Unicode Block - Old Sogdian

Old Sogdian is a script used primarily between the 4th and 8th centuries CE to write the Sogdian language, an Eastern Iranian tongue spoken in the region of Sogdia, centered around modern-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The characters in this set represent a cursive, connected form of writing that evolved from the Aramaic script, and they were used for religious, commercial, and administrative texts, including Buddhist and Manichaean manuscripts. The script features distinct letterforms for consonants and employs a system of matres lectionis to indicate long vowels, reflecting its adaptation from a Semitic writing tradition to a Middle Iranian phonetic system. Its later descendants include the Uyghur and Mongolian scripts, making it a crucial link in the historical transmission of writing across Central Asia.