The Mandaic alphabet is a writing system primarily used to write the Mandaic language. It is thought to have evolved between the second and seventh century CE from either a cursive form of Aramaic (as did Syriac) or from Inscriptional Parthian. The exact roots of the script are difficult to determine.

It was developed by members of the Mandaean faith of Lower Mesopotamia to write the Mandaic language for liturgical purposes.

It is written from right to left in horizontal lines. It is a cursive script, but not all letters connect within a word. Spaces separate individual words.

During the past few decades, Majid Fandi Al-Mubaraki, a Mandaean living in Australia, has digitized many Mandaean texts using typeset Mandaic script.

Letters

thumb|Mandaic alphabet chart

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:

{|class="wikitable nounderlines Unicode"

|+ Mandaic alphabet

|-

! rowspan="2" | # !! rowspan="2" | Name

  • /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

Affrication mark

Postclassical and modern Mandaic use many Persian words. Various Mandaic letters can be re-purposed by placing two horizontally-aligned dots underneath (). This idea is comparable to the four novel letters in the Persian alphabet, allowing the alphabet to be used to represent foreign sounds (whether affrication, lenition, or another sound):

The Semitic alphabet contains 22 letters. In order to bring this number to 24, the number of hours in a day, adu was added and a was repeated as the last letter of the Mandaic alphabet.