_____________________________________________________________ Literacy MA Lloyd (malloy00@io.com) 25 January 1997 _____________________________________________________________ It is hard to overstate the importance of writing. Clearly it revolutionizes communications, but it also changes the way people think. Not just how they think about language, but how they use memory, and even what they *can* think about - consider outlining a detailed argument or composing a symphony without writing. Writing is also an instrument of social control. Asynchronous and infinitely repeatable instructions greatly simplify large scale organization, and written commands can reach far from a ruler's person, or even beyond his lifetime. Yet writing also constrains a ruler, as written law is no longer purely a matter of his whims. Treat literacy as a group of variable cost advantages, one per script. For most of history writing was limited to powerful elites. It began to spread downward in classical Greece, particularly in the cities, but is not really common until the advent of printing in the +15C. As late as +1850 there was open opposition to teaching the poor to read, on the grounds it made them insolent. If writing is common the GM may allow characters some level of literacy at no cost, in which case lacking it counts as a disadvantage equal to the cost to buy it up to the cultural norm, plus the value of any reaction modifier for being uneducated. _____________________________________________________________ Types of Writing _____________________________________________________________ Almost every scholar of the subject has a unique system of classifying writing based on his personal theory of how it evolved, usually full of trivial distinctions and imaginary categories. For game mechanical purposes writing and its relatives fall into 5 categories: Iconography: Iconography (sometimes called pictographic writing) is not writing at all, but art used to carry a message. Since anyone can try to interpret art, iconography is independent of language and literacy. On the other hand, no two people looking at it read exactly the same message. No skills are needed to read iconography, but History [Art] or Appreciate Beauty [culture] rolls may reveal meanings that escape observers unfamiliar with a culture's symbols. Memory aids: Devices used to remember details or keep accounts, such as tally sticks, trade tokens and knotted cords (kipu) are found all over the world; as are objects used to recall story episodes, genealogies, or specific prayers. These can be quite elaborate (intricately carved genealogy staves, detailed paintings for each scene of a story) or very abstract (rosary beads). They are not true writing, prior knowledge of what is recorded, or Bardic Lore skill if it is a traditional story, is required to read them. Logographic writing: In logographic writing each sign stands for a unit of meaning; the script is essentially an independent language based on shapes rather than sounds. A pure logographic script is readable across languages boundaries because it *is* another language. Many philosophers who do not seem to grasp this make all kinds of ridiculous claims about its ability to directly convey 'ideas' rather than words. Pure logographic scripts are rare. Most have some phonetic elements, and some have fluency or phonetic literacy limits on effective skill (see Hanja below for an example). The levels and costs of a logographic literacy are: * logographic script 4 (0.5 pts) You recognize the script and a few of its more common signs, and can sometimes guess what a text is about. * logographic script 6 (1 pts) You can puzzle out the meaning of a simple text, but many details will remain incomprehensible. You can usually identify the subject of complex texts you can't actually read, such as technical, legal or theological documents. * logographic script 8 (2 pts) You can read simple text automatically, and can understand a complex text by rolling against IQ or a skill appropriate to the subject. * logographic script 10 (4 pts) You can read any text at a normal speaking rates (about 180 words per minute), and understand complex material if you could follow it in your native language. * logographic script 12 (8 pts) You can read most obscure signs, and can follow (and compose) literature and other language arts normally - which is harder than it sounds in a script with not closely related to speech. * logographic script 14 (12 pts) You can read any form of the script, usually much faster than you could repeat it aloud. Phonetic writing: In phonetic scripts, each sign stands for a unit of sound. With only a small number of signs phonetic scripts are easy to learn, but a text can only be understood if the reader is literate in the script *and* fluent in the language recorded. Many phonetic literacies have the same names as languages, but it is important to distinguish them. For example Literacy (Greek) does not enable you to understand written Greek, only to read languages you do know which happen to be written in Greek letters. Many theorists claim there are important differences between several types of phonetic scripts (syllabic, alphabetic, consonantal, featural...). In practice the differences are insignificant. The levels and costs of a phonetic literacy are: * phonetic script 4 (0.25 pts) You know the shapes and conventional order of the letters, can follow instructions like `Push the button marked A', can sound out isolated words, and can write your name or other simple words or phrases you have practiced in advance. * phonetic script 6 (.5 pt) You can read and understand simple connected text, albeit very slowly (under 30 wpm). Complicated sentences are beyond your ability to read and understand at the same time, though you can read them aloud for others to interpret. * phonetic script 8 (1 pt) You read slowly (under 120 wpm) and need to make an IQ roll to understand texts with a complex structure, such as technical specs, legal documents, or poetry. * phonetic script 10 (2 pt) You read as fast as you can speak (about 180 words per minute) and understand any written material you could follow if it were spoken aloud. This is the level taught by most basic literacy programs or primary schools, and the level of most well educated readers before the spread of printing. * phonetic script 12 (4 pts) You read silently, and faster than you can speak. Reading does not require any special effort, and can be carried on while performing some other light activity. This is the level of literacy taught by modern school systems. * phonetic script 14 (8 pt) You read very quickly, and are familiar with many variant scripts and orthographies. Analytic writing: An analytic script is a basically phonetic script that also uses a fair number of logographs. Most scripts have some (consider the English '3', '%' and 'e.g.' read aloud as 'three', 'percent' and 'for example') but analytic scripts may have hundreds in common use. They are often used as determinatives, clues to meaning used to distinguish words written identically within the limits of the phonetic system. English does this with irregular spelling and it is certainly debatable which system is better. Game mechanically treat an analytic script exactly like a phonetic one, with the possible exception that it is a bit easier to break ciphers that contain determinatives. Pictographic writing: As used in this document, this is not another type of writing, but a qualifier indicating the signs are elaborately drawn pictures. Such scripts are read normally, but require Calligraphy to write. _____________________________________________________________ Literacy Sidebars _____________________________________________________________ Writing and Mysticism Writing is often associated with mystical forces, a gift of the gods, a tool of magic, the vehicle of divine law. The mystic aura is strong; many still believe Egyptian hieroglyphics contain esoteric wisdom, Kabbalists still meditate on the forms of the letters, and any number of groups are totally convinced they can divine secret information by numerological manipulations of the letters of the Bible, the Koran, the names of people.... Even scholars who should know better will claim runes are a mystic script, and derive rune from raunen ('to whisper', but often glossed as 'mystery'), though the closest cognate is probably ritzen 'scratch'. In some ways the absolute certainty of some historians that writing originated from