Psalter Pahlavi

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Psalter Pahlavi
Cross of Herat - Psalter Pahlavi Inscription.png
Sample of text taken from the Cross of Herat
Script type
Time period
Mid-6th to 7th century CE
Direction Right-to-left script   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Languages Middle Persian
Related scripts
Parent systems
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]

Contents

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

Letters (Isolated Form)
Name [a] ImageText IPA [3]
Aleph U+10B80.png 𐮀/a/, /aː/
Beth U+10B81.png 𐮁/b/, /w/
Gimel U+10B82.png 𐮂/g/, /j/
Daleth U+10B83.png 𐮃/d/, /j/
He U+10B84.png 𐮄/h/
Waw-Ayin-Resh U+10B85.png 𐮅/w/, /r/
Zayin U+10B86.png 𐮆/z/
Heth U+10B87.png 𐮇/h/, /x/
Yodh U+10B88.png 𐮈/j/, /ē̆/, /ī̆/, /d͡ʒ/
Kaph U+10B89.png 𐮉/k/, /g/
Lamedh U+10B8A.png 𐮊/l/, /r/
Mem-Qoph U+10B8B.png 𐮋/m/, /q/
Nun U+10B8C.png 𐮌/n/
Samekh U+10B8D.png 𐮍/s/, /h/
Pe U+10B8E.png 𐮎/p/, /b/, /f/
Sadhe U+10B8F.png 𐮏/t͡ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/, /z/
Shin U+10B90.png 𐮐/ʃ/
Taw U+10B91.png 𐮑/t/, /d/

Punctuation

Four different large section-ending punctuation marks were used:

MarkDescription
ImageText
U+10B99 color.png 𐮙Section mark
U+10B9A color.png 𐮚Turned section mark
U+10B9B color.png 𐮛Four dots with cross
U+10B9C color.png 𐮜Four dots with dot

Numbers

Psalter Pahlavi had its own numerals:

Value12341020100
SignImage U+10BA9.png U+10BAA.png U+10BAB.png U+10BAC.png U+10BAD.png U+10BAE.png U+10BAF.png
Text𐮩𐮪𐮫𐮬𐮭𐮮𐮯

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)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+10B8x𐮀‎𐮁‎𐮂‎𐮃‎𐮄‎𐮅‎𐮆‎𐮇‎𐮈‎𐮉‎𐮊‎𐮋‎𐮌‎𐮍‎𐮎‎𐮏‎
U+10B9x𐮐‎𐮑‎𐮙‎𐮚‎𐮛‎𐮜‎
U+10BAx𐮩‎𐮪‎𐮫‎𐮬‎𐮭‎𐮮‎𐮯‎
Notes
1. ^ As of Unicode version 16.0
2. ^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Notes

  1. ↑ The names are based on the corresponding Imperial Aramaic characters

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 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.
  2. ↑ Encyclopædia Iranica: Pahlavi Psalter
  3. ↑ Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William, eds. (1996). The World's Writing Systems . Oxford University Press, Inc. pp.  518. ISBN   978-0195079937.
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