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Writing Systems Technical Resources

Meroitic Cursive

From Wikipedia.

Script details

See all script details: code, region, status and more
Code Merc
Script type alphabet
Region Middle Eastern
Status Historical
Direction RTL
Baseline bottom
Case no
White space none
Complex behaviors required ligatures
OpenType code merc
ISO 15924 Numeric Code / Key 101 (right-to-left alphabetic)

Explanation of script details

Script description

The Meroitic (also Meroïtic) script was created in the 3rd century BC in the ancient Kush (also called Meroë) civilization in modern-day Sudan, where it was used to write the Meroitic language.

Read the full description…In the 6th century AD, with the arrival of Christianity to the area, the script was supplanted by Coptic.

There were two forms of the Meroitic script; a hieroglyphic form derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs and a cursive form derived from Demotic Egyptian. The majority of extant texts are written in the cursive script.

The script has been deciphered to the point that many texts can be read, but the content not understood, as the language itself is no longer used and little is known about it.

Cursive Meroitic was written from right to left. There were fifteen signs for representing consonants, each inherently having the following vowel [a]. There were also three vowel letters, as well as a letter for representing an initial [a] sound, and four letters for writing the syllables [ne], [se], [te] and [to]. Some final consonants, including [s] and [n], were not written.

Cursive Meroitic was one of very few scripts from that era which made use of a word separator symbol. This symbol appeared as two dots stacked one on top of the other.

Languages that use this script

LanguageWriting System
Code		Writing System
Status		SLDR/CLDR
locale		Regional
variants
Meroiticxmr-Mercin use xmr-Merc-SD (Sudan)

Unicode status

In The Unicode Standard, Meroitic Cursive script implementation is discussed in Chapter 11 Cuneiform and Hieroglyphs.

Resources