Pahlavi Script, Reading and Writing (Level 2/3)
Domain 1: Pahlavi Script, Reading and Writing (Level 2/3)
The exam checks whether you can recognise Book Pahlavi letters, read right-to-left, and distinguish phonetic writing from Aramaic heterograms. Pahlavi is an Aramaic-derived script used for Middle Persian; its Book Pahlavi form is cursive and consonantal, so vowels are usually unwritten and one sign may serve several sounds.
Core rules
- Direction: right-to-left; letters join in a cursive line.
- Script families: Inscriptional Pahlavi, Psalter Pahlavi, and Book Pahlavi; L2/L3 reading is mainly Book Pahlavi.
- Ambiguity: the 22-sign Aramaic model is reduced in Book Pahlavi, and similar shapes must be resolved from context.
- Huzvarishn: Aramaic words are written but read in Middle Persian, e.g. MLKʾ is read šāh, “king”; YHWWN stands for būtan, “to be.”
Worked example
The string pdnʾm Y yzdʾn is transliterated pad nām ī yazdān, “in the name of the gods.” Read p-d-n-ʾ-m as pad nām; Y as the ezafe ī; yzdʾn as yazdān. The ʾ signs are not full vowels; they mark Aramaic aleph positions and help transcription.
Traps that cost marks
Reading huzvarishn letter-by-letter; pronouncing every ʾ as a vowel; mixing transliteration (letters) with transcription (pronunciation); ignoring right-to-left order; forcing one sign to one sound. In writing, copy the conventional Book Pahlavi form, not modern Persian letters.