Psalter Pahlavi
Abjad which was used for writing Middle Persian on paper
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Psalter Pahlavi is a cursive abjad that was used for writing Middle Persian on paper. It is 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 | |
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 | |
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] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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
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—displayed by the use of written numbers in numerals.[1] Numerals are written right-to-left, the rightmost being the highest—with the exception of multiplication. Numerals add when the one to the left is lower or equal, but multiply when it is larger. There is, in all but one of the numerals, above 100—in the Unicode document—the letter Waw (𐮅) meaning ‘and’ between 100 and the smaller numeral.
Example: 135 is written as 𐮯 𐮅 𐮮𐮭𐮫𐮪 (100 and 20 + 10 + 3 + 2).[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.