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Computers & Writing Systems
You are here: Links Sites on Scripts and Writing Systems
These are some sites on the Web with information about scripts, writing systems and orthographies. The intent is to provide links to sites that describe scripts and writing systems, as opposed to sites that provide content in various scripts and writing systems, or that provide computing resources such as fonts (though some of the sites do provide such resources). Some of the sites listed provide information about orthographies of particular languages. In the long term, it will not be feasible to maintain that kind of information on a single page. For now, though, we will list sites that we know of. At some point, hopefully we will have a more comprehensive collection of information on orthographies of individual languages, and a better mechanism for presenting it. The list is organised by geographic regions, with scripts listed according to the region of origin. There is also a section for special-purpose writing systems for which a region of origin may not be familiar. (Note: although IPA is derived from European scripts, it and other general systems for phonetic transcription are covered in the section on special-purpose writing systems.) The general sites have information on many scripts, and these are not individually referenced under each script. If you are looking for details on a specific script, don't forget to check the general sites as well as the script-specific sites. GeneralAlfabetos de Ayer y de HoyThis Spanish-language site starts with an interesting family tree of scripts, with Proto-Sumerian at the root of the largest tree, and pages for each of the nodes. There appears to be more descriptive information on some than others, but there is at least one sample for each. AncientScripts.com “The aim of Ancient Scripts is? to give an introduction to writing systems, which hopefully will tantalize the reader into searching for more information on the web or in books and publications.” An Introduction to Writing Systems A tutorial on scripts and writing systems developed by Richard Ishida. “The tutorial will provide you with an understanding of key requirements for implementing writing systems in information technology. It will do this by examining real examples of a wide range of modern scripts to discover features that a computerized implementation must support.” ISO 15924 Code for the representation of names of scripts Languages and Scripts From the Unicode Web site: “This table shows some information about the scripts commonly used with different languages. This information is not complete, and is being enhanced over time.” Leaks in the Unicode pipeline: script, script, script? A paper presented by Michael Everson at the 21st International Unicode Conference, discussing a number of scripts yet to be added to the Unicode Standard. Museum of the Alphabet “This site highlights some of the points of interest of the Museum of the Alphabet, with excerpts from the book, The Alphabet Makers? This site presents several tours of the museum from different perspectives?” Omniglot: A Guide to Writing Systems “This website provides a guide to over 200 different alphabets, syllabaries and other writing systems, including a few you will find nowhere else. It also contains details of many of the languages written with those writing systems and links to a wide range of language-related resources, such as fonts, online dictionaries and online language courses.” qalam discussion group “qalam · Alphabets, syllabaries, logographs, ideographs, hieroglyphs... A forum to talk about the writing systems of the world.” Script Samples A set of pages created by Richard Ishida with sample text in several languages that illustrate some of the characteristics of various scripts. Scripts and Languages “This is a site about the scripts of the world, and the languages they are used to write. The site provides information about the scripts and languages with links to other sites with in-depth descriptions of each.” Le site de tous les alphabets This French-language site provides information on many different scripts and writing systems, including alphabets of many individual languages, and also some historic stages in the development of modern scripts. TRAD 101 Writing Systems of the World Information for a course on writing systems taught by Timothy Vance at the University of Arizona. Copies of a number of the lectures are available in PDF format. WorldLanguage.com WorldLanguage is a retail vendor of multilingual software products. Their site has summary information on several languages, including short text samples. Monotype Imaging: Available Fonts Part of Monotype's online font catalog, this sub-site has information on a few dozen scripts. AfricaAfrican Writing Systems This site has information on a number of African writing and semiotic systems. Bisharat “Bisharat is an evolving idea based on the importance of maternal languages in sustainable development and the enormous potential of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to benefit efforts in the area of language and development. Anticipating the gradual introduction of computers and the internet to rural communities in Africa, the current focus of Bisharat is on research, advocacy, and networking relating to use of African languages in software and web content.” AjamiWriting Hausa using the Arabic alphabet CopticCoptic Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Ethiopic (Ge'ez)Arabic and Ethiopic numbers in SERA While this page relates primarily to a particular computer encoding for Ethiopic, it provides useful insight into the traditional Ethiopic numeral system. The Comparative Origin and Usage of the Ge’ez writing system of Ethiopia ethiopianhistory.com's page on Ge'ez Ethiopic Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Ethiopic