Neo-Mandaic (draft)

Mandaic

Letters

Combining marks

Punctuation

Vowel sounds

Consonant sounds

	labial	dental	alveolar	post- alveolar	palatal	velar	uvular	pharyngeal	glottal
stop	p b	t d				k ɡ	q
ejectives		tˤ ðˤ
affricate				t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
fricative	f v	θ ð	s z sˤ zˤ	ʃ ʒ		ɣ	χ ʁ	ħ ʕ	h
nasal	m		n
approximant	w		l		j
trill/flap			r

Vowel sounds to characters

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.

Vowel characters

The Mandaic Unicode block has 4 characters used for vowels.

Click on the characters in the lists for detailed information. For a mapping of sounds to graphemes see vowel_mappings.

The letters used for vowels all have their origin in consonants.

ࡉ [U+0849 MANDAIC LETTER AKSA] and ࡅ [U+0845 MANDAIC LETTER USHENNA] are only rarely used for y and w.

ࡀ [U+0840 MANDAIC LETTER HALQA] and ࡏ [U+084F MANDAIC LETTER IN] are available because the language dropped the glottal and pharyngeal sounds.

Although the script is basically alphabetic, vowel sounds are not always shown. For example, the i is not shown in ࡌࡍ mn min from

Three characters in the Unicode block also have unwritten vowel sounds, ie. ࡖ ḏ diࡗ kḏࡇ ẖ iː

Vowel disambiguation

 ࡚ [U+085A MANDAIC VOCALIZATION MARK] is used in teaching materials to disambiguate the sound of a vowel:w

• o is indicated when used with ࡅ [U+0845 MANDAIC LETTER USHENNA], eg. compare ࡁࡅ buࡁࡅ࡚ bo
• e when used with ࡉ [U+0849 MANDAIC LETTER AKSA], eg. compare ࡁࡉ biࡁࡉ࡚ be
• a when used with ࡀ [U+0840 MANDAIC LETTER HALQA], eg. compare ࡁࡉ baːࡁࡉ࡚ ba

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.

Basic consonants

The Mandaic block has 17 basic, native consonants:

Special characters

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. ࡖࡍࡐࡀࡒࡕ ḏnpāqt dinpaqt who left youࡖࡎࡉࡍࡀ ḏsinā disina of hatred

ࡗ [U+0857 MANDAIC LETTER KAD] is used to write the word ࡗ kḏ when, as, likeIt was derived from a digraph of ࡊࡖ [U+084A MANDAIC LETTER AK + U+0856 MANDAIC LETTER DUSHENNA].

Repertoire extension

 ࡙ [U+0859 MANDAIC AFFRICATION MARK ] extends the character set to cover foreign sounds. Extensions include the following:u

• č, ǰ ࡔ࡙ (ࡔ is ʃ).
• f ࡐ࡙ (ࡐ is p).
• θ ࡕ࡙ (ࡕ is t).
• ð ࡃ࡙ (ࡃ is d).
• ðˤ ࡈ࡙ (ࡈ is tˤ).
• ʒ ࡑ࡙ (ࡑ is sˤ).
• γ ࡂ࡙ (ࡂ is g).
• χ ࡊ࡙ (ࡊ is k).
• ħ ࡄ࡙ (ࡄ is h).

The character ࡘ [U+0858 MANDAIC LETTER AIN] is borrowed from ع [U+0639 ARABIC LETTER AIN] to represent the Arabic sound ʕ.

Consonant clusters & gemination

Häberlh,729 provides some detailed information about rules for consonant clusters.

 ࡛ [U+085B MANDAIC GEMINATION MARK ] indicates gemination of a consonant (referred to by native writers as 'hard' pronunciation), eg. ࡋࡉࡁ࡛ࡀ lib˖ā lebba heart

Note that geminated ࡕ࡙ tˑ θ is pronounced χt.h,728

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.

Other small adaptations may occur between certain adjacent characters, such as kl, wt and mn.^d

Two letters don't join on either side: ࡗ [U+0857 MANDAIC LETTER KAD] and ࡘ [U+0858 MANDAIC LETTER AIN].

Context-based shaping & positioning

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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:

Font styling & weight

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Grapheme clusters

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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.

Emphasis

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Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition

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Inline notes & annotations

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Other punctuation

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Other inline text decoration

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Line breaking

Lines usually break between words.

Show (default) line-breaking properties for characters in the modern Mandaic orthography.

Text alignment & justification

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 says^d that ࡇ [U+0847 MANDAIC LETTER IT] can sometimes be 'manipulated calligraphically in an otherwise pedestrian manuscript in order to fill out a line'.

Use the control below to see how your browser justifies the text sample here.

ࡊࡋ ࡁࡓ ࡀࡍࡀࡔࡀ ࡌࡉࡕࡋࡉࡓ ࡔࡀࡅࡉࡀ ࡁࡏࡒࡀࡓࡀ ࡅࡀࡂࡓࡉࡀ࡞ ࡁࡉࡍࡕࡀ ࡅࡕࡉࡓࡕࡀ ࡏࡕࡄࡉࡁࡋࡅࡍ ࡅࡋࡅࡀࡕ ࡄࡓࡀࡓࡉࡀ ࡈࡀࡁࡅࡕࡀ ࡀࡁࡓࡉࡍ ࡀࡊࡅࡀࡕ ࡖࡍࡉࡄࡅࡍ ࡀࡄࡉࡀ࡞

   Justify   

Text spacing

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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.

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Mandaic uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.

Counters, lists, etc.

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Styling initials

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