This is a list of

writing system A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable for ...

s (or scripts), classified according to some common distinguishing features. The usual name of the script is given first; the name of the language(s) in which the script is written follows (in brackets), particularly in the case where the language name differs from the script name. Other informative or qualifying annotations for the script may also be provided. Writing systems worldwide

Pictographic/ideographic writing systems

Ideographic scripts (in which graphemes are ideograms representing concepts or ideas, rather than a specific word in a language), and pictographic scripts (in which the graphemes are iconic pictures) are not thought to be able to express all that can be communicated by language, as argued by the linguists John DeFrancis and

J. Marshall Unger James Marshall Unger (born May 28, 1947, in Cleveland, Ohio) is emeritus professor of Japanese at the Ohio State University. He specializes in historical linguistics and the writing systems of East Asia, but he has also published on Japanese mat ...

. Essentially, they postulate that no ''full'' writing system can be completely pictographic or ideographic; it must be able to refer directly to a language in order to have the full expressive capacity of a language. Unger disputes claims made on behalf of Blissymbols in his 2004 book ''Ideogram''. Although a few pictographic or

ideographic script An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek "idea" and "to write") is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiari ...

s exist today, there is no single way to read them, because there is no one-to-one correspondence between symbol and language. Hieroglyphs were commonly thought to be ideographic before they were translated, and to this day Chinese is often erroneously said to be ideographic.Halliday, M.A.K., ''Spoken and written language,'' Deakin University Press, 1985, p.19 In some cases of ideographic scripts, only the author of a text can read it with any certainty, and it may be said that they are ''interpreted'' rather than read. Such scripts often work best as mnemonic aids for oral texts, or as outlines that will be fleshed out in speech. * Adinkra * Birch-bark glyphs Anishinaabemowin * Dongba Naxi Although this is often supplemented with syllabic Geba script. * Emoji – used in electronic messages and web pages. * Ersu ''Shābā'' – Ersu * Kaidā glyphs *

Lusona Sona () drawing is an ideographic tradition known across eastern Angola, northwestern Zambia and adjacent areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and is mainly practiced by the Chokwe and Luchazi peoples. These ideographs function as ...

* Nsibidi Ekoi, Efik/Ibibio, Igbo *

Siglas poveiras The siglas poveiras (, "signs of Póvoa"; also known as marcas) is a proto-writing system that has been used by the local community of Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal for many generations. The siglas were primarily used as a signature for family c ...

* Suckerfish script Mi'kmawi'sit Does have phonetic components, however. * Testerian – used for missionary work in Mexico. There are also symbol systems used to represent things other than language, or to represent constructed languages. Some of these are: * Blissymbols – A constructed ideographic script used primarily in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). * iConji – A constructed ideographic script used primarily in social networking * Isotype (picture language) *A wide variety of notations Linear B also incorporates ideograms.

Logographic writing systems

In logographic writing systems, glyphs represent

word A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consen ...

s or

morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone ar ...

s (meaningful components of words, as in ''mean-ing-ful''), rather than phonetic elements. Note that no logographic script is composed solely of

logogram In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...

s. All contain graphemes that represent

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

(sound-based) elements as well. These phonetic elements may be used on their own (to represent, for example, grammatical inflections or foreign words), or may serve as phonetic complements to a logogram (used to specify the sound of a logogram that might otherwise represent more than one word). In the case of Chinese, the phonetic element is built into the logogram itself; in Egyptian and Mayan, many glyphs are purely phonetic, whereas others function as either logograms or phonetic elements, depending on context. For this reason, many such scripts may be more properly referred to as logosyllabic or complex scripts; the terminology used is largely a product of custom in the field, and is to an extent arbitrary.

Consonant-based logographies

* Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, and Demotic – the writing systems of Ancient Egypt **

Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1, ...

*** List of Egyptian hieroglyphs by common name

Syllable-based logographies

Anatolian hieroglyph Anatolian hieroglyphs are an indigenous logographic script native to central Anatolia, consisting of some 500 signs. They were once commonly known as Hittite hieroglyphs, but the language they encode proved to be Luwian, not Hittite, and the ...

s –

Luwian The Luwians were a group of Anatolian peoples who lived in central, western, and southern Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. They spoke the Luwian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian sub- ...

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedg ...

