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.
Letters Inscriptional Parthian uses 22 letters written from right to left, and usually with spaces between words: Name Image Text Principal phones (IPA; Parthian) TransliterationAleph, /Beth, Gimel, Daleth, He—Waw, , Zayin, Heth, /Teth—Yodh, , Kaph, LamedhMemNunSamekhAyin—Pe, SadheQoph—ReshShin, Taw,
Ligatures Inscriptional Parthian uses seven standard ligatures: Ligature Sequence Image Text (gimel) + (waw) (heth) + (waw) (yodh) + (waw) (nun) + (waw) (ayin) + (lamedh) (resh) + (waw) (taw) + (waw)
The letters sadhe (𐭑) and nun (𐭍) have swash tails which typically trail under the following letter. Ligature Sequence Image Text (nun) + (nun) (nun) + (daleth)
Numerals Inscriptional Parthian uses its own numerals: Value 1 2 3 4 10 20 100 1000 Sign Image Text
Numerals are written right-to-left, the rightmost being the highest—with the exception of multiplication. Numerals add when the one to the left is lower or equal but multiply when it is larger.
Examples: 1580 is written as (1000 + 100 + 20 + 20 + 10 + 4 + 4) and 500 is written as ((2 + 3 ) × 100).
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:
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