Syriac is a
Unicode block
A Unicode block is one of several contiguous ranges of numeric character codes ( code points) of the Unicode character set that are defined by the Unicode Consortium for administrative and documentation purposes. Typically, proposals such as the ...
containing characters for all forms of the
Syriac alphabet
The Syriac alphabet ( ) is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language since the 1st century AD. It is one of the Semitic languages, Semitic abjads descending from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet, and shares ...
, including the
Estrangela,
Serto,
Eastern Syriac, and the
Christian Palestinian Aramaic
Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA) was a Western Aramaic languages, Western Aramaic dialect used by the Melkites, Melkite Christian community in Palestine (region), Palestine and Transjordan (region), Transjordan between the fifth and thirteenth ...
variants. It is used in Literary Syriac, Neo-Aramaic, and Arabic among Syriac-speaking Christians. It was used historically to write Armenian, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and Malayalam.
Additional Syriac letters used for writing the
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...
language are encoded in the
Syriac Supplement block.
Unicode chart
History
The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Syriac block:
Character list
References
{{reflist
Unicode blocks