Updated 16 April, 2022
This page brings together basic information about the Syriac script and its use for the Classical, Eastern and Western Syriac dialects of the Syriac language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Syriac using Unicode.
ܘܐܢܫ̈ܝܢ ܐܡܪܝܢ ܕܐܟܙܢܐ ܩܕ݂ܡܝܬ݂ ܪܟܒ ܐܬܘ̈ܬܐ ܥܒܪ̈ܝܬܐ ܘܒܗܝܢ ܣܡ ܢܡܘܣܐ ܆ ܗܟܢܐ ܘܫܝܠܡܘܢ ܪܟܒ ܐܬܘ̈ܬܐ ܕܣܦܪ̈ܐ ܐܚܪ̈ܢܐ ܘܝܗ݂ܒ ܠܥܡ̈ܡܐ ܕܐܬܝܩܪ ܡܢܗܘܢ ܂ ܘܩܕܡܝܬ ܕܣܘܪܝܝܐ ܗ̇ܘ ܕܝܗܒ ܠܚܝܪܡ ܕܨܘܪ
Only the first part of the Serto sample is pointed.
ܣܷܦ݂ܪ̈ܶܐ ܗܳܠܷܝܢ ܕܰܠܘܳܬܱܢ ܂ ܘܒ݂ܳܐܬ݂ܱܪ̈ܘܳܬ݂ܳܐ ܕܰܚܕ݂ܳܪ̈ܰܝܢ ܂ ܡܢܷܗܘܿܢ ܡܱ̇ܢ ܡܫܰܡܠܷܝܢ ܘܓܡܝܪܝܢ݂ ܡܢܗܘܢ ܕܝܢ݂ ܚ݁ܣܝܪܝܢ ܘܒܨܝܪܝܢ ܂ ܘܣܦܪ̈ܐ ܡܫ̈ܡܠܝܐ ܠܟܠ ܛܘܦܣܐ ܡܬܠܬܡܢܐ ܒܠܫܢܐ ܐܬܘܬܐ ܕܡܬܪܫܡܐ ܒܟܬܒܐ݂ ܠܗܘܢ ܡܫܬܟܚܐ ܂
ܐܟܡܐ ܕܠܝܘܢܝܐ ܘܪܘܡܝܐ ܘܐܓܘܦܛܝܐ ܘܐܪܡܢܝܐ ܂ ܘܣܦܪ̈ܐ ܚܣܝܪ̈ܐ݂ ܠܐ ܗܘܐ ܠܟܠ ܛܘܦܣܐ ܡܬܠܬܡܢܐ ܒܠܫܢܐ ܒܝܬܝܐ݂ ܨܘܪܬܐ ܕܡܬܟܬܒܐ݂ ܠܗܘܢ ܡܫܬܟܚܐ ܐܟܡܐ ܕܠܥܒܪܝܐ݀ ܘܣܘܪܝܝܐ ܘܐܪܒܝܐ
ܩܘ݂ܝܵܡܵܐ ܕܟܠ ܚܕܵܐ ܐܘ݂ܡܬܵܐ ܬܸܠܝܵܐ ܝܠܹܗ ܒܠܸܫܵܢܘ݁ܗ، ܘܠܸܫܵܢܵܐ ܒܟܬܝ݂ܵܒ݂ܵܬܘ݂ܗܝ ܘܒܣܸܦܪܵܝܘ݂ܬܘ݂ܗܝ. ܚܲܕ ܠܸܫܵܢܵܐ ܕܠܐ ܟܬܝܼ̈ܒܹܬܵܐ، ܐܲܝܟ ܚܲܕ ܟܲܪܡܵܐ ܝܠܹܗ ܕܠܵܐ ܢܵܛܘܿܪܹ̈ܐ. ܐܵܗܵܐ ܒܸܬ ܦܵܐܹܣ ܐ݇ܟ݂ܝܼܠܵܐ ܒܓܸܠܹ̈ܐ ܫܹܐܕܵܢܹ̈ܐ، ܘܠܸܫܵܢܵܐ ܒܚܵܒܪܹ̈ܐ ܢܘ݂ܼܟܪ݂̈ܵܝܹܐ.
