Safaitic

Safaitic
Script type
Time period
1st century BCE to 4th century CE
LanguagesOld Arabic
Related scripts
Parent systems
Sister systems
Ancient North Arabian, Ancient South Arabian script, Ge'ez script
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Safaitic (Arabic: ٱلصَّفَائِيَّة Al-Ṣafāʾiyyah) is a variety of the South Semitic scripts used by the Arabs in southern Syria and northern Jordan in the Ḥarrah region, to carve rock inscriptions in various dialects of Old Arabic and Ancient North Arabian. The Safaitic script is a member of the Ancient North Arabian (ANA) sub-grouping of the South Semitic script family, the genetic unity of which has yet to be demonstrated.[1]

Safaitic script with a figure of a camel on a red sandstone fragment, from es-Safa, currently housed in the British Museum
  1. ^ Al-Jallad, Ahmad. An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions. Brill. pp. 1–22. doi:10.1163/9789004289826_002.