alphabets.json

[{"script":"Adlm","name":"Adlam","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Adlam script is used for writing the Fulani language in Guinea. Prior to the creation of this script, the Fulani language was written in the Latin and Arabic scripts. In the 1980s, two teenage brothers, Ibrahima and Abdoulaye Barry, wondered why their language did not have its own script and set about creating one. They named their script ‘Adlam’ because the first four characters in the repertoire represent A, D, L, and M.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFollowing the creation of the script, the two brothers initially produced hand-written textbooks to aid in its dissemination. They first taught their other family members to read and write, then the women and children in their village. Along with the script, the books taught lessons in water hygiene and basic medical care. Gradually, the script grew in popularity and the brothers set up learning centres in Togo, Senegal, Benin, and even amongst Fulani speakers in New York. Eventually, the means were available to print the script, and a newspaper and a number of printed books were published. However, the rapid growth of Adlam attracted the attention of the Guinean government, who were opposed to the new script which they could not read, and Ibrahim was imprisoned for three months. After his release, in 2007, he moved to America and took a job with a software company. He used the expertise and financial savings he acquired there to create software for Adlam, and by 2012 three fonts and a keyboard had been created.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is written from right to left and letters can be joined to one another (cursive) or separate. There are 28 letters in all, and each letter has four forms, including upper- and lower-case forms. The script is an alphabet, with both consonant and vowel characters. Adlam also contains a set of digits from 0-9 and a number of diacritics for marking vowel length, \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=glossary#gemination\u003egemination\u003c/a\u003e, and foreign sounds. The glottal stop is also indicated with a diacritic.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Afak","name":"Afaka","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"American","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Afaka script was a syllabary created around 1910 for writing the Nenge (also called Ndjuka, or Eastern Maroon Creole) language, an English \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=glossary#creole\u003ecreole\u003c/a\u003e spoken by about 23,000 people in Suriname and French Guyana. It is the only known indigenous script for a creole language. The script was named for its inventor, a Nenge man called Afaka Atumisi. It is now believed to have fallen into disuse.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSyllable structure in the Nenge language allows for initial consonant clusters containing a nasal and a stop, and for doubly articulated consonants (two consonants produced simultaneously at different places in the oral cavity). Vowels can also be complex or nasalized. If each of these is considered to be a single sound, as is the case for speakers of the language, syllables can be analyzed as exclusively consisting of a consonant + vowel. In the Afaka script, single letters were used to represent these complex consonant + vowel combinations. However, this resulted in many contrasts in the language being unrepresented in writing. The same letters were used to write bo bow and bṍ bone, for example. Syllables starting with the sounds b, d, dj,f, g, l, m, n, s, and j were written with the same letter regardless of the following vowel. The vowels i and e were not represented when following the consonants l, m, s, and w. Tone is also contrastive in the language, but was not written. na is and ná is not vary only in tone, so were written the same. Given the predictable subject matter for which the script was generally used - most texts repeated many fixed religious expressions - this underrepresentation did not necessarily hamper understanding when reading. However, it became more problematic when users needed to express novel or less predictable expressions, which the deficiencies in the script left ambiguous.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOne punctuation mark was used, a vertical line which marks the end of a clause or a sentence, roughly equivalent to a comma and a full stop. Inter-word spacing was used, but not by everyone.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAfakas script came to the attention of the wider world in 1915, when Brother Bernard, a Catholic missionary in Suriname, observed a man reading a book full of unknown symbols. The man was Afakas brother-in-law Abena, one of about 30 people to whom Afaka had taught the script. Abena asked Br. Bernard to dictate a number of liturgical Catholic prayers in Nenge, which he then recorded in the script. Much of what is known about the script is attributed to Br. Bernards colleague, Father Morssink, who went to considerable lengths to study and propagate the script, with limited success.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe limited success of the script is believed to have been largely due to its underrepresentation of many phonological contrasts. It was likely due in part to its associations with European missionaries; some Nenge speakers saw it as a means to convert them to a European faith. In addition, literacy had never been a part of the Nenge society, and many saw no reason to change their traditional way of life, especially at a perceived cost to their spiritual welfare. A more controversial view is that the symbols already existed prior to the creation of the script, but that they had religious, rather than phonetic, significance. Many of them resemble acrophonic rebuses - stylized pictures of something which begins with the sound the symbol stands for - from Africa, where they may have been used in religious ceremonies. Some Nenge may have felt that using the sacred symbols for mundane or secular purposes would be irreverent.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Aghb","name":"Caucasian Albanian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Caucasian Albanian script was used to write the language of Caucasian Albania (which is not the same as present-day European Albania). The Caucasian Albanian language was a dialect of Old Udi, which is closely related to the Eastern Samur branch of Lezgian.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Caucasian Albanian script was an alphabet written from left to right with spaces between words. There were fifty-two letters in the alphabet. It is thought to have been based on Greek writing.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Ahom","name":"Ahom","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":null,"direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Ahom script was used by members of the Tai Ahom community in India for writing the Ahom language, an extinct member of the Tai-Kadai language family. Ahom has been written for at least 500 years, and possibly much longer. The Ahom script is derived from Old Mon, ultimately of Brahmi origin. The Ahom people descended from the Shan ethnic group of Myanmar but migrated to what is now Assam, India, in the 13th century, taking their language, script and cultural traditions with them. There they established the Ahom Kingdom, where Ahom was the official language until the absorption of the region by the British Empire in 1826. After this, the Assamese language and script were promoted and have now almost entirely replaced Ahom. The Ahom language is occasionally used in religious rituals, and there have been some recent revival efforts by the ethnic Ahom community in Assam; however, there were a number of irregularities in the script which have hampered efforts to decipher manuscripts or attain knowledge of the spoken language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAhom is an abugida; each consonant letter represents a CV syllable where the vowel is a unless indicated otherwise by means of vowel diacritics. Vowel diacritics were written above, below, to the right of, or flanking the preceding consonant. Initial vowels having no preceding consonant were written using a silent dummy consonant letter, to which vowel diacritics could be attached as appropriate.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script originally contained 19 consonant letters, but during the 18th century a further 5 were added for writing words borrowed from other languages. There are 14 vowel diacritics, two which represent diphthongs and one which represents the sound am or a:m.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough the Ahom language was tonal, tones were not written, so it is no longer known how many tones were used or how they were arranged. Consonant clusters were often not written in full; rather, only the first element in the cluster was written, and the reader was to supply the missing parts. The initial consonant of a word was often not written if it was the same as the final consonant of the previous word. In a sequence of words beginning with the same letter, the words were contracted so that the initial letter was only written once.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe first Ahom font was created in 1920 for the Ahom-Assamese-English dictionary compiled by Golap Chandra Barua. Although the accuracy of the dictionary itself has been called into question, as Baruas claimed fluency in Ahom was later disproved, the font was used in a number of other influential publications and has since become an authoritative model for letter shapes. The origin of the canonical order according to which the dictionary is organized is not known.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Arab","name":"Arabic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"arab","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"RTL bidirectional","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eArabic writing is the second most broadly-used script in the world, after the Latin alphabet. It descended from the Nabataean abjad, itself a descendant of the Phoenician script, and has been used since the 4th century for writing the Arabic language. Since the words of the Prophet Muhammed can only be written in Arabic, the Arabic script has traveled far and wide with the spread of Islam and came to be used for a number of languages throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Many of these are non-Semitic languages, so employ very different sound systems from spoken Arabic, and as a result the script has had to be adapted and is used slightly differently by speakers of different languages. Many African languages use an Arabic-based transcription system called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAjami\u003c/span\u003e, which is different from the original Arabic script. Romance languages such as Mozarabic or Ladino are also sometimes written in a modified Arabic script, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAljamiado\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMany variations on the script have developed over time and space, but these can be broadly classified into two groups; an angular \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekufic\u003c/span\u003e style which was originally used for stone inscriptions and which commonly employs no diacritics, and the \u003cspan class=Em\u003enaskh\u003c/span\u003e style which is more commonly used, more rounded in form, and governed by a set of principles regulating the proportions between the letters. There are a number of variant styles included in this group, including those used in Arabic calligraphy.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eArabic letters are read from right to left. The script is an abjad; only the consonants are required to be written. The basic set of letters consists of twenty-eight consonants, although some languages use many more letters than this. Some letters can represent a consonant or a long vowel, depending on the context. An additional set of diacritics exists for writing short vowels, but its use is optional. Conventionally, for writing the Arabic language, long vowels are written and short vowels are omitted. Where a vowel is not written, readers of the script must use their knowledge of the language and its phonology to insert the appropriate vowel sound. Diacritics also exist for marking \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#gemination target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;gemination\u003c/a\u003e (consonant lengthening).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eArabic is a unicameral script; there is no upper and lower case. It is also obligatorily cursive, that is, all the letters in a word must be connected wherever possible. Some letters (a ا, d ﺩ, ð ﺫ, r ﺭ, z ﺯ and w ﻭ) cannot always be joined. Each letter has three contextual forms depending on whether it appears at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word, as well as a basic stand-alone shape which is used when it appears at the end of a word \u003cspan class=Em\u003eand\u003c/span\u003e is preceded by one of the letters listed above which cannot join on the left side. Many letters look broadly similar to one another, differing only in the placement of one or more dots above or below the letter. For example, the letters representing ħ, g and x are all the same, except that ħ is unmarked, g has a dot in the loop of the letter and x has a dot above it. These dots are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eijam\u003c/span\u003e and form an integral part of the letter.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA number of ligatures are used in handwriting, but only one l + a is compulsory ﻻ. A ligature is commonly used for writing the word \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAllah\u003c/span\u003e God .ﷲ\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLatin punctuation is commonly used, with a few exceptions. The Arabic comma, question mark, and percent sign are script-specific, and there is also an Arabic triple-dot mark. In addition, there are script-specific honorific marks which may be placed above a persons name in order to confer honor or a blessing upon them. There are also Koranic annotation signs, mostly to provide guidance in chanting and singing sacred text.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Arabic script employs two sets of numbers, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eStandard\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eEastern Arabic\u003c/span\u003e. Latin numbers, which derive from a medieval set of Arabic numbers, are also used, particularly in North Africa. Like Arabic letters, numbers are written from right to left, but with the highest value on the left, as with Latin numbers, so they must be read from left to right. There is also a numeral system known as \u003cspan class=Em\u003eabjad numerals\u003c/span\u003e, in which each of the 28 letters of the Arabic abjad is assigned a numeric value of units, tens or hundreds. These are combined to create larger numbers.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Aran","name":"Arabic (Nastaliq variant)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"RTL bidirectional","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Nastaliq variant of Arabic script is a cursive script, written horizontally but at a sloping angle where the longer the sequence of characters is in a calligraphically-connected cluster, the taller it becomes. It has short verticals and long horizontal strokes. Due to the slope and calligraphic style, placement of nuqtas (dots) on the base characters is forced to vary quite a bit among different letters and even different forms of the same letter. Words are separated by a space. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe name (Nastaliq) is a composite of the names for the \\\\\\Naskh\\\\\\\" and \\\\\\\"Taliq\\\\\\\" styles of writing. Nastaliq is used in Afghanistan","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Armi","name":"Imperial Aramaic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Aramaic script was used for writing the Aramaic language, which was the trade language of the Middle East from about 1000 BC to about 1000 AD. Aramaic writing is derived from the Phoenician script. Because the evolution from one to the other was a continuous process over about 2000 years it is difficult to divide it neatly into uniquely Phoenician and uniquely Aramaic blocks; however, it is generally agreed that a divergence into two distinct scripts was evident by about the 8th century BC. Both the Phoenician and Aramaic scripts were the antecedents of a large and geographically diverse family of writing systems. Many of the scripts used today for writing Indo-European languages are part of this family. Again, because the two scripts were so closely related it is not clear exactly which writings systems descended from each. Conventionally, the scripts used in Western Europe and the Mediterranean are called Phoenician-derived and those used in the Middle East and Central/South Asia are called Aramaic-derived.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eImperial Aramaic was both the official language of the Persian Empire from the 5th to the 3rd centuries BC, and the script used for writing this language. It was used throughout modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thrace and Macedonia, Iraq, northern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Egypt as far as Libya. Imperial Aramaic writing was so influential that it survived the collapse of the Persian Empire which had initially disseminated it, and continued to be used until the 2nd century AD. By the end of the 3rd century, variant forms of the script had diverged into distinct scripts such as Syriac, Nabataean and Palmyran. The form of Imperial Aramaic which changed the least is now used for writing the Hebrew language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eImperial Aramaic was written from right to left, with or without spaces between words. The script was an abjad; each of the twenty-two letters represented a consonant. Because the interpretation of some words was ambiguous when the vowels were not written, Aramaic scribes began using a select few of the existing consonantal letters to indicate long vowels, first at the end of words, then inside words. Letters having this dual consonant/vowel function are (called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ematres lectionis\u003c/span\u003e). The letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003ewaw\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eyudh\u003c/span\u003e could represent either the consonants w and j respectively, or the long vowels u/o and i/e respectively. Similarly, the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003e represented the consonant ʔ at the beginning of a word, or the long vowel a/e elsewhere. One script-specific punctuation mark is used in writing Imperial Aramaic, a section sign to mark topic divisions in texts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eImperial Aramaic orthography was highly regular. Often the spellings of words more closely reflected their etymology than their pronunciation.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Armn","name":"Armenian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"armn","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Armenian alphabet was created around 405AD by Mesrop Mashtots. He reportedly studied a number of scripts, including Greek and Syriac, before having a dream in which he saw elements of these scripts integrated into one system. The Geez script has also been suggested as a possible influence. Armenia adopted Christianity in the early fourth century, but later began reverting to paganism. Mashtots believed that if the Bible could be written in Armenian the country would have the means to maintain a Christian faith and culture at a time when the Persian empire was attempting to assimilate the country. It also enabled Armenian educational institutions to be established, as well as a large body of early Armenian literature. The alphabet has been used in the country since its inception, with some modifications.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere were originally 30 consonant and 6 vowel letters in the alphabet, but in the 12th century two more letters were added for representing aw and f, bringing the total to 38. A third symbol was also introduced to represent the word and in lower case form. Much later, in the early 20th century, orthographic reform under the Soviet government led to two spelling conventions being used. Broadly speaking, Mesropian orthography is used throughout the Armenian diaspora (which makes up the majority of Armenian speakers), and Reformed orthography is used within Armenia. The difference between the two has been likened to that between British and American English, though with stronger political connotations.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEarly Armenian writers relied heavily on ligated form of letters in order to save space. Five of these are still in common use, to combine the symbol for m with n, ɛ, i and x, and to combine the symbol for ɛ with v. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/r3/2r/r32rqthawp_ArmeLigas.png height=159 width=546 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA ligature also used to exist which combined the symbols representing ɛ + w/v, but it is used so commonly that followers of the Reformed orthography consider it a distinct letter rather than a ligature, bringing their total number of symbols to 39.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is an alphabet; consonants and vowels are written with independent letters. It is read from left to right. The traditional order of the letters composes an acrostic prayer. It is generally believed that this order follows the order of the Greek alphabet, although it has also been suggested that Mashtot followed a number symbolism found in early kabbalistic traditions when ordering the letters. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eArmenian is written with spaces between words. There are four punctuation marks unique to Armenian, two of which follow a word to indicate that it has been abbreviated, or to add emphasis, and two marks which are placed after and above the last vowel, respectively, as a question mark and an exclamation mark. Non-Latin marks are used to perform the functions of full stop, semicolon, word-joining and word-splitting hyphen. The script employs upper and lower case.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/r3/2r/r32rqthawp_ArmenianPunctuation.png height=116 width=190 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWritten Armenian contains no script-specific numbers, rather, each letter was assigned a numeric value. In recent years and particularly in print form, Latin numbers have increasingly been used.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Avst","name":"Avestan","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Avestan script was used from the 5th to the 13th century AD for writing the Avestan language, an Eastern Iranian language which is now only known from its use as the language of Zoroastrian religious texts called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAvesta\u003c/span\u003e, although it is thought that at one time it was probably a natural language in everyday use. There are no surviving examples of written Avestan prior to its use as a liturgical language, and it is thought that the Avestan script was created particularly for the purpose of writing religious texts. At that time, many of the Iranian languages were written in the Pahlavi script, but this contained a number of ambiguous symbols and did not represent vowels, so was unsuitable for representing a religious language, the pronunciation of which was important. The script was also used to write religious commentaries in the Middle Persian language; these are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ePazend\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAvestan is written from right to left using thirty-seven consonant and sixteen vowel letters. Many of the consonant letters were taken from the various forms of the Pahlavi script, and some of the vowels were taken from the Greek. Some new letters were created by the addition of diacritics to existing forms, and some appear to be original creations. One letter is used only in Pazend texts. There are four optional ligatures in use, for representing sk, šc, št, and ša. Aside from these, letters are not normally joined in a cursive way, although they may be written close enough together to touch.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePunctuation was rarely used in Avestan texts, although words were separated by a dot. Scholars of the script in the 19th century created a punctuation system for use in transcribing texts, including symbols functioning as a colon, semicolon and full stop, and abbreviation and repetition marks. These have been encoded in the Avestan block in Unicode; the Unicode proposal document anticipates that modern users of the script will use them in Avestan texts as well as in transcriptions.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Bali","name":"Balinese","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"bali","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":null,"direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Balinese script is used for writing the Balinese language spoken on the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali. It is derived from the Old Kawi script, and is ultimately of Brahmic descent. It is very similar to the Javanese script in form and behaviour; some consider them to be typological variants of one another. The Balinese script is an abugida in which each of the consonants has an inherent a vowel. These can be modified by the addition of diacritics above, below or alongside the consonant, to change the inherent vowel to one of the other 15 vowels in the Balinese inventory. Some of these vowels are split vowels, that is, they are written with a combination of marks in more than one position relative to the consonant. Syllable-initial vowels are represented by independent vowel characters. At least two of these can function as consonants, in that they can be followed by the virama to represent a syllable-final glottal stop.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are 34 reported Balinese consonant characters, although some of these only enjoy very limited use, even to the extent that only a single word attests to them. To some degree this is attributed to the large number of loan words from Sanskrit or Old Javanese, which possessed larger consonant inventories than modern spoken Balinese. Each consonant has an alternate \u003cspan class=Em\u003epangangge\u003c/span\u003e form for use in consonant clusters; a virama is also used in consonant clusters or to represent a syllable-final consonant. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBalinese punctuation is used for beginning and ending a section of text, for roles corresponding roughly to those of the Latin comma, colon and full-stop, and, in some texts, for marking holy letters, particularly when using Sanskrit words in payers. A linebreaking hyphen is also used. Also sometimes included in discussions of Balinese characters is the notation system used for writing music, which is based on the vowel characters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHistorically, Balinese has been inscribed into stone, or written on palm leaves. Traditionally, the religious texts written on palm leaves were considered to be sacred and could not be read by everyone; now, the palm leaves themselves are still considered sacred, although the contents is not, and can be read by anyone who is able, through the media of printed books. New literature in the script is uncommon, however traditional literature is published on a limited scale. Additionally, it is used for public signage on roads, at entrances to villages, and on government buildings. Community reading groups called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eSekaha Pesantian\u003c/span\u003e also exist for the purpose of reading the Balinese script in a social context, commonly in song form.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Bamu","name":"Bamum","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":null,"direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Bamum script of Cameroon was devised at the end of the C19th following a dream in which the Bamum King Njoya was inspired to provide a writing system for his people by creating a series of pictographs. The script was something of a communal production; the Bamum people were reportedly invited to supply the King with a number of simple symbols, from which he chose more than 500 to use in the Bamum script. Initially, the script was logographic, but it underwent a series of changes influenced by the rebus principle. After about 30 years, full phonetic representation had been realized, and the script had developed into a syllabary composed of just 80 base characters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBoth spoken and written Bamum are based around the (C)V syllable although syllable-final consonants, limited to p, t, m, n, ŋ, can also occur. The script is written from left to right, allegedly to remove any Arabic associations. It also employs 5 punctuation marks, roughly corresponding to the Latin full stop, comma, colon, semi-colon and question mark, as well as a differentiating mark, \u003cspan class=Em\u003enʒɛmli\u003c/span\u003e, which differentiates two homonyms. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eNʒɛmli\u003c/span\u003e is also placed in front of proper nouns by way of identification.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTwo diacritics, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eko\u003csup\u003eʔ\u003c/sup\u003endon\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003etukwentis\u003c/span\u003e, are also used. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eKo\u003csup\u003eʔ\u003c/sup\u003endon\u003c/span\u003e can be added to any of the 80 base characters. Most commonly, it serves to reduce the number of heteronyms in the language by adding a glottal stop - which is distinctive in spoken Bamum - to the syllable. Sometimes it can be used to change the initial consonant of the syllable, or, less commonly, to indicate a semantic rather than phonetic difference. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eTukwentis\u003c/span\u003e can be added to 13 of the base characters, in most cases to mute the inherent vowel in a syllable. It is also written above the vowel o to change it to ə.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Bamum script was used for administrative purposes, documentation and education, until the 1930s saw King Njoya exiled by German and French colonial powers who also closed the schools and attempted to destroy documents written in the script. It has now fallen into disuse, but the \u003ca href=http://www.bamumscript.org target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Bamum Scripts and Archives Project\u003c/a\u003e exists to preserve and digitally archive manuscripts written in the script and prevent its total loss.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Bass","name":"Bassa Vah","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Bassa Vah script is used to write the Bassa language spoken in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and by Bassa speakers in Brazil and the Caribbean. The name originated from the Bassa word Vah, meaning to throw a sign; the script developed from the earlier Bassa communication system of signs made from chewed leaves or carved into trees and left in set locations where they would be found and interpreted. As this system developed, it was employed by the Bassa people to avoid slave traders, so was suppressed by colonial powers and became almost extinct.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWidely hailed as the only indigenous African alphabet, the script consists of 23 consonants and 7 vowels. Bassa Vah is the only indigenous Liberian script to represent tones. This is done by means of 5 tone marks, which are written inside the vowel characters. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/66/9c/669cd3g9f3_bassatones.jpg height=170 width=250 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCharacters are sorted in an order called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eenni-ka-se-fa\u003c/span\u003e - the names of the first four consonants. Amongst some users, this sequence is also the name of the script itself. Vowels are sorted at the end of the alphabet.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe alphabet is \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#bicam target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;bicameral\u003c/a\u003e, although the lower case has only been developed in recent years, as demonstrated by their absence in \u003ca href=http://www.evertype.com/standards/iso10646/pdf/bassa.pdf target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Michael Eversons draft chart\u003c/a\u003e, and their presence in the subsequent \u003ca href=http://www.uniboa.org/bassalanguage.html target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Bassa Vah Association chart\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are no unique Bassa Vah digits; Latin digits are used. Similarly, the Latin full stop and colon are used, in addition to a + symbol, which also performs a full stop function.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Batk","name":"Batak","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (LTR) and horizontal (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Batak script is used to write the six Batak languages (Toba, Karo, Dairi, Mandailing, Simalungun and Angkola) spoken collectively by approximately 3 million people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is one of several scripts indigenous to the Indonesian archipelago, descended from the Old Kawi script, which in turn is derived from the Pallava, and ultimately the Brahmi, script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is an abugida; its 18 consonant letters each contain an inherent a vowel, which is modified by means of diacritics for other vowels. Syllable-final consonants are indicated by means of a pangolat (virama). Consonants do not form conjuncts. Punctuation is not normally used, but a number of bindu characters are used to disambiguate similar words or phrases or to separate sections of text. These marks may each have a number of variants and may perform more of an ornamental than a grammatical function. A further sign (pustaha) exists to separate a title from the following body of text, which normally begins on the same line.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBatak is read from left-to-right. Some have observed it being written vertically bottom-to-top along the length of a piece of bamboo. These bamboo stalks were placed next to each other and bound together with string in such a way as to form a bundle of plates inscribed with horizontal lines of right-running text.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script was standardised in the 1850s, and was used in education until the declaration of Bahasa Indonesia as the national language in 1945, since which time literacy and usage has declined. However, something of a Batak renaissance in recent years has led to teaching materials once again being made available for use in schools.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Beng","name":"Bengali (Bangla)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Bengali (also called Bangla) script is used for writing the Bengali language, spoken by over 180,000,000 people mostly in Bangladesh and India. It is also used for a number of other Indian languages including Sylheti and, with one or two modifications, Assamese. It is a Brahmic script although its exact derivation is disputed. Bengali writing shares some similarities with the Dravidian-language scripts, particularly in the shapes of some vowel letters, but it is generally more similar to the Aryan-language scripts, in particular Devanagari.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBengali is an abugida - that is, every consonant letter represents a syllable containing an inherent vowel - written from left to right. There is no upper- or lower-case. There are thirty-five consonant letters and eleven independent vowel letters, two of which represent the diphthongs oj and ow. Each vowel letter also has a diacritic form which combines with a consonant to modify the inherent vowel. These can be written to the left or the right of, or above or below the consonant. Some are \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#multig target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;digraphs\u003c/a\u003e, written with part of the letter before and part after the consonant. Some vowel diacritics take contextual forms, for example \u003cspan class=Em\u003eu\u003c/span\u003e changes shape following \u003cspan class=Em\u003eg\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003eʃ\u003c/span\u003e. Some consonant-vowel combinations have a traditional ligated form which is often visually dissimilar to the base consonant+vowel diacritic form. These are more commonly found in handwriting, but occasionally in printed text also.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are three modifier signs, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekhanda-ta\u003c/span\u003e (represents a final dental stop), \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e (nasalizes a final velar), \u003cspan class=Em\u003evisarga\u003c/span\u003e (represents a voiceless breath after a vowel), and \u003cspan class=Em\u003echandra bindu\u003c/span\u003e (nasalizes a vowel). There is also a symbol, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehasanta\u003c/span\u003e, to mute the inherent vowel.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/j6/sp/j6spskdfbr_BengaliSigns.png height=192 width=249 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBengali writing differs from most Indian abugidas in that the inherent vowel in a syllable is either ɔ or o. In general, it is pronounced ɔ except when followed by i, j, u or w, in which contexts it is pronounted o. However this is not always predictable. In addition, at the end of a syllable (at the end of or within a word), the vowel is often not pronounced even when this is not indicated with \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehasanta\u003c/span\u003e. So the letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003em\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003et\u003c/span\u003e can represent either mɔt opinion or moto approximately, but \u003cspan class=Em\u003eg\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003et\u003c/span\u003e always represents gɔto past.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonants regularly form conjuncts, normally of two letters, more rarely of three or four. Often these involve little or no change in letterform, but in some cases one letter changes unrecognizably from its isolated form and in a few cases both letters do so. Conjuncts are written with the parts alongside each other or in stacks. Pronunciation of conjuncts is not always what would be expected from the sum of their parts, due to sound changes in spoken Bengali which are not represented in writing. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003ej\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003eñ\u003c/span\u003e conjunct is pronounced g+nasalization at the start of a word or gg elsewhere, for example \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebijña\u003c/span\u003e, pronounced biggo/õ wise. Combinations of C+\u003cspan class=Em\u003em\u003c/span\u003e are pronounced at the start of a word as C+nasalization, or as CC elsewhere. The conjunct \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekʃa\u003c/span\u003e represents khɔ at the start of a word and khhɔ within a word, as in the case of the womans name written \u003cspan class=Em\u003elakʃmi\u003c/span\u003e but pronounced lokkhi.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/j6/sp/j6spskdfbr_BengaliConjuncts.png height=170 width=360 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome other spelling conventions also reflect archaic pronunciation. The three sibilant letters which represented three separate sounds ʂ, ʃ and s in Brahmi writing have been retained in Bengali orthography, all representing ʃ except before t, n, r or l, when they all assimilate to s. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBengali employs a set of script-specific digits 0-9.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Devanagari full stop, a vertical line, is used in Bengali alongside Latin punctuation. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Bhks","name":"Bhaiksuki","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eBhaiksuki is an extinct script used for writing Buddhist texts in the Indian state of Bihar. It is also known as the Arrow-Headed script due to the shape of the letters, many of which are capped with one or more triangular “arrows”. Little is known about this script, but the \u003ca href=http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb10/iksl/indologie/forschung/drittmittelprojekte/bhaiksuki target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Arrow-Headed Script Project\u003c/a\u003e at Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany is working to change that.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Blis","name":"Blissymbols","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Artificial","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eBlissymbols was developed after the Second World War by Charles Bliss, to facilitate communication between speakers of different languages. It has also been used to help people with severe speech impediments to communicate without the need to speak, although Bliss did not approve of this usage. It is used in particular by people who struggle both to speak and to read or spell. The system consists of 4,000 symbols representing various abstract and concrete concepts. The symbols are not related in any way to the pronunciation of a word, so can be used in conjunction with any spoken language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe symbols are derived from standard geometric shapes and are either pictographs, such as a jagged line to represent the concept \u003cspan class=Em\u003eelectricity\u003c/span\u003e, or ideographs, such as a triangle to represent the concept \u003cspan class=Em\u003ecreation\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSymbols can be combined to represent additional concepts, for example, the symbols for \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehouse\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003emoney\u003c/span\u003e can be combined to represent \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebank\u003c/span\u003e. In these cases, there is a correct, standardized order in which to write the combinations of symbols.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSymbols can also be superimposed on top of one another, for example, the symbol for \u003cspan class=Em\u003emouth\u003c/span\u003e can be superimposed onto \u003cspan class=Em\u003enose\u003c/span\u003e to represent \u003cspan class=Em\u003etaste\u003c/span\u003e. Some symbols have an arbitrary shape, such as the articles \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea/an\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ethis\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe meaning of a symbol is determined not only by its shape but by its size. For example, a full-size circle represents the concept \u003cspan class=Em\u003esun\u003c/span\u003e, and a half-size circle represents \u003cspan class=Em\u003emouth\u003c/span\u003e. Sometimes visually similar symbols are also semantically related, for example a full-size upside-down ‘v’ represents \u003cspan class=Em\u003eaction\u003c/span\u003e, but the same symbol half the size represents \u003cspan class=Em\u003eactivity\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe position and orientation of a symbol can also affect its meaning. A horizontal dash at the \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=Glossary#baseline\u003ebaseline\u003c/a\u003e represents \u003cspan class=Em\u003eground\u003c/span\u003e, but slightly higher it represents \u003cspan class=Em\u003esky\u003c/span\u003e. A single symbol is also used to represent both \u003cspan class=Em\u003esteam\u003c/span\u003e (pointing upwards) and \u003cspan class=Em\u003erain\u003c/span\u003e (pointing downwards).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePunctuation marks, similar to those used in the Latin script but sometimes differing in proportion, are also used. A space half the width of a symbol is left between a word and any following punctuation mark. A space the width of a symbol is left between two words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBlissymbols does not benefit from the use of a wide variety of fonts, as consistency is important in order for the symbols to be understood.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Bopo","name":"Bopomofo","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"bopo","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eBopomofo is the colloquial name given to the Zhuyin Fuhao phonetic system for transcribing Chinese. The script is used particularly often by students of the Mandarin language. It was developed in 1913 by the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation (讀音統一會) in China to extend the use of Mandarin. It is still used by many books, newspapers and journals in Taiwan, to annotate the Taiwanese pronunciation of Chinese Han characters or spell out Taiwanese words for which no character exists, but has been largely replaced by Pinyin romanization in mainland China. The script is also used as the primary script for writing some of Taiwans minority languages including Atayal, Taroko, Paiwan and Yami.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is a semi-syllabary based on syllable rhymes (normally the simple or complex vowel and optional closing consonant in a syllable) and onsets (the initial consonant preceding the rhyme). Of the 37 signs employed in Bopomofo writing, 21 represent onset consonants and 16 represent rhymes. Tones are written using diacritics.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe shapes of the symbols are taken from parts of Chinese characters containing the relevant sound. The stroke order with which the signs are written is also based on that of Chinese characters.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Brah","name":"Brahmi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Brahmi script is ancestral to most of the scripts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and to some Central Asian scripts. The name Brahmi actually does not refer to a single, discrete script as such; general practise is to use the term to refer to any script in the family now known as Brahmic, up until approximately 400 AD, at which point they became differentiated enough to be given their own names. Brahmic writing was originally used for writing early dialects of the Prakrit language, but spread widely during the period of Indian cultural expansion in the 1st millenium AD and has since provided the underlying design for over sixty scripts used by languages from the Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman language families. By about 1000 AD the various varieties of Brahmic writing had diverged to the point that they were all independent scripts whose common ancestry was not always immediately apparent.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe earliest writing system in India was the Indus (Proto-Indic) script used by the Harrappan civilization of the Indus valley around 2500-1500BC. After this system fell from use, there appears to have been a long hiatus from which period we do not have any evidence of writing, until approximately 500 BC, at which time two writing systems appeared. One of these was Kharoshthi; the other was Brahmi. The origins of Brahmi are not known for certain, but it is thought to have been influenced by the Imperial Aramaic script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBrahmi writing has been attested primarily in inscriptions on graves and buildings, most famously the edicts made by Emperor Ashoka around 200 BC. It was not until 1836 that these were decoded, by James Prinsep, which enabled the deciphering of other inscriptions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Brahmi script was generally written from left to right, with some rare exceptions. The script was an abugida; there were thirty-three consonant letters each representing a CV syllable containing the inherent vowel a. Other post-consonantal vowels were written using one of nine vowel diacritics (together with the inherent vowel, five pairs of long and short vowels could be represented) around the consonant letter. There were also nine letters for writing vowels which were not preceded by a consonant. Special conjunct letters existed for writing consonant clusters. Many of these features have been retained by descendant scripts from Brahmi. It is notable that the head-mark, which is characteristic in many varieties of a number of scripts derived from Brahmi, is missing from Brahmi writing itself. It is thought that this head-mark arose incidentally as a result of writing with a reed pen, and later became an integral part of the script.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Brai","name":"Braille","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Artificial","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"brai","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Braille script was created in 1821 by the Frenchman Louis Braille, who had become blind at age three. The system is based on a code called night writing, which had been developed by Charles Barbier to enable soldiers to communicate silently and without the need for a light. Barbier’s system used letters comprised of up to twelve raised dots, and proved too complex to be useful to the military.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLouis Braille modified this concept to produce a script which used letters comprised of six dots. A dot may be raised at any or all of six positions. The script is not simply a letter by letter transcription of English words into Braille; all sixty-three possible combinations of dot positions are used, representing the twenty-six letters of the Latin alphabet, plus some common letter combinations and abbreviations. Some symbols also represent commonly used words, such as \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebut\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ethis\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eday\u003c/span\u003e etc.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe sixty-fourth configuration, in which no dots are raised, leaves a space between words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBraille is usually written using larger letters than standard printed text, to enable the reader to more easily make the distinction between letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBraille has also been adapted for use with languages that do not use the Latin script, generally following the Latin transcription conventions of that script. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Bugi","name":"Buginese","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between phrases","open_type_tag":"bugi","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Buginese (also known as the Lontara) script is used for writing the Bugis, Makasar, and Mandar languages of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is related to the other Brahmic scripts indigenous to the Indonesian archipelago. Like many in this family it is read from left to right. It is an abugida consisting of 18 consonants which can be marked with diacritics above, below or alongside to change the quality of the inherent a vowel. There is also a letter to represent a word-initial vowel, which can be modified by means of the same diacritics; unmarked it represents a. One ligature exists, to represent iya. Buginese writing employs one punctuation mark, roughly corresponding in usage to the Latin full-stop and comma combined. Unique Buginese digits are unknown; Latin digits are preferred. As is the case with many Brahmi scripts, letters are conventionally sorted according to place of articulation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Buginese script is \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#defect target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;defective\u003c/a\u003e in some ways; syllable-final nasals and glottal stops are never written; nor is \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#gemination target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;gemination\u003c/a\u003e, which in speech is distinctive, marked. In many cases prenasalisation is likewise unwritten. The result is that any one letter may theoretically be interpreted in 9 different ways, although not all of these are necessarily legitimate. The Buginese are famous for creating word games and riddles exploiting the scripts defective aspects.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBuginese literature was studied extensively in the C19th by the Dutch missionary B. F. Matthes who published a Buginese-Dutch dictionary in 1874 with a supplement in 1889, as well as a grammar. Although in the wake of European colonisation the Buginese script has largely been replaced by the Latin script, it was reportedly in some use in 1983. Today the script is used in Bugis and Makasar for ceremonial purposes, such as weddings, and for writing personal documents such as letters and notes. It is also used for printing traditional Buginese literature. Nevertheless it is considered to be under increasing threat as a living script.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Buhd","name":"Buhid","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"buhd","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Buhid script is used to write the Buhid language, spoken by about 8,000 people in the Mindoro region of the Philippines. It is an indigenous abugida script of Brahmic origin. It is proposed that the Buhid, Hanunoo and Tagbanwa scripts share common origins with the Tagalog script, an extinct script from the same region, because of the many features they have in common. All four scripts are of the abugida type, with an a vowel inherent in each consonant. The inherent vowel can be modified by the addition of a diacritic, called a \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekulit\u003c/span\u003e. In the Buhid script the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekulit\u003c/span\u003e takes the form of a horizontal line, added above (to produce i) or below (to produce u) the syllable, often forming a ligature. It is read horizontally, from left to right, and top to bottom.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Cakm","name":"Chakma","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Chakma script (also called Ojhapath, Ojhopath, or Ajhapath) is used for writing the Chakma language spoken in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and in the Seven Sister States of Northeastern India. There are slight variations in the forms of the letters used in the two countries. The script is related to Mon Khmer and Myanmar, and many of the letters closely resemble Myanmar letters. It is also being adapted and extended for writing Tanchangya, a related language spoken in Bangladesh.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is descended from Brahmi, and is an abugida. Each consonant contains an inherent vowel, which can be modified by attaching one of thirteen vowel diacritics to the consonant. Vowels which are pronounced at the start of a syllable are written either with four independent vowel letters (representing a, i, u, e) or by adding the appropriate vowel diacritic to the independent letter a.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA virama symbol called \u003cspan class=Em\u003emaayaa\u003c/span\u003e is used to mute the inherent vowel so that consonant clusters can be represented. Consonant clusters which combine the letters ya, ra, la, wa, na, ba, ma and ha can also be written using conjuncts. In the past there was a wider range of letters which could be written using conjuncts but these are no longer so common.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are three symbols to indicate phonological processes; these are commonly found in scripts derived from Sanskrit. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eCandrabindu\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e indicate nasalization of a vowel. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eVisarga\u003c/span\u003e indicates aspiration of a preceding consonant. These can sometimes be used in combination.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Chakma script uses two Brahmic punctuation marks: \u003cspan class=Em\u003edanda\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edouble danda\u003c/span\u003e, which indicate the end of a sentence and (in poetry) the end of a verse, respectively. There are also two script-specific punctuation marks: a question mark and a mark to indicate the end of a section. Script-specific numerals from 0-9 are used, alongside Bengali and, to a lesser extent, Myanmar, numerals.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHistorically, the script was used to write folk music, epic poems, Buddhist teachings, and for documenting traditional medicinal practices. Today, literacy in Chakma is low, although it is taught up to primary level in the Chakma Autonomous District in Mizoram, India. Most young Chakma speakers do not use the script; rather, they read and write their language using Bengali or Latin letters.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Cans","name":"Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"American","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"cans","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eUnified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics are not, strictly speaking, a single script, but a family of related scripts used for writing a number of Algonquin and Inuit languages (previously also the Athabaskan languages) indigenous to Canada. However, they are encoded in Unicode as a unified block. They are used almost exclusively in Canada, for writing the Cree, Ojibwe, Inuktitut, and occasionally Blackfoot languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA Canadian syllabic script was first created in 1840 by the British missionary James Evans for writing the Swampy Cree dialect. He was influenced in part by two scripts intended to be read by the blind; James Freres alphabet and Thomas Lucass embossed shorthand system. Evans had also learned Pitman shorthand during his previous work as a merchant, and it is believed that he based the idea of modifying each letter by rotation on this system. Some scholars also believe he was influenced by the shapes of Devanagari letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCanadian syllabics are abugidas; each symbol represents a consonant+vowel combination, with the exception of the bare vowel letter. Vowels which occur at the beginning of a syllable are written with a triangular symbol, rotated through 4 series of 90°, normally to represent the vowels a, o, i and e. Some languages which use the script have a different vowel inventory so assign different values to the rotations.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/kh/2l/kh2lafw9dz_UCASVowels.png height=63 width=291 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEach consonant+vowel symbol can be modified in four ways, again, generally to represent the vowels a, o, i and e. Unlike most other abugidas, vowel modification is not indicated by the addition of diacritics but by rotating the whole symbol. The way in which letters are modified depends on whether they have a symmetric shape or not. Letters which have a symmetric shape are rotated anti-clockwise 90° to represent i when upright, and a, e, o respectively with each subsequent rotation. Letters which are not symmetric also represent i when upright, but are inverted 180° to represent o. e and a are represented using the mirror images of i and o respectively.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/kh/2l/kh2lafw9dz_UCASConsonants.png height=65 width=360 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/kh/2l/kh2lafw9dz_UCASConsonants2.png height=69 width=367 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA fifth modification can be performed on letters to make them superscript. In this form they represent a syllable-final consonant with no following vowel. Some languages do not use the superscript letters but instead have an additional set of symbols, unrelated to the consonant+vowel symbols, to represent syllable-final consonants.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAdditional marks are used to modify the length of a vowel or to indicate phonological processes such as labialization and aspiration. However, these marks are not used consistently from one language to another - any given combination of letter + combining mark may represent two different sounds in two different languages, so in Unicode each combination is encoded separately for each language in which it is used, rather than simply as a base character and diacritic. The symbol to represent vowel length is called a point; as this symbol is not used consistently even within one language, texts are sometimes referred to as pointed or unpointed depending on whether the writer has used the symbol or not.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpaces are used between words, and there is a symbol for a full stop. Latin punctuation (with the exception of full stop) is also sometimes used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe extent to which Canadian syllabics are used varies between languages. It is considered obsolete or seriously endangered among the Athabaskan group of languages and Blackfoot. However, the Canadian government generally encourages the use of the script, especially in areas with large Inuit populations. In Nunavut and Nunavik, syllabics are the official script alongside Latin, are used at the municipal, territorial / provincial, and federal levels, and are taught in schools. They are also used by businesses, and in the media and communications sector. Some languages have established standardization committees to standardize the syllabics as used for their language.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Cari","name":"Carian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"cari","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Carian script was used between the 7th and 1st centuries BC in what is now the Aegean region of Turkey, for writing the Carian language. It was also used in the Nile delta, where Carians were fighting for the Egyptian pharoahs.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script was an alphabet comprising forty-five letters. Of these, phonetic values have been assigned to nine vowels and seventeen consonants. There is some speculation as to what sounds the remaining nineteen letters represented. Visually, the letters bear a close resemblance to Greek letters. Decipherment was initially attempted on the assumption that those letters which looked like Greek represented the same sounds as their closest visual Greek equivalents. However it has since been established that the phonetic values of the two scripts are very different. For example the \u003cspan class=Em\u003etheta\u003c/span\u003e θ symbol represents ‘th’ in Greek but ‘q’ in Carian.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCarian was generally written from left to right, although Egyptian writers wrote primarily from right to left. It was written without spaces between words. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Cham","name":"Cham","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"cham","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Cham script is a Brahmi-derived abugida used for writing the Cham language. There are two major dialects of Cham, spoken collectively by about 230,000 people in two isolated groups in Vietnam and Cambodia, both of which once had a thriving literary tradition dating from the 8th century. The Cambodian Cham population used to be much larger, but it is estimated that up to 500,000 died as a result of the Khmer Rouges policies in the 1970s. Under this regime the Cham were also forced to use the Cambodian language exclusively.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is written from left to right. The letters hang from the \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#baseline target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;baseline\u003c/a\u003e. Syllables in the Cham language follow a strict CV(C) pattern. Most syllable-final consonants are represented by extending the right-most stroke of the symbol as shown in the example below, but some are modified by a diacritic. One consonant character can be used at the beginning or end of the syllable without any change in form.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/ng/nq/ngnq875xj9_ChamGa.png height=78 width=162 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWith the exception of nasals, each consonant contains an inherent a vowel. Nasal consonants inherently contain the vowel ɨ. In each case, the inherent vowel can be overridden by the addition of 17 vowel diacritics. Of these vowels, 6 can also take a full (non-diacritical) form when they occur at the start of a syllable. The remaining 11 are represented syllable-initially by means of the independent a vowel modified with the appropriate vowel diacritic.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are four glides in the Cham phonemic inventory; these are each represented in writing with an independent symbol when they occur at the start of a syllable, but they also have a ligating form which can be added to another consonant to produce kja, pla, swa etc.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/ng/nq/ngnq875xj9_ChamGlide.png height=87 width=428 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNumerals 0-9 are also represented in the Cham script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpeakers of the Eastern and Western dialects use distinct styles of the script, with the Eastern dialect being written in a more rounded style (known as \u003cspan class=Em\u003eakhăr thrah\u003c/span\u003e) and the Western dialect in a more fluid style. Currently, the Cham script is used much more widely by speakers of Eastern Cham; the majority of Western Cham speakers are Muslims and use an adaptation of the Arabic script alongside Cham. In Vietnam, where the Eastern dialect is predominantly spoken, bilingual education in Vietnamese and Cham exists at primary school level, and textbooks have been published using the script.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Cher","name":"Cherokee","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"American","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"cher","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Cherokee script was created by a Cherokee man named Sequoyah (also known as George Guess or George Gist) who believed that the key to the colonialists success and power lay within their talking leaves, the written correspondence they used to exchange information and ideas. Although Sequoyah was illiterate, he noted the shapes of the letters in an English Bible and based the shapes of the Cherokee letters on them. For this reason, many of the letters resemble Latin letters and numbers, although there is no relationship between their sounds in English and in Cherokee. Sequoyah spent 12 years devising the Cherokee syllabary, and presented it formally in 1821. It achieved almost instant popularity and by 1824 most Cherokee were literate in the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn 1828 Sequoyah collaborated with Rev. Samuel A. Worcester to modify the script to facilitate the creation of a printing press. The letters they created together are somewhat different from Sequoyahs original set, and are the letters in use today.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is written from left to right. There are 85 letters in the syllabary. Apart from one letter representing s, each symbol represents one syllable consisting of a vowel only, or of a consonant / consonant cluster followed by a (long or short) vowel, or of a consonant followed by a vowel and a final h or ʔ. The syllabary is normally ordered in a chart with the first six symbols representing vowels, followed by consonant + vowel combinations loosely based on the order of the English alphabet. Sequoyah arranged the letters in a different order, which is no longer widely used. Letters cannot be combined to form ligatures; consonant clusters which cannot be written with a single letter are written using a combination of syllables, in which the vowels are considered to be dummy vowels and are not pronounced. Words are separated by spaces or by a dot just above the \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#baseline target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;baseline\u003c/a\u003e, and Latin punctuation is used with the exception of the full stop. There is a script-specific symbol to indicate the end of sentences. Case is not used in the script; although certain letters are sometimes written larger than others this is for typographic effect rather than casing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are four tones in spoken Cherokee, and a single syllable can slide from one tone to another. The tone of a word does not necessarily affect its meaning, so there is no method for marking tone in writing. In cases where the tone does affect the meaning of a word, it is determined from context which meaning is intended.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSequoyah also invented a system of writing numerals. However, as Latin numerals were already widely used by the Cherokee community these were never popular and have since dropped entirely from use.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrom the 1870s until the early 20th century, the US government implemented formal assimilation policies with the intention of civilizing Native Americans. Native American children were forcibly removed from their families and sent to mandatory boarding schools where they were not allowed to speak their language, practice traditional ways or visit their homes, sometimes for three or four years at a time. As a result, a generation of Cherokee people grew up unable to speak the Cherokee language, and it is now estimated to be spoken by fewer than 10% of Cherokee people. Among those who do speak the language, the script is widely used for writing letters, recipes, folktales, diaries, and for personal record-keeping. It is also used in some legal, governmental and religious documents and, in some areas, public signage. Efforts are being made to revive both the language and the script; to that end it is used in a limited capacity in education. Knowledge of the script is considered a prerequisite for full Cherokee citizenship. Two widely used publications in the script are a Cherokee New Testament and a hymnal. Although the orthography has never officially been standardized, many regard the spellings in these books as a standard for formal language.