Proto-Elamite
3300 BCE to 500 BCE
Elamite
Old Persian
550 BCE to 400 BCE
Pahlavi (Middle Persian)
3rd century BCE to 9th century CE
New Persian
1,000+ years old
Roof of Hafez's Tomb
Monday, June 4, 2012
Studying Persia through Scripts
I've had an intense fascination with alphabets and scripts since I was a kid. My parents were especially encouraging of my interest in languages and often allowed me to experiment (via paintbrush) with Hindi, Burmese, Ukrainian, and Chinese on the walls of our house and refrigerator (it helps that my mom is an artist!). As a visual learner, I can say that studying a new writing system is one of the most exciting aspects of a language course and today, our class reviewed the 33 letters of the Persian Alef-Ba. I find Persia's linguistic history --especially it's varied scripts which are thousands of years old--to be a fun way to connect with Persia's vast history. One of my favorite websites is: AncientScripts.com. Here are a few images of Persia's many writing systems:
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Love your blog- very well done !
ReplyDeleteThanks Momma!
DeleteThis is a really cool topic, and it's great that your parents were so encouraging :) Do you still engage in calligraphy? This reminds me of a seminar on the history of the alphabet that I took as an undergrad at Maryland. It was very fascinating learning about the development of writing over so many centuries.
ReplyDeleteSalaam Deon!! Your class at Maryland sounds so interesting! It's a great topic, and yes-- I still experiment with calligraphy with my favorite "copic wide marker". It's one of the best markers for Arabic/Persian writing. Thanks for reading Persian Immersion :)
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