South Semitic scripts

The South Semitic scripts are a family of alphabets that had split from Proto-Sinaitic script by the 10th century BC.^[1] The family has two main branches: Ancient North Arabian (ANA) and Ancient South Arabian (ASA).

The scripts were exclusive to Arabia and the Horn of Africa. All the ANA and most of the ASA scripts fell out of use by the 6th century AD. 

South Arabian inscription addressed to the Sabaean national god Almaqah

South Semitic scripts
Script type	Abjad
Period	c. 10th century BCE to 6th century AD
Direction	Right-to-left
Languages	Old South Arabian, Ge'ez, Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Dumaitic, Thamudic, Safaitic, Hismaic
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic script South Semitic scripts
Child systems	Ancient North Arabian Ancient South Arabian
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The exception was Geʽez, a child of ASA in use in Ethiopia. It and its variants remain in use today for various Ethiosemitic languages. In Arabia, the South Semitic scripts were replaced by the Arabic script, which is descended from the Nabataean script.^[2]