Numeral Names This page describes Ethiopic numerals, and a particular font implementation. It proposes a zero digit, allowing a decimal-radix numeral system for Ethiopic. Ethiopic Standards This page describes the Ethiopic character set and two legacy encoding systems that have been used to represent Ethiopic characters on computers. A Look at Ethiopic Numerals This page describes traditional Ethiopic numerals in detail, including an algorithm for determining how to represent a given numeric value using Ethiopic numerals. FeeraMalawiMwangwego Script A script developed in 1979 to write the languages of Malawi. N'KoN'Ko Institute of America See in particular their tutorial on the N'Ko script. N'Ko Resources “This site is N'Ko Institute portal to the internet. It purpose is provides the mean entry point to other N'Ko resources, and links around the world.” Osmanya (Somali)TifinaghCaractères tifinagh en usage au Maroc Tifinagh: l'alphabet berbère de A à Z Abstract of an article on Tifinaghe script and Unicode and the full article. VaiLecture on Vai by Timoth Vance From a course on writing systems taught at the University of Arizona The Complete Vai Syllabary A graphic showing a Vai syllabary chart. AmericasFor information on Latin script as used for Amerindian languages, see the Latin sub-section within the section on Europe and the Middle East. Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics (Evans syllabary for Cree and Inuit languages)Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Cree Cultural Institute's page on Cree syllabics Languagegeek.com A site by Chris Harvey documenting writing systems of aboriginal languages of North America, including those that use syllabics. CherokeeCherokee Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. DeseretBrigham Young's Deseret Alphabet Republic of Molossia - Deseret Alphabet Mayan HieroglyphsAsiaSubsections: Northeast AsiaBabelStone This site has information on various writing systems used in China and Mongolia. BopomofoHan (Chinese, Hanji, Chu Nho, Chữ Nôm)Chinese Characters and Culture Chinese (Simplified) Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Chinese (Traditional) Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Chữ nôm or the former Vietnamese script Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation Hangul (Korean)Korean Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Kana (Japanese, Hiragana, Katakana)Japanese Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Mongolian'Phags-pa'Phags-pa Script A collection of pages by Andrew West with detailed information about the 'Phags-pa script, including a description of the characters, style variants, history and usage. Several images of manuscripts are provided, as well as a bibliography. South AsiaDigital South Asia Library This site contains digital copies of various works in the area of South Asian studies, including some descriptions of languages and scripts of South Asia. India: Languages and Scripts This site has lots of intesting information on Indic scripts, including historical development and images from manuscripts. An Introduction to Indic Scripts A very good overview of Indic scripts and their computer implementation. Technology Development for Indian Languages: Unicode This is a site maintained by the government of India for discussing computer implementation of Indian scripts. While the focus is technical in nature, there are links to descriptions of various scripts of India. ArabicPlease see the sub-section on Arabic within the section on Europe and the Middle East. BengaliBengali Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Bangla Script This link is to an issue of the VishwaBharat e-newsletter, published by the government of India, that includes an article on Bengali script and its encoding in Unicode. While technical in nature, it provides useful information about the Bengali script. (Note: the description of Unicode encoding for Bengali here is not the definitive description; for details on Unicode, refer to The Unicode Standard.) DevanagariDevanagari Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Attested Hindi Ligatures A compilation with examples by Ernst Tremel (download: pdf. A Practical Sanskrit Introductory This tutorial on the Sanskrit language by Charles Wikner contains in depth information on Devanagari script. Revision of Unicode Standard-3.0 for Devanagari Script This link is to an issue of the VishwaBharat e-newsletter, published by the government of India, that includes an article on Devanagari script and its encoding in Unicode. While technical in nature, it provides useful information about the Devanagari script. (Note: the description of Unicode encoding for Devanagari here is not the definitive description; for details on Unicode, refer to The Unicode Standard.) svaramaJNjarii A brief discussion of vedic accents based on Sanskrit source documents. Vedic Accents A thorough description of vedic accent markings, by Charles Wikner. Vedic Code Set This link is to an issue of the VishwaBharat e-newsletter, published by the government of India, that includes an article on Devanagari characters used in Vedic texts and their encoding in Unicode. While technical in nature, it provides useful information about the Devanagari Vedic characters. (Note: the description of Unicode encoding for Devanagari here is not the definitive description; for details on Unicode, refer to The Unicode Standard.) I Speak Hindi List of the primary vowels and consonants in Hindi with a sample of a native speaker saying the sound and links to several learn Hindi podcasts. GranthaGrantha is an historic South Indian script that is the precursor to modern South Indian scripts such as Malayalam, Sinhala and Tamil, and likely also the precursor to Southeast Asian scripts such as Khmer, Lao and Thai. A primer in Grantha Characters GujaratiGujarati Script This link is to an issue of