Sogdian Language - Writing System

Writing System

Like all the writing systems employed for Middle Iranian languages, the Sogdian script ultimately derives from the Aramaic script. Like its close relative the Pahlavi writing system, written Sogdian contains many logograms or ideograms, which were Aramaic words written to represent native spoken ones. The Sogdian script is the direct ancestor of the Uyghur script, itself the forerunner of the Mongolian script.

As in other writing systems descended from the Semitic script, there are no special signs for vowels. As in the parent Aramaic system, the consonantal signs ’ y w can stand for the long vowels respectively. However, unlike it, these consonant signs would also sometimes serve to express the short vowels (which could also sometimes be left unexpressed, as they always are in the parent systems). To distinguish long vowels from short ones, an additional aleph could be written before the sign denoting the long vowel.

The Sogdian language also used the Manichean script, which consisted of 29 letters.

In transcribing Sogdian script into Roman letters, Aramaic ideograms are often noted by means of capitals.