ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2583
2003-05-06
Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set
International Organization for Standardization
Organisation internationale de normalisationеждународная организация по стандартизации
Doc Type: Working Group Document
Title:
Final proposal to encode the Old Persian script in the UCS
Source: Michael Everson
Status:Individual Contribution
Action:For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2 and UTC
Date:
2003-05-06
Old Persian is found in a number of inscriptions in the Old Persian language dating from the Achaemenid
Empire. It is an alphabetic writing system with some syllabic aspects. While the shapes of some Old
Persian letters may look similar to signs in Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform, it is clear that only one ofthem, û LA, was borrowed from Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform ø LA – and that because la is a foreign
sign used to represent a sound not used in the Old Persian language. Scholars today agree that the character inventory of Old Persian was newly-invented for the purpose of providing monumental inscriptions of
the Achaemenid king, Darius I, by about 525 BCE.
Old Persian is written from left to right. The repertoire contains 36 signs which represent consonants,
vowels or sequences of single consonants plus vowels, a set of five numbers, one word divider, and eightideograms. It is unlikely that more than the characters known today will ever be discovered.
The attested numbers are built up by adding the base numbers together cumulatively:± 1, ≤ 2, ≤≤± 5, ≤≤≤± 7, ≤≤≤≤ 8, ≤≤≤≤± 9≥ 10, ≥≤ 12, ≥≤± 13, ≥≤≤ 14, ≥≤≤± 15, ≥≤≤≤≤ 18, ≥≤≤≤≤± 19¥ 20, ¥≤ 22, ¥≤± 23, ¥≤≤± 25, ¥≤≤≤ 26, ¥≤≤≤± 27¥¥ 40, ¥¥¥ 60, µ¥ 120.
The signs AURAMAZDAA and AURAMAZDAA-2 and the signs DAHYAAUSH and DAHYAAUSH-2 could be seen tobe glyph variants, but their conventional attestation in the corpus of Old Persian texts is quite limited andscholars consider it more advantageous to distinguish the forms in plain text representation than toattempt to distinguish them via some other rich-text or VARIATION SELECTOR mechanism.

A. Administrative
1. Title
Final proposal to encode the Old Persian script in the UCS.
2. Requester’s nameMichael Everson
3. Requester type (Member body/Liaison/Individual contribution)
Individual contribution.
4. Submission date2003-05-06
5. Requester’s reference (if applicable)
N1639, N2545.
6. Choose one of the following:
6a. This is a complete proposalYes.

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6b. More information will be provided later
No.

B. Technical -- General
1. Choose one of the following:
1a. This proposal is for a new script (set of characters)
Yes.
Proposed name of script
Old Persian.
1b. The proposal is for addition of character(s) to an existing blockNo.
1b. Name of the existing block
2. Number of characters in proposal50
3. Proposed category (see section II, Character Categories)
Category B.1.
4a. Proposed Level of Implementation (1, 2 or 3) (see clause 14, ISO/IEC 10646-1: 2000)
Level 1.
4b. Is a rationale provided for the choice?
No combining characters.
4c. If YES, reference
5a. Is a repertoire including character names provided?
Yes.
5b. If YES, are the names in accordance with the character naming guidelines in Annex L of ISO/IEC 10646-1: 2000?
Yes.
5c. Are the character shapes attached in a legible form suitable for review?
Yes.
6a. Who will provide the appropriate computerized font (ordered preference: True Type, or PostScript format) for
publishing the standard?
Michael Everson.
6b. If available now, identify source(s) for the font (include address, e-mail, ftp-site, etc.) and indicate the tools used:
Michael Everson, Fontographer.
7a. Are references (to other character sets, dictionaries, descriptive texts etc.) provided?
Yes.
7b. Are published examples of use (such as samples from newspapers, magazines, or other sources) of proposed characters attached?
Yes.
8. Does the proposal address other aspects of character data processing (if applicable) such as input, presentation, sorting, searching, indexing, transliteration etc. (if yes please enclose information)?
No.
9. Submitters are invited to provide any additional information about Properties of the proposed Character(s) or
Script that will assist in correct understanding of and correct linguistic processing of the proposed character(s) or
script. Examples of such properties are: Casing information, Numeric information, Currency information, Display
behaviour information such as line breaks, widths etc., Combining behaviour, Spacing behaviour, Directional behaviour, Default Collation behaviour, relevance in Mark Up contexts, Compatibility equivalence and other Unicode normalization related information. See the Unicode standard at http://www.unicode.org for such information on otherscripts. Also see Unicode Character Database http://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/UnicodeCharacter
Database.html and associated Unicode Technical Reports for information needed for consideration by the Unicode
Technical Committee for inclusion in the Unicode Standard.
Spacing letter, category “Lu” (uppercase), bidi category “L” (strong left to right)
1xxA0-1xxC3, 1xxC8-1xxCF
Spacing digit, category “No”, bidi category “L” (strong left to right)
1xxD1-1xxD5
Space separator, category “Zs”, bidi category “L” (strong left to right)
1xxD0

