Psalter Pahlavi
| Psalter Pahlavi | |
|---|---|
 Sample of text taken from the Cross of Herat | |
| Script type | |
Period | Mid-6th to 7th century CE |
| Direction | Right-to-left script  |
| Languages | Middle Persian |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Aramaic alphabet
|
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Phlp (132), Psalter Pahlavi |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Psalter Pahlavi |
| U+10B80–U+10BAF | |
Psalter Pahlavi is a cursive abjad that was used for writing Middle Persian on paper; it is thus described as one of the Pahlavi scripts.[1] It was written right to left, usually with spaces between words.[1]
It takes its name from the Pahlavi Psalter, part of the Psalms translated from Syriac to Middle Persian and found in what is now western China.[2]
Letters
| Name[a] | Image | Text | IPA[3] | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aleph | 
|
𐮀 | /a/, /aː/ | ʾ |
| Beth | 
|
𐮁 | /b/, /w/ | b |
| Gimel | 
|
𐮂 | /g/, /j/ | g |
| Daleth | 
|
𐮃 | /d/, /j/ | d |
| He | 
|
𐮄 | /h/ | h |
| Waw-Ayin-Resh | 
|
𐮅 | /w/, /r/ | w, ʿ, r |
| Zayin | 
|
𐮆 | /z/ | z |
| Heth | 
|
𐮇 | /h/, /x/ | ḥ |
| Yodh | 
|
𐮈 | /j/, /ē̆/, /ī̆/, /d͡ʒ/ | y |
| Kaph | 
|
𐮉 | /k/, /g/ | k |
| Lamedh | 
|
𐮊 | /l/, /r/ | l |
| Mem-Qoph | 
|
𐮋 | /m/, /q/ | m, q |
| Nun | 
|
𐮌 | /n/ | n |
| Samekh | 
|
𐮍 | /s/, /h/ | s |
| Pe | 
|
𐮎 | /p/, /b/, /f/ | p |
| Sadhe | 
|
𐮏 | /t͡ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/, /z/ | ṣ |
| Shin | 
|
𐮐 | /ʃ/ | š |
| Taw | 
|
𐮑 | /t/, /d/ | t |
Punctuation
Four different large section-ending punctuation marks were used:
| Mark | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Image | Text | |
 |
𐮙 | Section mark |
 |
𐮚 | Turned section mark |
 |
𐮛 | Four dots with cross |
 |
𐮜 | Four dots with dot |
Numbers
Psalter Pahlavi had its own numerals:
| Value | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 20 | 100 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sign | Image |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| Text | 𐮩 | 𐮪 | 𐮫 | 𐮬 | 𐮭 | 𐮮 | 𐮯 | |
Some numerals have joining behavior (with both numerals and letters).[1] Numbers are written right-to-left. Numbers without corresponding numerals are additive. For example, 96 is written as 𐮮𐮮𐮮𐮮𐮭𐮫𐮫 (20 + 20 + 20 + 20 + 10 + 3 + 3).[1]
Unicode block
Psalter Pahlavi script was added to the Unicode Standard in June, 2014 with the release of version 7.0.
The Unicode block is U+10B80–U+10BAF:
| Psalter Pahlavi[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+10B8x | 𐮀 | 𐮁 | 𐮂 | 𐮃 | 𐮄 | 𐮅 | 𐮆 | 𐮇 | 𐮈 | 𐮉 | 𐮊 | 𐮋 | 𐮌 | 𐮍 | 𐮎 | 𐮏 |
| U+10B9x | 𐮐 | 𐮑 | 𐮙 | 𐮚 | 𐮛 | 𐮜 | ||||||||||
| U+10BAx | 𐮩 | 𐮪 | 𐮫 | 𐮬 | 𐮭 | 𐮮 | 𐮯 | |||||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
Notes
- ^ The names are based on the corresponding Imperial Aramaic characters
References
- ^ a b c d Everson, Michael; Pournader, Roozbeh (2011-05-06). "N4040: Proposal for encoding the Psalter Pahlavi script in the SMP of the UCS" (PDF). Working Group Document, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2.
- ^ Encyclopædia Iranica: Pahlavi Psalter
- ^ Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William, eds. (1996). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press, Inc. pp. 518. ISBN 978-0195079937.