Avestan Alphabet Table
| Letter | Unicode name | Kind | Translit & IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 𐬀 | Letter A | vowel | a /a/ |
| 𐬁 | Letter AA | vowel | ā /aː/ |
| 𐬂 | Letter AO | vowel | å /ɒ/ |
| 𐬃 | Letter AAO | vowel | ā̊ /ɒː/ |
| 𐬄 | Letter AN | vowel | ą /ã/ |
| 𐬅 | Letter AAN | vowel | ą̇ /ãː/ |
| 𐬆 | Letter AE | vowel | ə /ə/ |
| 𐬇 | Letter AEE | vowel | ə̄ /əː/ |
| 𐬈 | Letter E | vowel | e /e/ |
| 𐬉 | Letter EE | vowel | ē /eː/ |
| 𐬊 | Letter O | vowel | o /ɔ/ |
| 𐬋 | Letter OO | vowel | ō /oː/ |
| 𐬌 | Letter I | vowel | i /ɪ/ |
| 𐬍 | Letter II | vowel | ī /iː/ |
| 𐬎 | Letter U | vowel | u /ʊ/ |
| 𐬏 | Letter UU | vowel | ū /uː/ |
| 𐬐 | Letter KE | consonant | k /k/ |
| 𐬑 | Letter XE | consonant | x /x/ |
| 𐬒 | Letter XYE | consonant | x́ /xʲ/ |
| 𐬓 | Letter XVE | consonant | xᵛ /xʲ/ |
| 𐬔 | Letter GE | consonant | g /ɡ/ |
| 𐬕 | Letter GGE | consonant | ġ /ɡʲ/ |
| 𐬖 | Letter GHE | consonant | γ /ɣ/ |
| 𐬗 | Letter CE | consonant | č /t͡ʃ/ |
| 𐬘 | Letter JE | consonant | ǰ /d͡ʒ/ |
| 𐬙 | Letter TE | consonant | t /t/ |
| 𐬚 | Letter THE | consonant | θ /θ/ |
| 𐬛 | Letter DE | consonant | d /d/ |
| 𐬜 | Letter DHE | consonant | ð /ð/ |
| 𐬝 | Letter TTE | consonant | t͂ /t≮/ |
| 𐬞 | Letter PE | consonant | p /p/ |
| 𐬟 | Letter FE | consonant | f /f/ |
| 𐬠 | Letter BE | consonant | b /b/ |
| 𐬡 | Letter BHE | consonant | β /β/ |
| 𐬢 | Letter NGE | consonant | ŋ /ŋ/ |
| 𐬣 | Letter NGYE | consonant | ŋ́ /ŋʲ/ |
| 𐬤 | Letter NGVE | consonant | ŋᵛ /ŋʲ/ |
| 𐬥 | Letter NE | consonant | n /n/ |
| 𐬦 | Letter NYE | consonant | ń /ɴ/ |
| 𐬧 | Letter NNE | consonant | ṇ nasal assimilation - the wiki prose reads it n, m |
| 𐬨 | Letter ME | consonant | m /m/ |
| 𐬩 | Letter HME | consonant | ṇ̇ /m̊/ |
| 𐬪 | Letter YYE | consonant | ẹ /j/ |
| 𐬫 | Letter YE | consonant | y /j/ |
| 𐬬 | Letter VE | consonant | v /w/ |
| 𐬭 | Letter RE | consonant | r /r/ |
| 𐬮 | Letter LE | consonant | l /l/ |
| 𐬯 | Letter SE | consonant | s /s/ |
| 𐬰 | Letter ZE | consonant | z /z/ |
| 𐬱 | Letter SHE | consonant | š /ʃ/ |
| 𐬲 | Letter ZHE | consonant | ž /ʒ/ |
| 𐬳 | Letter SHYE | consonant | š́ /ɕ/ |
| 𐬴 | Letter SSHE | consonant | ṩ /ɽ/ |
| 𐬵 | Letter HE | consonant | h /h/ |
| 𐬹 | Abbreviation Mark | mark | abbreviation mark - the word-shortening dot over a trimmed word |
| 𐬺 | Tiny Two Dots Over One Dot Punctuation | punctuation | smallest two-over-one dot triangle |
| 𐬻 | Small Two Dots Over One Dot Punctuation | punctuation | small two-over-one dot triangle - colon / semicolon grade |
| 𐬼 | Large Two Dots Over One Dot Punctuation | punctuation | large two-over-one dot triangle - end of sentence |
| 𐬽 | Large One Dot Over Two Dots Punctuation | punctuation | large one-over-two dot triangle |
| 𐬾 | Large Two Rings Over One Ring Punctuation | punctuation | two-over-one ring variant - section grade |
| 𐬿 | Large One Ring Over Two Rings Punctuation | punctuation | one-over-two ring variant |
The Avestan alphabet is the Zoroastrian answer to a book war: a script invented under the Sasanian empire (226–651 CE) to write down a faith that until then had lived in the trained memory of its priests. Wikipedia quotes the tradition’s own name for it - “the religion’s script” (dēn dibīrīh in Middle Persian, din dabireh in New Persian) - and dates the enterprise to the 4th-century collation of the Avestan canon, probably under Shapur II (309–379), calling the alphabet an ad hoc innovation of that “Sassanid archetype” project.