ܐܵܗܵܐ ܠܸܫܵܢܲܢ، ܐܵܦܸܢ ܡܘܼܣܟܸܢܵܐ، ܐܝܼܢܵܐ ܡܵܪܹܐ ܛܘܼܗܡܵܐ ܝܠܹܗ، ܘܐܝܼܬ ܠܹܗ ܕܝܼܠܵܝܵܬܹ̈ܐ ܚܩܝܼܪܹ̈ܐ. ܐܸܢ ܦܵܝܫܝܼ ܒܘܼܓ̰ܪܹ̈ܐ، ܟܹܐ ܗܵܘܝܼ ܡܲܦܬܘܼܝܹܐ ܘܓܲܪܘܘܼܣܹܐ ܒܣܸܕܪܵܐ ܕܐܵܢ ܠܸܫܵܢܹ̈ܐ ܣܸܦܪ̈ܵܝܹܐ ܘܪܗܸܛܪ̈ܵܝܹܐ ܕܕܘܼܢܝܹܐ.
From Wikipedia:
The Syriac alphabet is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language from the 1st century AD. It is one of the Semitic abjads descending from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet, and it shares similarities with the Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic and the traditional Mongolian scripts.
Apart from Classical Syriac Aramaic, the alphabet has been used to write other dialects and languages. Several Christian Neo-Aramaic languages from Turoyo to the Northeastern Neo-Aramaic dialects of Assyrian and Chaldean, once vernaculars, primarily began to be written in the 19th century. The Serṭā variant specifically has recently been adapted to write Western Neo-Aramaic, traditionally written in a square Aramaic script closely related to the Hebrew alphabet. Besides Aramaic, when Arabic began to be the dominant spoken language in the Fertile Crescent after the Islamic conquest, texts were often written in Arabic using the Syriac script as knowledge of the Arabic alphabet was not yet widespread; such writings are usually called Karshuni or Garshuni (ܓܪܫܘܢܝ). In addition to Semitic languages, Sogdian was also written with Syriac script, as well as Malayalam, which form was called Suriyani Malayalam.
Syriac is an abjad. The script relies mostly on consonant sounds to write words, although in Modern Aramaic written in Syriac vowel sounds tend to be written using diacritics, making it more like an alphabetic script. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the Syriac orthography as used for the Syriac language. (See the key. Character counts exclude ASCII characters.)
Syriac is used for a number of languages. The Syriac language itself has two dialects, which are very similar, with almost no differences in grammar or vocabulary, but there are differences in pronunciation.
The script itself, however, has three main writing systems: maḏnḥāyā (ܡܲܕ݂ܢܚܵܝܵܐ) (eastern), ʾesṭrangēlā (ܐܣܛܪܢܓܠܐ), and serṭā (ܣܶܪܛܳܐ) (western).
Garshuni texts are Arabic written in the Syriac script. It is currently used for writing Arabic liturgical texts amongst the Syriac-speaking Christians. A large corpus of manuscripts ranging from the 8th century till the modern day exists in Garshuni. Garshuni employs two additional letters and the Arabic set of vowels and combining marks.n,6
Syriac has also been used to write Persian, Sogdian, Ottoman Turkish, and Malayalam.
Words in Syriac are separated by spaces.
Note on transliteration: The transliterated text here conforms mostly to that of the sources used, but takes a departure for the vowels in order to ensure a one-to-one correspondence between Syriac and Latin characters.
These are sounds for the Syriac language. There are several dialects, each of which have slight phonetic differences. For more detail, see Wikipedia.
Click on the sounds to reveal locations in this document where they are mentioned.
Phones in a lighter colour are non-native or allophones. Source Wikipedia.
Among most Assyrian Neo-Aramaic speakers, the pharyngeal ʕ is pronounced as ʔ or ∅, or geminates a previous consonant.
All vowels are rendered in Syriac using combining characters. There are two sets of these. Maḏnḥāyā uses a series of dots. Serṭā uses a set of miniaturised Greek characters, but also uses the dots. ʾEsṭrangēlā doesn't normally show vowels.
Modern Aramaic written in Syriac is usually fully pointed.
Click on the characters in the lists for detailed information.
Three consonants can represent vowels. They are ܐ [U+0710 SYRIAC LETTER ALAPH], ܘ [U+0718 SYRIAC LETTER WAW] and ܝ [U+071D SYRIAC LETTER YUDH]. For details, follow the links to see the character descriptions.
Other vowels are expressed through applying the diacritics to a base letter.
In the Eastern style, the 7 basic vowel sounds are expressed using 6 dotted vowel diacritics.
Two of these diacritics are only used in conjunction with a mater lectionis.
The following table summarises how standard vowel sounds can be written, using ܒ as a base.
i | ܒܝܼ | ɪ | ܒܸ | u | ܒܘܼ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
e | ܒܹ ܒܹܝ ܒܸܝ | ɛ | ܒܸ | o | ܒܘܿ |
a | ܒܲ | ɑ | ܒܵ | ||
aj | ܒܲܝ | aw | ܒܲܘ |
You can see that the sounds i and u are always written using a mater lectionis (with or without pointing).
In the Western style there are 5 Greek symbols, but each can appear either above or below the base character, and one code point is provided for each position. The complete set is as follows:
The serto style of the script also uses a lowercase omega on one word, the interjection 'Oh!', ie. ܐܘّ ʾō The omega is represented using ّ [U+0651 ARABIC SHADDA].
The following table shows how standard vowel sounds can be written, using ܒ as a base.
i | ܒܺ|ܒܻ | ɪ | u | ܒܽ|ܒܾ | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
e | ܒܶ|ܒܷ | ɛ | ܒܶ|ܒܷ | o | ܒܳ|ܒܴ |
a | ܒܰ|ܒܱ | ɑ |
Click on the characters in the lists for detailed information.
All the letters in the Syriac block are consonants. There are 22 basic consonants.
ܣ [U+0723 SYRIAC LETTER SEMKATH] has a separate code point for its final form, ܤ [U+0724 SYRIAC LETTER FINAL SEMKATH], like Greek sigma or several letters in the Hebrew block.
Eastern Syriac uses a couple of additional symbols, though they don't introduce new sounds:
ܞ [U+071E SYRIAC LETTER YUDH HE] is a single code point for the ligature jʰ, described by Nelson et al. as similar to the use of an æ ligature.n,10
ܧ [U+0727 SYRIAC LETTER REVERSED PE] is used in Christian Palestinian Aramaic.
Isolated versions of 3 letters, such as may be found in counter styles, are usually presented as a doubled letter, using intial and final forms, ie. ܟܟ ܡܡ ܢܢ
The glyphs used to represent consonants in Estrangelo, Eastern, and Western Syriac can be significantly different. The following list compares them, top to bottom, in that order.
ܖ [U+0716 SYRIAC LETTER DOTLESS DALATH RISH] is an alternative shape that can be used to represent an ambiguous form in ancient texts that could stand for either of these:ܕ dܪ r
The following consonant symbols represent two sounds, one 'hard' and one 'soft'. The hard sound is an unaspirated plosive, the soft sound is an aspirated fricative or w.
The intended sound of the letter can be made explicit using diacritics:
high ݁ [U+0741 SYRIAC QUSHSHAYA] for the hard form, eg. ܦ݁ܐ p݁ʾ (pē) and low ݂ [U+0742 SYRIAC RUKKAKHA] for the soft form, eg. ܐܠܦ݂ ʾlp̄ (ʾālap̄)
Late and modern East Syriac texts use ̮ [U+032E COMBINING BREVE BELOW] to indicate a fricative form of pē,w ie. ܦ̮
In the maḏnḥāyā style, which uses dots for vowels, soft form marks are usually omitted if they would interfere with the vowel marks. For native words, softening depends on the letter's position within a word or syllable, location relative to other consonants and vowels, gemination, etymology, and other factors. Foreign words do not always follow the rules for softening.w
A mark called ܡܓ̰ܠܝܢܐ maǧlīyānā is combined with a base consonant to represent non-classical sounds in modern dialects or change the sound for foreign words. It is applied to 4 consonants in Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, and 2 in Turoyo.
The maǧliyana is written using one of 2 code points from the Combining Diacritic Marks block: ̃ [U+0303 COMBINING TILDE] or ̰ [U+0330 COMBINING TILDE BELOW]. For details about usage, follow the links.
Garshuni (ܓܪܫܘܢܝ) refers to the practise of writing Arabic in the syriac script. In addition to Arabic script diacritics, a couple of Syriac letter forms are used.
