Old Permic Unicode Block

The Old Permic Unicode block is a specialized character set designed to encode the script used for the Komi language, historically spoken by the Komi people of Russia's Perm Krai and adjacent regions. The Old Permic script, also known as Abur, was developed in the 14th century by the Russian missionary Stepan Khrap, known as Saint Stephen of Perm. This script was one of the earliest attempts to create a writing system uniquely tailored to the phonetic needs of a Uralic language, a notable point of differentiation from the Cyrillic scripts that were commonly adapted for other regional languages. The Unicode block designated for Old Permic spans the code points U+10350 to U+1037F, encompassing a range of characters that include both consonants and vowels, as well as specific modifiers and punctuation marks unique to the script.

The reintroduction of the Old Permic script's characters into modern digital encoding systems like Unicode reflects a growing interest in the preservation and study of minority languages and ancient writing systems. Including Old Permic in Unicode benefits linguists, historians, and digital humanities researchers by providing a standardized method for the electronic representation and analysis of ancient Komi texts. Moreover, it holds cultural significance for the descendants of the Komi people and scholars interested in the ethnolinguistic heritage of the Uralic language family. By facilitating digital access to the Old Permic script, Unicode helps preserve this unique aspect of linguistic history, ensuring that it remains accessible for future study and revitalization efforts.

View a range of fonts that support the Old Permic block.

Below you will find all the characters that are in the Old Permic unicode block. Currently there are 43 characters in this block.