Version 1.0, 16 February 2018
Version history:
1.0, 16 February 2018
The Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA) script
The Christian Palestinian Aramaic script is a right-to-left abjad. It closely resembles Syriac Estrangelo, from which it was derived, but differs in that it exhibits more left-joining characters than Estrangelo or other Syriac scripts do. It is unclear whether this script should technically be classed with the Syriac scripts or be defined separately in the Unicode Standard. For the time being, the one Unicode-encoded CPA font that is available uses standard Syriac encoding.
Differences between CPA and Syriac
Apart from the shape of CPA, which is rather ‘boxy’ and rectangular compared to Syriac Estrangelo, the main difference between CPA and Syriac is the double-joining (left and right) behavior of some CPA characters which only join on their right in the Syriac script styles:
Estrangelo right-joining only: ܐ (ʾālaf), ܕ (dālaṯ), ܖ (dotless dālaṯ/rēš), ܗ (hē), ܘ (waw), ܙ (zain), ܨ (ṣāḏe), ܪ (rēš), and ܬ (taw)
CPA right-joining only: ܕ (dālaṯ), ܖ (dotless dālaṯ/rēš), ܙ (zain), and ܪ (rēš)
CPA double-joining, as distinct from Syriac: ܐ (ʾālaf), ܗ (hē), ܘ (waw), ܨ (ṣāḏe), and ܬ (taw).
Fonts
The only font available for the Christian Palestinian Aramaic script as per the time of this writing, February 16, 2018, is Michael Langlois’ CPA Genizah ML. This font has several problems but can provisionally be got to work on macOS. Curiously, on a Windows 7 system, MS Word 2016 does not render CPA text correctly (the letters are not connected) but when printed, or converted to PDF, such a Word document will have the connections in place. This points to some of the font’s underlying deficiencies; another is that there is a problem with the internal ‘name’ table structure, as reported by Font Book on macOS. Maybe the font’s maker, who seems to have used the Meltho font Estrangelo Edessa as a template on which to build his own, did not have access to the right font software.
Type specifications
Brill 11 pt: ~ CPA Genizah ML 10 pt
Brill 10 pt: ~ CPA Genizah ML 9.2 pt
Brill 9 pt: ~ CPA Genizah ML 8.5 pt
It should be noted that the above values are preliminary, pending CPA proofs from TAT Zetwerk.
Christian Palestinian Aramaic text input
Regular Syriac keyboards may be used, because the encoding of Christian Palestinian Aramaic, at least as evidenced by the CPA Genizah ML font, completely conforms to Syriac.
