Psalter Pahlavi
Psalter Pahlavi | |
---|---|
Sample of text taken from the Cross of Herat | |
Script type | |
Time 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
[edit]Name[a] | Image | Text | IPA[3] |
---|---|---|---|
Aleph | 𐮀 | /a/, /aː/ | |
Beth | 𐮁 | /b/, /w/ | |
Gimel | 𐮂 | /g/, /j/ | |
Daleth | 𐮃 | /d/, /j/ | |
He | 𐮄 | /h/ | |
Waw-Ayin-Resh | 𐮅 | /w/, /r/ | |
Zayin | 𐮆 | /z/ | |
Heth | 𐮇 | /h/, /x/ | |
Yodh | 𐮈 | /j/, /ē̆/, /ī̆/, /d͡ʒ/ | |
Kaph | 𐮉 | /k/, /g/ | |
Lamedh | 𐮊 | /l/, /r/ | |
Mem-Qoph | 𐮋 | /m/, /q/ | |
Nun | 𐮌 | /n/ | |
Samekh | 𐮍 | /s/, /h/ | |
Pe | 𐮎 | /p/, /b/, /f/ | |
Sadhe | 𐮏 | /t͡ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/, /z/ | |
Shin | 𐮐 | /ʃ/ | |
Taw | 𐮑 | /t/, /d/ |
Punctuation
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]- ^ The names are based on the corresponding Imperial Aramaic characters
References
[edit]- ^ 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.