Procesos antrópicos que se llevan a cabo en el Golfo de Guayaquil que

‘he was born in 1907 and departed in the year 1995 to his Lord’, the Syriac portions are written right-to-left, but the digits left-to-right.

7.4. Greek and Coptic Letters for Numerals

§366. Wright informs us that ‘The Greek or Coptic alphabet is sometimes used instead of Syriac’ to number quire signatures.³⁴ These would take the form α, β, γ, etc. I have not seen any exam-ples of this.

7.5. Cipher

§367. The alphabet of Bardaiṣan or

ܕ ܐܬܘܬܐ ݂ ܳ

݂ ݂ ܳ̈ ܳ ܒ݂ܰ

ܳ ܕܰ݁

provides a method to encode text by simple one-to-one mapping. This mind game usually appears in colophons. It first appears in Syriac in the 6^th century.³⁵ The letters of the alphabet, shown below in line 1, are interchanged with those in line 2. By simple interchange, for instance,

ܐܒ

becomes .

1

ܟ ܝ ܛ ܚ ܙ ܘ ܗ ܕ ܓ ܒ ܐ

2

ܦ ܨ ܐ ܒ ܓ ܕ ܢ ܘ ܙ ܚ ܛ

1

ܬ ܫ ܪ ܩ ܨ ܦ ܥ ܣ ܢ ܡ ܠ

2

ܩ ܪ ܫ ܬ ܝ ܟ ܠ ܡ ܗ ܣ ܥ

34 Wright III, xxvi.

35 Duval §14; Wright I, 14b.

174 I. The Graphemic Inventory §368.

§368. The relationship of the Bardaiṣan letters to the correspond-ing normal letters is numeric. In the first set,

ܓܒܐ

corresponding to

ܘ

, respectively. The sum of each pair results in 10:

ܐ

(1) +

ܛ

(9) = 10

⋮

ܕ

(4) +

ܘ

(6) = 10

§369. In the remaining sets (except the last), any unit is first ele-vated to the corresponding ten value; e.g.

ܗ

(5) is now considered 50. Then, the usual addition takes place; hence,

ܗ

(now 50) + (50) = 100

ܘ

(now 60) +

ܕ

(now 40) = 100

⋮

ܥ

(70) +

ܠ

(30) = 100

ܦ

(80) + (20) = 100

§370. In the last set, the addition of each pair yields 500; e.g.

ܩ

(100) +

ܬ

(400) = 500

⋮

ܬ

(400) +

ܩ

(100) = 500

ܐ ̈ ܕ ܐܕ ܓ ܬ ܐ ܢ ܐ ̈ ܕ ܗ

܀ ̈ ܐ ܕ ܒ ܬ ̈ ܘ

܀ ܨ ܕܙ

175

I I I I . . G G r r a a p p h h o o t t a a c c t t i i c c s s , , W W r r i i t t i i n n g g , , a a n n d d D D u u c c t t u u s s

Part I gives an exhaustive account of all Syriac graphemes. Part II is concerned with graphotactics, writing, and ductus.

Chapter 8 proposes a theory of graphotac-tics, describing the rules and conventions that gov-ern how these graphemes are joined together to form text. Chapter 9 gives general remarks on writ-ing, directionality, cursivity, scripts, etc. Finally, Chapter 10 gives a detailed account of the ductus of Esṭrangelā, Serṭā, and E. Syr. based on the re-ceived tradition.

177

8 8 . . G G r r a a p p h h o o t t a a c c t t i i c c s s

There is something absurd and ugly when the face or the head of a man is found to have three ears or three eyes or any redundant member… Each individual mem-ber should be made fit for the place which has been prepared for it and made convenient for it by nature.

Jacob of Edessa (d. 708), On Orthography

§371. In linguistics, tactics (from Greek ‘to arrange’) describes the patterns in which the elements of a given level or stratum in a language may combine to form larger constructions: phonotactics in phonology is the study of the arrangement of sounds, and photactics in morphology is the study of the arrangement of mor-phemes. It is related to syntax and syntactic, the study of the ar-rangement of words. Broadly speaking, graphotactics is the study of the arrangement of graphemes; i.e. the ways in which the ele-ments of writing may be put together to make a well-formed word. This chapter provides a theory of Syriac graphotactics by borrowing key concepts from the framework of autosegmental phonology.

8.1. Background

§372. John Goldsmith¹ has proposed a theory of autosegmental phonology. Its approach provides mechanisms to describe nonlin-ear linguistic phenomena in phonology. It was later extended by John McCarthy² to describe Semitic nonlinear morphology. I aim to extend it further to describe Syriac nonlinear orthography.

1 Goldsmith, Autosegmental Phonology.

2 McCarthy, ‘A Prosodic Theory of Nonconcatenative Morphology’.

178 II. Graphotactics, Writing, and Ductus §373.

§373. An illustration from the domain of morphology follows: an English word consists of a linear sequence of morphemes; e.g. un-successful from un+success+ful. In Semitic, however, the ar-rangement of morphemes is not linear. Consider the Syriac active participle

ܶ ܳ

/qāṭel/ ‘he kills’. One morpheme is the root qṭl

‘notion of killing’. In McCarthy’s analysis the remaining segments, ā and e, constitute a vocalism morpheme which indicates the grammatical category (viz. verb) and tense (viz. active participle).

