| Sogdian *s{əγ}ʷδī́k ᵊzβā́k, *s{əγ}ʷδyā́u̯, 𐼑𐼇𐼄𐼌𐼊𐼋 [*𐼀𐼈𐼂𐼀𐼋]swγδyk [*ʾzβʾk] 𐼼𐼴𐼶𐼹𐼷𐼸 (𐼰𐼵𐼱𐼰𐼸)swγδyk (ʾzβʾk) 𐼼𐼲𐼴𐼹𐼷𐼰𐼴sγwδyʾw 𐫘𐫇𐫄𐫔𐫏𐫀𐫇swγδyʾw | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | |
Period | 2nd–12th centuries |
| Direction | Horizontal and vertical writing in East Asian scripts, top-to-bottom  Vertical (left-to-right); Horizontal (right-to-left) |
| Languages | Sogdian |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Child systems | |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Sogd(141), Sogdian (Sogdian)Sogo (142) (Old Sogdian) |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Sogdian |
| |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
TheSogdian alphabet was originally used for theSogdian language, a language in the Iranian family used by the people ofSogdia.[1] The alphabet is derived fromSyriac, a descendant script of theAramaic alphabet. The Sogdian alphabet is one of three scripts used to write the Sogdian language, the others being theManichaean alphabet and theSyriac alphabet.[1] It was used throughoutCentral Asia, from the edge ofIran in the west, toChina in the east, from c. 100 to c. 1200 AD.[1]
Like the writing systems from which it is descended, the Sogdian writing system can be described as anabjad, but it also displays tendencies towards analphabet. The script consists of 17 consonants, many of which have alternative forms for initial, middle, and final position.[2] As in theAramaic alphabet, long vowels were commonly written withmatres lectionis, the consonantsaleph,yodh andwaw.[2] However, unlike Aramaic and most abjads, these consonant signs would also sometimes serve to express the short vowels (which could also sometimes be left unexpressed as in the parent systems).[3] To disambiguate long vowels from short ones, an additional aleph could be written before the sign denoting the long vowel.[3] The alphabet also includes several diacritics, which were used inconsistently. It is written from right to left, but by the time it had evolved into its child system, theOld Uyghur alphabet, it had been rotated 90 degrees, written vertically in columns from left to right.[2] Voiced and voiceless fricatives are consistently not distinguished in the script.[1]
Aramaic logograms also appear in the script, remnants of adapting the Aramaic alphabet to the Sogdian language.[4] These logograms are used mainly for functional words such as pronouns, articles, prepositions, and conjunctions.[1]
| Early letters[5] | Later letters[6] | Phoneme | IPA | Corresponding letter in | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenician | Aramaic | Syriac | |||||||||||
| 𐼀 | 𐼁 (final) | 𐼰 | ʾ | [ā̆],[ə],[ɛ],[ɨ] | 𐤀 | 𐡀 | ܐ | ||||||
| 𐼂 | 𐼃 (final) | 𐼱 | β | [β],[f],[v] | 𐤁 | 𐡁 | ܒ | ||||||
| 𐼄 | 𐼲 | γ | [ɣ],[x],[q] | 𐤂 | 𐡂 | ܓ | |||||||
| 𐼅 | 𐼆 (final) | 𐼳 | h | [ø],[ā̆] | 𐤄 | 𐡄 | ܗ | ||||||
| 𐼇 | 𐼴 | w | [o],[oː],[u],[uː],[w] | 𐤅 | 𐡅 | ܘ | |||||||
| 𐼈 | 𐼵 | z | [z],[ʒ] | 𐤆 | 𐡆 | ܙ | |||||||
| 𐼉 | 𐼶 | x | [x] | 𐤇 | 𐡇 | ܚ | |||||||
| 𐼊 | 𐼷 | y | [e],[eː],[i] ,[iː],[j] | 𐤉 | 𐡉 | ܝ | |||||||
| 𐼋 | 𐼸 | k | [g],[k] | 𐤊 | 𐡊 | ܟ | |||||||
| 𐼌 | 𐼹 | δ | [ð],[θ] | 𐤋 | 𐡋 | ܠ | |||||||
| 𐼍 | 𐼺 | m | [m] | 𐤌 | 𐡌 | ܡ | |||||||
| 𐼎 | 𐼏 (final) | 𐼐 (final with vertical tail) | 𐼻 | n | [n] | 𐤍 | 𐡍 | ܢ | |||||
| 𐼑 | 𐼼 | s | [s] | 𐤎 | 𐡎 | ܣ | |||||||
| 𐼒 | 𐼓 | 𐼽 | ʿ | [ʕ] | 𐤏 | 𐡏 | ܥ | ||||||
| 𐼔 | 𐼾 | p | [b],[p] | 𐤐 | 𐡐 | ܦ | |||||||
| 𐼕 | 𐼖 (final) | 𐼗 (final with vertical tail) | 𐼿 | c | [t͡ʃ],[d͡ʒ],[t͡s] | 𐤑 | 𐡑 | ܨ | |||||
| 𐼘 | 𐽀 | r | [r] | 𐤓 | 𐡓 | ܪ | |||||||
| 𐼙 | 𐽁 | š | [ʃ] | 𐤔 | 𐡔 | ܫ | |||||||
| 𐼚 | 𐼛 (final) | 𐼜 (final with vertical tail) | 𐽂 | t | [t],[d] | 𐤕 | 𐡕 | ܬ | |||||
| | 𐽃 | f(?) | [f](?) | ܭ | |||||||||
| | 𐽄 | l | [l] | ||||||||||
| | 𐽅 | š | [ʃ] | ܫ | |||||||||