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Cirt","name":"Cirth","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Artificial","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Fictional","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":null,"direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Cirth script was created by J. R. R. Tolkien for writing the elvish and dwarvish languages spoken in the mythological world of Middle-earth. The shapes of the Cirth are based on the Futhark runes, and they are used in Middle-earth for writing inscriptions on wood and stone, in the same way that runes have been used in the real world.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEach rune generally represents one sound, and each sound is represented by one rune. Cirth was used for the Khuzdûl, Sindarin, and Quenya languages, but some signs represent different sounds in different languages, and other signs are only used in one or two of the three languages. Some of the Cirth also had two forms, which could be glyph variants in one language, but represent two different sounds in another.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Cirth script was written from left to right with no punctuation.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Copt","name":"Coptic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"copt","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":null,"direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Coptic alphabet is closely derived from the Greek alphabet. It is used for writing the Coptic language, which was the latest descendant of the Egyptian language and is now the liturgical language of the Coptic church. Prior to the creation of the Coptic alphabet, Egyptian was written in the Greek alphabet; prior to that, in the Demotic script. By the 1st century, spoken Egyptian had become quite removed from Demotic writing. It was also around that time that the Christian religion began spreading from Greece to Egypt. Egyptian Christians wanted a visible symbol of their new faith, and in the 3rd century the Bible was translated into the Coptic language. This translation used the Greek alphabet supplemented by Demotic symbols for representing non-Greek sounds.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Standard Coptic script contained 32 letters, 25 from the Greek Script and 7 from the Demotic. Some dialects borrowed more or fewer letters from Demotic, to better represent their phonology. Early Coptic writing was from right to left, perhaps influenced by surrounding Semitic scripts, but later Standard Coptic was written from left to right. Vowels were not always written, although some orthographies used a small mark above the preceding consonant to indicate that the following vowel had been omitted. A small number of diacritics were used, for example to show where a syllable break occurred. Punctuation and inter-word spacing were not used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere were several dialects of the Coptic language. The language is generally believed to have fallen from everyday use in the 16th century, and is officially classified as extinct, although there have been some reports of scattered use of spoken Coptic in ethnic Egyptian families, but these few users are not passing the language onto the next generation. Coptic is one of the two liturgical languages of the Coptic Orthodox and Coptic Catholic churches, along with Arabic, and the script is still used in this context.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Cprt","name":"Cypriot","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"cprt","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Cypriot script was used from approximately the 11th to the 4th centuries BC, for writing the Greek language in Cyprus. It descended from the Linear A script, and is closely related to the Linear B script, but has no visual or structural relationship to the Greek alphabet. The script was used primarily for record keeping, not for literary purposes.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Cypriot script was a syllabary, with each of fifty-six letters representing an open (CV) syllable. It was written from right to left without interword spacing. Voiced sounds were under-represented in the script, despite being distinctive in speech. For example, the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ep\u003c/span\u003e series of letters (pa, pe, pi, po, pu) represented syllables beginning with both p and b.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn order to represent syllables with a structure other than CV, for example, CCV, CVC or CVV (diphthongs), certain spelling conventions were implemented. Consonant clusters were written using CV signs whose vowels agreed with the vowel of the whole syllable. So \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebre\u003c/span\u003e was written using the signs be+re. In consonant clusters in which a nasal preceded another consonant, the nasal was not written. Closed CVC syllables were written using the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ee\u003c/span\u003e series of sounds. In spoken Greek, only the consonants n, r, and s were used at the end of a word, so only the signs representing \u003cspan class=Em\u003ene\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ere\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ese\u003c/span\u003e were written to close a syllable. Diphthongs were always written out, with the independent vowel signs representing the second part of the diphthong.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWord breaks were not indicated by spaces or any other means. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Cyrl","name":"Cyrillic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"cyrl","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe creation of the Cyrillic script is traditionally attributed to Saint Cyril, a missionary working in Bulgaria during the 9th century. He and his brother are also credited with the invention of the Glagolitic script, a derivation of the Greek cursive alphabet which was modified to fit the sound systems of Slavic languages. Some historians credit Clement of Ohrid, a student of Saint Cyrils, with creating the Cyrillic script as a more readable writing system based on Glagolitic. The Cyrillic script was initially used for writing Old Church Slavonic (also called Old Bulgarian), but it has undergone a number of changes since that time, so much so that the old and modern variants are considered by many to be two different but related scripts. Many of the modern letterforms differ from those used in early Cyrillic writing, some letters have been dropped, and new letters have been added. An orthographic reform was implemented by the Russian tsar Peter the Great in 1708 which removed a number of obsolete letters so that Russian writing is now almost perfectly phonetic.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script has traditionally been used for writing the Slavic languages, of which Russian is the most widely spoken. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly under Soviet rule, it was extended to write over 50 languages throughout Eastern Europe and Asia.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCyrillic is written from left to right with spaces between words. Upper- and lowercase letters are used; most printed lowercase letters are simply smaller versions of their uppercase equivalents. However, the shapes of handwritten and italic letters can vary greatly from the shapes of printed letters. With the conversion of the script to non-Slavic languages in which new sounds needed to be written, a number of \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#multig target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;digraphs, trigraphs and tetragraphs\u003c/a\u003e were employed. Russian and the Slavic languages use only a few digraphs. Many new letters were also created for writing the non-Slavic languages by adding hooks, breves or diaereses to existing letters. These marks are not considered diacritics, instead, a letter so modified is considered a separate letter with the mark an intrinsic part.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAfter the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, some of the languages which had been forced to adopt the Cyrillic script opted instead to give the Latin or Arabic script official status. However, at the end of 2002, President Putin signed into law an addition to Russian Federation law stipulating that the alphabets of the state language of the Russian Federation and the state languages of its republics must be based on the Cyrillic script. Other scripts for the alphabets of the state language of the Russian Federation and the state languages of its republics can only be adopted under federal laws. The law was received very negatively in some states.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Cyrs","name":"Cyrillic (Old Church Slavonic variant)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eOld Church Slavonic (also called Old Bulgarian) was the earliest Slavic language to be written. it was first written in the Glagolitic script, and later in the early Cyrillic script. Cyrillic writing has undergone a number of changes since that time, so much so that the old and modern variants are considered by many to be two different but related scripts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNotable differences between the Cyrillic as it was used for writing Old Church Slavonic and as it is used today include the following: Obsolete letters have been dropped, and some additional letters have been added. The repertoire of letters in the early Cyrillic alphabet is cited in documents from the time as being as few as 27 or as many as 43. This variation may be due to the writers conflicting definitions as to what constitutes a letter. Modern Cyrillic as it is used for writing the Russian language uses 33 letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEarly Cyrillic was unicameral, that is, there was only one case, although some letters were written larger than others for emphasis or decorative purposes. Modern Cyrillic is written using upper- and lower case. Early Cyrillic writing did not use separate symbols for numbers, rather, each letter was assigned a numeric value, as in the Greek script. A diacritic mark was written above the symbol to indicate that it was to be interpreted as a number. Modern Cyrillic has used Latin numbers since the early 18th century.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDiacritics were also used in early Cyrillic writing to convey phonological information such as palatalization, stress and breathing, as well as abbreviation of a word. Many of these marks have been dropped from current usage, and other hookes, breves and diaereses have been added to facilitate the representation of non-Slavic languages in the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEarly Cyrillic punctuation was borrowed from Latin, Greek and Armenian.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Deva","name":"Devanagari (Nagari)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"tagb","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eDevanagari is a Northern Brahmic script related to many other South Asian scripts including Gujarati, Bengali, and Gurmukhi, and, more distantly, to a number of South-East Asian scripts including Thai, Balinese, and Baybayin. The script is used for over 120 spoken Indo-Aryan languages, including Hindi, Nepali, Marathi, Maithili, Awadhi, Newari and Bhojpuri. It is also used for writing Classical Sanskrit texts. Generally the orthography of the script reflects the pronunciation of the language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is written from left to right. Letters hang from a headstroke, which is generally continuous throughout the length of the word, except when writing the letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003ejha\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003etha\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003edha\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebha\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eā\u003c/span\u003e, which all have a break in the headstroke. In handwriting, the headstroke is sometimes omitted.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDevanagari is an abugida; each letter represents a consonant with an inherent ə vowel, which can be modified using vowel diacritics. Vowel diacritics can be written above, below, to the left or to the right of the consonant. There are thirty-two consonant and ten vowel letters, plus ten vowel diacritics. The vowel signs represent long and short forms of five vowel sounds. Vowel sounds which are not preceded by a consonant are written with a vowel letter; otherwise they are indicated by a vowel diacritic, or, in the case of ə, the lack thereof. There are also two letters for the long and short forms of the syllabic consonant r̩, which are ordered with the vowel letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Brahmic scripts are known for ordering the letters according to the principles of articulatory phonetics, that is, according to the place and manner in which the sound is produced. In Devanagari, the vowels are ordered first, with each short vowel followed by its long equivalent. The consonants are ordered by place, and within place, manner of articulation. Consonants are ordered in rows; velar, palatal, retroflex, dental, labial. Within each row, they follow the order unaspirated and aspirated voiceless, unaspirated and aspirated voiced, and nasal. Sonorants, fricatives and sibilants are ordered last.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome letters take variant forms depending on their context. Notably, the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003era\u003c/span\u003e takes different forms when in initial/final position, when preceding the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003eya\u003c/span\u003e, when preceding a consonant other than \u003cspan class=Em\u003eya\u003c/span\u003e, when following a consonant with a vertical stem, and when following a letter with a rounded bottom.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/m4/8t/m48txu8ufx_DevanagariRA.png height=242 width=270 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMost consonants have two forms; a full form and a half form, which often visually resembles the full form but is missing the vertical stem. The half forms can combine with the full forms of other letters to represent consonant clusters. Those letters which dont have a half form make use of a \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehalant\u003c/span\u003e symbol which silences the inherent vowel so that the two consonants can be pronounced in sequence. Some combinations join horizontally and some stack vertically. This is generally governed by the shape of the letter. A number of ligatures (commonly called \u003cspan class=Em\u003econjuncts\u003c/span\u003e when referring to Indic scripts) are also used which do not bear visual similarity to the individual letters of which they are comprised.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDevanagari writing employs three non-alphabetic symbols for modifying the quality of a vowel. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAnusvara\u003c/span\u003e is written with a dot above the vowel and either nasalizes the vowel or represents a nasal consonant articulated at the same place as the following consonant. A variant form of this symbol is called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ecandrabindu\u003c/span\u003e and is written with a moon dot above the letter to represent nasalization of the vowel exclusively. The symbol \u003cspan class=Em\u003evisarga\u003c/span\u003e follows \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e; this symbol represents a voiceless breath following the vowel, and is written with two dots stacked vertically.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Dogr","name":"Dogra","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Dogra or Dogri script is a Brahmi-based alphasyllabary that is written from left to right. Independent and initial vowels are written using letters, while dependent vowels are expressed using combining signs. Consonant letters possess the inherent vowel \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e, which is changed by the attachment of a vowel sign. Consonant clusters are written in various ways, such as with visible \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehalanta\u003c/span\u003e, as an atomic ligature, and with half-forms; \u003cspan class=Em\u003erepha\u003c/span\u003e is attested, but rarely used. There are no formal conventions regarding representation of conjuncts.\u003c/p\u003e ","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Dsrt","name":"Deseret (Mormon)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"American","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"dsrt","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Deseret alphabet was used primarily by members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) in Utah for writing the English language. It was created in 1854 by George D. Watt, to whom the task had been given by Brigham Young, the church president at the time. Watt had studied Pitman shorthand prior to joining the Mormon church, and this may have influenced the creation of the Deseret letters. The alphabet was short-lived; by the time Young died in 1877 it had been abandoned. During its use, it underwent a number of revisions both in the number and the shape of the letters. The standardized version approved by the University of Deseret contained thirty-eight letters. Two additional letters have since been discovered in hand-written materials. Four books were published in the standardized version: two reading primers, the Book of Mormon, and an excerpt from it called the Book of Nephi. In addition, the script was used on public signage in Salt Lake City, in scripture quotations in the Deseret News, and in personal correspondence and journals. The development of the alphabet was somewhat controversial; critics suspected it was intended to further isolate members of the church from the outside world, but proponents of the script claimed that it was created to facilitate English language acquisition by non-English converts to Mormonism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe alphabet contains upper and lower case letters, which are identical apart from in size. It is written from right to left. Spelling is phonetic, with the exception of eight words which have the same pronunciation as individual letter names. That is, the letter pronounced ai is used to write the words eye and I","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Dupl","name":"Duployan shorthand, Duployan stenography","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"American","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eDuployan Shorthand (also called Sloan-Duployan Shorthand, or Duployan Stenography) was first created in 1860 by Emile Duployé, as a stenographic shorthand for rapidly writing French. It was also adapted for writing English, German, Spanish, and Romanian.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAround 1879, a Catholic priest, Father Jean-Marie Raphaël Le Jeune, who had learned Duployan Stenography in France, went to British Columbia to work as a missionary among the Chinook. The Chinookan language family is made up of several closely related languages, many of which are now extinct or severely endangered. One of these, a creole called Chinook Jargon, is still spoken by a few small communities in Oregon. Father Le Jeune became frustrated with the inefficiency of the Roman alphabet for writing the Chinook languages, in particular Chinook Jargon, and adapted and augmented Duployan Shorthand for this purpose. In the 1890s, he published the Kamloops Wawa, a newspaper published in Chinook Jargon. Some sources treat Duployés shorthand and Father Le Jeunes augmented version for Chinook Jargon as two different scripts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAround the same time, Denis-Romulus Perrault, a stenographer from Montreal, was applying Duployan Shorthand to a number of First Nations languages spoken in modern-day Quebec and Newfoundland. The exact languages which Perrault expressed in Shorthand is unknown, however the script is currently used for writing the Okanagan, Lillooet, Shushwap and North Thompson languages of interior British Columbia, as well as Chinook Jargon.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDuployan Shorthand is an alphabet, representing both consonants and vowels. In general, consonants are written using straight lines or curved arcs, and have invariable orientation (that is, they do not rotate to match the surrounding letters). Vowel letter-shapes tend to be based on circles and semi-circles, and can be rotated or reshaped to fit the context.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is used slightly differently for different languages, having been augmented with extra symbols to represent the phonologies of each language. For example, Chinook writing also contains compound consonant letters and a logograph. Some languages also use variant forms of the core letter set, including letters with ancillary diacritics and size variants.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDuployan Shorthand is written in a cursive style from left to right. It has been praised for its simplicity and the speed with which it can be written. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Egyd","name":"Egyptian demotic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Egyptian Demotic script was used from about 600 BC to about 400 AD for writing the Egyptian language. Demotic writing descended from Egyptian Hieratic writing, the manuscript writing system which was used alongside Hieroglyphics, and it was later used in place of both of these scripts. The development of the Demotic script is generally divided into three periods, Early, Middle (Ptolemaic) and Late (Roman). Demotic was mostly written on papyrus, embalming fabric and other soft surfaces, but was sometimes also inscribed in stone, the most famous example being the middle section of the Rosetta Stone. Initially the script was used primarily in an administrative context; later it came to be used for literary and religious texts also. It was gradually supplanted by the Coptic alphabet from 300 AD onwards.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEgyptian Demotic was a cursive script, written from right to left. It was similar in form to hieroglyphic and hieratic writing, in that it used a combination of logographic and phonetic signs. It reproduced many of the same shapes of the pictographs of the earlier scripts, in a more cursive form which no longer necessarily resembled the concepts/objects they represented. New words for which there was no pre-existing sign were spelled using phonetic symbols. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Egyh","name":"Egyptian hieratic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eEgyptian Hieratic was a writing system used for writing the Egyptian language. It developed alongside Hieroglyphic writing and was used for administrative and religious texts from approximately 3100 BC until 650 BC.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHieratic writing was normally written in ink with a reed brush on papyrus, whereas Hieroglyphs were inscribed in stone. Although it used a combination of pictographic and phonetic symbols, it was more cursive in form, and many of the symbols were unrelated to those used in Hieroglyphic writing. It is not the same script as cursive hieroglyphics.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere were a number of concurrent forms of Hieratic writing, displaying varying degrees of cursiveness and defined by the era and the purpose for which they were written. The varieties can broadly be divided into two categories, a highly cursive \\\\\\businesshand\\\\\\\" which employed a large number of ligatures and was used for administrative documents","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Egyp","name":"Egyptian hieroglyphs","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eEgyptian hieroglyphics were used for writing the Egyptian language from about 3000 BC until 400 AD. Symbols resembling hieroglyphs had been used by artisans in the region since 4000 BC, but with no ascertainable linguistic content. The first hieroglyphs were used for making inscriptions on buildings and tombs. Later they came to be used to decorate jewelry, record events on papyrus and to put a royal or divine signature, called a \u003cspan class=Em\u003ecartouche\u003c/span\u003e on an item.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Egyptian hieroglyphic system of writing consisted of both phonetic symbols and pictographs. There were about 30 symbols representing single consonants, plus about 130 bilateral and trilateral symbols which represented two or three consonants. For example, the heart-with-trachea symbol represented the consonants n + f + r, pronounced \u003cspan class=Em\u003enefer\u003c/span\u003e. Some symbols were used as phonetic complements, which reinforced the final consonant in a bi- or trilateral symbol. Vowels were not written. Pictograms were symbols which visually resembled the item or concept they represented. In total there were an estimated 7000 pictograms, but these were not all in use at the same time.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome symbols could be used either as a pictogram or as a phonetic symbol. For example, a rectangular spiral represented both the sound pr, and the concept of a house. Combined with the fact that vowels were not written, this resulted in some symbols or combinations of symbols having multiple possible meanings. To indicate which meaning was intended, a third class of symbol, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003edeterminatives\u003c/span\u003e, was used. Often, a small vertical stroke underneath the symbol was used to indicate that the object/concept - rather than the phonetic - interpretation was intended. Another example of a determinative was a pictogram of a pair of legs to indicate that the preceding symbol was a verb of movement.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEgyptian hieroglyphic writing did not use any punctuation or word spacing. Symbols were arranged either in vertical columns or horizontal rows, and could be read from right to left or from left to right. In order to demonstrate in which direction the text had been written, the scribe would orientate any animate pictograms (that is, symbols in the shape of a human or animal) to face in the intended direction of reading.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Elba","name":"Elbasan","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Elbasan script was created by Albanian Christians in the mid-18th century. It is known primarily from its use in the Elbasan Gospel Manuscript, the second-oldest manuscript in Albania.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eElbasan was an alphabet written from left to right. Forty letters were used, influenced in part by the Greek and Slavic scripts, but largely novel creations. It is thought that the Greek system of marking certain letters with an overline to indicate a numeric value was also used by Elbasan writers. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eElbasan is no longer used, the Latin alphabet having been standardized for Albanian in 1909. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Ethi","name":"Ethiopic (Geʻez)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"ethi","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Ethiopic (Geez) script was developed as the writing system of the Geez language, a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea until the 10th to the 12th centuries. Although the language ceased to be used in vernacular speech (it now serves a liturgical function only), the script is still widely used for writing the Ethiopian and Eritrean Semitic languages such as Tigré, Amharic and Tigrinya. In some languages, the script is called \u003cspan class=Em\u003efidäl\u003c/span\u003e (ፊደል), which means alphabet, and individual letters are referred to as \u003cspan class=Em\u003efidel\u003c/span\u003e. The script is believed by many to have derived from the epigraphic South Arabian script, of Proto-Sinaitic heritage, although there is some dispute surrounding this assertion; some also believe it to have descended from Egyptian hieroglyphics. According to the tradition of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the script was divinely revealed to Enos, grandson of the first man, Adam. Unlike other Semitic scripts, Ethiopic is written from left to right.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe original Geez script was an abjad - vowels were not written - but the current script is classified as an abugida. Each symbol represents a CV syllable, but vowels are not inherent in the consonant. The original Ethiopic script contained 182 characters, although the basic (unmarked) consonants number only 26. The script has since been extended for other languages and now contains over 500 symbols. Some of the new symbols represent phonological processes such as palatalization, pharyngealization and labialization.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe unmarked set is known as the first order (also called the first form). Each of the first order consonants can be combined with one of six vowels, to produce a syllograph. The resulting sets of syllographs are known as the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh orders. In some languages there is an additional vowel symbol which can be combined with the first order consonants to produce an eighth order.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/zf/fl/zffllj5kg6_Ethioforms.png height=238 width=397 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs shown in the chart, the way in which consonant characters are combined with vowel signs often follows a general pattern, particularly in the second to sixth orders, but it is by no means fully systematic. This has sometimes resulted in the creation of a new character, unrelated in form to the unmarked consonant. For this reason, in tables of Ethiopic letters, all 182 characters tend to be displayed, unlike tables of Brahmic abugidas which combine consonants and vowels in a predictable manner. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script does not completely represent some languages. For example, \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#gemination target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;gemination\u003c/a\u003e (consonant lengthening) is generally not represented in the orthography, despite being distinctive in speech. Conversely, some distinctions in the Amharic orthography are no longer significant in speech, for example, the difference between h, ħ and x is only etymologically significant in spoken Amharic but continues to be represented in the orthography.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/zf/fl/zffllj5kg6_EthioH.png height=66 width=145 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe conventional ordering of the consonants differs from that of other Semitic scripts; the reasons for this are unclear although it is speculated that the ordering is reminiscent of that used for the ancient Sabean script, a South Semitic predecessor of Geez.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Geok","name":"Khutsuri (Asomtavruli and Nuskhuri)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eKhutsuri is an ecclesiastical writing system composed of two alphabets, historically used for writing the Georgian language. The inscriptional \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAsomtavruli\u003c/span\u003e alphabet was the earliest means of writing Georgian, having been used as early as the 5th century. A manuscript form called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eNushkuri\u003c/span\u003e was derived from this alphabet for use in handwritten texts around the 9th century. From the 10th century, the two forms came to be used together as upper- and lower case pairs of a single writing system.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eInitially, some manuscripts were written in Asomtavruli, some in Nuskhuri, and some in a free mixture of the two. Over time, it became increasingly common to combine the two scripts into the bicameral (that is, having upper and lower case) system called Khutsuri. Asomtavruli had no ascenders or descenders so lent itself to the upper case set, while Nushkuri was used for the lower case. In bicameral Khutsuri texts, Asomtavruli capitals were always found at the start of paragraphs but were optional at the start of sentences within a paragraph.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKhutsuri is now only used as a liturgical script by the Georgian Orthodox Church, having been replaced elsewhere by the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eMkhedruli\u003c/span\u003e alphabet.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are 36 letters in both Asomtavruli and Nushkuri (therefore a total of 72 symbols in Khutsuri), representing 6 vowels and 30 consonants. The orthography was largely phonemic; every sound was represented by a corresponding letter, and almost every written letter was pronounced in speech.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKhutsuri writing is believed to have been influenced heavily by the Greek and Pahlavi scripts. The shapes of the letters are attributed to Pahlavi influences, while the left to right direction of writing, the use of separate letters for vowels, and the alphabetical order of the letters are attributed to Greek influences. There were no script-specific numerals, rather, each letter was assigned a numeric value. These values were also the same as those assigned to the letters of the Greek alphabet.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Geor","name":"Georgian (Mkhedruli and Mtavruli)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"geor","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Georgian language is spoken by approximately 3,900,000 people in Georgia, as well as by 355,000 people in Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran. The earliest uncontested inscription in the language dates from the 5th century. Since that time, Georgian has been written in three distinct scripts. The original script was an inscriptional form called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAsomtavruli\u003c/span\u003e, from which a manuscript form, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eNuskhuri\u003c/span\u003e, was derived. For a time, these were combined in a \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#bicam target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;bicameral\u003c/a\u003e system called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eKhutsuri\u003c/span\u003e in which Asomtavruli letters were used as the upper case and Nushkuri as the lower case. Since the 11th century, a third script has been attested, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eMkhedruli\u003c/span\u003e. There is some debate as to the origins of this third script; some scholars say that it evolved from the Khutsuri system, other, that it pre-dates it. What is generally agreed upon is that Mkhedruli was used as a secular script alongside the ecclesiastical Khutsuri until the 18th century, since which time it has been used for nearly all Georgian writing. The three scripts share the same letter names, despite having different letter shapes.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Mkhedruli alphabet is also used for writing the Mingrelian and Svan languages spoken in Georgia, as well as Laz, spoken in Turkey.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are 33 Mkhedruli letters currently used for writing Georgian, plus another 8 which are now obsolete. There is an almost exact one-to-one mapping between sounds and letters, that is, every sound is written and (almost) every letter is pronounced. The exceptions to this are the letters representing m, r and l, which are sometimes written but not pronounced, due to phonological processes such as lenition (the weakening of a consonant, which can lead to its not being pronounced at all). The letters representing h and s are also written but not pronounced in some contexts where they serve as grammatical markers in a grammatical rule which is undergoing change. The order of the letters roughly follows that of the Greek alphabet, with some influence from early Iranian scripts such as Pahlavi.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGeorgian writing currently uses only one case, although previous alphabets have been bicameral. There have been some attempts, notably on the part of Akaki Shanidze, to use the letters of the old Asomtavruli alphabet as upper-case letters, but this system is unofficial and has been used very sporadically. It is read from left to right, with spaces between words and a punctuation mark to indicate the end of sentences. No diacritics are used. Within a word, letters can be spaced out to add emphasis. In printed texts, letters are not connected in any way, but handwriting can be cursive and involve a number of ligatures.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLetters are written on a bottom \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#baseline target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;baseline\u003c/a\u003e, with descenders extending below the baseline and ascenders extending above the x-height. Five letters have both ascenders and descenders. Titles and headings are customarily written with letters which are normally at the x-height being extended to the height and depth of the ascenders and descenders, so that all the letters are of uniform height. These are not encoded as distinct letters, rather they comprise a font style, similar to Latin small caps, which is known as \u003cspan class=Em\u003eMtavruli\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Glag","name":"Glagolitic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"glag","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Glagolitic script, also known as Glagolitsa and Asbuka, is the earliest known Slavic alphabet. The name Glagolitic comes from the Old Slavic word \u003cspan class=Em\u003eglagol\u003c/span\u003e, meaning \u003cspan class=Em\u003eword\u003c/span\u003e. The origins of the script are not clear; two opposing views claim that it was either created by a single individual (most popularly cited as Constantine/St. Cyril), or that it was derived from Greek cursive forms and was already in use by the time St. Cyril arrived in the area. Cubberley suggests in The Slavic Alphabets that the Slavs themselves created the script based on Greek cursive letters a few centuries before St Cyril and St Methodius mission in 860, and that St. Cyril formalized the system and added some new letters based on Coptic, Hebrew or Armenian forms, to represent sounds not found in Greek. What is known is that Glagolitic writing was used throughout the Balkans in tandem with Cyrillic until the 13th century, after which time it was largely replaced by Cyrillic. In Croatia, Glagolitic continued to be used until the 19th century, particularly in the church, and is still used in a limited way on the island of Krk.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe order of the alphabet basically follows the Greek order, with the additional non-Greek letters appended at the end. The script underwent a number of gradual changes during the course of its use, and as a result there are two main variants known as round and square. The round form is the older of the two and was used throughout a wider geographical area, although fewer examples of it have survived. The square form (also sometimes called Croatian Glagolitic) was used from the 13th to the 19th century in Croatia, where it is still used for decorative purposes, especially on the island of Krk. Due to the gradual and constant development of the script, the exact number of letters is unknown; many documents contain letters which have not been found elsewhere.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is read from left to right. It uses upper and lower case; the lower case set is almost entirely a smaller version of the upper case set. Later documents written in Croatian Glagolitic make use of literally hundreds of ligatures, in which two letters are joined to create a new letter, and of broken ligatures, in which half of a letter may be joined to another to create a new letter. There are no contextual changes in the forms of letters. The Unicode Standard 5.0 encodes 44 upper case and 44 lower case symbols in the round form of the script, a few of each case being variants of the same letter. Ligatures are not encoded separately.Glagolitic uses Latin commas and full stops, as well as semicolons as question marks, colons as alternative full stops, a middle dot to indicate numeric use of the letter, and a three-dot mark to separate paragraphs. There are no separate numbers, but numerical values are assigned to letters, indicated by a middle dot flanking the symbol on both sides, or by a macron or tilde over it. A tilde can also be written over abbreviated words. Round Glagolitic hangs from the \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#baseline target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;baseline\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Gong","name":"Gunjala Gondi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Gunjala Gondi script, also known as Koytura Gunjala Lipi, is named after the village of Gunjala in the Indian state of Telangana (formerly part of Andhra Pradesh) where manuscripts written in the script were recently found. The script is used to write the Gondi language and is distinct from the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Gonm\u003eMasaram Gondi\u003c/a\u003e script designed in 1928 by Munshi Mangal Singh Masaram.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGunjala Gondi manuscripts have been dated to 1750 and reference events as early as the 6th and 7th centuries. The script is cursive, hand-written sources showing syllables of a word connected using pen strokes. It does not appear to be genetically related to other scripts, although it strongly resembles the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Modi\u003eModi\u003c/a\u003e script in appearance and style. Whilst the vowel order follows the Brahmi pattern, the consonant order does not, starting with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eya\u003c/span\u003e, rather than the usual \u003cspan class=Em\u003eka\u003c/span\u003e. Vowel signs and modifiers are placed to the right of the consonant or above the head-stroke at the right edge.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGunjala Gondi is currently undergoing something of a revival. Professor Jayadhir Tirumal Rao, who has researched the script is quoted as saying:“Andhra Pradesh has 34 tribal communities and none of them has a script except the Gondi community. The script is their self-esteem and we took up the task of preserving it by reviving the language.”. Teaching materials have been developed in the script and it is being taught in a number of schools in villages with a high Gond population.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Gonm","name":"Masaram Gondi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Gondi language belongs to the Central Dravidian group and is spoken by about 2 million people in the South Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. The language is usually written in the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Deva\u003eDevanagari\u003c/a\u003e or \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Telu\u003eTelugu\u003c/a\u003e scripts, but, in 1928, Munshi Mangal Singh Masaram designed a script specifically for the Gondi language. An older script for writing Gondi, \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Gong\u003eGunjala Gondi\u003c/a\u003e, is being revived in some places. The Masaram Gondi script includes thirty-six consonant letters, ten vowel letters, and ten vowel signs. The script is an abugida; each consonant letter contains an inherent a vowel which can be changed using a vowel sign. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e symbol typical of Indic abugidas is missing from the script. Rather, the inherent vowel is cancelled by removing the horizontal line which is attached to the right of every letter. Conjuncts are formed in this way with the exception of ksạ, jña, tra, which are written with special ligatures, and combinations with RA, which exhibits contextual variation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMasaram Gondi employs script-specific digits from 0-9. There is no script-specific punctuation; Latin punctuation is used.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Goth","name":"Gothic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"goth","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe word “Gothic” is used in the context of writing systems to describe three very different, unrelated, styles of writing:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cul class=dListUnordered\u003e \u003cli\u003ethe Gothic alphabet: historically written in an \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#uncial\u003euncial\u003c/a\u003e style, and invented for the Gothic language;\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003ethe Visigothic script: a minuscule script of the Latin alphabet, used in Iberia to write Latin text when Iberia was ruled by the Visigoths; and\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e“gothic” scripts: a popular name for many blackletter scripts of the Latin alphabet (including Fraktur); these have been used for writing many languages.\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eThis page refers only to the first sense - the Gothic alphabet, now extinct. This script is thought to have been invented around 350AD by the bishop Ulfilas for the purpose of translating the Bible into the Gothic language. The runic script which had previously been used for writing this language had strong associations with Germanic paganism, so was not deemed appropriate for this purpose. The Gothic language continued to be spoken until the 17th century, but there is no record of the script being used beyond the 6th century. \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eUlfilas based the Gothic script largely on an uncial form of the Greek alphabet, with some influence from the Runic and Latin scripts also. It was written from left to right, without spaces between words. Some texts were written with a space, dot or colon between phrases and others were \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#colom target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan class=Em\u003ecolometric\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, with every distinctive clause starting on a new line. \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eThe script was comprised of twenty-seven letters. Consonants were written with one symbol to represent one sound. Vowels were written with one symbol or a \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#multig target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;digraph\u003c/a\u003e to represent each sound. Nasals were optionally omitted in writing from the ends of words. Ligatures were used very rarely.\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eThere were no numbers in the Gothic script; rather, each letter was assigned a numeric value. If a symbol was intended to be read as a number, it was horizontally flanked by centred dots, or vertically flanked by horizontal lines.\u003c/li\u003e \u003c/ul\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Gran","name":"Grantha","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Grantha script was designed for writing sacred texts in the Sanskrit language. The script is thought to be based on the stone-age cave inscriptions from the Chera dynasty, and to have gone through three stages of development; Early, Middle and Modern. The only examples of Early or Middle Grantha are from odd words interspersed with Tamil in inscriptions. The earliest inscription written entirely in Grantha has been dated to 1383, and is written in the most modern form of the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are two main branches of Modern Grantha; East Grantha and Tulu-Malayalam (also called West Grantha). Eastern Grantha was written in the state of Tamil Nadu in two distinct hands; a Brahmanical (square) variety used in Tanjore province, and a Jain (round) variety used around Arcot and Chennai. Tulu-Malayalam writing is still taught and used in \u003cspan class=Em\u003eGūrūkuls\u003c/span\u003e, residential Hindu schools. It preserves some of the older letter forms which were later modified in Eastern varieties of the script. Aside from its use in the Gūrūkuls, it is also used by Tamil-speaking Hindus to write a childs name for the first time during the naming ceremony, to write the Sanskrit portion of wedding invitations and for announcements of a persons last rites. It is also used in many religious almanacs to print traditional formulaic summaries of the coming year. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere was a third variety of the script called Tamil Grantha which was used in the 5th and 6th centuries for writing both Tamil and Sanskrit.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGrantha is an abugida, written from left to right. Each letter represents either a vowel or a consonant+vowel syllable in which the default vowel is ə, unless diacritics are used to indicate otherwise. There are 14 vowel letters, 34 consonant+ə letters and 13 vowel diacritics. There are also 3 subsidiary consonant letters used for writing consonant clusters containing \u003cspan class=Em\u003ey\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e. One of these letters represents j(ə), one represents pre-consonantal r and one represents post-consonantal rə. Other consonant clusters were written using conjuncts; the preference was to stack these vertically rather than align them linearly. The symbols \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003evisarga\u003c/span\u003e were used as in a number of South Asian scripts for representing nasalization and voiceless breath respectively.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Grantha script employed a set of numerals 0-10, 100 and 1000 which were arranged linearly so that the number 21, for example, was written using the symbols for 2, 10 and 1 (2x10+1). A particular feature of the Grantha numeral system was their system of writing fractions. These were written using distinct symbols representing fractions of 320. So what is written in the Latin script as 1/4, for example, was written in Grantha using a single symbol read as 80/320. Distinct symbols only existed for some fractions, but composites could be created; there was a symbol representing 8/320 and a symbol representing 1/320, so 9/320 was written using both symbols.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Grek","name":"Greek","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"grek","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Greek script was the first documented writing system to represent consonants and vowels with distinct symbols, making it the oldest true alphabet. It has been used since the 8th century BC for writing the Greek language, and select letters are also currently used in writing mathematic and scientific concepts such as π (pi) and Ω (Ohm). Some symbols have been incorporated into the International Phonetic Alphabet. The script has also been used for writing a number of minority languages, including Urum, Albanian Tosk, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Phoenician prince Cadmus is credited with introducing Phoenician writing to the Greeks, who then adapted it, most significantly by adding vowel letters, to write the Greek language. Historically, there were a number of variants of the alphabet, including an East/West variation. The Western variant was called Chalcidian, from which the Old Italic and Latin alphabets descended, and the Eastern variant was called Ionic, from which the modern Greek alphabet descended. A third variant, called the Attic script, was used in Athens until 400 BC, when they adopted the Ionic script. Subsequently the Ionic script became standard throughout Greece. At that time, Greek was written from right to left or in \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#boust\u003eboustrophedon\u003c/a\u003e style, though it is now written from left to right.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe alphabet currently contains twenty-four letters; six archaic letters have either been dropped or are now used as numerals. Some letters have variant forms. In writing the Greek language these variations are purely stylistic, although in mathematic and scientific contexts they can represent different concepts, for example ϖ, a variant form of pi, which is used in fluid dynamics to represent the angular frequency of a wave. The lower case sigma σ has a variant form, word-finally ς. Although this is a contextual form, it can be semantically significant; a word ending with σ must be an abbreviation of some other word having σ word-internally, whereas a word ending with ς must be a single non-abbreviated word.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHistorically, there were a number of ligatures used in Greek writing. Many of these have dropped from modern usage, although some remain, particularly in handwritten text and printed titles. The most common of these is the ligature ϗ̀, representing \u003cspan class=Em\u003eκαι\u003c/span\u003e, and.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere have also been three accents used with Greek vowel letters: acute (\u003cspan class=Em\u003eoxia\u003c/span\u003e), grave (\u003cspan class=Em\u003evaria\u003c/span\u003e) and circumflex (\u003cspan class=Em\u003eperispomeni\u003c/span\u003e). In the early 80s, the Greek Government instituted a language reform which, among other things, introduced a single diacritic (\u003cspan class=Em\u003etonos\u003c/span\u003e) in place of the three accent system. When two vowels form a diphthong, the accent is placed on the second vowel. Breathing marks were historically used but have fallen from current usage. Languages other than Greek sometimes use other diacritics for representing sounds which are not present in Greek.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGreek spelling employs a number of \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#multig target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;digraphs\u003c/a\u003e (pairs of letters used to represent a single sound), for example γγ which represents ŋɡ or ɡ, even though a single γ represents γ / j.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGreek punctuation provided the basis for Latin punctuation so the two systems are similar, although a Greek middle dot symbol represents a semicolon, and a Greek question mark looks like a Latin semicolon.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBold type is used in Greek writing for titles, but rarely within a body of text. Inside text, expanded letterspacing is often used.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Gujr","name":"Gujarati","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Gujarati script is used for writing the Gujarati and Chodri languages, together spoken by almost 47 million people. It is also used alongside the Devanagari script for writing a number of languages used by the Bhil people, one of Indias largest indigenous groups. The script is related to Devanagari, with modifications to some of the letters, and without the headstroke which characterizes most of the Nagari scripts. The loss of the headstroke reflects the scripts origins in informal writing; until the mid-19th century it was used primarily for bookkeeping and personal correspondence, but since printing facilities have become widely available to Gujarati speakers the script is used in schools, for printing books and newspapers, in government offices and public signage, and is one of the official scripts of India.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGujarati is written from left to right. It is an abugida, that is, every consonant letter contains an inherent vowel. There are forty-five basic symbols; thirty-four consonants and eleven vowels. Despite the loss of the headstroke, letters are still aligned as from a hanging \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#baseline target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;baseline\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTen of these vowels have two forms, an independent form for use when the vowel is not preceded by a consonant and a diacritic form which is written above, below or alongside a preceding consonant to modify the inherent vowel. One vowel, a ə, only has an independent form; this is the vowel which is inherent in a consonant letter, so does not need to be written separately when following a consonant. Vowels are classified as short \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehrasva\u003c/span\u003e or long \u003cspan class=Em\u003edīrgha\u003c/span\u003e according to the weight they historically assigned to syllables in traditional verse. The syllabic consonant r̩u is grouped with the short vowels. Four of the long vowel symbols represent diphthongs. These are written in their full forms by using the a letter as a vowel carrier and modifying it with diacritics.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonants are ordered according to the principles of articulatory phonetics, that is, the place and manner in which they are articulated. In sequence, the consonant subgroups by place are: velar, palatal, retroflex, dental and labial. Within each subgroup, consonants are ordered by manner, beginning with unaspirated voiceless, followed by aspirated voiceless, unaspirated voiced, aspirated voiced, and nasal. The first twenty-three consonants are ordered in this way. Following these are four sonorants, three sibilants, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eha\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eḷa\u003c/span\u003e and two conjuncts \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekṣa\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ejña\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are many other conjunct symbols used in Gujarati writing. Many consonant letters are written with a vertical line on their right side. The general rule for writing conjuncts is that those letters lose the vertical line in initial or medial position and only the last letter in the cluster retains it. Letters which are not written with a vertical line in their isolated form are represented using special conjuncts when they are part of a consonant cluster. The letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003esa\u003c/span\u003e takes a variant form when followed by any of the letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003eva\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ela\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ena\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003era\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003eca\u003c/span\u003e. Special conjunct forms also exist for combinations of \u003cspan class=Em\u003eha\u003c/span\u003e with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eya\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ema\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003era\u003c/span\u003e, and for combinations of \u003cspan class=Em\u003eda\u003c/span\u003e with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eya\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eva\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003edha\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003ema\u003c/span\u003e. The \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#gemination target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;geminates\u003c/a\u003e (long consonants) \u003cspan class=Em\u003eṭṭa\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eṭhṭha\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eḍḍa\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eḍhḍha\u003c/span\u003e \u003cspan class=Em\u003eṭṭha\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eḍḍha\u003c/span\u003e combine in vertical stacks.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/mc/k6/mck6hyhfkf_GujaratiGeminates.png height=54 width=241 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003era\u003c/span\u003e takes three variant forms depending whether it precedes another consonant, or follows one of the letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003eṭa\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eṭha\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003eḍa\u003c/span\u003e, or follows another consonant. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/mc/k6/mck6hyhfkf_Ra.png height=132 width=237 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpecial conjunct forms also exist for combinations of \u003cspan class=Em\u003era\u003c/span\u003e with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eha\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eda\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eta\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eu\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eū\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are three non-alphabetic diacritics. A \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e symbol is a slanted stroke written below consonants to silence the inherent vowel therein. So ટ represents ʈə but ટ્ represents ʈ. Consonants which have been marked in this way are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekhoḍo\u003c/span\u003e lame. Consonant clusters not covered by the conjuncts noted above can be represented using this symbol. There is also a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evisarga\u003c/span\u003e symbol written as two vertically stacked dots, a relic of Sanskrit phonology which has no phonetic content in Gujarati writing and is rarely used. The third symbol, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e, is written as a dot centrally above a letter and has two related functions. It can either nasalize a vowel as in the word hũ I, or represent a nasal consonant pronounced at the same place in the mouth as the following consonant as in the word rəŋg colour. In Latin transcription, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e is represented by the letter ṃ.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGujarati writing is essentially phonetic, with some exceptions as follows: Conjuncts are not always used to write consonant clusters at a morpheme break. For example the word કાતરે \u003cspan class=Em\u003eka\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003eta\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003ere\u003c/span\u003e, meaning (he) carves is pronounced katre, even though the full form of \u003cspan class=Em\u003eta\u003c/span\u003e is used, rather than a \u003cspan class=Em\u003eta\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003era\u003c/span\u003e conjunct. The full forms of both \u003cspan class=Em\u003eta\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ere\u003c/span\u003e are used, rather than the \u003cspan class=Em\u003etre\u003c/span\u003e conjunct, because the consonant cluster crosses the morpheme boundary between person and verb. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eMurmured\u003c/span\u003e vowels (the vocalic equivalent of aspirated consonants) are not represented in writing despite being distinctive in speech. The same sometimes applies to the open/close vowel distinction; the same letters were traditionally used for e and æ, and for o and ɔ. In recent years, however, it has become more common to represent æ and ɔ by inverting the diacritics for e and o respectively, particularly in English loan words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/mc/k6/mck6hyhfkf_GInverts.png height=157 width=102 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Guru","name":"Gurmukhi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Gurmukhi script is used primarily by followers of the Sikh religion in India to write the Punjabi language. Gurmukhi writing is historically derived from Brahmi, but its present form was developed in the 16th century by Guru Angad, successor to the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak. The word Gurmukhi means from the mouth of the guru. Muslims in the Pakistani Punjab write Punjabi in the Persian script; use of the Persian script for writing Punjabi is called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eShahmukhi\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGurmukhi is written from left to right using letters that hang from a horizontal headstroke. The script is an abugida, that is, each letter represents a consonant with an inherent ə vowel. There are thirty-two basic consonant letters, which are ordered according to the place and manner in which the sound is produced, in the same way as the Devanagari letters. Consonants are ordered in rows; velar, palatal, retroflex, dental, labial. Within each row, voiceless sounds are ordered first (unaspirated and aspirated), then voiced sounds (historically unaspirated and aspirated, although this distinction has been lost in modern spoken Punjabi), and lastly nasals. Sonorants are ordered last.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonants can be modified using one of nine vowel diacritics to change the inherent vowel. The script does not use any independent vowel letters; syllable-initial vowels are written using one of three vowel carriers, one each for back, low and front vowels, and the appropriate diacritic. Six consonant letters can be modified with a dot to represent a (usually) non-native sound, for example ਫ represents phə but ਫ਼ represents fə. Consonant clusters in which h, r or w is the second element can be written using a conjunct. These three letters have half-forms which can be subjoined to the full form of another consonant. Consonant clusters in which y is the second element are also written with a half-form of the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003eya\u003c/span\u003e, but the two elements are not joined into a ligature.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/fw/fn/fwfnv9f6ks_GurkmukhiHalfForms2.png height=60 width=400 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are two symbols for indicating nasalization. In general, \u003cspan class=Em\u003etippi\u003c/span\u003e ੰ is written above the vowels \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ei\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eu\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eū\u003c/span\u003e in final position, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebiṃdī\u003c/span\u003e ਂ is used in all other contexts. There is also a sign \u003cspan class=Em\u003eaddak\u003c/span\u003e ੱ for representing \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#gemination target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;gemination\u003c/a\u003e (long consonants), which is written above and to the left of the consonant to be lengthened. This sign is also used for writing a cluster of an unaspirated and homorganic (pronounced in the same place) aspirated stop; in this case only the aspirated letter is written and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eaddak\u003c/span\u003e is written above and to the left of it, as in the word pəkkhī ripe, which is written \u003cspan class=Em\u003epə\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003eaddak\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekhə\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003eī\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/fw/fn/fwfnv9f6ks_GurmukhiPakkhi.png height=67 width=83 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Punjabi language has a three-way tone system of high, mid and low tones. There are no specific tone marks in Gurmukhi writing, but certain aspects of the orthography carry information about tones. In word-initial position, a historically voiced aspirate is pronounced as a voiceless non-aspirate, and indicates that the following vowel carries a low tone. For example, the word written as \u003cspan class=Em\u003eghaṛ\u003c/span\u003e is pronounced kàṛ (house). In word-final position, the same letters are pronounced as voiced non-aspirates, and indicate that the preceding vowel carries a high tone. for example the word written as \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekujh\u003c/span\u003e is pronounced kúj (something). The letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003eha\u003c/span\u003e has a special role in marking tone. At the start of a word it carries no tone information but represents the sound hə, but written elsewhere in a word it carries no phonetic value but represents high tone on the preceding vowel. For example, the word written as \u003cspan class=Em\u003etīh\u003c/span\u003e is pronounced tí (thirty). When the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003eha\u003c/span\u003e follows a short \u003cspan class=Em\u003ei\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003eu\u003c/span\u003e, it changes their phonetic value from ɪ and ʊ to é and ó respectively, and indicates high tone.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Gurmukhi script employs a set of numerals from 0-9. These are becoming less widespread as they are being replaced by Latin numerals, but are still in common use. Latin punctuation is used, as well as the \u003cspan class=Em\u003edanda\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edouble danda\u003c/span\u003e symbols which are commonly used in the Brahmic scripts to mark the end of a sentence or verse.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hanb","name":"Han with Bopomofo (alias for Han + Bopomofo)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eHan with Bopomofo is a combination of the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Hani\u003eHan\u003c/a\u003e script and \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Bopo\u003eBopomofo\u003c/a\u003e. Bopomofo is often used to annotate the pronounciation of Han characters. When the two scripts are used together they are called Han with Bopomofo.