The same vocalism also appears with other verbs, and hence is considered autonomous. As the root and vocalism are independent of each other, the autosegmental framework represents them on separate tiers, shown in the following diagram with a template or pattern consisting of Cs for consonants and Vs for vowels.

(McCarthy also considered the CV pattern to be a morpheme.) ā e Vocalism

| | C V C V C Pattern

| | | q ṭ l Root

Changing the root elements to something else, say ktb, will change the verb to

ܶ

݂ ܳ ݁

ܒ݂

/kāṯeḇ/ ‘he is writing’, but the tense remains intact. This multi-tier framework is attractive, as it permits us to separate the various types of Syriac graphemes based on space, obligatoriness, semantics, and function.

§374. I propose here that the following tiers be considered for the representation of Syriac orthography; viz.

1. Consonantal tier on which the consonants are written on the baseline.

2. Grammatical tier on which two obligatory graphemes are written: the syāme plural marker, ◌̈, and the femi-nine object pronominal marker on

ܗ̇

.

§437. Graphotactics 207

line; e.g.

ܐ ـ݂݁

^for

ܐ ݂ܶ ̇

/šwe/ ‘equal’,⁷¹ the syāme in

ܐـ ܒ ܕ ̈

_for

ܒ݂ܶ ܕ݁

ܐܶ ܳ

‘of the Hebrews’.⁷²

§434. Vertically, the position of the nonlinear marks is relative to the anatomy of the CT graph upon which it is anchored; e.g.

◌ܰ

is low on

ܝܰ

, higher on

ܒܰ

, and even higher on

ܬ ܰ

. In some print types, the vertical height is constant. In digital type, MLS fonts have a constant height, while OpenType fonts permit the vertical placement of nonlinear graphs per linear graph; e.g.

ܬ ܙܘܗ ܓܒܐ

ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ ܰ

_.

§435. The skilled scribe or typesetter has always had to maneu-ver between base glyphs and nonlinear glyphs when writing or setting fully marked texts for aesthetic purposes. OpenType tech-nology permits a digital font designer to introduce contextual rules. For instance, in Serto Jerusalem (version 1.3) the spacing between

ܙ

and

ܪ̈

is typically as in

ܐܙܪ̈ܐ

‘mysteries’. When fully marked, the

◌ܶ

almost hits the syāme as in

ܐܙܶ ܪ̈ܐ̱ܳ

. A contextual rule, however, shifts

ܙ

slightly to the left when preceded by

ܪ̈

(marked or unmarked) and followed by

◌ܶ

. In this particular word, another rule shifts the final

ܐ

to the left when preceded by

ܙܶ

as the vowel is too close to the

ܐ

. The result is

ܐܙܪ̈ܐ ܶ ܳ ̱

. A good digital type contains dozens of spacing rules.

§436. In the case of ligated multiple base graphemes, the vertical and horizontal position of the nonlinear grapheme is based on the ligated grapheme; e.g. the height of

◌ܳ

on

ܳ ܐ

vs. the ligated

ܳ

.

§437. The vowel graphemes do not occupy horizontal spacing on the line; e.g.

◌ܰ

takes the same horizontal spacing on a thin base grapheme like

ܙܰ

and on a wide grapheme as

ܒܰ

. A scribe, in the

71 Patrologia Orientalis 4, 80 from Coakley, Typography, 21–22.

72 Young, Shorter catechism (1853), from Coakley, Typography, 21.

208 II. Graphotactics, Writing, and Ductus §437.

case of MSS, a typesetter in the case of printed type, or an algo-rithm in the case of computer fonts, may make a base grapheme wider for aesthetic purposes by elongating the joiner of the base line; e.g. initial is slightly narrower in

ܳ

‘to the fish’ than

ܳ ܽ

due to the presence of

◌ܽ

in the latter; otherwise, <ū> will hit <l> as in

ܳ ܽ

_.

§438. The position of

◌ܺ

with respect to

ܝ

and of

◌ܽ

with respect to

ܘ

varies. Some place it on the consonant preceding the vowel, others on the mater lectionis or between the two consonants; e.g.

ܐ ܳ ܽ ݁

,

ܐ ܳ ܽ ݁

, and

ܐܳ ܺ

,

ܐܳ ܺ

.

ܝ ܒܗ ܐ ܘܗ ܨܪܘܬ ܐ ܒ ܨܪܘܬ ܕ ܗ

܀ܟܬ ܒ ܒ

209

9 9 . . W W r r i i t t i i n n g g

I prohibit all those who copy the books which I have translated or composed from changing, in their own will, anything, either in the writing or in the pointing.

Jacob of Edessa (d. 708), On Orthography We are correct, in writing from right to left; why do you mistake, in writing from left to right?

Bishop Yuḥannān (d. 1874) to Perkins

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