To represent teh marbuta, Syriac uses ̈ [U+0308 COMBINING DIAERESIS]. Vowel sounds are written using the Arabic harakat marks.
Several additional consonants are used for writing other languages in Syriac: 3 for Persian
3 for Sogdian
and 11 for Malayalam in the Syriac Supplement block.
There is no equivalent to the Arabic sukun to indicate clusters of consonant sounds. (Although the Arabic character can be used when transliterating Arabic text in Syriac script.)
However, the short a and ɪ vowels are only used in closed syllables, so if they are followed by an intervocalic consonant, it indicates that the consonant is doubled,d eg. compare ܣܲܡܵܐ sămaʾ samma poisonܣܵܡܵܐ samaʾ saːma portion
Syriac uses the Arabic character ـ [U+0640 ARABIC TATWEEL] to lengthen the baseline.
Syriac uses a large number of diacritics, encoded both in the Syriac block and the Combining Diacritical Marks block (plus the Arabic block for Garshuni text). For the 17 vowel-related diacritics, see vowels. The rest of this section lists additional diacritics used.
First, the diacritics in general use for Syriac.
݁ [U+0741 SYRIAC QUSHSHAYA] and ݂ [U+0742 SYRIAC RUKKAKHA] are used to explicitly indicate hard and soft sounds, as is ̮ [U+032E COMBINING BREVE BELOW] in East Syriac styles. See hard_soft.
̊ [U+030A COMBINING RING ABOVE] and ̥ [U+0325 COMBINING RING BELOW] are used as alternatives to ݁ [U+0741 SYRIAC QUSHSHAYA] and ݂ [U+0742 SYRIAC RUKKAKHA], and are mixed freely with the latter in West Syriac grammar books.d
݃ [U+0743 SYRIAC TWO VERTICAL DOTS ABOVE] and ݄ [U+0744 SYRIAC TWO VERTICAL DOTS BELOW] are accent marks.
Found in ancient manuscripts, ̤ [U+0324 COMBINING DIAERESIS BELOW] has a grammatical and phonological function.
̄ [U+0304 COMBINING MACRON] and ̱ [U+0331 COMBINING MACRON BELOW] are used for various purposes, ranging from phonological to grammatical and orthographic markers.d Nelson et al. describe the following uses for the lower line: "the sublinear line can be used to: 1) indicate that the letter under which it lies is not to be pronounced, 2) disambiguate between the passive imperative verb from the passive past since they are homographs, and 3) to indicate that the letter under which it lies is to be pronounced with a shewa".n,8
̭ [U+032D COMBINING CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT BELOW] is used as a digit marker.u
݉ [U+0749 SYRIAC MUSIC] is associated with music, and ݊ [U+074A SYRIAC BARREKH] is a diacritic cross.
The remaining diacritics in the above list are used in unpointed as well as pointed text, and are described in the following sections: talqana, syame, ddots, and feminine.
The combining tildes are used in modern East Syriac styles to modify the sound of a consonant, eg. to represent sounds not found in non-classical Syriac. See magliyana.
The superscript alaph indicates etymological information (see talqana), but is only used in the East Syriac style.
݅ [U+0745 SYRIAC THREE DOTS ABOVE] and ݆ [U+0746 SYRIAC THREE DOTS BELOW] are used in Turoyo for letters not found in Classical Syriac, eg. ܐ݅ ܦܪܥܓܬܐܔ݆ܰܥܓܰܗ̈
݇ [U+0747 SYRIAC OBLIQUE LINE ABOVE] is used in the Eastern style to indicate letters that are not pronounced. It is frequently used in the modern Aramaic koine to bridge difference in dialects. For example, ܒܬ݇ܪ bt݇r afteris pronounced baθar in some modern dialects, harking back to the classical pronunciation, but bar in Urmi and the koine.
The letters ܐ ܥ ܗ ܝwhen included for etymological reasons, are often silent, though without using the talqana.n
The Unicode Standard says that ݈ [U+0748 SYRIAC OBLIQUE LINE BELOW] is used in a similar way.u
The Western style uses ̱ [U+0331 COMBINING MACRON BELOW], eg. the above example would be written ܒܬ̱ܪ bṯr
ܑ [U+0711 SYRIAC LETTER SUPERSCRIPT ALAPH] is used in East Syriac texts to indicate an etymological alaph, eg. ܩܲܖ݄ܡܵܝܑܼܬ̣ qaḋ‒݄māyˈit‒̜ It maps to nothing in West Syriac.
