Writing system 33602 225851000 2008-07-15T18:16:37Z Beland 57939 /* Directionality */ see also [[mirror writing]], request citation [[Image:WritingSystemsoftheWorld4.png|450px|thumb|Writing systems of the world today. {{legend|#99cccc|[[Latin alphabet|Latin]] ([[alphabet]]ic)}} {{legend|#ccccff|[[Cyrillic]] (alphabetic)}} {{legend|#9a06fe|[[Hangul]] ([[featural alphabet]]ic)}} {{legend|#3166ce|Other alphabets}} {{legend|#99ff99|[[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] ([[abjad]])}} {{legend|#389738|Other abjads}} {{legend|#ee940a|[[Devanagari]] ([[abugida]])}} {{legend|#ffcc01|Other abugidas}} {{legend|#ff4e4d|[[Syllabary|Syllabaries]]}} {{legend|#ffff65|[[Chinese characters]] ([[logogram|logographic]])}} ]] A '''writing system''' is a type of [[symbolic system]] used to represent elements or statements expressible in [[language]]. ==General properties== Writing systems are distinguished from other possible [[symbolic communication]] systems in that one must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to comprehend the text. By contrast, other possible symbolic systems such as [[information sign]]s, [[painting]], [[map]]s, and [[mathematics]] often do not require prior knowledge of a spoken language. Every human community possesses language, a feature regarded by many as an innate and defining condition of humankind. However the development of writing systems, and the process by which they have supplanted traditional [[orality|oral]] systems of communication has been sporadic, uneven and slow. Once established, writing systems on the whole change more slowly than their spoken counterparts, and often preserve features and expressions which are no longer current in the spoken language. The great benefit of writing systems is their ability to maintain a persistent record of information expressed in a language, which can be retrieved independently of the initial act of formulation. All writing systems require: :* a set of defined base elements or [[symbol]]s, individually termed ''characters'' or [[grapheme]]s, and collectively called a ''script''; :* a set of rules and conventions understood and shared by a community, which arbitrarily assign [[Meaning (linguistic)|meaning]] to the base elements, their ordering, and relations to one another; :* a language (generally a [[spoken language]]) whose constructions are represented and able to be recalled by the interpretation of these elements and rules; :* some physical means of distinctly representing the symbols by application to a permanent or semi-permanent medium, so they may be interpreted (usually visually, but tactile systems have also been devised). ==Basic terminology== [[Image:Caslon-schriftmusterblatt.jpeg|thumb|right|350px|''A Specimen'' of typeset fonts and languages, by [[William Caslon]], letter founder; from the 1728 ''[[Cyclopaedia]]''.]] The study of writing systems has developed along partially independent lines in the examination of individual scripts, and as such the terminology employed differs somewhat from field to field. The generic term ''text'' may be used to refer to an individual product of a writing system. The act of composing a text may be referred to as ''[[writing]]'', and the act of interpreting the text as ''[[Reading (activity)|reading]]''. In the study of writing systems, ''[[orthography]]'' refers to the method and rules of observed writing structure (literal meaning, "correct writing"), and in particular for [[alphabet]]ic systems, includes the concept of ''[[spelling]]''. A '''[[grapheme]]''' is the technical term [[neologism|coined]] to refer to the specific base or atomic units of a given writing system. Graphemes are the ''minimally significant'' elements which taken together comprise the set of "building blocks" out of which texts of a given writing system may be constructed, along with rules of correspondence and use. The concept is similar to that of the [[phoneme]] used in the study of spoken languages. For example, in the [[Latin]]-based writing system of standard contemporary English, examples of graphemes include the [[majuscule]] and [[Lower case|minuscule]] forms of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet (corresponding to various phonemes), marks of [[punctuation]] (mostly non-phonemic), and a few other symbols such as those for [[Arabic numeral|numerals]] (logograms for numbers). Note that an individual grapheme may be represented in a wide variety of ways, where each variation is visually distinct in some regard, but all are interpreted as representing the "same" grapheme. These individual variations are known as '''[[allograph]]s''' of a grapheme (compare with the term [[allophone]] used in linguistic study). For example, the minuscule letter '''a''' has different allographs when written as a [[cursive]], [[capital letters|block]], or [[typeface|typed]] letter. The selection between different allographs may be influenced by the medium used, the [[Writing implement|writing instrument]], the stylistic choice of the writer, and the largely unconscious features of an individual's [[handwriting]]. The terms ''[[glyph]]'', ''[[sign (linguistics)|sign]]'' and ''character'' are sometimes used to refer to a grapheme. Common usage varies from discipline to discipline; compare [[Cuneiform script|cuneiform sign]], [[Maya script|Maya glyph]], [[Chinese character]]. The glyphs of most writing systems are made up of lines (or strokes) and are therefore called [[Linear writing|linear]], but there are glyphs in [[Non-linear writing|non-linear writing systems]] made up of other types of marks, such as Cuneiform and [[Braille]]. Writing systems are [[conceptual system]]s, as are the languages to which they refer. Writing systems may be regarded as ''complete'' according to the extent to which they are able to represent all that may be expressed in the spoken language. == History of writing systems == {{main|History of writing}} [[Image:Sanskrit Brhama English alphabets.JPG|thumb|right|350px|''A Table of Scripts in the Introduction to Sanskrit Dictionary by Monnier Williams''.]] Writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, systems of [[ideogram|ideographic]] and/or early [[mnemonic]] symbols. The best known examples are: * [[Jiahu Script]], symbols on [[tortoise]] [[Animal shell|shells]] in [[Jiahu]], ca. [[6600 BC]] * [[Vinča signs|Vinča script]] ([[Tărtăria tablets]]), ca. [[4500 BC]] * Early [[Indus script]], ca. [[3500 BC]] The invention of the first writing systems is roughly contemporary with the beginning of the [[Bronze Age]] in the late [[Neolithic]] of the late [[4th millennium BC]]. The [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] archaic [[cuneiform (script)|cuneiform script]] and the [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] are generally considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of their ancestral proto-literate symbol systems from 3400–3200 BC with earliest coherent texts from about [[26th century BC|2600 BC]]. The [[Chinese script]] likely developed independently of the Middle Eastern scripts, around [[1600 BC]]. The [[pre-Columbian]] [[Mesoamerican writing systems]] (including among others [[Olmec]] and [[Maya script]]s) are also generally believed to have had independent origins. It is thought that the first true alphabetic writing appeared around [[2000 BC]], as a representation of language developed for [[Semitic]] slaves in Egypt by Egyptians(see [[History of the alphabet]]). Most other alphabets in the world today either descended from this one innovation, many via the [[Phoenician alphabet]], or were directly inspired by its design. ==Functional classification of writing systems== {{for|lists of writing systems by type|List of writing systems}} [[Image:Puyi's schoolbook - Forbidden City.JPG|thumb|right|This textbook for [[Puyi]] shows the English alphabet. Although the English letters run from left to right, the Chinese explanations run from top to bottom, as traditionally written.]] The oldest-known forms of writing were primarily [[logogram|logographic]] in nature, based on [[pictogram|pictographic]] and [[ideogram|ideographic]] elements. Most writing systems can be broadly divided into three categories: '''logographic''', '''syllabic''', and '''alphabetic''' (or '''segmental'''); however, all three may be found in any given writing system in varying proportions, often making it difficult to categorise a system uniquely. The term '''complex system''' is sometimes used to describe those where the admixture makes classification problematic. {| class="prettytable" ! Type !! Each symbol represents !! Example |- | [[Logogram|Logographic]] || [[morpheme]] || [[Chinese character]]s |- | [[Syllabary|Syllabic]] || [[syllable]] || Japanese ''[[kana]]'' |- | [[Alphabet]]ic || [[phoneme]] (consonant or vowel) || [[Latin alphabet]] |- | [[Abugida]] || phoneme (consonant+vowel) || Indian ''[[Devanāgarī]]'' |- | [[Abjad]] || phoneme (consonant) || [[Arabic alphabet]] |- | [[Featural alphabet|Featural]] || phonetic feature || Korean ''[[hangul]]'' |} === Logographic writing systems === {{main|Logogram}} [[Image:Character Ri Oracle.png|thumb|Early Chinese character for sun (''ri''), 1200 B.C.]] [[Image:Character Ri Trad.png|thumb|Modern Chinese character (''ri'') with meaning of ''sun'' or ''day'']] A '''logogram''' is a single written character which represents a complete grammatical word. Most [[Chinese character]]s are classified as logograms. As each character represents a single word (or, more precisely, a [[morpheme]]), many logograms are required to write all the words of language. The vast array of logograms and the memorization of what they mean are the major disadvantage of the logographic systems over alphabetic systems. However, since the meaning is inherent to the symbol, the same logographic system can theoretically be used to represent different languages. In practice, this is only true for closely related languages, like the [[Chinese language]]s, as syntactical constraints reduce the portability of a given logographic system. [[Japanese language|Japanese]] uses Chinese logograms extensively in its writing systems, with most of the symbols carrying the same or similar meanings. However, the semantics, and especially the grammar, are different enough that a long Chinese text is not readily