Garshuni or Karshuni (Syriac alphabet: ܓܪܫܘܢܝ, Arabic alphabet: كرشوني) are Arabic writings using the Syriac alphabet. The word "Garshuni", derived from the word "grasha" which literally translates as "pulling", was used by George Kiraz to coin the term "garshunography", denoting the writing of one language in the script of another.^[1]

History

Garshuni originated in the seventh century,^{[citation needed]} when Arabic was becoming the dominant spoken language in the Fertile Crescent, but the Arabic alphabet was not yet fully developed. 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, who commonly use the Sertâ script.^[2]

Characteristics

The Syriac alphabet has three principal varieties:

• Estrangelâ (the Classical Syriac script),
• Madnhâyâ (the Eastern Syriac script, often called "Assyrian" or "Nestorian"),
• Sertâ (the Western Syriac script, often called "Jacobite" or "Maronite").

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

Similarities

Occasionally, other languages such as Turkish, Persian, Sogdian, the Kurdish languages and Malayalam have been written in the Syriac alphabet, and these are sometimes also referred to as "Garshunis". With several additional characters, the Malayalam version is better known as Karsoni and had been in use till early 20th century among the Keralite Syriac Christian clergymen and followers.

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