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]

Psalter Pahlavi
Sample of text taken from the Cross of Herat
Script type
Time period
Mid-6th to 7th century CE
DirectionRight-to-left script Edit this on Wikidata
LanguagesMiddle Persian
Related scripts
Parent systems
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Phlp (132), ​Psalter Pahlavi
Unicode
Unicode alias
Psalter Pahlavi
U+10B80–U+10BAF

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

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Letters (Isolated Form)
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

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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

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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

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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
1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Notes

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

References

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  1. ^ 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.
  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.