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"Aramaic script, whichderives north and south languages" would be correct - because weare saying that the script derives the languages (which doesn't logically makea ton of sense, but that's another issue).
In the actual question, though, there is a "from" in there:
"Aramaic script, from whichderive both the northern and southern languages"
Here, the structure indicates that the languages derive thescript- we've got an inverted construction. Normal construction would be:"The northern and southern languages derive from the script."
So in the original question, yes, we use derive. No "s."

H wrote:

1. The northern and southernlanguages derive from the script.
2. The northern and southern languages are derived from the script.

both are valid, but their meanings differ.
#1 means only that the origins of the two languages lie in the script. the implication is mostlikely that the languages evolved fromthe script - most likelywithout conscious planning.

#2 (which would probably appear in the past tense - "were derived"),on the other hand, implies that the languages were derivedpurposefully from the script, withconscious planning.

#1,2的含义是相同的，都表示：languages来自script。只不过，不用被动的表示unconcious 的结果；而被动的是concious的结果

In this case (or any otherinverted sentence order question for that matter) is there another way toidentify the subject? When I asked the question "What derives?" Ithought it was the Aramaic script from which was derived thenorthern and southern indian alphabets. This led me to answer choice D.

Is there another way I can catch this inverted sentence order?

the presence of 'from' infront of 'which' disqualifies it from being the subject of 'derive'.
as youfigured out above, 'which' refers to the aramaic script. therefore, somethinghad to derive from the aramaic script.
since that something doesn't precede the verb 'derive', it must follow theverb 'derive'. hence, inverted construction.
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D错误，是用单数了

ingeneral, you're just applying the following well-known rule: the object of apreposition can't be a subject.----我靠！我忘了！（所以说概念不熟练，变个情况就不懂了）是这个rule; from which在动词前面，动词前没有名词。所以倒装，所以谓语单复和后面的名词一致