_____________________________________________________________ Inventory of Writing Systems MA Lloyd (malloy00@io.com) 9 May 1998 _____________________________________________________________ Writing is difficult to define, like 'civilization' a term often associated with it. A classic definition that comes close is 'a system of more or less permenant marks used to represent an utterance such that its meaning can be recovered more or less exactly without the intervention of the utterer'. _____________________________________________________________ Types of Writing _____________________________________________________________ Almost every scholar of the subject has a unique typology of writing based on his personal theory of how it evolved, usually full of trivial distinctions and imaginary categories. For most purposes writing and its relatives fall into 4 categories: Iconography (often incorrectly called pictographic writing) is not writing at all, but art with a message. Since anyone can try to interpret art, iconography is independent of language and literacy, but no two people looking at it see exactly the same message. Memory aids are devices used to remember details or keep accounts. Tally sticks, trade tokens, symbolic story and prayer prompts, and knotted cords (kipu) are found all over the world. They can be quite elaborate (intricately carved genealogy staves, detailed paintings for each scene of a story) or very abstract (rosary beads). These are not true writing, prior knowledge of what is recorded is required to use them. Logographic writing consists of signs which stand for units of meaning. The script is essentially a separate language based on shapes rather than sounds. A pure logographic script is readable across languages boundaries because it *is* another language. Many writers who do not grasp this make ridiculous claims about it directly conveying 'ideas' rather than words. Phonetic scripts consist of signs which stands for units of sound. A smaller number of signs is easier to learn, but a text can only be understood if the reader is literate in the script *and* fluent in the language recorded. Many theories distinguish several types (syllabic, alphabetic, consonantal, featural...), but in practice the differences are insignificant. Many phonetic scripts share the name of a language, but it is important to distinguish them; for example being literate in Greek alphabet does not necessarily allow you to understand written Greek, only languages you do know which happen to be written in Greek letters. _____________________________________________________________ Literacy Sidebars _____________________________________________________________ Logosyllabic, 'Analytic' or 'Transitional' Scripts Many typologies of writing include one or more of these categories 'between' logography and phonetic scripts. In fact there is no sharp boundary - all logographic scripts use phonetics, if only rebuses for foreign names, and most phonetic scripts include logograms, consider '3' and '%' to be read as 'three' and 'percent' in English. Scripts assigned to these categories are usually phonetic but labeled something else because they don't fit the author's theory on the origin of phonetic writing. Pictography True pictographic writing is simply a script where the signs are pictures rather than abstract symbols, but the term is applied to pure art, iconography, phonetic scripts like Hieroglyphics, and even completely stylized scripts like early Chinese, often because the author's theory requires writing evolve from drawing in a particular way. I use it for scripts elaborate enough to require artistic ability to write. Heterograms Symbols from another language read as logograms. They can be distinguished from loanwords by rhyme violations, free alternation with the word written phonetically in identical copies, or the use of an archaic script only for the heterograms. The oldest examples are 'Sumerograms' in Akkadian cuneiform - phonetic Sumerian translated into Akkadian on reading. They are common in the Near East, many Iranian scripts have Aramaic heterograms, but are found elsewhere, consider 'sic' and 'e.g.' read as 'thus' and 'for example' in English. Alphabetical Orders There is no reason scripts must have a fixed order, but phonetic scripts usually do. The familiar Roman one comes from the North Semitic ordering beginning 'alep, bet, gimel, dalet, he.... Other scripts use other orders; South Semitic begins hoy, lawe, hawt, may, sawt...; kana forms a poem using each syllable once (begins Iro wa nioedo...'); Indian scripts follow a sound pattern from Vedic phonetic studies. Many orders are associated with poetry or songs; though the orders may be older. For example runes follow an acrostic poem and sections of the Bible are arranged so the verse initial letters are in the Semitic order. A script written in its canonical order is called an abecedary - no matter what the actual order. These are common artifacts all over the world; nonsense about ogham or futhark abecedaries being talismans to 'muster the power of all the runes together' notwithstanding. Letter Counts It is impossible to count the letters in most scripts; accent marks, virama, vowel points and other letter modifiers confuse what counts as a letter, as do ligatures (is the fused ae a 27th English letter?) and doubtfully preserved letters (e.g. the Y in Ye /the/ is a remnant of the English letter thorn). A script used for several languages often has letters for sounds found only in some of them. In undeciphered scripts, it may be impossible to tell if similar symbols are separate signs or alternate forms of the same sign (D and d are more different than b and d, or even a and e; not knowing Roman alphabet, how could you tell how many signs in 'Debated'). Still symbol counts can reveal the type of script: an alphabet will have a few dozen symbols, a syllabary closer to 100 and a logographic script thousands (it may be significant all logographic scripts have about 2500 basic signs, which is also roughly the size of most people's core vocabulary in any language.) 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 there are conventions and you don't know them, you can still 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 slightly. 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 will get you close, but to avoid any errors requires considerably more skill. Script Styles Many scripts are minor variants of each other, just different enough externally to be illegible to the unprepared. Like unfamiliar orthographic conventions it can take several hours to become familiar with a new style. 