A
segmental script has
graphemes which represent the
phonemes (basic unit of sound) of a language. Note that there need not be (and rarely is) a one-to-one correspondence between the graphemes of the script and the phonemes of a language. A phoneme may be represented only by some combination or string of graphemes, the same phoneme may be represented by more than one distinct grapheme, the same grapheme may stand for more than one phoneme, or some combination of all of the above. Segmental scripts may be further divided according to the types of phonemes they typically record:
Abjads An
abjad is a segmental script containing symbols for
consonants only, or where vowels are
optionally written with
diacritics ("pointing") or only written word-initially. •
Ancient North Arabian Dadanitic,
Dumaitic,
Hasaitic,
Hismaic,
Safaitic,
Taymanitic, and
Thamudic •
Ancient South Arabian Old South Arabian languages including
Himyaritic,
Hadhramautic,
Minaean,
Sabaean and
Qatabanic; also the Ethiopic language
Geʽez. •
Libyco-Berber –
Berber languages •
Aramaic, including
Khwarezmian (
Chorasmian),
Elymaic,
Palmyrene, and
Hatran •
Arabic Arabic,
Paleo-Arabic,
Azeri,
Bengali (historical occasion),
Chittagonian (historical occasion),
Punjabi,
Baluchi,
Kashmiri,
Pashto,
Persian,
Kurdish (vowels
obligatory),
Sindhi,
Uighur (vowels
obligatory),
Urdu,
Malay (as
Jawi) and many other languages spoken in
Africa and
Western,
Central, and
Southeast Asia, •
Hebrew Hebrew and other
Jewish languages •
Manichaean script •
Nabataean the
Nabataeans of
Petra •
Pahlavi script Middle Persian •
Parthian •
Psalter •
Phoenician Phoenician and other
Canaanite languages •
Proto-Canaanite and
Proto-Sinaitic –
Bronze Age Canaanites. •
Sogdian –
Sogdian language •
Samaritan (Old Hebrew) Aramaic,
Arabic, and
Hebrew •
Syriac Classical Syriac,
Sureth,
Turoyo and other
Neo-Aramaic dialects •
Tifinagh Tuareg •
Ugaritic Ugaritic,
Hurrian True alphabets A true
alphabet contains separate letters (not
diacritic marks) for both
consonants and
vowels.
Linear nonfeatural alphabets Linear alphabets are composed of lines on a surface, such as ink on paper. •
A·chik Tokbirim Garo •
Adlam Fula •
Alifuru Bahasa tanah languages •
Armenian Armenian •
Ariyaka script Pali,
Isan,
Lao •
Avestan Avestan •
Avoiuli Raga •
Borama Somali •
CarianCarian •
Caucasian Albanian Caucasian Albanian •
Coorgi–Cox alphabet Kodava •
Coptic Egyptian •
Cyrillic Eastern South Slavic languages (
Bulgarian and
Macedonian), the Western
South Slavic Serbian,
Eastern Slavic languages (
Belarusian,
Russian,
Ukrainian), the other
languages of Russia,
Kazakh language,
Kyrgyz language,
Tajik language,
Mongolian language.
Azerbaijan,
Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan are changing to the Latin alphabet but still have considerable use of Cyrillic. See
Languages using Cyrillic. •
Deseret alphabet – proposed for English but never adopted •
Eclectic shorthand English •
Elbasan Albanian •
Fraser Lisu •
Gabelsberger shorthand German •
Garay Wolof and
Mandinka •
Georgian Georgian and other
Kartvelian languages •
Gjirokastër (also called Veso Bey)
Albanian •
Glagolitic Old Church Slavonic •
Gothic Gothic •
Greek Greek, historically a variety of
other languages •
Hanifi Rohingya •
Hurûf-ı munfasıla proposed for
Ottoman Turkish but never widely adopted •
International Phonetic Alphabet •
Kaddare Somali •
Latin Roman originally
Latin language; most current western and central
European languages,
Turkic languages,
sub-Saharan African languages,
indigenous languages of the Americas, languages of
maritime Southeast Asia and
languages of Oceania use developments of it. Languages using a non-Latin writing system are generally also equipped with
Romanization for
transliteration or secondary use. •
Lycian Lycian •
Lydian Lydian •
Manchu Manchu •
Mandaic Mandaic dialect of
Aramaic •
Medefaidrin also called Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ; used for the religious language of the same name •
Mongolian Mongolian •
Mundari Bani Mundari •
Mru script Mru •
Neo-Tifinagh Tamazight •
Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong Hmong •
N'Ko Maninka language,
Bambara,
Dyula language •
Oduduwa script Yoruba •
Ogham Gaelic,
Britannic,
Pictish •
Ol Chiki Ol Cemet' or Ol Chemet'
Santali •
Old Hungarian (in Hungarian
magyar rovásírás or
székely-magyar rovásírás)
Hungarian •
Old Italic a family of connected alphabets for the