a single source is related - seeing writing as a unique creation, beyond the power of merely ordinary civilizations. Some forms of writing really are used only for mystical purposes; the 'angelic pens' of the Kabbalah for example, or the use of Mandaean in magical charms. Many scripts survive only in religious contexts, often to write similarly fossil languages, continuing a practice beginning with the use of Sumerian to converse with the gods for 2000 years after it was no longer spoken. Religions have been important to the spread of scripts, missionary religions often teach their script alongside the new faith. Examples are common, Roman spread with Catholicism, and recently globally with Christian missionaries, Arabic spread with Islam, Buddhism carried the Indian family to southeast Asia and Chinese to Korea and Japan, Cyrillic spread to the Slavs with Christianity and then further with Communism. Alternative Reading Methods Some scripts can be read in more than one fashion. Braille for example is intended to be read by touch, but is readable by sight. A second method of reading a script (Braille visually, carved Runes by touch, printed Roman by running a hyper-sensitive tongue over the page and tasting the edges of the ink) costs an extra character point. Alien scripts present more possibilities; changes in surface roughness used in a script readable by ultrasonic sonar might be read by touch, magnetic inks might be visible in some wavelengths and so on. Orthographic Conventions. Even when written in the same phonetic script, different languages may use slightly different symbols for the same sounds, or vice versa. If you know a language and script, but not the conventions, you can write legibly but those who do know the conventions will think your text badly 'misspelled'. Likewise if you read aloud a language you do not know, but written in a script you do, you will mispronounce many words. In most languages the orthography can be mastered in a few hours, even without knowing the language. In languages with conventional but irregular spellings (e.g. English, French, Tibetan) those few hours get you close, but to avoid making any spelling errors always requires Grammar[language] checks. Script Styles Many scripts are simply minor variants of each other, basically identical but sufficiently different in external form to be illegible to the unprepared. These are script styles, and like unfamiliar orthographic conventions it can take several hours to become familiar with a new style. Medieval manuscript hands are a good example, they often have oddly shaped letters, and make extensive use of abbreviations or ligatures that render them illegible to many modern readers. This can usually be ignored, but may be important if someone unfamiliar with a style suddenly needs to read a difficult manuscript hand under a time limit. A Historical Note. The modern success of a few scripts (Roman, Cyrillic, Han, Devanagari, and Arabic) and the global proliferation of literacy can hide the fact that historically most scripts let you read *one* language, and most languages were not written at all. Until the 19th century no more than 5% of all languages had ever been written, and even today only 25% have any literature beyond a dictionary and a bible translation. _____________________________________________________________ Cinematic Literacy _____________________________________________________________ The system presented above is realistic but complicated; a simpler system may be desirable in campaigns where the details are unimportant. The simplest treatment is the traditional GURPS method, a single 10 point Literacy/Illiteracy advantage/disadvantage enables/disables the ability to read any language you know. If you are literate, it isn't possible to learn a language without learning to read it, though it might be allowed as a quirk. A more realistic method is to require a separate 10 point Literacy advantage for each family of scripts. Thus you must purchase Literacy[European], Literacy[North Semitic] or Literacy[Chinese] separately. If you are concerned enough about detail to need anything beyond this, use the full system. _____________________________________________________________ Script Families _____________________________________________________________ AEGEAN FAMILY. A group of early scripts of the Aegean Sea. Each has some signs similar to one of the others. CRETAN PALACE SCRIPT [undeciphered pictographic] was a script (or two, some scholars divide it into an A and B form) used on Crete from -2000 to -1500. There are under 200 signs, so it is probably not logographic. LINEAR A [undeciphered] was an 80 sign script of Crete from -1650 to -1450. LINEAR B [phonetic] was an 87 letter syllabic script used at Knossos on Crete and on the Greek mainland from -1450 to -1200 to write Mycenean Greek. CYPRO-MINOAN [undeciphered] was an 85 sign script used on Cyprus from -1500 to -1100 to write an unknown language. CYPRIOT [phonetic] was a 56 letter syllabic script used on Cyprus from the -8C to the -1C to write Greek and an unknown language called Eteocypriot. CHINESE FAMILY. Most East Asian scripts ultimately descend from Ku Wen. The development of the family is unusual, toward increased logography in Chinese, and mixed scripts in most other languages. The mixed scripts are necessary innovations. Chinese has a word order grammar, but Japanese and Korean are inflecting and meaning critical particles (verb negation for example!) can't be written in Chinese. The logographic scripts are a language family, and like any language family have mutual defaults. Chuan, Hanzi and Hanja default to each other at -4. Ku Wen, Chu Nom and Kanji interdefault with the rest of the family at -6. KU WEN [logographic] also called Shang-Yin or shell and bone, first appeared in China in the -15C. There are few surviving texts other than the Honan Bones divination library found in 1899. It is a complicated 1500 character script but with almost enough phonetic character to qualify as analytic; literacy in Ku Wen cannot exceed Shang Chinese fluency + 4. CHUAN [logographic] Ta chuan 'great seal' is a 5000 character Chinese script standardized about -800. It is based on a list attributed to a scribe named Chou, and is sometimes called Chou-wen. Hsiao chuan 'lesser seal' was drawn up after the great book-burning of -213, in which the majority of written material in China was destroyed by edict of the first Qin emperor. HANZI [logographic] is the modern Chinese script. It developed gradually, as writing adapted to the writing brush (-209) and then paper (+105) standardizing in the +4C in a form called k'ai shu. There are 50,000 characters in modern dictionaries, but under 6000 are common. In 1955 the PRC began a simplification program (Jianzi), and since the 1980s there have been several attempts to agree on an international character set (for software, the current effort is Unicode). It is too early to tell if either will lead to a new literacy, but it is certainly possible. HANJA [logographic] is the form of Hanzi used in Korea. The first writing in Korea is +2C, but is pure Chinese. About +692 a mixed script of Hanja and IDO [phonetic] was introduced by the court of King Sinmum to write Korean. Ido uses simplified Hanja characters as syllable signs. It was never quite standardized and became increasingly confusing as alternate simplified signs were introduced. In +1446 it was replaced by HAN'GUL [phonetic], a nearly alphabetic system built on linguistic principles. Modern Korean is still written in mixed Hanja/Han'gul in South Korea, but is written in pure Han'gul in North Korea. Reading mixed script Korean is a function of Hanja literacy, but effective reading skill may not exceed Korean fluency +4 or Literacy +4 in the phonetic component used in that text. CHU NOM [logographic] From the +2C to +14C the written language of Vietnam was classical literary Chinese. In 1343 it officially became Vietnamese written in Chu Nom, a Hanzi modification with a substantial phonetic component. Skill in Chu Nom is limited to Vietnamese fluency +4. Modern Vietnamese uses the Roman alphabet, introduced in the late +16C. KANJI [logographic] is the version of Hanzi used in Japan, read in a mixture of Japanese, Chinese, and traditional Japanese mispronunciation of several archaic Chinese dialects. The earliest writing in Japan is in Chinese from the +2C, but after the +7C Japanese was written in a mixed script of Kanji and various phonetic scripts. Initially