Sogdian
Sample Characters
First 48 characters from Sogdian (U+10F30–U+10F59)
About Sogdian
The Sogdian script was used to write the Sogdian language, an Iranian language spoken by the Sogdians — a merchant people of Central Asia centered in the Samarkand and Bukhara region (modern Uzbekistan). Sogdian was the lingua franca of the Silk Road from approximately the 2nd century BCE to the 10th century CE.
The Sogdian script is an abjad descended from Aramaic. It has profound historical importance because it gave rise to the Old Uyghur script, which in turn was used for the Mongolian, Manchu, and other Central Asian scripts. Sogdian merchants' letters are among the oldest preserved personal letters in history.
Data sourced from the ISO 15924 registry, Unicode CLDR, and the Unicode Character Database.
Script Family & Lineage
Frequently Asked Questions
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Compare Sogdian With Another Script
Direction, characters, languages — side by side.
Key Facts
- ISO Code
- Sogd
- ISO Number
- 141
- Script Type
- Abjad
- Direction
- Right-to-left
- Status
- Historical
- Region
- Central Asian
- Characters
- 42
- Introduced
- 200 CE
- Languages
- 0
Unicode Ranges
-
SogdianU+10F30–U+10F59