeanNetwork.com suggests that writers of Mandaic use Arabic punctuation, such as the following, in addition to western punctuation such as colon, full stop, etc. This is TBC.
،␣؛␣؟
Bracketed text
Observation: The keyboard at MandeanNetwork.com suggests that writers of Mandaic use Arabic parentheses, such as the following (the shape may vary). This is TBC.
﴾␣﴿
Quotations & citations
Observation: The keyboard at MandeanNetwork.com suggests that writers of Mandaic use the following. This is TBC.
When text is fully justified the baseline may be stretched, as in Arabic. [Unicode] saysu that ـ[U+0640 ARABIC TATWEEL] may be used to achieve that effect, however this is not a good solution typographically.
Daniels saysd that ࡇ[U+0847 MANDAIC LETTER IT] can sometimes be 'manipulated calligraphically in an otherwise pedestrian manuscript in order to fill out a line'.
Text spacing
tbd
This section looks at ways in which spacing is applied between characters over and above that which is introduced during justification.
Baselines, line height, etc.
Mandaic uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.
A few Mandaic characters have glyphs that rise above the main height, and a few more that descend below the baseline. Diacritics are attached below the letters.
To give an approximate idea, fig_baselines compares Latin and Mandaic glyphs from the Noto font. Many Mandaic letters are less high than the Latin x-height, however some extend well below the Latin descenders, especially when they have combining marks attached. A few character glyphs reach the Latin cap-height.
Font metrics for Latin text compared with Mandaic glyphs in the Noto Serif Mandaic font.
Counters, lists, etc.
tbd
Styling initials
tbd
Page & book layout
This section is for any features that are specific to thisScript and that relate to the following topics:
general page layout & progression;
grids & tables;
notes, footnotes, etc;
forms & user interaction;
page numbering, running headers, etc.
