Version 1.0, 19 October 2021
Version history:
Version 1.0, 19 October 2021
Avestan script
The Avestan script is a right-to-left alphabet, especially designed to codify the pronunciation of the Avestan language of the prayers, sacred traditions, hymns etc. of the Zoroastrian religion. It is based on the Pahlavi script, but unlike it in many respects: Avestan letters are not connected, and whereas the Pahlavi writing system is ambiguous in many ways (it does not record vowels, and several consonantal signs are polyvalent, i.e., signify more than one consonant), the Avestan script has signs for every phoneme of the Avestan language (and of the Pahlavi Middle Persian language); indeed, some think the script is not only phonemic but phonetic to some degree. This accords well with the presumed purpose of the invention of the script, namely to record and thereby ensure the proper pronunciation of the already 1,500 year old religious utterances which had up to that point been orally transmitted. The languages that can be written in this script: Avestan (also Young Avestan) and Middle Persian (Pahlavi).
Font and font sizes
The font Noto Sans Avestan can be downloaded freely from the Google Noto Fonts site.
- Brill 11 pt ~ Noto Sans Avestan 10.5 pt
- Brill 10 pt ~ Noto Sans Avestan 9.5 pt
- Brill 9 pt ~ Noto Sans Avestan 8.5 pt
Typesetting software
At the time of writing (October 2021), InDesign does not support typesetting Manichaean script: the script is not recognized as a right-to-left script and therefore, Manichaean text becomes corrupt when rendered in InDesign (both in the native Adobe text renderer Lipika and InDesign’s version of HarfBuzz). Only TeX can be tweaked to render Manichaean script correctly, and therefore, Manichaean text can and must only be typeset by TAT, who use an installation of LuaTeX.
Web fonts
See Web Fonts and Script Proportions on Brill Websites 034 for web font, font license and font rights holder information; script and language tag and script proportion.
