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Manichaean script
Table of letters from Manichaean script, with their Latin transliterations
Script type
Abjad
Time period
3rd century – c. 10th century CE
Direction
Right-to-left script
Languages
Middle Iranian and Tocharian languages
Related scripts
Parent systems
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
Phoenician alphabet
Aramaic alphabet
Syriac alphabet
Sogdian alphabet
Manichaean script
ISO 15924
ISO 15924
Mani(139), Manichaean
Unicode
Unicode alias
Manichaean
Unicode range
U+10AC0–U+10AFF
Final Accepted Script Proposal
The Manichaean script is an abjad-based writing system rooted in the Semitic family of alphabets and associated with the spread of Manichaeism from southwest to central Asia and beyond, beginning in the third century CE. It bears a sibling relationship to early forms of the Pahlavi scripts, both systems having developed from the Imperial Aramaic alphabet, in which the Achaemenid court rendered its particular, official dialect of Aramaic. Unlike Pahlavi, the Manichaean script reveals influences from the Sogdian alphabet, which in turn descends from the Syriac branch of Aramaic. The Manichaean script is so named because Manichaean texts attribute its design to Mani himself. Middle Persian is written with this alphabet.
The Iranologist Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst notes that the Manichaean script was mainly used to write numerous Middle Iranian languages (Manichaean Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Early New Persian, Bactrian) and Old Uyghur (a Turkic language).[1] The Manichaean script is closely related to the Palmyrene alphabet of Palmyrene Aramaic and the Estrangelo script of Syriac.[1]
The Manichaeanscript is an abjad-based writing system rooted in the Semitic family of alphabets and associated with the spread of Manichaeism from southwest...
invented the unique version of the Syriac script known as the Manichaean alphabet that was used in all of the Manichaean works written within the Sasanian Empire...
Coq. One of these may be a Buddhist text. One other manuscript, in Manichaeanscript, was found at Qočo by Mary Boyce in 1958. Over 150 legal documents...
attested in a number of scripts, including the Old Turkic script, the Old Uyghur alphabet, the Brahmi script, and the Manichaeanscript. The Turkic runiform...
that its founding prophet, Mani, invented the Manichaeanscript, as well as writing the major Manichaean texts himself. The writing system evolved from...
Hebrew – Hebrew and other Jewish languages Manichaeanscript Nabataean – the Nabataeans of Petra Pahlavi script – Middle Persian Parthian Psalter Phoenician –...
descendant script of the Aramaic alphabet. The Sogdian alphabet is one of three scripts used to write the Sogdian language, the others being the Manichaean alphabet...
were written in Syriac, an Eastern Aramaic language, in a unique Manichaeanscript. Manichaeism conceives of two coexistent realms of light and darkness...
the Old Uyghur.[citation needed] The Manichaean alphabet is a further derivation from Sogdian. The Arabic script is a medieval cursive variant of Nabataean...
Sasanian Pahlavi; by the parchment manuscripts of Auroman; and by certain Manichaean texts from Turpan. Furthermore, the archaic orthography of Sasanian Pahlavi...
Hecatompylos, Manichaean texts, Sasanian multilingual inscriptions and remains of Parthian literature in the succeeding Middle Persian. The later Manichaean texts...
for the representation of names of scripts, is an international standard defining codes for writing systems or scripts (a "set of graphic characters used...
was an adaptation of the Aramaic alphabet used for texts with Buddhist, Manichaean and Christian content for 700–800 years in Turpan. The last known manuscripts...
Persian is attested in Aramaic-derived scripts (Pahlavi and Manichaean) on inscriptions and in Zoroastrian and Manichaean scriptures from between the third...
slanting Brahmi. However a smaller amount was written in the Manichaeanscript in which Manichaean texts were recorded. It soon became apparent that a large...
Kuchean Early form Proto-Tocharian Writing system Tocharian alphabet Manichaeanscript Language codes ISO 639-3 txb Linguist List xtb Tocharian B Glottolog...
of the traditional Mongolian scripts. Syriac is written from right to left in horizontal lines. It is a cursive script where most—but not all—letters...
facilitating decipherment of the new language. Besides the Buddhist and Manichaean religious texts, there were also monastery correspondence and accounts...
The Sogdian language also used the Manichaean alphabet, which consisted of 29 letters. In transcribing Sogdian script into Roman letters, Aramaic ideograms...
Manichaean hymn scroll Incomplete scripture of Manichaeism Manichaean Compendium Irk Bitig a Turkic divination text written in the manichaeanscript....
Many scripts in Unicode, such as Arabic, have special orthographic rules that require certain combinations of letterforms to be combined into special...
handful of scripts—often primarily between a given script and Latin characters—not between a large number of scripts, and not with all of the scripts supported...
by the Manichaeans, whose texts also survive in various non-Iranian languages, from Latin to Chinese. Manichaean texts were written in a script closely...