Caucasian Albanian Alphabet Table
| Glyph | Unicode name | Note |
|---|---|---|
| ๐ฐ | Letter ALT | as in Phoenician/Hebrew aleph |
| ๐ฑ | Letter BET | as in Phoenician/Hebrew bet |
| ๐ฒ | Letter GIM | as in Phoenician/Hebrew gimel |
| ๐ณ | Letter DAT | as in Phoenician/Hebrew dalet |
| ๐ด | Letter EB | – |
| ๐ต | Letter ZARL | – |
| ๐ถ | Letter EYN | – |
| ๐ท | Letter ZHIL | – |
| ๐ธ | Letter TAS | – |
| ๐น | Letter CHA | – |
| ๐บ | Letter YOWD | as in Phoenician/Hebrew yod |
| ๐ป | Letter ZHA | – |
| ๐ผ | Letter IRB | – |
| ๐ฝ | Letter SHA | – |
| ๐พ | Letter LAN | – |
| ๐ฟ | Letter INYA | – |
| ๐ | Letter XEYN | – |
| ๐ | Letter DYAN | – |
| ๐ | Letter CAR | – |
| ๐ | Letter JHOX | – |
| ๐ | Letter KAR | – |
| ๐ | Letter LYIT | – |
| ๐ | Letter HEYT | – |
| ๐ | Letter QAY | – |
| ๐ | Letter AOR | – |
| ๐ | Letter CHOY | – |
| ๐ | Letter CHI | – |
| ๐ | Letter CYAY | – |
| ๐ | Letter MAQ | – |
| ๐ | Letter QAR | – |
| ๐ | Letter NOWC | – |
| ๐ | Letter DZYAY | – |
| ๐ | Letter SHAK | – |
| ๐ | Letter JAYN | – |
| ๐ | Letter ON | – |
| ๐ | Letter TYAY | – |
| ๐ | Letter FAM | – |
| ๐ | Letter DZAY | – |
| ๐ | Letter CHAT | – |
| ๐ | Letter PEN | – |
| ๐ | Letter GHEYS | – |
| ๐ | Letter RAT | – |
| ๐ | Letter SEYK | – |
| ๐ | Letter VEYZ | – |
| ๐ | Letter TIWR | as in Phoenician/Hebrew tav |
| ๐ | Letter SHOY | – |
| ๐ | Letter IWN | – |
| ๐ | Letter CYAW | – |
| ๐ | Letter CAYN | – |
| ๐ก | Letter YAYD | – |
| ๐ข | Letter PIWR | – |
| ๐ฃ | Letter KIW | – |
| ๐ฏ | Citation Mark | the block’s single punctuation codepoint |
The Caucasian Albanian script (also Aghbanian or Aghwan) is the alphabet of ancient Caucasian Albania - a kingdom in parts of present-day Azerbaijan and Dagestan, unrelated to the modern Balkan country of the same English name. It is one of only two native scripts ever developed for an indigenous Caucasian language, Wikipedia notes quoting Catford - the other being Georgian.
Tradition credits the script to Mesrop Mashtots (362-440), the Armenian monk who is also credited with the Armenian alphabet and, by some scholars, the Georgian scripts. The medieval historian Movses Kaghankatvatsi records that Mashtots built it, with a bishop and a translator at his side, for “the guttural, harsh, barbarous, and rough language of the Gargarac’ik’” - the speech of the Gargars, which scholars connect to Old Udi. In use from the early 5th century through the 12th, it served the Church of Caucasian Albania and secular writers alike, then vanished when that church did not survive the conquests of Islam.
The table below lists the entire Unicode block (U+10530–U+1056F, added in version 7.0, June 2014): 52 letters plus a single punctuation codepoint, the citation mark. The letter names run in the Levantine order inherited from Phoenician - alt, bet, gim, dat - and the script’s modern story is one of the great rediscoveries of palimpsest scholarship.
How to use
- Read the Unicode-name column as the sound key: ALT, BET, GIM, DAT, YOWD, TIWR and the rest follow the Phoenician-Hebrew letter sequence, so the chart doubles as an order lesson - the same alphabetical lineage as the Phoenician chart on this site, applied to a completely unrelated language family (Northeast Caucasian).
- Expect one row that is not a letter: the block’s single punctuation codepoint is the CITATION MARK, and everything else in the 53-codepoint inventory is a letter. The Note column flags the rows whose names echo their Phoenician/Hebrew counterparts (bet, gimel, dalet, yod, tav, aleph).
- For authenticity, prefer palimpsest-informed readings: most of what is known about how the script was actually used comes from the Mount Sinai palimpsest corpus published in 2009 - a lectionary with verses of 2 Corinthians 11 and readings from the Gospel of John - not from the later alphabet manuals alone.
Frequently asked questions
Who invented the Caucasian Albanian alphabet?
Tradition says Mesrop Mashtots (362-440), the Armenian monk already credited with the Armenian alphabet and, by some scholars, the Georgian scripts. Movses Kaghankatvatsi records the commission: Mashtots created it, “with the help of the bishop Ananian and the translator Benjamin,” for the language of the Gargars - famously rendered as “the guttural, harsh, barbarous, and rough language of the Gargarac’ik’.” The attribution is traditional; the script’s existence from the early 5th century is archaeological fact.
What language did it write?
Old Udi, by the scholarly consensus Wikipedia reports: the Gargarac’ik’ speech Mashtots targeted corresponds to Old Udi, a Northeast Caucasian language whose modern descendant, Udi, still has speakers in the region. That makes the script one of only two native writing systems ever created for an indigenous Caucasian language - Georgian is the other.
How was the alphabet rediscovered after centuries?
In three steps. In 1937, the Georgian scholar Ilia Abuladze identified it in Matenadaran MS No. 7117, a 15th-century manual that compares Armenian, Greek, Latin, Syriac, Georgian, Coptic and Caucasian Albanian alphabets. Excavations at Mingachevir (1947-1952) then produced real inscriptions - a stone altar post with a 70-letter inscription plus candlesticks, tiles and vessels. In 2003, Zaza Aleksidze found the first literary work on a palimpsest at Saint Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai.
What was found on the Mount Sinai palimpsest?
A fragmentary lectionary dated to the late 4th or early 5th century - the oldest known Caucasian Albanian text - containing verses from 2 Corinthians 11 and liturgical readings from the Gospel of John. The undertext had been scraped and overwritten with a Georgian Patericon. Jost Gippert, Wolfgang Schulze, Zaza Aleksidze and Jean-Pierre Mahé published the full two-volume corpus, “The Caucasian Albanian Palimpsests of Mount Sinai,” in 2009.
Is this connected to the country of Albania in Europe?
No. The name belongs to ancient Caucasian Albania, a kingdom in parts of present-day Azerbaijan and Dagestan - the English name is a shared antique toponym, nothing more. Wikipedia also calls the script Aghbanian or Aghwan, and the Unicode block itself is named “Caucasian Albanian,” which keeps the geography unambiguous. The Balkan Albanian historical alphabets (Elbasan, Vithkuqi) are unrelated scripts.