{{Short description|Consonantal alphabet script}} [[File:Kennicott Bible fol 6v.jpg|thumb|upright|Page from the Kennicott Bible with Onkelos (Aramaic language translation), Hebrew language on the left, Aramaic on the right]]
'''Aramaic square script''' is the 22-letter consonantal alphabet script, or an abjad, that developed during the rule of the Achaemenid empire to write the Aramaic language. It is loosely called "square" because its letters can be fit into the shape of a square (rather than rectangle, etc).<ref name=Akopianp75>Akopian, 2017, p. 75.</ref>
The earliest known examples of square script are the Elephantine Papyri and Ostraca, a cache of Jewish and non-Jewish documents from the 5th to 4th centuries BCE. By the first centuries CE, Jews had begun to use square script or "ktav Ashuri" (Assyrian script) for all purposes, in both Hebrew and Aramaic. It is still the main script used for Modern Hebrew and other Jewish languages,<ref name=Newsom/><ref name="Akopian110">Akopian, 2017, 110-116.</ref> and also survives in the square Maalouli alphabet used for Western Neo-Aramaic.<ref>{{Cite web |title=الأبجدية المربعة | PDF |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/360689032/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%A8%D8%AC%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%A9}}</ref>
==Background== The Neo-Assyrian empire adopted use of the Aramaic language and early Aramaic script alongside their native Akkadian language after conquering the Aramaean city-states and kingdoms in the 9th and 8th centuries BC.<ref name="Byrne" /> The (non-square) script then used was simpler than their own cuneiform script, and first adopted in the provinces where Aramaic was widely spoken and then eventually in Assyria itself.<ref name="Bae">Bae, p. 7</ref> Aramaic "square script", so called because the letters fit into the shape of a square, is first known from the Elephantine papyri.<ref name="Akopianp73">Akopian, 2017, p. 73.</ref>[[File:Papyrus narrating the story of the wise chancellor Ahiqar. Aramaic script. 5th century BCE. From Elephantine, Egypt. Neues Museum.jpg|thumb|upright|Papyrus narrating the story of the wise chancellor Ahiqar. Aramaic script. 5th century BCE. From Elephantine, Egypt. Neues Museum, Berlin]][[File:4q246-manuscript.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''Son of God'' manuscript, one of the Qumran scrolls written in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic using square script]] The Hebrew Bible was originally written using the Phoenician alphabet script (also known as Paleo-Hebrew).<ref name=What>{{cite web|url=https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-near-eastern-world/what-is-aramaic/|publisher=Biblical Archaeology Society|title=What Is Aramaic?: Exploring the rich legacy of a biblical language|first=Clinton J.|last=Moyer|date=2025-04-07}}</ref><ref name=Newsom>Newsom et al., 2018, p. 2247.</ref> Possibly as early as the late Persian or the Hellenistic Period, Jewish scribes began using square script to write Hebrew,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cxYGQfiD_1oC&dq=%22square+script%22+%225th+century%22&pg=PT1330 |title=Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics |date=2005-11-24 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-08-054784-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Coogan |first1=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TnpVDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22aramaic+square+script%22&pg=PA2247 |title=The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version |last2=Brettler |first2=Marc |last3=Newsom |first3=Carol |last4=Perkins |first4=Pheme |date=2018-03-01 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-027610-2 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schniedewind |first=William M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CcjYAQAAQBAJ |title=A Social History of Hebrew: Its Origins Through the Rabbinic Period |date=2013-11-26 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-17668-1 |language=en}}</ref> and this practice was in widespread use by the 3rd century BCE.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Berlin |first=Adele |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aDuy3p5QvEYC&dq=%22aramaic+square+script%22&pg=PA2063 |title=The Jewish Study Bible |date=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-529751-5 |language=en}}</ref> Some scholars attribute this shift to the influence of the Babylonian exile where Aramaic was also the language of daily life.<ref name="Mitchell">Mitchell, 1998, p. 32.