Pyu script
Historic Brahmic script used in Burma
title: "Pyu script" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["brahmic-scripts", "obsolete-writing-systems", "languages-of-myanmar"] description: "Historic Brahmic script used in Burma" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyu_script" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Historic Brahmic script used in Burma ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox writing system"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Pyu |
| type | Abugida |
| languages | Pyu language |
| time | 350 CE - 1200 CE |
| fam1 | Proto-Sinaitic script |
| fam2 | Phoenician alphabet |
| fam3 | Aramaic alphabet |
| fam4 | Brāhmī |
| fam5 | Tamil-Brahmi |
| fam6 | Kadamba |
| sample | Pyu (Schrift) 200227.jpg |
| unicode | None |
| note | none |
| :: |
| name = Pyu | altname = | type = Abugida | typedesc = | languages = Pyu language | time = 350 CE - 1200 CE | fam1 = Proto-Sinaitic script | footnotes = | fam2 = Phoenician alphabet | fam3 = Aramaic alphabet | fam4 = Brāhmī | fam5 = Tamil-Brahmi | fam6 = Kadamba | sisters = | children = | sample = Pyu (Schrift) 200227.jpg | imagesize = | unicode = None | iso15924 = | iso15924 note = | note = none ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Myazedi-Inscription-Pyu.JPG" caption="The [[Myazedi inscription]] c. 1112–1113 in Pyu"] ::
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Pyu_Inscription.JPG" caption="A Pyu inscription from Hanlin Archeological Museum, Burma"] ::
The Pyu script is a writing system used to write the Pyu language, an extinct Sino-Tibetan language that was mainly spoken in present-day central Burma. It was based on the Brahmi-based scripts of both north and south India. The best available evidence suggests that the Pyu script gradually developed between the 2nd and 6th centuries CE. The Pyu script's immediate precursor appears to be the Kadamba script of southwest India. The early period Pyu inscriptions always included interlinear Brahmi scripts. It was not until the 7th and 8th centuries that Sri Ksetra's inscriptions appeared all in the Pyu script, without any interlinear Brahmi.
Many of the important inscriptions were written in Sanskrit and Pali, alongside the Pyu script. The Pyu sites have yielded a wide variety of Indian scripts ranging from Ashokan Brahmi script and Tamil Brahmi script, both dated to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, to the Gupta script and Kadamba script dated to the 4th to 6th centuries CE.
The Pyu script is presently not in Unicode. Its inclusion was proposed in 2010, and has tentative placement in the Unicode Consortium's roadmap.
Notes
References
References
- Aung-Thwin, pp. 35–36
- Harvey, p. 4
- Pandey, Anshuman. (5 August 2010). "Preliminary Code Chart and Names List for the Pyu Script". Unicode Consortium.
- (17 August 2015). "Roadmap to the SMP".
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