simplified Kanji characters were used syllabically, a system called MANYOGANA [phonetic] or Mana; but in the +9C the regular KANA [phonetic] system developed. Kana has two important styles: Katakana is exclusively a phonetic auxiliary; but Hiragana was once the only hand allowed to women, who wrote significant literature in pure Kana. Modern Japanese is written in a mix of Kanji, both styles of Kana and often Romanji (Roman alphabet) for European loan-words. Reading mixed script Japanese is primarily a function of Kanji literacy, but is limited to Japanese fluency +4 or Literacy +4 in the phonetic script(s) used in that text. CHINESE PERIPHERAL. In addition to the previous family of Chinese derived scripts, there are many scripts around the margins of China that may show Chinese influence, but are either so radically modified or so poorly known it can't be proven. KHITAN [undeciphered] The Liao dynasty of Khitan (northeast Mongolia, 907 to 1125) used this script, which survived until about 1200. About 200 symbols externally akin to Chinese are known, but few are deciphered. The script was probably a mix of logographic and syllabic signs. LO-LO [logographic] was a script used by the Yi peoples of southern China from before +1533 until the late +19C. Some signs resemble Chinese, but many do not and there a strong phonetic component. Literacy is limited to fluency +4 in the appropriate Yi language. Today Yi is printed in Pollard or Roman. MIAO-TZU [logographic] a script of the Miao (Hmong) people of southwestern China. Very little is known about it, almost all from a single informant in 1912, who may have invented substantial parts of it on the spot. NA-KHI (Mo-so) [memory aid pictographic] is a script of southern China used by many writing historians as an example of a 'pictographic' or 'ideographic' category of writing. All known texts are prompt books containing only the essential words of chants, the rest were supplied from memory by the priestly readers. Tradition says it was invented about 1200, but there is no evidence either way. The modern Na-khi write in either Hanzi or Tibetan. NIU-CHIH (Yu-chen) [analytic] a Tungus speaking nation of north China, in 1119 they adopted the Khitan script, but transformed it into a unique script by 1138. The Niu-chih script is rare after the Mongol conquest in 1233, but it survived until finally replaced by Manchu about 1650. SHINJI [phonetic] are a group of scripts from Japan: Ahiru, Anaichi, Hizan, Ijumo, Iyo and Morisune. Traditional Japanese sources assert they are an ancient parallel development of Korean Han'gul, which is clearly impossible since Han'gul is an early modern invented script. They are now believed to be late forgeries, no examples predate +1770. TANGUT(Hsi-hsia) [logographic] was the script of the Si-Hia kingdom (between China and Tibet). Legend attributes it to King Wei-i following his marriage to a Khitani princess in 1036. It survived the Mongol conquest and was used into the +15C. YAO [phonetic] the script of the Yao people of southern China. Information is scarce, mostly fragments in Chinese sources, though the Yao are said to possess complete books in it. CUNEIFORM FAMILY. Cuneiform is a term for any script in which the signs are built from a characteristic wedge (or nail) shaped mark made by pressing a prismatic stylus into wet clay. Despite the similarities of appearance, the internal structure of the various cuneiform scripts can be very different. SUMERO-AKKADIAN CUNEIFORM is the oldest form of writing. Until the spread of Aramaic in the -7C, Akkadian was the koine of the Near East, both the language and script are found all over. The script was also used to write many other languages; Assyrian and Babylonian are Akkadian dialects, but Eblaite (-2500) was an unrelated Semitic tongue, Hurrian (=Mitanni, -1800 to -1350) and Urartu (=Chaldean, -900 to -600) were Dagestani, Hittite and Luwian (-1500 to -1200) were Indo-european, Hatti (a Hittite liturgical language) was probably West Caucasian, Canaanite was Semitic, there are even documents in Egyptian. The script did change with time; treat it as a set of 4 literacies: SUMERIAN [logographic pictographic] appeared around -3200 in the lower Tigris-Euphrates valley. At first consisting of pictographic line drawings, it became stylized, and was eventually drawn entirely with cuneiform wedges. Most Sumerian texts are just about evenly split between logographs and phonetic signs, so skill is limited to Sumerian fluency + 4. OLD AKKADIAN [analytic] developed about -2500 when Sumerian was modified to write Akkadian, the unrelated Semitic language of the northern valley. In the process it lost its logographic character, more than 90% of an Akkadian text is phonetic, and become entirely cuneiform. MIDDLE AKKADIAN [analytic] developed around -1600, perhaps because of the Kassite conquest (-1650 to -1250), and continued through the Assyrian period (-1250 to -600). NEW AKKADIAN [analytic] was used to write New Babylonian beginning about -900, and was the standard form from -600 until the last text in +75. UGARIT [phonetic] also called Ras Shamra, was a 32 letter alphabet used in Syria and Palestine from -1600 to -1200. Most texts are in Ugaritic, a close relative of Hebrew, but there are some in other Semitic languages and in Hurrian, which was common in Syria early in this period. NEO-ELAMITE [phonetic] was a 113 letter syllabic script invented by the Elamites about -1300, replacing the Elamite script. It remained in use until the fall of Persia. PERSIAN CUNEIFORM [phonetic] was a 41 letter alphabet used from -600 until the fall of Persia (-336). Tradition attributes it to one of the kings of Persia, though legends disagree on which one. EGYPTIAN FAMILY. Egyptian is the second or third oldest written language, and one of the longest lived. Over its long history it has been written in many scripts, this is the native one which never spread much beyond Egypt. The familiar names of the scripts are late Greek coinages based on the use of the scripts about the -3C; it isn't clear if the Egyptians considered them different scripts or not. HIEROGLYPHIC [analytic pictographic] was an analytic script, but a complex one with 120 phonetic signs and 600 determinatives. It appeared about -3050 and was essentially unchanged down to its last inscription in +394. It was used mostly for inscriptions. HIERATIC [analytic] was a cursive form of hieroglyphics written on papyrus. Though always a one to one transcription of hieroglyphics, the later forms are different enough to justify a separate literacy. Ink on papyrus writing is as old as -2800, but it isn't until -2000 that it is sufficiently stylized to be a distinct script. Demotic replaced hieratic in the -7C except in religious contexts. The last text dates to +212. DEMOTIC [analytic] developed from hieratic in Lower Egypt during the period of disunity from -1100 to -712 and in -664 became the official script of the reunited state. The last Demotic document dates to +473. Demotic is even more cursive than hieratic, with lots of abbreviations and ligatures, and is commonly regarded as much harder to read. EUROPEAN FAMILY. Most of the alphabets of Europe descend from Greek, which itself is adapted from Phoenician. GREEK [phonetic] dates from the -8C. Each early Greek dialect (Dorian, Eastern Aegean/Attic, and Western Greek/Sicilian) and several other Aegean languages such as Lycian (-5C to -3C, southwestern Asia Minor, probably a continuation of Luwian), Phyrgian(-7C to -6C Asia Minor), Pamphylian (-4C to -2C Asia Minor) and Eteo-Cretan (Praisos) used a somewhat different style. The script was not standardized at 24 letters until the -4C. Greek script spread all over the Mediterranean, and was common in the East as well after Alexander (-330). There are texts in Egyptian, Hebrew, Persian, Phoenician, Punic, Aramaic, Pahlavi, and many other languages, but despite its once wide distribution and enormous importance to Western civilization, today only the Greek language is written in Greek script. LYDIAN [phonetic] was a 26 letter script of the west coast of Asia Minor (around Sardis from the -7C to -4C). Lydian was probably an Anatolian language, but there is a strong unidentified substratum of something else. CARIAN [phonetic] was a script of western Asia Minor, south of Lydia and east of Lycia during the -6C. About half the known texts are graffiti in Egypt, written by Carian mercenaries. The language is undeciphered and the script itself is a mix