Etruscan,
Oscan,
Umbrian,
Messapian,
South Picene,
Raetic,
Venetic,
Lepontic,
Camunic languages •
Old Permic (also called
Abur)
Komi •
Old Turkic Old Turkic •
Old Uyghur Old Uyghur •
Ol Onal Bhumij Language •
Osmanya Somali •
Pau Cin Hau alphabetic script Paite and other
Northeastern Kuki-Chin languages •
Runes Germanic languages •
Sayaboury (also called Eebee Hmong or
Ntawv Puaj Txwm)
Hmong Daw •
Sorang Sompeng Sora •
Tai Lue Lue •
Tangsa Tangsa language •
Todhri Albanian •
Tolong Siki,
Kurukh Banna Kurukh •
Toto Toto •
Unifon – proposed for English, never adopted •
Vah Bassa •
Vellara Albanian •
Vithkuqi Beitha Kukju Albanian •
Wancho Wancho •
Yezidi Kurmanji •
Zaghawa Zaghawa •
Zoulai Zou (also has alphasyllabic characteristics)
Featural linear alphabets A
featural script has elements that indicate the components of articulation, such as
bilabial consonants,
fricatives, or
back vowels. Scripts differ in how many features they indicate. •
ASL-phabet •
Ditema tsa Dinoko IsiBheqe SoHlamvu for
Southern Bantu languages •
Duployan Shorthand •
Gregg Shorthand •
Hangul Korean •
Osage Osage •
Shavian alphabet – proposed for English, never adopted •
SignWriting and its descendants
si5s and
ASLwrite for
sign languages •
Stokoe notation for
American Sign Language, and its descendant, the
Hamburg Notation System or HamNoSys •
Tengwar (a fictional script) •
Visible Speech (a phonetic script)
Linear alphabets arranged into syllabic blocks •
HangulKorean •
Great Lakes Algonquian syllabicsFox,
Potawatomi,
Ho-Chunk,
Ojibwe •
IsiBheqe SoHlamvuSouthern Bantu languages •
ʼPhags-pa scriptMongolian,
Chinese,
Persian,
Sanskrit Manual alphabets Manual alphabets are frequently found as parts of
sign languages. They are not used for writing
per se, but for spelling out words while signing. •
American manual alphabet (used with slight modification in
Hong Kong,
Malaysia,
Paraguay,
Philippines,
Singapore,
Taiwan,
Thailand) •
British manual alphabet (used in some of the
Commonwealth of Nations, such as
Australia and
New Zealand) •
Catalan manual alphabet •
Chilean manual alphabet •
Chinese manual alphabet •
Dutch manual alphabet •
Ethiopian manual alphabet (an abugida) •
French manual alphabet •
Greek manual alphabet •
Icelandic manual alphabet (also used in
Denmark) •
Indian manual alphabet (a true alphabet?; used in
Devanagari and
Gujarati areas) •
International manual alphabet (used in
Germany,
Austria,
Norway,
Finland) •
Iranian manual alphabet (an abjad; also used in
Egypt) •
Israeli manual alphabet (an abjad) •
Italian manual alphabet •
Korean manual alphabet •
Latin American manual alphabets •
Polish manual alphabet •
Portuguese manual alphabet •
Romanian manual alphabet •
Russian manual alphabet (also used in
Bulgaria and ex-
Soviet states) •
Spanish manual alphabet (
Madrid) •
Swedish manual alphabet •
Yugoslav manual alphabet Other non-linear alphabets These are other alphabets composed of something other than lines on a surface. •
Braille (Unified) an embossed alphabet for the visually impaired, used with some extra letters to transcribe the Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic alphabets, as well as Chinese •
Braille (Korean) •
Braille (American) (defunct) •
New York Point a defunct alternative to Braille •
International maritime signal flags (both alphabetic and ideographic) •
Morse code (International) a
trinary code of dashes, dots, and silence, whether transmitted by electricity, light, or sound) representing characters in the Latin alphabet. •
American Morse code (defunct) •
Optical telegraphy (defunct) •
Flag semaphore (made by moving hand-held flags)
Abugidas An
abugida, or
alphasyllabary, is a segmental script in which
vowel sounds are denoted by
diacritical marks or other systematic modification of the
consonants. Generally, however, if a single letter is understood to have an inherent unwritten vowel, and only vowels other than this are written, then the system is classified as an abugida regardless of whether the vowels look like diacritics or full letters. The vast majority of abugidas are found from India to Southeast Asia and belong historically to the Brāhmī family, however the term is derived from the first characters of the abugida in
Ge'ez: አ (a) ቡ (bu) ጊ (gi) ዳ (da) — (compare with
alphabet). Unlike abjads, the diacritical marks and systemic modifications of the consonants are not optional.
