2712: Does Persian Have a Native Script? May 24, 2024

Farsi, also commonly referred to as Persian, is written in a variation of the Arabic script, and has been for centuries. Of course, writing systems change, and other languages related to Persian like Kurdish and Tajik are written in the Roman alphabet and Cyrillic respectively, but before all of this, another writing system was used. Pahlavi writing was used in the region for early Persian writing, such as for the once dominant Zoroastrian religion's text, the Avesta. While there were 3 main variants, the system is not really native for Persian either, coming as a modification from Aramaic writing of the Babylonian Empire that the Persians eventually conquered. Regarding the Avesta though, written in what is known as Avestan (script), this has more than double the amount of letters as Pahlava, where each of Aramaic's 22 letters had to each represent multiple sounds, so it is possible that Avestan emerged as the only independently derived Persian writing system, and one of few globally that were not ultimately based off of Phoenician letters anywhere outside of East Asia.