understandable to a Japanese reader without any knowledge of basic [[Chinese grammar]], though short and concise phrases such as those on signs and newspaper headlines are much easier to comprehend. While most languages do not use wholly logographic writing systems many languages use some logograms. A good example of modern western logograms are the [[Hindu-Arabic numerals]] &mdash; everyone who uses those symbols understands what '''1''' means whether he or she calls it ''one'', ''eins'', ''uno'', ''yi'', ''ichi'' or ''ehad''. Other western logograms include the [[ampersand]] '''&''', used for ''and'', the [[at sign]] '''@''', used in many contexts for ''at'', the [[percent sign]] '''%''' and the many signs representing units of currency ([[dollar sign|$]], [[Cent sign|¢]], [[Euro sign|€]], [[Pound sign|£]], [[Yen sign|¥]] and so on.) Logograms are sometimes called [[ideogram]]s, a word that refers to symbols which graphically represent abstract ideas, but linguists avoid this use, as Chinese characters are often [[semantics|semantic]]&ndash;[[phonetic]] compounds, symbols which include an element that represents the meaning and element that represents the pronunciation. Some nonlinguists distinguish between [[lexigraphy]] and ideography, where symbols in lexigraphies represent words, and symbols in ideographies represent words or morphemes. The most important (and, to a degree, the only surviving) modern logographic writing system is the Chinese one, whose characters are or were used, with varying degrees of modification, in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and other [[east Asian languages]]. [[Ancient Egypt]]ian hieroglyphs and the Mayan writing system are also systems with certain logographic features, although they have marked phonetic features as well, and are no longer in current use. === Syllabic writing systems === {{main|Syllabary}} As logographic writing systems use a single symbol for an entire word, a '''syllabary''' is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate) [[syllable]]s, which make up [[word]]s. A symbol in a syllabary typically represents a [[consonant]] sound followed by a [[vowel]] sound, or just a vowel alone. In a true syllabary there is no systematic graphic similarity between phonetically related characters (though some do have graphic similarity for the vowels). That is, the characters for "ke", "ka", and "ko" have no similarity to indicate their common "k"-ness. Compare [[#Abugidas|abugida]], where each [[grapheme]] typically represents a syllable but where characters representing related sounds are similar graphically (typically, a common consonantal base is annotated in a more or less consistent manner to represent the vowel in the syllable). Syllabaries are best suited to languages with relatively simple syllable structure, such as Japanese. The [[English language]], on the other hand, allows complex syllable structures, with a relatively large inventory of [[vowel]]s and complex [[consonant cluster]]s, making it cumbersome to write English words with a syllabary. To write English using a syllabary, every possible syllable in English would have to have a separate symbol, and whereas the number of possible syllables in Japanese is no more than about fifty to sixty, in English there are many thousands. Other languages that use syllabic writing include [[Mycenae]]an [[Greek language|Greek]] ([[Linear B]]) and [[Native American languages]] such as [[Cherokee language|Cherokee]]. Several languages of the [[Ancient Near East]] used forms of [[cuneiform (script)|cuneiform]], which is a syllabary with some non-syllabic elements. === Alphabetic writing systems ===<!-- This section is linked from [[Tengwar]] --> {{main|Alphabet}} An '''alphabet''' is a small set of ''letters'' &mdash; basic written symbols &mdash; each of which roughly represents or represented historically a [[phoneme]] of a spoken [[language]]. The word ''alphabet'' is derived from [[alpha (letter)|alpha]] and [[beta (letter)|beta]], the first two symbols of the [[Greek alphabet]]. In a perfectly phonemic alphabet, the phonemes and letters would correspond perfectly in two directions: a writer could predict the spelling of a word given its pronunciation, and a speaker could predict the pronunciation of a word given its spelling. Each language has general rules that govern the association between letters and phonemes, but, depending on the language, these rules may or may not be consistently followed. Perfectly phonemic alphabets are very easy to use and learn, and languages that have them (for example Serbocroatian or Finnish) have much lower barriers to literacy than languages such as English, which has a very complex and irregular spelling system. As languages often evolve independently of their writing systems, and writing systems have been borrowed for languages they were not designed for, the degree to which letters of an alphabet correspond to phonemes of a language varies greatly from one language to another and even within a single language. In modern times, when [[linguistics|linguist]]s invent a writing system for a language that didn't previously have one, the