of Greek and Cypriot. MESSAPIAN [phonetic] is known from a few hundred inscriptions around Apulia in Italy from the -4C to -1C. The Messapian language is an undeciphered non- Indo-European tongue related to those of Illyria and the Veneti. It is in a script somewhere between Greek and Roman alphabet, and is pronounceable but not readable. It is typical of an entire range of inscriptions found along the Adriatic coasts from the -8C, and the rest of Italy from the -7C, such as Tyrrhenian, Venetic, Oscan, Umbran, Piceni, Faliscan and Etruscan. ROMAN [phonetic] the Roman alphabet split from Greek about -650 to write Etruscan, from which it passed to Latin. Far and away the most common script today, it spread with the Roman Empire, then Catholicism, and later the European missionaries and colonial empires. It has been used for virtually every language on Earth and is the usual script of thousands of languages first written by European or American missionaries. During the Middle Ages many very variant styles were in use (later Insular Anglo-Irish and Merovingian chancellery hand could probably qualify as separate scripts) but with the advent of printing it re-standardized on the classical model. COPTIC [phonetic] was a 32 letter alphabet used to write Egyptian from the +4C. It was gradually replaced by Arabic, and rare by the +9C. By the +13C both the language and script survived only as a Christian liturgical language. There are also some Nubian language manuscripts from the +10C and +11C, written in Coptic with 4 additional letters. GOTHIC [phonetic] was a 27 letter alphabet invented in the +4C by bishop Wulfia(d +388) for his translation of the Bible into Visigoth (at the time spoken in the northern Balkans). The script vanished by the +7C. GLAGOLITIC [phonetic] is a 40 letter alphabet of Old Slavonic traditionally credited to Sts. Cyril and Methodius about +860. This may or may not true, the oldest texts are late +10C and it is not particularly similar to Greek. Slightly different styles developed for Bulgarian and Croatian as the languages diverged. It was displaced by Cyrillic in Orthodox areas by the +13C and by Roman in most Catholic ones by the +15C, surviving only among Catholics using the Slavonic liturgy (originally in defiance of Papal edict) CYRILLIC [phonetic] is an originally 43 letter alphabet also attributed to St. Cyril about +860. It has +9C examples and a clear similarity to Greek. Cyrillic is the second or third most common script in the modern world, spread with the Orthodox faith, then the Russian Empire and recently Communism. It is used for most Slavic languages and many languages within the old Russian and Soviet empires, though it is losing ground in Central Asia as those states adopt other scripts as gestures of independence. ALBANIAN has been written in Greek, Roman, and Arabic scripts, but local alphabets existed: Elbasan, Buthakukye and Argyrokastron for example. It is likely these are cryptic alphabets of recent (+18C or later) origin. INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET [phonetic] is a technical alphabet of about 90 letters and accent marks derived from the Roman alphabet; designed by to be sufficient to write any spoken human language. In fact several phonetic alphabets have been introduced since 1860, but IPA seems to have finally become standard. In the last decades of the +20C languages written for the first time sometimes used simplifications of it. INDIAN FAMILY. The origin of the Indian scripts is obscure. That is not surprising, their entire history is plagued by gaps empty of texts. Partly that's climate, but it's also that writing was considered inferior to memorization, and seldom used for the religious texts other cultures so carefully preserve. There is no credible evidence for a link to the Indus Valley script, and the customary linkage to Aramaic is no better. The most commonly cited evidence is early Indian inscriptions run boustrophedon, which is supposed to be a transition between Aramaic right to left and the modern left to right. This is not exactly compelling proof. Neither a linkage to South Semitic via Indian Ocean trade nor independent invention in the -3C should be ruled out. Most Indian scripts are syllabic, indicating vowels by modifying the basic consonant signs. The letter order many scripts retain comes from a tradition of phonetic studies associated with the recitation of religious texts. An important feature of writing in India is the frequent use of two scripts, one for literary and religious texts (often in Arabic or Sanskrit) and one for daily correspondence. BRAHMI [phonetic] (=Kushan) is the earliest ancestor of the scripts of India, first found in the Asoka inscriptions of -251, though there are a few possibly older coins, and the distinct local styles in the earliest texts suggest some earlier history. By the +4C Brahmi had clearly split into a northern and southern branch. GUPTA [phonetic] was the main stream of the northern branch from the +4C to +6C. During this time texts shifted from the local languages (the Prakrits) to an archaized literary language (Sanskrit). CENTRAL ASIAN GUPTA [phonetic] (=Sakas) was descendent of Gupta, perhaps Kharosthi influenced, used for several languages of central Asia from the +5C to +8C. The most important were the languages of the kingdom of Khotan (which was either Indo-Aryan or Iranian) and those of the Arsi and Kusan kingdoms, which were Tocharian. TIBETAN [phonetic] is a derivative of Gupta used from +639 to the present. Originally used for the languages of western Tibet, it soon developed into a literary language, and later spread to the other Tibetan languages, Mongolian, even Chinese in western China. LEPCHA [phonetic] is a daughter of Tibetan invented in 1720 to write the Rong language of Sikkim. SIDDHAMATRIKA [phonetic] (=Kutila) was the major offshoot of Gupta in northern India from the +6C to the +9C. It was here the continuous top line found in many Indian scripts first appeared. NAGARI [phonetic] is a daughter of Gupta (or Siddhamatrika), and the normal script of Sanskrit by the +11C. Its modern style, Devanagari, is also the literary script of Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Rajasthani, Mundari, Kanarese, Gondi, and most Indian languages first written in the last two centuries. KAITHI [phonetic] is probably a sister to Nagari, used as a correspondence hand alongside literary Devanagari from Gujerat to Bihar. BENGALI [phonetic] is the second most common script of India. An +11C daughter of Kutila, though it wasn't standardized until the +16C. It is now used to write Bengali, Assamese, Meithei/Manipuri, Santali, and several minority languages of northeastern India. NEWARI [phonetic] is the script of Nepali. It is akin to Bengali, probably a sister script as the oldest text dates to +1179. It is used for both the Newari language (which is Tibeto-Burman and the original language of the Kathmandu valley) and for Nepali. MAITHILI [phonetic] is a relative of Bengali used by the Brahmin caste to write literary Bihari. Most Bihari speakers write in Devanagari or Kaithi. ORIYA [phonetic] is the peculiar script of the Oriya language. Structurally similar to Bengali, its distinctive shape, with prominent arc and much reduced remainder of each letter is a result of writing on palm leaves, which split easily if scored with straight lines. GUJERATI [phonetic] is a polished form of Kaithi that has in the last century replaced Devanagari for literary Gujerati. MAHAJANI [phonetic] is the correspondence hand of Marwari, a Rajasthani dialect and merchants tongue all over upper India. It probably descends from Nagari. MODI [phonetic] is the correspondence hand of Marathi. It is probably a +13C daughter of Nagari. SARADA [phonetic] a late +8C daughter of Gupta, still used as a correspondence script for Kashmiri (literary Kashmiri is written in Arabic or Devanagari, though recently Sarada has been printed) and in the Takri style for the dialects of Western Pahari (Dogri). LANDA [phonetic] was the correspondence hand of northwest India for the last 5 centuries, perhaps longer. In 1868 a polished form of the Baniya style became the literary script of Sindhi. GURUMUKHI [phonetic] is refinement of Landa by the 2nd Sikh guru Angad in 1540. It is used for Sikh religious texts, and is the main script of the Punjab. SOUTHERN INDIC is a cover term for the southern branch of the descendants of Brahmi, used primarily for the Dravidian languages of southern India. The Central Indian (=Box-Headed, +4C to +6C), Western Indian (+5C to +9C) and Younger Kalinga (+7C to +12C) branches left no certain descendants. The Kadamba and Grantha branches did. KADAMBA [phonetic] was used from the late +5C to the mid +10C across central south India. KANARESE [phonetic] is a daughter of Kadamba developed in the +10C, and still in use to write Kanarese (Karnatic style) and Telugu (Telinga style). OLD GRANTHA [phonetic] was used to write Sanskrit in eastern Madras and the surrounding kingdoms between the +4C and +9C. MODERN GRANTHA [phonetic] is a daughter of Grantha first attested in the +12C. It is the eastern continuation of Old Grantha, and is still used by the Jains of Madras and the Brahmins of Tanjore. ARYAELUTTU [phonetic] is the western continuation of Old Grantha, appearing about the +9C to write Sanskrit and Tulu. In the +17C it also displaced Vatteluttu as the script of Malayalam. TAMIL [phonetic] is the 20 letter script of Tamil, the oldest and probably the most important of the Dravidian literatures. The earliest Tamil texts are in Grantha, but since the +8C it has used an independent script not clearly related to Grantha. It may be connected to Vatteluttu. VATTELUTTU [phonetic] was a rounded script also used to write Tamil from the +8C to the +15C. It has the same 20 letters as Tamil, but is externally quite different. The earliest examples are deeds of gift to Jewish and Syrian (Manichean) settlements, which suggests a link to North Semitic. Scholars are divided on the history of Vatteluttu, proposing everything from a Tamil cursive to introduction by Phoenician merchants. It was used to write Malayalam until the +17C, and survived and in the Keleluttu style among the Mappilas traders until the early +20C. FURTHER INDIC is a cover term for those scripts found outside of India proper which are of Indian derivation but impossible to assign any more certainly. As they are generally affiliated with early Buddhism, many sources derive them from the Pali Buddhist texts, but many of them are older than that, as indeed are both the Hindu and Buddhist expansions into southeast Asia. CHAMPA [phonetic] was a Hindu kingdom in south Vietnam and Cambodia from +192. The oldest texts are in Sanskrit in a script similar to the Box-headed branch of South Indic. By the +9C the local language, Cham, was written in what may be a derivative of that early script. The modern form is called Akhar Thrah. KHMER [phonetic] (=Cambodian) is a 74 letter script used to write Khmer, the major language of Cambodia. It dates from about the +6C, possibly adapted from the local variety of Grantha used to write Sanskrit, but there is some similarity to the modern form of Cham. The main style is Aksar Mul, but there are many variants. PALI [phonetic] is the script in which the Buddhist scriptures, written in a medieval Prakrit also called Pali, spread from India. Burmese is written in a slightly rounded style of Pali used since the +11C, and styles of the script were also used by the Ahom, Khamti, Mon and Pegu kingdoms, and in modern times by the Shan, Karen and Yao peoples. NAGPURI [phonetic] is a script of the Nagpur district used to write Bengali. It is apparently akin to the script of the Ahom kingdom (+12C to +18C, basically a style of Pali) LAO [phonetic] is apparently derived from the Mon Pali script of about the +10C, and stabilized in the +13C. It is now by several cultures in and around Laos under a variety of names. SINHALESE [phonetic] is the modern script of the main language of Ceylon. The oldest texts on Ceylon are -2C Brahmi inscriptions. The modern script begins to take shape in the +9C. It is disputed whether it is an offshoot of Grantha or Pali, but it is certainly a major break from the earlier texts. MALDIVIAN [phonetic] The oldest Maldivian script is Evela Akuru (+14C), which is similar to early Sinhalese. It gradually developed into Dives Akuru, which itself was replaced by the Tana script in the +18C. Tana is an obviously invented script compounded from Arabic and Dives Akuru about equally. SIAMESE [phonetic] (=Old Thai, =Boromat) is traditionally dated to +1283, but is somewhat older than that. The favored theory is that it is a derivative of Champa-Khmer with Pali influence (i.e. nobody can tell what it is most closely related to). THAI [phonetic] is the quite different script now used to write Thai, which may or may not be a daughter of Siamese. Unlike all other Indian scripts Thai is alphabetic, consisting of 44 consonants, plus 22 vowels and 4 tones often written *around* the consonant. It too is used by many neighboring cultures under a variety of names. KAVI [phonetic] is the oldest script of Indonesia, originally used on Java to write Sanskrit, probably before the +732. By the +9C it was also used for Javanese. Kavi was spread through the islands by alternating Javan and Sumatran imperial powers. After the last collapse of Javan power in +1478 the script drifted somewhat, different styles are now used for Javanese, Balinese, Sudanese and Madurese. BATAK [phonetic] has been used to write Batak (a dialect cluster of north and west Sumatra) from an indefinite period. It may be a daughter of Kavi. The scripts of Redjang and Lampung are probably styles of Batak. Batak is now usually written in Roman alphabet, and the script is in rare. BUGIS [phonetic] is a script of Sulawesi used to write Buginese(=Macassarese). It is still used to print some traditional literature, but is becoming rare. Its origins are obscure, variously attributed to Kavi and Batak. PHILIPPINES when the Spanish arrived there were several native scripts in the Philippines but little information, and no actual texts, have been preserved, more from climate and lack of interest than active Spanish book burning. It is known from Spanish sources there were several scripts, though they may have been related. Some sources indicate there was a survival into recent times (at least +19C), variously Mangyan, Tagbanuwa or Palawan, but none provide a sample. PUMSO [phonetic] is a script probably derived from the Indian family used in old Korean Buddhist contexts to transliterate Sanskrit words. Its history is unknown, but it is at least +15C, if not older. IRANIAN AND CENTRAL ASIAN FAMILY. Descendants of Aramaic (or in some cases possibly Syriac) modified to write the Indo-European and Altaic languages of Central Asia. By the -8C the Aramaic language and script were the Assyrian and later Persian administrative language of Iran and much of the Near East. After the fall of Persia the Aramaic script began to break up. The Greek script was common for a time, but in the east the daughters of Aramaic became standard. DIN DABIRE [phonetic] is a 48 letter script used only for the Avestas, the Zoroastrian scriptures. They are written in 'Avestan', a relative of Old Persian which may have been the language of Eastern Iran when the text was composed. The date of composition and of the script are not at all certain. KHAROSTHI [phonetic] is a daughter of Aramaic used in Afghanistan, Turkistan, Scythia and northern India from the -3C to the +7C. It is one of the two scripts of the Asoka inscriptions, the earliest texts in India, and it shows Indian influence in its mandatory use of regular dashes to mark vowels, but is otherwise not similar to Brahmi. PAHLAVI is a term both for the Middle Persian languages and their scripts. There are three literacies: ARSACID PAHLAVI [phonetic] also called Parthian, from the -1C to +8C BOOK PAHLAVI [phonetic] also called Eastern Pahlavi, +7C to +8C SASSANIAN [analytic] a bizarre script containing logograms that *look* phonetic, and actually are archaic Aramaic words, but were pronounced in Middle Persian translation, not the Aramaic reading. It appears toward the end of the -1C and may still be in use in central Asia in the +14C. SOGDIAN [phonetic] was and East Iranian language used as the lingua franca of the cities of Turkistan, Khotan and Sinkiang. Both the language and its 19 letter script were used from the +2C to the +13C, though the majority of texts date from the +9C and +10C. Like Sassanian, there are Aramaic logograms in Sogdian, though far fewer. MANICHEAN [phonetic] was the principal script of the Manichean faith, often attributed to Mani himself (circa +250). The Manicheans were dispersed from Persia in the +3C, and flourished in Central Asia in the +7C and +8C. The script survived until the +13C. There are texts in Middle Persian, East Turkic, Tocharian and even Chinese. ARMENIAN [phonetic] is a 36 letter alphabet invented by St. Mesrop in +405. It is of obscure origin, perhaps a mixture of Aramaic and Greek. The modern cursive styles began to develop in the +12C GEORGIAN [phonetic] is a 38 letter alphabet also attributed to St. Mesrop, or at least the Khutsuri style is. It is probably a daughter of Aramaic, as it retains in their proper order several letters missing from Greek. The modern style called Mkhedruli (Lay Hand) is externally so different it is sometimes attributed to another source, but probably derives from the +13C cursive. ALBANIAN [phonetic] was the script of the Albanians of the Caucasus (not the unrelated Albanians of the Balkans) also attributed to St. Mesrop. The Albanians and their script vanished from history in the +11C, though it may be preserved in an Armenian source. KOK TURKI [phonetic] was a 28 letter script used from the +7C to +8C in northern Mongolia and Turkestan to write early Turkic. It is generally thought to descend from Sogdian. It is sometimes called Turkic Runes (for its angular shape not any relation to Runic) or Siberian. OLD HUNGARIAN [phonetic] was a descendent of Kok Turki used by the Szeklers of Transylvania in late medieval Hungary (+14C to +16C). It isn't clear how the script was transmitted, but the Hungarians were not far from the Turks in Central Asia when Kok Turki was in use. UIGHUR [phonetic] is a Sogdian derivative appearing in +7C central Asia, initially to write Old Turkish. It became rare by the +10C, but revived as a Mongol administrative script in +1227. MONGOLIAN [phonetic] is a daughter of the Uighur administrative script. In the +13C several scripts were used by the Mongols. The simplified Kalika Uighur style finally became official in +1310, winning out over Passepa Tibetan. In the 1940s it was replaced by Cyrillic but has recently been revived as the official Mongolian script. The Manchu script (from +1632, now nearly extinct) is a style of Mongolian. YEZIDI [phonetic] The Yezidi are a non-Moslem religious group speaking Kurdish. Yezidi is a cryptic form of Arabic (i.e. a substitution cipher) used to write Kurdish in the Yezidi holy books. Some regard these books as pre-Islamic, some as +10C to +12C and some as +19C forgeries. MESOAMERICAN The scripts of ancient Mexico have been badly misrepresented by many historians of writing, dismissed as pictographs or even decoration. True they are pictographic, but many have a substantial phonetic component. Though all share some common artistic features, and most have a tradition of dated inscriptions, several in the same calendar(the Long Count), it is not clear how they are related. ZAPOTEC [undeciphered] is the oldest script in Mesoamerica, used in the Valley of Oaxaca and Monte Alban from -500 to +700. Little is known about it, even the language not certainly Zapotec. There don't seem to be enough signs for a logographic system, but there aren't enough texts to be sure. KAMINALIJUYU [undeciphered] is known from one site in Guatemala, from sometime between the -1C and the +2C. It is not similar to any other script. EPI-OLMEC [analytic pictographic] also called Mixe-Zoquean, La Mojarra, Tres Zapotes, and Tuxtla, this is a recently deciphered script of Chiapas and southern Vera Cruz, the onetime Olmec center. The language is an early stage of proto-Zoquean, still close to proto-Mixe. The first texts date to -36 (using the Long Count). MAYAN [analytic pictographic] Long thought logographic, it is now clear Mayan is a phonetic script, though polyvalent (i.e. with several signs for each sound). Like Egyptian, it has the tools to write in single syllables, and a scribal tradition of not doing so. Mayan has about 1000 characters, counting stylistic variations between languages - Yucatec and Cholan were both written. The oldest text dates to +199, the last carved stele to +909, but the script survived up to +1700. Unfortunately only 3 later books still exist. XOCHICALCO [undeciphered] is known from numerous carved stelae at a single site occupied from +700 to +900. CENTRAL MEXICAN. The scripts of the central plateau are fairly primitive. AZTEC is typical. Most of an Aztec book is iconographic with no fixed reading, but figures or places often have associated pictographs which, when read with their Nawa names, approximate the name of figure. The MIXTEC, BORGIA CODEX, TEOTEHUACAN and TULA TOLTEC scripts also function this way, though the syllables are read in different languages. Aztec texts date from the +14C on, Mixtec texts date from the +11C on, Teotehuacan flourished from the +8C to +10C and the oldest texts at Tula may be +4C. Game mechanically interpret the general meaning like any work of art, and buy CENTRAL MEXICAN [phonetic pictographic] to read the names. NORTH SEMITIC FAMILY. The original Semitic script was probably a 27 (22 in most derivatives) letter consonantal script, written right to left, with the letter ordering preserved in most descendants ('aleph, bet, gimmel, daleth...). North Semitic originated around the Eastern Mediterranean between -1800 and -1600. The oldest indisputable examples are younger, but the letters of Ugaritic cuneiform are in the Semitic letter order, so it must at least that old. PROTO-NORTH SEMITIC [phonetic] is a collection of very short texts found in Syria, Palestine and the Sinai from -1700 on. They might be early forms of the alphabet, or they might something (or several somethings) totally different interpreted as Semitic by deluded scholars, opinion is deeply divided. The most famous are the Proto-Sinaitic and Old Canaanite graffiti. PHOENICIAN [phonetic] unquestionably alphabetic texts first appear in Phoenicia. Phoenician (-12C to -3C) and its colonial branches Cypro-Phoenician (-9C to -2C) and Punic (-10C to +3C) are found all over the Mediterranean, and are probably ancestral to all the alphabets west of Palestine. IBERIAN [undeciphered] known from a few short texts in Spain, Portugal and southern France. Its dates are uncertain and the family affinity of the language is unknown, with the Berber, Basque and Semitic being the favorite proposals, but the script is obviously North Semitic. Note, there is another undeciphered script of this region, Turdetian, with which it should not be confused. CANAANITE [phonetic] appeared in the -10C, and includes Early Hebrew, Moabite, Edomite and Ammonite texts. It declined after the -6C, though it was used by the Jewish nationalist movements from -1C to +2C and is still used liturgically in some Samaritan communities. ARAMAIC [phonetic] was the script of Syria, differentiated by the -9C. After the fall of Syria to the Assyrians in the -8C, Aramaic and its script became the common language of Assyria, and later the chancellery hand of the Persian Empire. With the Persian collapse in -330 it split into several branches ancestral to most of the scripts of Asia. SQUARE HEBREW [phonetic] Aramaic became the script of Judaism with the reforms of Ezra in the -5C, and evolved into Square Hebrew by the -3C, though it wasn't standardized until the -1C, and punctuation (the vowel marking system) is even later. There are styles like Rabbinical hand which are not square, but the name remains. NABATEAN [phonetic] was a derivative of Aramaic used in the commercial centers of northern Arabia, particularly the Nabatean state of Petra (-150 to +106) but as far north as Damascus and as late as +328. The people spoke Old North Arabic but most texts are in Aramaic. The later forms, ancestral to Arabic, are usually called Sinaitic, not to be confused with proto-Sinaitic. PALMYRENE [phonetic] was a descendent of Aramaic used in Syria from the -1C to the +3C, primarily around the city of Palmyra. During the +2C and early +3C Palmyra was a commercial power, and inscriptions (mostly grave markers) are known from all over the Roman Empire. SYRIAC [phonetic] a cursive descendent of Aramaic used from the +1C on. By the +5C, the Syriac Estrangela style was a major Christian script. It spread into central Asia with the 'heretical' Christian sects (Monophysites, Nestorians, and Jacobites). Syriac began to decline in the +7C, and now survives only as a liturgical script used to write Neo-Aramaic in Azerbaijan and Malayalam in Kerala. ARABIC [phonetic] is a daughter of Nabatean, though there are few texts between the last Nabatean and the writing of the Koran in +663. Arabic is the most divergent North Semitic script, with 29 letters in a nonstandard order. It is famous for its calligraphic styles, some virtually