All Semitic Script Family (Scripts and Alphabets)

Writing systems of the Semitic abjad tradition, in which letters stand for consonants and the vowels are left to the reader or marked by optional signs. Many descend from the Aramaic alphabet, which spread across the ancient Near East and Central Asia and was adapted for local languages, as in Palmyra, in the Syriac churches and for the Old Uyghur texts of Turpan. Several of these scripts were used to write sacred texts, from Syriac Christian literature to Buddhist and Manichaean writings, and their letter shapes and names show a shared origin.