Meroitic alphabet

The Meroitic script was derived in Nubia in the 3rd century BC by the Egyptian writing. It was used for reproducing the Meroitic language in the kingdom of Meroe, which existed in the Nile Valley in the northern part of present-day Sudan. The inscriptions in Meroitic script can be transliterated, many texts still remain but not understood, since the Meroitic language could not be decrypted.

Dating

The first writing tests can be dated among Arqamani. The oldest Meroitic inscription dates from Queen Shanakdakheto. The Last Witness this document probably date from the 5th century AD.

Hieroglyphic and Demotic Font

Much like the font in neighboring Egypt, the Meroitic script is available in two fonts, a pictorial hieroglyphics, and also one " ( meroitisch ) Demotic " said italics. There are no systematic differences between the two fonts, and their characters are directly implemented into each other. The hieroglyphic script was used mainly for temple inscriptions; their characters strong similarities to those of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and are also largely derived from them. Italics was the everyday script, was also preferred for dead stelae and offering tables and a whole lot more is on texts. Also, the signs of the italics are likely to ( italic ) Egyptian characters go back, but this is here because of the less distinctive shapes difficult to detect.

Writing system

The system of the Meroitic script is an alphabetic script between the and a syllabary. Wolfgang leg has described it as " Devanagari " system. As in the Indian Devanagari script, there are for each consonant one character, but at the same time inheres in a vowel, in the case of a Meroitic There are also vowel characters, but usually not for a ( designated by us as a one transliterated characters only a beginning of a word ). If a vowel character set, it overrides the inherent a of the preceding consonant. For example, one reads written as ba B, written B I as bi. In what way consonants were written without any following vowel, and if there was this ever in the Meroitic language is controversial.

The Meroitic script has 23 alphabet letters, a word separator ( two or three superimposed stationary points), and ( occupied only in italics :) a series of digits and a few, rarely occurring symbols presumably for units, but their function is still largely indecipherable. The values ​​of the number of characters could only be fully understood in 2009 due to a newly discovered ostracon on which an ancient writer has listed the numbers in ascending order.

Text Database

All Meroitic texts are currently in a computer database, the repertoire d' epigraphy Méroïtique (SEM), collected in Paris. The Meroitic letters are included since version 6.1 in the Unicode standard.