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 modern readers. This can usually be ignored, but may be important if someone unfamiliar with a style suddenly needs to read a Medieval manuscript under a time limit. Writing and Mysticism Writing is often associated with mystic forces, a gift of the gods, a tool of magic, the vehicle of divine law. The 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 merely ordinary civilizations. But religion has been important to the spread of scripts, missionary religions often teach their script alongside the new faith, and some scripts really are used only for mystical purposes; the angelic pens of the Kabbalah, or those that survive only in religious contexts 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. _____________________________________________________________ Decipherment _____________________________________________________________ Many scripts have been lost over time, their texts reduced to incomprehensible marks. In the early +19C scholars became interested in these texts, and the decipherment of lost tongues became part of the great archaeology scramble of the 19th and early 20th centuries. A newly discovered text can fall into one of 4 categories: 1)A known script and a known language. It may be illegible to the discoverer, and if the script and language are obscure enough there may be no one who happens to know both - but decipherment is ultimately trivial. Manuscripts with unusual combinations of language and script - Egyptian in cuniform, Arabic in syriac, Hebrew in greek letters, Latin in punic script - are actually fairly common. 2)A known language in an unknown script. The problem is one of cryptanalysis, and once the code is broken decipherment is fairly rapid and complete (e.g. Ugaritic). Decipherment may be hindered by confusion about identity of the language (Linear B decipherment stalled until it was accepted as Greek), misunderstandings about the nature of the script (no real progress was made on Mayan until scholars would look for syllables, and Akkadian was held up by by the belief Semitic languages would not be written with distinct vowels) or because the known language differs from the written form (Coptic and Egyptian, Classical Greek and Cypriot) 3)An unknown language in a known script. The text can be pronounced but not understood. If the language has surviving relatives (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 hopeless (e.g. the Phaistos disk). These scripts attract many crackpot claims, precisely because there is no information available to refute them. _____________________________________________________________ Cryptography _____________________________________________________________ Codes are designed to conceal information obvious in the ordinary writing system, and yet still be legible to the initiated. Many simple codes are just varient literacies. Many journals are kept in private 'codes' that are nothing but personal shorthands, indeed there are many diaries from the last two centuries kept in *commercial* shorthands of the day which are now nearly inaccessable to historians. Cryptic scripts - one to one substitition cyphers of another script - are also fairly common. Particularly among persecuted minorities and mystics - many a book of spells is written in such a cypher. Some examples: KALMOSIN (Angelic Pens) [phonetic] Judeo-Christian dates uncertain A cryptic script of Hebrew associated with the Kabbalah magical tradition used for charms and portions of esoteric texts. MORSE CODE Global +19C The standard dot and dash telegraph code is a cryptic script for the Roman alphabet. YEZIDI [phonetic] Kurdistan dates uncertain The Yezidi, a Kurdish speaking non-Moslem religious group, use a cryptic form of Arabic to write Kurdish in their holy books. Some regard these books as pre-Islamic, some as +10C to +12C and some as +19C forgeries. _____________________________________________________________ Shorthands _____________________________________________________________ A shorthand is a system of rapid writing (stenography) fast enough to record speech. The requirements of shorthand are quite different than for ordinary scripts, for example since 60% of speech consists of about 100 words, good shorthands will have logographs for them. Since anyone interested in writing faster already knows how to write, shorthands can omit features that simplify script acquisition. Shorthand is almost always for the writer's own short term use, so it is not unusual for it to be illegible even to other users of the same system. Still each system can legitimately be called a script. Some of the historically more common shorthands include: TIRONIAN [logographic] Western Europe -58 to +10C The oldest standardized system, invented by Marcus Tullius Tiro to record the speeches of Cicero, and despite its difficultly long the standard. TACHYGRAPHY [logographic] Byzantine +3C to +12C The name applied to the late classical and Byzantine Greek shorthands. There may have been two systems that were sometimes mixed. TS'AO SHU (Grass characters) [logographic] China dates uncertain Chinese shorthands probably date to the -1C. It is difficult to be sure since shorthand and calligraphy both favor sweeping curves, continuous strokes, and rapid execution. ENGLISH SHORTHANDS [phonetic] England +16C to present Elizabethan England reintroduced shorthand to the West. The Willis and Bright shorthands were the first popular systems; the +17C added the Shelton, Rich and Mason systems (Samuel Pepys and Thomas Jefferson were advocates of Shelton); the +18C added Byrom, Taylor, Williamson and Mavor. By the late +19C shorthands were big business, Pitman, Gregg and Slone- Dupolye (a modification of the French system) were the main players, but there were many others (Beers, Chartier, Eclectic, Graham, Hyspeed, Phonographic, Script, Standard, Sweet). With the introduction of recording technologies in the late +20C, shorthand became much less important. MASON-GURNEY [phonetic] England +1750 to present This was the first official shorthand, adopted in 1813 to record the meetings of the British Parliament. GABELSBERGER [phonetic] Western Europe +1832 to present The first cursive shorthand. In the Stolze-Schrey modification it is still the basis of the German system (Deutsch Einheitkurzschrift). Derivatives are also common in Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark. PITMAN [phonetic] Commonwealth +1837 to present A derivative of the Taylor system, 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] France +1860 to present The Delaunay modification of 1866 is still the most common French shorthand. GREGG [phonetic] United States +1888 to present The most common shorthand in the United States. It has been adapted to other languages, though not as widely as Pitman. STENOTYPE [phonetic] United States +1906 to present A mechanical shorthand system using a small keyboard and printing silently onto a paper tape. Invented by W.S. Ireland and rapidly adopted to record US court proceedings. The advantage of the mechanical system is the tape is legible to anyone familiar with the system, not subject to idiosyncrasies typical of handwritten shorthands SOKOLOV [phonetic] Eastern Europe +1933 to present The standard Russian shorthand. _____________________________________________________________ Script Families _____________________________________________________________ AEGEAN. A group of extinct scripts