Social:Inscriptional Pahlavi
| Inscriptional Pahlavi | |
|---|---|
Inscribed stone block from the c. 293 CE Paikuli inscription | |
| Type | Abjad
|
| Languages | Middle Iranian languages |
Time period | 2nd century BC — 6th century AD |
Parent systems | Aramaic alphabet
|
| Direction | Right-to-left |
| ISO 15924 | Phli, 131 |
Unicode alias | Inscriptional Pahlavi |
| U+10B60–U+10B7F | |

Inscriptional Pahlavi is the earliest attested form of Pahlavi scripts, and is evident in clay fragments that have been dated to the reign of Mithridates I (r. 171–138 BC). Other early evidence includes the Pahlavi inscriptions of Parthian coins and the rock inscriptions of Sasanian emperors and other notables, such as Kartir the High Priest.
Letters
Inscriptional Pahlavi used 19 non-joining letters written from right to left, and usually with spaces between words:[1][2]
| Name[A] | Image | Text | Principal phones (IPA; Middle Persian)[3] | Transliteration[4]: 129(۱۲۹)-130(۱۳۰) [5]: xi, xii, xiii [1] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iranian | Semitic (Aramaic) | ||||
| Aleph | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [a], [aː] | ʼ or ʾ | A |
| Beth | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [b], [w] | b | B |
| Gimel | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [ɡ], [j] | g | G |
| Daleth | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [d], [j] | d | D |
| He | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | — | -H, E | |
| Waw- | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [w], [o(ː)], [u(ː)] | w | W |
| -Ayin- | [∅] | O | |||
| -Resh | [r] | r | R | ||
| Zayin | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [z] | z | Z |
| Heth | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [h], [x] | h | Ḥ |
| Teth | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | — | Ṭ | |
| Yodh | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [j], [e(ː)], [i(ː)], [d̠͡ʒ] | y, j- | Y |
| Kaph | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [k], [ɡ] | k | K |
| Lamedh | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [l], [r] | l | L |
| Mem- | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [m] | m | M |
| -Qoph | — | Q | |||
| Nun | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [n] | n | N |
| Samekh | 20x20px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [s], [h] | s | S |
| Pe | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [p], [b], [f] | p | P |
| Sadhe | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [t̠͡ʃ], [d̠͡ʒ], [z] | ṣ | Ṣ |
| Shin | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [ʃ] | š | Š |
| Taw | 32x32px | Template:Script/Pahlavi | [t], [d] | t | T |
Numbers
Inscriptional Pahlavi had its own numerals:
| Value | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 20 | 100 | 1000 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sign | Image | 32px | 32px | 32px | 32px | 32px | 32px | 32px | 32px |
| Text | Template:Script/Pahlavi | Template:Script/Pahlavi | Template:Script/Pahlavi | Template:Script/Pahlavi | Template:Script/Pahlavi | Template:Script/Pahlavi | Template:Script/Pahlavi | Template:Script/Pahlavi | |
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.
Example: 6798 is written as Template:Script/Pahlavi ((3 + 3) × 1000 + (4 + 3) × 100 + 20 + 20 + 20 + 20 +10 + 4 + 4).[1]
Unicode
Inscriptional Pahlavi script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 2009 with the release of version 5.2.
The Unicode block for Inscriptional Pahlavi is U+10B60–U+10B7F:
Template:Unicode chart Inscriptional Pahlavi
Gallery
-
Sasanian coin (dinar) of Ardashir I (r. 224–42)
-
One side of the Nasrabad fire altar (fa) dedicated to Shapur I for his 243/4 victory over the Romans[6]
-
Inscription of Shapur II at Taq-e Bostan, including some rudimentary ligatures (letters joined on the baseline)
-
Drachm of Yazdegerd II (struck ca. 439-447)
-
6th/7th century relief with the monogram ʼpr,[note 2] which stands for afzūn farr (See Khvarenah)
Notes
- ↑ Examples of listed professions: Template:Script/Pahlavi nʾnpʾk 'baker', Template:Script/Pahlavi kpškly 'shoemaker', Template:Script/Pahlavi kštkly 'plowman', Template:Script/Pahlavi zyndʾnyk 'jailer', Template:Script/Pahlavi dpylpty 'chief scribe', and Template:Script/Pahlavi šʾpstn 'harem keeper'
- ↑ Template:Script/Pahlavi
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Everson, Michael; Pournader, Roozbeh (2007-08-24). "L2/07-207R: Proposal for encoding the Inscriptional Parthian, Inscriptional Pahlavi, and Psalter Pahlavi scripts in the SMP of the UCS". pp. 10–11. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2007/07207r-n3286r-parthian-pahlavi.pdf.
- ↑ Livinsky, BA; Guang-Da, Zhang; Samghabadi, R Shabani; Masson, Vadim Mikhaĭlovich (March 1999), Dani, Ahmad Hasan, ed., History of civilizations of Central Asia, Multiple history, 3. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, p. 89, ISBN 978-81-208-1540-7, https://archive.org/details/dli.pahar.3650.
- ↑ Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William, eds (1996). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press, Inc. pp. 518. ISBN 978-0195079937. https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195079937/page/518.
- ↑ Nyberg, Henrik S. (1964). A Manual of Pahlavi (2nd ed.). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. https://books.google.com/books?id=wEZTIZQHOp8C.
- ↑ Mackenzie, D. N. (2014-09-25). A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-61396-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=tRegBAAAQBAJ.
- ↑ Lerner, Judith A. (2006). "The Seal of a Eunuch in the Sasanian Court". Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology 1: 114, 118. doi:10.1484/J.JIAAA.2.301928. ISSN 1783-9025. https://isaw.nyu.edu/publications/jiaaa/Lerner_Skjaervo.pdf.
- ↑ "DURA EUROPOS" (in en-US). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dura-europos/.
- ↑ Brunner, Christopher J.; Frye, R. N. (1972). "The Iranian Epigraphic Remains from Dura-Europos". Journal of the American Oriental Society 92 (4): 492. doi:10.2307/599959. https://www.jstor.org/stable/599959?origin=crossref.
- ↑ Gyselen, Rika (2001). The Four Generals of the Sasanian Empire: Some Sigillographic Evidence. Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente. ISBN 978-88-85320-97-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=jLMouwEACAAJ.