The motive the sources preserve is startlingly modern: the revival, “probably caused by the desire to compete more effectively with Buddhists, Christians, and Manicheans, whose faith was based on a revealed book.” The Manichaean script on this site was the missionary rival; Avestan is the home-team reply - and it is engineered like a liturgical instrument, recording every recited vowel that its Aramaic and Pahlavi ancestors left unspoken.
The table below lists all 61 named codepoints of the Unicode Avestan block (U+10B00), kind-tagged: 16 vowel letters, 38 consonant letters, one abbreviation mark and the six-sign dot-triangle punctuation. Three codepoints remain unassigned. Transliteration follows the modern Hoffmann scheme with IPA beside it.
How to use
- Read the table by kind: the first 16 rows are the vowels (a through ū, open and long pairs), the next 38 are consonants in Unicode order, and the last 7 rows are the abbreviation mark plus the dot-triangle punctuation. If a word looks wrong when you copy it, check whether you duplicated i or u correctly - long ī and ū are sequences (ii, uu), not single codepoints.
- Use the transliteration column as your sound key: it follows the Hoffmann orthography, and the four invented letters (ŋ́, ṇ, ẹ, v) sit inside the consonant run rather than at its end - Wikipedia’s prose count (37 consonants + 16 vowels) treats one glide separately, while the block itself encodes 54 letter codepoints.
- Punctuate like the manuscripts: the two-over-one dot triangle shrinks or swells to mark clause, sentence or section, and a ring variant handles the loudest breaks. Size, not symbol, is the distinction - which is why the block gives six separate codepoints instead of one.
Frequently asked questions
Who invented the Avestan alphabet and when?
No individual is named. Wikipedia treats it as an ad hoc innovation of the 4th-century Sassanid archetype collation of the canon, probably under Shapur II (309–379) - a committee-level project of a state-backed church, not a lone scribe. The Unicode block arrived much later, in version 5.2 (October 2009).
Why was a scripture-only alphabet invented so late?
Because the Avesta lived in recitation, not on paper: the alphabet was built “to represent recited Avestan language texts correctly,” and the sources tie its creation to competition with Buddhists, Christians and Manicheans, whose faiths already had a revealed book. A rival book needed a rival book - and a script precise enough to pin down every vowel of the liturgy.
Is Avestan still written or read today?
As a living scribal tradition, barely: the language died out as speech, but Zoroastrian priests still recite the liturgy from texts in this script, and it also served Pazend - Middle Persian Zend commentaries written in Avestan letters. Digital use is now the main growth area, thanks to Unicode 5.2 and Noto/Ahura-Mazda-class fonts.
Why do some letters look borrowed and others look invented?
Because it is a hybrid by design: the stock descends through Aramaic and Pahlavi, some vowels (such as ə) appear to derive from Greek cursives, and Wikipedia’s table of free inventions lists exactly four letters - ŋ́, ṇ, ẹ and v - created from scratch for sounds the donor scripts had no sign for.
How does the punctuation actually work?
One shape, six sizes: a triangle of dots (or rings) marks every break - the two-over-one triangle runs from tiny (clause) through small (colon, semicolon) to large (end of sentence), the one-dot-over-two variant and ring forms take the heavier section breaks. Which triangle you use is a size-and-orientation decision, exactly as the manuscripts read it.