from the Eastern Mediterranean. They share some signs and modern scholars do study them as a unit, but they may not have been related CRETAN HIEROGLYPHS [undeciphered] Crete -2000 to -1500 Also called Cretan Pictographs or Cretan Palace Script, and sometimes divided into an A and B script CYPRIOT [phonetic] Cyprus -8C to -1C A syllabary used to write Greek and an unknown language called Eteocypriot. CYPRO-MINOAN [undeciphered] Cyprus -1500 to -1100 Assumed to be syllabic on the basis of sign count. LINEAR A [undeciphered] Crete -1650 to -1450 Assumed to be syllabic on the basis of sign count. LINEAR B [phonetic] Knossos and the Greek mainland -1550 to -1200 A syllabary used to write Mycenean Greek. PHAISTOS DISC [undeciphered] Crete -1700 A single spiral inscription stamped onto a clay disc with 45 individual punches found in a Minoan palace. Neither the script nor the technique have turned up elsewhere. VINCA SIGNS [undeciphered] Central Balkans -5000 Marks found on various objects, particularly the lead sheets called the Tartaran tablets. Most scholars see them as decoration, but some draw fanciful connections to other undeciphered scripts or marks found elsewhere in Europe. _____________________________________________________________ CHINESE FAMILY. The Ku Wen script of ancient China is the source of most of the scripts of East Asia. The main Chinese branch becomes increasingly logographic, natural enough for Chinese, which has a word order grammar, but in Japanese or Korean meaning critical information is carried by grammatical inflections. Chinese texts written in Hanzi appear in Korea, Japan and Vietnam by the +2C, but eventually all three develop phonetic notations to allow the local inflected languages to be written. KU WEN [logographic/semiphonetic] China -15C to -8C The oldest script of China, also called Shang-Yin or shell and bone. There are few surviving texts other than the Honan Bones divination library found in 1899. It is a 1500 character logographic script but with enough phonetic character to confuse the issue. CHUAN [logographic] China -800 to +100 The Ta chuan or 'great seal' script 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 most of written material in China was destroyed by edict of the first Qin emperor. HANZI [logographic] China -200 to present The modern Chinese script developed as writing adapted to the writing brush (-209) and paper (+105), with the form called k'ai shu becoming the standard by the +4C. In 1955 the People's Republic of China began a simplification program (Jianzi), and since the 1980s there have been several attempts to agree on an international character set (for software mostly). It is too early to tell if either will lead to a new form of literacy, but it is certainly possible. GUOYIN ZIMU [phonetic] Nationalist China +1903 to present The National Phonetic Alphabet, widely used in nationwide Mandarin promotion programs during the Republic, and still used on Taiwan when it is necessary to annotate sounds. HANJA [logographic] Korea +692 to present. The Korean form of Hanzi. Hanja can't be considered a separate script until the appearance of mixed scripts. ITWU [phonetic] Korea +692 to +1446 The first phonetic system of mixed script Korean, using simplified Hanja characters as syllable signs. It was never standardized and became increasingly confusing as alternate simplified signs were introduced. HAN'GUL (Hwunmin cengum, cosenkul) [phonetic] Korea +1446 to present An alphabet built on linguistic principles that replaced Ido as the Korean phonetic auxillary script. Modern Korean is written in mixed Hanja/ Han'gul in South Korea, and pure Han'gul in North Korea. KANJI [logographic] Japan +7C to present The Japanese form of Hanzi, read in a mixture of Japanese, Chinese, and traditional Japanese mispronunciation of several archaic Chinese dialects. Kanji isn't a separate system until the appearance of mixed scripts. MANYOGANA (Mana) [phonetic] Japan +7 to +9C The initial Japanese phonetic auxillary using simplified Kanji characters syllabically. KANA [phonetic] Japan +9C to present A standard auxillary developed quickly, but split into 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. CHU NOM [logographic/semiphonetic] Vietnam +1343 to +17C Vietnamese is first clearly written in Chu Nom, a Hanzi modification with a substantial phonetic component. Modern Vietnamese uses Roman alphabet. _____________________________________________________________ CHINESE PERIPHERAL. In addition to the major Chinese derived scripts, many scripts around the margins of China almost certainly developed under Chinese influence, but are either so radically modified or so poorly known it can't be proven. KHITAN [undeciphered] Khitan (northeast Mongolia) +907 to +1200 About 200 symbols are known, but few are deciphered. It is thought to have mixed logographic and syllabic signs. The Liao dynasty of Khitan fell in 1125 and the script soon went out of use. MIAO-TZU [logographic] Southwestern China dates uncertain A script of the Miao (Hmong) people. 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] Southern China dates uncertain A favorite example of a 'pictographic' or 'ideographic'category of writing. In fact all known texts are prompt books for the main words of a chant, with the rest supplied from the reader's memory. Tradition dates it to +1200, but there is no evidence either way. The modern Na-khi write in either Hanzi or Tibetan. NIU-CHIH (Jurchen, Yu-chen) [phonetic] Northern China +1138 to 1650. The Tungus speaking Niu-Chih people adopted the Khitan script in 1119, but soon radically transformed it. Rare after the Mongol conquest, and eventually replaced by Manchu. SHINJI [phonetic] Japan +1770 Traditional sources assert this group of scripts (Ahiru, Anaichi, Hizan, Ijumo, Iyo and Morisune) are ancient parallel developments of Han'gul. Since Han'gul is an early modern invented script, this is clearly nonsense. They are probably late forgeries, no examples predate +1770. TANGUT(Hsi-hsia) [logographic] Si-Hia (between China and Tibet) +1036 to +16C Legend attributes it to King Wei-i after his marriage to a Khitani princess. YAO [phonetic] Southern China dates uncertain A script of the Yao people. Information is scarce, mostly fragments in Chinese sources, though the Yao are said to possess complete books in it. YI (Lo-Lo) [logographic/semiphonetic] Southern China uncertain to present Used by the Yi peoples from before +1533. Some signs resemble Chinese, but many do not and there a strong phonetic component. Today Yi is printed in Pollard, Roman, or 'reformed' versions of the classic script. _____________________________________________________________ CUNEIFORM. Cuneiform simply means 'wedge-shaped'; the name is applied to any near eastern script in which the signs are built from wedge (or nail) shaped marks made by pressing a prismatic stylus into wet clay. Cuneiform scripts are not necessarily any more related than all scripts written on paper, but modern scholarship treats them together because of the way they