Old Persian

Old Persian is a semi-syllabic alphabet used to write the Old Persian language. It is derived from the Achaemenid alphabet, which was in turn derived from the Phoenician alphabet. The Old Persian alphabet has 36 letters, 33 of which are consonants and 3 of which are vowels. The Old Persian alphabet is thought to have been invented by Darius I, the king of the Achaemenid Empire, in the 6th century BCE. Darius I needed a way to communicate with his vast empire, which stretched from India to Ethiopia. The Old Persian alphabet was adapted from the Aramaic alphabet, which was in turn adapted from the Phoenician alphabet. The Old Persian alphabet is thought to be the first alphabet to use vowels. The three vowels in the Old Persian alphabet are A, I, and U. The other 33 letters are all consonants. The Old Persian alphabet also has a number of ligatures, which are two or more letters joined together. The Old Persian alphabet was used to write the Old Persian language, which was the official language of the Achaemenid Empire. The Old Persian language was a member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The Old Persian alphabet is thought to have influenced the development of the Sogdian and Bactrian alphabets, which were used to write languages related to Old Persian.