the VishwaBharat e-newsletter, published by the government of India, that includes an article on Gujarati script and its encoding in Unicode. While technical in nature, it provides useful information about the Gujarati script. (Note: the description of Unicode encoding for Gujarati here is not the definitive description; for details on Unicode, refer to The Unicode Standard.) Gujarati Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. GurmukhiGurmukhi Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Gurmukhi - The Sikh Alphabet A brief description. Gurmukhi Script This link is to an issue of the VishwaBharat e-newsletter, published by the government of India, that includes an article on Gurmukhi script and its encoding in Unicode. While technical in nature, it provides useful information about the Gurmukhi script. (Note: the description of Unicode encoding for Gurmukhi here is not the definitive description; for details on Unicode, refer to The Unicode Standard.) HindiHindi Links to Hindi phonetics, orthography, font, keyboard, and glossary. I Speak Hindi Hindi Letters and Sounds. Indus (Harappan)The Decipherment of Harappan Writing KannadaKannada Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Kannada Script This link is to an issue of the VishwaBharat e-newsletter, published by the government of India, that includes an article on Kannada script and its encoding in Unicode. While technical in nature, it provides useful information about the Kannada script. (Note: the description of Unicode encoding for Kannada here is not the definitive description; for details on Unicode, refer to The Unicode Standard.) LimbuMalayalamMalayalam Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Malayalam Alphabet Page from TheFreeDictionary describing the Malayalam "alphabet". Malayalam Script This link is to an issue of the VishwaBharat e-newsletter, published by the government of India, that includes an article on Malayalam script and its encoding in Unicode. While technical in nature, it provides useful information about the Malayalam script. (Note: the description of Unicode encoding for Malayalam here is not the definitive description; for details on Unicode, refer to The Unicode Standard.) Manipuri (Metei, Meetei-Mayek)Manipuri Alphabet (From the Omniglot site.) Language ~ E-Pao! News About Manipur Has very brief descriptions of Manipuri script and language. Some other pages at this site use the Manipuri script. Ol (Ol Cemet’, Ol Chiki)Ol Chiki Script A fairly detailed description of the Ol script from the “portal for Santals” web site. Oriya Oriya Script Details Oriya Script This link is to an issue of the VishwaBharat e-newsletter, published by the government of India, that includes an article on Oriya script and its encoding in Unicode. While technical in nature, it provides useful information about the Oriya script. (Note: the description of Unicode encoding for Oriya here is not the definitive description; for details on Unicode, refer to The Unicode Standard.) SinhalaSinhalese Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Siloti NagriSylheti Translation And Research TamilTamil Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Tamil Script This link is to an issue of the VishwaBharat e-newsletter, published by the government of India, that includes an article on Tamil script and its encoding in Unicode. While technical in nature, it provides useful information about the Tamil script. (Note: the description of Unicode encoding for Tamil here is not the definitive description; for details on Unicode, refer to The Unicode Standard.) TeluguTelugu Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Telugu Script This link is to an issue of the VishwaBharat e-newsletter, published by the government of India, that includes an article on Telugu script and its encoding in Unicode. While technical in nature, it provides useful information about the Telugu script. (Note: the description of Unicode encoding for Telugu here is not the definitive description; for details on Unicode, refer to The Unicode Standard.) ThaanaThaana Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Dhivehi thaana - reading and writing the Maldivian language TibetanTocharian ("North Turkestan Brāhmī")TuluSoutheast Asia (Mainland)ChamChu Nho, Chu Nôm — see HanFraserKayah LiKhmerKhmer Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. LannaLaoLao Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Myanmar (Burmese)Burmese Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Pahawh HmongPollardThe Pollard script and its equivalent in the Romanized script. Tai Dam (Tai scripts of Vietnam)Tai Le (Dehong)Tai Lue (Xishuang Banna Dai)ThaiThai Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. YiYi Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Southeast Asia (Insular)Indonesian scripts (Balinese, Batak, Bugis, Javanese, Kaganga)Javanese Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Kaganga Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Javanese/Balinese/Batak/Bugis charts Philippine scripts (Buhid, Hanunóo, Tagalog, Tagbanwa)A Philippine Leaf Hector Santos' pages on Philippine scripts. Note: not all of his pages have links on this main page, so you should do a little exploring. One significant page that isn't linked from the main page is living Philippine scripts. Europe and Middle EastEvolution of Alphabets This site contains a collection animations showing the historical development of various European and Middle-Eastern scripts. Orthographic diacritics and multilingual computing Discusses many of the diacritics commonly associated with Latin script. ArabicArabic Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Perso-Arabic Scripts This link is to an issue of the VishwaBharat e-newsletter, published by the government of India, that includes an article on Arabic script as used in India and its encoding in Unicode. While technical in