were recovered. One language and its cuneiform script - Akkadian - was the koine of the Near East from the introduction of writing until the spread of Aramaic in the -7C, and Akkadian cuneiform was the first script used for more than one language. So when modern scholars deciphered the languages and unrelated cuneiforms of the region it was largely done through Sumero-Akkadian bilinguals by scholars of Sumero-Akkadian. Of the major languages in Akkadian script, Assyrian and Babylonian were Akkadian dialects, Eblaite (-2500) and Caananite were distinct Semitic tongues, Hurrian (=Mitanni, -2000 to -1350) and Urartu (=Chaldean, -830 to -650) were Dagestani, Hittite (-1650 to -1300) and Luwian (-1500 to -1200) were Indo-european, and Hatti (a Hittite liturgical language) was probably West Caucasian. There are even documents in Egyptian. SUMERIAN [logographic/semiphonetic] lower Mesopotamia -3200 to -2500. The oldest form of writing, at first it consisting of line drawings, but was soon stylized and then drawn entirely in cuneiform wedges. Even early forms have considerable phonetic character, most Sumerian texts are about evenly split between logographs and phonetic signs. OLD AKKADIAN [phonetic] Near East -2500 to -1500 Developed when Sumerian was modified to write Akkadian, the unrelated language of the northern valley. In the process it lost its logographic character, more than 90% of an Akkadian text is phonetic. MIDDLE AKKADIAN [phonetic] Near East -1600 to -600 Developed around the time of the Kassite conquest (-1650), and continued through the Assyrian period (-1250 to -600) which spread it widely. NEW AKKADIAN [phonetic] Near East -900 to +75 First used to write New Babylonian, and later the standard form of Akkadian from -600 until the last text known texts. UGARIT (Ras Shamra) [phonetic] Syria and Palestine -1600 to -1200 An alphabet mostly used to write Ugaritic (a close relative of Hebrew), but there are texts in other Semitic languages and in Hurrian, which was common in Syria early in this period. NEO-ELAMITE [phonetic] Elam -2000 to -330 A syllabic cuniform script that replaced the original non-Cuneiform Elamite. PERSIAN CUNEIFORM [phonetic] Persian Empire -600 to -336. An alphabet traditionally attributed to one of the kings of Persia, legends disagree on which, and widely used for monumental inscriptions. _____________________________________________________________ EGYPTIAN FAMILY. Egyptian was the world's second or third written language, but unlike Akkadian neither the language or the native script family were ever common outside of 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 simply different styles of the same script. HIEROGLYPHIC [phonetic pictographic] Egypt -3050 to +394 A complex script with 120 phonetic signs and 600 determinatives. It was mostly used for inscriptions, and was essentially unchanged from the first few centuries down to its last known inscription. HIERATIC [phonetic] Egypt -2000 to +212 A cursive form of hieroglyphics written on papyrus. Ink on papyrus writing is as old as -2800, but though always a one to one transcription of hieroglyphics, the later forms are different enough to justify a separate literacy. DEMOTIC [phonetic] Egypt uncertain to +473 Developed from hieratic in Lower Egypt during the period of disunity from -1100 to -712. In -664 became the official script of the reunited state and replaced hieratic except in religious contexts. Demotic is even more cursive than hieratic, with lots of abbreviations and ligatures, and is commonly regarded as much harder to read. After Alexander, Greek and the related Coptic alphabet gradually replaced Demotic. _____________________________________________________________ EUROPEAN FAMILY. The European family of alphabets derive from the original North Semitic script of the Phonecians through the Greek alphabet. Greek merchants and colonies spread the alphabet all across Southern Europe, Alexander carried it deep into Asia, and later Christianity and European colonialization spread its descendents around the world. GREEK [phonetic] Hellenistic world -8C to modern Distinct styles were used for each of the early Greek dialects [Dorian, Eastern Aegean/Attic, and Western Greek/Sicilian] and several other languages of Asia Minor [Lycian(-5C to -3C), Phyrgian(-7C to -6C), Pamphylian(-4C to -2C), Neo-Phyrgian(-3C to -2C)] and the Aegean Sea [Eteo-Cretan/Praisos]. After Alexander, the Greek alphabet was widespread - there are Egyptian, Hebrew, Persian, Phoenician, Punic, Aramaic and Pahlavi texts in Greek script. But despite this distribution and the enormous importance of Greek as the record of civilization, only the Greek language still uses the script. CARIAN [phonetic] Western Asia Minor -6C The script of an undeciphered language spoken south of Lydia and east of Lycia. About half the known texts are graffiti in Egypt, written by Carian mercenaries. The script itself looks like a mix of Greek and Cypriot. LYDIAN [phonetic] Asia Minor, around Sardis -7C to -4C An alphabet used to write Lydian, probably an Anatolian language with a strong unidentified substratum of something else. MESSAPIAN [phonetic] Apulia, Italy -4C to -1C Known from from a few hundred inscriptions, the language is an undeciphered non-Indo-European tongue related to those of Illyria and the Veneti. The script is somewhere between Greek and Roman alphabet, so Messapian texts are pronounceable but not readable. It is the most common type of an entire range of similar inscriptions along the Adriatic coasts from the -8C, and through the rest of Italy from the -7C, such as Tyrrhenian, Venetic, Oscan, Umbran, Piceni, Faliscan and Etruscan. ROMAN [phonetic] Global -650 to modern The script first of Etruscan, then Latin, and thence the Roman Empire, the Western Church and the European colonial administrations, and widely used for the thousands of languages first written by European or American missionaries. Today it is the most common script on Earth. It almost split apart during the Middle Ages - many extremely variant styles were used and the later Insular Anglo-Irish and Merovingian chancellery hands could probably qualify as separate scripts - but with the advent of printing it re-standardized on the classical model. COPTIC [phonetic] Nile Valley +4C to present An alphabet used to write Egyptian and some Nubian language manuscripts from the +10C and +11C. It was gradually replaced by Arabic, rare by the +9C and surviving after the +13C only as a Christian liturgical script. GOTHIC [phonetic] North Balkans +4C to uncertain (by +7C) An alphabet invented by bishop Wulfia(d +388) for his translation of the Bible into Visigoth. GLAGOLITIC [phonetic] Balkans uncertain to present An alphabet of Old Slavonic traditionally credited to Sts. Cyril and Methodius. 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, and survives only among Catholics using the Slavonic liturgy CYRILLIC [phonetic] Eastern Europe +860 to modern. An alphabet also attributed to St. Cyril, more likely true since there are +9C examples and a clear similarity to Greek. Cyrillic spread with the Orthodox faith and the Russian Empire to become the third most common script in the modern world. It is used for most Slavic languages and many languages within the old Russian and Soviet empires, but is losing ground in Central Asia as other scripts are adopted as gestures of independence. INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET [phonetic] Global +20C A technical alphabet of about 90 letters and accent marks derived from Roman alphabet and designed by to be sufficient to write any spoken human language. 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, mostly because writing was considered inferior to memorization and seldom used for the religious texts other cultures so carefully preserve. Most Indian scripts are syllabic, indicating vowels by modifying the basic consonant signs. An important feature of writing in India is the frequent use of one script for literary and religious texts (often in Arabic or Sanskrit) and another for daily correspondence. Since the literary and correspondence script usage boundaries use don't coincide with each other, or with language boundaries, there is considerable confusion of script names. There is no credible evidence for a link to the Indus Valley script, and the customary linkage to Aramaic is no better. The standard 'evidence' cited 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. BRAHMI (Kushan) [phonetic] India -251 to +4C Brahmi is the ancestor of the scripts of India, dated from the Asoka inscriptions, though some possibly older coins and the distinct local styles in the earliest texts suggest some earlier history. By the +4C Brahmi had split into a northern and southern branch. NORTHERN INDIC BRANCH GUPTA [phonetic] Northern India +4C to +6C The main stream of the northern branch, Gupta is associated with the shift of texts from the local languages (the Prakrits) to a deliberately archaized literary language (Sanskrit). SIDDHAMATRIKA (Kutila) [phonetic] Northern India +6C to +9C The successor to Gupta, it was the first script to use the continuous top line found characteristic of many Indian scripts. NAGARI [phonetic] Northern India uncertain to present The normal script of Sanskrit by the +11C. Its modern style, Devanagari, is the literary script of Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Rajasthani, Mundari, Kanarese, Gondi, and most Indian languages first written in the last two centuries. BENGALI [phonetic] Northeast India +11C to present Derived from Siddhamatrika, but not standardized until the +16C. Bengali is the second most common script of India, used for Bengali, Assamese, Meithei/Manipuri, Santali, and several minority languages. MAITHILI [phonetic] Bihar dates uncertain A relative of Bengali used by the Brahmin caste for literary Bihari. Most Bihari speakers write in Devanagari or Kaithi. NEWARI [phonetic] Nepal +1179 to present Akin to Bengali, Newari is the script of Nepali and Newari (the original Tibeto-Burman language of the Kathmandu valley) ORIYA [phonetic] Orissa uncertain to present The script of Oriya. 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. CENTRAL ASIAN GUPTA (Sakas) [phonetic] Central Asia +5C to +8C A descendent of Gupta, perhaps Kharosthi influenced, used for several languages, most importantly in the kingdoms of Khotan (an Indo-Iranian language), Arsi and Kusan (Tocharian languages). KAITHI [phonetic] Northern India uncertain to present Probably a sister to Nagari, used as a correspondence hand from Gujerat to Bihar. GUJERATI [phonetic] Northwest India +20C A polished form of Kaithi that replaced Devanagari for literary Gujerati. LANDA [phonetic] Northwestern India +15C to present The correspondence hand of northwest India, and since 1868 in the polished Baniya style the literary script of Sindhi. GURUMUKHI [phonetic] Punjab +1540 to present A refinement of Landa by the 2nd Sikh guru Angad, for use in Sikh religious texts, and the main script of the Punjab. MAHAJANI [phonetic] Northern India uncertain to present The correspondence hand of Marwari, a Rajasthani dialect and merchants tongue all over upper India. MODI [phonetic] North Central India +13C to present The correspondence hand of Marathi. Probably a daughter of Nagari. SARADA [phonetic] North Central India +8C to present A daughter of Gupta still used as a correspondence script for Kashmiri, and in the Takri style for the dialects of Western Pahari (Dogri). Literary Kashmiri uses Arabic or Devanagari, though Sarada has been printed. TIBETAN [phonetic] Tibet +639 to present A derivative of Gupta originally used for the languages of western Tibet, it soon developed into a literary language, and later spread to the other Tibetan languages, Mongolian, and even Chinese in western China. LEPCHA [phonetic] Sikkim +1720 to modern A daughter of Tibetan invented to write the Rong language. 'PHAGS PA [phonetic] Mongol Empire +1269 to uncertain A Tibetan derivative created on orders of Kubilai as an administrative script. It lost out to the Uighur derivative and was short lived except as a decorative script in Mongolia and Tibet. SOUTHERN INDIC BRANCH. The southern branches of Brahmi were used primarily for the Dravidian languages. The Central (=Box-Headed, +4C to +6C), Western (+5C to +9C) and Younger Kalinga (+7C to +12C) branches left no certain descendants. The Kadamba (+5C to +10C) and Grantha branches did. KANARESE [phonetic] South India +10C to present A daughter of Kadamba used for Kanarese (Karnatic style) and Telugu (Telinga style). OLD GRANTHA [phonetic] Madras +4C to +9C Used for Sanskrit in eastern Madras and the surrounding kingdoms. MODERN GRANTHA [phonetic] Southern India +12C to modern The eastern continuation of Old Grantha, still used by the Jains of Madras and the Brahmins of Tanjore. ARYAELUTTU [phonetic] Southwest India +9C to modern The western continuation of Old Grantha, first to write Sanskrit and Tulu, and after the +17C displacing Vatteluttu as the script of Malayalam. TAMIL [phonetic] South India +8C to modern 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 this independent script of uncertain ancestry. VATTELUTTU [phonetic] South India +8C to +20C A rounded script used to write Tamil from the +8 to +15C. It has the same letters as Tamil, but is externally quite different. Scholars are divided on its history, proposing everything from a Tamil cursive to introduction by Phoenician merchants. The earliest examples are deeds of gift to Jewish and Syrian (Manichean) settlements, which suggests a link to North Semitic. It was used for Malayalam until the +17C, and survived and in the Keleluttu style among the Mappilas traders until the early +20C. FURTHER INDIC. 