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Berlin |first=Adele |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hKAaJXvUaUoC |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-973004-9 |language=en}}</ref>Aramaic alphabet scripts charted at top, Samaritan alphabet at bottom|thumb|upright Western Neo-Aramaic Square alphabet chart with its Arabic alphabet letter equivalents|upright|thumb [[File:Syrian-Aramean towns in Western Neo-Aramaic (Maalouli).jpg|"Damascus", the capital of Syria written in Western neo-Aramaic square script at top, followed by the names of Syrian towns that continue to speak and write Western neo-Aramaic dialects: Maaloula, Al-Sarkha (Bakhah), and Jubb'adin|thumb|upright]] The Talmud refers to square script as ''k'tav ashuri'' ("Assyrian script"),<ref name=Berlin/><ref name=Vanderp56>Vanderhooft, 2021, p. 56.</ref> distinguishing it from Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew script ''Ktav 'Ivri'' ("Hebrew script").<ref name=Berlin>Berlin and Brettler, 2004, p. 2063.</ref>
Today, only the Samaritans continue to use a form of Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew for their written language.<ref name="Berlin" />
==Texts== {{seealso|Elephantine papyri and ostraca}} Study of the early development of the square Aramaic script (and its Hebrew counterpart), is important to categorizing, analyzing and dating the many thousands of Aramaic and Hebrew inscriptions made in the Middle Aramaic period, including those of the Dead Sea Scrolls.<ref name=Van>Van der Water, 2000, p. 434.</ref> There is a great deal of debate among paleographists over the terminology and typologies to be used in classifying the various texts that is complicated by the lack of definitively dated texts outside of this corpus from the late Hellenistic to early Roman periods.<ref name=Longacre>Longacre, 2017: "Most of those manuscripts are written in a script descended from the official Aramaic cursive of the Persian imperial administration, which is commonly, but imprecisely, described as the Aramaic, Jewish, or square script."</ref>
Almost all of the Dead Sea Scrolls are written in square script, including both Hebrew and Aramaic texts. However, several Hebrew manuscripts use Paleo-Hebrew for the Tetragrammaton, and one Aramaic manuscript (4Q243) uses Paleo-Hebrew for "Elohekha".<ref name="Tov">Tov, 2025.</ref>
Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and Mandaic differ only in script: Jewish Babylonian Aramaic uses square script.<ref name=Akopianp490>Akopian, 2017, p.490.</ref>
Immanuel Tremellius' 16th-century edition of the Peshitta used square script,<ref name=Akopian2>Akopian, 2017, p. 454-456.</ref> as did Chaim Heller's 1927-1929 edition.
===Magic bowl inscriptions=== {{Main|Incantation bowls}} Square script was used to inscribe incantation bowls in various languages, and while many of these clearly reflect a Jewish religious or cultural milieu, there are several that do not.<ref name="Muellernote">Mueller-Kessler, 2005: "Despite the prevailing controversy among scholars concerning the religious background of magic text formulas in various Aramaic scripts and dialects, certain bowl texts show undoubtable Jewish contents and lore, although not all Aramaic square-script bowl texts contain Jewish themes."</ref> Some are written in an Aramaic koine language with in some cases a Mandaic context and prototype.<ref name="Kessler">Kessler, 2012.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Harviainen |first=Tapani |date=1981-02-01 |title=An Aramaic Incantation Bowl from Borsippa. Another specimen of Eastern Aramaic "koiné". Appendix: A Cryptographic bowl text or an original fake? |url=https://journal.fi/store/article/view/49806 |journal=Studia Orientalia |language=en |volume=51 |pages=28 p.–28 p |issn=2323-5209}}</ref> Several others use Aramaic square script for expression in Standard Literary Babylonian Aramaic, and display remarkable syncretism, with closing formula banning "the evil elements in the name of your God Sadday, YHWH, Jesus, ''Ruha Qaddista''".<ref name="Mueller">Mueller-Kessler, 2005.</ref> ''Ruha Qaddista'' is a feminized form for the Holy Spirit, reflecting the early Eastern churches transmission of Mesopotamian legacies which used ''qadistu'' as an epitaph of the goddess Ishtar.<ref name="Mueller" />
==Cursive counterparts== Several other alphabets were born out of Imperial Aramaic that resemble the Aramaic square script, yet exhibit differences in the letter shapes tending towards being more rounded or cursive. Among these are Hatran Aramaic, Palmyrene Aramaic and Nabataean Aramaic.<ref name=Byrne>Byrne, 2005.</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:Abjad writing systems Category:Aramaic languages