\u003c/p\u003e ","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hang","name":"Hangul (Hangŭl, Hangeul)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"featural","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"hang","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (RTL) and horizontal (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eHangul is the phonetic writing system developed in 1446 for writing the Korean language. Prior to this, Korean had been written in Chinese characters, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehanja\u003c/span\u003e in Korean, but this was laborious. A given Chinese character could be used to represent a spoken syllable, irrespective of its original Chinese meaning, or it could be used to represent the Korean word with the closest meaning to its original. Reading was difficult because the intended function of the character was not always apparent. Hangul was developed by King Sejong to combat the difficulties associate with writing Korean in \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehanja\u003c/span\u003e. However it was not universally accepted, and for a time was prohibited by Japanese colonial authorities. Only after Korea became independent in 1945 was Hangul accepted as the countrys national script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are 51 letters, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003econjoining Hangul Jamo\u003c/span\u003e (or \u003cspan class=Em\u003ejamo\u003c/span\u003e for short), which make up the script. These are: 14 simple consonant, 5 glottalized double letters, 11 consonant clusters, 6 simple vowels, 11 diphthongs, and 4 simple iotized (that is, preceded by a \u003cspan class=Em\u003ey\u003c/span\u003e sound) vowels. Spoken Korean employs syllables of V, VC, VCC, CV, CVC and CVCC configurations. In writing, jamo are grouped into syllable blocks by modifying their size, shape and position to reflect their position in the spoken syllable.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe canonical order of jamo is arranged according to place and manner of articulation. There is slight variation between the North and South Korean orders, but in general, the velar consonants are ordered first, then coronals, labials, sibilants and glottals, with the vowels ordered at the end.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt has been said that Hangul is the most logical script in existence. Although this is obviously a subjective statement, it is true that the script was designed to be structurally very well ordered. The shape of each jamo reflects the articulation of sound it represents, with particular elements relating to place and manner of articulation, or to iotation of vowels. For example, the symbol ㅁ /m/ is a picture of two pursed lips, ㅂ /b/ is the same shape but with two elongated strokes representing the plosive manner of articulation. Consonant jamo are comprised of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, as well as curves and circles. Vowel jamo consist of vertical and horizontal lines only. The shape of vowels is based on a horizontal line representing the earth (\u003cspan class=Em\u003eyin\u003c/span\u003e), a point or short stroke representing the sun (\u003cspan class=Em\u003eyang\u003c/span\u003e), and a vertical line representing mankind.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hani","name":"Han (Hanzi, Kanji, Hanja)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"hani","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"centered","ligatures":null,"direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (RTL) and horizontal (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Han script comprises three systems; when used for writing the languages of China the characters are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehanzi\u003c/span\u003e, the same characters used for writing Japanese are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekanji\u003c/span\u003e, and for Korean, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehanja\u003c/span\u003e. It is commonly assumed that the Sinitic languages (Chinese languages) are monosyllabic, and that one written character = one syllable = one word. However, there are many polysyllabic words in both the ancient and modern lexicons, and the average length of a word in Mandarin is two syllables. These words are represented using combinations of characters, each representing one syllable. There are some exceptions to this rule, in the form of unofficial but widely used single characters representing polysyllabic Chinese words, such as \u003cspan class=Em\u003etúshūguăn\u003c/span\u003e library and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ewèntí\u003c/span\u003e question. This is common when the characters are used for writing Japanese, due to different phonological rules governing the language. A single character may frequently represent a polysyllabic word in Japanese and some of the other languages for which Han characters are used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eChinese writing is believed to be the oldest form of writing in East Asia, having apparently been spontaneously created during the second half of the second millenium BC. There is no evidence of any other writing in use in the area at this time, nor of any outside influence from a literate society. The earliest inscriptions were on bones and shells used in divination during the Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BC), and employed a set of logographic symbols now known as the Oracle Bone Script. Although these symbols have been extinct since the end of the Bronze Age, the modern Han characters are direct descendants from these.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHan writing is still sometimes referred to as logographic, but most linguists and sinographers (scholars of Chinese) agree that the script might be best described as a phonetically imprecise syllabary with strong semantic qualities. The script functions differently from a purely phonetic script such as an alphabet in that a single character can regularly carry semantic weight in and of itself without needing to be combined with other elements. In addition, the same sound can be represented by different symbols. For example, the word \u003cspan class=Em\u003eyī\u003c/span\u003e is the Modern Standard Mandarin pronunciation of the words meaning one, clothing, depend on, and regional pronunciations of he/she, but each of these is represented by a different character. It may be that in earlier varieties of the language these words were pronounced differently but over time have collapsed into a single sound.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere have been numerous attempts to classify Han characters by phonetic rather than semantic criteria, notably, Berhnard Karlgrens work in the 1920s-40s and Zhou Youguangs in the 1970s. Most attempts have identified 850-1250 phonetic elements. Although the characters are made up of recurring phonetic components, their shapes and proportions change in combination, so each character is a discrete entity and must be stored as such in the users memory or in a font. There are estimated to be 60,000 Han characters comprising the full set, but a competent grasp of approximately 2,500 characters is considered by educators to be essential for basic reading and writing skills, and about 5,200 characters are estimated to account for over 99% of the characters used in typical texts. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003eXīnhuá zìdiăn\u003c/span\u003e (New China Character Dictionary) lists 8,075 characters. The canonical order of signs arranges them according to semantic classifications ranging from specific to general; signs related to mankind, minerals, height etc.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are two styles of Han characters used for writing Chinese and the languages of China; the traditional forms used throughout the Chinese-speaking world from the 5th century AD until 1949, and the simplified forms which replaced them in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore since 1949. Traditional Han is still used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, and for aesthetic purposes elsewhere in East Asia.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hano","name":"Hanunoo (Hanunóo)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"hano","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"vertical","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Hanunóo script is used by the Mangyan people in the mountains of Mindoro, South Philippines, to write the Hanunóo language. Perhaps due to its inaccessible location, it is one of the few indigenous Philippine scripts which has not been replaced by the Latin script. It is of Brahmic origin, descended through Old Kawi, although its history is difficult to trace in detail due to the perishable nature of bamboo, the surface on which it is traditionally inscribed. The script is an abugida, in which each of the 15 consonants has an inherent a vowel. The other two vowels in the inventory, i and u, are marked syllable-finally by a diacritic positioned above or below (or to the left or right of) the syllable, often forming a ligature. There are also three vowel characters representing syllable-initial a, i, or u. Hanunóo words are predominantly disyllabic, and tend to be in CVCV form, although CVC syllables are also possible. In the case of a CVC syllable, the final consonant is often not written, so the reader must determine from context the correct pronunciation. Letters are not ordered or learned in any particular sequence; the characters used to write ones own name are commonly acquired first.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Hanunóo script is unusual in that it is written in upward - that is, away from the body - vertical columns which are read from left to right. The Hanunóo can typically read with equal skill in all directions, so characters can be orientated either horizontally or vertically within these columns, as long as they are consistent throughout the text. As shown in the image below, the position of the vowel diacritic is determined by the orientation of the consonant - when the consonant is horizontal, the diacritic appears above or below it; when vertical, to its left or right. Left-handed writers often write in mirror-image.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/25/4c/254cgaegd6_hanunoo1.png height=149 width=156 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hans","name":"Han (Simplified variant)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (RTL) and horizontal (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eSimplified Han, also called Simplified Chinese, is the official script of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and Singapore. It is used for writing the varieties of the Chinese language spoken in these place. There is some debate as to whether varieties of Chinese (many of which are mutually unintelligible) should be classified as separate languages or dialects of a single language. Speakers of Chinese tend to perceive them as dialects, but some linguists consider this identification to be inappropriate. Given the high level of internal variation in the spoken language, it is the written form which has provided a means for unifying Chinese culture, as the same characters are used for representing the same concepts across dialects/languages. There are two styles of Chinese characters; traditional and simplified. The traditional form has been used since the 5th century AD, and the simplified form is generally associated with the formation of the PRC in 1949, who introduced the script in an effort to increase literacy, although some non-standard simplified forms existed long before this time.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe simplified forms of characters were created by modifying the traditional forms so that complex components of some characters were omitted entirely or replaced by a simpler component. Some traditional characters were replaced in print by their cursive equivalents, which tend to be visually simpler. Occasionally, less complex ancient forms of a character were adopted in place of the standard traditional form. Many simplified characters do not bear any immediate resemblance to their traditional equivalents unless the reader knows what modifications were applied. Some traditional forms were not modified at all so are the same in both scripts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is a problem of underdifferentiation in Simplified Han writing; reducing the number of strokes makes characters easier to write, but also reduces their distinctness for the reader by the same measure. Some words which were previously represented by distinct characters are now all represented by a single character and it must be determined from the context which interpretation is intended.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe exact number of Simplified Han characters varies from source to source, in part because the number is always growing as new words are added to the lexicon. A competent grasp of approximately 2,500 characters is considered by educators to be essential for basic reading and writing skills, and about 5,200 characters are estimated to account for over 99% of the characters in use. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003eXīnhuá zìdiăn\u003c/span\u003e (New China Character Dictionary) lists 8,075 characters. The canonical order of signs arranges them according to semantic classifications ranging from specific to general; signs related to mankind, minerals, height etc.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSimplified Han can be written vertically or horizontally, but modern texts are almost always written in horizontal lines from left-to-right. In some cases, particularly where Simplified Han is used alongside a right-to-left script, for example in a bilingual Chinese-Arabic dictionary, the Han characters may also be written from right to left. Vertical text alignment is often used on signposts which are longer than they are wide, as well as for aesthetic purposes, and is always used in calligraphic texts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe adoption of Simplified Han characters has been controversial; supporters praise the script for its simplicity and claim that it is easier to learn, although there is no empirical evidence to suggest that the increase in Chinas literacy rate has been due to the simplified script as opposed to financial investment in education. Critics claim that there was a propaganda motive in disseminating the simpler characters; the Chinese Communist Cultural Revolution perceived anything \\\\\\old\\\\\\\" or \\\\\\\"traditional\\\\\\\" to be hampering progression","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hant","name":"Han (Traditional variant)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (RTL) and horizontal (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Traditional Han script, also known as Traditional Chinese, developed from the Clerical script, ultimately from the Oracle Bone script, around the 5th century AD. It was used since that time throughout the Chinese-speaking world until the Communist government of China replaced it with the Simplified Han script in 1949. The simplified script is now the official script of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and of Singapore, but the traditional characters are still used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as for aesthetic purposes in the PRC and Singapore.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are five principles of character formation which have been used in developing the script. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003epictographic principle\u003c/span\u003e refers to signs which visually resemble the thing they represent, for example a dot within a circle for representing the concept sun. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003esimple indicative principle\u003c/span\u003e is related to this, but applies to more abstract concepts, such as above which is represented by a particular mark above a horizontal line, or below which is represented by a related mark below a horizontal line. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003ecompound indicative principle\u003c/span\u003e is used for compound signs, for example the combination of the sun and moon signs for representing the concept bright. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003ephonetic loan principle\u003c/span\u003e has been used in developing the signs for homphonous words. For example, the sound \u003cspan class=Em\u003eləg\u003c/span\u003e archaically meant both wheat and to come, so a character visually resembling a sheaf of wheat is still used for representing the word come, although the two words are no longer pronounced alike. The last principle is the \u003cspan class=Em\u003esemantic-phonetic principle\u003c/span\u003e, whereby homophonous words represented by the same character are distinguished by adding a semantic element, sometimes called a determinative, classifier, signific or radical.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is neither purely phonetic nor purely logographic; rather, it can be seen as a very large and phonetically imprecise syllabary having a strong semantic element. Neither the phonetic nor the semantic component alone gives an exact indication of sound or meaning, but the combined phonetic and semantic associations provided by the character enables the reader to deduce the pronunciation and the meaning represented. For example, the character representing the concept sprain (ankle), pronounced \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebié\u003c/span\u003e is a combination of the phonetic element representing the sound \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebì\u003c/span\u003e, which means - among other things - shabby, and the semantic radical meaning foot.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBoth traditional and simplified Han characters have been designed to fit within the same sized square; there are no ascenders or descenders. Traditional Han characters are much more complex than their simplified equivalents, as would be expected. Characters are written with 12 basic strokes, but a given character can contain between 1 and 64 of these strokes. Each stroke is always written in the same direction, and there is a particular order in which strokes must be written when composing a character.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTraditional Han is written both vertically (more common in Taiwan) and horizontally (more common in Hong Kong and Macau). The alignment of the text is also influenced by the shape of the surface being written on, for example, text a signpost which is longer than it is wide will be written vertically even in an area which tends to write horizontally. Vertical columns are read from right to left, but horizontal lines are read from left to right.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hatr","name":"Hatran","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eHatran writing was discovered in 1912 in present-day al-Hadr, an ancient city in the al-Jazira region of Iraq which used to be called Hatra. Over 100 stone inscriptions were uncovered by archaeologists working for Iraqi Department of Antiquities; since then approximately 500 more texts have been discovered. Most of these were short, and as a result it has been difficult to deduce a great deal about the Aramaic dialect, called Aramaic of Hatra, which the script represented.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Hatran script is an abjad; vowels were not written but \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=glossary#matlec\u003ematres lectiones\u003c/a\u003e were sometimes used to indicate the long vowels /o:/ and /ı:/.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hebr","name":"Hebrew","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"hebr","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"RTL bidirectional","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Hebrew script is primarily used for writing the Hebrew, Samaritan and Yiddish languages. It is also used for writing some varieties of Arabic spoken in North Africa, Iraq and Yemen; the languages of the Jewish communities in Italy and Corfu, Morocco (Berber), Spain and the Caucasus mountains; and the modern Jewish Aramaic languages. Prior to 500 BC the Hebrew language was written in the Paleo-Hebrew script, which was abandoned after the Jewish exile in the 5th century BC in favour of the Aramaic script, from which the current Hebrew script descended. It is commonly called the Hebrew alphabet, after its first two letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebet\u003c/span\u003e, although it is actually an abjad.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHebrew is a unicameral script; there is only one case. It is written from right to left. The script contains twenty-two consonant letters, five of which take a variant form when used at the end of a word. Vowels are normally omitted when writing the Hebrew language, but four of the consonant letters א \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003e, ה \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehe\u003c/span\u003e, ו \u003cspan class=Em\u003ewaw\u003c/span\u003e and י \u003cspan class=Em\u003eyod\u003c/span\u003e can be used for representing a number of (normally long) vowels when it is necessary to disambiguate between similar words. Until the 9th century, these letters, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003emater lectionis\u003c/span\u003e were the only means for representing vowels; later a system of diacritics, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eniqqud\u003c/span\u003e was introduced with the potential for fully representing long and short vowels in every word. Niqqud is rarely used outside of childrens books, poetry, and books for teaching the Hebrew language. When writing the Yiddish language, vowels are fully expressed by means of a system derived but different from Hebrew vocalic representation (see Yiddish Orthography).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA number of cantillation marks are used in the scriptural scrolls (\u003cspan class=Em\u003eTanakh\u003c/span\u003e) to indicate the rhythm and stress pattern for chanting the text aloud.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOne ligature is commonly used in writing the Hebrew language, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealef lamed\u003c/span\u003e ﭏ. Four additional ligatures are used for writing Yiddish. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003etetragrammaton\u003c/span\u003e is also considered by many to be a ligature. It represents one of a number of sacred words which are not permitted to be written, so are represented by means of another symbol or set of symbols. The tetragarammaton does not refer to one specific symbol, but to any of a number of symbols representing the Hebrew word for God, composed of the letters J H W and H. Some Hebrew scribes use a ligature in place of any combination of these four letters, even when they appear within a different, secular word.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePunctuation in the Hebrew script is much the same as in the Latin script, with the exception of a script-specific hyphen \u003cspan class=Em\u003emaqaf\u003c/span\u003e, colon \u003cspan class=Em\u003esof pasuq\u003c/span\u003e, forward/vertical slash \u003cspan class=Em\u003epaseq\u003c/span\u003e, abbreviation mark \u003cspan class=Em\u003egeresh\u003c/span\u003e, and a mark \u003cspan class=Em\u003egershayim\u003c/span\u003e to indicate that a word is an acronym.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHebrew writing for the most part uses Latin numbers, although a system used to be in much more common use which assigned a numerical value of units, tens, or hundreds to each letter in the script inventory; the letters could then be added together to create any number. In modern texts this system is only used for the Hebrew calendar and other special cases.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are four main styles of writing the Hebrew language. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAshuri\u003c/span\u003e is a widely-used block style. A particular form of Ashuri, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eSTA\\\\\\M\u003c/span\u003e (an acronym for the Hebrew words for which this style is used)","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hira","name":"Hiragana","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (RTL) and horizontal (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Hiragana script (sometimes called Kiragana) is one of the two Japanese syllabaries, along with Katakana. The script was derived from the cursive forms of Chinese characters around the 8th century; prior to this, Japanese was written entirely in Chinese (\u003cspan class=Em\u003ekanji\u003c/span\u003e letters. Hiragana was originally known as \u003cspan class=Em\u003eonnade\u003c/span\u003e womens hand as it was primarily used by women until the 10th century when it came to be widely used by both genders.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script can be written either horizontally or vertically. There are 48 signs, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekana\u003c/span\u003e, 5 representing vowels, one representing the syllabic nasal /n/, and 42 representing consonant+vowel syllables. Each kana represents one mora, essentially a short syllable. Long syllables are represented by two kana. There are no symbols for writing voiced stops; rather, two small strokes called \u003cspan class=Em\u003enigoriten\u003c/span\u003e are written at the upper right of a CV symbol to indicate that the consonant is voiced. There are also no symbols for syllables containing p, but a small circle (\u003cspan class=Em\u003emaru\u003c/span\u003e) is written to the upper right of the symbols \u003cspan class=Em\u003eha\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehi\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehu\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehe\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eho\u003c/span\u003e to represent \u003cspan class=Em\u003epa\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003epi\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003epu\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003epe\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003epo\u003c/span\u003e respectively. The script was officially standardized in 1946 to reflect spoken modern standard Japanese, although there are some exceptions to this: the grammatical markers for topic wa, direct object ɔ and direction ɛ are written with the symbols \u003cspan class=Em\u003eha\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ewo\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehe\u003c/span\u003e respectively, reflecting historical pronunciation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Hiragana script is a complete orthography - anything that can be said in Japanese can be written in Hiragana - but it is most commonly mixed with Chinese \u003cspan class=Em\u003eKanji\u003c/span\u003e characters. In texts which use a mixture of Hiragana and Kanji characters, Hiragana is commonly used to write words phonetically, sometimes as a guide to pronunciation, and to write sentence particles and inflectional endings.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are two arrangements in which symbols can be ordered. The traditional order of symbols is the order in which they appear in a short poem, the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eiroha\u003c/span\u003e, which uses each syllable only once. However, the \u003cspan class=Em\u003egojuuon\u003c/span\u003e \\\\\\fifty sound\\\\\\\" order is now more commonly used.\u003c/p\u003e \"","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hluw","name":"Anatolian Hieroglyphs (Luwian Hieroglyphs, Hittite Hieroglyphs)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"boustrophedon","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eAnatolian Hieroglyphs were used for writing the Luwian language until the early 7th century. The script has also been called ‘Hittite Hieroglyphs’ as it was once thought that they had been used for writing the Hittite language; however we now know that was not the case.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are approximately five hundred signs attested in inscriptions on stone and lead. These have both syllabic and logographic components. Words could be written entirely with logographs (in particular at the earlier period), or with phonetic complements in a variety of configurations.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hmng","name":"Pahawh Hmong","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Pahawh Hmong script has been used since 1959 for writing the Hmong language spoken in China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, as well as by a significant immigrant population in the United States and Australia. It was created by Shong Lue, who claimed to have been sent by God to teach the script to the Hmong people, following a series of divine revelations. He developed the script in four stages, the second and third of which are the forms in most widespread current use.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is unique in that syllables are written in the reverse order to which they are spoken. So, although the script as a whole is read from left to right, each syllable is written from right to left. Also unusual is that the diphthong au is the inherent vowel in a consonant, as opposed to the more usual a, ə or o.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are twenty consonant symbols which can appear at the start of a syllable. These combine with two diacritics to represent the sixty syllable-initial phonemes of the Hmong language. Use of these diacritics is not systematic, and the pronunciation of a given symbol+diacritic is not necessarily predictable from the sum of its two parts. For example, the sign for c when combined with a dot diacritic produces ntʃh, and when combined with a tack diacritic produces ts. But the sign for ntʃ when combined with a dot diacritic produces tʃ, and when combined with a tack diacritic produces ph. As the script was developed, this system was redesigned so that in the final version it is quite systematic. However, the final version is not the version in use.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTwenty-six symbols are used to represent the thirteen vowel phonemes. Each vowel can be written in two ways, each of which bears a (different) inherent tone. There are eight tones in the Hmong language. The inherent tone can be modified using one of four diacritics, which are used in a systematic way so that all 107 vowel + tone combinations can be represented.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePunctuation was introduced to the script in 1969, based on Latin punctuation. There are also script-specific symbols to indicate reduplication, exclamation, the sung or chanted nature of a text, percent, and ampersand. Logographs are used as a grammatical classifier, to denote periods of time, and to indicate clan names, which were historically of great social significance.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is not as widely used as the Romanized Popular Alphabet, a system devised largely by William Smalley in the 1950s. This is due to a lack of resources, negative political associations of Pahawh Hmong and difficulties in typesetting it. However, as asserted by Martha Ratcliffe in The Pahawh Hmong Script, it remains a great source of pride for the Hmong people.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hrkt","name":"Japanese syllabaries (alias for Hiragana + Katakana)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Japanese language is written in a mixture of scripts; \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekanji\u003c/span\u003e, which are derived from Chinese characters and represent logographic or morphological units, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekana\u003c/span\u003e, a pair of syllabaries. The two kana are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehiragana\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekatakana\u003c/span\u003e. A single text usually contains all three scripts. Kanji are used for writing nouns, verb stems, adjective stems and some adverbs. Hiragana is used primarily for grammatical elements - particles, inflectional endings, and auxiliary verbs. Katakana is used for writing loan words, onomatopoeic words, to give emphasis, to suggest a conversational tone, or to indicate irony or a euphemism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrior to the development of the two kana, Japanese was written entirely using kanji symbols. These were used phonetically to represent similar-sounding Japanese syllables; the meanings of the characters were initially ignored. However, as each kanji corresponds to only one syllable, in order to write a polysyllabic Japanese word, of which there are many, several kanji had to be employed. As kanji frequently consist of a large number of strokes, this was a laborious process. A simplified cursive style of writing began to be used by Japanese women around the 7th and 8th centuries; from this cursive style the hiragana characters developed. In modern written Japanese, many kanji characters can be read in two ways. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eOn\u003c/span\u003e-readings are based on the pronunciation of the Chinese character at the time of borrowing, irrespective of meaning, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekun\u003c/span\u003e-readings represent a Japanese morpheme corresponding to the meaning of a particular character.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKatakana was created shortly after hiragana, by students of Buddhism who needed some kind of phonetic shorthand in which they could rapidly take notes during lectures. Unlike hiragana, katakana are generally not simplifications of entire kanji characters, but are based on a single component of a kanji.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEach kana consists of one to four strokes. Strokes are written from top to bottom and from left to right.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe two scripts were standardized in 1900, since that time two characters have become obsolete, leaving 46 in use.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe two syllabaries developed in the 9th century and are based on kanji characters. Hiragana means \\\\\\kana without angles\\\\\\\" and katakana means \\\\\\\"simple","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Hung","name":"Old Hungarian (Hungarian Runic)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"abjad","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Old Hungarian script (in Hungarian \u003cspan class=Em\u003erovásírás\u003c/span\u003e) is the earliest known writing system amongst the Uralic languages. As early as the 6th century, Chinese accounts noted the Hungarian custom of writing with incised marks on small wooden tablets. The script may be derived from Old Turkic writing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is some discussion regarding the direction of writing; it appears that Old Hungarian was written both from right to left and from left to right. In very early times, when the script was written on wooden sticks, the stick was turned as each line was written so that the text appeared in \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#boust\u003eboustrophedon\u003c/a\u003e style. The boustrophedon style was not used for writing larger texts on walls or manuscripts, which tended to be written from right to left. Significant discussion has centered around this issue in the context of encoding the script for use on computers. Academic preference is generally for a left to right directionality, but modern users are more likely to write it from right to left.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are 45 basic letters in the script, which are able to represent all the sounds of Hungarian. That is not to say the orthography was phonemic; vowels were only written where it was ambiguous to omit them. Letters could be combined to form numerous ligatures. Historically, ligatures were not standardized, but used freely and inconsistently throughout handwritten texts. The same sequence of sounds could optionally be written with multiple signs or with a ligature. The script employed a single case, although the first letter of proper nouns was sometimes written slightly larger than the rest. There were also some non-alphabetic symbols, the functions of which seem to be unclear.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAround the year 1000, the first Hungarian king, István/Stephen I was crowned. Under his rule, the country officially switched to using the Latin script, though some examples of religious texts written in the script have been dated to that period. During the 15th century it became fashionable in some circles to use the Old Hungarian script, although it was never used in any official capacity. Since 1915 various attempts have been made to revive the script, with limited success. It is often used in a symbolic way, for example on public signage in Budapest, or for writing secret messages by schoolchildren and teenagers.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Inds","name":"Indus (Harappan)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Indus script (also called the Harappan script) was used by the Harappan cultures living in the Indus valley between roughly 3000 - 1900 BC. Although the script was discovered in 1875 and there have been numerous attempts to decipher it, little is known about the configuration of the symbols. There are no remaining examples of the formative stages of the script, so it is not possible to trace a genetic affiliation to any other known script. Furthermore, the script died out in 1900 BC with the Indus Valley Civilization, leaving no descendents.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere has been some controversy surrounding the script, as to whether it represented a spoken language at all, or whether the symbols were merely religious or political symbols having no linguistic content. In 2004 a paper entitled \\\\\\The Collapse of the Indus-Script Thesis\\\\\\\" (this can be read in full \u003ca href=http://www.safarmer.com/fsw2.pdf target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;here\u003c/a\u003e) was the first widely-read suggestion that the symbols discovered in the Indus Valley may not have represented a language. The authors claims were refuted by a statistical study comparing the pattern of symbols to other linguistic and non-linguistic systems","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Ital","name":"Old Italic (Etruscan, Oscan, etc.)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"ital","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Old Italic scripts are a group of alphabets descended from Greek which were used for writing a number of languages spoken in what is now Italy. The exact relationship of the Old Italic scripts to one another is uncertain. The most notable among them are Etruscan, Oscan, Faliscan, (ancient) Latin, Umbrian and Messapic. Scripts including the ancient Raetic, Venetic, Lepontic and Gallic scripts were previously termed the Alpine (or North Italic) scripts; these are now considered to belong to the Old Italic scripts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Runic and modern Latin scripts were based on the Old Italic alphabets.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Jamo","name":"Jamo (alias for Jamo subset of Hangul)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"featural","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Hang\u003eHangul\u003c/a\u003e is the phonetic writing system developed in 1446 for writing the Korean language. The Unicode Standard contains both the complete set of precomposed modern Hangul syllable blocks and a set of conjoining Hangul Jamo. These are the individual letters which combine to form Hangul syllables.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe conjoining Hangul Jamo can be used to represent all of the modern Hangul syllable blocks, as well as the ancient syllable blocks used in Old Korean. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Java","name":"Javanese","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"java","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eJavanese is Indonesias oldest literary language, its literary history being traceable to the C4th. Since that time, it has been written in several different scripts - Pallava, Old Javanese, and an Arabic variant known as \u003cspan class=Em\u003egundil\u003c/span\u003e script - before arriving at its present form in the C17th and 18th. The present Javanese script is a modern variant of Old Kawi, an ancient Brahmic script from which many scripts in the Indonesian archipelago are derived. It is the pre-colonial script of the Javanese language spoken on the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali and is used to write the Tengger and Osing languages, also spoken in Java and Bali. Historically it was also used to write the Bali language, which is now written largely in the Latin and Balinese scripts, and the Sunda language, which is now written in the Latin and Arabic scripts. The Javanese script is closely related to the Balinese script, although Javanese contains 4 consonant letters which are absent in the Balinese.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Javanese script is an abugida written from left to right. It comprises 20 consonants each having an inherent a vowel, and 5 vowel diacritics representing the 9 vowel phonemes of the spoken language. Although some diacritics therefore represent two phonemes, the potential for ambiguity in this regard is eliminated by rules concerning vowel pronunciation and context. Syllable-final consonants can be modified with a virama device called \u003cspan class=Em\u003epatèn\u003c/span\u003e, which mutes the inherent vowel. In addition, each consonant has a counterpart for use, commonly in subscript form, in writing consonant clusters. These are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003epasangan\u003c/span\u003e letters. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is an optional set of vowel characters which may be used to indicate syllable-initial vowels, and a further set of optional honourific graphemes used to indicate a highly respected person. As foreign loan words have been adopted into the Javanese language throughout the islands history, special characters have been introduced to accommodate non-Javanese sounds. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Javanese script employs punctuation marks roughly corresponding in purpose to the comma, full-stop, colon, and quotation marks, as well as to introduce a new sentence or paragraph, to indicate rank distinctions between writer and recipient in correspondence, and to mark the beginning and end of a poem, or a melody change in songs. The alphabet is traditionally ordered in such a way that the names of the letters form a poem, translated as There were (two) emissaries, they began to fight, their valour was equal, they both fell dead. Javanese numerals can be written either in the Javanese, Latin or Arabic scripts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe first Javanese upright-style font was produced in the 1830s by the Dutch. Early in the C20th, two other cursive type fonts were also produced. Further development was halted abruptly during the second World War when the use of the Javanese script was prohibited under the Japanese occupation. Currently, there are no newspapers or magazines being printed in the Javanese script, although it is still taught in most elementary schools and some junior high schools in Javanese speaking areas.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Jpan","name":"Japanese (alias for Han + Hiragana + Katakana)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Japanese language is written in a mixture of three scripts; \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekanji\u003c/span\u003e, which is derived from Chinese characters and represents logographic or morphological units, and two \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekana\u003c/span\u003e, pairs of syllabaries. The two kana are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehiragana\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekatakana\u003c/span\u003e. A single text usually contains all three scripts. Kanji is used for writing nouns, verb stems, adjective stems and some adverbs. Hiragana is used primarily for grammatical elements - particles, inflectional endings and auxiliary verbs. Katakana is used for writing loan words, onomatopoeic words, to give emphasis, to suggest a conversational tone, or to indicate irony or a euphemism. The two kana can also be used to write a word for which the writer does not know the kanji character. A fourth writing system, Roman, is also used in small amounts, particularly for writing numerals. The Japanese writing system is neither syllabic nor logographic, but uses elements of both in tandem.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKanji characters were introduced to Japan around the 3rd century, it is thought from Korea. Until the 7th or 8th century, the Japanese language was written exclusively in these Chinese characters. Initially these were used phonetically to represent similar-sounding Japanese syllables, regardless of their meaning in written Chinese. However, the process of writing Japanese solely in kanji was laborious; each symbol consisted of a number of strokes and only represented one syllable. Two simplified forms of writing began to emerge around the 7th century. The modern hiragana script developed from a simplified cursive style originally developed by women, who were discouraged from learning kanji, and katakana was developed by Buddhist scholars who wrote only one element of each kanji symbol as a form of shorthand.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn modern written Japanese, many kanji characters can be read in two ways. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eOn\u003c/span\u003e-readings are based on the Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time of borrowing, irrespective of any subsequent changes in meaning, while \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekun\u003c/span\u003e-readings are based on the pronunciation of the Japanese word having the same meaning. For example, the loan word \u003cspan class=Em\u003enin\u003c/span\u003e is based on the sound of the Mandarin word \u003cspan class=Em\u003erén \u003c/span\u003e person, which is written with the character 人. The native Japanese word having the same meaning - person - is pronounced \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehito\u003c/span\u003e. So the character 人 can be pronounced either \u003cspan class=Em\u003enin\u003c/span\u003e (the on-reading), or \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehito\u003c/span\u003e (the kun-reading). To avoid confusion, small-type kana are sometimes written alongside or above a kanji character to indicate which pronunciation is intended.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpoken Japanese contains a large number of homophones - words which are pronounced the same but have different meanings. To avoid ambiguity, different kanji can be used to indicate which meaning is intended. For example, the word for both science and chemistry is \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekagaku\u003c/span\u003e, but the former meaning is written using the symbols meaning division + study, and the latter, the symbols meaning change + study. The ability to disambiguate in this way using kanji is one of the reasons often cited in opposition to proposals to eliminate kanji altogether and only use kana.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Jurc","name":"Jurchen","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"vertical","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Jurchen script (also called Jurchi, Jurchin or Southern Tungusic) was created in 1120 by Wanyan Xiyin, advisor of the Jurchen chieftain Wanyan Aguda, who later became the first emperor of the Jin Dynasty. The script was used for writing the Jurchen language; however, both the script and the language are now extinct and there are very few surviving samples of Jurchen text. Almost all surviving examples of the script are inscriptions on monuments, pottery, mirrors etc., although there are references in Chinese texts to a large body of literature written in the script. One of the most important extant texts is an inscription on the back of the Jin Victory Memorial Stele which was erected in 1185. The Jurchen text is an abbreviated translation of the Chinese text on the front of the stele.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Jurchen script was largely logographic, and contained 720 radicals, similar to the Chinese characters on which they were based. Many characters were directly borrowed from Chinese. Broadly speaking, characters fell into two classes; ideographic characters representing words or portions of words, and phonetic characters representing a sound. However, some characters performed a dual function and represented words in some contexts and sounds in others. Logographs could be combined to form compound words. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script appears to have been widely known and used by the Jurchen people, as evidenced by numerous examples of graffiti left by Jurchen travellers in Inner Mongolia. After the 16th century the Jurchen people became known as Manchu (or Manchurians) and gradually adopted the Mongolian script. The Mongolian script had entirely replaced Jurchen writing by the 17th century.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Kali","name":"Kayah Li","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"kali","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eKayah Li is used to write the Eastern and Western Kayah Li languages, spoken by 360,000 and 210,000 people respectively. These are Karen languages native to Myanmar but also spoken by significant refugee populations in Thailand. The script was created in 1962 by Htae Bu Phae. It bears noticeable similarities to the Myanmar script and to the Indic scripts. The Kayah Li languages can also be written using the Myanmar script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is of Brahmic origin but, unusually, it is an alphabet rather than an abugida. Four of the nine Kayah vowel sounds are written with spacing letters; the remaining five are written with the spacing letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e, modified by diacritics. Non-native sounds are written by using the same vowel diacritics to modify the spacing letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003eoe\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEvery vowel sound carries a tone. Tone is indicated by vowel marks written below the four spacing vowel letters (bearing in mind that two of these letters can be used to write all the other vowels). Where a tone mark and a vowel diacritic are both applied to a spacing letter, the vowel is conventionally written first, as the tone applies to the syllable as a whole.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is a set of script-specific digits 0-9. Two punctuation marks also exist: one to represent extended intonation and one to separate sentences or phrases. In addition, conventional Latin punctuation marks are used. Spaces are used between words.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Kana","name":"Katakana","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (RTL) and horizontal (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eKatakana is one of two syllabaries, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekana\u003c/span\u003e, used for writing Japanese, along with Hiragana. Until the 8th century, Japanese was written using Chinese characters, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekanji\u003c/span\u003e, on which the shapes of the katakana symbols are based. Modern Japanese texts are commonly written in a mixture of kanji, hiragana and katakana. Katakana is typically used for writing loanwords, onomatopoeic and mimetic words, exclamations, and some specialized scientific terminology. It can also be used to imply a conversational tone, to give emphasis to particular words, or to signal irony or a euphemism. Both hiragana and katakana can be written in small type alongside or above kanji words to indicate the pronunciation or meaning of the kanji.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKatakana is a complete orthography; in principle any spoken Japanese word can be written using the script, although in practice this is rarely done. There are 102 syllables in spoken Japanese, but not all are represented by their own distinct symbol in Katakana writing. There are 48 written symbols, also called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekana\u003c/span\u003e, each representing one mora, essentially a short syllable. Syllables with long vowels count as two morae and are represented in writing by two kana. There are 5 kana for writing independent vowels, 1 for writing the syllabic nasal /n/, and 42 for writing various CV syllables. To enable all 102 spoken syllables to be written using only these 48 symbols, diacritics are used. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eDakuten\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003enigoriten\u003c/span\u003e can be added to a character to mark voicing, where it is distinctive, and a small circle \u003cspan class=Em\u003emaru\u003c/span\u003e is written to the upper right of the symbols \u003cspan class=Em\u003eha\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehi\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehu\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehe\u003c/span\u003e, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eho\u003c/span\u003e, to represent \u003cspan class=Em\u003epa\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003epi\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003epu\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003epe\u003c/span\u003e, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003epo\u003c/span\u003e. There are no symbols for writing palatalized sounds; instead the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ey\u003c/span\u003e syllables are used in conjunction with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eki\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003esi\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eni\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehi\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003emi\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eri\u003c/span\u003e. So the sound nja/ña is written \u003cspan class=Em\u003eni\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003eya\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKatakana characters are traditionally arranged in the order in which they appear in a short poem called the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eiroha\u003c/span\u003e, in which each character occurs only once. However, modern dictionaries use the \\\\\\fifty-sound order\\\\\\\" based on that of the Indic script; vowels are ordered first","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Khar","name":"Kharoshthi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"khar","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eEarly writing in India is associated with three scripts; Indus (Harrapan), Brahmi and Kharoshthi. The Kharoshthi script descended from Aramaic and was used in what is now Northern Pakistan and Eastern Afghanistan during the 4th or 5th century BC. It was used for about 700 years for writing a group of vernacular middle Indo-Aryan dialects collectively termed Prakrit. There has been some evidence that local variants of Kharoshthi writing were used for even longer than this along the Silk Route, but these too later died out without leaving any descendants.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKharoshthi was an abugida based on the graphic syllable called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eakṣara\u003c/span\u003e, which contains an inherent a vowel. Other vowels were written by attaching diacritics to the akṣara, which overrode the inherent a. Initial vowels having no preceding consonant were written using a dummy consonant letter in which the consonant was silent but the inherent a was pronounced. Vowel diacritics could be attached to this letter as to any other consonant letter. Vowel length was generally not written, except in some later documents which used a diacritic stroke to indicate a long vowel.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script was written from right to left in a cursive style. The letters were ordered according to what is now referred to as the Arapacana alphabet. This order was used as a mnemonic device in tantric Buddhist rituals.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Prakrit languages for which Kharoshthi was used did not employ the same sound system as Sanskrit, so not all of the letters present in most South Asian scripts are present in Kharoshthi. For example, there are no means of representing syllabic r or l, velar nasal \u003cspan class=Em\u003eṅ\u003c/span\u003e, and no \u003cspan class=Em\u003evisarga\u003c/span\u003e. However, there is a diacritic mark which is written above intervocalic consonants, thought to represent a phonological process such as frication.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA set of numerals 1-4, 10, 20, 100 and 1000 was used. There were also 9 punctuation marks.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Khmr","name":"Khmer","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"khmr","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Khmer script is an abugida, descended from the Brahmic script Pallava. It is used for writing Khmer, the official language of Cambodia. The script is also sometimes used for writing minority languages in Cambodia, such as Brao and Mnong.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe alphabet has 33 consonants. Two more consonants that are included in Unicode are not in everyday use. Like many of the Brahmic abugidas, each symbol comprises a consonant and an inherent vowel. However, unlike most other Brahmic scripts, Khmer has two registers of consonants, one containing an inherent a and one containing an inherent o. Most consonants have two different letterforms for these two registers. Those that do not have a second form can be modified by one of two diacritics to indicate a change of register. Each consonant can also appear in a subscript form, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ecoeng\u003c/span\u003e. In most cases these are a smaller version of the full form, but in some cases they are unrelated in appearance. Coeng are written below the consonant they follow in pronunciation, but can extend above the baseline to the left or the right of that consonant. Rarely, coeng can be attached to a vowel character or used to indicate a word-final consonant, but their primary use is in consonant clusters. Some coeng in loanwords remain unpronounced.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eVowels are represented by means of diacritics written above, below and/or alongside on either side of the consonant to modify the quality of the inherent vowel. Most of these vowel-diacritics have a different effect on a consonant containing a than they do on one containing o. Independent vowel symbols also exist for representing syllable-initial vowels, but some are also written using the q character modified by the appropriate vowel diacritic. Spelling conventions often dictate which of these means of representation is used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are additional diacritics that may or may not modify the pronunciation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe superscript \u003cspan class=Em\u003erobat\u003c/span\u003e character, which is used in some related scripts if the consonant RO is the first consonant in the syllable, is, in Khmer, only an artefact of original spellings in some loanwords and is not pronounced. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Khmer literary tradition dates back to the 7th century, and the script is currently in widespread use, although it is estimated that 35% of the Khmer-speaking population aged 15 and over are illiterate in the script.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Khoj","name":"Khojki","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eKhojki is a Brahmi-derived abugida related to the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Shrd\u003eSharada\u003c/a\u003e script. It is used by the Khoja people - an ethnic group of largely Ismaili Shia Muslims - for recording religious literature in the Sindhi language. Khojki has been used since at least the 16th century, originally for manuscripts, but later in printed form also. The script has also been used to write other South Asian languages; however, in recent years its use has declined markedly.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKhojki is structurally similar to other Brahmic scripts. Each of the forty-three characters represents either an independent vowel, or a consonant containing the inherent vowel a. In addition to these, there are eight dependent vowel diacritics. These can attach to a consonant character to replace the inherent vowel with a different one. Other word-forming characters include the \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e, which is written after a consonant to silence the vowel entirely, the \u003cspan class=Em\u003enukta\u003c/span\u003e, which can be written above either vowels or consonants to represent sounds not native to the Sindhi language, and the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eshadda\u003c/span\u003e which represents \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/glossary#gemination\u003egeminate\u003c/a\u003e (long) consonants.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script was never standardized. In addition, it was used by non-Sindhi speakers to represent other languages. These users adapted the original phonetic values of some letters to fit the phonology of their own languages. This means that there is inconsistency in the representation of some sounds. For example, there are two letters attested in different manuscripts as representing the dental aspirated sound d̪\u003csup\u003eh\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKhojki punctuation is largely borrowed from Latin. However, the \u003cspan class=Em\u003edanda\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edouble danda\u003c/span\u003e are used to mark the end of a sentence, and a word separator is optionally used in between words.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Kitl","name":"Khitan large script","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"vertical","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Kitan (also called Liao) language, an extinct Mongolic language spoken in Northern China, was written using two mutually exclusive scripts, the Kitan Large script and the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Kits\u003eKitan Small script\u003c/a\u003e. The Kitan Large script was created in 920 at the request of the Emperor Taizu. It was written in vertical columns using between 830-1000 characters. There is some debate as to whether the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eGu taishi mingshi ji\u003c/span\u003e inscription, which has been lost, was genuine or not. The controversy surrounding this inscription calls into question the reliability of about 170 characters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlmost all attested examples of the script are in the form of inscriptions, with the exception of a manuscript book held at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMost Kitan Large characters were logograms, but ideograms and syllabograms may also have been used to fulfill grammatical functions. Some characters were based on Chinese characters but most were novel creations.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Khitan Empire was destroyed in 1125 AD by the Jurchen, who continued to use the script until 1191 when it was suppressed by an imperial order.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNeither of the Kitan scripts has been fully deciphered.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Kits","name":"Khitan small script","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"other","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Kitan (also called Liao) language, an extinct Mongolic language spoken in Northern China, was written using two mutually exclusive scripts, the Kitan Small script and the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Kitl\u003eKitan Large script\u003c/a\u003e. The Kitan Small script was invented by a Kitan scholar known only as Diela, who was inspired by Uyghur writing. It was a mixed script. Phonetic elements were arranged in groups of one to seven to form rectangular phonographic blocks. (Some sources refer to these blocks as polygrams.) These represented the pronunciation of a word, and were used together with a small number of logographic characters that represented frequently used vocabulary. The shapes of some of the Kitan Small logographic characters are the same as some of the Kitan Large characters, but they do not have the same meanings.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNeither of the Kitan scripts has been fully deciphered.\u003c/p\u003e ","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Knda","name":"Kannada","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Kannada script is used for writing the Kannada language spoken by over 35 million people in southern India. It is also used for writing Konkani, a South Indian language with over 3 million speakers, Tulu, with almost 2 million speakers, and a number of south Indian minority languages including Badaga, Kudiya and Paniya. The script is closely related to Telugu writing; both languages were written using the Old Kanarese script until the 1500s when it diverged into two distinct varieties. The script was standardized in the 19th century under the influence of Christian mission organizations, who established printing presses for printing books in the Kannada language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKannada letters are rounded in shape, typical of South Indian scripts. They are generally written with a headstroke running along the top, although this headstroke is not continuous throughout words as it is in Devanagari writing. The headstroke is omitted from letters followed by a long \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e, or a long or short \u003cspan class=Em\u003ei\u003c/span\u003e. There are forty-nine basic letters in the Kannada inventory. Of these, thirty-four are consonants, thirteen are vowels and two (\u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003evisarga\u003c/span\u003e) are non-alphabetic symbols which will be described later.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe thirteen vowel letters are only used for writing vowels at the start of words. Vowels which follow a consonant are written using a different set of symbols. Each of the thirty-four consonant letters (called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eaksaras\u003c/span\u003e) represents a syllable containing the inherent vowel a. Fourteen diacritic symbols can be used for changing this vowel; to represent the syllable ku for example, the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003eka\u003c/span\u003e is written with the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eu\u003c/span\u003e diacritic below it. Vowel diacritics can be written above, below or to the right of the aksara. To write a syllable-final consonant, that is, one which is not followed by a vowel, a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e symbol is written above the letter to silence the inherent vowel.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe two additional symbols mentioned previously are only written after vowels. The first is \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e, a circle which is often used to represent a nasal consonant pronounced at the same place in the oral cavity as the following consonant, as in the word ʌŋgə limb of the body, which is written with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e following the ʌ. Where there is not following consonant, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e represents a final m, as in the word lʌga:m bridle, which is written with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e following the a:. The second symbol is \u003cspan class=Em\u003evisarga\u003c/span\u003e, two small circles stacked in the manner of the dots in a Latin colon. This symbol is transcribed as ḥ and normally represents a post-vocalic ha, as in the word again, written \u003cspan class=Em\u003epunaḥ\u003c/span\u003e and pronounced punəha.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/nb/ah/nbahkck8u3_KannadaSigns.png height=94 width=180 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Kannada script employs a large number of ligatures, also called \u003cspan class=Em\u003econjuncts\u003c/span\u003e, for writing consonant clusters. These are formed by reducing all but the first consonant in the cluster to an altered form and joining it below or to the right of the first consonant. A written syllable does not necessarily correspond to a phonological syllable where consonant clusters are concerned, for example the spoken word \u003cspan class=Em\u003erakta\u003c/span\u003e blood would be syllabified \u003cspan class=Em\u003erak\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003eta\u003c/span\u003e but is written with the letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003era\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003ekta\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/nb/ah/nbahkck8u3_Kannadarakta.png height=66 width=403 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is a set of digits from 0-9 for writing numbers in the Kannada script.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Kore","name":"Korean (alias for Hangul + Han)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Korean language is often written using a combination of a language-specific script, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eHangul\u003c/span\u003e, and Chinese Han characters, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehanja\u003c/span\u003e in Korean. Hangul is a complete orthography; anything that can be said in Korean can be written in Hangul, but there are cultural and historical reasons for the use of hanja. The form of writing which combines both scripts is sometimes called Korean mixed script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eUntil 1446, Korean had been written exclusively in Chinese characters, but this script was not well-suited to the language. A given Chinese character could be used to represent a spoken Korean syllable, irrespective of its original Chinese meaning, or it could be used to represent the Korean word with the closest meaning to its original. Reading was difficult because the intended function of the character was not always apparent. In 1446 King Sejong designed the phonetic Hangul script to be perfectly suited for writing Korean, to make literacy available to everyone. Initially, Hangul met with some resistance from scholars, and it was not until the 19th century, when Christian missionaries began teaching it, that it really began to be widely established. By about 1950, Hangul and hanja were being mixed fairly evenly, at least in the South, and hanja has been in decline ever since. Hangul is now Koreas national script, although it is still not used exclusively.