South Semitic Script Diversity

The history of South Semitic scripts remains poorly understood, with previous studies relying largely on palaeographic interpretations. In his lecture South Semitic Script Diversity: Principal Component Analysis and a Preliminary Model of Genetic Descent, Professor Ahmad al-Jallad introduces a statistical approach to understanding how these ancient writing systems developed and how different script varieties may be related.

Drawing on twelve South Semitic script varieties, the research identifies 118 distinct features of letter forms and examines them using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). By comparing both minor variations and fundamental differences in character shapes, the study identifies clusters of closely related scripts. These findings provide the foundation for a preliminary model tracing the evolution of the South Semitic script family across nearly 1,500 years.

Professor Ahmad al-Jallad holds the Sofia Chair in Arabic Studies at The Ohio State University, specialising in pre-Islamic Arabia, Semitic linguistics and the history of the Arabic language. Organised by the From Aleph to Alpha research project at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), this lecture demonstrates how statistical methods can offer new perspectives on the history and evolution of ancient writing systems.