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 are older than that, as indeed are both the Hindu and Buddhist expansions into southeast Asia. In most cases the oldest local texts are in Sanskrit in some clearly North or South Indic script during a period of Hindu expansion, then there is a considerable time gap and the local language is written in scripts that look more like some other Indic script than the one used for the earlier Sanskrit. CHAMPA [phonetic] Indochina +9C to present Champa, a Hindu kingdom in south Vietnam and Cambodia from +192, is fairly typical. From the founding of the kingdom there are Sanskrit texts written in the Box-headed branch of Southern Indic, then there is a gap of a couple centuries and texts appear in the local language, Cham written in this script which doesn't belong to that branch. The modern script is called Akhar Thrah. KHMER [phonetic] Cambodia +6C to present A script used to write Khmer, the major language of Cambodia. The main style is Aksar Mul, but there are many variants, some similar to the modern forms of Cham. PALI [phonetic] Indochina +9C to present Pali is the medieval Prakrit in which the Buddhist scriptures, written in a script also 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] Bengal +12C to present Is used to write Bengali in the Nagpur district. It is similar to the script of the Ahom kingdom (+12C to +18C) and probably a style of Pali. LAO [phonetic] Indochina +10C to present Derived from the Mon style of Pali and stabilized in the +13C. Now used by several cultures in and around Laos under a variety of names. SINHALESE [phonetic] Ceylon +9C to modern The script of the main language of Sri Lanka. MALDIVIAN [phonetic] Maldive Islands 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 (Boromat, Old Thai) [phonetic] Indochina +12C to present Traditionally dated to +1283, but 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 related to). It does not appear to be ancestral to modern Thai either. THAI [phonetic] Thailand uncertain to present The script now used to write Thai. Unlike the other Indic scripts, Thai is alphabetic, if a little odd, with vowels and tones signs written *around* the consonant. It too is used by many neighboring cultures under a variety of names. KAVI [phonetic] Indonesia +8C to present The oldest script of Indonesia, originally used on Java to write Sanskrit by +732 and Javanese by the +9C. Kavi was spread through the islands by alternating Javan and Sumatran imperial powers. After the last collapse of Javan power in +1478, somewhat different styles evolved for Javanese, Balinese, Sudanese and Madurese. BATAK [phonetic] Sumatra dates uncertain A possible daughter of Kavi used to write write Batak (a dialect cluster of north and west Sumatra), Redjang and Lampung. Now largely replaced by Roman alphabet. BUGIS [phonetic] Sulawesi dates uncertain Once used to write Buginese(=Macassarese) and still used to print some traditional literature, but becoming rare. Its origins are variously attributed to Kavi and Batak. PHILIPPINES [phonetic] Philippines dates uncertain When the Spanish arrived there were several native scripts, but little survives, more from climate and lack of interest than active Spanish book burning. Some sources suggest several scripts survived into modern times, but the only actual samples are a 1593 doctrinal text in Tagalog and the modern Hanunoo courting script of Mindano. PUMSO [phonetic] Korea dates uncertain A script used in some Korean Buddhist contexts to transliterate Sanskrit words. It is at least +15C, if not older. _____________________________________________________________ IRANIAN AND CENTRAL ASIAN FAMILY. From the -8C to the fall of Persia the Aramaic language and script were the administrative standard of Iran and much of the Near East, replacing the Akkadian which had once filled that roll. With the conquest of Alexander the Aramaic script began to break up. Greek script was common for a time, but gradually lost ground to the descendants of Aramaic and to some extent Brahmi. The Arab conquest of Persia and the decline of the Central Asian states after the Mongol conquest reduced the family importance, but several scripts survive. ARSACID PAHLAVI [phonetic] Persian Empire -1C to +8C Also called Parthian. Pahlavi is the term used for both the Middle Persian languages and their scripts. ARMENIAN [phonetic] Armenia uncertain to present. An alphabet attributed to St. Mesrop in +405. The modern cursive styles began to develop in the +12C. DIN DABIRE [phonetic] Persian Empire dates uncertain A script used only for the Avestas, the Zoroastrian scriptures written in 'Avestan', a relative of Old Persian which may have been the language of Eastern Iran at the (uncertain) time the text was composed. EASTERN (BOOK) PAHLAVI [phonetic] Persian Empire +7C to +8C A Pahlavi script used mostly for literature. GEORGIAN [phonetic] Georgia uncertain to present. An 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 Mkhedruli (Lay Hand) style is so different it is sometimes attributed to another source, but probably derives from the +13C cursive. KHAROSTHI [phonetic] Scythica through northern India -3C to +7C One of the two scripts of the Asoka inscriptions, the earliest texts in India. It shows Indian influence in its mandatory use of regular dashes to mark vowels, but is otherwise not similar to Brahmi, and was mostly used outside India to the northwest. KOK TURKI [phonetic] Northern Mongolia and Turkestan +7C to +8C Sometimes called Turkic Runes (for its angular shape, no relation to Runic) or Siberian. A script used for early Turkic, generally thought akin to Sogdian. MANICHEAN [phonetic] Central Asia +3C to +13C The principal script of the Manichean faith, attributed to Mani himself. The Manicheans dispersed from Persia in the +3C, and flourished in Central Asia in the +7C and +8C. There are texts in Middle Persian, East Turkic, Tocharian and Chinese. MONGOLIAN [phonetic] Mongolia +13C to present Initially the Mongol Empire used several scripts, with this simplified Kalika Uighur style finally becoming official in +1310. In the 1940s it was replaced by Cyrillic but has recently again become official. The Manchu script (from +1632, now nearly extinct) is a style of Mongolian. OLD HUNGARIAN [phonetic] Hungary uncertain to +16C A descendent of Kok Turki used by the Szeklers of Transylvania in late medieval Hungary. 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. SASSANIAN [phonetic] Persian Empire late -1C to uncertain A Pahlavi script full of Aramaic heterograms, for a time the literary script of Middle Persian, but rare after the +8C. SOGDIAN [phonetic] Turkistan, Khotan and Sinkiang +2C to +13C A language and script used as a lingua franca throughout the cities of central Asia for over a millenium, though most texts date from the +9C and +10C. UIGHUR [phonetic] Central Asia +7C to uncertain A Sogdian derivative used to write Old Turkish. Rare by the +10C, but revived as a Mongol administrative script. _____________________________________________________________ MESOAMERICAN. The scripts of ancient Mexico have been badly misrepresented by many historians of writing, dismissed as pictographs or even decoration. Though they share some artistic features, and many have a tradition of dated inscriptions, several in the same calendar(the Long Count), it is not clear how they are related. CENTRAL MEXICAN [phonetic pictographic] Central Mexico +4C to +16C The scripts of the central plateau function similarly, most of a 'text' is actually iconography with no fixed reading, but figures or places often have associated pictographs the names of which in the local language approximate the name of figure. The Aztec, Mixtec, Borgia Codex, Teotehuacan and Tula Toltec 'scripts' follow this pattern. 