Abjads / Consonant alphabets

Abjads, or consonant alphabets, represent consonants only, or consonants plus some vowels. Full vowel indication (vocalisation) can be added, usually by means of diacritics, but this is not common. Most of abjads, with the exception of Dhives Akuru and Ugaritic, are written from right to left.

Some scripts, such as Arabic, are used both as an abjad and as an alphabet.

Abjads currently in use

Syriac

Hebrew

Arabic

Abjads that are no longer used

Middle Persian	Dhives Akuru	Aramaic
Parthian	Nabataean	Mandaic
Sabaean	Psalter	Phoenician
South Arabian	Sogdian	Samaritan
		Ugaritic

Please note

Transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) are used extensively throughout this website. The IPA transcriptions are the letters and other symbols which appear in square bracketts, like this [b], [p]. etc.

You can learn which sounds are represented by these letters and symbols at:
http://www.unil.ch/ling/page30184.html
http://www.unil.ch/ling/page12580.html (en français)