Inscriptional Parthian


Inscriptional Parthian was a script used to write the Parthian language; the majority of the text found has been from clay fragments. This script was used from the 2nd century CE to the 5th century CE or in the Parthian Empire to the early Sasanian Empire. During the Sasanian Empire, it was mostly used for official texts.
Inscriptional Parthian is written right to left, and the letters are not joined.
File:F6, Parthian Script, Inscribed Stone Blocks of Paikuli Tower.jpg|thumb|Inscribed stone block from the Paikuli inscription of Narseh, 293 CE

Letters

Inscriptional Parthian uses 22 letters:
NameImageTextPrincipal phones Transliteration
Aleph,
Beth,
Gimel,
Daleth,
He—
Waw,,
Zayin,
Heth,
Teth—
Yodh,,
Kaph,
Lamedh
Mem
Nun
Samekh
Ayin—
Pe,
Sadhe
Qoph—
Resh
Shin,
Taw,

Ligatures

Inscriptional Parthian uses seven standard ligatures:
The letters sadhe and nun have swash tails which typically trail under the following letter.

Numerals

Inscriptional Parthian uses its own numerals:
Numbers are written right-to-left. Numbers without corresponding numerals are additive. For example, 158 is written as .

Unicode

Inscriptional Parthian script was added to the Unicode Standard in October 2009, with the release of version 5.2.
The Unicode block for Inscriptional Parthian is U+10B40–U+10B5F: