History of the Hebrew alphabet

The History of the Hebrew alphabet dates back several thousand years.

History

Aleppo Codex: 10th century Hebrew Bible with Masoretic pointing

A page from a 16th-century Yiddish-Hebrew-Latin-German dictionary by Elijah Levita

According to contemporary scholars, the original Hebrew script developed alongside others in the region (the region is the Land of Cannan and Arabia) during the course of the late second and first millennia BCE; it is closely related to the Phoenician script, which itself probably gave rise to the use of alphabetic writing in Greece (Greek). It is sometimes claimed that around the 10th century BCE ^[1] a distinct Hebrew variant, the original "Hebrew script", emerged, which was widely used in the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah until they fell in the 8th and 6th centuries BCE, respectively. It is not straightforward, however, to distinguish Israelite/Judahite scripts from others which were in use in the immediate area, most notably by the Moabites and Ammonites.

Following the Babylonian exile, Jews gradually stopped using the Hebrew script, and instead adopted the "square" Aramaic script (another offshoot of the same family of scripts). This script, used for writing Hebrew, later evolved into the Jewish, or "square" script, that is still used today.^[2] Closely related scripts were in use all over the Middle East for several hundred years, but following the rise of Christianity (and later, the rise of Islam), they gave way to the Latin and Arabic scripts, respectively.

The Hebrew alphabet was later adapted in order to write down the languages of the Jewish diaspora (Karaim, Judæo-Arabic, Ladino, Yiddish, etc.), and was retained all the while in relatively unadapted form throughout the diaspora for Hebrew, which remained the language of Jewish law, scriptures and scholarship. The Hebrew alphabet was also retained as the alphabet used for writing down the Hebrew language during its rebirth as an everyday modern language starting in the 18th to 19th century.

According to one Jewish tradition,^[3] however, the block script seen today in Hebrew Torah Scrolls, known as Kthav Ashurith, was the original Hebrew script carved into the Ten Commandments.^[4] According to this opinion, the Ktav Ashurith was lost over time, as the masses used Paleo-Hebrew and its cousins, known as Kthav Ivri, for day to day writing, just as Jews today use a non block script for everyday writing.^[5] According to the Talmud, the original script was known as Lebonae and was associated with the Samaritan community who continued to preserve the script even after the Jews switched to Ashurith.^[6]

Ancestral scripts and script variants

Letter[7]		Name	Scripts
			Hebrew						Ancestral					Related
			Cursive		Rashi		Braille[8]		Hieroglyphic base of Proto-Sinaitic (assumed)	Proto-Sinaitic (reconstructed)	Phoenician	Paleo-Hebrew	Aramaic	Greek	Latin	Cyrillic	Arabic
א		Alef												Αα	Aa	Аа	ا
ב		Bet, Vet												Ββ	Bb	Бб Вв	ﺑ ﺏ
ג		Gimel												Γγ	J or Cc Gg	Гг	ﺟ ﺝ
ד		Dalet												Δδ	Dd	Дд	دذ
ה		Hei												Εε	Ee	Ее Єє	ه هـ ـهـ ـه
ו		Vav							unknown					Υυ Ϝϝ	FfUuVv WwYy	Ѵѵ Уу	ﻭ
ז		Zayin							unknown					Ζζ	Zz	Зз	ﺯ
ח		Het												Ηη	Hh	Ии	ﺣﺡ or خ
ט		Tet												Θθ	T heavy	Ѳѳ	ﻁ
י		Yud												Ιι	Jj Ii	Јј Іі	ﻳ ﻱ
כ	ך	Kaf, Khaf												Κκ	Kk	Кк	ﻛ ﻙ
ל		Lamed												Λλ	Ll	Лл	ﻟ ﻝ
מ	ם	Mem												Μμ	Mm	Мм	ﻣ ﻡ
נ	ן	Nun												Νν	Nn	Нн	ﻧ ﻥ
ס		Samech												Ξξ Χχ	S heavy or Xx	Ѯѯ Хх	ص or س
ע		Ayin												Οο	Oo	Оо	ﻋ ع غـ غ
פ	ף	Pei, Fei												Ππ	Pp	Пп	ﻓ ﻑ
צ	ץ	Tsadi											,	Ϻϻ	S heavy	Цц Чч	ﺻ ص ضـ ض
ק		Kuf												Ϙϙ	Qq	Ҁҁ	ﻗ ﻕ
ר		Reish												Ρρ	Rr	Рр	ﺭ
ש		Shin, Sin							unknown					Σσς	Ss	Сс Шш	سـ س شـ ش
ת		Tav							unknown					Ττ	Tt	Тт	ﺗ ﺕ ﺛ ﺙ

See also

• Cursive Hebrew
• Rashi script
• Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
• Phoenician alphabet
• Paleo-Hebrew alphabet
• Aramaic alphabet

References

1. 10th century BCE script
2. Jewish Encyclopedia: Alphabet, The Hebrew: Samaritan Alphabet: "While the Jews adopted the Aramaic alphabet, gradually abandoning their own, the Samaritans held fast to the original forms, in order to show themselves the veritable heirs of ancient Hebraism. ... It is the same character used in all the Samaritan books of to-day, and remains the only offshoot of the old Hebrew script extant, while the modern Hebrew Alphabet is of Aramaic origin."
3. "The Script of the Torah". Jerusalem, Israel: Aishdas. 2002., Sanhedrin 21b-22a
4. Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat 104a, Tractate Megilla 2b. "Rav Chisda says that the (final) mem and samech in the tablets were miraculously hanging in the air." This can only happen in Kthav Ashurith and not in Kthav Ivri.
5. Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Megilla 3a.
6. Klein, Reuven Chaim, Lashon HaKodesh: History, Holiness, & Hebrew. Mosaica Press 2014. pages 185-205. ISBN 978-1937887360.
7. A second print letter is the form found at the end of a word.
8. A second braille letter corresponds to the letter plus dagesh (dot) in print.