Old Persian sign FA

It writes the “fa” sound inside an Old Persian word.

In scholarly transliteration, the Old Persian FA sound is written “fa”; that label is not a modern Persian keyboard letter. The surrounding signs complete the spelling, so this sign alone is not a whole word.

Why was Old Persian cuneiform made?

For formal royal writing in the Achaemenid Empire.

Old Persian cuneiform is a simplified script of wedge-shaped marks for Old Persian, the language of the Achaemenid kings, a Persian dynasty. Its oldest surviving examples are Darius I’s major and minor inscriptions at Bīsotūn, from the sixth century BCE. The script may have started taking shape under Cyrus II, but the evidence does not settle when.

Later royal texts appeared at Pasargadae, Persepolis, Naqš-e Rostam, Susa, and near the Suez Canal, mostly carved in stone but sometimes on metal or clay. Some sat high on rock faces or sealed into foundations, making royal display as important as reading. Later inscriptions also show Old Persian grammar growing less regular; that changes the words written, not FA’s role as a sound sign.

Is 𐎳 related to Akkadian cuneiform?

No. The documented borrowed sign is LA, 𐎾.

Old Persian cuneiform is a separate creation whose wedge-shaped marks resemble Mesopotamian writing. The one documented borrowed sound sign is 𐎾 LA, used in a few foreign names; its shape derives from a later Assyrian form of Mesopotamian cuneiform sign 𒆷. It writes an l-sound absent from Old Persian. FA belongs to Old Persian’s own set of sound signs.