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Writing Systems Technical Resources

Inscriptional Parthian

Sample of Parthian script from Iraq (see Use & History)

Script details

See all script details: code, region, status and more
Code Prti
Script type abjad
Region Middle Eastern
Status Historical
Direction RTL
Baseline bottom
Case no
White space between words
Complex behaviors required ligatures
OpenType code prti
ISO 15924 Numeric Code / Key 130 (right-to-left alphabetic)

Explanation of script details

Script description

Inscriptional Parthian is one of three related ancient scripts, along with Inscriptional Pahlavi and Psalter Pahlavi, used for writing a number of Iranian and Indo-European languages.

Read the full description…All three scripts developed from the Imperial Aramaic script.

Inscriptional Parthian was an abjad with twenty-two consonant letters but no vowel marks. It was written from right to left, usually with spaces between words. Seven ligatures were commonly used. Because of the script’s Aramaic heritage, some words were written in the Aramaic language, but read as the appropriate Iranian-language word (much like the ampersand symbol, which is actually a ligature of the Latin word ‘et’ but is pronounced in English texts as the English word ‘and’). These words are called xenograms.

Script-specific numbers were used in Inscriptional Parthian to represent the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 20, 100 and 1000. These could be combined (added) to write any number, for example 58 was written with five signs, for 20+20+10+4+4. Unlike many modern Semitic scripts, numbers were written from right to left, the same direction as the text.

Languages that use this script

LanguageWriting System
Code		Writing System
Status		SLDR/CLDR
locale		Regional
variants
Parthianxpr-Prtiin use xpr-Prti-IR (Iran)

Unicode status

In The Unicode Standard, Inscriptional Parthian script implementation is discussed in Chapter 10 Middle East-II — Ancient Scripts.

Resources