̈ [U+0308 COMBINING DIAERESIS] is used to represent the Syriac syame (ܣܝ̈ܡܐ), which indicates plural nouns, adjectives and participles. It is needed because many plural words would otherwise look the same as the singular word, eg. ܡܠܟܐ mlkʾ (malkā) king could otherwise be also read as malkē kings. Instead, the plural form can be written as ܡܠܟ̈ܐ mlk̋ʾ
Although it's not strictly needed for non-regular words, it is also used for them, eg. ܒܝܬܐ bytʾ (baytā) houseܒ̈ܬܐ b̋tʾ (bāttē) houses
Some modern usage, however, omits this diacritic when vowel marks are present, because it is redundant.
An author can place this mark above any letter in a word, but if the word contains one or more of ܪ [U+072A SYRIAC LETTER RISH] the mark is generally placed over the one which is nearest the word end, and replaces the single dot above it, eg. ܢܘܟ݂ܪ̈ܝܐ nwk‒̣r‒̈yʾ nuxrajɪ modern
Other likely locations include low rising letters, and letters near the middle or end of a word.w
̇ [U+0307 COMBINING DOT ABOVE] and ̣ [U+0323 COMBINING DOT BELOW] are used to disambiguate certain letters, morphemes or words, eg. compare ܡ̇ܢ ṁn man whoܡ̣ܢ ṃn mɪn from
The dot is also written over the 3rd person fem. suffix ܘܗ̇ -wḣ -othe masc. and fem. personal pronouns, ܗ̇ܘ ḣw awܗ̇ܝ ḣy ajand their corresponding demonstratives.
݀ [U+0740 SYRIAC FEMININE DOT] is a feminine marker used with ܬ [U+072C SYRIAC LETTER TAW] to indicate a feminine suffix. East Syriac fonts should render as two dots below the base letter, whereas West Syriac fonts render as a single dot to the left of the base, eg. compare in the Eastern (top) and Western (bottom) orthographies in fig_feminine (click on the images to see the underlying code points):
These characters are ♰ [U+2670 WEST SYRIAC CROSS] and ♱ [U+2671 EAST SYRIAC CROSS].
The Unicode has a set of characters that affect the way that other characters are rendered. None of those have a visible form of their own.
[U+202B RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING] (RLE),
[U+202A LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING] (LRE), and
[U+202C POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING] (PDF) are in widespread use to set the base direction of a range of characters. RLE/LRE come at the start, and PDF at the end of a range of characters for which the base direction is to be set.
More recently, the Unicode Standard added a set of characters which do the same thing but also isolate the content from surrounding characters, in order to avoid spillover effects. They are [U+2067 RIGHT-TO-LEFT ISOLATE] (RLI),
[U+2066 LEFT-TO-RIGHT ISOLATE] (LRI), and
[U+2069 POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE] (PDI). The Unicode Standard recommends that these be used instead.
There is also [U+2068 FIRST STRONG ISOLATE] (FSI), used initially to set the base direction according to the first recognised strongly-directional character.
[U+061C ARABIC LETTER MARK] (ALM) is used to produce correct sequencing of numeric data. Follow the link for details.
[U+200F RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK] (RLM) and
[U+200E LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK] (LRM) are invisible characters with strong directional properties that are also sometimes used to produce the correct ordering of text.
For more information about how to use these formatting characters see How to use Unicode controls for bidi text. Note, however, that when writing HTML you should generally use markup rather than these control codes. For information about that, see Creating HTML Pages in Arabic, Hebrew and Other Right-to-left Scripts.
[U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER] (ZWJ) and
[U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER] (ZWNJ) are used to control the joining behaviour of cursive glyphs. They are particularly useful in educational contexts, but also have real world applications.
ZWJ permits a letter to form a cursive connection without a visible neighbour.
ZWNJ prevents two adjacent letters forming a cursive connection with each other when rendered.
Modern Syriac uses Western digits, like Hebrew.n,11
There is also, however, a letter-based number system. Wikipedia hints at the use of diacritics to create higher numbers (using various systems of dashes above or below, [bet] can stand for 2,000 and 20,000
wb,#Syriac_Beth).
Nelson et al. go further with the following: "When letters are used to designate numbers, a circumflex under the letter Alaph represents the numerical value 10,000,000 according to Oddo (1897), but 100,000 according to Costaz (1955); Payne Smith’s monumental lexicon assigns the value 10,000,000 to an Alaph with two dots under it!".n,8
For more information see this Wikipedia page (in Syriac).
[U+070F SYRIAC ABBREVIATION MARK] (SAM) is used to indicate letter-based numbers. Note how, in this example, the prefix ܒ, is not covered by the SAM, only the number itself.
̭ [U+032D COMBINING CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT BELOW] is also used as a digit marker.u
A sequence of European numbers, for example a range separated by hyphens, runs from right to left in the Syriac script (and Arabic or Thaana scripts), whereas for Persian, Hebrew, N’Ko or Adlam scripts it runs left to right.
fig_range shows some Syriac text, which is right-to-left overall, containing a numeric range that is ordered RTL, ie. it starts with 240 and ends with 250.
ܛܪܦܐ 240-250 ܩܘܼܛܢ
The Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm automatically produces the expected ordering when a sequence or expression follows Syriac characters. However, a sequence that appears alone on a line doesn't benefit from this, so to make the text appear correctly for Syriac you should add [U+061C ARABIC LETTER MARK] (ALM) at the start of the line (see fig_ALM). This is an invisible formatting character.
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Similar special ordering is applied to numbers in equations, such as 1 + 2 = 3, for Syriac language text.
Syriac script is written horizontally, right-to-left. Like other RTL scripts, such as Arabic and Hebrew, modern numbers and text in LTR scripts are displayed left-to-right (producing 'bidirectional' text).
ܘܝܩܝܦܕܝܐ ܗܘ ܬܪܡܝܬܐ ܕܡܛܟܣܬܐ ܕܘܝܩܝܡܝܕܝܐ ܘܫܬܐܣ ܒ15 ܟܢܘܢ ܒ 2001 ܒܠܫܢܐ ܐܢܓܠܝܐ ܘܡܩܝܡܢܐ ܕܘܝܩܝܦܕܝܐ ܗܘ ܓܝܡܝ ܘܝܠܙ (Jimmy Wales).
The Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm automatically takes care of the ordering for all the text in fig_bidi_text, as long as the 'base direction' is set to RTL. In HTML this can be set using the dir
attribute, or in plain text using formatting controls.
If the base direction is not set appropriately, the directional runs will be ordered incorrectly as in fig_bidi_no_base_direction.
ܐܝ ܦܝ (IP) ܕܝܠܟ ܢܬܟܬܒ ܒܬܫܥܝܬܐ ܕܦܐܬܐ.
ܐܝ ܦܝ (IP) ܕܝܠܟ ܢܬܟܬܒ ܒܬܫܥܝܬܐ ܕܦܐܬܐ.
Show default bidi_class
properties for characters in the Syriac orthography described here.
For more information about how directionality and base direction work, see Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm basics. For information about plain text formatting characters see How to use Unicode controls for bidi text. And for working with markup in HTML, see Creating HTML Pages in Arabic, Hebrew and Other Right-to-left Scripts.
See also expressions.
You can experiment with examples using the Syriac character app.
There are 3 main writing styles: maḏnḥāyā (ܡܲܕ݂ܢܚܵܝܵܐ) (eastern), ʾesṭrangēlā (ܐܣܛܪܢܓܠܐ), and serṭā (ܣܶܪܛܳܐ) (western).
The phonetic repertoire is largely the same, as are the code points for the consonant letters, but the shapes of the letters and code points and shapes of vowel diacritics can vary significantly. fig_writing_styles shows the differences using typical fonts for each style.
fig_writing_styles_noto shows the same text, but this time using Noto fonts, which tend to show up better the essential differences in the shapes of the letters (since the font design is harmonised), at the cost of neutralising much of the distinctive flavour that each of these writing styles carry.
ܒܪܫܝܬ ܐܝܬܘܗܝ ܗܘܐ ܡܠܬܐ.
ܒ݁ܪܹܫܝܼܬ݂ ܐܝܼܬ݂ܵܘܗ݇ܝ ܗ݇ܘܵܐ ܡܸܠܬ݂ܵܐ.
ܒ݁ܪܶܫܺܝܬ݂ ܐܻܝܬ݂ܰܘܗ̠ܝ ܗ̠ܘܳܐ ܡܶܠܬ݂ܳܐ.
See the list of letter shapes compared side-by-side for Estrangelo, Eastern Syriac and Western Syriac.
Another difference between the 3 writing styles is that Estrangelo is rarely pointed, whereas modern texts in Turoyo or Assyrian are typically fully-vowelled (to the point that they can be regarded as alphabetic, rather than abjads).
Font styles different from the main text are often used for headings.
Syriac 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, but the code point used for a given letter doesn't change.
ܦܘܠܝܛܝܩܝܬܐ
Seven letter shapes join only to the right. All other shapes join on both sides.
The cursive treatment produces only minor changes to glyph shapes in most cases. A small number of letters, however, exhibit noteworthy changes, especially in word final positions. fig_joining_forms and fig_right_joining_forms show all the basic shapes in Assyrian and what their joining forms look like. Noteworthy variations are highlighted.
isolated | right-joined | dual-join | left-joined | Syraic letters |
---|---|---|---|---|
ܒ | ـܒ | ـܒـ | ܒـ | |
ܦ | ـܦ | ـܦـ | ܦـ | |
ܣ | ـܣ | ـܣـ | ܣـ | |
ܩ | ـܩ | ـܩـ | ܩـ | |
ܡ | ـܡ | ـܡـ | ܡـ | |
ܫ | ـܫ | ـܫـ | ܫـ | |
ܛ | ـܛ | ـܛـ | ܛـ | |
ܠ | ـܠ | ـܠـ | ܠـ | |
ܟ | ـܟ | ـܟـ | ܟـ | |
ܚ | ـܚ | ـܚـ | ܚـ | |
ܝ | ـܝ | ـܝـ | ܝـ | |
ܓ | ـܓ | ـܓـ | ܓـ | |
ܥ | ـܥ | ـܥـ | ܥـ | |
ܢ | ـܢ | ـܢـ | ܢـ |
isolated | right-joined | Syriac letters |
---|---|---|
ܐ | ـܐ | |
ܬ | ـܬ | |
ܙ | ـܙ | |
ܨ | ـܨ | |
ܘ | ـܘ | |
ܗ | ـܗ | |
ܕ | ـܕ |
In modern Syriac ܣ [U+0723 SYRIAC LETTER SEMKATH] joins on both sides, but in the earliest Estrangelo texts it only joined to the right.
See just above for shaping related to cursive joining.
Ligatures. Apart from the shaping required to support cursive behaviour, there are also optional and font-dependent word-final ligatures.
The vowel diacritics have been omitted from the examples below, but their presence doesn't affect the ligation process.
fig_serto_lig shows a selection of ligated forms for the Serto writing style.
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alaph + lamadh | ܐܠܗܐ |
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gamal + lamadh | ܓܠܦ |
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gamal + e | ܐܓܥܠ |
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yudh + taw | ܘܕܠـܝܠܐܝܬ |
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lamadh + space + alaph | ܕܬܬܠ ܐܢܬܬܐ |
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lamadh + alaph | ܡܠܐܟ݂ܗ |
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lamadh + lamadh | ܚܠܠܝܢܝ |
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nun + alaph | ܐ̱ܢܐ |
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nun + alaph | ܥܠ ܐܘܟܝܣܛܝܐ |
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sadhe + nun | ܕܘܨܢ |
fig_east_lig shows a similar list for the East Syriac writing style.
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he + yudh | ܐܠܗܝ |
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taw + alaph | ܬܫܟܘܚܬܐ |
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taw + yudh | ܟܚܬܝ |
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dalath + final alaph | ܨܕܐ |
One ligated pair, representing jʰ, has its own code point: ܞ [U+071E SYRIAC LETTER YUDH HE].
There are sometimes clashes between diacritic marks which have to be resolved by repositioning one of the diacritics, or sometimes producing a different solution.
For example, marks are usually centred vertically over or under a base character. If, however, ݂ [U+0742 SYRIAC RUKKAKHA] appears below ܕ [U+0715 SYRIAC LETTER DALATH] when the glyph for that has a dot below, the mark is moved slightly to the right, as shown here.