Three main varieties of the Sogdian alphabet developed over time: Early Sogdian, a Hindu-Buddhist archaic non-cursive type; the sutra script, a calligraphic script used in SogdianBuddhist scriptures; and the so-called "Uyghur" cursive script (not to be confused with theOld Uyghur alphabet).[1] Early Sogdian dates to the early fourth century C.E., and is characterized by distinct, separated graphemes.[4] The sutra script appears around 500 C.E., while the cursive script develops approximately a century later. The cursive script is thus named because its letters are connected with a base line. Since many letters in the cursive script are extremely similar in form, to the point of being indistinguishable, it is the most difficult to read of the three varieties.[2] As the Sogdian alphabet became more cursive and more stylized, some letters became more difficult to distinguish, or were distinguished only in final position, e.g.n andz.[4]
The Sogdian script is known from religious texts ofBuddhism,Manichaeism, andChristianity, as well as from secular sources such as letters, coins, and legal documents. The oldest known Sogdian documents are 5 letters known as the Ancient Letters, found in 1907 bySir Aurel Stein in a watchtower nearDunhuang, China.[2][7] These letters date to approximately 312–313 C.E. and are written in Early Sogdian.[1]
The Sogdian Buddhist texts, written in the sutra script, are younger, dating to approximately the sixth to eighth or ninth century. They were found during the first two decades of the twentieth century in one of the caves of the Thousand Buddhas in the Chinese province ofGansu. The bulk of these manuscripts reside in theBritish Library, theBibliothèque nationale de France, and theRussian Academy of Sciences.[1]
Another important discovery was of the Mug Documents in 1933 by Soviet scholars. These documents were found in the remains of a fortress on Mount Mug in northernTajikistan. The documents, numbering over 76, were written on many different types of materials, such as paper, silk, wood, and skin. According to the dates on the documents, they date to the eighth century C.E. The majority of them were written using the Sogdian cursive script.[1]
The "Uyghur" cursive script eventually developed into theOld Uyghur alphabet, which was used to write theOld Uyghur language.[2] This child script was, however, rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise, written in a vertical direction from top to bottom, but with the first vertical line starting from the left side, not from the right as in Chinese, most probably because theright-to-left direction was used in horizontal writing. TheTraditional Mongolian alphabet, being an adaptation of the Old Uyghur alphabet, still uses this kind of vertical writing, as does its more remote descendantManchu.[8]
There are fonts encoding Sogdian alphabets in Unicode –Noto Sans Old Sogdian andNoto Sans Sogdian.
In Syriac script, three additional characters were used to represent sounds of Sogdian that were not present in the Syriac language. These were included inUnicode in 2002.[9][10][11][12]
Old Sogdian and Sogdian were added to the Unicode Standard in June, 2018 with the release of version 11.0.[13]
The Unicode block for Old Sogdian is U+10F00–U+10F2F and contains 40 characters:
| Old Sogdian[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+10F0x | 𐼀 | 𐼁 | 𐼂 | 𐼃 | 𐼄 | 𐼅 | 𐼆 | 𐼇 | 𐼈 | 𐼉 | 𐼊 | 𐼋 | 𐼌 | 𐼍 | 𐼎 | 𐼏 |
| U+10F1x | 𐼐 | 𐼑 | 𐼒 | 𐼓 | 𐼔 | 𐼕 | 𐼖 | 𐼗 | 𐼘 | 𐼙 | 𐼚 | 𐼛 | 𐼜 | 𐼝 | 𐼞 | 𐼟 |
| U+10F2x | 𐼠 | 𐼡 | 𐼢 | 𐼣 | 𐼤 | 𐼥 | 𐼦 | 𐼧 | ||||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
The Unicode block for Sogdian is U+10F30–U+10F6F and contains 42 characters:
| Sogdian[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+10F3x | 𐼰 | 𐼱 | 𐼲 | 𐼳 | 𐼴 | 𐼵 | 𐼶 | 𐼷 | 𐼸 | 𐼹 | 𐼺 | 𐼻 | 𐼼 | 𐼽 | 𐼾 | 𐼿 |
| U+10F4x | 𐽀 | 𐽁 | 𐽂 | 𐽃 | 𐽄 | 𐽅 | 𐽆 | 𐽇 | 𐽈 | 𐽉 | 𐽊 | 𐽋 | 𐽌 | 𐽍 | 𐽎 | 𐽏 |
| U+10F5x | 𐽐 | 𐽑 | 𐽒 | 𐽓 | 𐽔 | 𐽕 | 𐽖 | 𐽗 | 𐽘 | 𐽙 | ||||||
| U+10F6x | ||||||||||||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)