illegible. The earliest, the angular monumental Kufic and the more cursive Naskhi, are also the bases of most later variants. Arabic spread with Islam and is the 4th or 5th most common script today. Hausa, Persian, and Urdu are the most important languages to use it, along with Turkish (until 1928), Malay and Swahili which have recently converted to Roman. It has been used for everything from Spanish to Chinese to Javanese to Mande. MANDAIC [phonetic] is a script of the Mandaean (Nazaraean, Sabi'un or Johnine) Gnostics of southern Iraq. It is a daughter of Nabatean dating from the +6C used in the Mandaic holy books, and at least into the early +20C as a component of magical amulets. It may be extinct. SOUTH SEMITIC FAMILY. A family of consonantal scripts of debated origin, usually linked to North Semitic by a hypothetical proto-Semitic alphabet. SABEAN [phonetic] a 29 letter alphabet used to write the (non-Arabic) South Arabian languages (Hadramutic, Himyaritic, Minaean, Qatabanic, Sabaean) from the -10C until +600. The Old Abyssian script of the South Semitic kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia is effectively a Sabean style and lasted until +800. NORTHERN ARABIAN [phonetic] was used in Arabia and as far north as Syria from about -600 to +400 to write the dialects of Old North Arabian. The language was ancestral to Arabic, but the written forms (Dedanic, Thamudic, Lihyanic and Safaitic) were not on the direct line to modern Arabic. There may be several different scripts, but it is difficult to separate them, as many texts are short, poorly executed rock graffiti. ETHIOPIC [phonetic] appeared in the +4C to write Christian texts in Ge'ez. By the +15C it was used for all the written Ethiopian languages (Amharic, Oromo, Tigre and Tigriya), and it has been adapted to other languages of Ethiopia and Somalia in modern times. It is a syllabic script, marking 7 vowels by regular modification of the 26 consonant signs (33 in Amharic after the +14C). This is sometimes considered a link to Indian, which is not impossible given the Indian Ocean trade routes. INVENTED SCRIPTS A group of scripts not related to any others, for which we have plausible historical records of their invention. For the most part this limits them to fairly modern scripts. BAMUM was invented by Sultan Njoya of the Bamum in Cameroon in 1896. It was repeatedly revised, changing from a pictographic logographic script to a phonetic syllabary by 1910. Treat it as two distinct literacies: BAMUM LEWA [logographic pictographic] and BAMUM A KA U KU [phonetic]. After the death of Njoya in 1932 it began to go out of use. BRAILLE [phonetic] is the most successful of the raised alphabets intended to be read by touch. There had been attempts since the +16C to create a script for the blind. Louis Braille's innovation in the 1840s was to abandon the shapes of the Roman alphabet for a regular grid of dots, allowing the script to be written with fairly simple equipment. CIRTH [phonetic] is a form of Runes invented by J.R.R. Tolkien, primarily to write the Dwarvish of Middle Earth, but is often used by fans to write Elvish languages. CHEROKEE [phonetic] is an 85 letter syllabic script invented by Sikwayi around 1820. It was very successful in the +19C, but is now rare. Many letters shapes come from the Roman alphabet, but the phonetic assignments are totally arbitrary, a valuable warning to decipherers of other scripts. CREE [phonetic] is a 44 sign syllabary invented in 1833 by the missionary James Evans to write Cree, Ojibwa and the neighboring Algonkian languages. It was somewhat successful, with variants used for several Algonkian and Muskogee languages, and a dialect of Inuit. MENDE [phonetic] a 190 sign syllabic script invented by Kisimi Kamala in the late +19C or early +20C. It is used in Sierra Leone to write Mende. pIqaD [phonetic] an alphabet invented at Paramount, and used randomly in Star Trek productions, but now sometimes mapped to Mark Okrand's Roman based Klingon orthography. POLLARD [phonetic] a syllabic script invented by missionaries in 1904 to print the Bible in Miao and later adapted to several other languages of Southern China such as Lisu and the Lolo languages. The missionaries were apparently oblivious to the existence of the Miao script. SHAVIAN [phonetic] is a 44 letter script invented by Kingsley Read in response to a contest in G.B. Shaw's will to invent a rational English alphabet. It is sometimes used in modern puzzles. SOMALI [phonetic] is a 29 letter alphabet created by 'Isman Yusef. In 1960 it was officially adopted by Somalia along with Roman to write Somali, but it has never become popular. TENGWAR [phonetic] is a cursive script used to write Quenya, Sindarin and several other languages of Middle Earth invented by J.R.R. Tolkien. VAI [analytic] is a 226 sign script used in Sierra Leone and Liberia to write Mandingo. It is sometimes credited to Nomoru Doalu Bukele around 1830, sometimes claimed to be ancient. YAMANA [phonetic] is a 48 letter alphabet invented by Thomas Bridges in 1877 to write Yamana, a language of Tierra del Fuego. It was apparently used only in his Yamana-English dictionary. MISCELLANEOUS SCRIPTS Scripts of unknown origins not related to any other scripts. BALTI ALPHABET [phonetic] several +15C manuscripts in Balti (a Kashmiri dialect of Tibetan) are written in this script. Modern Balti uses the Arabic script. CAROLINE ISLANDS [uncertain] In 1913 a part of a phonetic script was recorded on the island of Woleai (Uleai) where it was known imperfectly by 5 men. There is also some anecdotal evidence from earlier periods for a script on some of the other islands of the group. Whether the older script existed, whether the Woleai script was related to it or a recent invention, and how the complete script worked are unknown. CUNA [logographic? pictographic] was a script of unknown origins used by the Cuna indians in Panama. Accounts are contradictory about its nature, it may be iconographic. EASTER ISLAND [undeciphered] is a possible pictographic script found on several wooden tablets and staves on Easter Island. Crackpot claims of decipherment abound, but there is a good chance it is not even writing, but a mnemonic device for remembering chants. ELAMITE [analytic] was the original script of Elam, a state in the Zagros mountains centered at Susa. It is approximately contemporary with Sumerian, no later than -3000, and lasted until replaced by Neo-Elamite cuneiform about -1300. FINGER SPELLINGS are systems of signing the letters of an alphabet. They are simply phonetic alphabets allowing users to 'write' each other in a known written language. Most of them map to the Roman alphabet, though there is a Russian Cyrillic version. They are not mutually intelligible and can be radically different; for example the American system uses one hand against the British two. Finger spelling should not be confused with sign language. They can be used together (to spell out proper names in a sign conversation for example) but are not the same. GERZE [phonetic?] is a *very* incompletely known script of Senegal. Only about 10 signs are recorded. GUBLITIC [phonetic](=Byblos Pseudo-hieroglyphic) is a syllabic script used to write Phoenician in a few -20C to -12C(?) inscriptions at Byblos (ancient Gubla). They should not be confused with the Byblos inscriptions, which are some of the first examples of the Phoenician alphabet and overlap the end of this time period. HIEROGLYPHIC HITTITE [analytic pictographic] is a script of 400 signs (about 60 of them phonetic) used from -1500 to -600 to write Luwian. Most texts are from Syria from the -10C to the -8C. It is *not* related to hieroglyphics, nor is it Hittite, though it is related. Actual Hittite was written in Akkadian cuneiform. INDUS VALLEY [undeciphered] was a script used in the Indus Valley from -2500 to -1600. It is sometimes called Harrapan or Mohenjo Daro, after the main sites of the Indus civilization. It has been found on thousands of seals and seal impressions, none over 17 characters long, and apparently nothing else. Despite the claims of some Indian fundamentalists, it is not related to the modern scripts of India. KALMOSIN (Angelic Pens) [phonetic] is a cryptic script associated with the Kabbalah magical tradition used for charms and portions of esoteric texts. LIBYAN [phonetic] a consonantal script used in Tunis and eastern Algeria during the Roman period to write Numidian, Latin and New Punic. Its origins are obscure, suggestions range from