goal is usually to develop a phonemic alphabet. It should be noted that a truly [[phonetic transcription|phonetic alphabet]] for a natural spoken language would be very cumbersome, as it would have to have a huge variety of phonetic variation. An example of such a writing system is the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] (IPA). ====Abjads==== {{main|Abjad}} The first type of alphabet that was developed was the '''abjad'''. An abjad is an alphabetic writing system where there is one symbol per consonant. Abjads differ from regular alphabets in that they only have characters for [[consonant]]al sounds. Vowels are not usually marked in abjad. All known abjads (except maybe [[Tifinagh]]) belong to the Semitic family of scripts, and derive from the original [[Middle Bronze Age alphabets|Northern Linear Abjad]]. The reason for this is that [[Semitic languages]] and the related [[Berber languages]] have a [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphemic structure]] which makes the denotation of [[vowel]]s redundant in most cases. Some abjads (like Arabic and Hebrew) have markings for vowels as well, but only use them in special contexts, such as for teaching. Many scripts derived from abjads have been extended with vowel symbols to become full alphabets, the most famous case being the derivation of the [[Greek alphabet]] from the Phoenician abjad. This has mostly happened when the script was adapted to a non-Semitic language. The term ''abjad'' takes its name from the old order of the [[Arabic alphabet]]'s [[consonant]]s Alif, Bá, Jim, Dál, though the word may have earlier roots in [[Phoenician languages|Phoenician]] or [[Ugaritic]]. Abjad is still the word for alphabet in [[Arabic language|Arabic]], Malay, and [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]. ====Abugidas==== {{main|Abugida}} An '''abugida''' is an alphabetic writing system whose basic signs denote consonants with an [[inherent vowel]] and where consistent modifications of the basic sign indicate other following vowels than the inherent one. Thus, in an abugida there is no sign for "k", but instead one for "ka" (if "a" is the inherent vowel), and "ke" is written by modifying the "ka" sign in a way that is consistent with how one would modify "la" to get "le". In many abugidas the modification is the addition of a vowel sign, but other possibilities are imaginable (and used), such as rotation of the basic sign, addition of [[Diacritic|diacritical marks]], and so on. The obvious contrast is with [[syllabary|syllabaries]], which have one distinct symbol per possible syllable, and the signs for each syllable have no systematic graphic similarity. The graphic similarity comes from the fact that most abugidas are derived from abjads, and the consonants make up the symbols with the inherent vowel, and the new vowel symbols are markings added on to the base symbol. [[Image:Balinese writing on palm leaf.jpg|230px|thumb|right|Balinese ''lontar'' writing on palm leaf, [[Southeast Asia]]. Artifacts can be seen in the [[Field Museum]], [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]]]] The [[Ge'ez alphabet|Ethiopic]] script is an abugida, although the vowel modifications in Ethiopic are not entirely systematic. [[Canadian Aboriginal syllabics]] can be considered abugidas, although they are rarely thought of in those terms. The largest single group of abugidas is the [[Brahmic family]] of scripts, however, which includes nearly all the scripts used in [[India]] and [[Southeast Asia]]. The name ''abugida'' is derived from the first four characters of an order of the Ge'ez script used in some religious contexts. The term was coined by [[Peter T. Daniels]]. === Featural writing systems === A '''featural''' script represents finer detail than an alphabet. Here symbols do not represent whole phonemes, but rather the elements (features) that make up the phonemes, such as [[voice (phonetics)|voicing]] or its [[place of articulation]]. Theoretically, each feature could be written with a separate letter; and abjads or abugidas, or indeed syllabaries, could be featural, but the only prominent system of this sort is [[Korean language|Korean]] [[hangul]]. In hangul, the featural symbols are combined into alphabetic letters, and these letters are in turn joined into syllabic blocks, so that the system combines three levels of phonological representation. ===Ambiguous systems=== Most writing systems are not purely one type. The English writing system, for example, includes numerals and other logograms such as #, $, and &, and the phonetic letters are a poor match to sound. As mentioned above, all logographic systems have phonetic components as well, whether that's along the lines of a syllabary, such as Chinese ("logo-syllabic"), or an abjad, as in Egyptian ("logo-consonantal"). Some scripts, however, are truly ambiguous. The [[semi-syllabary|semi-syllabaries]] of ancient Spain were syllabic for [[plosive consonant|plosives]] such as ''p, t, k,'' but alphabetic for other consonants. In some versions, vowels were written redundantly after syllabic letters, conforming to an alphabetic orthography. [[Old Persian