nature, it provides useful information about the Arabic script, particularly as used for writing languages such as Kashmiri, Sindhi and Urdu. (Note: the description of Unicode encoding for Arabic here is not the definitive description; for details on Unicode, refer to The Unicode Standard.) ArmenianArmenian Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. CyrillicAlphabets Necessary for Various Cyrillic Writing Systems Estonian Language Institute’s letter database This page provides an interface to a database with information on Latin and Cyrillic orthographies and Romanisations for a number of languages. Cyrillic Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Egyptian HieroglyphsHieroglyphs! (A guide and web directory to Egyptian Hieroglyphs) GeorgianGeorgian Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. GlagoliticGlagolitic Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. GreekGreek Monotonic Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Greek Polytonic Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. HebrewAHRC - Ancient Hebrew Alephbet Includes animations showing the evolution of characters in ancient Semitic scripts. Hebrew Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. Hebrew alphabet Article in “Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.” See also the related page Hebrew Language/Phonology, in particular the section on writing, which in turn includes a link to another Wikipedia article on matres lectionis. Hebrew Cantillation Marks And Their Encoding Provides a detailed discussion of the accents used in Biblical Hebrew. Hebrew Issues While this is a technical discussion related to Unicode encoding of Hebrew, it focuses on details that are not often covered in descriptions of Hebrew script. Issues in the Representation of Pointed Hebrew in Unicode Although this is a technical discussion, it focuses on some details of how Biblical Hebrew is written that are not often covered in descriptions of Hebrew script. Typesetting the Holy Bible in Hebrew, with TeX Any discussion of typesetting a script must consider details of how the script is written. This article by Yannis Haralambous provides many details about Biblical Hebrew. Use of dagesh This plain text file has no images or Hebrew-script text, but it does provide some useful discussion of dagesh, mappiq and shureq. KurdishLatin (Roman)Coverage of European languages by ISO Latin alphabets This page documents which European languages are covered by the various ISO 8859 coded character sets. This site has lots of other useful information about character encoding standards. Estonian Language Institute’s letter database This page provides an interface to a database with information on Latin and Cyrillic orthographies and Romanisations for a number of languages. Languagegeek.com A site by Chris Harvey documenting writing systems of aboriginal languages of North America, some of which use Latin. Latin Extended Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. http://www.rferl.org/content/Article/1143309.html Radio Free Europe page on the Latin alphabet for Tatar Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts This site documents Romanisations (Latin transliterations) for the orthographies of a number of languages. Old Hungarian RunicOld Church SlavonicOld Church Slavonic Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. PhaistosInformation about the Efforts to Decipher the PHAISTOS DISK PhoenicianPhoenician Alphabet Meditation and Divination SyriacSyrcom computing discussion group Syriac Brief description from the Monotype Font Foundry's Non-Latin Library. PacificWoleai (Caroline Islands Script)Woleai Description of the Woleai script from the Alfabetos de Ayer y de Hoy site. RongorongoThe Rongorongo of Easter Island Special-Purpose Writing SystemsBlissymbolicsPhoneticsThe International Phonetic Association The International Phonetic Alphabet in black print and in braille This page shows braille equivalants for various phonetic symbols. The International Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) Foundation ShorthandsForschungs- und Ausbildungsstätte für Kurzschrift und Textverarbeitung Sténographie, sténotypie ou dictaphone ? Stenografi och Melinska Stenografförbundet - startsida Writing systems for signed languagesSignWriting: Read, Write, Type Sign Languages Writing the Same Signs in Different Transcription Systems Writing systems for technical notationEarliest Uses of Symbols of Set Theory and Logic Page History2009-03-04 LP: Removed dead links Note: the opinions expressed in submitted contributions below do not necessarily reflect the opinions of our website.
"Nathan Price", Mon, May 10, 2010 01:53 (EDT) http://www.ispeakhindi.com/hindi-letters-and-sounds/ List of the primary vowels and consonants in Hindi with a sample of a native speaking saying the sound and links to several learn Hindi podcasts
harrison, Tue, Nov 16, 2010 10:25 (EST) Thank you. Your link was just added.
"Nolence Mwangwego", Fri, Oct 29, 2010 10:42 (EDT) You may be interested to add to African scripts the one which was invented in Malawi in 1979 which is used to write all Malawian languages. It is called the Mwangwego script. It can be seen on the following site: www.mwangwego.com
martinpk, Tue, Nov 2, 2010 12:50 (EDT) Added, thanks!
"benny", Tue, Feb 26, 2013 09:25 (EST) TuladhaJejeg is a Javanese script (of Javanese language, which is spoken by 80+ million people) that uses SIL Open Font License. https://sites.google.com/site/jawaunicode/home
stephanie_smith, Thu, Aug 22, 2013 06:41 (EDT) [modified by stephanie_smith on Thu, Aug 22, 2013 06:42 (EDT)] Thanks for drawing our attention to this font. I was about to suggest that you post the link on our other site, scriptsource.org, but I see you've already done so - thanks! © 2003-2024 SIL International, all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted elsewhere on this page. |