Pahlavi scripts
Sign in to saveAlso known as Pahlavi, Pehlevi, Middle Persian
abjad-based writing systems used for Middle Iranian languages
Key facts
- Script type
- Abjad with logograms
- Period
- c. 2nd century BC – c. 7th century AD
- Direction
- Mixed
- Languages
- Middle Iranian languages
- Parent systems
- Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Pahlavi scripts
- Child systems
- Inscriptional Parthian Inscriptional Pahlavi Psalter Pahlavi Book Pahlavi Avestan
- Iso 15924
- Prti, 130 , (Inscriptional Parthian), Phli, 131 , (Inscriptional Pahlavi), Phlp, 132 , (Psalter Pahlavi), Phlv, 133 , (Book Pahlavi)
- Unicode range
- U+10B60–U+10B7F Inscriptional Pahlavi U+10B40–U+10B5F Inscriptional Parthian U+10B80–U+10BAF Psalter Pahlavi
via Wikipedia infobox
~23 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Pahlavi is an exclusively written form of various Middle Iranian languages, derived from the Aramaic script. It features Aramaic words used as heterograms (called huzwārišn, "archaisms").
Pahlavi compositions have been found for the dialects/ethnolects of Parthia, Persis, Sogdiana, Scythia, and Khotan. Independent of the variant for which the Pahlavi system was used, the written form of that language only qualifies as Pahlavi when it is both Aramaic-derived and features huzwārišn.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Pahlavi scripts” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.