🔤 Comparison of Alphabetical Order Classes

So far, we have discussed:

📚 Our method for studying alphabetical orders and gathering data.
That, in fact, several different alphabetical orders exist.
That the appearance of letters and characters in a writing system is distinct from their alphabetical order and from the languages written using that system.
That textual data can be used to reconstruct an alphabetical order by listing distinct characters according to their frequency.
That character frequencies in a text can provide clues for identifying its underlying language.

Having established these principles and gathered the relevant data, we have used our findings to explore two further topics:

🏜️ The little-known Safaitic morphological alphabetical order MISS.A 2 and the patterns that emerge when other scripts are arranged according to it.
🔎 An attempt to decipher the Byblos syllabary, an undeciphered writing system that predates some of the earliest known alphabetic writing, including the Phoenician alphabet.

📊 Comparative Table

The table below is divided into five sections, allowing different alphabetical orders and writing systems to be compared side by side.

These five sections comprise two script comparisons and three alphabetical-order comparisons.

🏺 Script Comparisons

Safaitic script: Each column groups letters that resemble one another in this particular alignment. The arrangement also reflects the Safaitic MISS.A 2 order.
Ugaritic script: Each column groups characters according to similarities comparable to those used in the Safaitic comparison. The number of wedges in the characters also tends to increase across the arrangement. The Ugaritic characters are organized in a way that can be compared with the Safaitic alphabetical order attested in inscription WH 3598.

🔠 Alphabetical Order Comparisons

HLḤM: An approximate HLḤM order emerges when the corresponding table is read vertically, from top to bottom. This arrangement can be compared with the Taymanitic alphabetical order attested in Tay 19.
ABG: An approximate ABG order emerges when the table is read boustrophedonically, alternating between left-to-right and right-to-left directions. This arrangement is comparable to the Phoenician alphabetical order but is based on an extended version known as the Maghrebian abjadi order.
Arabic: An approximate Arabic alphabetical order based on an ancient version described by al-Hamdani.

📝 Notes on Interpretation

This table is intended to allow some flexibility in comparing writing systems and alphabetical orders. It does not claim to reproduce the orders exactly as they are attested historically, nor does it necessarily follow modern transliteration conventions.

Each cell should instead be understood as representing an approximate transliteration correspondence. The alignment indicates a proposed encoding relationship between characters, not necessarily a direct phonological or spelling equivalence.

Safaitic	Safaitic	Safaitic	Ugaritic	Ugaritic	Ugaritic	HLḤM	HLḤM	HLḤM	ABG	ABG	ABG	Arabic	Arabic	Arabic
ʾa	y	ṯ	ʾa 𐎀	p 𐎔	ṯ 𐎘	ʾa	b	g	ʾa ا	b ب	j ج	ʾa ا	b ب	t ت
ṣ	t	k	ṣ 𐎕	t 𐎚	g 𐎂	l	t	d	w و	h ه	d د	ḥ ح	j ج	ṯ ث
h	z	ḫ	h 𐎅	z 𐎇	ḫ 𐎃	ḥ	s¹	ġ	ḥ ح	z ز	ṭ ط	w و	d د	ḏ ذ
l	n	ḍ	l 𐎍	n 𐎐	ḥ 𐎈	m	k	ṭ	l ل	k ك	y ي	l ل	k ك	ḫ خ
q	m	ṭ	m 𐎎	q 𐎖	ṭ 𐎉	q	n	ḏ	m م	n ن	ṣ ص	m م	n ن	ṭ ط

w	b	ẓ	w 𐎆	ẓ 𐎑	b 𐎁				ḍ ض	f ف	ʻ ع	f ف	ʻ ع	ḍ ض

g	r	ġ	k 𐎋	o 𐎓	ġ 𐎙	w	ḫ	z	q ق	r ر	s س	q ق	ġ غ	ṣ ص

ʿ	ḏ	s²	r 𐎗	ḏ 𐎏	d 𐎄	r	s³	ṯ	ġ غ	ṯ ث	t ت	r ر	z ز	h ه
d	s¹	p	s 𐎒	s² 𐎌	y 𐎊	s²	ṣ	y	ḏ ذ	s² ش	ḫ خ	s س	s² ش	y ي

	ḥ				s₂ 𐎝			ẓ			ẓ ظ			ẓ ظ

	b			b 𐎁			f			f ف			f ف
	h		ʾi 𐎛	h 𐎅	ʾu 𐎜		h			s² ش			s² ش
	w			w 𐎆			ʿ			ʻ ع			ʻ ع
	ẓ			ẓ 𐎑			ḍ			ḍ ض			ḍ ض

Project details

For more exploratory results on the alphabetical order, see the preprint and repository.

The preprint can be found at the following address:

https://zenodo.org/records/21959747

The project repository is on GitLab:

https://gitlab.com/hugo.deploys/abjads

Next page on reviewing or contributing to the project →