Brahmi family manuscript written in a Brahmic abugida •
Ahom •
Balinese •
Batak Toba and other
Batak languages •
Baybayin Formerly used for
Ilokano,
Pangasinan,
Tagalog,
Bikol languages,
Visayan languages, and possibly other
Philippine languages •
Bengali — Bengali, Assamese,
Meithei,
Bishnupriya Manipuri •
Bhaiksuki •
Brahmi Sanskrit,
Prakrit •
Buda Old Sundanese and
Old Javanese •
Buhid •
Burmese Burmese,
Karen languages,
Mon, and
Shan •
Cham •
Chakma •
Devanagari Hindi,
Sanskrit,
Marathi,
Nepali, and many other languages of northern India •
Dhives Akuru •
Grantha Sanskrit •
Gujarati Gujarati,
Kutchi,
Vasavi,
Sanskrit,
Avestan •
Gurmukhi script Punjabi •
GoykanadiFormerly used for
Konkani •
Hanuno’o •
Javanese •
Kaithi •
Kannada Kannada,
Tulu,
Konkani,
Kodava •
Kawi •
Khema scriptKhojki|
Gurung •
Khojki •
Khudabadi •
Khmer •
Kirat Rai Khambu Rai Bantawa •
Kulitan alphabet •
Lai Tay Tai Yo •
Lampung •
Lao •
Leke Eastern Pwo,
Western Pwo, and
Karen •
Lepcha •
Limbu •
Lontara’ Buginese,
Makassar, and
Mandar •
Mahajani •
Makasar Formerly used for
Makassar •
Malayalam •
Marchen – Zhang-Zhung •
Meitei Mayek –
Meitei •
Modi Marathi •
Multani –
Saraiki •
Nandinagari –
Sanskrit •
Naoriya Phulo script – Meitei •
New Tai Lue •
Odia •
Ogan –
South Barisan Malay (Ogan dialect) •
Pracalit script Newa Nepal Bhasa,
Sanskrit,
Pali •
Pyu Pyu •
Ranjana Nepal Bhasa,
Sanskrit •
Rejang •
Rencong •
Saurashtra •
Sharada Sanskrit,
Kashmiri •
Siddham Sanskrit •
Sinhala •
Sirmauri •
Soyombo •
Sundanese •
Sylheti Nagri –
Sylheti •
Tagbanwa Languages of Palawan •
Tai Le Dehong Dai Tai Nuea •
Tai Tham Khün, and
Northern Thai •
Tai Viet •
Takri •
Tamil •
Telugu •
Thai •
Tibetan •
Tigalari Sanskrit,
Tulu •
Tirhuta used to write
Maithili •
Tocharian •
Vatteluttu •
Zanabazar Square •
Zhang zhung scripts
Other abugidas •
Canadian Aboriginal syllabics Cree syllabics (for
Cree),
Inuktitut syllabics (for
Inuktitut),
Ojibwe syllabics (for
Ojibwe), and various systems for other languages of Canada. Derived scripts with identical operating principles but divergent character repertoires include
Carrier and
Blackfoot syllabics. •
Dham Dhimal •
Ge'ez Amharic,
Ge’ez,
Tigrigna •
Kharoṣṭhī Gandhari,
Sanskrit •
Kurukh Banna Kurukh •
Lontara Bilang-bilang script Buginese •
Mandombe •
Masaram GondiGondi •
Meroitic script Meroitic •
Mwangwego Chewa and other
Bantu languages of
Malawi •
Pitman Shorthand •
Pollard script Miao •
Sapalo script Oromo •
Rma script Qiang •
Sunuwar Jenticha •
Thaana Dhivehi •
Tikamuli Sunuwar •
Thomas Natural Shorthand Final consonant-diacritic abugidas In at least one abugida, not only the vowel but any
syllable-final consonant is written with a diacritic. That is, if representing [o] with an under-ring, and final [k] with an over-cross, [sok] would be written as . •
Róng Lepcha Vowel-based abugidas In a few abugidas, the vowels are basic, and the consonants secondary. If no consonant is written in Pahawh Hmong, it is understood to be /k/; consonants are written after the vowel they precede in speech. In Japanese Braille, the vowels but not the consonants have independent status, and it is the vowels which are modified when the consonant is
y or
w. •
Boyd's Syllabic Shorthand •
Japanese Braille Japanese •
Pahawh Hmong Hmong == List of writing systems by adoption ==