C. Technical -- Justification
1. Has this proposal for addition of character(s) been submitted before? If YES, explain.
Yes, N1639.

22a. Has contact been made to members of the user community (for example: National Body, user groups of the scriptor characters, other experts, etc.)?
Yes.
2b. If YES, with whom?
Günter Schweiger, Petr Vavroušek, and the TITUS project in Frankfurt.
2c. If YES, available relevant documents
http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/unicode/iranian/3tagung.htm
3. Information on the user community for the proposed characters (for example: size, demographics, information technology use, or publishing use) is included?
Iranianists, Indo-Europeanists, scholars relating to Ancient Near Eastern Studies, and other scholars.
4a. The context of use for the proposed characters (type of use; common or rare)
Writing the Old Persian language is not very common these days.
4b. Reference
Schmitt, Rüdiger. 1991. “The Bisitun Inscriptions of Darius the Great. Old Persian Text”, in Corpus Inscriptionum
Iranicarum, London.
Schweiger, Günter. 1998. Kritische Neuedition der achaemenidischen Keilinschriften (in zwei Bänden) . Band 1: Textband.
Transkribierter Text und Übersetzung; Band 2: Katalog. Archäologische Gegebenheiten und kritische Lesungen inTransliteration. Taimering: Schweiger VWT-Verlag, 1998.
5a. Are the proposed characters in current use by the user community?
Yes.
5b. If YES, where?
Scholarly publications, text editions.
6a. After giving due considerations to the principles in Principles and Procedures document (a WG 2 standing document) must the proposed characters be entirely in the BMP?
No. Proposed allocation is U+103A0-U+103DF
6b. If YES, is a rationale provided?
6c. If YES, reference
7. Should the proposed characters be kept together in a contiguous range (rather than being scattered)?
Yes.
8a. Can any of the proposed characters be considered a presentation form of an existing character or character
sequence?
No.
8b. If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
8c. If YES, reference
9a. Can any of the proposed characters be encoded using a composed character sequence of either existing charactersor other proposed characters?
No.
9b. If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
9c. If YES, reference
10a. Can any of the proposed character(s) be considered to be similar (in appearance or function) to an existing character?
No.
10b. If YES, is a rationale for its inclusion provided?
10c. If YES, reference
11a. Does the proposal include use of combining characters and/or use of composite sequences (see clauses 4.12 and4.14 in ISO/IEC 10646-1: 2000)?
No.
11b. If YES, is a rationale for such use provided?
11c. If YES, reference
12a. Is a list of composite sequences and their corresponding glyph images (graphic symbols) provided?
No.
12b. If YES, reference
13a. Does the proposal contain characters with any special properties such as control function or similar semantics?
No.
13b. If YES, describe in detail (include attachment if necessary)
14a. Does the proposal contain any Ideographic compatibility character(s)?
No.
14b. If YES, is the equivalent corresponding unified ideographic character(s) identified?