Aegean to Punic to South Semitic. The Tuareg still used a style of this script called Tifinagh in art and to write poetry. MEROITIC [phonetic] is a 23 letter alphabet of Meroe, a state south of Egypt. Early texts are in Egyptian, but a phonetic script for writing the still poorly known local language was used from the -2C to the +4C. It externally resembles Egyptian, but the phonetic values do not match. MINAHASSA [iconography] was used in the northeastern Celebes prior to the arrival of Christian missionaries. Little is known about it, and some scholars maintain it was a logographic pictographic script. NSIBIDI [logographic] is used in southern Nigeria. Discovered in this century and lacking ancient texts it is nevertheless considered fairly old. There are several contradictory origin myths. The public script is apparently used primarily for erotic love letters, but several secret societies use variants of it with additional symbols known only within the society. OGHAM [phonetic] was a 20 letter alphabet made up of one to five lines meeting an edge or reference line at various angles. All 400 known texts are grave or boundary stones from the Celtic parts of the British Isles (Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man and Ireland) from the +4C or later, and few if any date from after the +8C. Most are in the local Celtic language, but some are in an undeciphered language thought to be Pictish. The attribution of Ogham to a druidical finger spelling system is plausible, but entirely speculative. PHAISTOS DISC [undeciphered] is known from a single object dating from -1700 found in a Minoan palace at Phaistos on Crete. It is a spiral inscription stamped onto a clay disc with 45 individual punches. The signs are not very similar to the Aegean scripts, and neither the script nor the technique have turned up elsewhere. RUNES [phonetic] a 24 letter alphabet of the Germanic languages, from Icelandic to Anglo-Saxon to Gothic, used from +100 to +1400. Despite popular belief runes are a mystic pagan script, almost all texts are either ownership marks (so and so made/owns/gave this as a gift) or pious Christian texts. The modern name Futhark is simply the first 6 letters (the third one is thorn, the soft /th/ in English). SIDETIC [undeciphered] is a script found on coins and one or two line inscriptions in southern Asia Minor from the -5C to -4C. The language is unknown and the script is outwardly very different from Greek, but some scholars believe there is a connection. TOMA [phonetic] a 187 sign syllabic script of the Liberian border. Very little data is available about it. TURDETIAN [undeciphered] is a script known only from a few -3C coins from southern Spain. The language is unknown, but the script is similar to Libyan in some respects. Any linkage to the city of Tartessos for which it is named is entirely speculative. _____________________________________________________________ Shorthands _____________________________________________________________ A shorthand is a system of rapid writing, ranging from the abbreviation of words to the use of cursive syllabic scripts. Shorthands are almost always intended for the writer's own use, and it is not unusual for a shorthand text to be illegible even to others who use the same shorthand. Nevertheless each shorthand can be considered a separate script. There have been hundreds of shorthands for English alone (a few from the last century include Beers, Chartier, Eclectic, Graham, Hyspeed, Phonographic, Script and Standard). Some of the historically more widely used include: TIRONIAN [phonetic] is the oldest standardized system, invented by Marcus Tullius Tiro about -58 to record the speeches of Cicero. It was difficult to use, but quite common until the +10C. After the +10C shorthand vanished in the West until John Willis' Geometric Shorthand in 1602. TS'AO SHU [logographic] 'grass character'. Chinese shorthands date to the -1C if not earlier. There is a fuzzy line between shorthand and calligraphy. Both favor sweeping curves and continuous strokes, and since oriental art stresses spontaneity (thus quick execution) they are hard to tell apart. GABELSBERGER [phonetic] introduced the first cursive shorthand in 1832. In the Stolze-Schrey modification it is still the basis of the official German system (Deutsch Einheitkurzschrift), despite several cycles of reform. Derivatives of the system are also common in Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark. PITMAN [phonetic] Introduced in +1837, Pitman is the most common shorthand in Britain and its (ex)colonies. It is a sound based system easily adapted to other languages. DUPLOYE [phonetic] is the most common shorthand of France, introduced in 1860 and somewhat modified by Delaunay in 1866. GREGG [phonetic] is the most common shorthand in the United States introduced in 1888. It has been adapted to other languages, though it is not as widespread as Pitman. STENOTYPE [phonetic] is a mechanical shorthand system, using a small keyboard and printing silently onto a paper tape. It was invented in 1906 by W.S. Ireland and rapidly adopted to record US court proceedings. The advantage of the mechanical system over most shorthands is the tape is legible to anyone familiar with the system, not subject to idiosyncrasies typical of handwritten shorthands SOKOLOV [phonetic] is the standard Russian shorthand, official since 1933. _____________________________________________________________ Decipherment _____________________________________________________________ Many scripts have been lost over time, their texts reduced to incomprehensible marks. In the early +19C scholars became interested in what these texts might have to tell them, and the decipherment of lost tongues became part of the great archaeological scramble of the 19th and early 20th centuries. A newly discovered text can fall into one of 4 possible categories: 1. It is in a known script and a known language. It may not be legible to the discoverer - indeed if the script and language are obscure enough there may be no one who happens to know both - but decipherment is ultimately a trivial task 2. The language is known but the script is not. The problem is then one of cryptanalysis, and decipherment is usually fairly rapid and complete (e.g. Ugaritic); though the process may be hindered by uncertainty about the identity of the language (e.g. Linear B decipherment stalled until it was evident the language was Greek) or because the known language differs slightly from the written form (e.g. Coptic and Egyptian, Classical Greek and Cypriot) 3. The script is known but the language is not. The text can be pronounced but not understood. If the language happens to be related to a known language (e.g. Hittite) or there are extensive bilingual texts (e.g. Sumerian) it may eventually be deciphered, otherwise it may never be understood (e.g. Etruscan). Even when progress is being made, it is slow, partial translations are the norm and scholarly debates over the meaning of a single word can last generations. 4. Neither the script or language are known. Unless a bilingual turns up and breaks the script, converting this to case 3, or someone tries a totally unexpected language and proves it to be case 2, it is basically hopeless (e.g. the Phaistos disk). These scripts attract lots of crackpot claims, precisely because there is no information available to refute them. _____________________________________________________________ Bibliography _____________________________________________________________ George L Campbell. Compendium of the World's Languages (2vol). Routledge, 1991. ISBN 0-415-02937-6. Florian Columas. Writing Systems of the World. Basil Blackwell, 1989. ISBN 0-631-16513-4 Dale P Crowley. Linguistics and Japanese Reading. Pacific Linguistics, 1965. Scott Deerwester. All the Scripts in the World. http://idris.com/scripts/Scripts.html David Diringer. The Alphabet. Hutchinson of London, 1968. 09 067640 8. Charles C Fries. Linguistics and Reading. Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1963. SBN:03-012240-6 Albertine Gaur. A History of Writing. Scribner, 1984. ISBN 0-684-18422-2. Hans Jensen. Die Schrift in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. Sign, Symbol and Script. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1969. David R Olsen. The World on Paper. Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-521-44311-3 Wayne M Senner. The Origins of Writing. University of Nebraska, 1989. ISBN 0-8032-9167-1.