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Hangul script is written using 51 letters, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ejamo\u003c/span\u003e, which are arranged into syllable blocks by modifying the size, shape or position of each jamo to reflect its position in the spoken syllable. Hangul syllable blocks were designed to conform with the square frame of Chinese characters, and, like Chinese characters, can be written in vertical or horizontal lines.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA small number of hanja characters have been modified to be unique to Korean writing, but generally they are identical to traditional Han characters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpoken Korean vocabulary consists of native Korean words, Sino-Korean words (that is, words influenced by having been written in hanja or imported from Chinese), and loan words from other foreign languages, mainly English. Sino-Korean words make up a little over half of the South Korean vocabulary, although many of these words have been replaced by native Korean words in the North. Hanja is not used for writing native Korean words nor, generally, for writing other loan words; where it is used, it is used for writing Sino-Korean words only.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe role of hanja is different in the North and in the South of the country. After the division of Korea at the end of the second world war, North Korea officially abolished the use of hanja in any printed publications, but schoolchildren there are still taught 2-3,000 characters. Hanja are not used in literature in the North, but are sometimes used for decorative purposes such as at athletic events and cultural parades, or on packaging. In the South, children do not begin learning hanja until the seventh year of school, and are taught only 1,800 characters. The script is primarily used for academic literature in the South, often to clarify words with an ambiguous meaning, and for decorative purposes such as the name of a newspaper.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Kpel","name":"Kpelle","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Kpelle script was created by Chief Gbili, from the town of Sanoyie in Liberia, for writing the Kpelle language. It was used in the 1930s and early 1940s around Gbili’s local area for sending messages, keeping tax and store records, and recording legal debts, but by the late 1940s had been replaced by the Latin script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKpelle writing uses 88 symbols, each representing a pair of syllables dubbed ‘mutational pairs’ by the linguist David Dalby. These pairs are related by the phonological similarity of their initial consonants or consonant clusters. For example, the syllables \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekpi\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003egbi\u003c/span\u003e are identical except in voicing, and are represented by a single symbol. Some pairs are written with two symbols, for example, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eti\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edi\u003c/span\u003e, but either symbol can be used for either sound.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is written from left to right, without the use of punctuation. Numbers from 1-10 can be written, but there is no symbol for writing the number zero.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Kthi","name":"Kaithi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Kaithi script has been used predominantly in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (but also in other North Indian states and the Nepali terai) for writing a group of Indo-Aryan languages. It is often claimed to be a Bihari script despite its use and influence extending beyond the state of Bihar. Kaithi has been used for writing the Bhojpuri, Maghadi, Urdu, Awadhi, Maithili, and Bengali languages since the 16th century. Its use was generally discouraged under British rule in India, except in the state of Bihar, where it was officially sanctioned for use in government offices - hence the association with that state. In other areas it was used primarily by the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekayastha\u003c/span\u003e caste, a Brahmin caste which consists largely of writers by trade. The script was widely used until the early 1900s, and there is some evidence that it is still used for personal correspondence in rural areas.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKaithi writing is sometimes described as a cursive form of Devanagari. Many of the letters closely resemble Devanagari letters in shape, although it is generally written without a headstroke but with serifs, especially in printing. Both Kaithi and Devanagari descended from the the Gupta branch of Brahmi writing and are structurally very similar, but the differences between them are significant enough that literacy in one does not guarantee literacy in the other. The script was largely used by Brahmins. However George Grierson, the linguist largely responsible for the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eLinguistic Survey of India\u003c/span\u003e carried out between 1894 and 1928, notes in his 1899 \u003cspan class=Em\u003eHandbook to the Kaithi Character\u003c/span\u003e that in some places Kaithi writing was associated with the lower classes, for whom education in Devanagari was considered an unnecessary luxury.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Kaithi script is an abugida - each consonant letter represents a CV syllable where the default vowel is a. Other vowels are normally written using dependent vowel diacritics, unless they are at the start of a word, in which case they are written with an independent vowel letter. Sometimes in handwriting, non-decomposable consonant + vowel ligatures are used. A \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e symbol is used to cancel the vowel at the end of consonant-final words. There are thirty-five consonant letters and either eight or ten vowel letters. Sources disagree as to whether the script contains short i and u letters; those which do not support these letters state that their long forms are used for writing both long and short vowels. There is also some controversy as to whether a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evocalic r\u003c/span\u003e letter exists. The collation order of letters follows the Devanagari model based on articulatory phonetics.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonant clusters are represented irregularly from language to language. The phonology of some languages inserts a \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=Glossary#mets\u003emetathetic\u003c/a\u003e vowel in many instances which would otherwise involve a consonant cluster. For example in Awadhi, the Hindi word karma is pronounced karam and written the same way. Where this does not occur, clusters can be written with half-forms of the letters, with a non-decomposable ligature, with the virama symbol, or they may be written with the full forms of both letters and the pronunciation deduced from the readers knowledge of the language. The decision depends largely on the writers personal preference, or on the limitations of the font being used. Ligatures are more commonly used for writing the Maithili language. Consonant length is not written despite being distinctive in some words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe symbols \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003evisarga\u003c/span\u003e are used as in other Indic scripts. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eCandrabindu\u003c/span\u003e is used more rarely. Non-native sounds in loan words are sometimes written using the closest equivalent, modified with a dot called \u003cspan class=Em\u003enukta\u003c/span\u003e underneath the letter.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWord spacing is not always used in handwriting, but generally is in print. Where word spacing is not used, words are sometimes separated with a dash.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe punctuation marks \u003cspan class=Em\u003edanda\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edouble danda\u003c/span\u003e are used for marking pauses in the text, and are sometimes written with serifs. A swash-like dash is sometimes used to mark the end of a sentence. Two other punctuation marks are used for indicating abbreviation and enumeration.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKaithi writing employs a set of digits from 0-9, many of which closely resemble their Devanagari equivalents. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Lana","name":"Tai Tham (Lanna)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between phrases","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Lanna script is also known as the Tai Tham, Dham, Yuan, or Northern Thai script. It has been used for writing the Northern Thai, Lü and Khün languages. Northern Thai is the biggest language group which uses the script, with 6million speakers, but literacy is low. Lü is now written in the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Talu\u003eNew Tai Lue\u003c/a\u003e script, although some speakers born before 1950 are still literate in Lanna. The script has religious significance and is used in Buddhist monasteries.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonants bear an inherent a vowel, which can be modified using dependent vowel symbols which are joined to the consonant. Combinations of dependent vowels are used to represent glides and diphthongs. Some basic vowels are represented by \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#multig target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;digraphs\u003c/a\u003e, that is, the symbol used to represent them consists of more than one component. There are also eight independent vowel symbols which are used at the start of a syllable. Some vowels are used only for specific languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMost consonants take two forms: a full form and a combining form. The combining form tends to be smaller and is written below or alongside a full consonant. The Lanna script is unusual in that joining a full and a combining consonant does not necessarily produce a consonant cluster; the inherent vowel in the first consonant may still be present. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/62/3d/623d89538d_LannaKLA.png height=70 width=251 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA combining consonant can also join to a dependent vowel in a closed syllable, or to represent the first consonant of the following syllable. In these cases, it is often down to the preference of the writer whether the full or the subjoined form of a consonant is used. Hence, there are different ways of spelling many words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn addition, there are seven dependent consonant symbols which are used at the end of a syllable or to form consonant clusters. Some of these are specific to particular languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are three classes of consonants, which helps to indicate the tone of a syllable. Vowel length also partly determines tone. In addition, various language-specific tone marks are used to further represent tone.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFour script-specific punctuation marks are used, in combination with Latin punctuation. Other non-alphabetic symbols are used to mark the beginning and end of sections of text. There are also three logographs representing village, city and heaven. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/62/3d/623d89538d_LannaLogs.png height=100 width=130 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLanna has two sets of digits, representing the numbers 0-9. One of these is used largely for religious purposes; the other is in common use. It is speculated that the common set, called hora, was historically used for astrological purposes, hora being name of one of the main branches of Vedic astrology. Numbers 1-4 in each system are shown below.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/62/3d/623d89538d_LannaDigits.png height=152 width=343 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Laoo","name":"Lao","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between phrases","open_type_tag":"lao","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Lao script is used for writing the Lao language, and is also the official script of a number of minority languages in Laos. The Lao language is closely related to Thai; there is a considerable Lao-speaking population in Thailand who write their language with the Thai script. However, the Lao script underwent a number of reforms which caused significant divergence from the Thai script. When the communist Pathet Lao overthrew the Lao government in 1975, they implemented a final spelling reform which simplified and standardized the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are 27 consonant letters in the Lao script. Many consonant letters are pronounced differently at the beginning and at the end of a syllable. However, not all consonant sounds or letters can occur at the end of a syllable.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLinguists do not agree as to whether there are five or six tones in the Lao language; it may vary by dialect. The system for representing tone (illustrated below) is fairly complex. Consonant letters are divided into three tone classes. There are four tone marks, two of which are in common use. The class of consonant, the type of syllable (open or closed), vowel length, and the tone marker all combine to represent the tone of a syllable. Closed syllables do not carry a tone marker, but open syllables may. Tone can also be changed by ligating a consonant to a special (silent) letter.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/8d/c8/8dc8ff27ad_LaoTones.png.jpg height=366 width=600 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonants carry an inherent a vowel, which can be modified by means of vowel signs written above, below, alongside or around (in more than one position) the consonant. Long vowels are represented by seven vowel letters. Some short vowels are represented by adding a short marker to the long vowel symbol, and others with a different symbol, often related in form to the long vowel symbol. Vowels are not written at the start of a syllable, although they can be the first \u003cspan class=Em\u003esound\u003c/span\u003e in a syllable. In these cases, the symbol for a glottal stop is used as a base onto which the vowel letter can join.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLao consonant letters are given names consisting of the consonants sound (in initial position), followed by the sound aw, and a second arbitrary word, normally the name of an animal or common object beginning with the sound in question. These names help to associate between letters representing the same sound. For example, there are two letters representing s, one called saw seua (\u003cspan class=Em\u003eseua\u003c/span\u003e meaning tiger) and the other called saw sang (\u003cspan class=Em\u003esang\u003c/span\u003e meaning elephant).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLao has its own set of digits from 0-9. Some Latin punctuation is used in modern writing, in particular ! ? ( ) ... Quotation marks may be in either \\\\\\\\\\\\\" or «» style. Spaces are used at the end of clauses or sentences","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Latf","name":"Latin (Fraktur variant)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eFraktur writing is a Gothic variant of the Latin script, also called Blackletter. Although it is associated with the German language, it was used throughout Western Europe from the 12th until the 17th century, for writing Old English, Gaelic, Latin, and Scandinavian languages, and in Germany until the 20th century. Many American newspapers use Fraktur type in their mastheads to this day.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe weekly German newspaper the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eRelation\u003c/span\u003e is widely considered the world’s first newspaper, with circulation commencing in the summer of 1605. It was published in Fraktur type, a tradition which continued in most German newspapers until the end of the Nazi era.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFraktur writing developed when the demand for written material exceeded publishers’ ability to produce books in the time-consuming Carolingian minuscule script which was previously popular. Although it was deemed more efficient by many, its development was controversial as it had political, cultural and religious connotations, particularly towards Protestantism. Influential writers either forbade their books to be printed in the script, or insisted upon it. In Germany, literary works were most often published in Fraktur, while scientific and academic works were set in competing Antiqua types.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFraktur is notable amongst Latin scripts for its large number of ligatures.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Latg","name":"Latin (Gaelic variant)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Gaelic variant of the Latin script was used between the 16th and 20th centuries for writing Irish. Modern and digital forms of the script are based on traditional hand-written manuscript styles.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are a number of typefaces subsumed under the term ‘Gaelic type’. Michael Everson identifies over 100 Gaelic typefaces dating from 1567 to the present. All Gaelic typefaces include the twenty-six letters of the Latin alphabet, plus the accented vowels and dotted consonants used for writing Irish, and the Tironian sign \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/char/U00204A\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eet\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, which represents the Irish word \u003cspan class=Em\u003eagus\u003c/span\u003e, meaning “and”. Archaic ligatures are also sometimes included.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGaelic type is now largely restricted to decorative contexts. Modern Irish is written using the following Latin letters:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ea á b c d e é f g h i í l m n o ó p r s t u ú\u003cbr /\u003e j k q v w x y z (for loanwords only)\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMore information can be found \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/ws/ga/sym\u003ehere\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Latn","name":"Latin","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"latn","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Latin script (also called the Roman script) is the most widely used writing system in the world, being the script of the English language, spoken by over 300,000,000 people worldwide. It is also the script used for writing a number of Romance, Germanic, Baltic and non-Indo-European languages, as well as the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/entry/ucgb77fkvh\u003eInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script was derived from the Western variant of the Greek alphabet. The earliest extant inscription, an engraved brooch now in the ‘Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico Luigi Pigorini’ in Rome, has been dated to the 7th century BC. The script developed slowly over the next thousand years, and by the 4th century AD many of the modern forms had been developed, and writing had settled into a consistent left to right direction. The Latin script was disseminated throughout western, northern and central Europe and the Baltic countries along with the Christian religion. However it was not until the colonization of the Americas, Australia, and parts of Asia, Africa and the Pacific that the script began to spread outside of Europe, carried by the English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Dutch languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs the script spread around the world, a number of language-specific amendments were made in order to accurately represent the sounds of various languages. These included ligatures, for example the German \u003cspan class=Em\u003eesszett\u003c/span\u003e ß, and a number of diacritics. Some languages also adapted the alphabet by the addition of entirely new letters, such as \u003cspan class=Em\u003eeth\u003c/span\u003e Ðð used in Faroese and Icelandic or \u003cspan class=Em\u003eepsilon\u003c/span\u003e Ɛɛ used in many Niger-Congo orthographies.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Latin script is bicameral; it is written using both upper- and lower-case letters. It is written horizontally from left to right. Each letter sits on the baseline, with some letters having descenders hanging below the baseline, and some having ascenders protruding beyond the x-height. The script also uses a set of punctuation, which is almost entirely consistent across European languages. Exceptions to this include different syles of quotation marks (“ ” and « »), the Greek question mark, which is identical to the semicolon in many other languages (;), and the Spanish inverted question/exclamation marks (¿ and ¡).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDigits from 0-9 are used. These can be combined to represent larger numbers.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Leke","name":"Leke","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Leke are a messianic Buddhist sect established in 1860, who live in villages in Myanmar in the Megatha Forest complex, on either side of the border around Three Pagodas Pass, and in the Gwe Ka Baw (Zwe Kabin) area, near Pa’an. Their language, Eastern Pwo Karen, is spoken by 1,050,000 people in Myanmar and Thailand. It is normally written in the Myanmar or Thai scripts, but the Leke use their own script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Leke script is generally believed to be the earliest Karen script, and a derivation from the Mon-Burmese, although the shapes of the letters have changed significantly over time and are now more angular in form. The Leke people themselves refer to their writing as \u003cspan class=Em\u003eli chaw wae\u003c/span\u003e, literally, chicken-scratch letters. They have written a holy book in this script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Lepc","name":"Lepcha (Róng)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Central Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"lepc","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Lepcha script is also called the Róng script - Lepcha people call themselves \u003cspan class=Em\u003eRóngkup\u003c/span\u003e, children of the Róng. It is used for writing the Lepcha language, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by about 52,800 people in India, Nepal and Bhutan. The script is derived from Tibetan writing, probably motivated by Buddhist missionary activity in the 1700s. Early manuscripts were written in vertical columns but later and current texts are written horizontally. Many letters, when rotated back to their previous vertical position, closely resemble their Tibetan counterparts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script comprises twenty-nine basic CV letters, called mother letters, where V is a, and nine vowel diacritics, called child letters, which are used to represent post-consonantal vowels other than a. There are also three letters which have been added since the late 1990s for representing the retroflex consonants ʈ, ʈ\u003csup\u003eh\u003c/sup\u003e, ɖ; these letters are used only in Sikkim, India. Elsewhere these sounds are written with the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekra\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehra\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003egra\u003c/span\u003e ligatures modified by \u003cspan class=Em\u003enukta\u003c/span\u003e - a dot written below the letter. Any consonant can be used at the start of a syllable, and any vowel at the end, but only k, t, n, p, m, r, l can be used at the end. Final forms exist for representing these seven sounds syllable-finally; these are diacritics written above the base letter. Syllable-initial vowels are written with a vowel-carrier which represents a when unmarked, or any of the other nine vowels when marked with the appropriate diacritic.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThree consonants can be used medially, \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ey\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003el\u003c/span\u003e. Clusters containing medial r or y are written with special ligating forms which attach to the base letter. Ligating forms of \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ey\u003c/span\u003e can also combine to produce a post-consonantal \u003cspan class=Em\u003e-rya\u003c/span\u003e ligature. Clusters with medial l are written using a set of seven letters representing kla, gla, pla, fla, bla, mla, hla. These letters cannot be decomposed into individual C+l parts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTwo other non-alphabetic signs are used as well as \u003cspan class=Em\u003enukta\u003c/span\u003e. Letters modified with \u003cspan class=Em\u003enukta\u003c/span\u003e are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003enuktated\u003c/span\u003e. The sign called \u003cspan class=Em\u003enyindo\u003c/span\u003e is written to the left of the mother letter to indicate a final velar nasal when no specific vowel is written. So \u003cspan class=Em\u003es\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003enyindo\u003c/span\u003e = saŋ. Where a different vowel is intended, the \u003cspan class=Em\u003elakang\u003c/span\u003e sign is used together with the appropriate vowel diacritic.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLepcha writing uses script-specific digits from 0-9, and, when copying traditional texts, five punctuation marks. In modern texts, Latin punctuation is normally used, together with the Tibetan \u003cspan class=Em\u003etsheg\u003c/span\u003e symbol.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Limb","name":"Limbu","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"limb","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":true,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Limbu script (also called Kiranti, Sirijonga or Sirijanga script) is used by about 400,000 people for writing the Limbu language spoken in Nepal and northern India. The Limbu language is also written in the Devanagari script. It was first brought to the attention of the wider world by the scholars Francis Buchanan Hamilton, A. Campbell and Brian Hodgson in the mid to late 19th century. The origins of the script are unknown; it is evident from its structure that it is of Brahmic derivation, and appears to be closely related to the Lepcha script. Limbu folklore relates that in the 9th century the Limbu king Sirijanga prayed to the goddess Saravati for wisdom as to how to devise a script for his people, and in response she revealed the story of creation to him, written in the script. The original script was modified in the mid 20th century by Imansin Cemjon and B.B. Subba, who increased the number of signs and re-assigned new values to some of the original symbols.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Limbu script is an abugida; every letter represents a CV syllable having the inherent vowel ɔ. There are six other vowel sounds used in the Limbu language, i, e, ɛ, a, o, u, which are represented using a vowel diacritic above, below or to the right of the base letter. This diacritic overrides the inherent ɔ vowel. There is also a diacritic mark for representing ɔ, which is not regularly used as it is somewhat redundant. Syllable-initial vowels are written using a vowel-carrier, which in its unmarked form represents syllable-initial ɔ, modified by the appropriate vowel diacritic.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are twenty-eight basic consonant letters, which are not arranged in any standard canonical order. Three letters, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ey\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ew\u003c/span\u003e, also have a post-consonantal subjoining form which can be used for writing consonant clusters. The vowel which follows a consonant cluster is written above the first consonant in the cluster. For example to represent kwa the base letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ek\u003c/span\u003e is written with the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e diacritic above it and the subjoining form of \u003cspan class=Em\u003ew\u003c/span\u003e to the right of the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ek+a\u003c/span\u003e stack. There is no kwa/kaw ambiguity in this cluster; kaw would be written using the syllable-final form of \u003cspan class=Em\u003ew\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/ag/xf/agxf2azeb7_LimbuKWA.png height=117 width=234 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSyllable-final consonants can be written in one of two ways; eight letters, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ek\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eng\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003et\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003en\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ep\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003em\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003el\u003c/span\u003e have a special \\\\\\small\\\\\\\" form for use at the end of a syllable. These letters do not contain an inherent vowel. Other syllable-final consonants are found mostly in loan words and are written with the letters full form and the \u003cspan class=Em\u003esa-i\u003c/span\u003e diacritic","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Lina","name":"Linear A","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eLinear A is an undeciphered syllabary used between 1700-1450 BC in ancient Crete, alongside Cretan Hieroglyphs. Linear A was the official script for the palaces and cults, and Cretan Hieroglyphs were used for seals. Cretan Hieroglyphs had been in use for some time before the development of Linear A, and it is thought that the Linear A symbols may have derived from the shapes of some of the hieroglyphs.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is not known what language the script represents. Some symbols are shared by Linear A and Linear B (which has been deciphered), but assigning the same symbol-sound associations to both scripts produces words written in Linear A which are not related to any currently known language. It is suggested that the script was used for writing an ancient language of which we have no other record; this language has been dubbed Minoan, and is thought to belong to the Indo-Iranian language family. Other theories suggest that the script was used for writing a variant of Greek or pre-Greek, or Luwian.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLinear A was most commonly inscribed on clay tablets, possibly for the purpose of recording merchants’ transactions. The script was written from left to right. Of the 120 syllables, half are thought to represent phonetic syllables and half are thought to be logographs representing objects or concepts. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Linb","name":"Linear B","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"linb","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"boustrophedon","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eLinear B was used from approximately 1375-1100 BC for writing Mycenaean Greek, the earliest known form of the Greek language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script was deciphered in 1953 by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, following decades of research by other archaeologists, notably Sir Arthur Evans. Evans had established that Linear B was related to two other local scripts, Linear A, which has not yet been deciphered, and the later Cypriot syllabary.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLinear B consisted of approximately 200 signs, of which 87 are thought to represent phonetic syllables, and the remainder are thought to be logograms, with semantic value. The logograms generally represented items for trade, for example animals, grains or fabrics, and quanitities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eExtant examples of the script suggest that it was used primarily for recording transactions. To this end, five signs also existed for recording a decimal number system. The five signs represented the numbers 1, 10, 100, 1,000 and 10,000, and could be combined to create composite numbers. For example, the number 57 was represented by writing the 10 symbol five times and the 1 symbol seven times. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Lisu","name":"Lisu (Fraser)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Lisu script (also known as the Old Lisu script or the Fraser script) was invented in 1915 by a Burmese preacher, Sara Ba Thaw, and modified by a British missionary, James Fraser, in the 1930s. It is based on the Latin script, combined with some Burmese orthographic conventions. The script was created in China to represent the Lisu language, however since that time many Lisu speakers have emigrated to Myanmar, Thailand and India, in which countries the script is also used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs of 1992, Frasers script has been officially approved by the Chinese authorities, who have also created a second official script for the language. This is a transliteration designed to facilitate transfer to pinyin. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Old Lisu script is unicameral, that is, there is only one case. 20 upper case Latin letters are used (either upright or rotated / inverted) to write 30 Old Lisu consonant letters, and 7 upper case Latin letters are used (again, either upright or rotated / inverted) to write 10 Old Lisu vowel letters. The association between the form and sound of the Old Lisu script is sometimes but not always related to that of the Latin script. For example, the letter V represents h, while H represents x. A does represent ɑ, but ∀ represents ɛ.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonants contain an inherent a vowel; other vowels are written explicitly with separate vowel letters. Vowels written syllable-initially contain an inherent glottal-stop onset.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTwo script-specific marks are used as punctuation, corresponding to a comma and a full stop. Some Latin punctuation marks are used according to international convention, for example ? ! \\\\\\ ( ). Other Latin punctuation marks are used to represent nasalization and tone. There are six tones in the Lisu language","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Loma","name":"Loma","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Loma script is a syllabary, like some of the other Mande scripts to which it is related (Kpelle, Mende and Vai) and is indigenous to Liberia. Widɔ Zɔbɔ is believed to have had a dream in which he accused God of consigning the Loma people to ignorance by depriving them of a writing system. God subsequently gave him the script on the condition that the Loma people would not forsake their traditions, nor teach any woman to read and write it. Learners were sworn to pass their knowledge on to others, which facilitated the spread of the script, and at one point it was popular for personal correspondence. It has since fallen out of use, in favour of the Latin script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Loma script contained 185 characters, each representing a CV syllable without any derivation in form. It was written from left to right. Tone was not indicated.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Lyci","name":"Lycian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"lyci","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Lycian alphabet was used during the 5th to 3rd centuries BC for writing the Lycian language, an Indo-European language spoken in what is now Southern Turkey.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere were twenty-nine letters in the Lycian script, six representing vowels and twenty-three representing consonants and semi-vowels. The shapes of the letters were based on those of the archaic Greek alphabet, but visually similar letters did not necessarily represent the same sounds in both scripts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLycian was almost always written from left to right, although there are some examples in which it was written from right to left. Spaces were not left between words, but a two-dot word divider was often used.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Lydi","name":"Lydian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"lydi","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Lydian script was used between 700 and 200 BC for writing the Lydian language, an ancient Indo-European language spoken in the modern-day Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Lydian script was an alphabet based on the Eastern Greek alphabet, although visually similar letters do not necessarily represent the same sounds in both scripts. Twenty-six sounds were represented in the script, some by more than one letter.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEarly examples of Lydian writing are written both from left to right and from right to left. One is written in \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#boust\u003eboustrophedon\u003c/a\u003e style. Later texts were written exclusively from right to left. Words were generally separated by spaces, although there is one text in which words are separated by dots.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Mahj","name":"Mahajani","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Mahajani script was a commercial script (महाजन mahajana is the Hindi word for ‘banker’) used across Northern India until the middle of the 20th century. It was used by speakers of a number of languages, including Hindi, Marwari and Punjabi, and was taught in special merchant- and business-focused schools alongside other skills required for conducting business.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMahajani functions as an alphabet, but also displays some characteristics of an abugida. In theory, consonant letters contain an inherent a vowel, but there are no vowel diacritics to modify this vowel, so each consonant letter can also be used to represent a following i, i:, u, u:, e, o, ai, or au. There are, however, independent vowel letters, which can be written after the consonant to indicate either that a vowel immediately follows the consonant or that a vowel follows the a inherent in that consonant. This means that the sequence ka + o can represent either ko or kao. Consonant clusters are equally ambiguous when written. There is no visible virama to cancel a post-consonantal vowel, so the elements of a consonant cluster are written sequentially using the full forms of regular consonant letters. So the sequence ka + ra can represent either kra or kara. This means that, in general, the value of a consonant must be inferred at the morphological level.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe term ‘mahajani’ is also sometimes applied to a merchant-specific style of writing another Indic script. For example, Mahajani Gujarati refers to the Gujarati script as it is used by Gujarati-speaking merchants. In this case, the characteristics of the Mahajani script proper may not be present.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Maka","name":"Makasar","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eMakasar (also called Old Makassarese) is a left-to-right, ultimately Brahmi-derived abugida that was used to represent the Makassarese language spoken in South Sulawesi through the 17th century. It is often described as the “bird script,” potentially based on local legends that depict birds as the carriers of communication or based on graphical resemblances of some of the characters to various bird postures. It is to be distinguished from the Buginese script that is currently used in the area, which has some superficial visual similarities but is very different in terms of its character repertoire. Old Makassarese can no longer be read by most people in the area, and scholars must transliterate texts into modern Buginese for interpretation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome peculiar features of the script include its lack of a virama, its use of an angka to indicate consonant reduplication, double vowel signs for syllable repetition, and various punctuation marks indicating sentence separation and section endings. The punctuation used for the end of a text is based on the Arabic word \u003cspan class=Em\u003etammat\u003c/span\u003e for finishing and is often written with designs. Various ornaments also appear often in texts, along with Arabic words written in their native order, but with the text as a whole still being read left-to-right. Diphthongs are indicated by combining vowel signs, and digits often represent Latin or Arabic (less common) digits.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Mand","name":"Mandaic, Mandaean","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Mandaic script is used for writing Mandaic, an Iraqi language spoken by about 5,500 people. It is also the script of Classical Mandaic, the liturgical language of the Mandaean religion. The script has been difficult to date, and its exact derivation is controversial, but many scholars believe it to be closely related with a number of scripts descended from Parthian, itself descended from Aramaic writing. Early examples of Mandaic writing reveal that the script has remained relatively unchanged since it began to be used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMandaic is written from right to left using a cursive script; some letters undergo slight modifications depending on their position in the word to enable joining on the left and right. The alphabet contains 22 letters, plus a symbol \u003cspan class=Em\u003edushenna\u003c/span\u003e for the relative particle \u003cspan class=Em\u003edi\u003c/span\u003e, which is usually included in the alphabetic inventory. This symbol is composed of two other letters, d and i which can also ligate to form a d+i ligature; this ligature is different from \u003cspan class=Em\u003edushenna\u003c/span\u003e. The first letter, a is sometimes repeated at the end of the alphabet to bring the inventory up to 24 letters, an auspicious number in the Mandaean religion.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs in other Semitic scripts, the letters representing w and y also represent u/o and i respectively, but, unlike other Semitic scripts, Mandaic also has a letter specifically for representing a and e. Vowels are almost always fully represented.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are three diacritic marks, the \u003cspan class=Em\u003evocalization mark\u003c/span\u003e, the \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#gemination target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan class=Em\u003egemination\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \u003cspan class=Em\u003emark\u003c/span\u003e and the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eaffrication mark\u003c/span\u003e. The vocalization mark, a horizontal stroke below the letter, is used to distinguish the vowel quality of a vowel letter. The gemination mark, a dot below the letter, is used to represent a long consonant. The affrication mark, two dots below the letter, does not simply mark affrication but a number of phonological processes, to enable foreign sounds to be transcribed. For example, it can be written under t to produce θ, but under p it produces f, and under g it produces ɣ.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMandaic writing employs two script-specific punctuation marks which roughly perform the functions of a full stop and of a comma. These are used infrequently.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Mani","name":"Manichaean","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Manichaean script was derived from the Estrangelo variant of the Syriac script. It was the vehicle employed for the spread of Manichaeanism, an Iranian Gnostic religion created by the Mesopotamian prophet Mani, between the 3rd and 14th centuries. It was Manis desire that his teachings could be made available to speakers of every known language, so the script was used for writing the Middle and Early Modern Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Bactrian, Ughur and Tocharian languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Manichaean script was written from right to left using twenty-four letters which are ordered according to the Aramaic order. Each of these had two forms, for final and non-final forms. There was some variation in the letter inventory between languages, in order to represent the sounds of each language. There are no vowel letters, and vowels were often omitted in writing, but as with many semitic scripts, the letter representing \u003cspan class=Em\u003ew\u003c/span\u003e could also be used to represent u/o. The letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003e was used to indicate an initial vowel.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTwo obligatory ligatures were used for writing the sounds čy and čn. There were three diacritical marks indicating abbreviation, plurality or the conjunction \u003cspan class=Em\u003eud\u003c/span\u003e, meaning \u003cspan class=Em\u003eand\u003c/span\u003e. A set of punctuation existed; often part of the punctuation was written in red ink. Punctuation was used to mark the beginning and end of headlines and captions, to separate sections of text or parts of a sentence or to fill out a line. Manichaean text tended to be distributed evenly across the page, often in columns, and the edges justified by stretching or compressing letters, abbreviating a word or using the line filler punctuation. Words were separated by spaces.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA set of Manichaean base numbers represented 1, 5, 10, 20 and 100. Other numbers were built up by combining these numbers cumulatively from right to left.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe historical spellings and heterograms (words written in one language but read in another) characteristic of many Aramaic-derived scripts were not used in Manichaean writing.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Marc","name":"Marchen","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eMarchen, also called the Greater Mar or the Greater Beautiful script, is one of a group of related scripts used in the Tibetan Bön religion. It is used for writing the Zhang-zhung language, now preserved only in Bön literature, and occasionally for writing Tibetan. This script is not to be confused with the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eMarchung\u003c/span\u003e script, a related but separate script about which little is known beyond that it has been used in some other Bön texts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMarchen writing employs similar principles to \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Tibt\u003eTibetan\u003c/a\u003e; each consonant has a base form and a subjoined form which can be combined in vertical stacks to represent consonant clusters. There are also five vowel signs which can be attached to a base consonant or to a consonant stack; in the absence of one of these signs, consonants have an inherent /a/ vowel.\u003c/p\u003e ","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Maya","name":"Mayan hieroglyphs","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"American","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eMayan Hieroglyphs are believed to have been used to write the Mesoamerican Mayan languages from the first century BC up until the Spanish conquest in the 1600s. It was used in Southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. The script is a logosyllabary; each symbol represented either a morpheme (a word or a meaningful part of a word), or a phonetic syllable. It is thought that the script was originally logographic, but that many of the symbols used for writing monosyllabic words ending in a vowel or a weak consonant came to represent the phonetic elements of those words independent of their meaning, and were later used in a phonetic way to represent units of sound as well as units of meaning. In terms of shape, the symbols comprise abstract forms, human heads - often faces in profile - and hands, and parts of animal bodies\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Mayan script consists in total of more than one thousand different symbols. Some sounds or words can be written using a number of different symbols (allographs), and, conversely, some symbols can have numerous different pronunciations or meanings. In addition, many symbols were used only during a specific time period or in a certain location. Thus, there were likely never more than 500 symbols in use at any given time.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Mayan symbols which are read as phonetic elements represent either a bare vowel or a consonant+vowel syllable. This is not perfectly suited to the Mayan languages, as most spoken syllables end in a consonant, and may also contain consonant clusters within the word. Sometimes, the final consonant is left unwritten. In other cases, a synharmony rule is applied, according to which CVC syllables are represented using two symbols, each representing a CV-syllable. In the reading, the second vowel is silent. The rule also dictated that the symbol for the second CV syllable must contain a vowel which matched the vowel of the first syllable, even though it remained unspoken. This is known as an echo vowel.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSymbols were classified according to their size and position as either main symbols or affixes. Logographs and phonetic symbols were often used in combination; the phonetic symbols formed a complement to the logograph to further clarify the words pronunciation and meaning. The ways in which symbols could be combined were very flexible; two symbols could overlap or be conflated with one another, or one symbol was shrunk and placed inside another as an infix.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs well as logographic and phonetic symbols, there is another class of symbols called semantograms. These are not pronounced aloud, but serve either to disambiguate symbols with more than one possible interpretation, or to identify the class to which a particular word belongs. Diacritics are used, most notably a pair of dots which indicates repetition of a syllable.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMayan texts were generally written from left to right in columns two symbols wide.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSince Mayan writing came to the attention of the wider world in the 1560s, numerous attempts have been made to decipher it. These were largely unsuccessful until Yuri Knorosov demonstrated the phonetic aspect of symbols that were previously believed to be logographic, and also identified the vowel harmony rules governing the representation of final consonants. Since his work was published in the 1950s about 80% of Mayan texts have been deciphered, relating to community matters such as birth, death and marriage, as well as historical records of warfare and rulers, and royal deeds.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Medf","name":"Medefaidrin (Oberi Okaime, Oberi Ɔkaimɛ)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eMedefaidrin is a script created for the Medefaidrin language, an artificial language used by the Oberi Okaime church, an indigenous Christian church located in the Cross-River State of Nigeria. Presently, the religious community numbers 4000 members of whom up to 20 are fluent in the language. The script employs alphabetic cased forms similar to English, with special characters for the first-person pronoun and the conjunction or. A \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#vigesimal\u003evigesimal\u003c/a\u003e numeral system is employed, with special contextual forms for 1, 2, and 3 when combined with other digits.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Mend","name":"Mende Kikakui","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Mende (also called Kikakui) script was devised by Mohammed Turay for writing the Sierra Leonean language, Mende, spoken by almost 1.5 million people. It was modified by one of Turays students, Kisimi Kamara, in 1921 to produce the form currently used. It is an abugida; each of the 195 symbols represents a consonant with an inherent vowel. Symbols are sometimes formed by adding diacritics to a basic consonant sign to indicate the quality of the vowel; more often, every legitimate consonant+vowel syllable is represented by a unique, underived sign. It is the only West African syllabary to be written from right to left, which is attributed to Kamaras Islamic heritage and familiarity with the Arabic script, also written from right to left. It is generally believed that the inventors also had some knowledge of the Vai script of Liberia, as the two scripts share significant similarities both in form and in origin.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script was widely used for a time, and was a source of great national pride. However in the 1940s the British set up the Protectorate Literacy Bureau, with the aim of spreading literacy in the Latin script. As a result, the Mende script was largely replaced by a modified version of the Latin script, and is now estimated to be used by fewer than 500 people.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Merc","name":"Meroitic Cursive","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abugida","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Meroitic (also Meroïtic) script was created in the 3rd century BC in the ancient Kush (also called Meroë) civilization in modern-day Sudan, where it was used to write the Meroitic language. In the 6th century AD, with the arrival of Christianity to the area, the script was supplanted by Coptic.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere were two forms of the Meroitic script; a hieroglyphic form derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs and a cursive form derived from Demotic Egyptian. The majority of extant texts are written in the cursive script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script has been deciphered to the point that many texts can be read, but the content not understood, as the language itself is no longer used and little is known about it.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCursive Meroitic was written from right to left. There were fifteen signs for representing consonants, each inherently having the following vowel a. There were also three vowel letters, as well as a letter for representing an initial a sound, and four letters for writing the syllables ne, se, te and to. Some final consonants, including s and n, were not written.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCursive Meroitic was one of very few scripts from that era which made use of a word separator symbol. This symbol appeared as two dots stacked one on top of the other.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Mero","name":"Meroitic Hieroglyphs","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"vertical (RTL)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Meroitic (also Meroïtic) script was used between the 3rd century BC and the 6th century AD in the Kingdom of Kush, in what is now Sudan. After the introduction of Christianity to the area, Meroitic writing was replaced by Coptic. The Meroitic language was written using two writing systems, a cursive form and a hieroglyphic form.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMeroitic hieroglyphs were derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs, apparently borne of a desire for a monumental version of cursive writing. It is also thought that the creation of a hieroglyphic form was due to a desire to access the magical powers associated with Egyptian hieroglyphs.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is no one-to-one relationship between the cursive and hieroglyphic Meroitic scripts. The number of symbols in the hieroglyphic set is greater than that in the cursive set, with some being homophonous, that is, representing the same sound. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Mlym","name":"Malayalam","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Malayalam script is used for writing the Malayalam language, the official language of the Indian state of Kerala, and a number of minority languages spoken in India. Until the 16th century Malayalam was written in the \u003cspan class=Em\u003evattezhuthu\u003c/span\u003e script, a Brahmic script which developed alongside Grantha writing, from which the modern Malayalam script descended.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMalayalam is written from left to right. There are fifty-three letters, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eakṣaras\u003c/span\u003e; thirty-seven of these represent full syllables consisting of a consonant and the vowel a, and sixteen represent independent vowels. Independent vowel letters are only used where a vowel appears at the beginning of a word. Vowels which follow a consonant are written with a diacritic above, below, to the left or right of, or flanking either side of the consonant letter. So an unmarked letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ek\u003c/span\u003e represents the syllable ka, but the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ek\u003c/span\u003e written with the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ee\u003c/span\u003e diacritic (a spiral to the left) represents the syllable ke. There are two vowels for which the diacritics are quite complex; u and u: are normally written with a small circle or looped circle below the letter, but can be written with one of eight other diacritics when following particular consonants. The script also contains a subset of letters called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ecillakṣarams\u003c/span\u003e letter fragments for representing sonorants followed by a pause, for example (but not necessarily) at the end of a word.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpaces are often used between words, but it is not uncommon for writers to use spacing to indicate phonological pauses, rather than lexical boundaries. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhen multiple consonants are used as a cluster within a word, that is, with no vowel between them, they are traditionally written with special conjunct letters. Malayalam is known for its large number of conjuncts, which are also used for writing \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#gemination target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;geminate\u003c/a\u003e (long) consonants. Conjuncts take several forms; the most common are decomposable left-to-right ligatures, but some combinations stack vertically. Some conjuncts are not so easily decomposable as one or both letters change shape when in a cluster. The letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003ey\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ev\u003c/span\u003e are all written as diacritics when they follow a consonant. The letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003el\u003c/span\u003e also takes a different form when it is the second member in a consonant cluster.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo reduce the complexity associated with writing these conjuncts, an orthography reform was implemented in the 1970s which recommended the replacement of a large number of irregular conjuncts with a predictable sequence of individual letters using a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e symbol to delete the vowel inherent in all but the last consonant in the sequence. Many vowel diacritics were also redesigned so they could be written as spacing letters next to the consonant they modify. However, these changes were implemented inconsistently so that modern writing uses a mixture of traditional and reformed letters, even within the same text.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Modi","name":"Modi, Moḍī","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Modi script was used from the 17th century until the 1950s for writing Marathi, the state language of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The script developed from a cursive form of \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Deva\u003eDevanagari\u003c/a\u003e, so shares a number of features with, and is visually similar to, that script. Modi is an abugida written using thirty-three consonant letters, each bearing the inherent vowel /a/. This vowel can be changed by appending one of seven vowel diacritics to the consonant, or silenced by appending a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e below the consonant. Vowels which are not preceded by a consonant are written with one of eight independent vowel letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eModi is considered by many to be extinct, having been replaced by Devanagari after the 1950s, although Daniels and Bright (1996) report limited use for personal correspondence. Efforts are underway to preserve knowledge of the script before the last generation of frequent users dies.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Mong","name":"Mongolian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Central Asian","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"mong","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"vertical","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Mongolian script is used for writing the Mongolian language, both within the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China and elsewhere in China. In the Mongolian Peoples Republic (Outer Mongolia), the traditional script was replaced by a Cyrillic orthography since the early 1940s, but revived in the 1990s, so that both scripts are now used in tandem.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMongolian writing was derived from the Uighur script, a descendent of Sogdian Aramaic, during the reign of Genghis Khan in the 13th century. The script is written in vertical columns running from left to right. Some modern texts write horizontally from left to right; in these cases each letter is also rotated 90° to retain its original orientation with respect to the orientation of the line of text.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are 8 vowel and 27 consonant letters in the script. Each letter has three letter forms for use in initial, medial, and final position in a word (with some exceptions; some letters can only be used in two positions so only have two forms). Some letters also have variant forms which can be used if the writer deems it more aesthetically desirable in the context of the surrounding letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eScript-specific punctuation marks are used, including a full stop, a comma, and two symbols to mark the beginning and end of a passage. A set of digits from 0-9, derived from the Tibetan digits, is used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are four other scripts which are derived from and closely related to Mongolian. These are the Galik, Todo (or \\\\\\clear script\\\\\\\")","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Moon","name":"Moon (Moon code, Moon script, Moon type)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Artificial","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Moon script was created in the mid-1800s by William Moon, a blind man living in England, after he became frustrated with the other embossed scripts which were used at the time. Moon became blind as an adult, having already learned to read as a child, and most modern users of the script are also those who have become blind after learning to read printed text and are familiar with the shapes of letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script consists of raised curves and lines, based on the shapes of the Latin alphabet. Nine basic shapes are rotated to various orientations to produce twenty-six letters. There are also symbols to represent the words \u003cspan class=Em\u003eand\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ethe\u003c/span\u003e, and eight punctuation marks.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMoon type is not as widely used as Braille, and never became popular outside of the UK. The script is typed using a Moon Writer, which resembles a typewriter but uses a pressure pad to emboss the shapes of letters onto the paper. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Mroo","name":"Mro, Mru","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Mro (also called Mru or Murong) script is used for writing the Mro language, spoken in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script was created in the 1980s by a man called Menlay Murang (or Manley Mro), a Mro by descent, as redemption for a catastrophe told in Mro legend. Traditional folklore has it that god Turai wrote down a script and a religion for the Mro people, as for all the other tribes, and gave it to a cow to deliver to them. However, the cow became tired and hungry during the long journey from heaven, and ate the book it was carrying, and the script was forever lost. Every year the Mro sacrifice a representative cow in a festival to commemorate their loss; this festival has become one of their most distinctive rituals. Until the 1980s it was a great source of shame to the Mro people that they did not have a script of their own, and Menlay Murang is held in high esteem for redeeming them from this. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is estimated that the literacy rate among the Mro in their own script is greater than 80%. Education in the script is available up to grade 3. Some textbooks claim that Menlay Murang based the script on Roman, Burmese and Chinese characters, although others state that any similarity to other scripts is purely coincidental. Sources agree, however, that the script bears no natural genetic relationship with any existing script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Mro script is an alphabet; each character represents one sound, and some sounds are represented by more than one letter. It is written horizontally from left to right with spaces between words. No tone marks or combining characters are used. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTwo letters, \u003cspan class=Em\u003etek\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehai\u003c/span\u003e can be written instead of the respective words tɛk quote, or words containing hai, wai, or kai. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is a set of digits from 0-9, which combine in the same way as Latin digits to form larger numbers. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTwo punctuation marks are used, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003edanda\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edouble danda\u003c/span\u003e. These are visually different from the \u003cspan class=Em\u003edanda\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edouble danda\u003c/span\u003e used in the Brahmic scripts.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Mtei","name":"Meitei Mayek (Meithei, Meetei)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Meetei Mayek script is used for writing the Meetei (also called Manipuri) language spoken by about 1,400,000 people in India, primarily the state of Manipur, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. The language has been largely written in the Bengali script since the 18th century, but Meetei Mayek writing has experienced a resurgence in the last hundred years. The origins of the script are controversial, most of the early documents having been destroyed in the 18th century. Some sources claim it has been used for almost 4,000 years, and others suggest it derived from the Bengali script as recently as the 17th century.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMeetei Mayek is written from left to right with spaces between words. It is a unicameral script, that is, there is no upper- and lower case. There are two related forms of the script, the form used before the 18th century, and the modern form. The script is an abugida; each letter represents a consonant-vowel syllable. Unmarked letters contain an inherent ə vowel, and other vowels are represented by writing one of seven (in the modern orthography - older texts use twelve) diacritics above, below, to the left or to the right of the base letter.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script contains twenty-seven basic letters, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eIyek Ipi\u003c/span\u003e, of which three are vowels, and a set of \u003cspan class=Em\u003eLonsum\u003c/span\u003e unreleased letters, which are variant forms of eight letters for use at the end of a word. These unreleased letters do not contain an inherent vowel, neither can they be modified with a vowel diacritic. The unreleased form of a letter tends visually to resemble its basic equivalent. Letters which do not have an unreleased form can be modified word-finally with a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e symbol, a horizontal line written below the letter, which silences the inherent vowel. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e can also be used for writing consonant clusters; in this case the line extends below both letters in the cluster, even if the cluster as a whole is followed by a vowel sound.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are three letters for writing the vowels ə, ɪ, and u at the start of a word. Other word-initial vowels are represented by appending the appropriate vowel diacritic to the ə symbol, in the same way that it would otherwise be appended to a consonant.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs well as vowel diacritics, two other marks can also be used to modify base letters. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAnusvara\u003c/span\u003e marks nasalization of a vowel, or a nasal consonant at the end of a syllable. This mark is written at the upper right of the letter it modifies, so the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003es\u003c/span\u003e represents sə, the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003es\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003ediacritic u\u003c/span\u003e represents su, the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003es\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e represents səŋ, and the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003es\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003ediacritic u\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e represents suŋ. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eVisarga\u003c/span\u003e marks a voiceless h at the end of a syllable.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are three punctuation marks: the danda and double danda widely used in the Indic scripts, and a question mark. There is also a tone mark, which is a dot written on the base line to the right of a letter to indicate a falling tone.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpelling is largely phonetic, that is, words are written as they are pronounced. A notable exception to this occurs in words where a particular consonant is repeated with various vowels, for example the word \u003cspan class=Em\u003epepupa\u003c/span\u003e the carrying of an umbrella. This word can be written with a single letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ep\u003c/span\u003e with all three vowel diacritics \u003cspan class=Em\u003ee\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eu\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e attached to it.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA script-specific set of digits 0-9 is used.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Mult","name":"Multani","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abjad","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Multani script is used for writing the Saraiki language, spoken in the Punjab regions of India and Pakistan, and in northern Sindh in Pakistan. It is a commercial script, used mainly by merchants. Structurally, the script has characteristics of an abjad; vowels are generally not written unless they appear at the start of a word or in one-syllable V or CV clusters.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Mymr","name":"Myanmar (Burmese)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between phrases","open_type_tag":"mymr","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Myanmar script was adapted from the Mon script, a descendent of Brahmi, and is found in stone inscriptions dating from the 12th century. It is used for writing the Burmese and Mon languages, both spoken in Myanmar (previously Burma). The two languages differ in how some phonemic values are assigned to letters. The script is also used, with character extensions, to write some of the Karen languages spoken in Myanmar and Thailand.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is an abugida, written from left to right. There are thirty-three initial consonants, each consonant containing an inherent a vowel (this can be realised as ə). Of these, \u003cspan lang=xxx-Mymr\u003eစ, က, တ, ပ, င, န, မ, ဥ and ည\u003c/span\u003e commonly also occur at the end of a syllable, although any consonant \u003cspan class=Em\u003ecan\u003c/span\u003e be used syllable-finally. Final consonants are written with a virama mark called \u003cspan class=Em\u003easat\u003c/span\u003e, which silences the inherent vowel.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are two methods for writing multiple adjacent consonants. Consonant letters can be stacked to form vertical consonant clusters. There are four consonant diacritics that can also be attached to the initial consonant to represent initial h or medial j, r or w. Some letters can take up to three of these diacritics; most can only take one or two. In addition, the diacritic representing h can also indicate that a sonorant consonant is voiceless, and the diacritic representing j can indicate that a velar consonant is pronounced as a laminal alveopalatal.\u003cbr /\u003e \u003cbr /\u003e Nasal vowels in spoken Burmese contrast with glottal stopped vowels and are represented by nasal consonant symbols with the virama.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOther vowels, apart from inherent a or ə, are written with diacritics above, below, before or after the consonant letter. When a vowel is in initial position, with no preceding consonant to which it can attach, the sign for ʔ acts as a vowel support and the vowel diacritic is attached to it. In some cases, especially when writing loanwords of Indian origin, special initial vowel letters are used. There are also special letters for writing non-native sounds, although in spoken Burmese these are not pronounced as they would be in the language from which they were borrowed; they are pronounced as the closest equivalent Burmese letter would be. For example, Burmese does not contain retroflex sounds, so these would be pronounced as the equivalent from the alveolar set, but written differently.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Burmese tone system contains four tones; high, low, creaky and stopped. Vowels contain an inherent tone, which can be modified by means of vowel diacritics. The stopped tone is never represented using diacritics as it is context-specific; it always and only occurs in syllables ending with ʔ, which is the only stop consonant that Burmese syllables can end with.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Myanmar script uses the two Brahmic punctuation marks, \u003cspan class=Em\u003edanda\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edouble danda\u003c/span\u003e, corresponding roughly to the Latin comma/semi-colon and full stop, respectively. There is a set of Myanmar digits from 0-9. Spacing conventions are not standardized, although the general practice is to use spaces to separate one phonological word from another.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Narb","name":"Old North Arabian (Ancient North Arabian)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eOld North Arabian (also called Ancient North Arabian) is a collective term for a group of scripts found in rock inscriptions written in pre-Islamic dialects in the western two-thirds of the Arabian peninsula. The inscriptions have been dated to between the 8th century BC and the 4th century AD. Many are formal inscriptions, but most are graffiti, written in an informal style.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe scripts can be categorized into two subgroups; Oasis North Arabian and Desert North Arabian, used, as their names suggest, in the oases and the deserts respectively. Oasis North Arabian was almost always written from left to right, and Desert North Arabian was often written from left to right, but has also been attested in \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#boust\u003eboustrophedon\u003c/a\u003e style, vertically, and even in a spiral. Spaces were not left between words, but some texts use a vertical word separator symbol.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe languages represented by the Old North Arabian scripts are no longer in use, so the exact sounds indicated by the letters remain unknown, but the underlying representation of each letter can be deduced by comparing the etymology of Old North Arabian scripts with related words in existing Semitic languages. That is, Old North Arabian and some current Semitic languages (such as Arabic) derived from the same source, so rule-based similarities can be reconstructed by comparing their derivations, even though the realisation of sounds in everyday speech does not always adhere to these rules, so the way words were actually pronounced may have been different from the sounds modern scholars ascribe to the letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOld North Arabian writing used only consonants, with a few vowels being optionally indicated by means of \u003cspan class=Em\u003ematres lectionis\u003c/span\u003e (use of particular consonants to represent a vowel) in certain script varieties. There were twenty-eight consonant letters in use.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThree numbers have been attested in Old North Arabian inscriptions; 1, 10, and 20. These could be combined in such a way that, for example, 3 was written by repeating the \u003cspan class=Em\u003e1 symbol\u003c/span\u003e three times, and 30 was written with the \u003cspan class=Em\u003e20 symbol\u003c/span\u003e followed by the \u003cspan class=Em\u003e10 symbol\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Nbat","name":"Nabataean","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Nabataean script was used from the 2nd century BC until the 4th or 5th century AD for writing the Nabataean language, a Northwest Semitic language closely related to Arabic. The script was developed from Aramaic writing, and was the immediate precursor of Arabic writing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNabatean was a right-to-left abjad; each letter represented a consonant and the reader had to supply the vowels from the context. It was a cursive script which made extensive use of ligatures. The script was used over a wide geographic area, and letter shapes were highly diverse from one region to another.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Newa","name":"Newa, Newar, Newari, Nepāla lipi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Newa script, also known as Newar, or Prachalit (meaning popular), is used primarily for writing Newari, a Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal (also called Nepal-Bhasha, literally Nepal-Language, but not to be confused with Nepali). This script has also been used, extensively in some cases, for writing the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/ws/sa-Qabc\u003eSanskrit\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/ws/ne-Qabc\u003eNepali\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/ws/hi-Qabc\u003eHindi\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/ws/bn-Qabc\u003eBengali\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/ws/mai-Qabc\u003eMaithili\u003c/a\u003e languages. The script is also known as Nepalakshar, Newah Akhah and Pachumol. It is one of six scripts subsumed under the name Nepal-Lipi, literally Nepal-Script, though it is not to be confused with Devanagari, which is the script normally used for writing Nepali.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePreviously, along with Newa, the Ranjana, Bhujimol, Kutila, Golmol, and Litumol scripts were used for writing Newari. Use of these scripts began to decline after the Gorkhali conquest of the Kathmandu valley in 1769, and they are now rarely used. Of the six, Newa and Ranjana are the best known, although even these are not commonly used and most young Newari speakers cannot read them. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Newa script is derived from Brahmi and is an abugida written from left to right. There are two main varieties of Newa writing; flat-headed and curve-headed. It is closely related to Devanagari, and many of the letter shapes are similar to their Devanagari equivalents. The script employs a set of digits from 0-9, many of which also look similar to the Devanagari numbers.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are thirty-six consonants, each representing a consonant+vowel syllable. The default vowel is a/ə but this can be changed by attaching one of ten vowel diacritics to the letter. Initial vowels, that is, those which are not preceded by a consonant to which they can attach, are written using independent vowel letters. Two diacritics representing nasalization of a vowel can also be attached to independent vowel letters, to consonant letters (in which case the inherent vowel is nasalized), or to consonant+vowel diacritic combinations. These diacritics are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ecandrabindu\u003c/span\u003e. There is also a diacritic called \u003cspan class=Em\u003evisarga\u003c/span\u003e which represents a voiceless h after a vowel. These diacritics look similar but not identical to the symbols of the same names used by a number of other Brahmic scripts.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Nkgb","name":"Nakhi Geba (Na-Khi ²Ggŏ-¹baw, Naxi Geba)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Central Asian","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eNakhi Geba (also called Na-Khi ²Ggŏ-¹baw or Naxi Geba) is one of three scripts used for writing the Naxi language, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by approximately 310,000 people in the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan, and in Tibet. Naxi has also been written in the Latin and, more famously, the Dongba scripts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNakhi Geba is thought to have been developed around 1200-1250 AD but was never widely used; its primary use was the transcription of religious mantras. There are few remaining texts in the script, and little is known about it. It was a syllabary, and the shapes of the letters appear to have been variously based on Chinese and Dongba characters, with some original designs. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Nkoo","name":"N’Ko","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"nko","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Nko script was created in 1949 by Soloman Kante to write the Bambara language, one of the Manding languages spoken in Mali, in response to a newspaper article reflecting the colonial misconception that Africans were culturally inferior due to their lack of indigenous writing systems. The word Nko means \\\\\\I say\\\\\\\" in all the Manding languages. Kante had travelled widely throughout West Africa","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Nshu","name":"Nüshu","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"vertical","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Nüshu script was used during the late Imperial period (1550-1911) in the Jiangyong region of the Hunan province, China. The script is famous for being the only known writing system to have been invented and used exclusively by women. The word Nüshu literally means womens writing. It was used for writing the Yang Zhuang language. (This language is also called Dong or Tuhua; the latter is a perjorative Han term implying a degenerate form of some superior language.)\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDuring the Imperial period, women were not given access to education, and as a result, were largely illiterate. Their work centered around the home, and their social interactions tended to be with other women, which led to lifelong bonds of friendship, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eLaoTang\u003c/span\u003e or sworn sisterhood. Groups of sisters would regularly gather at one anothers houses, and it is thought that this is how the script was disseminated. It is not known who created the script, or whether it was created by a single woman or a group. There is some debate as to whether Nüshu was borne of oppression from men and deliberately kept secret from them, or whether the men of that region simply were not interested in the affairs of women, but in any case, there have been very few men who became literate in the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNüshu was used to exchange letters, to write stories, songs, poetry and laments, to embroider mottos onto clothing, and for \\\\\\third day missives\\\\\\\" - booklets given to new brides containing well-wishes and advice for their marriage. Texts tended to be written in verse form. The content of Nüshu texts centered","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Ogam","name":"Ogham","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"ogam","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"other","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Ogham script dates from approximately the 5th century AD and was used in Ireland, Wales, Devon, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man, until the 10th century. There were two written traditions; the earliest extant examples of the script are inscribed into stone, while post 7th century examples are more frequently written on manuscripts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOgham was used for writing the Primitive Irish, Old Irish, Pictish, and Old Norse languages. Inscriptions found in England and Wales are often accompanied by a Latin transcription, but the Irish inscriptions are not.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is comprised of twenty symbols. The first twelve symbols represent consonants and are composed of one to five horizontal, vertical or diagonal strokes. The following five symbols represent the vowels /a/, /o/, /u/, /e/, /i/ and appear as one to five short notches. The next symbol represents /k/ in the stone inscriptions but comes to represent /e/ in the manuscript tradition. The final four symbols are only attested in the manuscript tradition and represent diphthongs.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEarly (inscribed) samples of the Ogham script begin at the bottom left of the stone and run up the left edge, along the top, and down the right-hand side. In later (manuscript) form, the script is usually written in \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#boust\u003eboustrophedon\u003c/a\u003e style or horizontally from left to right. Spaces were not left between words, nor was any punctuation used.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Olck","name":"Ol Chiki (Ol Cemet’, Ol, Santali)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"olck","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Ol Chiki script (also called Ol Cemet, Ol, or Santali) was created by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in the 1920s for writing the Santali language, which is spoken by just under 6 million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. The Santali language is also written in the Devanagari, Bengali, Oriya and Roman scripts, and most people who are literate in Ol Chiki are also literate in at least one of the others. For this reason, not all Santali speakers are agreed as to the necessity of a unique script for their language, but despite competition from surrounding scripts, Ol Chiki is becoming more widely accepted. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is an alphabet, that is, consonants and vowels are each written with independent letters. It is written from left to right. There are two forms of the script, printed and cursive, but the same principles are applied to both forms. Ol Chiki is written using thirty letters; six vowels and twenty-four consonants. The canonical order of the letters is in the form of a table having six rows and five columns, with the six vowels in the leftmost column. The letter names of the consonants are all in VC form where V is the vowel at the start of that row, for example in the row beginning with the vowel ɔ (called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eLɔ\u003c/span\u003e), the following consonants are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eɔT\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eɔK\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eɔŋ\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eɔL\u003c/span\u003e. Murmu ordered the alphabet in this way to facilitate memorization of the letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHe also hoped to facilitate transmission of the script by employing symbols which were already familiar to Santali speakers, for example, symbols which were traditionally written on rocks and trees to communicate information such as \\\\\\danger\\\\\\\" or \\\\\\\"meeting place\\\\\\\". Both these traditional symbols and the modern Ol Chiki symbols are somewhat pictographic in nature","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Orkh","name":"Old Turkic, Orkhon Runic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Central Asian","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Orkhon script was used for writing Turkic languages in Mongolia and Siberia from the 8th to the 13th centuries. The earliest examples of writing in any Turkic language were found on the banks of the Orkhon river, hence the name of this script. Following this discovery, other examples were found, written in variant forms of the script. For this reason, the term Orkhon is sometimes used in a collective sense to refer to the Old Turkic scripts as a whole, and the other styles considered variant forms of it. The Orkhon style of Old Turkic is sometimes grouped with the Yenisei style and the pair referred to as Orkhon-Yenisei. The Orkhon style is the most widely-known form of Old Turkic writing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBecause the script bears an external resemblance to Germanic runes, it is sometimes referred to as runiform or Orkhon runes. However the similarity between Old Turkic and Germanic runic writing is almost certainly due to the stone writing surfaces on which they were both inscribed, rather that to any historical relationship between the two. Orkhon writing is thought either to have gradually developed from, or to have been invented by someone who was familiar with, an Aramaic-derived script. Sogdian is commonly cited as its most immediate known ancestor.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOrkhon writing was generally written right to left. Occasionally it was written in \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#boust\u003eboustrophedon\u003c/a\u003e style, in which case the individual letter shapes were reversed on alternate lines. Forty letters were used to represent twenty-six sounds. This apparent over-representation was due to a defective vowel notation system; four vowel letters represented at least eight vowel phonemes, but these were often not written. Instead, many of the consonants contained information about the vowel associated with them. Orkhon was unusual in that any vocalic information contained in the consonant related to the \u003cspan class=Em\u003epreceding\u003c/span\u003e vowel, rather than the following one. The spoken Turkic languages employed (as they still do) strict vowel harmony principles, so that in a given word, only front or only back vowels - that is, vowels pronounced with the highest part of the tongue close to the front or the back of the mouth - were used. These principles could help predict the quality of vowels in a word, but even so, many consonant letters had two forms, one for front-vowelled and one for back-vowelled words. Some consonant letters also had a neutral form and a form to indicate that the associated vowel was rounded and/or high (in terms of tongue height, as opposed to tone).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOne punctuation mark, a two-dot symbol, was used for a variety of purposes.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome scholars claim that Old Hungarian writing was derived from the Orkhon script, but this claim is controversial.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Orya","name":"Oriya (Odia)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"hano","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Odia (formerly Oriya) script is used for writing the Odia language, the official language of the Indian state of Orissa, as well as a number of Dravidian and Munda minority languages spoken in that region. It is also used in Orissa for transcribing Sanskrit texts. The earliest inscriptions in the Odia language have been dated to 1051 AD, written in the Kalinga script from which modern Odia writing is derived.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLike the other Brahmic scripts used in India, the Odia script is written from left to right and is based on the orthographic syllable called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eakṣara\u003c/span\u003e. An \u003cspan class=Em\u003eakṣara\u003c/span\u003e represents either a lone vowel or a consonant with a vowel attached. Each vowel sound can be written with one of two letters; used at the beginning of a word it is written with an independent vowel letter, but when it follows a consonant it is written with a dependent vowel diacritic which attaches above, below, beside or flanking both sides of the consonant letter. Consonant letters inherently contain a following ɔ vowel (transcribed \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e) unless they are modified with a vowel diacritic indicating a different vowel, or a \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehalanta\u003c/span\u003e symbol silencing the vowel entirely.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonant clusters can be written in several ways. Some combinations use a special non-decomposable ligature, or \u003cspan class=Em\u003econjunct\u003c/span\u003e, for example \u003cspan class=Em\u003ejnya\u003c/span\u003e. Others are written using the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehalanta\u003c/span\u003e symbol to silence the vowel in the first member of the cluster. Alternatively, clusters can be written using half- or joining forms of all but one letter in the cluster. In some cases the first member is reduced to a half-form and attached to the second, for example in the cluster \u003cspan class=Em\u003edbha\u003c/span\u003e; in other cases the second member is reduced and attached to the first, as in \u003cspan class=Em\u003edgha\u003c/span\u003e. The orthographic syllable does not necessarily correspond to the phonological syllable in words containing consonant clusters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/ew/p9/ewp9cjrm6j_OriyaConjuncts.png height=124 width=400 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLigatures composed of an independent vowel and a consonant are generally not used, with the exception of the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ewa\u003c/span\u003e which is a combination of \u003cspan class=Em\u003eo\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eba\u003c/span\u003e and is sometimes used for writing the sound w in loan words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is largely phonetic, that is, the pronunciation of a word can be deduced from its spelling, but there are a few phonological processes that alter the sound of a written letter. For example, the letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003eda\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ed\u003csup\u003eh\u003c/sup\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e are pronounced as ɽ ɽ\u003csup\u003eh\u003c/sup\u003e respectively when used between two vowels. A subscript dot is often written below the letter to indicate this change. So the word Odia is written \u003cspan class=Em\u003eo\u003c/span\u003e + (\u003cspan class=Em\u003eda\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003edot\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003ei diacritic\u003c/span\u003e) + \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/ew/p9/ewp9cjrm6j_OriyaOriya.png height=49 width=85 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs with many of the Brahmic scripts, the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e symbol can be used to indicate a nasal pronounced at the same place of articulation as the following stop, as in the cluster ŋkɔ, when written \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003eka\u003c/span\u003e. However, these clusters can also be written using special conjunct letters; a distinct letter also exists for representing the sound ŋkɔ.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is one script-specific punctuation mark, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eisshar\u003c/span\u003e, which is used before the name of a person who is deceased.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Osge","name":"Osage","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"American","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Osage language is used in the United States. A variety of Latin-based orthographies have been used for the Osage language over the past 200+ years. As part of revitalization efforts, a new Osage orthography has been consistently and regularly used throughout the Osage Nation since 2006. The Osage script and Latin script were disunified by the Unicode Technical Committee in 2014. It was decided that the differences in Osage usage are significant enough that the Osage orthography should be considered a script in its own right. The script behaves very much like Latin as far as casing and glyph design are concerned. There are many characters in Osage which do not exist in Latin. Default sorting for the Osage script is completely different from Latin.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOsage uses standard European digits and punctuation.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Osma","name":"Osmanya","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"osma","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Osmanya script (also known as far soomaali or cismaanya) was invented by Cismaan Yuusuf Keenadiid between 1920 and 1922. It was used sporadically from 1922-1973 for writing the Somali language. It was particularly used from 1961-1969, when it was officially approved alongside the Latin script by the newly democratic government. However, following a military coup in 1969, an intense literacy campaign using only the Latin script saw a sharp decline in Osmanya usage. In 1973 a standardised Latin orthography was adopted as the official script of the Somali language. Osmanya remained in limited use, predominantly in private correspondence and bookkeeping, although it is now considered to be unused except by Somali historians and scholars.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOsmanya is an alphabet, read from left to right, comprising 22 consonant and 8 vowel characters. The phonemic inventory contains 10 vowels - 5 short and 5 long; these are represented in the orthography by using the consonant characters \u003cspan class=Em\u003ew\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ey\u003c/span\u003e to represent long u: and long i:. Consonant lengthening (\u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#gemination target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;gemination\u003c/a\u003e) is represented by writing the consonant twice. Decimal digits from 0-9 are also represented in the Osmanya script. Characters are sorted according to the Arabic order.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Palm","name":"Palmyrene","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Palmyrene script was derived from cursive versions of Aramaic writing around the 1st century BC. It was initially used in the area between the city of Damascus and the Euphrates river, for writing the Palmyrene (also called Palmyrenean) dialect of West Aramaic. The latest extant documents written in the script are from the year 273 AD, the year that the Palmyrene empire was sacked by the Roman Emperor Aurelian.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script was written from right to left, generally without spaces between words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere were two forms of the script; monumental and cursive. It appears that the cursive form was developed first and the monumental form was derived from it at a later date. Both forms employed ligatures, but few details are known about the nature of ligation in the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Palmyrene script was deciphered in Paris in the mid-eighteenth century, following Abbé Barthélemy’s study of a number of bilingual Palmyrene/Greek inscriptions.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Pauc","name":"Pau Cin Hau","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Pau Cin Hau alphabet was created to write the Tedim language spoken in Myanmar. Specifically, it was created to convey the teachings of Pau Cin Hau, a Tedim speaker who founded the Laipian religion. According to Pau Cin Hau, he had a dream in 1902 in which a logographic script (later named \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Qa14\u003ePau Cin Hau Logographs\u003c/a\u003e) was revealed to him. The logographic script was used until 1932, when it was revised and the character repertoire significantly reduced to produce the alphabet.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe alphabet was used to write both Laipian and, later, Christian literature. However, its close associations with the Laipian religion meant that its use diminished with the introduction of Christianity to the region, and the decline of Laipian.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe alphabet consists of fifty-seven characters: thirty-seven letters and twenty ‘tone’ marks. Some of the tone marks actually function as punctuation, and some represent the glottal stop, or glottal variants of tones. Some characters represent sounds which do not exist in Tedim but do exist in neighbouring languages, which suggests that the script may have been intended for wider use.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Pau Cin Hau alphabet is written from left to right with spaces between words.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Perm","name":"Old Permic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Old Permic (also called Abur) script was used for writing the Komi language, a Finno-Permic language spoken by 300,000 people to the West of the Ural mountains. The script was created in the 14th century by St. Stephen of Perm, a Russian missionary of possible Komi ethnic heritage. He loosely based the shapes of the letters of the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets and also made use of several property marking, religious and decorative symbols known as Tamga signs, which were native to the Komi people. St. Stephen used the Old Permic script to translate the liturgy into Komi, and also established schools where the script was taught. This gives the Komi language the second oldest literary tradition amongst Permic languages, after Hungarian. After St. Stephens death, the script survived in the form of copied transcriptions of his own works until the 17th century, though few new works were written. The script was gradually replaced by Cyrillic. In the 19th century a Komi nationalist movement prompted a resurgence in the Old Permic script, but this was short-lived.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOld Permic was written from left to right. It comprised 34 letters, which were organized into a slightly erratic alphabetic order. Five diacritics were used: a diaeresis, a breve, a dot, a comma, and three dots, all of which were written above the letter. These appear to have been used optionally and interchangeably, sometimes to differentiate handwritten letters which otherwise looked similar, and at other times to mark palatalization. There were no separate numbers, rather, letters were assigned a numeric value. The intended use of a symbol as a number was indicated by a sixth diacritic, called titlo. In modern texts, Latin numbers may also be used.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Phag","name":"Phags-pa","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Central Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"phag","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"vertical","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"vertical (RTL)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Phags-pa script, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehor gsar yig\u003c/span\u003e in Tibetan and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edörbelǰin üsüg\u003c/span\u003e in Mongolian, is named for its creator, the Tibetan sage Phags-pa Lama. Phags-pa was appointed National Perceptor in 1264 by the emperor Khubila Khan, by whom he was ordered to devise a script in which all the languages of his empire - including Tibetan, Uyghur, Mongolian and Chinese - could be written. The new script met with limited success and only scanty accounts of its creation exist in the biographies written by Phags pas disciples. Until the 1980s the bulk of research into the Phags-pa script was done outside of the old Mongol Empire and the script was thought to have enjoyed very limited use. However in the last twenty years there has been an increase in research into the script in China and Mongolia, which has uncovered more material than was previously thought to exist. Even taking these new discoveries into account, it still appears that Phags-pa use was sporadic.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe shapes of the letters were based in part on Tibetan \u003cspan class=Em\u003edbu can\u003c/span\u003e letters. There are forty-one letters used for writing Phags-pa. The script is an abugida; each letter represents either an independent vowel or a CV syllable having the inherent vowel /a/. Post-consonantal vowels other than /a/ are written using diacritics written linearly after (that is, below) the preceding consonant.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are two versions of the script, one for writing texts and one for use on seals.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Phli","name":"Inscriptional Pahlavi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eInscriptional Pahlavi is the earliest of the three forms of the Pahlavi script, used regularly as a monumental script from the 2nd century BC until the 5th century AD. Later forms of the script were called Psalter Pahlavi and Book Pahlavi. Psalter Pahlavi is so far attested in only two sources, so the bulk of our knowledge is related to the other two forms. The names of these, Inscriptional and Book Pahlavi are somewhat misleading; the Inscriptional form was used on monuments, coins, seals and amulets, as would be expected, but the Book form was used in manuscript texts as well as on stone monuments. The distinction then refers to whether the letters were connected (Book Pahlavi) or unconnected (Inscriptional Pahlavi) rather than to distinct uses of either form.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe three forms of Pahlavi writing were used with significant overlap from the 2nd century BC until the 9th century AD. Pahlavi writing was the principle means of writing the Middle Iranian languages. It was derived from the Imperial Aramaic script used in the Achaemenid (Persian) empire, and was written from right to left. Words were usually separated by a dot. The script has proved difficult for modern-day paleographers to decipher due to confusion between some similar-looking signs, for example \u003cspan class=Em\u003ew\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003en\u003c/span\u003e, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e, and due to some signs representing multiple sounds. Only consonants were written.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA well-documented characteristic of Pahlavi writing was the use of \u003cspan class=Em\u003eheterograms\u003c/span\u003e (also called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eword masks\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAramaeograms\u003c/span\u003e). These were words which were written in the Aramaic language but pronounced as the appropriate Iranian-language word. For example word son was written using the letters BRḪ, after the Aramaic word for son, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebreh\u003c/span\u003e but pronounced as the Middle Iranian word \u003cspan class=Em\u003epus\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eInscriptional Pahlavi employed nineteen symbols to represent sounds, plus script-specific symbols to represent the numbers 1, 10, 20, 100 and 1000, which could be combined to write other numbers.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eInscriptional Pahlavi letters provided the basis for the Avestan script.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Phlp","name":"Psalter Pahlavi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003ePsalter Pahlavi was one of three forms of the ancient Pahlavi script, used for writing the Middle Iranian languages. Psalter Pahlavi has so far only been attested in two sources, a 7th century manuscript of the Psalms of David (hence its name) and an inscription on a bronze cross found at Herat (in present-day Afghanistan). The lack of surviving material in this form of the script has left a number of gaps in modern-day scholars understanding of Psalter Pahlavi writing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePahlavi writing was used from the 2nd century BC until the 7th century AD. It was derived from the form of the Aramaic script used in the Achaemenid (Persian) empire, modified to accommodate the larger consonantal inventory of the Middle Iranian languages. It was written from right to left, and words were separated by a dot. The script has proved difficult for modern-day paleographers to decipher due to confusion between some similar-looking signs, for example \u003cspan class=Em\u003ew\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003en\u003c/span\u003e, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e, and due to some signs representing multiple sounds. Only consonants were written.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA well-documented characteristic of Pahlavi writing was the use of \u003cspan class=Em\u003eheterograms\u003c/span\u003e (also called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eword masks\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAramaeograms\u003c/span\u003e). These were words which were written in the Aramaic language but pronounced as the appropriate Iranian-language word. For example the word  son was written using the letters BRḪ, after the Aramaic word for son, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebreh\u003c/span\u003e but pronounced as the Middle Iranian word \u003cspan class=Em\u003epus\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Psalter Pahlavi script was written from right to left, using 18 letters. These exhibited fully-developed joining behaviour; some letters could join on the left or the right and others could join on the right only. Script-specific numbers were used for the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 20, and 100. Other numbers were made by adding these together so that 130 was written using the symbols for 100, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ewaw\u003c/span\u003e, 20, and 10. Numbers below 100 did not use the and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ewaw\u003c/span\u003e symbol. Numbers as well as letters were cursive, and could join both to other numbers and - in the case where \u003cspan class=Em\u003ewaw\u003c/span\u003e was used - to letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFour punctuation marks were used in Psalter Pahlavi, apparently to indicate semantic breaks. One of these was used at the beginning and the end of a text and at various points within it, but its exact purpose is unclear. Two were combining marks, one above and one below. The fourth was a full stop.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Phlv","name":"Book Pahlavi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":null,"direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eBook Pahlavi is one of the three forms of Pahlavi writing, along with Inscriptional and Psalter Pahlavi. Psalter Pahlavi is so far attested in only two sources, so the bulk of our Pahlavi knowledge is related to the other two forms. The names of these, Inscriptional and Book Pahlavi are somewhat misleading; the Inscriptional form was used on monuments, coins, seals and amulets, as would be expected, but the Book form was used in manuscript texts as well as on stone monuments. The distinction then refers to whether the letters were connected (Book Pahlavi) or unconnected (Inscriptional Pahlavi) rather than to distinct uses of either form.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePahlavi writing was the principal means of writing the Middle Iranian languages. It was derived from the Imperial Aramaic script used in the Achaemenid (Persian) empire, and was written from right to left. Words were usually separated by a dot. The script has proved difficult for modern-day paleographers to decipher due to confusion between some similar-looking signs, for example \u003cspan class=Em\u003ew\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003en\u003c/span\u003e, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e, and due to some signs representing multiple sounds. Pahlavi also employed a number of logograms - a single sign which represented a whole word or meaningful segment of a word. Most of the surviving Pahlavi texts pertain to the Zoroastrian religion; texts from the same period pertaining to the Manichaean religion were written in the Manichaean script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA well-documented characteristic of Pahlavi writing was the use of \u003cspan class=Em\u003eheterograms\u003c/span\u003e (also called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eword masks\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAramaeograms\u003c/span\u003e). These were words which were written in the Aramaic language but pronounced as the appropriate Iranian-language word. For example the word son was written using the letters BRḪ, after the Aramaic word for son, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebreh\u003c/span\u003e but pronounced as the Middle Iranian word \u003cspan class=Em\u003epus\u003c/span\u003e. Some estimates suggest that up to half the words in any given Book Pahlavi text may have been written using heterograms. Verbal roots written in this way were commonly combined with inflectional endings written phonetically.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBook Pahlavi was in common use from the 3rd century BC until the 9th century AD, after which it was used only as a secret language by Zoroastrian religious leaders. It is a cursive script. Book Pahlavi used twelve letters to represent twenty-three consonants. Later forms of the script used diacritics to distinguish between different interpretations of ambiguous letters. The letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003e was also used in this form of Pahlavi writing to represent the long a vowel. A number of ligatures were used, some of which were identical in shape to either simplex or combined forms of other letters.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Phnx","name":"Phoenician","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"phnx","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Phoenician script was the first widespread script whose symbols exclusively represented sounds rather than concepts. It is difficult to dissect a continuous branch of script evolution into different stages, and the term Phoenician is used by some scholars interchangeably with Old Canaanite, and covers variant forms of the script, for example the Punic and Moabite writing systems. Other scholars use the term Old Canaanite to refer to the form of the script used before 1050 BC, and Phoenician to refer to later forms.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePhoenician writing ultimately derived from Egyptian hieroglyphics; the rebus principle (the use of a pictographic symbol for its phonetic value independent of its original meaning) is generally believed to have been the means for evolution from pictographic to phonetic writing. The Phoenician script was originally used for writing the Phoenician language, but due to the Phoenicians lucrative trading relationships with most of the Mediterranean states, it became known throughout the Mediterranean and North Africa. It is believed to be the precursor of such diverse scripts as Greek, Aramaic and Brahmi, and by extension of most of the writing systems used for representing Indo-Aryan languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePhoenician was written from right to left, usually without spaces between words, although later inscriptions sometimes use dots to separate words. There were twenty-two letters in the inventory. There are no explicit vowel letters. Scholars disagree as to whether a vowel was inherent in each letter, that is, each letter represented a complete syllable, or whether the letters represented pure consonants and vowels had to be deduced by the reader based on their knowledge of the language. Either way, a consonantal system worked well for the syllabic structure of the Phoenician language, but when the script spread to Greece, it was not practical to write the Greek language using only consonants. The Greeks instead used some of the consonant letters which represented sounds they did not use, to represent vowels. For example, the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003e in Phoenician writing represented a laryngeal consonant (the exact quality of which is not known; some scholars suggest a glottal stop), but the Greeks used it to represent the vowel a.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe shapes of early Phoenician letters were equal in height, but around the 9th century BC, writers in Tyre began lengthening the vertical ascenders and slightly slanting the axis of the letters. This is the form of the script which spread throughout the Mediterranean. There are very few extant Phoenician-language texts; most of our remaining examples of the script are from the colonies to which it spread.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Piqd","name":"Klingon (KLI pIqaD)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Artificial","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Fictional","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Klingon language was originally created to add realism to a race of fictional aliens who inhabit the world of Star Trek, an American television and movie franchise. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eKLI pIqaD\u003c/span\u003e is the orthography advocated for use by the Klingon speaking community. This script is designed to emulate Klingon writing seen on the television show. Because of the difficulty involved in learning a new script, the Latin alphabet is used by some enthusiasts to write Klingon.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKlingon (KLI pIqaD) has an alphabet of 26 characters with a one-to-one grapheme-phoneme correspondence. There are ten numerals in the set. It is written left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Punctuation appears to be only used in Latin transliteration.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Plrd","name":"Miao (Pollard)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Pollard (also called Miao, Pollard Miao, Simple Miao or Old Miao) script was created by Samuel Pollard, a missionary working with the A-Hmao (or Large Flowery Miao) language in southern China, in the early 20th century. The script has been adapted for use by other languages in Southeast Asia. It has been revised a number of times since its inception - the form used in the 1936 Western Hmong translation of the New Testament became widespread, until the Chinese authorities in 1957 began to object to the script on the grounds of religious association and introduced a pinyin-style system. In 1988 however, Pollards script underwent a final reform to yield the version currently in use, alongside the previous version and the pinyin system.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Pollard Miao script is used for tonal languages and represents syllables containing an initial consonant followed by a vowel or vowel cluster. Consonants and vowels must each be explicitly expressed. There are 32 \\\\\\big letters\\\\\\\" for writing consonants and 37 \\\\\\\"small letters\\\\\\\" - diacritics - for writing vowels. Vowel diacritics are placed above","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Prti","name":"Inscriptional Parthian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eInscriptional Parthian is one of three related ancient scripts, along with Inscriptional Pahlavi and Psalter Pahlavi, used for writing a number of Iranian and Indo-European languages. All three scripts developed from the Imperial Aramaic script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eInscriptional Parthian was an abjad with twenty-two consonant letters but no vowel marks. It was written from right to left, usually with spaces between words. Seven ligatures were commonly used. Because of the scripts Aramaic heritage, some words were written in the Aramaic language, but read as the appropriate Iranian-language word (much like the ampersand symbol, which is actually a ligature of the Latin word et but is pronounced in English texts as the English word and). These words are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003exenograms\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eScript-specific numbers were used in Inscriptional Parthian to represent the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 20, 100 and 1000. These could be combined (added) to write any number, for example 58 was written with five signs, for 20+20+10+4+4. Unlike many modern Semitic scripts, numbers were written from right to left, the same direction as the text.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa00","name":"Bété","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Bété language belongs to the Kru group of Niger-Congo languages spoken in central and western Côte dIvoire. Although some 600,000 Bétés live in the Côte dIvoire the language has no official status and all education is conducted in French. A syllabic Bété script consisting of over 400 signs was invented in 1956 by Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, a well-educated, literate Bété. Bouabré is an artist by trade and explains that his aim was to \\\\\\form a specific African writing from scenes of human life” (from \u003cspan class=Em\u003eBruly Bouabrés Alphabet","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa01","name":"Fula-1 (Dita)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eFula Dita, also called Fula A or Fula 1, was created by Oumar Dembele and used between 1958 and 1966. It is an alphabet written with thirty-one consonant letters and eight vowels. Fula Dita is one of two African scripts created for the Fula languages spoken in Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gambia, Chad, Sierra Leone, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan, Central African Republic, Côte dIvoire, Ghana, Togo, Liberia, and Gabon. The second of these scripts is \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Qa02\u003eFula Ba\u003c/a\u003e. The Fula languages are more commonly written with the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Latn\u003eLatin\u003c/a\u003e or \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Arab\u003eArabic\u003c/a\u003e scripts (Ajami style) than with either of the two Fula alphabets. Of the two, Fula Dita was used more widely than Fula Ba.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa02","name":"Fula-2 (Ba)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Fula Ba script was created by Adama Ba of Mali, around 1963. It is one of two African alphabets used for writing the Fula languages spoken in Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gambia, Chad, Sierra Leone, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan, Central African Republic, Côte dIvoire, Ghana, Togo, Liberia, and Gabon. The second of these alphabets is \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Qa01\u003eFula Dita\u003c/a\u003e. The Fula languages are more commonly written with the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Latn\u003eLatin\u003c/a\u003e or \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Arab\u003eArabic\u003c/a\u003e scripts (Ajami style) than with either of the two Fula alphabets. Of the two, Fula Dita has been used more widely than Fula Ba.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa03","name":"Masaram Gondi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":"LTR","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa04","name":"Khe Phri (Gurung)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eGurung Khe Phri is one of three scripts used for writing the Eastern and Western Gurung languages spoken in Nepal, Bhutan and India. These languages are often known collectively as “Gurung”, although they are not mutually intelligible. Usually, Gurung is written in the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Deva\u003eDevanagari\u003c/a\u003e script; however, in recent times, some Gurung-speaking groups have promoted the use of two other scripts, Gurung Khe Phri and and \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Qa07\u003eKhema Tamu Phri\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLittle is known about the Gurung Khe Phri script, but it appears to be an alphabet, written with twenty-nine consonants, six vowels, and a set of digits from 0-9. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa05","name":"Jenticha","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Jenticha script (also known as \u003cspan class=Em\u003eKõits script\u003c/span\u003e is used for writing Sunuwar, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by 40,000 people in eastern Nepal and by an unknown number in Sikkim, India. It is recognized in Sikkim as the Sunwar script, and is taught in schools in the area and used for translating the proceedings of the Sikkim legislative assembly into Sunuwar. Jenticha is also used to print a Sunuwar newspaper, for anthologies of Sunuwar poetry, and for academic works. The language can also be written in the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Deva\u003eDevanagari\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Qa19\u003eTikamuli\u003c/a\u003e scripts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Jenticha script is named after its inventor, Krishna Bahadur Jenticha, who created it in 1942. The shapes of some Jenticha letters appear to have been based on Limbu and Latin characters, although it has no genetic relationship to any other writing system. The script is an alphabet with some alphasyllabic features.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTwenty-five consonant letters are used, all of which bear an inherent a vowel except for the glottal stop. This vowel can be changed by writing a vowel letter after the consonant; dependent vowel diacritics are not used. The inherent vowel can also be silenced using a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e character. Consonant clusters are written using either the \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e or a half form of the initial letter(s).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAt the time of its creation, the script was a pure alphabet and did not exhibit these alphasyllabic features.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa06","name":"Khambu Rai","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Khambu Rai script is used for writing Bantawa, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by members of the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eRai\u003c/span\u003e ethnic group in the Eastern hills of Nepal. Bantawa is generally written in the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Deva\u003eDevanagari\u003c/a\u003e script, and literacy in this writing system is over 50%. Bantawa can also be written in the Khambu Rai script, which was designed for this purpose in the 1980s by Kripasalyan Rai. Khambu Rai is an abugida; every consonant contains an inherent vowel, which can be modified by the use of vowel diacritics. Multiple consonant sounds occuring together in a cluster, with no intervening vowel, may be written with special ligatures. It is unknown to what extent the Khambu Rai script is used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa07","name":"Khema Tamu Phri","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eKhema Tamu Phri is one of three scripts used for writing the Eastern and Western Gurung languages spoken in Nepal, Bhutan and India. These languages are often known collectively as “Gurung”, although they are not mutually intelligible. Usually, Gurung is written in the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Deva\u003eDevanagari\u003c/a\u003e script; however, in recent times, some Gurung-speaking groups have promoted the use of two other scripts, Khema Tamu Phri and \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Qa04\u003eGurung Khe Phri\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKhema Tamu Phri is an abugida. There are twenty-nine consonant letters, each representing a syllable containing a consonant and the vowel /a/. This vowel can be changed by adding one of seven vowel signs to the consonant letter, or silenced by adding a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e character. Vowels which do not follow a consonant, for example those at the start of a word, are written with one of eight independent vowel letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome of the letter shapes are closely modeled on their Devanagari or Tibetan equivalents.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is not known how widely this script is used, and it seems to be a topic of controversy with supporters and opponents among Gurung speakers.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa10","name":"Masaba","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Masaba script (also called Bambara or Bamanakan) is one of five Mande syllabaries used in West Africa. (The other four are \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Vaii\u003eVai\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Loma\u003eLoma\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Mend\u003eMende\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Kpel\u003eKpelle\u003c/a\u003e. The Bamanakan language, for which the script is used is spoken by almost 3 million people in Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Mauritania, and Senegal. The script was created in 1930 by Woyo Couloubayi, a Malian. It has 123 letters and is read from left to right.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa14","name":"Pau Cin Hau Syllabary","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe logographic script of Pau Cin Hau was created to write the Tedim language spoken in Myanmar. Specifically, it was created to convey the teachings of Pau Cin Hau, a Tedim speaker who founded the Laipian religion. According to Pau Cin Hau, he had a dream in 1902 in which the script was revealed to him. In 1932 the script was revised and the repertoire of approximately 1,000 logographs was reduced to fifty-seven alphabetic letters to form the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Pauc\u003ePau Cin Hau Alphabet\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa15","name":"Raina Kama (Hausa)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eRaina Kama was the name of a \u003cspan class=Em\u003esoyayya\u003c/span\u003e (love stories) writers’ circle which was formed as part of an “explosion of cultural productions” (Barber, p430) in Nigeria between about 1987 and 2000. During this period, a number of young writers, possibly in response to a recent influx of Bollywood films and English-language romance novels, began producing \u003cspan class=Em\u003esoyayya\u003c/span\u003e literature which was unlike previous genres of Hausa prose writing. These books tended to be no more than 100 pages and until the late 1990s were associated with particular writers’ circles to which the authors belonged.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRaina Kama was one of the main writers’ circles. They tended to write in the Arabic or the Latin scripts, but in an effort to strengthen Hausa culture, they also promoted the use of a new alphabetic orthography using signs that were unlike either Arabic or Latin characters. Some early texts published by Raina Kama included a few handwritten pages in this script, although it never became popular. The script is not believed to be in current use.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa16","name":"Salifou Hausa","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eLittle is known about the Salifou Hausa script. It may also be known as \u003cspan class=Em\u003eGobiri\u003c/span\u003e. It is thought that there may be people north of Maradi in Niger who use the Salifou Hausa script for writing the Hausa language. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa17","name":"Soyombo","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":"LTR","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa18","name":"Tafi (Hausa)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tafi script was proposed in the 1970s for writing the Hausa language. “Tafi” in Hausa means “palm” (of the hand). The script was originally based around five signs called “digits” (as in “fingers”, not to be confused with numerical digits) which can be joined in pairs to represent twenty-five consonants. Alone, each digit represents one of the vowels a, e i, o or u. So the first five consonant letters - ʔ, b, c, d and f - are created by attaching the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e digit to the bottom of each of the five digits as shown in the table below. The first digit can be attached to either the right of the left of its partner, which means that each of the first five consonants can be written in two ways.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/xn/x2/xnx2rg5y9r_Tafi.png height=162 width=600 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonants 6 to 10 - g, ‘y, h, j, and k - are written by appending the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ee\u003c/span\u003e digit directly below each of the five digits, and so the pattern continues.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eProponents of the script suggest that this system be categorized as “digital writing” as opposed to a regular alphabet. However in terms of word formation the script functions as an alphabet.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTafi is written from left to right. Vowels are not written word-initially; rather, the glottal stop ʔ character precedes any word-initial vowels, as in Arabic. Case is not normally used, but where a capital letter is deemed necessary, the writer can either enlarge the size of the letter or place a circumflex (\u003cspan usv=005E class=USV_sprite_wrapper style=display: inline-block; overflow: hidden; position: relative; zoom: 1; *display: inline; width: 14px; height: 13px;\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/render_graphic.php?\u0026type=usv\u0026point_size=12\u0026metrics=0\u0026block_start=0000\u0026block_end=007F border=0 style=position: absolute; left: -102px; top: -239px; /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e) over it.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLater versions of the script include six vowel “digits” which can combine to represent thirty-six consonants. This enables it to be used for the Igbo and Yoruba languages also.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa19","name":"Tikamuli","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eTikamuli is one of two scripts used specifically for writing the Sunuwar language spoken in Nepal and Sikkim. Tikamuli is used primarily in Nepal, and \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Qa05\u003eJenticha\u003c/a\u003e is used primarily in Sikkim. In both places, Sunuwar can also be written in the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Deva\u003eDevanagari\u003c/a\u003e script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTikamuli is named after its inventor, Tikaram Mulicha. It is not genetically related to any other scripts, although some letters appear to have been based on the shapes of \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Limb\u003eLimbu\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Lepc\u003eLepcha\u003c/a\u003e letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is an abugida; every consonant contains an inherent vowel, which can be modified by appending vowel diacritics to the consonant or silenced by adding a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e below the consonant. There is also one independent vowel letter which represents /ə/. Word-initial vowels are written with this letter and a vowel diacritic if appropriate.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eVowel length marks are also used. Any written consonant can carry up to one vowel diacritic and one vowel length mark.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTikamuli uses script-specific digits from 0-9, and Latin punctuation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa20","name":"Tolong Siki","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eTolong Siki is an alphabetic script written from left to right. It was developed in 1999 for writing Kurukh, a Dravidian language spoken primarily in the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, and Chattisgarh; however it is unknown whether or not it is still used for this purpose.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa21","name":"Garay (Wolof)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Wolof (also called Garay) alphabet was created by Assane Faye in 1961 for writing the Wolof language, spoken in Senegal. The script is written from right to left using twenty-five consonant letters (including a ‘vowel-carrier’), four basic vowel signs, a vowel-length mark, a zero-vowel mark, and a gemination sign. Each consonant has an initial and a non-initial form.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is unknown whether the script is in use; the Wolof language is normally written with the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Latn\u003eLatin\u003c/a\u003e script. Charles Riley conducted a research trip to Senegal in 2009, during which time he met with Assane Faye and visited his home. He writes that Assane Faye “has been offering lessons in (the script) to hundreds of people over the years, translated the Koran using it, and has a house filled with dozens of unpublished handwritten texts.” (from \u003ca href=http://www.indiana.edu/~libsalc/african/ALN125/125RoadTrip.html target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;My Francophone Road Trip\u003c/a\u003e by Charles Riley.)\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa22","name":"Yezidi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eYezidi (also spelled Yazidi) is a liturgical script used by approximately 100,000 followers of the Yezidi religion, mainly in Kurdistan but also in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and the Caucasus. This religion is a complex combination of local Kurdish beliefs and Islamic Sufi doctrine. Religious documents can be written in Kurdish or in Arabic; the Yezidi script is used for both languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eYezidi is an abjad; vowels are generally not written. However, it is unclear whether it constitutes a script proper, or if it is a cipher. It is thought to be based in part on the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Arab\u003eArabic\u003c/a\u003e script and partly on the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Latn\u003eLatin\u003c/a\u003e script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa23","name":"Zou","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Zou script is used by speakers of the Zomi language (also called Zo or Zou) in the adjoining regions of Chin State, Myanmar and Manipur, India. Zomi is a Tibeto-Burman language with about 50,000 speakers. The script was developed by M. Siahzathang, a Manipuri, in 1952. The official script for the Zomi language is \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Latn\u003eLatin\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Zou script is written from left to right. It is unusual amongst South- and East Asian scripts in that it possesses upper and lower case. The script combines features of an alphabet and features of an abugida.