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Sample text from L. W. King, 1901, Assyrian language: Easy lessons in the cuneiform inscriptions,London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. The text reads:∞Äçñ ∞çÄúôöÇ° ∞á°ÄôêÅô ∞ö†úÉ∞á°ÄôêÅô ∞á°ÄôêÅôÄîÄñ
∞õÅ°ãÄüë£ôÄ ∞ëÇ¢ ∞£áÄñîÅ°Åô ∞¶ a-da-ma ¶ da-a-ra-y-va-u-š ¶ x-š-a-y-ı-i-y ¶ va-z-ra-ka¶ x-š-a-y-ı-i-y ¶ x-š-a-y-ı-i-y-a-na-a-ma¶ vi-i-š-ta-a-s-p-h-y-a ¶ p-u-ça ¶ h-x-a-ma-na-i-š-i-y ¶Adam, Dārayava[h]uš, xšāyaıiya vazraka,xšāyaıiya xšāyaıiyanām,Vištaspahya puça, Haxamanišiya.
I, Darius, the great king,the king of kings,
son of Hystaspes, the Achaemenian.

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Proposal for the Universal Character Set

TABLE

Michael Everson 2003-05-06- Row 1xx: OLD PERSIAN
1xxA

1xxB

1xxC

1xxD0

Ä ê †∞

1Å

ë

°±2

Ç í¢

≤

3É ì £≥

4Ñî

¥

5

Ö ïµ6

Ü ñ7

á ó

8

à ò ® ∏

9â ô © πAä ö ™ ∫Bã õ ´ ªCå úDçEé û Æ æFè ü Ø ø¨G = 00
P = 01ºù ≠ Ω5

Proposal for the Universal Character Set

Michael Everson 2003-05-06

TABLE - Row 1xx: OLD PERSIANhex
A0A1A2A3A4A5A6A7A8A9AA
AB
ACADAEAF
B0B1B2B3B4B5B6B7B8B9BABBBCBDBEBF
C0C1C2C3C4C5C6C7C8C9CACBCCCDCECFD0D1D2D3D4D5D6D7D8D9DA
DBDCDD
DEDFGroup 00NamehexName

OLD PERSIAN SIGN A
OLD PERSIAN SIGN I
OLD PERSIAN SIGN U
OLD PERSIAN SIGN KA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN KU
OLD PERSIAN SIGN GA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN GU
OLD PERSIAN SIGN XA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN CAOLD PERSIAN SIGN JA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN JI
OLD PERSIAN SIGN TA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN TU
OLD PERSIAN SIGN DA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN DI
OLD PERSIAN SIGN DU
OLD PERSIAN SIGN THAOLD PERSIAN SIGN PA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN BA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN FA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN NA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN NU
OLD PERSIAN SIGN MA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN MI
OLD PERSIAN SIGN MU
OLD PERSIAN SIGN YA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN VAOLD PERSIAN SIGN VI
OLD PERSIAN SIGN RA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN RU
OLD PERSIAN SIGN LA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN SA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN ZA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN SHA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN SSA
OLD PERSIAN SIGN HA(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)
OLD PERSIAN SIGN AURAMAZDAAOLD PERSIAN SIGN AURAMAZDAA-2
OLD PERSIAN SIGN AURAMAZDAAHAOLD PERSIAN SIGN XSHAAYATHIYAOLD PERSIAN SIGN DAHYAAUSHOLD PERSIAN SIGN DAHYAAUSH-2
OLD PERSIAN SIGN BAGAOLD PERSIAN SIGN BUUMISH
OLD PERSIAN WORD DIVIDER
OLD PERSIAN NUMBER ONE
OLD PERSIAN NUMBER TWO
OLD PERSIAN NUMBER TEN
OLD PERSIAN NUMBER TWENTY
OLD PERSIAN NUMBER HUNDRED(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)(This position shall not be used)

Plane 01

Row 1xx

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