Yezidi letter Sad

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Yezidi script runs right to left, but its modern letters stand separately instead of joining. A font needs Yezidi coverage to render this character; Arabic shaping does not substitute for it.

What sound does Yezidi Sad represent?

It marks an emphatic s sound.

In Latin transliteration, it is written ṣ, with a dot below the s to mark the sound. Pronounce it like an s with the tongue drawn back, giving it a heavier quality than ordinary s.

Why is Yezidi Sad’s history disputed?

Its manuscript past is disputed.

Two Yezidi religious works, Maṣḥaf Raš and Ktébī Jalwe, were published in 1911; some accounts place the manuscripts as early as the 12th or 13th centuries. Their age and authorship remain disputed. The script’s early documented use was to write religious material in Kurmanji, one variety of Kurdish. Later scholarship questioned whether these texts prove an ancient manuscript tradition. Yezidi clergy recognize the script without treating those books as authoritative religious sources.

In 2013, Yezidi representatives in Georgia modernized and revived the alphabet for contemporary Kurmanji. It has been used in prayers, sacred books, temple inscriptions, institutional letterhead, and heraldry; scholars describe the modern script as part of Yezidi communal self-awareness. Earlier copies of the two works were in Arabic, while their Yezidi-script versions are in Kurmanji. The alphabet’s classical order was based on the Perso-Arabic script, a historical connection that does not establish direct descent for each letter.