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Zou script has been in decline since the mid-1970s but the Zou Literature Society has been trying to revive it since the 1990s.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa26","name":"Aztec Pictograms","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"American","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eAztec Pictograms were used by the Nahua peoples in central Mexico for writing the Nahuatl language. This writing system is considered a proto-writing system as opposed to a fully-formed script, partly because it was not able to communicate everything that could be expressed verbally in the language and partly because there were only a few signs whose form and use were constrained by convention. Aside from these, each scribe would decide for himself which signs would best represent the ideas he wished to convey. For this reason there is no set corpus of signs and the number of signs used is unknown.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSigns were largely ideographic in nature; concepts related to movement were represented using trails of footprints, death was represented by a corpse wrapped in burial cloths, and speech was represented by a scroll issuing from the speaker’s mouth. Colour was also used semantically to distinguish between similar-looking signs, such as those for canes, rushes and grass, or to indicate a person’s royal standing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa28","name":"Veqilharxhi (Büthakukye)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eBüthakukye was an alphabetic script invented around 1840 for writing the Albanian language. It is sometimes called Beitha Kukju, after its inventor. The script was written from left to right using thirty-two characters. It is no longer used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa29","name":"Byblos","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Byblos script is thought to have been used for writing a Semitic language between the 24th and the 15th centuries BC. It is known from ten inscriptions discovered in the city of Byblos, in present-day Lebanon. As yet, the script is undeciphered, but is thought to have been a syllabary written from right to left using approximately one hundred distinct signs. Some signs appear to resemble \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Egyp\u003eEgyptian hieroglyphs\u003c/a\u003e; others resemble \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Phnx\u003ePhoenician\u003c/a\u003e characters. It is thought that the Byblos inscriptions may represent an important link between the Egyptian hieroglyphic script and the later Semitic abjads.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa31","name":"Chalukya (Box-Headed)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Chalukya script was used during the time of the Chalukya dynasty, an Indian royal dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the sixth and twelfth centuries. Very little is known about the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa32","name":"Chola","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Chola script was used during the time of the Chola dynasty, one of the longest-ruling dynasties in southern India. The script was used between the 9th and the 12th centuries for writing the Tamil language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa33","name":"Cypro-Minoan","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Cypro-Minoan script was a logosyllabary used around 1500-1200 BC for writing the Eteocretan language. The name of the script reflects the possibilities that it derived from a Minoan script and is ancestral to the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Cprt\u003eCypriot\u003c/a\u003e script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa34","name":"Elymaic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Elymaic script was an abjad used between approximately 250 BC - 500 AD in the state of Elymais, an ancient state located in the region southeast of the Tigris River in present-day Iran. The Elymaic script was descended from \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Armi\u003eAramaic\u003c/a\u003e, and was either the parent or a sibling script for \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Mand\u003eMandaic\u003c/a\u003e. It is poorly attested on coins and rock inscriptions from the second and third centuries.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa35","name":"Gangga Malayu","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eGangga Malayu was a cipher script used in the Malay peninsula until the early 1900s. Its origin is not known; the shapes of some letters seem to have been based on their \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Arab\u003eArabic\u003c/a\u003e equivalents, but structurally the script resembles a Brahmic abugida.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa37","name":"Iberian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Iberian scripts were a family of scripts used for writing the Iberian language, spoken along the present-day French, Spanish and Portuguese coasts during the first and second centuries. There were two main variants of Iberian writing. The Northeastern (or Levantine) variant is the script in which 95% of extant texts are written. It was used as far north as southern France but primarily in Catalonia, Aragonia, and Valencia, and was written from right to left. The Southeastern (or Meridional) variant was used in eastern Andalusia, Murcia, Albacete, Alicante and Valencia, and was written from left to right.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Iberian scripts are thought to be unique in the way they were structured. They contained features of both alphabetic and syllabic scripts. \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=glossary#continuant\u003eContinuants\u003c/a\u003e (i.e. sounds made without complete closure of the vocal tract such as fricatives, sonorants and vowels) were written with alphabetic letters, and any following vowel had to be written with a separate letter. Non-continuants,(i.e. \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=glossary#stop\u003estops\u003c/a\u003e) however, were written with syllabic glyphs that represented a consonant + vowel combination.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome scholars also class Greco-Iberian writing as an Iberian script. It was used in Alicant and Murcia and was written from left to right. It was directly adapted from the Greek alphabet for use with the Iberian language, and does not share the same structural features with the Northeastern and Southeastern varieties.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa38","name":"Jing","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Jing script (also known as the Zinan script) is thought to have been developed around the 13th century for writing the Jing language. The origins of the Jing people are difficult to trace, but according to oral tradition and old Vietnamese texts they originated in Vietnam. The Jing ethnic community now lives in the border of China and Vietnam, mostly in coastal communities. The script is used only by a small group of people; the majority of Jing people now speak Cantonese, which they write with the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Hani\u003eHan\u003c/a\u003e script.\u003cbr /\u003e \u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa39","name":"Kawi (Old Javanese)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Kawi script descended from the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Gran\u003eGrantha\u003c/a\u003e script around the 8th century BC and was used across the islands of Borneo, Java, Bali, and Sumatra. The script originated in Java, and as a result is also sometimes called Old Javanese.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKawi was an abugida; consonant characters are read with an inherent vowel. Diacritics are added to the consonant either to suppress the vowel entirely or to change it to a different vowel.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Kawi alphabet developed around the 16th century AD into the current \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Java\u003eJavanese\u003c/a\u003e script. This transition was more stylistic than structural; the visual composition of the script changed but the way it worked stayed the same.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa40","name":"Khotanese","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Central Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Khotanese script and language were used in the kingdom of Khotan in the south-west of present-day Xinjiang, China. The Khotanese people were of Iranian descent and spoke an Indo-Iranian language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKhotan lay along the Silk Road and was the first place outside of China (as China’s borders lay at that time) to begin cultivating silk. It was also a centre for the study and practice of Mahayana Buddhism. As a result, many languages including Chinese, Sanskrit, Prakrit and Tibetan were spoken there. Sanskrit and Prakrit were written in Khotan in a northern form of the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Brah\u003eBrahmi\u003c/a\u003e script, called Gupta, from which the Khotanese script descended.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKhotanese is an abugida, similar in structure to \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Tibt\u003eTibetan\u003c/a\u003e with which it shares common origins. Characters were made up of a base radical with one or more vowel marks appended to it to change the quality of the following vowel from the “default” or inherent /a/ to either /i/, /u/ or /e/.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa41","name":"Kirat Rai","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Kirat Rai script is an abugida used for writing Bantawa, an eastern Kiranti language of the Sino-Tibetan family. Bantawa is spoken in Sikkim and Nepal by almost 400,000 people. The script appears to be a modification of \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Qa06\u003eKhambu Rai\u003c/a\u003e, which is used for writing the same language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKirat Rai is written with thirty-one consonant letters each containing an inherent /a/ vowel, seven vowel diacritics for changing the inherent vowel, a virama for cancelling the inherent vowel, and a vowel carrier which can be used in combination with the vowel diacritics for writing word-initial vowels.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa44","name":"Zanabazar Square","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Central Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":"LTR","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa45","name":"Numidian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"vertical","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (LTR) and horizontal (RTL)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Numidian script was an alphabet used for writing the Berber dialect of the same name in the second century BC. It is thought to have derived from the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Phnx\u003ePhoenician\u003c/a\u003e abjad.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Numidian script resembles the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Tfng\u003eTifinagh\u003c/a\u003e script currently employed by the Tuareg, the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior. However, Tifinagh is written horizontally and Numidian was normally written from bottom to top, in columns from left to right. In some bilingual Numidian and Phoenician inscriptions, the Numidian parts were written from right to left horizontally in the Phoenician manner.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa46","name":"Uyghur","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Central Asian","type":"abjad","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Old Uighur language is an extinct variety of Old Turkic spoken in the Tarim basin. It is an ancestor of the modern Uyghur language. The language was written using what has been described as an “alphabetized abjad”, with matres lectionis used for indicating both long and short vowels. The Old Uighur script was the prototype for the Mongolian and Manchu scripts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa47","name":"Proto-Elamite","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eWriting in the state of Elam, in modern-day southwest Iran, took three forms. Proto-Elamite is the oldest of the three, and was used between 3100-2900 BC. It has not been deciphered but consists of more than 1,000 signs and is thought to be partly logographic. The other two writing systems in Elam were Linear Elamite and Elamite Cuneiform.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa48","name":"Pyu (Tircul)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Pyu script was developed in the 5th century in northern Myanmar. It is a Brahmi-based script with two varieties, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ePyu Pali\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ePyu Tircul\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa49","name":"Satavahana","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Satavahana dynasty was a royal Indian dynasty whose empire covered much of India from 230 BC possibly up until 220 AD. Satavahana rulers encouraged the use of the Prakrit language, although Sanskrit and Telegu were also used. They wrote in a Brahmic script about which little is known. The script appears to be closely related to \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Brah\u003eBrahmi\u003c/a\u003e and there are conflicting reports as to whether they are simply variations of the same script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa51","name":"Tani","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tani script, also called Tani Lipi, is a left-to-right alphabetic script consisting of twenty-six letters. It has limited use in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, India amongst speakers of the Tani sub-family of Tibeto-Burman languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script was invented by Tony Koyu in 2001. It has no genetic relationship to any other writing system, although the shapes of some letters resemble those of Bengali and Latin.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa52","name":"Zhuang Square","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"vertical","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (LTR) and horizontal (RTL)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Zhuang Square script (also called Sawndip or Fāngkuài Zhuàngzì) is a logographic script previously used for writing Zhuang, a northern Tai language still spoken by about 10 million people in China. It is not known whether this script is still in use; some scholars claim it is extinct whilst others claim it is still used in rural areas. The present official script for writing Zhuang is \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Latn\u003eLatin\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Zhuang Square script is made up of a combination of Chinese characters, Chinese-like characters, and symbols borrowed from other scripts such as the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Latn\u003eLatin\u003c/a\u003e alphabet and (possibly) \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Mymr\u003eMyanmar\u003c/a\u003e. There is only one dictionary published in Zhuang Square script; this lists 10,000 characters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa53","name":"Turkestani","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Central Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eTurkestani is an early variety of the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Brah\u003eBrahmi\u003c/a\u003e script, adapted with additional diacritics for use with various Central Asian languages including Tocharian, Uygur, and Tumshuqese. There are thought to have been two varieties of the script; North Turkestan Brahmi and South Turkestan Brahmi. It fell out of use following the Muslim invasions of Central Asia during the 7th century CE.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa54","name":"Mwangwego","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Mwangwego script is an abugida created in 1979 by Nolence Moses Mwangwego, and officially launched in 1997. It was designed for writing the Nyanja, Lomwe, Sena, Tonga, Tumbuka, Yao, and Nyakyusa-Ngonde languages, spoken by approximately 15 million people in Malawi and its bordering countries. The script was intended to replace the Latin script for these languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe character repertoire is usually described as having thirty-two \u003cspan class=Em\u003emisisi\u003c/span\u003e (syllables containing an \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e vowel) and thirty-two corresponding \u003cspan class=Em\u003emisiri\u003c/span\u003e for each of the vowels \u003cspan class=Em\u003ee\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ei\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eo\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eu\u003c/span\u003e. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003emisiri\u003c/span\u003e are visually identical to the \u003cspan class=Em\u003emisisi\u003c/span\u003e except for an extending mark on the right hand side to indicate which vowel is intended. In addition there are eleven \u003cspan class=Em\u003emituyo\u003c/span\u003e (auxiliary symbols which can be attached to a \u003cspan class=Em\u003emisisi\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003emisiri\u003c/span\u003e to indicate a change in sound quality or tone).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnother way of describing that same character repertoire, perhaps more in keeping with conventional abugida descriptions, is that there are five independent vowels, five dependent vowels, thirty-one base consonants with an inherent \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e vowel, and eleven consonant modifiers. Where a vowel is not preceded by a consonant it is represented by an independent vowel sign. Where a vowel is preceded by a consonant it is represented by a base consonant and an attached vowel sign. Where a consonant is subject to a phonological process (for example prenasalization, aspiration, or affrication), a consonant modifier sign is used. Consonant modifiers take the form of both spacing and non-spacing characters. Mwangwego writing uses Latin digits and punctuation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is written horizontally from left to right.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough the script is an abugida, it is commonly taught as a syllabary. That is, students learn each \u003cspan class=Em\u003emisisi\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003emisiri\u003c/span\u003e as a character in its own right, rather than learning the base consonants and dependent vowel symbols and combining them as needed. However, the proposed Unicode encoding encodes the script using base consonants and combining vowel symbols, in keeping with the encoding method used for other abugidas.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa56","name":"Tangsa (Mossang)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tangsa (also called Tangshang or Hawa) are a cluster of about 70 sub-tribes who live along the border of India and Myanmar. There are just under 100,000 people classed in this people group, approximately ¾ of whom are in Myanmar and ¼ are in India. It is believed that they migrated from the Indo-Tibetan plateau (what is now Mongolia) in the 12th or 13th century. They speak a number of linguistic varieties which are grouped together under the name Tase Naga and given the ISO code \\\\\\nst\\\\\\\". Although these are currently officially classed as one language","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa57","name":"Tangsa (Khimhun)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tangsa (also called Tangshang or Hawa) are a cluster of about 70 sub-tribes who live along the border of India and Myanmar. There are just under 100,000 people classed in this people group, approximately ¾ of whom are in Myanmar and ¼ in India. It is believed that they migrated from the Indo-Tibetan plateau (what is now Mongolia) in the 12th or 13th century. They speak a number of linguistic varieties which are grouped together under the name Tase Naga and given the ISO code \\\\\\nst\\\\\\\". Although these are currently officially classed as one language","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa58","name":"Nandinagari","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Nandinagari script was used in South India between the 8th and 19th centuries for writing manuscripts and inscriptions relating to philosophy, science and the arts in the Sanskrit language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is an abugida, closely related to the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Deva\u003eDevanagari\u003c/a\u003e script. The character repertoires of both scripts are identical, and the shapes of many characters are similar. However, the script is distinctive in its lack of a connecting headline and in the shapes of most conjuncts and some individual characters. These differences are significant enough that Nandinagari has been proposed separately for encoding in Unicode.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNandinagari is written from left to right, with spaces between words. The script includes 34 consonant characters, each representing a syllable with an inherent /a/ vowel; 13 vowel signs, which are added to the consonant to change the inherent vowel; a virama, which can be used to cancel the vowel entirely and 10 vowel characters, which are used to write independent vowels (e.g. at the start of a word, with no preceding consonant to attach to). There is a set of digits from 0-9. Standard Indic punctuation is used as in Devanagari, as are the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ecandrabindu\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003evisarga\u003c/span\u003e characters. There is also limited evidence of three diacritics used for marking Vedic accents.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough the script is no longer used to produce new texts, it is used by scholars specialising in the decipherment and preservation of ancient manuscripts. It is also used by students of the Hindu shastras (sacred Vedic texts), particularly students of Madhva Vaishnavism (the Hindu reformer Sri Madhvacharya’s interpretation of the Vedas, espousing a monotheistic veneration of Vishnu).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa60","name":"Khatt-i Baburi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Baburi script (also known as Khatt-i-Baburi) is believed to have been created in the 16th century by the first Mughal emperor, Babur, a prolific poet and calligrapher. His personal journal, originally written in Turkish, states that he devised the script around the time that he captured Kabul in 1504. Historians writing shortly after that period (Nizamuddin Ahmad, Bada’uni) claim that Babur used his script to transcribe a copy of the Koran, which he sent as an offering to Mecca, but that by the time Babur’s grandson, Akbar, was in power the script was not being used. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is thought that there may actually be two separate Baburi scripts, but more investigation is needed to determine whether that is the case. Some sources label some writing as ‘Baburi’ script and some as ‘Mashhad’, but in other sources both types of writing are mixed within a text and subsumed under the name ‘Baburi’. For now it is being treated as a single script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Baburi script is written from right to left. It is thought that it may be a cipher of the Arabic script, and charts of the script indicate a one-to-one correspondence with the Arabic character repertoire. The script is written with 29 characters, one of which is a ligature.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa61","name":"Dhives Akuru","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eDhives Akuru (literally “island letters”) was used for writing the Maldivian language prior to the adoption of the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Thaa\u003eThaana\u003c/a\u003e script for this purpose. Dhives Akuru descended from the southern Brahmi family of scripts. The development of the script can be divided into three periods. Initially it was very similar to the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Gran\u003eGrantha\u003c/a\u003e script from which it was derived, then, around the 12th century, it developed into what is known as Evela Akuru, which is essentially an archaic form of Dhives Akuru. The script in its latest form developed around the 14th century, and was widely used until the early 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by the Thaana script. The two scripts were used synchronously for some time, but by the early 19th century Dhives Akuru had all but died out, with only a few atolls (groups of islands) in the south of the country reportedly using it as late as the early 1900s. The two scripts are genetically unrelated and bear very little resemblance to each other, aside from the shapes of a few Thaana characters which appear to have been based on Dhives Akuru characters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDhives Akuru is written from left to right. As would be expected given its derivation from Brahmi, it is an abugida, with each consonant letter representing a syllable containing an inherent vowel. This vowel can be changed by the addition of a vowel diacritic. The script includes 27 consonant letters; 10 independent vowel letters (for writing vowels that are not preceded by a consonant); 10 vowel diacritics; digits from 0-9; and 4 other diacritics: the \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#virama\u003evirama\u003c/a\u003e, the \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#candrabindu\u003ecandrabindu\u003c/a\u003e, a prenasalisation marker, and a \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#gemination\u003egemination\u003c/a\u003e marker. Somewhat unusually, the virama sign has been extended to serve a number of other functions as well as its regular vowel-cancellation role. There are five contexts in which the virama is used to mark other phonological—or even semantic—processes; in these contexts the virama fulfills the same functions as the \u003cspan class=Em\u003esukun\u003c/span\u003e character in Thaana orthography.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa63","name":"Balti-B","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eBalti-B is one of a number of scripts that have been used for writing the Balti language, spoken in Gilgit-Baltistan (northern Pakistan) and Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir). The language has variously been written in the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Qaab\u003eBalti\u003c/a\u003e (sometimes called Balti-A to distinguish it from Balti-B), \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Tibt\u003eTibetan\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Arab\u003eArabic\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Deva\u003eDevanagari\u003c/a\u003e scripts, reflecting the multi-ethnic makeup and eventful political history of the region.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Balti-B script is currently only known to be attested in one manuscript, “\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThe Story of the Creation of Shigar\u003c/span\u003e”. This was written by the grandson of the man believed to have created the script, known only as Farhat. Some scholars believe that the existence of this manuscript is evidence of a Balti historic literary tradition, all other records of which have been lost. If this is the case, it is likely that there is, or was, also an indigenous name for the script; “Balti-B” is proposed as a tentative name until that is discovered.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is written from left to right. It is an abugida, with each consonant letter representing a consonant+vowel syllable. By default, this vowel is /a/, but it can be modified with the addition of dependant vowel diacritics. There are 30 consonant letters and 4 vowel diacritics. There is also a “vowel carrier” letter which is used for writing independent vowels (e.g. a vowel at the beginning of a word where there is no preceding consonant to which it can attach). By default this letter represents /a/, but it can also take any of the 4 vowel diacritics in order to represent the other vowels independently. Unlike in other abugidas in this region, there are no conjunct forms for writing consonant clusters; rather, all consonant clusters are written with a \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#virama\u003evirama\u003c/a\u003e. A set of digits from 0-9 is also used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa68","name":"Coorgi-Cox","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eCoorgi-Cox script was created by the German linguist, Gregg Cox. He formally introduced this script in April 2005. It was developed to write the \u003ca href=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/kfa target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Kodava language\u003c/a\u003e, which is also referred to as Coorgi. Coorgi-Cox is comprised of eight vowels, 26 consonants and a double vowel marker. Each letter represents a different sound. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Kodava language is classified as a Dravidian language that is specifically used in the Kodagu district, or Coorg region, of the Karnataka state in India. Since no traditional written script exists for the Kodava language, Kannada script and the Coorgi-Cox script are used. Currently, there is widespread debate as to whether switching from Kannada script to Coorgi-Cox script would be beneficial or whether switching to a Latin alphabet based writing system would be more useful.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa71","name":"Gunjala Gondi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":"LTR","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa72","name":"Medefaidrin","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":"LTR","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa74","name":"Bhujinmol","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eBhujinmol script was used in the 12th - 17th centuries CE in parts of modern day Nepal and the northern parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India. In the Newa language, the term \u003cspan class=Em\u003e Bhujinmol\u003c/span\u003e translates as “fly-headed”, referring to the shape of the Bhujinmol headstroke. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eStructurally, Bhujinmol is based on the Brahmi model and is very similar to the Newa script. Certain vowel signs are written with contextual forms, when combining them with certain consonant letters. The contextual form changes the shape of the headstroke. The way vowel signs behave in Bhujinmol is similar to the way vowel signs behave in Newa script. The headstrokes of Newa letters are flat in comparison to the curved and hooked headstrokes of Bhujinmol letters. Although the shape of their headstrokes differ, the letters of Bhujinmol and Newa have identical structures. Lastly, there are six distinctive letters in Bhujinmol from Newa and two distinctive consonant conjuncts as well. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa75","name":"Kaddare","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Kaddare script is also referred to as the Kaddariya script. It was created in the 1950s by Xuseen Sheek Axmed Kaddare to write the Somali language. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Kaddare script was considered the best indigenous script to write Somali by the 1961 linguistic commission, which was established by the Somali government, and the 1966 UNESCO commission. However, the Latin-based orthography was the top choice, and became the official script in 1972.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKaddare makes use of upper and lower case letters, where the lower case letters are written in cursive so as not to lift the pen.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa79","name":"Old Sogdian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Old Sogdian script encompasses a group of related scripts used to represent Sogdian, an ancient Eastern Iranian language. Old Sogdian unifies the scripts used in short inscriptions on coins and vessels, the Ancient Letters and the Kultobe and Upper Indus inscriptions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOld Sogdian contains 40 characters: 29 letters, 10 numbers, 1 heterogram.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe ordering of numbers follows the right-to-left directionality of the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa80","name":"Kaida","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"vertical","ligatures":"none","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"vertical (RTL)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eKaida was primarily used for record-keeping and the characters comprise of a combination of pictographs, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekanji\u003c/span\u003e-like characters, markings and numerals, and symbols used to indicate families. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKaida has been found on boards, paper, wooden sticks and knotted strings of rope. It was used in the Yaeyama islands and the island of Yonaguni, both of which are today part of Japan. The script dates to at least the late 19th century. Today it is found in folk art, and items such as tee-shirts. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are different types of characters in Kaida writing. The pictographic glyphs themselves are referred to as \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekaida-di\u003c/span\u003e. Not all of these glyphs are arbitrary, as some were designed to look like their referent, while others were not. Characters for numbers and indicators of the month and day bear a strong resemblance to the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekanji\u003c/span\u003e characters of China and Japan. In addition, there are six characters, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003esūchūma\u003c/span\u003e, used to represent different volume measurements. These characters not only represent volume, but can also be used to express numerical values. Kaida also makes use of several dots, although their significance is still yet to be determined. Lastly, there are symbols, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003edahan\u003c/span\u003e, which indicate individual families. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa81","name":"Todhri","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eTodhri script is attributed to Theodor Haxhifilipi of Elbasan in central Albania, and was used to write the Albanian language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTodhri consists of 52 characters. Todhri was used in the 18th and the 19th centuries to write Biblical texts. Merchants also used the script for correspondence and record-keeping. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa82","name":"Makasar","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":"LTR","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa83","name":"Iban","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=http://www.ethnologue.com/language/iba target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Iban language\u003c/a\u003e is spoken by the Iban people. It is spoken in Sarawak, Indonesia, as well as in the Indonesian province of Kalimantan Barat, and in Brunei. The language is still currently taught to students in the region. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCurrently Iban uses a Latin alphabet for writing purposes, however an Iban syllabary was developed by Dunging anak Gunggu from 1947 to 1962. Dunging, is said to be a descendent of Renggi, who is credited with the creation of the initial ancient script that was made 400 to 600 years earlier. The syllabary has been published and is recognized by the Iban community. There is an effort to revive the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe syllabary was revised in 1962, and the number of characters was reduced from 77 to 59. Each character is reported to have held a specific meaning, but the meaning has since been lost, since Dunging never recorded them. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa84","name":"Eebee Hmong","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Eebee Hmong script, also referred to as \u003cspan class=Em\u003ePuaj Txwm\u003c/span\u003e, was created to write Hmong Daw. The script, also called the Sayaboury script, was created by Lord Mee Noo, and is said to have been created on January 1, 1978 in Sob Tuang, Nan Province in Thailand. Although this script is still currently used, the Romanized Popular Alphabet is more widely used in this region.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script consists of 66 consonant characters, 5 vowel characters and 8 tone characters. The vowel characters are always combined as digraphs and tone marks follow these vowel digraphs. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSyllables in the Eebee Hmong script are separated by white spaces in the text. In some instances, consonant onsets are doubled and words without consonant onsets begin with a specific symbol. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePunctuation marks are utilized: the comma and full stop are used and represented by the existing UCS characters; there are also script-specific symbols to indicate questions, reduplication, chanting and intonation. There are different symbols for arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Furthermore, numerals 0-9 are represented in the Eebee Hmong script. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qa85","name":"Borama (Gadabuursi)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Borama script, also referred to as Gadabuursi, is a Somali script. It was designed in 1933 by Sheikh Cabduraxmaan Nuur from the Gadabuursi clan in the Borama region of Northern Somali. The script was used by only a small group of associates of the Sheikh in Borama.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe alphabet includes 27 consonants and 7 vowels.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaaa","name":"Reserved for private use (start)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"unspecified","type":"unspecified","whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":null,"direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaab","name":"Balti-A","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":null,"direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Balti script, now known as Balti-A, was used between the 15th and 17th centuries for writing the Balti language, closely related to Ladakhi and spoken by about 308,800 people in India and Pakistan. The script was replaced by Persian writing at the behest of Muslim leaders who considered the Tibetan-derived Balti script profane. The script is now considered to be extinct, although there is some evidence that it may still be used for writing the Brokskat language, an endangered language spoken by 10,000 people in Jammu and Kashmir. Further survey is needed to ascertain the extent to which the script is used for this language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBalti-A was written from right to left, unlike most Brahmi-derived writing systems. As far as modern scholars can tell, it was an abugida, with each letter representing a consonant plus vowel syllable. An unmarked consonant represented a syllable having the vowel a, and other vowels were written using one of six vowel diacritics attached to the base letter. One of these diacritics may have represented the vowel a, despite it already being inherent in the base letter. It is not known why it was sometimes explicitly written.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWords were not written with spaces between them, but an overdot was written above the last letter in a word, fulfilling the same function as inter-word spacing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaaf","name":"Duota","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Duota script is used by the Khmu people in Jinghong, Laos, for writing their language. The script is also used in China, where the Khmu population is relatively small and isolated. The language is also spoken in other parts of Laos, where it is written in the Laotian script, and in Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand, where it is written in the Latin script. Speakers in Mengla, on the China/Laos border do not apply any script to the language. There have been experimental attempts in Thailand to apply the Thai script to Khmu phonology.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaag","name":"Ersu Shaba Picture Writing","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"other","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Ersu language is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 20,000 people in China, of whom approximately 500 are monolingual in the language. The language is largely unwritten; it is thought that only ten people are literate in the Ersu script, called Ersu Shaba Picture Writing. It is not known how long Ersu Shaba Picture Writing has been in use; some Ersu speakers estimate ten generations, others, several tens of generations. The script was originally used by religious specialists called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eshaba\u003c/span\u003e for divination and healing incantations.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is somewhat controversial; some linguists are quick to dismiss it as a series of drawings, while others assign it considerable importance in uniquely representing an early intermediary stage in the evolution of writing. The symbols used are mimetic, rather than phonetic, representations; that is, they represent concepts and have no phonetic content. This differentiates this writing system from a hieroglyphic system, in which conceptual \u003cspan class=Em\u003eand\u003c/span\u003e phonetic elements are associated with a given symbol.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eErsu symbols tend to represent concrete nouns, rather than abstract nouns or verbs. Symbols are arranged into a composite image, with the placement of given symbols contributing to their meaning. For example, the symbol representing fog is placed at the bottom left of the image to indicate fog in the morning, and at the bottom right to indicate fog in the evening.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA striking feature of the script is its use of colour to express meaning. Although less than 300 symbols are thought to be used, the scope of concepts which can be expressed in writing is much larger. Texts are written using brushes dipped in red, yellow, blue, white, black or green ink, with the meaning of a given symbol dependent on the colour in which it is written. For example, the sign called \\\\\\stars and moon\\\\\\\" means \\\\\\\"dim; not brilliant\\\\\\\" when written in black ink","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaah","name":"Eshkol-Wachman movement notation system","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Signed Language","type":"featural","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (LTR) and horizontal (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eEshkol-Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN) was developed by the choreographer Noa Eshkol (daughter of the third Israeli Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol) and the architect Abraham Wachman, in Israel in 1958. It is a notation system to describe body movements, particularly but not exclusively in the context of writing down dance scores.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEWMN has had such diverse applications as the transcription of sign languages, in teaching martial arts, and to record animal behaviour, for example courting behaviour. It has also been used as an aid in the diagnosis of Autism spectrum disorders, to demonstrate abnormal reflexes and patterns of movement, which can be indicative of such a disorder.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe system is written on a specially ruled page with horizontal lines representing parts of the body, and vertical lines marking out columns representing units of time. The page can be ruled so that as many or as few body parts as are necessary can be represented. The symbols themselves represent movements, which are written from left to right in chronological order. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaaj","name":"Lahnda (Landa)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eLahnda (also Landa) was a Brahmi-derived script used in the Punjab and Sindh regions of what are now India and Pakistan from around the 10th to the early 20th centuries. The script was known as a merchants script, although it was also used for literature and administrative purposes. Despite being widely used, Lahnda was never standardized, nor its regional variants unified, so there is significant variation in the styles used in different areas. The many varieties are sometimes classified into two broad groups, Punjabi and Sindhi. \u003cbr /\u003e The script has now been supplanted by Arabic and Devanagari writing, although its successor, the Gurmukhi script, is widely used throughout the Punjab. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaao","name":"SignFont Notation","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Signed Language","type":"featural","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eSignFont is a notation system created for writing down American Sign Language (ASL). It is used in a limited capacity for computerized texts. The symbols used are partially iconic, but limited provision is also made for non-manual and spatial locations, critical linguistic features that lack representation in some other sign language notation systems. Signfont notation has also been praised for having a much smaller symbol inventory than other sign language scripts, making it easier to learn. However, this means that not all the contrasts in ASL can be written using the script. In addition, the small symbol set makes it difficult to extend the script to signed languages other than ASL. Perhaps due to these disadvantages, it has found limited acceptance among the deaf.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSignFont is also distinguished from other sign language scripts in its representation of the simultaneous actions characteristic of signed languages. Any notation system must reduce these to a one-dimensional stream of symbols. Some sign language scripts make use of stacking characters to represent simultaneity, but SignFont is strictly linear, with conventions established as to which features need to be written first. For example, the symbol for continuous touch is written before any movement symbols to which it relates, even though the touch happens throughout the movement, i.e. is simultaneous with it.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCase is not used, although the first letter of a section is sometimes written in a larger size of font.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaap","name":"Sogdian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Sogdian script was one of three scripts used for writing the Sogdian language, a middle Iranian language spoken in Sogdiana, a region in the Achaemenid Persian empire comprising parts of modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and China. This language was also written in the Manichaean and Syriac scripts. Sogdian writing derives from the Aramaic script and was used from approximately the 1st to the 13th centuries AD, during which time three main varieties emerged, the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAncient Letters\u003c/span\u003e, the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eSutra\u003c/span\u003e style and the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eUyghur\u003c/span\u003e style. This third style should not be confused with the Old Uyghur alphabet, although in some sources Sutra Sogdian is simply called Sogdian, and Uyghur Sogdian is simply called Uyghur, due to the latter being widely used to write the Turkic Uyghur language in the 8th century. Some sources also call the Sutra and Uyghur styles \u003cspan class=Em\u003eformal\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ecursive\u003c/span\u003e respectively.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAncient Letters\u003c/span\u003e, the letters are distinct in shape and unconnected in writing. This is the oldest form of the script. Around the 5th century, a cursive bookhand, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eSutra\u003c/span\u003e, was developed for writing Buddhist religious texts. Letters are sometimes more difficult to distinguish in this style. The latest form, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eUyghur\u003c/span\u003e, was developed in the 7th century and has proved very difficult to decipher due to many of the letters being too similar for modern-day scholars to distinguish. This was also a cursive style.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Sogdian script was an abjad, that is, vowels were optional. It was written from right to left using seventeen letters, many of which had contextual forms depending on their position (initial, medial or final) in the word. Some letters represented up to three sounds. Diacritics were used (inconsistently) to represent additional sounds, for example a dot could be written under a z to represent ž.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSogdian writing retained the Aramaic principle of starting every written word with a consonant, so the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003e (glottal stop) symbol was always written before a word-initial vowel. When word-internal vowels were written, they were often represented using the w or y letters. At first, only long vowels were represented, but later manuscripts use these letters for short vowels also. This left no distinction in writing between long and short vowels, so a tendency developed to insert an \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003e before a word-internal long vowel. In the latest forms of the script, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003e was also inserted before short vowels, again removing the written distinction of vowel length. The result was that spelling was very irregular, with most vowel letters with or without aleph capable of representing more than one vowel sound, and most vowel sounds able to be represented with more than one letter or combination of letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWritten Sogdian also employed a number of \u003cspan class=Em\u003eheterograms\u003c/span\u003e, words which were written in the Aramaic language but pronounced as the corresponding Sogdian word.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Sogdian script was usually written horizontally from right to left, but, for representing the Uyghur language, it was written vertically in left-to-right columns. This vertical style was the forerunner of the Old Uyghur script, which in turn developed into the Mongolian and Manchu scripts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaaq","name":"Stokoe Notation","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Signed Language","type":"featural","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eStokoe Notation was developed in 1960 by William Stokoe for writing American Sign Language (ASL), and later adapted for writing British and Australian Aboriginal Sign Languages. It was the first \u003cspan class=Em\u003ephonemic\u003c/span\u003e script created for writing a signed language, although it was not created for the Deaf to write down their language for daily use, and it never came to be used for this purpose. Rather, it has always been used for linguistic research and analysis.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eUntil the 1960s, signed languages were not viewed as “real” languages but as simple mimes with no consistent linguistic structure. Stokoe’s aim in creating his script was to demonstrate that American Sign Language was built up from the same elements as spoken languages. Spoken languages are analysed in terms of segments (for example phonemes) and features (the elements that make up a phoneme such as voicing, place of articulation, vowel height etc). Stokoe Notation demonstrates that signed languages can be analysed in the same terms. The segments are signs instead of sounds, and the features are hand shape, location with respect to the body, orientation, and direction of movement.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is neither a logography (which generally represent nothing smaller than a morpheme), nor a syllabary (which generally represent nothing smaller than a syllable) nor an alphabet (which generally represent nothing smaller than a phoneme). Rather, Stokoe Notation represents each feature of each segment. There are three types of symbols. In representing a given sign, the location symbol is written first, then the handshape symbol, then the orientation/direction symbol. So the three components in ͜ 5x, which represents the sign meaning \u003cspan class=Em\u003emother\u003c/span\u003e, are ‘‘⏝’, indicating that the sign is made with the hand at the chin, 5, indicating that it uses a spread hand, and x indicating that the thumb touches the chin.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe fifty-five symbols used in Stokoe’s original script are based on the shapes of Latin letters, punctuation, and numbers. The script has not been standardized, and has been adapted for use with various signed languages, so some consider it a family of related scripts, rather than a single script. Stokoe dubbed the three types of symbols tab (\\\\\\tabula\\\\\\\" or sign location)","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaas","name":"Savara","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":"LTR","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaau","name":"Tulu (Tigalari)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tulu script has been used since at least the 15th century (and, many scholars believe, much earlier than this) for writing the Tulu language. Tulu speakers generally refer to the script using the name \u003cspan class=Em\u003eTigalari\u003c/span\u003e, rather than Tulu. Tulu is a Dravidian language spoken by almost 2 million people in the South Indian states of Karnataka (coastal region) and Kerala (Kasaragod district). In the northern parts of the Tulu-speaking region the language carries considerable prestige and is used as a \u003cspan class=Em\u003elingua franca\u003c/span\u003e amongst educated people, but in the southern areas it is not so well respected. The northern dialect is considered to be the standard form.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Tulu language is often referred to as a language having no script of its own, but this is misleading. There are a number of ancient manuscripts, most notably the Hindu \u003cspan class=Em\u003eMahabharata\u003c/span\u003e and some epic poems, written in the Tulu script, although it is now written almost exclusively in the Kannada script. As well as being used for the recording of long religious texts and poems, the script was widely used for writing Hindu mantras. The gradual demise of the Tulu script has largely been attributed to Christian missionaries to South India who published a large body of literature in the Tulu language, using the Kannada script, the closest script with printing facilities. By the late 19th century the Tulu script was considered to be endangered, and there are currently no known publishers who publish in the script. Literacy in the script is also low.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is an abugida written from left to right. Each of the thirty-five consonant letters represents a syllable in which the default vowel is a. This vowel can be changed by means of vowel diacritics appended beside, below, or in a combination of positions relative to the consonant letter. There are ten diacritics for this purpose. Vowels which cannot be attached to a preceding consonant letter (namely those at the start of a word) are written using one of eleven independent vowel letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDiphthongs are not used in speech, so are not represented in writing. Consonant clusters are not used at the start of Tulu words but are found word-internally and at the start of loan words. These are written using a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e symbol which silences the inherent vowel in all but the final consonant in the cluster.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Tulu script employs a set of script-specific digits from 0-9.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaaw","name":"Tai Yo","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"vertical","ligatures":"required","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"vertical (RTL)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tai Yo script is used to write the Tai Yo language (also called Yoy, Tai Do, Tay Muoi, Tay Quy Chau, or Tay-Jo) spoken in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. It is not believed to be in current use, having been replaced by the Latin script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is written vertically, from top to bottom and from right to left. Books written in the script accordingly open on the left.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are three types of consonant symbol in Tai Yo. Twenty-four symbols are used only at the start of a syllable. Five symbols are used only at the end of a syllable. Three symbols can be used either at the start or at the end of a syllable, although their position in the syllable dictates their pronunciation. At the start they represent ɓ, ƌ, ɲ, but at the end they represent p, t, j.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is a tone mark for indicating tone.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonants do not contain an inherent vowel; all vowels are written explicitly by means of dependent symbols. There are 15 vowel symbols in total, 5 of which represent diphthongs. Vowels can be joined after (that is, below) a consonant, or to the right of it.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are 5 (possibly 6) consonant+vowel ligatures, representing at, ak, am, an, ang, (ap).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOne symbol can represent either one of a number of vowels, or the labialization of a consonant. When written below the consonant it represents the dipthong ie or ia; when it is both written to the right of the consonant and is syllable-final it represents ăi; when it is both written to the right \u003cspan class=Em\u003eand\u003c/span\u003e is followed by a vowel it represents labialization. The exception to representing labialization with this symbol is k\u003csup\u003ew\u003c/sup\u003e, which is written with a separate symbol.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaax","name":"Unwritten","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"unspecified","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis is not a script, but rather a marker used to identify languages that are suspected to be unwritten. It is not an official part of \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e. If you have any information on writing systems for these languages, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qaaz","name":"Beria (Erfe)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Beria script, also known as Erfa, or Erfe, is used to write the Zaghawa language spoken by about 169,000 people in Chad and Sudan. It was created in the 1950s when Adam Tajir, a schoolteacher, noted that the language was failing to spread and was in fact being replaced by Arabic, which he attributed to the lack of a Zaghawa writing system. The script was originally based on the cattle brands different clans used by way of identification. This alphabet comprised 40 characters, representing more sounds than exist in the Zaghawa inventory, as Tajir had based the character set on the Arabic language, rather than the language for which it was intended. Tajir published his proposed characters in a daily Arabic-language newspaper, and also produced texts of poetry, proverbs and short stories using the script in an attempt to propagate it. In 2000 Tajirs script was modified by Siddik Adam Issa to better represent Zaghawa phonology. Issas modified version has received greater acceptance, and is in more common use today.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Beria script marks stress and not tone, although transcriptions tend to mark tone but not stress. ±ATR, representing contrasting positions of the root of the tongue and of the larynx during pronunciation of vowels, is also marked.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabb","name":"Ranjana (Lantsa, Wartu)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Ranjana script is used for writing the Newari language of Nepal. This language is also called Nepal-Bhasha, literally Nepal-Language, but it is not to be confused with Nepali. Similarly, the script is one of six subsumed under the name Nepal-Lipi, literally Nepal-Script, though it is not to be confused with Devanagari, which is the script used for writing Nepali. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRanjana was previously used along with the Prachalit, Bhujimol, Kutila, Golmol, and Litumol scripts for writing Newari, a Tibeto-Burman language unrelated to Nepali. Use of these scripts began to decline after the Gorkhali conquest of the Kathmandu valley in 1769, and they are now rarely used. Of the six, Prachalit and Ranjana are the most well-known, although even these are not commonly used and most young Newari speakers cannot read them. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script was derived from Brahmi via the Old Nepal script, both of which are now extinct, around the 12th century AD. It has been used since that time in a gradually decreasing capacity, but is still used for producing Hindu and Buddhist religious texts and taught in Buddhist monasteries. It is also used as a decorative script in much the same way as calligraphy is used in the West.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRanjana is written from left to right. It must be written using a calligraphic implement, as the thickness of the strokes is important. It is an abugida, that is, each consonant letter represents a CV syllable inherently having the default vowel a. This vowel can be changed by appending various vowel diacritics to the consonant letter, or silenced by writing a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e below the letter. Vowels at the start of a word are not written with a vowel diacritic as there is no preceding consonant for them to append to; instead they are written with an independent vowel letter, which is generally unrelated in shape to the corresponding vowel diacritic. There are thirty-three consonant letters, thirteen vowel diacritics and fourteen independent vowel letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLike many of the Brahmic scripts, Ranjana represents consonant clusters using conjuncts. These are usually stacked vertically. Unlike many of the Brahmic scripts (which use the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003ecandrabindu\u003c/span\u003e symbols for this purpose), Ranjana also uses stacked conjuncts to represent homorganic nasals; that is, nasals pronounced in the same place as the following consonant, for example the ndʒ cluster in the middle of the word Ganges.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Ranjana script also employs the \u003cspan class=Em\u003edanda\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edouble danda\u003c/span\u003e symbols used by a number of Indic scripts in a manner similar to the Latin comma and full stop. A \u003cspan class=Em\u003eviram\u003c/span\u003e symbol (not to be confused with \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e, above) is used to mark the end of a verse or section. There is also a symbol called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eyig mgo\u003c/span\u003e which is a head mark used to indicate the first page in an unbound folio. The sacred symbol Om is written with a special letter.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is a set of Ranjana digits from 0-9.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA variation of the Ranjana script exists, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eWartu\u003c/span\u003e. This is much the same as standard Ranjana, but with a wiggly headline on many of the letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabc","name":"Newar (Prachalit Nepal)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":"LTR","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabe","name":"Bowen (Lao Baiwen)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (RTL) and horizontal (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Lao Baiwen script was used for writing the Bai languages spoken in China. There are three varieties of Bai, Jianchuan (Central), Dali (Southern), and Bijiang (Northern). It is not agreed upon whether these should be classified as dialects or as distinct languages. The ethnologue separates them into three distinct languages. A Bai script has been in use since around the 8th century, but this was never standardized. A Latin-based orthography has now largely replaced the traditional Lao Baiwen script. This is based on the Central Jianchuan Bai language, but also accommodates features of the other two Bai languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabg","name":"Micmac Hieroglyphs (Kauder ideograms)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"American","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eMicmac (also Míkmaq, Mikmaq, or Mikmaw) is an Eastern Algonquin language spoken by about 9,000 people in Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Canada, and by about 300 in the United States. It is now written almost exclusively in the Latin script, but was previously written using Micmac hieroglyphics, also known as Kauder ideograms.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe hieroglyphs are ideographic symbols, each symbol representing a concept. In the spoken language, multiple concepts (such as subject+verb) can be expressed using a single composite word, for example, eyk meaning he is. In the writing, each concept is represented by a separate symbol, so eyk is written using a symbol meaning he and a symbol representing to be. Similarly, eykik, meaning they are is represented using three symbols: the he symbol written twice, followed by the to be symbol.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is believed that the Micmac use of written motifs as a memory aid long predates the arrival of Jesuit missionaries in Canada in the 1600s. It is not known when the Micmac first began using these symbols, although many of the shapes have traditionally been used to decorate clothing, moccasins, and tobacco pouches. It was not until Father Chrétien le Clercq, a Catholic missionary in Quebec, noticed some children using porcupine quills to engrave unfamiliar symbols into bark, that Micmac writing was brought to the attention of the wider world. In 1677 Fr. le Clercq adapted these marks to form a fully functioning writing system, which he used to transcribe prayers. Although he is generally credited with the systemization of the Micmac writing, his system was not widely adopted by the people. It was not until his sucessor, Father Maillard, further revised the system that it began to be widely used. Maillard also oversaw the production of the Micmac prayer book, a hieroglyph manuscript which continued to be copied by hand for 100 years. In 1866 Christian Kauder, a European-born priest had the book printed in Vienna. In 1922 the book was reprinted again, and is now a highly prized collectors item. With the exception of these texts, the script was generally written by hand.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere have been some efforts to preserve and revitalize hieroglyphic writing; in the 1980s a series of hieroglyphics workshops was held under the instruction of Wilfred Prosper.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabh","name":"Bagam (Eghap)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Bagam script was used for writing the Mengaka language of the Bagam (or Eghap) people in Western Cameroon. The script bears some similarity to the Bamum script, used in a neighbouring region, which has led to speculation that the two scripts developed concurrently from a common source, but did not borrow directly from each other. It was created by the Eghap King Pufong in the late C19th or early C20th, and used for private correspondence and record-keeping, although it is not believed to have ever enjoyed widespread use.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt first became known to the outside world following a thesis submission by British military officer Louis Malcolm to the Journal of African Society in 1921. Although the thesis was not published in its entirety - the list of characters was omitted - it gave the script publicity and prompted discussion by other linguists. Following his discovery of the complete thesis in the Haddon Library, Cambridge, Konrad Tuchsherer was able to publish the list of characters for the first time in his paper The Lost Script of the Bagam.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe characters recorded by Malcolm and Tuchscherer number over 100, although the original character set is presumed to have numbered several hundred. The script includes both ideographs and phonetic symbols. The precise identification of many of these characters is either incomplete or uncertain, but some ligatures are noted, as well as independent consonants, independent vowels, CV syllables, and CVC syllables. Some overlap between ideographic and phonetic symbols is evident - a single character is used for representing both you and w/ω, and for both spear and ŋg/k, for example - although the extent to which this overlap occurred is uncertain.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eNumerals from 1-10 are also represented in the script. These display a greater similarity with the Bamum script than do the other characters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is some interest in literacy development amongst speakers of the Mengaka language. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabl","name":"Akkha","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is suspected to be one way that the Eastern Magar language is written. It is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabn","name":"HamNoSys Notation","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Signed Language","type":"featural","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Hamburg Sign Language Notation System, or HamNoSys, was first developed by a group of hearing and deaf people in 1985. It is currently in its third revision. Unlike the other scripts for writing signed languages, HamNoSys is not intended as a practical writing tool for everyday communication. Rather, its purpose is analogous to that of the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is used to transcribe the sounds of any given spoken language in a consistent way. In the same way, HamNoSys is based on the phonology of signed languages and designed with the capacity to transcribe every natural signed language in the world using consistent symbols across languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHamNoSys is an alphabet, written using 210 largely iconic characters. Based on Stokoe’s 4-parameter model, characters represent hand shape, hand orientation, location relative to other parts of the body, and movement. Each sign (or word) must be written by assigning a value to each of these parameters. Unlike Stokoe’s model, HamNoSys also provides a symmetry operator for representing symmetrical two-handed signs, and a limited number of non-manual components. Non-manual phonological elements can be represented in part by replacing the hand grapheme with the symbol for another body part, such as the head. The parameters of a sign are written in the following order:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cul class=dListUnordered\u003e \u003cli\u003eSymmetry Operator\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eNon-manual Components\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eHandshape\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eHand Position\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eLocation\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eMovement\u003c/li\u003e \u003c/ul\u003e \u003cp\u003eSmaller facial movements such as raised eyebrows or puffed out cheeks are more complex to represent. They can be written on another tier, synchronised to the master manual tier. HamNoSys has been criticised for not adequately representing facial expression, which forms a crucial part of the phonology of many signed languages. Work is underway to develop a more comprehensive system for representing this.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabo","name":"Naxi Dongba","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eNaxi Dongba is a pictographic script used by the Naxi people of Yunnan Province in China. Its origin is a source of contention: some researchers believe it to have been invented in the 13th century, or possibly as early as the 7th century; others consider it more likely to have been invented as recently as the 18th century. In the Naxi language, the script is called \u003cspan class=Em\u003e²ss ³dgyu, ²lv ³dgyu\u003c/span\u003e ‘wood record, stone record’, testifying that the script was once carved on stone and wood. Originally it was used by priests of the Dongba religion to write scriptures, and was passed on down the generations from father to son. The Dongba religious corpus, comprising some one thousand ceremonies, is contained in Dongba script manuscripts. Today the script is still in use in the Lijiang region, not only to write scriptures but also to keep business records. It is also used for everyday communication by some members of the Naxi community and has been called “the only living pictograph in the world”.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are approximately 1200 single symbols in the script; some dictionaries contain as many as 3400 pictographs because they also include compound symbols. Most symbols are pictograms, though some are used for their phonetic values according to the \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#rebusp\u003erebus principle\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Naxi language cannot be adequately expressed using the Dongba script alone, and it may be supplemented with the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Nkgb\u003eNakhi Geba\u003c/a\u003e syllabary for clarification. There have been attempts to revive the script, including visits by Dongba priests to local schools in the Lijiang region to teach classes on it. In the 1980s some books were published in Naxi Dongba script, including textbooks for bilingual education. However, due to its complexity, it can take up to 15 years to become proficient in the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabp","name":"Hanifi Rohingya","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"unspecified","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eHanifi Rohingya is one of four scripts used for writing the Rohingya language, spoken by about 1,500,000 people, mostly in Myanmar. There are also significant Rohingya-speaking refugee communities in Bangladesh and Thailand.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Rohingya language has been written in the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Arab\u003eArabic\u003c/a\u003e script for over 200 years, during which time it has also been written in \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Mymr\u003eMyanmar\u003c/a\u003e and a modified Latin script known as Rohingyalish. Around 1960, Rohingya scholars began to see a need for a unique writing system which reflected their own language, and Molana Hanif created the Hanifi Rohingya script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHanifi Rohingya is an alphabet written from right to left. The shapes of the characters are based on the Arabic script (though the character shapes in Hanifi Rohingya are not contextual as they are in Arabic), with some influence from Latin and Myanmar. The script is written with twenty-eight consonants, each containing an inherent \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e vowel, five vowels, and one vowel carrier letter. There is also a separate letter for marking nasalization of vowels.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRohingya is a tonal language, contrasting oral vs nasal, long vs. short, and falling vs rising tones. Three tone marks exist in the script, which are written above the vowel letter. There is also a diacritic, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eshadda\u003c/span\u003e, which marks geminate (long) consonants, and a sign, \u003cspan class=Em\u003esukun\u003c/span\u003e, for indicating the absence of the inherent vowel. Two consonants have alternate final forms; /m/ is always written with its final form at the end of a word instead of with the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ema\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003esukun\u003c/span\u003e sequence, and /l/ can be written at the end of a word either with its final form or with the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ela\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003esukun\u003c/span\u003e sequence.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is a full set of decimal digits from 0-9, which are written from left to right.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabq","name":"Badaga","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Unclear","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Badaga script is a relatively recent creation. It was developed over approximately 40 years by Yogesh Raj Kadasoley, and officially released in 2012. The script is designed for writing the Badaga language, a Dravidian language spoken in Tamil Nadu in South India. The Badaga people primarily worship the Hindu goddess Hethai.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePreviously, the language was written in the Kannada script, and it is currently most often written in the Tamil script. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis is not the first script designed exclusively for the Badaga language. In 2009, Anandhan Raju designed a Badaga script based on the shapes of Tamil characters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabr","name":"Eskaya","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Eskaya script is used for writing the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/lang/esy\u003eEskayan\u003c/a\u003e language, an artificial language associated with the Eskaya people of the Philippines. There is considerable controversy surrounding both the people and their language and script. Since coming to the attention of the wider world in the 1980s, neither has been extensively studied, and this lack of factual knowledge has led to speculation and numerous theories about their origins. These range from the supernatural to suggestions that the Eskaya are a cult or simply an impoverished tribe that concocted a “lost language” in order to attract government attention and funding. None of these theories has ever been proven.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Eskaya people speak the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/lang/ceb\u003eCebuano\u003c/a\u003e language in their day-to-day lives, and there is no evidence that the Eskayan language has ever had any mother-tongue speakers. It is used primarily for songs, prayers, teaching, traditional literature, some public signage, and to exclude non-Eskayas from a conversation. The language and script are said to have been created by a man known as Pinay, the ancestor of the Eskaya people, but it is unclear whether this is myth or historical fact. They were revived by a rebel soldier, Mariano Datahan, who founded a utopian community in the Bohol region of the Philippines in the early 20th century and taught them to his followers. A few speakers claim that Pinay and Datahan were in fact one and the same person; others, that they lived a few hundred years apart. Because so little is known about the history of the people, it is impossible to verify either of these claims. Both the language and the script continue to be taught in purpose-built schools run by volunteers, where attendance is voluntary but carries some prestige. The little linguistic analysis that has been carried out on the language indicates that it is grammatically Cebuano but with a substituted lexicon. This correlation is so strong that, where there is a set of homophones in Cebuano, the corresponding Eskayan words will also be homophones.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Eskaya script is of central importance to the Eskaya people, who consider writing to be the “true” form of the language; a written word is not seen as a representation of the spoken form but vice-versa. Similarly, a Cebuano-language text written in the Eskaya script is deemed to be an Eskaya text, but an Eskayan-language text written in the Latin script is not. The script is an alphasyllabary; most characters represent syllables but some represent individual phones. The full character set contains 1,065 characters, but a reduced set of 46 (called the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eabidiha\u003c/span\u003e) is considered to be the ‘core’ group, and these are taught first - many of these can be either alphabetic or syllabic, depending on context. Of the syllabic characters, many represent C+V or C+V+C sequences, but some are as complex as C+C+V+C+C. At least one character is trisyllabic.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eUnlike many syllabic scripts, there is no universal inherent vowel. Many of the characters in the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eabidiha\u003c/span\u003e have a one-syllable ‘name’ when they are being recited, and this dictates their syllabic value. For example, the character called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ebi\u003c/span\u003e can be used syllabically to represent /bi/, but /i/ cannot be considered the inherent vowel, as the character called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eka\u003c/span\u003e represents /ka/, the character called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehu\u003c/span\u003e represents /hu/, and so on.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMany syllabic characters consist of an \u003cspan class=Em\u003einahan\u003c/span\u003e (‘mother’) - a core vowel element - and a \u003cspan class=Em\u003esinyas\u003c/span\u003e (‘gesture’) - an \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/glossary#onset\u003eonset\u003c/a\u003e or \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/glossary#coda\u003ecoda\u003c/a\u003e consonant. For example, the syllable /da/ is written with the \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e character (the mother), with a small closed curl (the gesture, representing the /d/ onset) attached to it. However, these cannot be said to be simple vowel+diacritic combinations, as the \u003cspan class=Em\u003esinyas\u003c/span\u003e is not always predictable or consistent - in other vowel combinations with /d/ the closed curl is replaced by another symbol. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome character shapes resemble Latin letters but by and large they are based on the human anatomy. For example, the syllable called \u003cspan class=Em\u003egi\u003c/span\u003e is written using a concave curve, followed by a dash, followed by a convex curve, which represents the two ears either side of the head. The script is anthropomorphised in other ways also; one text describes the letters doing the human work of planting different edible plants. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOf the 1,065 characters in the syllabary, some represent sounds which are not attested in the language. The reason for this is unknown, but it may be that the original purpose of the writing system was to transliterate from another writing system - probably Latin - rather than to transcribe a language. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEskaya is written from left to right, with words separated by spaces. It uses Latin punctuation, except for the question mark and full stop, which are distinct. Eskaya uses a decimal numeric system, and the script includes symbols for representing 0-9. Some number shapes are based on Latin number shapes, but do not necessarily represent the same numeric value.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by the \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924 standard\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to this site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard. The \u003ca href=http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;Script Encoding Initiative\u003c/a\u003e is working to support the inclusion of this script in the standard, and contributions here will support their efforts.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabs","name":"Wancho","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"unspecified","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Wancho script is used to write the Wancho language spoken in India. It was devised by Mr Banwang Losu. A font has been created for it and one book has been published using the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=Em\u003eThis script is not currently recognized by \u003ca href=http://www.unicode.org/iso15924/ target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;ISO 15924\u003c/a\u003e, but is included in ScriptSource for research purposes. If you have any information on this script, please add the information to the site. Your contributions can be a great help in refining and expanding the ISO 15924 standard.\u003c/span\u003e \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qabx","name":"Reserved for private use (end)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"unspecified","type":"unspecified","whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":null,"direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Qapb","name":"Rohingya Hanifi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"unspecified","type":"unspecified","whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":null,"direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Rjng","name":"Rejang (Redjang, Kaganga)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"rjng","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Rejang (also known as the Kaganga or Redjang) script is used to write the 5 Rejang dialects spoken collectively by about 200-250,000 people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and the Kerinci and Lampung languages of the same region. The script is thought to pre-date the introduction of Islam in the C12th to the area, although the earliest attested document has been dated to the mid C18th. It is traditionally written on bamboo, buffalo horn, bark or copper plates. An abugida of Brahmic derivation, the script comprises 23 consonant letters each with an inherent a vowel. Any of 12 diacritics can be used to modify the quality of the vowel. A further diacritic is used to mute the inherent vowel in a consonant-final syllable. The script is somewhat \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#defect target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;defective\u003c/a\u003e in that it does not allow for the representation of diphthongs, which occur frequently in spoken Rejang. Consonants likewise cannot form clusters.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Roro","name":"Rongorongo","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Pacific","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"boustrophedon","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Rongorongo script was discovered on Easter Island, in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, in the 19th century. It is thought to have been used by speakers of the Rapanui language, but it is not known whether it was a form of writing proper, or whether it was simply a mnemonic device to aid in the memorization of genealogy, liturgy, choreography and other elements of the Easter Islanders’ daily lives.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are about two dozen extant examples of the script, most of which are in the form of carvings on wooden tablets, now housed in various museums around the world. The script has never been formally deciphered, although there are many speculated interpretations of the texts. It is thought that some of the texts contain calendrical information.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRongorongo glyphs are in the form of outlines of humans, animals, plants and geometric shapes. Most scholars agree that the glyphs represent a combination of sounds - perhaps syllables - and concepts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is written in reverse \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#boust\u003eboustrophedon\u003c/a\u003e style. The text is read starting at the bottom left-hand corner of the tablet and read towards the right. At the end of the line, the tablet is rotated 180° and the next line (which is now the second line from the top of the tablet) is read, again from left to right. This means that alternate lines are written upside down in relation to one another. If the text is too long to fit onto one side of the tablet, it continues on the back, beginning at the same place it left off on the front. So if there is an odd number of lines on the front of the tablet, the writing on the back will start at the \u003cspan class=Em\u003etop\u003c/span\u003e left-hand corner and be read from left to right and top to bottom. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Runr","name":"Runic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"European","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"runr","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Runic alphabets were used throughout Northern Europe from the 1st to the 7th century AD. There are various conflicting theories as to the runes’ origins; some scholars suggest they were developed in Denmark and spread southwards to Europe, while others suggest that they were a German invention which spread both northwards and southwards. Runic inscriptions have been found as far south as Istanbul.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRunic writing has a distinctive appearance characterized by angular letters (runes) having no horizontal lines. This is thought to be because the runes were designed to be inscribed into wood; horizontal lines would have been difficult to see against a horizontal woodgrain. The direction of writing in early inscriptions was variable, but in later inscriptions the tendency was to write from left to right. Dots were sometimes used to separate words, although spaces were generally not.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRunes were used for a number of purposes, including trade (ordering goods, stock descriptions, records of debts owed etc), personal communication, graffiti, political commentaries, and religious or magical recitations.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRunic writing went through various phases, the most well-known of which are elder futhark, younger futhark, and Rök (or short-twig) futhark. Elder futhark (also called Germanic futhark / runes) is attested from the year 150. It appears to have been developed specifically to match the phonology of the Proto-Norse language; there were twenty-four symbols each representing one sound. Over the next 700 years, the script evolved into younger futhark. This variant had only sixteen letters, and the sound/symbol relationship was less precise in that many symbols represented two or more sounds. Rök futhark was essentially the same, structurally, as younger futhark, but the shapes of the runes were different.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRunes were gradually replaced by the Latin alphabet as Christianity spread through Europe and by the 11th century had died out completely. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Samr","name":"Samaritan","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Samaritan script is of Phoenician descent, via the Paleo-Hebrew script. Samaritan writing began to noticeably diverge from Paleo-Hebrew writing around the 3rd century and has been used since that time for the Samaritan dialects of Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic. These languages are no longer in everyday spoken use but are still used for writing liturgical and scholarly works. Samaritan is also the script for the bi-weekly newspaper A.B., published in Israel.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Samaritan script is an abjad, that is, vowels are optional, and is written from right to left. Vowel length is distinctive in the languages for which the Samaritan script is used, and - when vowels are written - is indicated by the size of the vowel diacritic; generally, the larger the diacritic, the longer the vowel. Not every vowel can be of every length. For example, there is only one size for the o sign, because it is only ever one length, but there are three sizes for the a sign (standard, long and overlong) plus a distinct a sign to be used when the vowel is short. When the length of the vowel is unknown, the smallest available variant of the sign is used. Different sized signs are encoded in Unicode as separate letters. Vowel diacritics are normally placed above and slightly to the left of the consonant they modify. The vowels i and short a can occur at the start of a word; there is no separate sign for word-initial use, but the diacritic appears above and to the right of the following consonant as an independent letter. For this reason word-initial i and short a are encoded separately in Unicode from their combining counterparts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are four other combining marks which are used to modify consonants. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eSukun\u003c/span\u003e indicates that no vowel follows the consonant, \u003cspan class=Em\u003edagesh\u003c/span\u003e indicates a \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#gemination target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;geminate\u003c/a\u003e (long) consonant, \u003cspan class=Em\u003enequdaa\u003c/span\u003e indicates a variant reading of the word, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eocclusion\u003c/span\u003e indicates consonant strengthening (for example, a fricative being pronounced as a stop, or a voiced consonant being pronounced voicelessly). These signs are centered over the consonant they modify, preceding any vowel diacritics.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMost of the punctuation used in Samaritan writing is script-specific, largely because the dots are often diamond-shaped rather than round. There is a set of marks used for indicating clause or sentence breaks of different lengths. There are also a number of punctuation marks to indicate something about the nature of the expression, for example to mark an expression of submission, vehemence, or humble petition.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Samaritan script does not contain a set of numerals; rather, letters are used numerically in a manner similar to other Semitic scripts.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Sara","name":"Sarati","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Artificial","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Fictional","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"other","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Sarati script is an artificial script created by J. R. R. Tolkien for writing the artificial language, Quenya, which is spoken in the fictional territory of Middle-earth, where many of Tolkien’s novels are set.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSarati is an abugida. Each letter, called a \u003cspan class=Em\u003esarat\u003c/span\u003e, represents one phoneme. The script is based on consonants, with vowels written as diacritics. The script can be written in any direction, vertically, horizontally or \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#boust\u003eboustrophedon\u003c/a\u003e, but is most often written vertically from top to bottom.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSarati was created partly to provide a history for the better-known \u003ca href=https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=script_detail\u0026uid=g23d9a269f\u003eTengwar\u003c/a\u003e script, which is claimed to be the descendant of Sarati.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Sarb","name":"Old South Arabian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Old South Arabian script (also called Musnad, Epigraphic South Arabian, or Sayhadic) was used for writing a group of closely related Semitic languages, all of which are now extinct. The script was used throughout the Arabian peninsula, particularly in modern-day Yemen, between the 6th and the 8th centuries AD, after which it was replaced by Arabic writing. It is the forerunner of the modern-day Ethiopic script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere were two forms of the script; the angular, monumental form is predominant, but in recent years examples have also been found of a more cursive form, inscribed on leather. These two types are sometimes called \u003cspan class=Em\u003emusnad\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ezabur\u003c/span\u003e respectively.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOld South Arabian was an abjad; vowels were not indicated in writing. There were twenty-nine consonant letters in the script. In its earlier forms, it was written in \u003ca href=page.php?item_id=glossary#boust\u003eboustrophedon\u003c/a\u003e style, with the shapes of letters reversed on alternate lines to be consistent with the direction of writing. However, later examples tend to be written from right to left. Some combinations of letters could be overlaid and rotated to produce ligatures, commonly called monograms. Diacritics were not used for writing Old South Arabian.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpaces were not left between words; rather a vertical bar symbol was used to separate words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eApart from the symbol for the number 50, Old South Arabian did not use special symbols for writing digits. Five letters were assigned the numeric values 1, 5, 10, 100 and 1000, and a numeric indicator symbol was written before and after any letters which were intended to be read numerically. For example, the number 10,000 was written as \u003cspan class=Em\u003enumeric indicator\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003eletter ayn\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003eletter alef\u003c/span\u003e + \u003cspan class=Em\u003enumeric indicator\u003c/span\u003e, with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eayn\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealef\u003c/span\u003e representing the numbers 10 and 1000, respectively. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Saur","name":"Saurashtra","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"saur","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Saurashtra language is spoken by approximately 130,000 people in Southern India. The Saurashtra script is of Brahmic origin, although its exact derivation is not known. Unlike most of the surrounding Dravidian languages, Saurashtra is Indo-European. The language has its own script of the same name, but is also written in the Tamil, Telugu, and Devanagari scripts. There is some debate amongst speakers of the Saurashtra language as to which script is best suited to the language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Saurashtra script is an abugida, that is, each letter represents a consonant+vowel syllable. There are thirty-four such letters. An unmarked letter represents a syllable with the inherent vowel a; letters can be marked with one of eleven vowel diacritics to represent a syllable with a different vowel. Vowel diacritics are attached to the top right corner of a base letter or written alongside it. There are also twelve letters for writing independent vowels (i.e. word-initial vowels). The four vocalic liquid letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eru\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003el\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003elu\u003c/span\u003e behave in the same way as vowels, so are often included in the vowel class.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEarly Saurashtra texts use a number of complex conjunct forms for writing consonant clusters. However, when the script was restructured in the 1880s these were abandoned in favour of a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e diacritic, which silences the inherent vowel of the first consonant in a cluster.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script uses a letter called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eupakshara\u003c/span\u003e, a dependent consonant sign which attaches nasals and liquids to aspirate them. That is, the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003em\u003c/span\u003e with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eupakshara\u003c/span\u003e attached represents mha. An aspirated nasal or liquid which is followed by a vowel other than a is written with the vowel diacritic attached to the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eupakshara\u003c/span\u003e, not to the base letter. Some analyses of the script class aspirated nasal and liquids as a separate set of single discrete letters comprised of two parts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is a script-specific set of numbers 0-9, some of which closely resemble Devanagari digits. The widely-attested Indic punctuation marks danda and double danda are used to mark the end of a sentence or clause. Latin comma, full stop and question mark symbols are also used.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Sgnw","name":"SignWriting","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Signed Language","type":"featural","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"vertical","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (LTR) and horizontal (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eSignWriting was developed in 1974 by Valerie Sutton, a dancer. Two years earlier, Sutton had developed DanceWriting, a notation system for transcribing dance movements. She was asked by Lars von der Lieth, from the University of Copenhagen, to produce something similar for the purpose of writing down signed languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSignWriting is written by arranging visually iconic symbols representing the hands, face and body spatially on the page in a way that reflects the movements made by the signer during signing. Words can be written from the point of view of the signer or of the viewer, although they are more commonly written from the point of view of the signer.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA complete sign (or word) consists of multiple graphemes, arranged spatially rather than sequentially. The arrangement, or placement, of graphemes is contrastive; two signs may contain the same graphemes, but their arrangement within the sign determines its meaning.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script uses a large number of diacritics. These have fixed positioning relative to the base sign but can change shape contextually. For example, the diacritics for shoulder raising and lowering change shape depending on whether they are attached to a torso symbol that is horizontal or shifted.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are thought to be twenty-seven signed languages which can be written using SignWriting, but only twelve which regularly use the script, including French Sign Language, Norwegian Sign Language, and Brazilian Sign Language. Although other scripts have been created for writing signed languages (for example Stokoe Notation and SignFont Notation), SignWriting is the most widely used. It has been used to print newspapers, magazines, and books in a number of signed languages, as well as teaching materials, both for teaching Sign Language to a novice signer, and for teaching other school subjects to skilled signers .\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Shaw","name":"Shavian (Shaw)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Artificial","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"shaw","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Shavian alphabet was created by Kingsley Read as the winning entry in a competition posthumously funded by the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Shaw had become increasingly frustrated by the inconsistent rules of English spelling and provided in his will for a £500 prize to be given to the creator of a new, phonetic alphabet for writing the English language. Read’s creation was judged to be the best of over 450 entries.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eShavian writing uses forty-eight alphabetic letters. There are three types of letters; tall, deep, and short. Tall letters have ascenders ascending above the x-height. With the exception of Yea and Hung (representing /j/ and /ŋ/ respectively), tall letters represent voiceless consonants. The equivalent voiced consonant is represented by rotating a tall letter 180° so that it now has a descender descending below the baseline. This is a deep letter. Examples of letters having this tall/deep relationship are those representing /f/ (tall) and /v/ (deep) or /t/ (tall) and /d/ (deep). Short letters sit on the baseline and reach to the x-height. These represent vowels, liquids and nasals.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/me/s8/mes8vu2v88_Shawglyphs.png height=155 width=524 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is also a set of eight ligatures for representing certain vowel+/r/ combinations, for example the letter representing /ɑr/ is a ligature composed of the /ɑː/ and /r/ symbols. Ligatures are also used for /i.ə/ and /juː/.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/me/s8/mes8vu2v88_Shawligs.png height=82 width=202 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBecause the alphabet phonetically represents spoken English, spelling is not standardized and there is scope for significant variation depending on the accent of the writer. To address this, two guidelines are recommended regarding spelling, though these occasionally conflict with one another and are not practised by everyone. Firstly, the only book ever widely published in Shavian, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAndrocles and the Lion\u003c/span\u003e, uses spelling based on British Received Pronunciation (RP) and the accompanying notes recommend this as standard. However, the same notes advise using the \\\\\\fullest\\\\\\\" possible form of pronunciation; for example","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Shrd","name":"Sharada, Śāradā","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Sharada script evolved from Gupta Brahmi in the 9th century AD. In its earlier forms it was widespread over the northwest parts of the Indian subcontinent and was the progenitor of the Gurmukhi script, but later it became restricted to Kashmir, where it was the principal means of writing until the 20th century.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere were two main stages in the development of the script; prior to the 13th century an inscriptional form was used, often referred to as Sharada proper, which developed into a handwritten form often called modern Sharada. This form was widely used for writing Vedic texts. In the 19th century, a New Testament was printed in the script, however, by the 20th century George Grierson reported that the punches used for producing the font had been sold for waste metal. In the 1950s a Perso-Arabic script was made the official script of Kashmir. Sharada is now only used by Kashmiri Pandits - a Hindu, ethnically Aryan group who inhabited the Kashmiri valley until they were exiled in the 1990s - for religious and ceremonial purposes.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Sharada script is an abugida written from left to right. There are thirty-four consonant letters, all of which carry the inherent vowel sound a. This vowel can be overridden by attaching one of thirteen vowel diacritics to the consonant letter. It can also be suppressed entirely by writing a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e sign to the right of a letter, to represent a word-final consonant or the first consonant in a cluster. Consonant clusters can also be written by stacking letters in a conjunct. Word-initial vowels, which cannot be written attached to a preceding consonant, are written using one of fourteen independent vowel letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eVisually, the script resembles the Devanagari script, both in the shapes of some letters and in the use of the vertical headstroke which is characteristic of many Brahmi-derived scripts. There are no rules governing the use of the headstroke; some scribes write each letter separately, others use the headstroke to connect some letters, apparently arbitrarily, to those on either side, and others connect all the letters, even across words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are a number of non-alphabetic signs which are employed by the Sharada script. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAvagraha\u003c/span\u003e is used to indicate the omission of a word-final a. The Devanagari signs \u003cspan class=Em\u003ecandrabindu\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e are used with vowels to represent nasalization, as in many other Indic scripts. \u003cspan class=Em\u003eVisarga\u003c/span\u003e is also used. Decorative marks are sometimes used in handwritten texts to mark the end of a verse or section. There are also two editorial marks resembling a plus sign (+) and a caret (\u003cspan usv=005E class=USV_sprite_wrapper style=display: inline-block; overflow: hidden; position: relative; zoom: 1; *display: inline; width: 14px; height: 13px;\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/render_graphic.php?\u0026type=usv\u0026point_size=12\u0026metrics=0\u0026block_start=0000\u0026block_end=007F border=0 style=position: absolute; left: -102px; top: -239px; /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e) which are used for making annotations, but the exact function of each has not been determined.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFour punctuation signs are used; \u003cspan class=Em\u003edanda\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edouble danda\u003c/span\u003e are used as in Devanagari to indicate pauses in the text, and there are script-specific signs to indicate abbreviation and word boundaries where inter-word spacing is not used. Sharada employs a set of digits 0-9; the set is unusual in that a circle, which represents zero in many decimal number systems, represents one in Sharada.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Sidd","name":"Siddham, Siddhaṃ, Siddhamātṛkā","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eSiddham is an extinct Brahmic script which was used between 600-1200 AD for writing Sanskrit. The script originated in southern India but travelled along the silk road to China, Japan and Korea in the form of Buddhist tantra texts. An adaptation of the script is still used in some esoteric Buddhist schools in Japan, where it is called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eBonji\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is an abugida. Each character indicates a syllable consisting either of an independent (that is, not preceded by a consonant) vowel, or of a consonant followed by the vowel /a/. Diacritic marks can be appended to consonant letters to indicate that a vowel other than /a/ follows. There is also a diacritic mark, the \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e to indicate that a consonant stands alone, with no following vowel. Consonant clusters are usually written with special conjunct forms.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Sign","name":"Sign Language","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Handsigns","type":null,"whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":null,"direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Sind","name":"Khudawadi, Sindhi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Khudawadi (also called Sindhi) script was used for writing the Indo-Aryan Sindhi language spoken by almost 20 million people in the Sindh province of Pakistan and in India. It is no longer used. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Sindhi language has been written since the 8th century AD, in a number of different scripts. In Pakistan, it is presently written using a modification of the Nastaliq script used for writing Urdu; however the modifications are significant enough that a reader of Urdu cannot necessarily read Sindhi. In India, it is written using a modification of the Devanagari script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Brahmic script generally known as the Khudawadi script was based on a number of unstandardized Lahnda scripts used by local merchants around Hyderabad. It was standardized and decreed to be an official script for the Sindhi language in 1868 by the Government of Bombay. The script is an abugida; every consonant letter contains an inherent ɑ vowel, which can be modified by writing a vowel diacritic above, below, to the left or to the right of the consonant. Vowels which occur at the start of a word are written using independent vowel letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Khudawadi script is written using sixty-nine letters, including thirty-seven consonants, ten independent vowels, nine vowel diacritics, and a set of digits from 0-9. There are also two non-alphabetic signs; \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e which is written above a letter to represent nasalization, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003enukta\u003c/span\u003e which is used for representing sounds non-native to Sindhi. A \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e is used for cancelling out the inherent vowel in every consonant letter.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonant clusters are written using the virama symbol underneath the first consonant in the cluster. Ligatures and half-letters, commonly used for writing consonant clusters in other South Asian languages, are not used for writing the Khudawadi script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA combination of Devanagari and Latin punctuation marks is used.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Sinh","name":"Sinhala","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"sinh","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Sinhala script is used for writing the Sinhala language, spoken by approximately 15,500,000 people in Sri Lanka, and for transcribing the ancient Pali and Sanskrit languages. The script is derived from Brahmi, and shows close similarities to the Grantha script which was used in southern India until the 16th century. Sinhala is a diglossic language, that is, the spoken and written forms of the language show considerable variation. The main differences are that retroflex ɭ and ɳ are represented in writing but have assimilated to alveolar l and n in speech, that three vowel sounds ə, a and ā are represented by only two letters, the pronunciation of which is generally predictable from a set of contextual rules, and that there are two letters transcribed ṣ and ś but both pronounced ʃ. Additionally, spelling conventions do not always reflect current pronunciation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are two forms of the Sinhala script. The standard, pure, form which is taught in schools is called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eeḷu hōḍiya\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003eśuddha hōḍiya\u003c/span\u003e. This system contains twenty consonant and twenty vowel letters and can be used to represent the sounds of the spoken language almost perfectly. However, to adhere to current spelling conventions - some of which represent archaic pronunciations - and to accurately transcribe Sanskrit, Pali, Hindi and English loanwords, a wider set of letters is needed. This set is called mixed alphabet \u003cspan class=Em\u003emiśra hōḍiya\u003c/span\u003e and contains an additional eighteen consonant letters, many of which are aspirated equivalents of existing letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Sinhala script is an abugida. Each letter represents a consonant+vowel syllable, with the vowel a being inherent in each syllable. This vowel can be changed by means of diacritics written above, below, to the left or to the right of the base consonant, or in a combination of positions. Examples of vowel diacritics with the consonant \u003cspan class=Em\u003em\u003c/span\u003e are shown below:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/yr/rj/yrrj4bqfur_SinhaV.png height=69 width=247 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are two additional diacritic marks, both called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehal kirīma\u003c/span\u003e which can be written above a consonant letter to silence the vowel altogether. The selection of one \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehal kirīma\u003c/span\u003e over the other is determined by the shape of the consonant letter. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehal kirīma\u003c/span\u003e with \u003cspan class=Em\u003ep\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eb\u003c/span\u003e respectively is shown in red below:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/yr/rj/yrrj4bqfur_SinhalaHal.png.jpg height=32 width=50 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eVowels which occur at the start of a word, so not preceded by a consonant, are written with independent vowel letters. Unusually for Indian languages, Sinhala has distinct signs (short and long) for the low front vowel æ.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpoken Sinhala is different from most Indian languages in that it uses a set of prenasalized stops which are distinct from nasal+stop combinations, and are represented differently in writing. So there is a single letter for representing the prenasalized sound ɳɖ in the word aɳɖa sound, but in the word aɳɖa egg, the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eɳ\u003c/span\u003e and the \u003cspan class=Em\u003eɖ\u003c/span\u003e are written using two separate letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are some conjunct letters for writing consonant clusters, including \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#gemination target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;geminates\u003c/a\u003e (long consonants). Generally, these are formed by attaching a full form of the second letter to a truncated form of the first. Some conjuncts are used which are not so easily decomposable into their parts. Special conjunct symbols also exist for combining \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e either before or after another consonant, and for combining \u003cspan class=Em\u003ey\u003c/span\u003e after a consonant. The \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehal kirīma\u003c/span\u003e sign can also be used to write two consecutive consonants with no intermediate vowel.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA set of Sinhala digits existed, representing numbers 0-9, multiples of 10 up to 100, and the number 1000. However, these are no longer used, having been replaced by Latin digits. The old Sinhala punctuation mark \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekunddaliya\u003c/span\u003e, which was previously used as a full stop, has also been supplanted by the Latin punctuation set. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Sora","name":"Sora Sompeng","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Sora Sompeng script is used for writing the Sora language spoken by about 310,000 people in India, predominantly in the eastern state of Orissa. Sora is in the Munda language family. It is also sometmes called Saora or Savara, but is not to be confused with the Savara language in the Dravidian family. According to the Ethnologue, Sora (Munda) is given the language code srb, and Savara (Dravidian) is given the language code svr.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are three scripts which have been created specifically for writing Munda languages; Sora Sompeng for the Sora language, Ol Chiki for the Santali language, and Varang Kshiti for the Ho language. However, these three scripts are not visually similar and are not derived from a common source, all having been created by influential community leaders to replace non-native scripts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Sora language has also been written in an IPA-based script developed by Christian missionaries, and in the Telugu and Oriya scripts. In the 1930s there was conflict within the community as to which of these was best-suited to the language. To resolve the conflict, Mangei Gomango, the son-in-law of an influential Sora leader, introduced the Sora Sompeng script in 1936. Sora tradition states that the script itself is a divine incarnation of the deity called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eAkshara Brahma\u003c/span\u003e, but other scholars suggest that the shapes of the letters are loosely based on Latin/IPA letters, and the additional loops are based on Telugu writing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are twenty-four letters in the Sora Sompeng syllabary, named for the twenty-four deities in the Sora pantheon. The eighteen consonant letters carry an inherent ə vowel (ɔ may or may not be written post-consonantally, therefore, the inherent vowel could be said to merge ə and ɔ). Unlike many of the South Asian syllabaries, there are no vowel diacritics. Vowels other than ə are written both initially and post-consonantally using six independent vowel letters. When written post-consonantally, the implication is that they override the inherent ə vowel. The script does not appear to be ideally suited for the Sora language. Two letters, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ec\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ev\u003c/span\u003e, are never used. Some vowel letters are used for representing more than one sound, for example the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003eo\u003c/span\u003e can represent either o and ɔ. Also unusual among South Asian syllabaries is the absence of both conjunct forms and a vowel-killer stroke; consonant clusters are written using linear combinations of consonant letters in their full (i.e. CV) form. It may be that the inclusion or deletion of vowels between consonants is governed by rules relating to stress/tone/intonation (prosodic rules), or to the sound rules applied at a morpheme break (morphophonemic rules), so is predictable to people familiar with the language and it doesnt need to be written. If this is not the case, then there is no way to deduce whether a sequence of consonant letters represents a phonetic CVCV sequence or a phonetic CC consonant unless the reader knows the pronunciation of the word intended.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRetroflex consonants present a particular problem for the Sora Sompeng script. Sora follows the Munda pattern of using dental t and retroflex ɖ, but not retroflex ʈ or dental d (which fill out the Brahmic pattern). Retroflex loan sounds (including ʈ, ʂ and ɳ) are indicated by writing the one Sora Sompeng diacritic, \u003cspan class=Em\u003emae\u003c/span\u003e, to the left of the closest equivalent letter. Dental d is not differentiated from retroflex ɖ in writing. Retroflex ɽ is also native to the Sora language, and is written using the letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003er+d\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAspirate stops are also problematic for Sora Sompeng writing. Aspiration is not distinctive in native Sora, so is omitted in writing Sora words, but needs to be represented in writing a number of loan words from neighbouring languages in which it is distinctive. The letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003eh\u003c/span\u003e cannot be used to indicate aspiration; it is used for representing a glottal stop. Nouns in Sora must have two syllables, and a glottal stop is often inserted halfway through the vowel in a mono-syllabic noun to split it into two syllables. Therefore, where aspiration needs to be written, it is written with the closest non-aspirate letter followed by the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ej\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is thought that vowel length is generally not written. The exception to this is in cases where a long a: at the start of a word conveys some kind of grammatical information about the word, or in cases where it changes the stress pattern of the word. In these cases the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e is written twice.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eVowel nasalization is distinctive in spoken Sora, but it is not clear whether this is represented in the writing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSora Sompeng has no script-specific punctuation. The Latin full stop, comma, semicolon, exclamation mark, mathematical symbols, and parentheses are used.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Soyo","name":"Soyombo","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Soyombo script was developed by the Mongolian monk and scholar Bogdo Zanabazar in 1686 to write Mongolian. According to legend, Zanabazar based the script on letter-like signs he saw in the sky one night. Other theories suggest that the shapes of the letters may have been based on the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Qabb\u003eRanjana\u003c/a\u003e script of Nepal.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Mongolian language had been written for centuries before the creation of Soyombo, using the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Mong\u003eMongolian script\u003c/a\u003e, but Zanabazar was the first to write it horizontally.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSoyombo can also be used to write Tibetan and Sanskrit.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Sund","name":"Sundanese","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"sund","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Sundanese script is used to write the Sundanese language, spoken by about 27 million people on the Indonesian island of Java. Today, the language is generally written in either the Sundanese or the Latin script, but has historically also been written using other scripts. As of 1996, the Sundanese script has been the official script for the language; it is currently taught in schools and used for public signage.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is an abugida of Brahmic descent. The standardized script contains 23 consonants, each bearing an inherent vowel, and 7 independent vowels, as well as digits from 0-9. Dependent vowels are represented by means of diacritics above, below or alongside the consonant, altering the inherent vowel. The consonants ya, ra and la can also appear as diacritical marks when immediately following an initial consonant. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/7f/4e/7f4ec7h674_SundaVowels.png height=219 width=270 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTwo additional characters were recently added to represent the sounds kha and sya, found in Arabic loan words. A virama character (shown above) exists for cancelling the inherent vowel; this is a separate character/akśra which follows the consonant, so unlike the virama characters of many other Brahmic abugidas it does not enable the formation of consonant clusters. Latin punctuation is used. There are two systems for ordering of the alphabet, both based on the Brahmic order by place of articulation.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Sylo","name":"Syloti Nagri","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"sylo","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Syloti Nagri script (also called Sylheti Nagri) is the original script for the Sylheti language, spoken in Bangladesh. The script has been almost entirely replaced by the Bengali and, to a lesser extent, Latin, scripts. At its peak however, it was used by all literate Sylheti speakers for personal correspondence, record-keeping, business purposes and religious texts in the language. Legend has it that the script was created by Saint Shah Jalal, who also converted the area to Islam, in the early 14th century. The script appears to be derived from the Kaithi script used in Bihar. The earliest extant manuscripts are dated to approximately the 17th century. By the end of the 17th century however, Persian had been declared the official language of the region, and the Perso-Arabic script was used in all official texts, although the Syloti Nagri script continued to be used informally. The first Syloti-Nagri printing press was established around 1870, and literacy in the script became high, but the script began to decline after the Partition of India in 1947, and by 1970 had fallen almost entirely from use.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is an abugida, that is, each letter represents a full syllable consisting of either a vowel or a consonant + a vowel sequence. Vowels other than a which follow a consonant are indicated by attaching a vowel diacritic to the base letter, which replaces the a sound with the desired vowel. There are 27 consonant+a letters, 5 vowel letters, and 5 vowel diacritics. Words which end with a consonant, that is, where the inherent a vowel needs to be silenced, are marked with a special diacritic called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehasanta\u003c/span\u003e. Consonant clusters are written using conjuncts, comprising reduced forms of the letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAn unusual feature of the script is that, although it is written from left to right, books are paginated from right to left, possibly due to the Arabic influence on writing. Syloti Nagri is also thought to be unique amongst Indic writing systems in allowing vowel + syllable ligatures, for example to represent ama. Most Indic scripts only allow consonant + syllable ligatures. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Syrc","name":"Syriac","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"syrc","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Syriac script is attested as early as the year 6 AD. It was primarily used for writing the Syriac language, now extinct outside of the Syrian church. The Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic and Turoyo/Surayt languages are descended from Syriac, and are still written in the Syriac script. It can also be used for writing Arabic, known as \u003cspan class=Em\u003eGarshani\u003c/span\u003e writing. The script is descended from Proto-Canaanite writing. There are two main dialects of spoken Syriac; West Syriac, used by the Syrian Orthodox, Maronites, and Syrian Catholics; and East Syriac, used by the Assyrians and Chaldaeans. There are three ancient variations of the script: the classical liturgical script called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eEstrangelo\u003c/span\u003e, the Western variant, and the Eastern variant. There is also a Modern Syriac orthography, based on the Eastern variety and having the aim of bridging the differences in Aramaic dialects. A common spoken Aramaic \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekoine\u003c/span\u003e used among Iraqis of Assyrian descent is based on this orthography.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eModern Syriac is written in a cursive style from right to left using a phonologically based abjad. The script contains twenty-two letters, all of them consonants. As in a number of Semitic scripts, three letters can represent either a consonant or a vowel; these are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ematres lectionis\u003c/span\u003e. The letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003e normally represents ʔ, but at the end of a word can represent the vowels a or ɪ. Similarly, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ewaw\u003c/span\u003e, which normally represents w, can also represent the vowels u and o, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eyudh\u003c/span\u003e, which normally represents j, can also represent i and e/ɛ.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/aj/6h/aj6hfj3yjw_SyriacLetters.png height=122 width=127 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eVowels cannot be written at the beginning of a word; rather, the ʔ letter, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003e, is written as a silent prefix to a word which starts with a vowel sound. In addition, a set of seven vowel pointing diacritics exists. These are optional, but almost always used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA further set of diacritics exists to indicate the pronunciation of some otherwise ambiguous consonants. A dot \u003cspan class=Em\u003e(rukkakha)\u003c/span\u003e below the letters representing b/w, ʔ/ɣ/j and k/x indicates that it is to be pronounced as a continuant or a glide, and a dot \u003cspan class=Em\u003e(qushshaya)\u003c/span\u003e above indicates a stop. The letters representing t and d are modifed with the same mark to produce interdentals θ and ð. Texts written using these diacritics are called \u003cspan class=Em\u003epointed\u003c/span\u003e; texts written without them are \u003cspan class=Em\u003eunpointed\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/aj/6h/aj6hfj3yjw_SyriacDots.png height=97 width=348 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFour diacritics are normally used even in unpointed texts. In common use is a diagonal line called \u003cspan class=Em\u003etalqana\u003c/span\u003e which can be written over a letter to mute it. This facilitates standardized spelling across dialects having slight differences in punctuation. Secondly, a two-dot mark may be placed over any suitably-shaped letter in a noun or adjective to indicate that it is plural. A third commonly used mark is a large dot written over or under a few specific letters to provide information about the pronunciation of the following letter. This is a relic of Classical Syriac orthography. A horizontal line extending the length of a word, traditionally with a point at each end and one in the middle, and written above the word, indicates that it has been abbreviated. Diacritic marks are normally centered above or below the character, with some exceptions. They are nonspacing and require complex positioning so as not to collide with vowel marks.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Syriac script does not employ a separate set of numbers; rather, each letter is assigned a numeric value of units, tens, hundreds or thousands, and combined to produce any figure. The abbreviation diacritic is used to indicate that a numerical, rather than alphabetic, value is to be assigned to the symbol.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSyriac writing uses Latin punctuation marks, with the question mark reversed and the comma inverted. Interword spacing is used. Some conjunctions and prepositions are only one letter long; these are written connected to the following word. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Syre","name":"Syriac (Estrangelo variant)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eEstrangelo is the oldest form of the Syriac script. The earliest Syriac language inscriptions, dating from the 1st or 2nd century AD were written in a cursive Aramaic Palmyrene script. By the 5th century AD, when the oldest extant Syriac manuscript was written, this had developed into the more formalized Estrangelo script. Estrangelo is also the name for the classical Aramaic dialect of Edessa (now Sanliurfa, Turkey). This is the dialect which became the \u003cspan class=Em\u003elingua franca\u003c/span\u003e of ancient Christianity and which developed into the modern Syriac language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEstrangelo writing was the sole Syriac script until the beginning of the 6th century, at which time a schism in the church led to the East and West Syrian Christians developing variant forms of the script. It continued to be used in manuscripts and ornate codices until the 8th century, after which point it fell into disuse. Since the 10th century some attempts have been made to revive the Estrangelo script, and it is sometimes used in scholarly texts, or for titles and inscriptions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEstrangelo was written from right to left. It was a cursive script; most letters had a right-joining form to join to the preceding letter, and many had a left-joining form to join to the following letter. Twenty-two consonant letters were used, representing the same sounds as the Hebrew script. Two letters, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ekap\u003c/span\u003e k and \u003cspan class=Em\u003enun\u003c/span\u003e h had a variant form when used at the beginning of a word, and two, \u003cspan class=Em\u003emeem\u003c/span\u003e m and \u003cspan class=Em\u003esimkath\u003c/span\u003e s, had a variant form when used at the end.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDiacritics were used for differentiating between the letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003edalat\u003c/span\u003e d and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eres\u003c/span\u003e r, which had a similar shape. They were also used to indicate gender of a verb, plurality of a noun, and etymological information affecting pronunciation. The vowel pointing system used in many Semitic scripts is thought to have developed from this system of diacritics.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEstrangelo appears to have been the earliest Semitic script to include vowels, although it was most often written without them. The earliest manuscripts use only consonant letters, but it is believed that the use of Syriac to spread Christianity to other language groups necessitated the development of a vowel pointing system to clarify pronunciation.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Syrj","name":"Syriac (Western variant)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Western dialect of the Syriac language is written in a variant of the Syriac script called Western Syriac, Serta, Maronite or, with pejorative connotations, Jacobite. It is one of two styles of Syriac writing which developed in the 6th century following a split in the Syrian church. Prior to this, the Syriac language had been written in the Estrangelo style, from which Western Syriac is derived.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWestern Syriac is a cursive script written from right to left. There are twenty-two letters in the alphabet, all representing consonants. Three of these, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003eʔ, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ewaw\u003c/span\u003e w and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eyodh\u003c/span\u003e j can also represent vowels. In its early days, Western Syriac also sometimes employed a complex system of vowel pointing diacritics, which is still used in the Eastern style. However, in the late 7th century Jacob of Edessa proposed the use of Greek vowel letters as a simpler means of vowel notation. This suggestion was resisted, but modified so that Greek vowel letters were written in miniature, above, below or alongside the consonant, which practice is still used today.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eJacob of Edessa was also instrumental in standardizing Western Syriac writing; in his writings concerning Syriac orthography he frequently emphasized the importance of consistency in spelling.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA number of diacritics are used in writing Syriac, for representing a variety of grammatical and phonological processes or as a pronunciation aid. A pair of dots above or below a word indicates a plural noun or a feminine verb, even when the singular and plural or the masculine and feminine forms are spelled differently. Diacritics are also used to differentiate between parts of speech. Six letters can be pronounced in two different ways, as stops or as fricatives. A dot above indicates the former and a dot below indicates the latter. The pronunciation of pairs of similar-looking letters are also indicated in this way. A small horizontal dash above, or more recently, below, a consonant indicates that the consonant is silent. A longer horizontal line above a word, traditionally with a point at each end and one in the middle, indicates that a word has been abbreviated. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Syrn","name":"Syriac (Eastern variant)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Eastern Syriac script (also called Madnhaya, Swadaya, Assyrian, Chaldean, or Nestorian) is used for writing the East Syriac dialect, now extinct outside of the Syriac Church, and for the Eastern Neo-Aramaic languages Koy Sanjaq Surat, Senaya, and Hertevin. The script is closely related to the older Estrangelo style of Syriac writing, from which it is derived. Around the 6th century a schism in the Syrian church saw those in the West generally becoming Jacobite Christians and those in the East generally becoming Nestorian Christians. As the two groups diverged, so did their writing styles, until there were two distinct but related variants of the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBoth East and West Syriac are written from right to left in a cursive style; most letters are joined on one or both sides to the letters around them. There are twenty-two letters in the inventory, all representing consonants. Three of these are \u003cspan class=Em\u003ematres lectionis\u003c/span\u003e, they can either represent the consonants ʔ, w and j, or the vowels a, u/o, ɪ/e/ɛ respectively. Eastern Syriac writing also employs a vowel pointing system developed from the Estrangelo system, whereby vowels are indicated using diacritics composed mainly of dots. Some vowels are written by adding a curved stroke to the consonant and writing the dot above/below that stroke.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEastern Syriac writing also spread to Central Asia, where it was written vertically. The Mongolian, Manchu and Kalmuk scripts (also written vertically) are derived from this style of writing.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Tagb","name":"Tagbanwa","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"tagb","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tagbanwa (also known as Apurahuano) script is one of the Brahmic scripts indigenous to the Philippines. It is used to write the Tagbanwa language, which is spoken by approximately 8,000 people living in scattered communities throughout the Palawan region. Although the language is used exclusively between speakers of Tagbanwa, younger generations prefer to use Tagalog in the company of other non-Tagbanwa Filipinos, as there is felt to be some stigma attached to the Tagbanwa identity. The result is that use of the language is declining, and, in keeping with that trend, literacy in the script is low. Of the three living indigenous Philippine scripts - Hanunoo, Buhid and Tagbanwa - Tagbanwa is acknowledged to be the least widely used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is an abugida composed of 13 consonants. Each consonant has an inherent vowel a, which can be modified to i or u by the addition of a diacritic, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eulitan\u003c/span\u003e, above or below the syllable respectively. There are also three vowel characters for representing syllable-initial vowels. There is no method for cancelling the inherent vowel, so syllable-final consonants are unexpressed in the Tagbanwa orthography and deduced from context. The script is read horizontally from left to right, but has historically been written either horizontally or vertically; in the case that it is written vertically, characters are oriented horizontally to facilitate reading.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Takr","name":"Takri, Ṭākrī, Ṭāṅkrī","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Takri script was used between the 16th and 19th centuries in what are now Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, the Punjab, and Uttarakhand. It was used for writing the Chambeali and Dogri languages, as well as a number of Pahari (Himalayan) languages including Jaunsari and Kulvi. The script is derived from Sharada, one of the Gupta scripts, and is related to the Gurmukhi and Lahnda scripts. It was widely used both in official and personal contexts. For much of its history it was used alongside Devanagari. Since the late 19th century, it has gradually been supplanted by Devanagari, although there have been some movements to revitalize it for certain Pahari languages and dialects of Kashmiri.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is written from left to right using thirty-four consonant letters, ten vowel letters and ten vowel diacritics. It is an abugida, meaning that each consonant letter contains an inherent short a vowel, which is not written. Other vowels are written with one of the vowel diacritics, unless they appear at the beginning of a word, in which case they are written using one of the independent vowel letters. One of the vowel diacritics does not represent a vowel \u003cspan class=Em\u003eper se\u003c/span\u003e, but nasalization of the inherent vowel, or of an independent vowel. There is also a symbol called \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e for silencing the post-consonantal vowel entirely, for example when a consonant comes at the end of a word or when it is immediately followed by another consonant. A further symbol, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003enukta\u003c/span\u003e, can be written below a consonant letter, primarily for the purpose of representing sounds which are not native to the language in question and cannot be accurately represented with one of the thirty-four consonant letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is significant variation in styles of the Takri script, partly because the wide and mountainous area over which the script was used was conducive to many regional varieties being developed in isolated mountain communities. Some communities standardized the form of the script which they themselves used, but there was no universally applicable standardized variety. However, despite variations in the shapes of letters and the styles of writing, each form was recognized by its users to be Takri, and each variety exhibited certain common features.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOne notable feature of the script is that, unlike many of the Gupta derivatives used in South Asia, most varieties of Takri did not use a headstroke. There were some exceptions to this, for example the variety used for writing Dogri Akkhar, but for the most part the headstroke was not used except to distinguish between otherwise identical letters. For example the letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003ema\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003esa\u003c/span\u003e in the variety used for writing the Chambeali language were identical but for the headstroke over \u003cspan class=Em\u003esa\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTakri writing employed the Devanagari punctuation marks \u003cspan class=Em\u003edanda\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edouble danda\u003c/span\u003e to indicate pauses in the text. A script-specific set of decimal numbers from 0-9 was used.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Tale","name":"Tai Le","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between phrases","open_type_tag":"tale","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tai Le script has been used for 700-800 years for writing the Tai Le language (also known as Tai Nüa, Dehong Dai, Tai Mau, Tai Kong, and Chinese Shan), one of the official languages of Dehong in China. The language is also spoken in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. The script was derived from the Brahmi script, which spread from India with the introduction of Buddhism to Southeast Asia. The script has undergone a number of progressive changes since its inception. In 1954 it was decided that the script was unsuitable for writing the language - there were multiple symbols for representing the same sound, tone was not being accurately represented, and there was no standard for joining the letters in handwritten form. A new version of the script was proposed, and revised again in 1988, in order to resolve some of these problems.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLike many scripts having Brahmic derivation, consonants contain an inherent a vowel, which can be modified by the addition of diacritics. There are 19 consonant symbols and 11 vowels. Of the consonants, all but n can occur syllable-initially. Only unaspirated p, t and k, and the nasals m, n and ŋ can occur syllable-finally. 6 tones are represented by 5 spacing marks which were introduced as part of the reform in 1988 (Tone 1 is represented by the absence of a tone mark.). Prior to this, diacritics were used for marking tone.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBoth Chinese and Latin punctuation are used in writing Tai Le. In China, Latin digits are widely used, although a modified set of Myanmar digits is also used. It is believed that Tai Le writers in Myanmar use unique Tai Le digits.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is currently widely used in China for government documents, public notice boards and signage, in advertising, education and publishing. There are 6 publishing houses in China which publish over 45,000 book copies per year in the script. It is estimated that speakers of Tai Le in Dehong are about 95% literate in the Tai Le script.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Talu","name":"New Tai Lue","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"talu","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe New Tai Lue script (also known as Xishuangbanna Dai) is an alphabet derived from Old Tai Lue, which is derived from the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Lana\u003eLanna\u003c/a\u003e script. It was created in the 1950s and is used mainly by the Tai Lue (also called Water Dai) people in Southern China for writing the Lü (also called Tai Lue) language. The language is also spoken in Burma, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam where it is written with the Old Tai Lue script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is written from left to right in horizontal lines. There are 3 types of consonant symbol in the New Tai Lue script: initial, final, and clusters. There are 36 initial consonant symbols; these represent a high and a low tone for each of the 18 Tai Lue consonant sounds. Initial consonants contain an inherent a vowel. Only 7 consonant sounds can be used at the end of a syllable. These are written using 7 final consonant symbols, which contain a mark to show that the inherent a vowel has been muted. There are also 6 symbols for writing consonant clusters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are 17 vowel symbols, some of which represent phonetically complex vowels such as glides and diphthongs. Some, such as those representing i:, ɔi and yi are written to the right of the consonant; others, such as those representing o, ai and ə are written to the left. Some vowels are expressed using two symbols; these are called \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#digraph target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;digraphs\u003c/a\u003e. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/f9/hd/f9hded8hba_NTLvowels.png height=209 width=215 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhere the selection of the appropriate initial consonant symbol is not sufficient to indicate the tone, additional tones are represented using spacing tone marks. These are written after the final consonant in a closed syllable, or after the vowel in an open syllable.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/f9/hd/f9hded8hba_NTLtone.png height=69 width=173 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDigits from one to nine are written with script-specific symbols.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script was promoted from the time of its creation until 1987 by the Chinese government, and was used in schools and newspapers. However in 1987 the Old Tai Lue script was revived and widely used. In 1996 the government once again decided to promote the New Tai Lue script. The result is that both are in current use in China.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Taml","name":"Tamil","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tamil script, also called \u003cspan class=Em\u003etamiz ezuttu\u003c/span\u003e, is used for writing the Tamil language, a Dravidian language spoken by over 65,500,000 people in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Mauritius. Tamil is an official language in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu as well as in Sri Lanka and Malaysia. The script is derived from Brahmi, so is related to many of the scripts used for writing Indian Indo-Aryan languages, to which the Tamil language itself is unrelated.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTamil is written from left to right using an abugida containing eighteen consonants, or \u003cspan class=Em\u003emeyyeḻuttu\u003c/span\u003e \\\\\\body letters\\\\\\\"","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Tang","name":"Tangut","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"vertical","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tangut script (also called Xixia) was widely used between 1036 and 1502 for writing the Tangut language, an extinct Tibeto-Burman language from China. The script was written with almost 6,000 characters. It was created at the decree of the emperor, and is thought to have been modelled on Chinese. However, although the overall look of the characters resembles Chinese writing, the two scripts are mutually illegible, and the stroke types are different. Another important difference between the two is that Tangut characters are wholly lacking in any pictographic basis, that is, the shapes of the characters are not modelled on the things or concepts that they represent. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe majority of Tangut characters are composed of at least two distinct components. However, approximately forty have a unitary composition. Some analyses describe these as composite and simple characters, respectively. Simple characters represent either semantic or phonetic information, and can be modified and / or combined to create composite characters. For example, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eɣu\u003c/span\u003e, meaning a supernatural being that flies is written by combining the left side of the character representing emperor with the left side of the character representing bird. The result of this is that characters representing semantically related words also resemble each other visually, despite the lack of a pictographic basis to the characters. The mid 12th century Tangut rhyming dictionary, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eThe Sea of Characters\u003c/span\u003e (Wén Hǎi 文海 in Chinese), analyses each composite character in terms of other Tangut characters with which it shares (simple) constituent elements. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Tavt","name":"Tai Viet","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tai Viet script is used for writing the Tai Dam, Tai Dón, Tai Daeng, Thai Song and Tày Tac languages spoken in Vietnam, Laos, China and Thailand. Speakers of these languages are also found in the United States, Australia and France. There is significant variation in the orthographic conventions of the Tai languages, as well as in their phonologies, which in turn impacts the orthography. However, a unified, standardized version of the script, with an agreed upon core set of characters, was developed at a UNESCO-sponsored workshop in 2006, and subsequently accepted for encoding in The Unicode Standard.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is an abugida. Consonants do not contain an inherent vowel; vowels must be written explicitly. Vowel marks may appear above, below, before or after a syllables initial consonant. A written syllable therefore consists minimally of a consonant and a vowel. Optionally it may also contain a final consonant. There are two series of consonants, indicating high and low tone class. The Tai Viet script employs Latin punctuation as well as three non-alphabetic signs to indicate word repetition or a section break. It also uses two ligatures which may serve to disambiguate between homophonous words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTraditionally, tone was only partially marked in the orthography. As in other Tai languages, tones were divided into two sets of three, and the appropriate selection of consonants from the high or low series indicated which set of tones the syllable belonged to. The reader had to determine the exact tone from context. However, around the 1970s, two different tone marking systems developed simultaneously in Vietnam and the United States; the concurrent use of both these systems is seen to be disadvantageous but, for the time being, unavoidable. There is no standard order for sorting characters. Some users have modified the order employed by the Lao script, others, the Vietnamese.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLittle is known about the origin of the Tai Viet script. It appears to have been derived from the Thai script around the 16th century, which is in turn of Khmer, and ultimately Brahmic, origin.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePlease note that, although the Tai Viet script does exhibit reordering behaviour, that reordering is not typically reflected in software implementations. See \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/entry/ca53syu3cl\u003eSyllable Structure and Reordering in Tai Viet\u003c/a\u003e or \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/entry/l5bvp27v3r\u003eReordering and Data Storage Order\u003c/a\u003e for more details.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Telu","name":"Telugu","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Telugu script is used for writing the Telugu language, a Dravidian language spoken by almost 70,000,000 people in South India. Telugu is the official language of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The Telugu script is also used for writing a number of minority languages in Southern India, including Chenchu, Savara and Manna-Dora to which the Telugu language is related. The script is closely related to the Kannada script; a person familiar with one script can normally read the other. The two scripts developed from a common Brahmic source but diverged around the 13th century AD. From this time until the early 20th century, Telugu was a literary language - the written form reflected an archaic spoken form. Modern standard Telugu only began to be written during the second half of the 20th century.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLike most of the Brahmic-derived scripts, Telugu is an abugida written from left to right. Visually, it differs from many of the North Indian scripts in that the letters have a rounded base and the characteristic North Indic headstroke has been replaced by a hook on the top left of each letter. An inherent a vowel is inherent in each of the thirty-two consonant symbols. Vowels other than a are written using diacritics attached above, below or to the right of the consonant symbol. These vowel diacritics override the inherent vowel so that the syllable is read with the correct vowel sound. Where a vowel occurs at the start of a word, there is no preceding consonant symbol to which a diacritic may be attached, so one of sixteen independent vowel letters is used. (Two of these letters do not, strictly speaking, represent vowels, but long and short forms of the syllabic consonants r̩ and l̩.) A \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehalantamu\u003c/span\u003e symbol is written above a word-final consonant to silence the inherent vowel. This symbol can also be used for writing consonant clusters, when a ligature (described below) is not used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpoken Telugu contains a number of \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#gemination target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;geminates\u003c/a\u003e (long consonants). Some consonant clusters are also used. Both of these are represented in writing using ligatures comprised of the full form of the first consonant and the half form of the second consonant. The half form of a letter is generally formed by stripping the letter of its top hook, and is subscribed below the preceding letter.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/wm/d9/wmd9w5645d_TeluguConjuncts.png height=88 width=143 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are two additional symbols which are only written after vowels. The first is \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e, a circle which either represents a nasal consonant pronounced at the same place in the oral cavity as the following consonant, or, where there is not following consonant, represents a final m. For example, the word ʌŋgəmu limb of the body is written with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e following the ʌ and the word lʌga:m bridle with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e following the a:, although there are separate letters for representing the sounds ŋ and m. The second symbol is \u003cspan class=Em\u003evisarga\u003c/span\u003e, two small circles stacked in the manner of the dots in a Latin colon. This symbol is transcribed as ḥ and normally represents a post-vocalic ha, as in the word again written \u003cspan class=Em\u003epunaḥ\u003c/span\u003e and pronounced punəha.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/wm/d9/wmd9w5645d_TeluguVIS.png height=113 width=386 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTelugu writing employs a script-specific set of digits from 0-9. In the past, these were combined with eight arithmetic symbols for writing fractions. The system for writing fractions was complex, for example, 3/8 was written using four symbols representing 1, 1/4, 2 and 1/16 (i.e. 1 x 1/4 + 2 x 1/16). In modern texts, however, decimal fractions are used.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Teng","name":"Tengwar","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Artificial","type":"abugida","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Fictional","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tengwar script was created by J.R.R. Tolkein in the 1920s or ‘30s, and popularized in his fictional novels such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The script is used for writing a number of the languages of Middle-earth, where the novels are set.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEach language written in the script has its own orthography, called a \u003cspan class=Em\u003emode\u003c/span\u003e. All modes are written from left to right, with numbers written from right to left. The script is an abugida with each letter representing a consonant. The shapes of the letters are based on a rounded ‘bow’ called a \u003cspan class=Em\u003elúva\u003c/span\u003e and a stem called a \u003cspan class=Em\u003etelco\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe precise phonetic value of each sign varies from one mode to another; for example, the letter representing mp in the Quenya mode represents v in the Sindarin mode. However, the symbol/sound relationship is not arbitrary; a significant number of letters represent consistent or closely related sounds between modes, and within a mode there are rules governing the modifications of signs and sounds. For example, in the Quenya mode, a bow with a left-side stem represents a voiced sound, the equivalent bow with a right-side stem represents a voiceless sound, and the equivalent bow without a stem represents a nasal.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eVowels are indicated with diacritics called \u003cspan class=Em\u003etehtar\u003c/span\u003e, which are written directly above or below the consonant they modify. In some modes the tehtar modify the preceding consonant, in others, the following consonant.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are also modes in which vowels are omitted or optionally written using spacing letters, so the script can also be called an abjad.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTengwar is a cursive script, based on calligraphic handwriting. Ligatures are commonly used, but are not obligatory. Neither reordering nor complex positioning are necessary for processing the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA unique system of punctuation is used for writing Tengwar. Numbers can be written with a set of numeral symbols or with alphabetic letters modified by a dot or bar above them.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Tfng","name":"Tifinagh (Berber)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"abjad","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"tfng","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"optional","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tifinagh alphabet is used to write the Berber languages spoken in North Africa; it is believed to be a form of the Ancient Berber script. It is widely used by the Tuareg, the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are many regional variations of the script; the standardised version proposed by the Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe (IRCAM) consists of 33 symbols. This character set does not represent the full phonemic inventory of any particular language, but was proposed with a view to progressively unifiying regional phonological variations in the orthography. Consonant \u003ca href=http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?\u0026cat_id=Glossary#gemination target=_blank\u003e\u003cimg src=../sites/s/themes/default/_media/system_icons/offsite_link.png /\u003e\u0026nbsp;gemination\u003c/a\u003e is represented by writing the letter twice. Traditionally, vowels are only written word-finally, although in some areas Arabic diacritics are adopted to represent word-internal vowels. Some Tuareg orthographies use diacritics from the \\\\\\Combining Diacritics\\\\\\\" Unicode block. Some texts also employ a number of conjunct forms in order to differentiate between words which would otherwise be ambiguous due to the vowels being unwritten. Historically","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Tglg","name":"Tagalog (Baybayin, Alibata)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Insular Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"tglg","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tagalog script, also known as Baybayin, is an extinct script indigenous to the Philippines. It was used to write the Tagalog language, which is still spoken by 21 million people throughout the Philippines, although it is now written in the Latin script. The Tagalog script was an abugida which descended from the Oldl Kawi, and ultimately the Brahmic, scripts. Each of the 14 consonants contained an inherent a vowel, with other vowels being represented by means of diacritical marks placed above or below the syllable. There are also 3 vowel characters to represent syllable-initial vowels. Only V and CV syllables could be represented in the orthography, although spoken Tagalog also employed VC and CVC syllables. In words taking one of the latter forms, the correct interpretation was inferred through context. In the 1600s, Spanish missionaries translating books into the language struggled with their inability to write final consonants, so a virama character was created to accommodate these in the orthography. This was met with mixed feelings; many Tagalog felt that such a reform corrupted the language, and used the virama only when writing Spanish words. The only punctuation mark was a line, or pair of lines, which served the roles approximately equivalent to the Latin comma or full stop, or separated sets of words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTraditionally, Tagalog was written without a break between words, vertically from bottom to top and left to right. However, further reforms on the part of the Spanish rotated the direction of writing with the consequence was that the orientation of the characters needed to change to accommodate the new direction. The result was that text published by the Spanish in the Tagalog script were written in horizontal lines to be read from left to right, with each character and its diacritics being rotated by 90 degrees Kuipers p5. The first book to be printed in the horizontal script was the Doctrina Christiana in 1593. Literacy in the script was reported to be high amongst both men and women at this time, but by the 1700s it had been replaced by the Latin alphabet.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Thaa","name":"Thaana","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"thaa","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"rtl","direction_notes":"RTL bidirectional","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Thaana script is used for writing the Maldivian language, also known as Dhivehi, spoken by about 370,000 people in the Maldives and in Maldivian communities in India. The script is unique to this language. The language is also called Mahl, particularly on the island of Minicoy in the Indian territory of Lakshadweep. The Maldivian language has been written in its own script, it is thought, for over two millennia, when it was developed by Maldivian Buddhist monks translating the Buddhist scriptures.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Thaana script is broadly considered an alphabet as all vowels are written, although it also contains characteristics of an abugida, for example the use of a vowel-killer symbol to indicate a consonant with no following vowel. It is one of the few alphabets in the world which does not have its roots in the Proto-Canaanite script. Rather, the first nine letters are derived from the shapes of the numerals used in Arabic writing, and the next nine from earlier forms of Maldivian letters.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe alphabet comprises two main types of signs. The twenty-four consonant letters, including a \\\\\\null consonant\\\\\\\" \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealifu\u003c/span\u003e form the base line of writing. These do not contain an inherent vowel","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Thai","name":"Thai","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Southeast Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"thai","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":true,"case":null,"split_graphs":true,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Thai script is used primarily for writing the Thai language, as well as Northern Thai, Northeastern Thai, Southern Thai, and Thai Song, which are separate languages. It is also used to write a number of minority languages in Thailand, Laos and China, as well as Pali, which is widely used in Buddhist temples and monasteries. Both the Thai language and script are closely related to Laotian. The script is of Indic origin, derived from Old Khmer.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Thai script is an abugida that reads from left to right. The relationship between letters and sounds is complex; 44 letters are used to represent 21 consonant phonemes. This is largely due to the way in which the languages sound system has changed over time. Some sounds used to be distinctive - that is, they used to differentiate between otherwise identical words - but these distinctions have now become obsolete. However, the sounds continue to be written using different letters. In addition, Thai vocabulary has been borrowed from Sanskrit, Pali, Old Khmer, English and Teochew Chinese, and it is often necessary to know the origin of the word in order to spell it correctly.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonants contain an inherent vowel, either a or o, which can be modified by means of vowel diacritics. Words in which a consonant is pronounced without a vowel are written with a symbol called a virama, which mutes the inherent vowel. There are no independent letters to represent syllable-initial vowels; syllables which are pronounced with an initial vowel are written with a glottal stop and the appropriate vowel diacritic is joined to it.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTone is represented partly by qualities inherent in the consonant symbol, partly by the structure of the syllable and partly by tone marks.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWord breaks are not indicated by spaces, rather, spaces are used to separate clauses or sentences. A Latin comma and full stop are sometimes used, but not by everybody. There also used to be a symbol (now obsolete) for separating paragraphs. Additional non-alphabetic symbols include an abbreviation marker, a symbol to indicate that a word or letter is repeated, a symbol to indicate that a letter is not pronounced, and a letter equivalent in meaning to the English abbreviation etc.. Thai digits from 0-9 are used; these are almost identical to Khmer digits. Latin numerals are also used.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePlease note that, although orthographically the Thai script does exhibit reordering behaviour, that reordering is not typically reflected in software implementations. See \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/entry/l5bvp27v3r\u003eReordering and Data Storage Order\u003c/a\u003e for more details of this.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Tibt","name":"Tibetan","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Central Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"tibt","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tibetan script is used for writing the Tibetan, Dzongkha, Ladakhi and Sikkimese languages, spoken in Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and India. It is also used for transcribing religious Sanskrit texts. The exact origin of the script is not clear; Tibetan Buddhism traditionally ascribes its creation to Minister Thon mi Sambhota in Northeast India, but Bon Po religious tradition cites Iranian or Central Asian origins. What is generally agreed upon is that it is ultimately derived from the Brahmi script, as evidenced by its syllabic structure, its use of diacritics to modify the vowel in a syllable, and its typically Brahmic canonical arrangement of the letters in phonological groups.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are a number of different styles of writing Tibetan, which can be grouped into two main variants: \u003cspan class=Em\u003edbu-can\u003c/span\u003e with a head, which is the most commonly used and is the less cursive of the two, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003edbu-med\u003c/span\u003e headless which includes the relatively careful \u003cspan class=Em\u003edpe-yig\u003c/span\u003e book writing or the rapid \u003cspan class=Em\u003enkhyug-yig\u003c/span\u003e running writing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTibetan is written from left to right. It is an abugida; there is an inherent a in each of the thirty consonant letters, also called radicals. Unlike many Brahmic abugidas, a consonant without a vowel is not represented by means of a \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e diacritic, rather, every radical is written by default with a dot to the upper right, which is removed when there is no vowel intended. For example ད་ represents da but ད represents d. The inherent vowel can be modified using one of four vowel diacritics, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ei\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eu\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ee\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003eo\u003c/span\u003e. Vowels are rarely written at the beginning of a native syllable, and there is only one independent vowel letter, ཨ \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e, to which can be added the same vowel diacritics to represent other syllable-initial vowels.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRetroflex consonants are only present in loan words from Sanskrit. These are written using the letter for the closest Tibetan equivalent, flipped horizontally, so ཏ represents ta and ཊ represents ʈa.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe relationship between spoken and written Tibetan is complex and a number of unpronounced consonants are written in Tibetan. These may reflect older pronunciations of the language or simply be spelling conventions to distinguish between words which sound the same. Spoken Tibetan is largely monosyllabic with very few consonant clusters in native words. However, in the written form up to seven symbols - six consonants and a vowel - can be used to represent a simple CVC syllable as in the form written \u003cspan class=Em\u003eb+s+g+r+u+b+s\u003c/span\u003e but pronounced ɖùp, meaning completed. There are certain rules dictating the way in which letters can be combined. A full radical is central to a cluster; to this may be combined a prescript consonant to the left, one vowel, a superscript consonant above, a subscript consonant below, one vowel, either super- or subscript, and up to two postscript consonants to the right. Further rules govern which consonants can appear where in the cluster: the consonants \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003el\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003es\u003c/span\u003e can be stacked above a radical, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ey\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003el\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ew\u003c/span\u003e can be stacked below. For example, the cluster kra is written with with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eka\u003c/span\u003e as the base radical, with \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e stacked below it. But rka is written with \u003cspan class=Em\u003eka\u003c/span\u003e as the base radical, with \u003cspan class=Em\u003er\u003c/span\u003e stacked above it.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=http://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/../sites/s/media/database/ssproto/entries/uh/3c/uh3ccghszt_Tibetan.png.jpg height=146 width=150 /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn written Tibetan, syllables have been separated by a \u003cspan class=Em\u003etsheg\u003c/span\u003e ་ since the 10th century. Note that syllable here refers to a written consonant/consonant cluster with all of its prefixes, suffixes and vowel signs, not necessarily a syllable in the phonetic sense. Spaces are not used to separate words, however, since many words are mono-syllabic the \u003cspan class=Em\u003etsheg\u003c/span\u003e often functions as a word separator also. One grammatical punctuation mark is used, a vertical line called \u003cspan class=Em\u003eshad\u003c/span\u003e which is used to divide sections of text. There are three official variants of this symbol, plus many other stylistic variants. A hooked \u003cspan class=Em\u003eshad\u003c/span\u003e is used where, grammatically, a break is required, but the writer intended continuous recitation. There are also a number of astrological, editorial, tantric, and cantillation marks, further details of which can be found in \u003ca href=www.tibet.dk/pktc/download/TD_Tib_Signs3.pdf\u003e this article\u003c/a\u003e. Four additional punctuation marks are used when writing the Dzongkha language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Tibetan script contains signs for numbers 0-9, and a set of half-numbers, the digits 0-9 with a hooked slash through them. Very little is known about the intended usage of these half-numbers. Some scholars claim that the slashed digit represents one-half less than the unslashed digit (that is, slashed 4 represents 3.5), but others maintain that they were originally used to indicate proportions in Tibetan art, in such a way that a slashed digit represented one-half of its unslashed equivalent.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Tirh","name":"Tirhuta","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Tirhuta (also called Mithilakshar) script has historically been used for writing the Maithili language, an Indo-Aryan language spoken by almost 35 million people. Maithili is spoken predominantly in the state of Bihar in India and in the Narayani and Janakpur zones of Nepal. Nowadays, the Maithili language is written almost exclusively in the Devanagari script, although Tirhuta is still sometimes used by religious pundits for writing ceremonial letters and documents, and efforts are underway to broaden the scope of its usage. These efforts were aided in 2003 when the Government of India included Maithili in the Eighth Schedule of the India Constitution as a scheduled language, thus ensuring official support for its development, and in 2011 when the script was accepted into ISO 15924.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Tirhuta script is an abugida written from left to right. There are eighty-two characters in the script, comprising thirty-three consonant letters, fourteen independent vowel letters, fifteen dependent vowel diacritics, five non-alphabetic signs, three punctuation symbols, two sacred signs and ten digits (0-9). Many letters and conjuncts also have variant forms. The letters hang from a baseline, with diacritics written above the baseline, or below or beside the letter. It is similar to the Bengali script, but forms a number of conjuncts differently. Also, there are some visually identical signs which represent different sounds in the two scripts, which impedes mutual legibility of the two scripts. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Ugar","name":"Ugaritic","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"abjad","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"ugar","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"centered","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Ugaritic script was used from about 1500-1300 BC to write the Ugaritic language, spoken in modern-day Syria. It was also occasionally used for writing documents in the Hurrian language. Visually, the script resembled Cuneiform, with each letter written as one of a combination of short, linear wedges. However, the forms of the letters appear to have been freely invented; derivational relationships with other cuneiform letters have not been established. The script remained relatively stable in form throughout its use, with no significant changes.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eUgaritic was generally written from left to right with a vertical slash dividing words. Rarely, it was also written from right to left. There were thirty letters used, all representing consonants. Three of these, called \u003cspan class=Em\u003ealeph\u003c/span\u003e, represented a glottal stop, each with a different vowel associated with it. The vowels a, i and u were represented in this way. The letter representing j was also sometimes used as a vowel. Letters were ordered into one of two orders. The \\\\\\Northern Semitic order\\\\\\\" more closely resembles the order of Hebrew and Greek letters","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Vaii","name":"Vai","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"African","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"vai","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Vai script was created by Mɔmɔlu Duwalu Bukɛlɛ in the 1830s to represent the Vai language spoken by about 104,000 in what is now Liberia, and about 15,000 in Sierra Leone. Tradition states that, while Bukɛlɛ was working as a messenger on a Portuguese ship, he became curious about the written messages he carried, which enabled the recipients to understand the captains wishes without hearing his spoken words. When he returned home, he had a dream in which a tall white man revealed a number of symbols which could be used to write the Vai language. Upon waking, he wrote these symbols down.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAn alternative theory proposes that the Vai syllabary was influenced by the Cherokee syllabary, to which it bears remarkable similarities. After the creation of the Cherokee syllabary in the early 1800s a number of Cherokee emigrated to West Africa. One particular Cherokee man, Austin Curtis, married into an influential family and became a chief himself. It is proposed that he might have contributed to the creation of the Vai script and influenced its form.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the 1960s Momolu Massaquoi at the University of Liberia proposed further minor modifications to some characters, to enable every legitimate syllable to be represented, and, largely as a result of his efforts and those of August Klingenheben, in 1962 the script was standardised.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script comprises 212 symbols, with every syllable in use being represented by a unique character. Forty or fifty of these characters are in much wider use than the others; many literates in fact find fifty characters adequate for their purposes. Although some glyphs representing a common place of articulation are related, there is no referable derivation of form or predictable application of diacritics. Tone is not represented, although Vai is a tonal language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is a moraic syllabary. That is to say, rather then each symbol expressing one syllable, each symbol expresses one mora. The spoken language adheres to a strict (C)V(N) pattern, and the script reflects this. CV syllables containing a short vowel are monomoraic and written with a single character, and those containing a long vowel or diphthong are bimoraic and written with two characters. Closed CVN syllables are also bimoraic and written with two characters, as the nasal itself constitutes a mora. It should be mentioned that there is some variation in the way long vowels and diphthongs are syllabified, and therefore written/spelled.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eVai is written from left to right, but it is suggested that at one time it was also written from right to left or vertically from top to bottom. Vai-style numerals were proposed in the 1920s, but these were not popular and have never been widely attested. The 1962 Standard used a system of Vai punctuation, which is still used, but in combination with Latin punctuation according to personal preference. Older texts also attest to a set of logograms, although only two of these are still in use. Texts are currently published with breaks between words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBukɛlɛ established schools throughout the Vai-speaking region to propagate his script, and literacy became widespread; by 1899 most of the Vai were said to be literate. During the C20th a lengthy manuscript was published, detailing clan histories, Biblical and Quranic translations, and folktales. There continues to be a market for Vai literature; The Institute for Liberian Languages publishes in the script. It is also widely used in commerce, as well as for newspapers, tombstones and in traditional rituals.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Visp","name":"Visible Speech","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Artificial","type":"featural","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eVisible Speech (also called the Physiological Alphabet) was invented in the 1860s by Alexander Melville Bell. Bell studied the science of speech as a young man, and went on to teach elocution at the University of Edinburgh, and later taught deaf-mutes in Washington DC.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHe devised Visible Speech as a means of visually representing every human speech sound, for use in teaching deaf-mutes to speak. Each symbol was intended to reduce speech sounds to an unambiguous representation by showing the position and movement of the lips, tongue, and throat in producing them.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBell also proposed that the script could be used to teach illiterates overseas to read and write their own languages, to communicate the exact sounds of foreign languages to students, for use in speech therapy, for diffusion of a primary language throughout the colonies, and possibly for the eventual establishment of a universal language.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eConsonant and vowel symbols in Visual Speech contrast visually, with consonants being written using x-height curves representing the back, top, and tip of the tongue, and the lips. For example, curves turned to the right (that is, facing the same direction as a closing bracket) represent labial consonants such as b, p etc., and curves turned to the left (that is, facing the same direction as a Latin letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ec\u003c/span\u003e) represent consonants pronounced using the back of the tongue such as k, g etc. Vowels are written using long thin symbols which either ascend above the x-height (for high vowels) or descend below the baseline (for low vowels) or do both (for mid-vowels). Glides and diphthongs are also represented.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is also a set of modifiers representing features such as \u003cspan class=Em\u003enasal\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003estop\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan class=Em\u003eabrupt\u003c/span\u003e etc.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBell’s son, Alexander Graham Bell, was also a big advocate of the script and contributed much of the profit from his patent of the telephone to promoting it.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Wara","name":"Warang Citi (Varang Kshiti)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Indic","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":false,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Warang Citi script is used for writing the Ho language spoken largely in the state of Jharkhand in eastern India. The history of the script is controversial. Followers of Lako Bodra, an influential community leader who is variously credited with the invention or the rediscovery of the script, claim a much older heritage for the script than scholars have evidence for. The script displays a number of similarities with other scripts including Latin and Brahmi; Bodras followers claim that this is the result of borrowing \u003cspan class=Em\u003efrom\u003c/span\u003e Varang Kshiti but scholars generally believe it is the result of borrowing \u003cspan class=Em\u003einto\u003c/span\u003e it. The version of the script which has been most well-documented is based on an archaic (perhaps secret shamanistic) dialect of Ho called Ho Hayam, not the more widely-spoken dialect, Ho Kaji.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere are thirty-one letters in the script, twenty-one consonants and ten vowels, each of which also has a cursive form. The letters are arranged in rows and columns according to their phonetic properties; from top to bottom: velars, palatals, retroflex, dentals, labials, and from left to right: nasals, voiceless stops, voiced stops. There is no distinction made between aspirated and non-aspirated stops, either in speech or writing. Some letters appear to be redundant, for example the retroflex ʂ is not used in speech but there is a letter to represent it in writing. The names of the letters are written using consonant clusters, but pronounced in CVC form, for example \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehl\u003c/span\u003e which is pronounced hol. Both of these features are thought by some scholars to be attempts by Bodra to sanskritize the script.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWarang Citi is written from left to right. Consonants contain an inherent vowel; this is normally transcribed \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e but can be pronounced variously as a, o, e or ə. Vowels other than the inherent vowel are written to the right of a preceding consonant using one of ten independent vowel letters. Unlike many of the South Asian abugidas, vowel diacritics are not used. One of the vowel letters corresponds to the Devanagari \u003cspan class=Em\u003eanusvara\u003c/span\u003e diacritic, marking nasalization. Two vowel letters, \u003cspan class=Em\u003ei\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eu\u003c/span\u003e, have long counterparts but apart from these, vowel length is indicated by writing the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003eh\u003c/span\u003e after the vowel.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Ho language employs two preglottalized stops, b and ḍ in word-final position. Preglottalization is not marked in writing, which leads to some ambiguity in loan words which have retained their native phonology and in which final b and ḍ are not glottal. Some ambiguity also arises in the case of consonant clusters. Ligated conjunct letters are not used, nor is any \u003cspan class=Em\u003evirama\u003c/span\u003e for killing the inherent vowel, so there is no way of knowing whether a written sequence of consonant letters represents a CVC(V) string or a CC(V) cluster, without knowing the word.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe sequence \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehb\u003c/span\u003e represents either b or v, often transliterated \u003cspan class=Em\u003ew\u003c/span\u003e. b can also be written with the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003eb\u003c/span\u003e; the reason for having an alternative representation is unknown. It is possible that the use of \u003cspan class=Em\u003ehb\u003c/span\u003e marks the word as sacred semantically rather than (or as well as) conveying phonological information. It is also possible that it reflects archaic pronunciation of some words.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is a set of script-specific Warang Citi numerals from 0-9, and for multiples of 10 up to 100. These are not always used consistently however; the number 23 for example can be written either with the characters \u003cspan class=Em\u003e20\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e or with \u003cspan class=Em\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=Em\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Wole","name":"Woleai","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Pacific","type":"syllabary","whitespace":"discretionary","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Woleai script was used until the mid-20th century for writing the Woleaian language, a Micronesian language spoken by approximately 1,600 people in the Caroline Islands. The origin of the script is not known, although some letters appear to be Latin-based. It is thought that this came about after a European missionary, Alfred Snelling, became lost at sea and landed on one of the Caroline Islands in 1905. There is some debate as to whether the Woleaian people already had a writing system prior to Snellings arrival, into which they integrated some Latin-based characters, or whether they adopted his system and augmented and modified it using other symbols. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe script is a syllabary containing 98 characters. It is written from left to right, often without interword spacing. No ligation or shaping behaviour is present. Consonant and vowel length, which are distinctive in spoken Woleaian, are not represented in writing.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eUsage of the script began to decline in the 1950s, and a Latin orthography is now used for writing Woleaian. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Xpeo","name":"Old Persian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"xpeo","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":false,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eOld Persian cuneiform was the main script for writing the Old Persian language from 525-330 BC. Visually it resembles Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform; most of the letters are arrangements of between two and five horizontal, vertical or angle-shaped wedges. However, there appears to be no derivational relationship between the sound-to-symbol mapping of individual letters in the two scripts, nor has any other script been found which links the forms of the scripts. For this reason, Old Persian cuneiform is generally believed to have been an independent invention.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOld Persian was written from left to right and encoded three vowel (a/a:, i/i: and u/u:) and twenty-two consonant sounds using three vowel and thirty-three consonant letters. Vowel length was generally not indicated; the exception to this was a long a: vowel. All vowels except for short a were written, so the script was essentially an alphabet, with some syllabic properties.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe twenty-two consonant signs were of two types. For thirteen consonant sounds, the following vowel sound was represented by the following vowel sign (or lack thereof). These consonants contained an inherent short a vowel; when this vowel was missing its absence was not indicated in any way. So \u003cspan class=Em\u003ep\u003c/span\u003e = p or pa. When the letter was followed by an \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e letter, it indicated a long a: vowel: \u003cspan class=Em\u003ep\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e = pa: but \u003cspan class=Em\u003ep\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003ei\u003c/span\u003e = pi or pi: and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ep\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003eu\u003c/span\u003e = pu or pu:. The remaining nine consonant sounds each had a different shape depending on the quality of the following vowel. Of these, only d and m had three different forms to represent -a/a:/Ø, -i/i: and -u/u:. The remaining seven letters only had a two-way distinction, either to distinguish -u/u: from -a/a:/i/i:, or because only two of the three vowels were ever used after that particular consonant.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFor those nine signs whose shape already implies the following vowel, the vowel was still written as a separate letter. So the sound di/i: was written with two letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003edi\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003ei\u003c/span\u003e. This enabled diphthongs following one of these nine consonants to be easily expressed; \u003cspan class=Em\u003eda\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003ei\u003c/span\u003e represented dai. Diphthongs following one of the other thirteen consonants were a little more ambiguous; the letters \u003cspan class=Em\u003ep\u003c/span\u003e+\u003cspan class=Em\u003ei\u003c/span\u003e could represent either pi/i: or pai because of the possible inherent a vowel.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome letters were subject to further orthographic rules; \u003cspan class=Em\u003en\u003c/span\u003e and (before stops) \u003cspan class=Em\u003em\u003c/span\u003e were not written at the end of a syllable, and \u003cspan class=Em\u003eh\u003c/span\u003e was not written before \u003cspan class=Em\u003eu\u003c/span\u003e or \u003cspan class=Em\u003em\u003c/span\u003e. The vowel \u003cspan class=Em\u003ei\u003c/span\u003e was generally not written after \u003cspan class=Em\u003eh\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn addition to the thirty-six phonetic letters, seven ideograms were used to represent common words or divine names, and there was a set of base numbers representing 1, 2, 10, 20, 100. These were added cumulatively with the biggest numbers to the left to represent other numbers, for example 5=2+2+1, 13=10+2+1, 60=20+20+20 etc.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Xsux","name":"Cuneiform, Sumero-Akkadian","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Middle Eastern","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"none","open_type_tag":"xsux","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eSumero-Akkadian Cuneiform, widely believed to be the first writing system in the world, was comprised of a combination of logographic, consonantal alphabetic and syllabic signs. It was originally used for writing the extinct Sumerian language, spoken in what is now Iraq. The script later spread through a region comprising parts of modern-day Iran, Turkey, Syria and Egypt, for writing the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is some debate regarding the creation of Cuneiform; some scholars believe it evolved gradually from impressions made on clay counters, but it appears more widely accepted that it was deliberately invented as a whole concept, using a variety of sources as inspiration.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSumerian writing was first attested as early as 3200 BC, comprising about 700 logographic signs, with some logograms being pictographic in nature. Most of these visually resembled what they represented, so interpretation was fairly intuitive; a sign resembling a leg might represent leg, stand, or walk, for example. A few signs were abstract and the origins and interpretation of these are less clear. By 2900 BC, these signs were being combined to represent other concepts; a head next to a bowl might represent the concept eat. These signs were written in vertical columns. These early signs are not always included in discussions of Cuneiform writing, as they did not comprise a full-functioning script. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe signs were normally inscribed in clay using a reed stylus. At first, they were drawn with lines, but from about 2700 BC it became common practice to impress the stylus in short, quick strokes to produce stylized angular representations of the original rounded pictographs. The way in which a given sign was stylized was at the discretion of the scribe, so there were many different representations of each original pictograph, to the point where there was no \\\\\\typical\\\\\\\" form of a given sign. At this point","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Yiii","name":"Yi","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"East Asian","type":"logo-syllabary","whitespace":"between words","open_type_tag":"yi","complex_positioning":"no","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":false,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"none","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"vertical (RTL) and horizontal (LTR)","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Yi script is used for writing the Tibeto-Burman languages spoken by the Yi tribes of Southwest China - Nuosu (also called Sichuan Yi or Northern Yi), Eastern Yisu (also called Shiping-Jianshui Yi), Wusa Nasu (also called Eastern Yi), Sani, and Mantsu (also called Black Lolo or Flowery Lolo). The Yi tribes are geographically disparate, so significant internal variation can be displayed in writing. For example, there are approximately forty forms of the character meaning \u003cspan class=Em\u003estomach\u003c/span\u003e. However, in 1974 the script was standardized for writing the Liangshan dialect of Nuosu. Efforts are underway to standardize the script across the other Yi languages as a pure syllabary, in which each sign represents all morphemes with the same pronunciation. A distinction is sometimes made between the standardized form, called Yi, and the non-standardized form, called Classic Yi.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eChinese legislation states that standardized Yi is written horizontally, from left to right. However, the traditional form, as used in southern Sichuan, is written in vertical columns from top to bottom and right to left, then rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise for reading, so that it is read in horizontal lines from left to right. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpoken Yi is largely monosyllabic. Yi characters are syllabic logographs, that is, each sign represents a syllable which is also a morpheme. A spoken Yi syllable is comprised of an optional consonant, a vowel, and a tone. The number of tones distinctive in speech varies from language to language, but only three are marked in writing. These are romanized as \u003cspan class=Em\u003et\u003c/span\u003e (high tone), \u003cspan class=Em\u003ex\u003c/span\u003e (mid tone) and \u003cspan class=Em\u003ep\u003c/span\u003e (low falling tone), or else using the superscript numbers 55, 33 and 21 respectively. In the Yi script, each character has an unmarked form and three variant forms to indicate each tone. As a result, the sign inventory is large. The proposed standardized variety of the script contains 819 signs.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eYi signs are made from five basic strokes; dot, horizontal line, vertical line, arch and circle. The script does not exhibit any structural influence from either the Chinese script or the alphabetic scripts of neighbouring languages such as Tibetan, Burmese or the Tai languages. It is thought to have developed independently, although its creation has not been attributed to a particular inventor. The script has an attested history of 500 years, but some scholars believe it to have been in use for as long as 5000 years.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Zanb","name":"Zanabazar Square","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Central Asian","type":"abugida","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"yes","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":true,"contextual_forms":true,"reordering":false,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Historical","baseline":"hanging","ligatures":"required","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Zanabazar Square script is also known as the Mongolian Square script. It is named after its creator, Zanabazar, the first spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia, who also developed the \u003ca href=http://scriptsource.org/scr/Soyo\u003eSoyombo script\u003c/a\u003e. The script has also been called the Mongolian Horizontal Script or Xawtaa Dorboljin. It was used for writing the Mongolian, Sanskrit and Tibetan languages. The Zanabazar Square script was inspired by the Tibetan script and has graphical similarities to Phags-pa and its variant forms.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Zanabazar Square script is an abugida. Consonant letters bear an inherent vowel, which can be changed by writing a vowel diacritic above, below or alongside the consonant. Only the vowel /a/ has its own independent letter. Other independent vowels, for example those at the start of a word which don’t have a consonant to attach to, are written using the letter \u003cspan class=Em\u003ea\u003c/span\u003e with the appropriate vowel diacritic attached to it. There is also a vowel length mark which is written after the vowel to indicate a long vowel.\u003c/p\u003e ","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Zinh","name":"Code for inherited script","unicode_pdf":null,"family":null,"type":null,"whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":null,"direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Zmth","name":"Mathematical notation","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Artificial","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"bottom","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eMathematical notation has been described by Stephen Wolfram as ‘the language of mathematics’. It is a broad term for describing any of the visual vocabulary used for recording mathematical concepts. Mathematical notation is used by mathematicians, physicists, engineers and economists, among others.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrior to the 16th century, mathematics was written out in words. This was time-consuming and laborious, which hampered new discoveries in the field. Leonhard Euler, a Swiss mathematician and physicist, is credited with creating and popularizing much of the modern mathematical notation system during the mid-1700s.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe system includes symbols for numbers, variables, functions, operations, logical operators and conditions. Symbols are borrowed from a variety of scripts, in particular Latin, for example \u003cspan class=Em\u003ec\u003c/span\u003e to represent the speed of light or T to represent transposition of a matrix. Greek symbols are also widely used, for example Σ, representing summation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe notation is not completely consistent from one writer to the next. The same symbol can represent different concepts in different contexts and by scholars of different fields. For example the ! symbol in the field of combinatorics indicates a factorial, but in the field of propositional calculus it represents logical negation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn addition, mathematical notation can also be (but is not always) adapted to the conventions of language and writing in a particular region. The largest variation is used in some Arabic-speaking countries, and lays out the entire notation from right to left, to be consistent with the directionality of the Arabic script. In this variation, a number of Latin/Greek-derived symbols may be replaced with an Arabic-derived equivalent, or mirrored to “face” the left. Modern Arabic Mathematical Notation is taught throughout high school in some Arabic-speaking countries, but the Western system is used almost exclusively at university and professional level.\u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Zsye","name":"Symbols (Emoji variant)","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"Artificial","type":"alphabet","whitespace":"unspecified","open_type_tag":"none","complex_positioning":"unknown","requires_font":false,"unicode":true,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":"Current","baseline":"unspecified","ligatures":"unspecified","direction":"ltr","direction_notes":"unspecified","sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":"\u003cp\u003eThe classification “Symbols” is used for characters which do not belong to a language, and which do not fit another designation in the ISO 15924 standard. \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRecently, “Emoji variant” has been added as a new classification of “Symbols”. Emoji are “picture characters” originally associated with mobile phone use in Japan, but they are now popular worldwide. \u003c/p\u003e","bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Zsym","name":"Symbols","unicode_pdf":null,"family":"unspecified","type":"unspecified","whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":null,"direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Zxxx","name":"Code for unwritten documents","unicode_pdf":null,"family":null,"type":null,"whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":null,"direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Zyyy","name":"Code for undetermined script","unicode_pdf":null,"family":null,"type":null,"whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":null,"direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null},{"script":"Zzzz","name":"Code for uncoded script","unicode_pdf":null,"family":null,"type":null,"whitespace":null,"open_type_tag":null,"complex_positioning":null,"requires_font":false,"unicode":false,"diacritics":null,"contextual_forms":null,"reordering":null,"case":null,"split_graphs":null,"status":null,"baseline":null,"ligatures":null,"direction":null,"direction_notes":null,"sample":null,"sample_img":null,"description":null,"bibles":null,"alphabet_languages":null,"numeral_systems":null}]