cuneiform]] was similar. Of 23 consonants (including null), seven were fully syllabic, thirteen were purely alphabetic, and for the other three, there was one letter for /Cu/ and another for both /Ca/ and /Ci/. However, all vowels were written overtly regardless; as in the Brahmic abugidas, the /Ca/ letter was used for a bare consonant. The [[zhuyin]] phonetic glossing script for Chinese divides syllables in two or three, but into [[syllable onset|onset]], [[Medial (linguistics)|medial]], and [[syllable rime|rime]] rather than consonant and vowel. [[Pahawh Hmong]] is similar, but can be considered to divide syllables into either onset-rime or consonant-vowel (all consonant clusters and diphthongs are written with single letters); as the latter, it is equivalent to an abugida but with the roles of consonant and vowel reversed. Other scripts are intermediate between the categories of alphabet, abjad, and abugida, so there may be disagreement on how they should be classified. ==Graphic classification of writing systems==<!--this section linked from Linearity redirects--> Perhaps the primary graphic distinction made in classifications is that of ''linearity.'' Linear writing systems are those in which the characters are composed of lines, such as the [[Latin alphabet]] and [[Chinese character]]s. Chinese characters are considered linear whether they're written with a ball-point pen, a calligraphic brush, or cast in bronze. Similarly, [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] and [[Maya script|Maya glyphs]] were often painted in linear outline form, but in formal situations they were carved in [[bas-relief]]. Non-linear systems, on the other hand, such as [[braille]], are not composed of lines, no matter which instrument is used to write them. The earliest examples of writing are linear: the [[Cuneiform script|Sumerian script]] of c. 3300 BCE was linear, though its [[cuneiform]] descendants were not. Cuneiform was probably the earliest non-linear writing. Its glyphs were formed by pressing the end of a reed stylus into moist clay, not by tracing lines in the clay with the stylus as had been done previously. The result was a radical transformation of the appearance of the script. Braille is a non-linear adaptation of the Latin alphabet that completely abandoned the Latin forms. The letters are composed of raised bumps on the writing [[Substrate (printing)|substrate]], which can be leather ([[Louis Braille]]'s original material), stiff paper, plastic, or metal. There are also transient non-linear adaptations of the Latin alphabet, including [[Morse code]], the [[manual alphabet]]s of various [[sign language]]s, and [[semaphore]], in which [[Flag semaphore|flags]] or [[Semaphore line|bars]] are positioned at prescribed angles. However, if "writing" is defined as a potentially permanent means of recording information, then these systems do not qualify as writing at all, since the symbols disappear as soon as they are used. === Directionality ===<!-- This section is linked from [[RTL]] and [[Text direction]]--> {{see also|Horizontal and vertical writing in East Asian scripts|Bi-directional text|Mirror writing}} Scripts are also graphically characterized by the direction in which they are written. Egyptian hieroglyphs were written in either horizontal direction, with the animal and human glyphs turned to face the direction of writing. The early alphabet could be written in multiple directions,{{fact}} horizontally (left-to-right or right-to-left) or vertically (up or down). It was commonly written [[boustrophedon]]ically: starting in one (horizontal) direction, then turning at the end of the line and reversing direction. The [[Greek alphabet]] and its successors settled on a left-to-right pattern, from the top to the bottom of the page. In Timed Text (TT) Authoring Format, this pattern is abbreviated LRTB.<ref>[http://www.w3.org/TR/ttaf1-dfxp/ Timed Text (TT) Authoring Format]</ref> Other scripts, such as [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], came to be written right-to-left. Scripts that incorporate [[Chinese characters]] have traditionally been written vertically (top-to-bottom), from the right to the left of the page, but nowadays are frequently written left-to-right, top-to-bottom, due to [[Western culture|Western]] influence, a growing need to accommodate terms in the [[Roman alphabet]], and technical limitations in popular [[electronic document]] formats. The [[Uighur alphabet]] and its descendants are unique in being the only scripts written top-to-bottom, left-to-right; this direction originated from an ancestral Semitic direction by rotating the page 90° [[Clockwise and counterclockwise|counter-clockwise]] to conform to the appearance of vertical Chinese writing. Several scripts used in the [[Languages of the Philippines|Philippines]] and [[Indonesia]], such as [[Hanunó'o script|Hanunó'o]], are written with lines moving away from the writer, from bottom to top. == Writing systems on computers == Different [[International Organization for Standardization|ISO]]/[[International Electrotechnical Commission|IEC]] standards are defined to deal with each individual writing