ܝܘܕ݂
If ̈ [U+0308 COMBINING DIAERESIS] appears above ܪ [U+072A SYRIAC LETTER RISH] the mark replaces the single dot above the base letter.
ܪ̈
In this example, the RISH character carries not only a combining diaeresis, but also a vowel mark, which is moved upwards to ride above the former.
ܪ̈ܵ vs ܝܵ
Syriac uses the alphabetic baseline.
To include the long ascenders and descenders in Syriac, plus the (sometimes stacked) diacritics, line heights need to be slightly larger than for English text.
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Syriac is monocameral.
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Syriac uses spaces between words.
There are no one-letter words. One letter conjunctions and prepositions such as ܘ w are continguous with the word they precede.
Modern Syriac uses ASCII punctuation and punctuation borrowed from Arabic. For separators at the sentence level and below, the following are used.
phrase | ، [U+060C ARABIC COMMA] ؛ [U+061B ARABIC SEMICOLON] ܆ [U+0706 SYRIAC COLON SKEWED LEFT] ܇ [U+0707 SYRIAC COLON SKEWED RIGHT] |
---|---|
sentence | . [U+002E FULL STOP] ؟ [U+061F ARABIC QUESTION MARK] |
For other punctuation marks, see >otherpunctuation.
Observation: Articles in Syriac Wikipedia tend to show ܀ [U+0700 SYRIAC END OF PARAGRAPH] at the end of each paragraph.
The Syriac abbreviation mark is used in older texts to identify letters used as numbers by drawing a line above them. See numbers for more information.
̭ [U+032D COMBINING CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT BELOW] is also used as a digit marker.u
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[U+070F SYRIAC ABBREVIATION MARK] (SAM) is a formatting character which is used to indicate that a sequence of letters is an abbreviation, as shown in fig_sam_abbrev.
The line would ideally have a small circle at the start, middle and end, but it has become common for computers to apply just the line, without the dots. With dots, however, is preferable for liturgical texts.n,9
The line normally starts to the left of the nearest tall letter and runs to the end of the abbreviation. To apply this using Unicode, add the SAM formatting control immediately before the character where the line begins. The application should then continue the line automatically to the end of the word.
Modern East Syriac texts use a punctuation mark for contractions of this sort.n,10
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The Syriac block includes a range of punctuation, which are not much used in modern, non-liturgical contexts, whose usage ranges from punctuating texts to guiding the reading of biblical texts in terms of accents, tone, etc.n,44
Other punctuation marks are used to indicate abbreviations, and footnotes or sidenotes, and are described further in the inline and numbers sections. They are also mostly liturgical or archaic in nature.
Basic line-break opportunities occur between the space-separated words.
They are not broken at the small gaps that appear where a character doesn't join on the left.
Breaking between Latin words. When a line break occurs in the middle of an embedded left-to-right sequence, the items in that sequence are rearranged visually so that the reading direction remains top-to-bottom. latin-line-breaks shows how two Latin words are apparently reordered in the flow of text to accommodate this rule.
In digital text the rearrangement is automatic. Only the positions of the font glyphs are changed: nothing affects the order of the characters in memory.
Show (default) line-breaking properties for characters in the Syriac orthography described here.
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Observation. The sources used say that ـ [U+0640 ARABIC TATWEEL] can be used, as in Arabic, to lengthen the baseline inside Syriac words. It's not clear, however, whether the use of that is for justification, or simply for word stretching. A couple of examples seem to show it in use for support of diacritics (music and barrekh), eg. ܘܰܩـ݉ـܨܳܐ
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Syriac books, magazines, etc., are bound on the right-hand side, and pages progress from right to left.
Columns are vertical but run right-to-left across the page.
Tables, grids, and other 2-dimensional arrangements progress from right to left across a page.
Table headings are often distinguished from the main text by using a different writing style, in addition to size differences (see fontstyle).
Three marks are used for marginal notes in the Harklean translation of the New Testament. ܋ [U+070B SYRIAC HARKLEAN OBELUS] and ܍ [U+070D SYRIAC HARKLEAN ASTERISCUS] mark the beginning of a phrase, word or morpheme that has a marginal note. ܌ [U+070C SYRIAC HARKLEAN METOBELUS] marks the end of such sections.d
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