Garshuni

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Garshuni or Karshuni (Syriac script: ܓܪܫܘܢܝ, Arabic script: كرشوني) are Arabic language writings that use the Syriac alphabet. The word 'Garshuni' was used, by George Kiraz, to coin the writing systems term garshunography to denote the writing of one language in the script of another.[1]

History

Garshuni originated in the seventh century AD, when Arabic was becoming the dominant spoken language in the Fertile Crescent, but Arabic script was not yet fully developed and widely read. There is evidence that writing Arabic in Garshuni influenced the style of modern Arabic script. After this initial period, Garshuni writing has continued to the present day among some Syriac Christian communities in the Arabic-speaking regions of the Levant and Mesopotamia.

Characteristics

The Syriac alphabet has three principal varieties:

The Syriac alphabet is extended by use of diacritics to write Arabic Garshuni.

Garshuni script

Similarities

Occasionally, other languages such as Turkish, Kurdish, Persian, Sogdian and Malayalam have been written in the Syriac alphabet, and these are sometimes also referred to as Garshunis.

For the analogous Jewish practice of writing Arabic in Hebrew letters, see Judaeo-Arabic languages.

Today, Assyrians use the word 'garshuni' when referring to a spoken language written using something other than its corresponding script, i.e. spoken Assyrian written using Latin script. "Garshuni" comes from the word "grasha" which literally translates as "pulling".

See also

References

  • Briquel-Chatonnet, F., “De l'intérêt de l'étude du garshouni et des manuscrits écrits selon ce système” in: L’Orient chrétien dans l’empire musulman: Hommage au professeur Gérard Troupeau (Studia arabica III). Versailles: Editions de Paris, 2005, pp. 463-475.
  • Briquel-Chatonnet, F.; Desreumaux, A.; Binggeli, A., “Un cas très ancien de garshouni? Quelques réflexions sur le manuscrit BL Add. 14644” in: P. G. Borbone, A. Mengozzi, M. Tosco (éds.), Loquentes linguis. Studi linguistici e orientali in onore di Fabrizio A. Pennacchietti. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006, pp. 141-147.
  • Mengozzi, A., “The History of Garshuni as a Writing System: Evidence from the Rabbula Codex” in: F. M. Fales & G. F. Grassi (eds), CAMSEMUD 2007. Proceedings of the 13th Italian Meeting of Afro-Asiatic Linguistics, held in Udine, May 21st-24th, 2007, Padova: S.A.R.G.O.N. Editrice e Libreria, 2010, pp. 297-304.
  • Mingana, A., “Garshūni or Karshūni?” in: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1928) 891-893.
  • Morozov, D.A., “Garshuni: Syriac script in Christian Arabic texts” (in Russian: “Karshuni: Sirijskaja pis’mennost’ v arabo-khristianskikh tekstakh”) in: 5-e chtenija pamjati N.F.Kaptereva: Rossija i pravoslavnyj Vostok (Moscow, 30-31 Oct. 2007). Moscow, 2007, pp. 70-72.
  • Ram, H., Qiṣṣat Mar Eliĭa (Die Legende vom Hl. Elias). Als Beitrag zur Kenntnis der arabischen Vulgar-Dialekte Mesopotamiens nach der Handschrift Kod. Sachau 15 der Konigl. Bibliothek zu Berlin herausgegeben, ubersetzt und mit einer Schriftlehre versehen. Inaugural-Dissertation. Leipzig, 1906.
  • Seleznyov, Nikolai N., “Un clerc syro-occidental d’Arfad et le métropolitain de Jérusalem, de l’Église de l’Orient: Le livre “De l’unanimité de la foi” et sa recension en garshuni” (in Russian: “Zapadnosirijskij knizhnik iz Afrada i ierusalimskij mitropolit Tserkvi Vostoka: “Kniga obschnosti very” i ejo rukopisnaja redakcija na karshuni”) in: Simvol 58 (Syriaca & Arabica). Paris-Moscow, 2010, pp. 34-87 (text in Garshuni: pp. 45-72).
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