Chorasmian Letter He

It is a letter used to write Chorasmian, an Iranian language.

This character belongs to the old Chorasmian script, an Aramaic-derived writing tradition. A single 𐾵 does not tell you a whole word or message by itself; its reading depends on the Chorasmian text it comes from. “He” is the letter’s name, not an English translation.

When does the Chorasmian script first appear?

Its surviving record includes coins and documents.

Aramaic script reached Chorasmia around the beginning of the 4th century BCE, probably through Achaemenid scribes. The local Chorasmian script is known from coin inscriptions and documents on wood and parchment around the end of the 2nd century CE.

The writing also served practical and public purposes. An excavated palace archive preserves soldier lists, deliveries of food and other supplies, and dates in the Chorasmian calendar. Coins, vessels, and ossuaries—containers for human bones—show it in public and funerary settings.

How did Chorasmian writing change scripts?

Chorasmian was later written in a different script.

The older script followed an Imperial Aramaic tradition. From the 11th through 14th centuries, Chorasmian also appears in a modified Arabic script, including in Arabic dictionaries and law books. Those later texts are Chorasmian, but they do not use this same letter set.

Chorasmian, Middle Persian, Parthian, and Sogdian scripts are connected through provincial Aramaic writing traditions. Chorasmian was eventually superseded by Turkish.