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Pahlavi script
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pahlavi | ||
|---|---|---|
| Type: | Abugida with some features of an Alphabet | |
| Languages: | Middle Iranian languages | |
| Time period: | 3rd c. BCE - 10th c. CE (hypothetical) 2rd c. BCE - 17th c. CE (attested) |
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| Parent writing systems: | Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Pahlavi |
|
| Child writing systems: | Avestan alphabet |
|
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
The Pahlavi script is one of the two essential characteristics of the Pahlavi system, a particular and exclusively written form of various Middle Iranian languages. The use of the Pahlavi system has so far been attested for Middle Iranian dialects of Parthia, Parsa, Sogdiana, Scythia and Khotan.
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Pahlavi script consisted of two widely used forms: Inscriptional Pahlavi and Book Pahlavi. A third form, Psalter Pahlavi is not widely attested.
Common to all categories of Pahlavi script, and the other essential characteristic of the Pahlavi system, was the use of Aramaic logograms or ideograms to render many common words. For example, the Iranian word for "king", shah, was written as MLKA, recognizable as the Aramaic word for "king" cognate with contemporary Arabic malik, but it was intended to be pronounced as shah. Using heterograms was also applied to verbs, where Pahlavi person-number agreement and tense markers were appended to an Aramaic third-person masculine singular present verb. Many extremely common nouns, verbs, and even function words were subject to heterographic writing.
Inscriptional Pahlavi is the earliest attested form, and is evident in clay fragments that have been dated to the reign of reign of Mithridates I (r. 171–138 BCE). Other early evidence includes the Pahlavi inscriptions of Arsacid era coins and rock inscriptions of Sassanid kings and other notables such as Kartir.
Psalter Pahlavi derives its name from the so-called "Pahlavi Psalter", a 6th or 7th century translation of a Syriac Psalter. This text, which was found near Turfan in north-west China is the earliest evidence of literary composition in Pahlavi.
Book Pahlavi, which appears to have evolved after the fall of the Sassanid empire, is a smoother script in which letters often attached to form complicated ligatures. Book Pahlavi was the most common form of the script, with 12 characters representing 24 sounds. The matter was further complicated by the wide-spread use of ligatures, heterograms, and attaching of the characters. In its later forms, attempts were made to improve the consonantry through diacritic marks.
Book Pahlavi continued to be in common use until about 900 CE. After that date, Pahlavi was preserved only by the Zoroastrian clergy who used it as a "secret" language.
- the Pahlavi system
- Aramaic script
- Iranian languages
- Pahlavi script (ancientscripts.com)
- Middle Persian scripts (omniglot.com)
- Pahlavi font information (cla.umn.edu)