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. Treat all of them as iconography for general meaning, but require the Central Mexican literacy to read the names. EPI-OLMEC [phonetic pictographic] Chiapas and Vera Cruz -36 to uncertain Also called Mixe-Zoquean, La Mojarra, Tres Zapotes, and Tuxtla. A recently deciphered script of the onetime Olmec center. The language is an early stage of proto-Zoquean, still close to proto-Mixe. KAMINALIJUYU [undeciphered] Guatemala -1C to +2C. Known from a single site and not not similar to any other script. MAYAN [phonetic pictographic] South Mexico and Guatemala +199 to +1700 Long incorrectly thought logographic, Mayan is a polyvalent (i.e. with several signs for each sound) phonetic script. Like Egyptian, it has the tools to write in single syllables, and a scribal tradition of not doing so. There are about 1000 characters, counting stylistic variations between languages - Yucatec and Cholan were both written. The last carved stele dates +909, but the script survived well past the Conquest, though only 3 later books still exist. XOCHICALCO [undeciphered] Mexico +700 to +900 Known from numerous carved stelae at this single site. ZAPOTEC [undeciphered] Valley of Oaxaca and Monte Alban -500 to +700 The oldest script in Mesoamerica. Though at least partly phonetic by sign count it isn't certain the language is even Zapotec. _____________________________________________________________ NORTH SEMITIC FAMILY. The original Semitic script was probably a 27 (22 in most derivatives) letter consonantal script, written right to left, with the 'aleph, bet, gimmel, daleth... letter ordering. North Semitic originated around the Eastern Mediterranean during the Bronze Age (probably about -1800). True the oldest indisputable examples are younger than that, but the initial letters of Ugaritic cuneiform are in the Semitic letter order. PROTO-NORTH SEMITIC [phonetic] Syria, Palestine and the Sinai -1700 on A collection of very short texts which might be early forms of the alphabet, or 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] Phonecia and colonies -11C to +3C The first unquestionably alphabetic texts appear in Phoenicia, which with its colonial branches Cypro-Phoenician (-9C to -2C) and Punic (-10C to +3C) is found all over the Mediterranian and is probably ancestral to all the alphabets west of Palestine. CANAANITE [phonetic] Palestine -10C to present Including Early Hebrew, Moabite, Edomite and Ammonite texts. It declines after the -6C, though it was used by the Jewish nationalist movements from -1C to +2C and still is used liturgically in some Samaritan communities. ARAMAIC [phonetic] Near East -9C to -3C Orignally of Syria; 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] Jewish communities -3C to present 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. IBERIAN [phonetic] Northwest Iberia and southern France dates uncertain Known from a few short texts in languages of unknown family affinity, with Berber, Basque and Semitic being the favorite proposals. A few sound values suggested by late Indo-European and Greek bilinguals, together with letter shape similarity assign the script itself to North Semitic. It should not be confused with Turdetian, another undeciphered script of this region. TURDETIAN [undeciphered] Southern Iberia dates uncertain Known from a few coins and very short inscriptions. The script is similar to Libyan in some respects, standard Semitic in others, perhaps there are even several scripts from different sources. The language is unknown, any linkage to the city of Tartessos for which it is often named is entirely speculative. NABATEAN [phonetic] northern Arabia and Syria -150 to +328 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. 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] Syria -1C to +3C A daughter of Aramaic used mostly 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] Syria and eastward +1C to present A cursive descendent of Aramaic. By the +5C, the Syriac Estrangela style was a major Christian script. It spread into 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] Global +4C to present A daughter of Nabatean, there are few texts before 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 Kufic and the more cursive Naskhi, are the bases of most later variants. Arabic spread widely with Islam. Arabic, Hausa, Persian, and Urdu are the most important languages to use it, along with Turkish, Malay and Swahili which have converted to Roman this century. It has been used for everything from Spanish to Chinese to Javanese to Mande. MANDAIC [phonetic] Southern Iraq +6C to uncertain A script of the Mandaean (Nazaraean, Sabi'un or Johnine) Gnostic holy books, and at least into the early +20C use 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 from which it diverged about -1300. ETHIOPIC [phonetic] Ethiopia +4C to present Used initially for Christian texts in Ge'ez, by the +15C it spread the vernacular Ethiopian languages (Amharic, Oromo, Tigre and Tigriya), and has been adapted to other languages of Ethiopia and Somalia in modern times. It is a syllabic script, marking vowels by regular modification of the consonant signs. This is sometimes considered a link to Indian, which is not impossible given the Indian Ocean trade routes. NORTHERN ARABIAN [phonetic] Arabia and Syria -900 to +400 The script of the dialects of Old North Arabian, the language ancestral to Arabic,though 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. SABEAN [phonetic] South Arabia and Ethiopia -10C to +800 An alphabet used to write the (non-Arabic) South Arabian languages (Hadramutic, Himyaritic, Minaean, Qatabanic, Sabaean) until +600. The Old Abyssian script of the South Semitic kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia is a Sabean style and lasted until +800. _____________________________________________________________ INVENTED SCRIPTS. A group of scripts for which we have historical records of their independent invention. For the most part this limits them to fairly modern scripts. BAMUM Cameroon 1896 by Sultan Njoya Invented to write Bamum. It was repeatedly revised, changing from a pictographic logographic script to a phonetic syllabary by 1910. After the death of Njoya (1932) it began to vanish. Treat it as two literacies: BAMUM LEWA [logographic pictographic] and BAMUM A KA U KU [phonetic]. BRAILLE [phonetic] Global 1840s by Louis Braille 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, the main innovation of Braille 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] Middle Earth +20C by J.R.R. Tolkien A form of runes invented to write the Dwarvish