systems to implement them in computers (or in electronic form). Today most of those standards are re-defined in a better collective standard, the [[ISO 10646]], also known as [[Unicode]]. In Unicode, each character, in every language's writing system, is (simplifying slightly) given a unique identification number, known as its '''code point'''. The computer's software uses the code point to look up the appropriate character in the [[Typeface|font]] file, so the characters can be displayed on the page or screen. A [[Computer keyboard|keyboard]] is the device most commonly used for writing via computer. Each key is associated with a standard code which the keyboard sends to the computer when it is pressed. By using a combination of alphabetic keys with [[modifier key]]s such as [[Control key|Ctrl]], [[Alt key|Alt]], [[Shift key|Shift]] and [[AltGr key|AltGr]],<!-- this is not meant to be an exhaustive list! --> various character codes are generated and sent to the [[CPU]]. The [[operating system]] intercepts and converts those signals to the appropriate characters based on the '''[[keyboard layout]]''' and '''[[Input method editor|input method]]''', and then delivers those converted codes and characters to the running [[application software]], which in turn looks up the appropriate [[glyph]] in the currently used font file, and requests the operating system to draw these on the [[Computer display|screen]]. In computers and telecommunication systems, graphemes and other grapheme-like units that are required for text processing are represented by "[[character (computing)|character]]s" that typically manifest in [[character encoding|encoded]] form. For technical aspects of computer support for various writing systems, see [[Universal Character Set]], [[CJK]] (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and [[Bi-directional text]], as well as [[:Category:Character encoding]]. == See also == *[[Artificial script]] *[[Asemic writing]] *[[Calligraphy]] *[[Genealogy of scripts derived from Proto-Sinaitic]] *[[History of writing]] *[[History of writing numbers]] *[[ISO 15924]] — a list of "codes for the representation of names of scripts" *[[List of writing systems]] *[[List of inventors of writing systems]] *[[Majuscule]] *[[Lower case]] *''[[Nü Shu]]'' *[[Official script]] *[[Orthography]] *[[Pasigraphy]] *[[Penmanship]] *[[Shorthand]] *[[Spelling]] *[[Transliteration]] *[[Universal Character Set]] *[[Written language]] *[[Formal language]] == External links == * [http://www.decodeunicode.org/ decodeunicode] Unicode Wiki with all 98,884 Unicode 5.0 characters as gifs in three sizes * [http://www.linguaseek.com/ Linguaseek], a free online transliteration program that supports 111 languages (Thai and Urdu are in the works; Simplified Chinese only) * About African writing systems by the [[John Henrik Clarke Africana Library]] at [[Cornell University]]: ** http://www.library.cornell.edu/africana/Writing_Systems/Welcome.html * General about writing systems * [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/alphabets.htm Omniglot](e.g. [http://omniglot.com/writing/alphabetic.htm Alphabetic Writing Systems], with many free script fonts) * [http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws.html Ancient Scripts: Home](Site with some introduction to different writing systems and group them into [http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_types.html origins]/[http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_types.html types]/[http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_families.html families]/[http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_regions.html regions]/[http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_timeline.html timeline]/[http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_atoz.html A to Z]) * [[Michael Everson]]'s [http://www.evertype.com/alphabets/index.html Alphabets of Europe] * The [http://www.unicode.org/ Unicode Consortium] * [http://scriptorium.17.forumer.com/index.php Scriptorium Bulletin Board] &mdash; A forum devoted to writing systems ==Citations== <references/> == References == * Coulmas, Florian. 1996. ''The Blackwell encyclopedia of writing systems''. Oxford: Blackwell. * [[Peter T. Daniels|Daniels, Peter T.]], and William Bright, eds. 1996. ''The World's Writing Systems''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507993-0. * DeFrancis, John. 1990. ''The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy''. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1068-6 * Hannas, William. C. 1997. ''Asia's Orthographic Dilemma''. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1892-X (paperback); ISBN 0-8248-1842-3 (hardcover) * Rogers, Henry. 2005. ''Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach''. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-23463-2 (hardcover); ISBN 0-631-23464-0 (paperback) * Sampson, Geoffrey. 1985. ''Writing Systems''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1756-7 (paper), ISBN 0-8047-1254-9 (cloth). * Smalley, W. A. (ed.) 1964. ''Orthography studies: articles on new writing systems''. 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