Psalter Pahlavi

Psalter Pahlavi
Sample of text taken from the Cross of Herat
Script type	Abjad
Time period	Mid-6th to 7th century CE
Direction	right-to-left script
Languages	Middle Persian
Related scripts
Parent systems	Aramaic alphabet Pahlavi scripts Psalter Pahlavi
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Phlp (132), ​Psalter Pahlavi
Unicode
Unicode alias	Psalter Pahlavi
Unicode range	U+10B80–U+10BAF

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. It was written right to left, usually with spaces between words.

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.

Letters

Letters (Isolated Form)

Name	Image	Text	IPA
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). 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).

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: