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ARAMATO BRANCR
277 in Urdu and Pushtu, cerebral t, d and r; in Pushtu only ts, g, n, and ksh; in Malay, ch, ng, p, g, ny, and so forth (see also p. 567).
For Persian see p. 186f., 305f., etc.; for Turkish see p. 3147., 567f., etc.; for Urdu see p. 362; for Malay see p. 420f.
Pushtu, known also as Pashto. Pakhsto, Pakkhto, etc., is the vernacular of eastern Afghanistan; it is also spoken in Baluchistan. It is an eastern Iranian language. The official language of Afghanistan is Persian, which is also spoken in the western portion of the country-the Persian-speaking Afghans are known as Parsiwans-, whereas in northern Afghanistan Turkish is widely spoken.
The following four offshoots of the Aramaic branch are almost extinct.
• PALMYRENE ALPHARET
Palmyra, the Semitic Tadmor, an ancient city in an oasis of the Syrian desert, on the trade route between Syria and Mesopotamia, enjoyed an eru of great prosperity in the first and second centuries A.D.
According to Prof. Burkitt, "There is no probability that the Tadmor (or rather Tamar) mentioned in 1 Kings ix, 18 was anywhere even in the neighbourhood of Palmyra. It is clearly somewhere south of Judien," "Palmyra is first heard of in 42 B.C., and there is nothing in the existing remains to suggest a much earlier date for the city, though of course semi-nomad Arabs may have had their settlements round the natural wells from time immemorial." Prof. Burkitt rightly pointed our that when the Seleucid empire was perishing, the Arabs who lived in the fertile oasis of Palmyra found that the carrying trade between East and West was a very profitable concern. "So for nearly three hundred years Palmyra grew and prospered. Then came half a century of glory, followed by utter collapse."
For a short period Palmyra exerted influence into Egypt and Western Asia Minor, and stood up against the mighty Rome itself. Palmyra was situated between the Roman Empire and the Parthians. In A.D. 226 the Parthian empire came to an end, and its place was taken by the Sasanians. Palmyra took the maximum advantage of the military and political crisis of the third century A.D. Between 265 and 267, its chief, Odenathus or Odainath occupied Syria and Egypt, and became virtually the emperor of Roman East. His wife, Septimia bath Zabbai or Zenobia is still more famous. Shortly afterwards, however, in 272, Palmyra surrendered to the Romans. After a revolt, Palmyra was destroyed, and, although later it rose from its ruins, it never recovered its political or commercial prosperity" (Burkitt).
Palmyrene was originally the cursive script of the Aramaic-writing population of Seleucid Syria in the second and the early first century B.c. It is an elegant and ornamental script in two forms, monumental
