Psalter Pahlavi Alphabet Table
| Letter | Unicode name | IPA / role |
|---|---|---|
| ๐ฎ | Letter Aleph | a, aː |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Beth | b, w |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Gimel | g, j |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Daleth | d, j |
| ๐ฎ | Letter He | h |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Waw-Ayin-Resh | w, r |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Zayin | z |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Heth | h, x |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Yodh | j, ē̆, ī̆, d͡ʒ |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Kaph | k, g |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Lamedh | l, r |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Mem-Qoph | m, q |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Nun | n |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Samekh | s, h |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Pe | p, b, f |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Sadhe | t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, z |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Shin | ʃ |
| ๐ฎ | Letter Taw | t, d |
| ๐ฎ | Section Mark | section-ending mark - the half-red, half-black divider |
| ๐ฎ | Turned Section Mark | the same mark inverted - alternating sections |
| ๐ฎ | Four Dots With Cross | four dots arranged as a cross - heavy section break |
| ๐ฎ | Four Dots With Dot | four dots around a center dot - the loudest break |
| ๐ฎฉ | Number | non-positional numeral 1 - no 1000 sign exists |
| ๐ฎช | Number | non-positional numeral 2 - no 1000 sign exists |
| ๐ฎซ | Number | non-positional numeral 3 - no 1000 sign exists |
| ๐ฎฌ | Number | non-positional numeral 4 - no 1000 sign exists |
| ๐ฎญ | Number | non-positional numeral 10 - no 1000 sign exists |
| ๐ฎฎ | Number | non-positional numeral 20 - no 1000 sign exists |
| ๐ฎฏ | Number | non-positional numeral 100 - no 1000 sign exists |
Psalter Pahlavi is the manuscript hand of a single surviving book: Wikipedia calls it “a cursive abjad that was used for writing Middle Persian on paper,” named after the Pahlavi Psalter - a 6th- or 7th-century translation of a Syriac book of psalms. It is the latest and rarest of the Pahlavi scripts, midway between the stone-cut inscriptional forms and the connected Book Pahlavi of the later texts.
Its survival is a two-source story: the psalter leaves themselves, and inscriptions on a bronze processional cross found at Herat in present-day Afghanistan. That Cross of Herat is where most of this chart’s letter shapes were confirmed - one small cross carrying an entire script into the readable present.
The table below lists all 29 named codepoints of Unicode block U+10B80: 18 connected cursive letters, the four section marks that paced the red-and-black manuscript pages, and seven numerals that stop at 100 - the Psalter never needed a thousands sign. Nineteen codepoints in the block remain unassigned.
How to use
- Expect connection: “as in Book Pahlavi, letters are connected to each other” (Wikipedia) - the isolated forms in this chart are your reference shapes, but in running text the glyphs join along the baseline, so identify words by their skeleton, not letter by letter.
- Watch the two merged-name rows: WAW-AYIN-RESH covers w and r here (and y elsewhere in the family), MEM-QOPH covers m and q - the same shape-economy that let Book Pahlavi collapse to 13 graphemes for 24 sounds. Wikipedia’s note that names are based on the corresponding Imperial Aramaic characters is your etymological key.
- Read numerals by the mixed rule, not by position: signs run right to left, rightmost highest; a following sign that is lower or equal adds, one that is larger multiplies, and the letter Waw stands in as the word “and” after 100. Wikipedia’s example - 135 written as 100 and (20+10+3+2) - is the pattern to memorize.
Frequently asked questions
Why is it called Psalter Pahlavi?
From its one book: the Pahlavi Psalter, a 6th- or 7th-century Middle Persian translation of a Syriac book of psalms. Wikipedia describes the script as a cursive abjad for writing Middle Persian on paper - a Christian-manuscript context that also explains its section marks and its Syrian sibling link on this site.
How many sources of this script exist?
Two, effectively: the psalter manuscript leaves and the bronze cross of Herat (Afghanistan), whose inscriptions are the second witness. Wikipedia notes Psalter Pahlavi is “not widely attested” - which is why every letter in this chart carries the weight of a small corpus.
How do the 18 letters relate to the other Pahlavi scripts?
Exactly as Wikipedia counts them: 18 graphemes - “5 more than Book Pahlavi and one less than Inscriptional Pahlavi.” It shares the merged glyphs WAW-AYIN-RESH and MEM-QOPH with Inscriptional Pahlavi, but already writes in a connected hand like Book Pahlavi: a bridge form between stone and manuscript.
What are the four punctuation marks for?
Pacing the page. Wikipedia records four large section-ending marks - the section mark, its turned twin, four dots with a cross, four dots with a dot - and that section marks were written half-red and half-black, with some documents running whole sections in black and red alternately as a means of distinction.
Why does the number system stop at 100?
Because a psalter counts verses, not armies: the block encodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 20 and 100 - and no 1000 sign. The system makes up for its range with an unusual rule: signs add when the next sign to the left is lower or equal, but multiply when it is larger, with Waw written as the word “and” after 100 - so 135 comes out as 100-and-(20+10+3+2).