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The ancient Persian alphabet

When the Persian king Darius I the Great (522-486) ordered the Behistun inscription to be made, he also ordered the making of a special, Persian alphabet, which he called 'the Aryan script'. It consists of thirty-six signs indicating syllables and eight ideograms for the words 'king', 'country' (2x) 'good', 'god', 'earth', and 'Ahuramazda' (3x). A slanting wedge (\) is used as a word divider.

This alphabet was mainly used for royal inscriptions; the last text in the 'Aryan script' can be dated to the fourth century BCE.

The signs

A	I	U
KA		KU
XA
GA		GU
CA
JA	JI
TA		TU
THA
ÇA
DA	DI	DU
NA		NU
PA
FA
BA
MA	MI	MU
YA
RA		RU
LA
VA	VI
SA
ŠA
ZA
HA
xšâyathiya 'king'	dahyâuš 'country'	dahyâuš 'country'
Ahura Mazda	Ahura Mazda	Ahura Mazda (genitive)
bûmiš 'earth'	baga 'god'
one	two	three
ten	twenty	fourty
hundred

Inscription DPa from the palace of Darius, Persepolis. Photo Marco Prins.

Inscription DPa
from Persepolis

An example (DPa)

Inscription on the doorposts of the inner room of the Palace of Darius I the Great in Persepolis, above figures of the king and attendants.

Drawing of inscription DPa.

da-a-ra-ya-va-u-ša \ xa-ša-a-ya-tha-i-ya \
va-za-ra-ka \ xa-ša-a-ya-tha-i-ya \ xa-ša-a-
ya-tha-i-ya-a-na-a-ma \ xa-ša-a-ya-tha-i-ya \
da-ha-ya-u-na-a-ma \ vi-i-ša-ta-a-sa-pa-ha-ya-
a \ pa-u-ça \ ha-xa-a-ma-na-i-ša-i-ya \ ha-
ya \ i-ma-ma \ ta-ça-ra-ma \ a-ku-u-na-u-ša

Dârayavauš xšâyathiya
vazraka xšâyathiya xšâ-
yâthiânâm xšâyathiya
dahyunâm Vištâspahy-
a puça Haxâmanišiya
hya imam taçaram akunauš

Darius, the king
great, king of ki-
ngs, king of
countries, Hystasp-
es' son, an Achaemenid,
who built this palace.

Darius, the great king, king of kings, king of countries, Hystaspes' son, an Achaemenid, built this palace.

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