Old South Arabian

Old South Arabian المُسند is an antique script, which the modern Ethiopic writing stems from.

The ancient Yemeni alphabet (Old South Arabian ms3nd; modern Arabic: المُسنَد‎ musnad) branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in about the 9th century BC. It was used for writing the Old South Arabian languages of the Sabaic, Qatabanic, Hadramautic, Minaic (or Madhabic), Himyaritic, and proto-Ge'ez (or proto-Ethiosemitic). The earliest inscriptions in the alphabet date back to the 9th century BC (Akkele Guzay, Eritrea) and the 10th century BC (Yemen).

Old South Arabian had reached its mature form around 500 BC. Its use continued afterwards till the 6th century AC, including Old North Arabian inscriptions, but it was displaced by the Arabic alphabet. In Ethiopia and Eritrea it evolved into the Ge'ez alphabet with added symbols throughout the centuries. It has been used to write Amharic, Tigrinya and Tigre, as well as other languages (including various Semitic, Cushitic, and Nilo-Saharan languages).