Nabataean
Script details
See all script details: code, region, status and more
| Code | Nbat |
| Script type | abjad |
| Region | Middle Eastern |
| Status | Historical |
| Direction | RTL |
| Baseline | bottom |
| Case | no |
| White space | unspecified |
| Complex behaviors | contextual forms, required ligatures |
| OpenType code | nbat |
| ISO 15924 Numeric Code / Key | 159 (right-to-left alphabetic) |
Script description
The Nabataean script was used from the 2nd century BC until the 4th or 5th century AD for writing the Nabataean language, a Northwest Semitic language closely related to Arabic.
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The script was developed from Aramaic writing, and was the immediate precursor of Arabic writing.
Nabataean was a right-to-left abjad; each letter represented a consonant and the reader had to supply the vowels from the context. It was a cursive script which made extensive use of ligatures. The script was used over a wide geographic area, and letter shapes were highly diverse from one region to another.
Languages that use this script
| Language | Writing System Code | Writing System Status | SLDR/CLDR locale | Regional variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official Aramaic (700-300 BCE) | arc-Nbat | in use | arc-Nbat-JO (Jordan) |
Unicode status
In The Unicode Standard, Nabataean script implementation is discussed in Chapter 10 Middle East-II — Ancient Scripts
.
Resources
- ScriptSource page for Nabataean - all about scripts, languages, and writing systems
- Wikipedia article on Nabataean