of Middle Earth, but often used by fans to write Elvish languages as well. CHEROKEE [phonetic] Cherokee nation 1820 by Sikwayi A syllabic script, very successful in the +19C but now rare. Many letter shapes come from the Roman alphabet, but the phonetic values are unrelated, a valuable warning to decipherers of other scripts. CREE [phonetic] Canadian native languages 1833 by James Evans A syllabary invented to write Cree, Ojibwa and the neighboring Algonkian languages. It has been somewhat successful, with variants used for several Algonkian, Muskogee and Inuit languages. DESERET [phonetic] Utah Territory 1852 by George Watt Created by command of Brigham Young and used until 1869 to print English. FRASER [phonetic] South China 1915 by James Fraser Invented to write Lisu, it uses the upright and inverted Roman capitals (for ease of obtaining printing type.) MENDE [phonetic] Sierra Leone late +19C or early +20C by Kisimi Kamala A syllabic script invented to write Mende. N'HO [phonetic] West Africa 1950 by Soloman Kanhe An alphabet designed to write Mandekan. OL CEMET' [phonetic] Northeast India +20C by Raghunath Murmu Designed to write Santali, which otherwise uses Devanagari and Oriya. PAHAWH HMONG [phonetic] Laos 1959 by Shong Lue Yang A phonological featural script designed to write Hmong (Miao) and closely linked to a Hmong cultural and political resistance movement with Messianic overtones. It's popular locally, but not loved by the Laotian government. pIqaD [phonetic] Klingon Empire +20C by Paramount Studios An alphabet used randomly in Star Trek productions, but now sometimes mapped to Marc Okrand's Roman based Klingon orthography. POLLARD [phonetic] South China 1904 by Samuel Pollard Invented to print the Bible in Miao and later adapted to Lisu, the Lolo languages and several other languages of Southern China. SHAVIAN [phonetic] English +20C by Kingsley Read. A 44 letter script invented 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] Somalia 1960 by 'Isman Yusef. An alphabet officially adopted along with Roman to write Somali, but never became popular. SORANG SOMPENG [phonetic] Orissa 1936 by Mangei Designed to write Sora (a Munda language also written in Oriya, Telugu and Roman) TENGWAR [phonetic] Middle Earth +20C by J.R.R Tolkien. A cursive script used to write Quenya, Sindarin and several other languages of Middle Earth. YAMANA [phonetic] Tierra del Fuego 1877 by Thomas Bridges An alphabet invented to write Yamana, apparently used only in Bridges' Yamana-English dictionary. _____________________________________________________________ MISCELLANEOUS SCRIPTS. Scripts of unknown origins not related to any other scripts. BALTI ALPHABET [phonetic] Kashmir +15C Several manuscripts in Balti (a dialect of Tibetan) are written in this script. Modern Balti uses the Arabic script. CAROLINE ISLANDS [uncertain] Caroline Islands dates 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] Panama dates uncertain A script of unknown origins used by the Cuna indians. Accounts are contradictory, it may be simply iconography. EASTER ISLAND (Rongo-rongo) [undeciphered] Easter Island dates uncertain A possible pictographic script found on several wooden tablets and staves. Crackpot claims of decipherment abound, but there is a good chance it is not even writing, but a mnemonic device for remembering chants. ELAMITE [phonetic] Zagros Mountains dates uncertain The original script of Elam, a state centered at Susa. It is approximately contemporary with Sumerian, no later than -3000, and lasted until replaced by Neo-Elamite cuneiform. GERZE [unattested] Senegal dates uncertain A *very* incompletely known script. Only about 10 signs are recorded. GUBLITIC (Byblos Pseudo-hieroglyphic) [phonetic] Byblos -20C to -12C(?) A syllabic script used to write Phoenician in a few 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 [phonetic pictographic] Syria -1500 to -600 A script of Luwian, mostly in Syria from the -10C to the -8C. It is not related to hieroglyphics, nor is it Hittite though it is related to that. Actual Hittite was written in Akkadian cuneiform. INDUS VALLEY [undeciphered] Indus Valley -2500 to -1600 A script found on thousands of seals and seal impressions, none over 17 signs long, and apparently used for nothing else. Despite the claims of some Indian fundamentalists, it is unrelated to the modern scripts of India. Sometimes called Harrapan or Mohenjo Daro, after the main sites of the Indus civilization. . LIBYAN [phonetic] Tunis and eastern Algeria Roman period to present A consonantal script of obscure origin used to write Numidian, Latin and New Punic. Suggestions for its affiliations 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] Meroe -2C to +4C An alphabet of Meroe, a state south of Egypt. Early texts are in Egyptian, but though the phonetic script for writing the still poorly known local language externally resembles Egyptian, the phonetic values do not match. MINAHASSA [iconography] northeastern Celebes dates uncertain A poorly known system used prior to the arrival of Christian missionaries. Some scholars maintain it was a logographic pictographic script. NSIBIDI [logographic] southern Nigeria dates uncertain Discovered in this century and lacking ancient texts Nsibidi is nevertheless considered fairly old. There are several contradictory origin myths. It's hard for Western scholars to get information on - the public script is apparently used primarily for private erotic love letters, and several secret societies use variants of it with additional symbols known only within the society. OGHAM [phonetic] Celtic dates uncertain 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. RUNES [phonetic] Northern Europe +100 to +1400 An alphabet of the Germanic languages, from Icelandic to Anglo-Saxon to Gothic. 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] Southern Asia Minor -5C to -4C A script found on coins and one or two line inscriptions in an unknown language. Outwardly very different from Greek, but some scholars believe there is a connection. TOMA [phonetic] Liberian border dates unceratin A syllabic script. Very little data is available. VAI [phonetic] Sierra Leone and Liberia date uncertain. A 226 sign script used in to write Mandingo. It is sometimes credited to Nomoru Doalu Bukele around 1830, sometimes claimed to be ancient. Though not very common in public use, it is still common for personal correspondance and records. VARANG KSHITI [phonetic] Northeast India +20C An alphabet invented early in this century to write a form of Ho. Primarily a cult script, its users claim it is the script of an ancient civilization recovered in shamanic trances. WOMEN'S WRITING [phonetic] China dates uncertain A syllabic script said to have been used by women at the Chinese court. _____________________________________________________________ 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. Peter T Daniels and William Bright. The World's Writing Systems. Oxford, 1996. ISBN 0-19-507993-0 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.