Old Nubian Language - Writing

Writing

Old Nubian is written in an uncial variant of the Coptic alphabet, including three unique letters: ⳡ /ɲ/ and ⳣ /w/ are both apparently derived from Meroitic script; so is also ⳟ /ŋ/, unless it is a ligature of two Greek gammas.

Old Nubian made extensive use of nomina sacra. Abbreviation was also used more generally throughout the language: in addition to nomina sacra formulas, a line over a letter could indicate:

• a vowel which formed a syllable by itself, or was preceded by one of ⲗ, ⳟ, ⲣ, or ϫ;
• a consonant with an /i/ (sometimes unwritten) preceding it.

The sound /i/ could be written ε, ε̄ι, η, ι or υ; /u/ was normally written ου. In diphthongs, a diaeresis was sometimes used over ι to indicate the semivowel y. Geminate consonants were written double; long vowels were usually not distinguished from short ones.

Modern Nobiin is a tonal language: if Old Nubian was as well, the values were not marked.

Punctuation marks included a high dot •, sometimes substituted by a double backslash \\ (⳹), used roughly like an English period or colon, a slash / (⳺) used like a question mark, and a double slash // (⳼) sometimes used to separate verses.