–

Sumerian Sumerian or Sumerians may refer to: *Sumer, an ancient civilization **Sumerian language **Sumerian art **Sumerian architecture **Sumerian literature **Cuneiform script, used in Sumerian writing *Sumerian Records, an American record label based in ...

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform, early writing system * Akkadian myt ...

, other

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant a ...

Elamite Elamite, also known as Hatamtite and formerly as Susian, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was used in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite works disappear from the archeological record a ...

, Hittite,

, Hurrian, and Urartian *

Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as '' kan ...

s (Hanzi) – Chinese, Japanese (called

Kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subse ...

), Korean (called

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...

), Vietnamese (called Chu Nom, obsolete) **

Sawndip Zhuang characters or ''Sawndip'' (Sawndip: ; ) are logograms derived from Chinese characters and used by the Zhuang people of Guangxi and Yunnan provinces in China to write the Zhuang languages for more than one thousand years. The script is ...

– Zhuang ** Khitan large script – Khitan ** Khitan small script – Khitan ** Jurchen script – Jurchen ** Tangut script – Tangut * Eghap (or Bagam) script * Mayan – Chorti, Yucatec, and other Classic Maya languages *

Sui script The Sui script (Sui: ''le1 sui3,'' Simplified Chinese: 水书, Traditional Chinese: 水書, Pinyin: ''Shuǐshū)'' or Shuishu, is a logographic writing system with some pictographic characters that can be used to write the Sui language (Wei 2003:x ...

– Sui language * Yi (classical) – various Yi/Lolo languages

Syllabaries

In a syllabary, graphemes represent syllables or moras. (Note that the 19th-century term ''syllabics'' usually referred to ''

abugida An abugida (, from Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; ...

s'' rather than true syllabaries.) * Afaka Ndyuka * Alaska or Yugtun script Central Yup'ik * Bété *

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...

Cypriot Cypriot (in older sources often "Cypriote") refers to someone or something of, from, or related to the country of Cyprus. * Cypriot people, or of Cypriot descent; this includes: ** Armenian Cypriots ** Greek Cypriots ** Maronite Cypriots ** Tur ...

Arcadocypriot Greek Arcadocypriot, or southern Achaeans (tribe), Achaean, was an ancient Greek dialects, ancient Greek dialect spoken in Arcadia (ancient region), Arcadia in the central Peloponnese and in Cyprus. Its resemblance to Mycenaean Greek, as it is known f ...

* Geba Naxi * Iban or Dunging script Iban *

Kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most pr ...

Japanese (although primarily based on

moras Moras is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France. Population See also *Communes of the Isère department The following is a list of the 512 Communes of France, communes in the French Departments of France, department of I ...

rather than syllables) **

Hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" ori ...

** Katakana ** Man'yōgana * Kikakui – Mende * Kpelle Kpelle * Linear B Mycenean Greek * Lisu Bamboo script *

Loma Loma may refer to: Geography United States * Loma, Colorado * Loma, Montana * Loma, Nebraska * Loma, North Dakota Other countries * Loma, Ladakh, a town in Ladakh, India * Loma (woreda), a district in Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People ...

* Masaba – Bambara * Nüshu Chinese *Nwagu Aneke script Igbo *Vai syllabary, Vai Vai language, Vai *Woleai script, Woleaian Woleaian language, Woleaian (a likely syllabary) *Yi script#Modern Yi, Yi (modern) various Nuosu language, Yi/Lolo languages

Semi-syllabaries: Partly syllabic, partly alphabetic scripts

In most of these systems, some consonant-vowel combinations are written as syllables, but others are written as consonant plus vowel. In the case of Old Persian, all vowels were written regardless, so it was ''effectively'' a true alphabet despite its syllabic component. In Japanese a similar system plays a minor role in foreign borrowings; for example, [tu] is written [to]+[u], and [ti] as [te]+[i]. Paleohispanic semi-syllabaries behaved as a syllabary for the stop consonants and as an alphabet for the rest of consonants and vowels. The Tartessian or Southwestern script is typologically intermediate between a pure alphabet and the Paleohispanic full semi-syllabaries. Although the letter used to write a stop consonant was determined by the following vowel, as in a full semi-syllabary, the following vowel was also written, as in an alphabet. Some scholars treat Tartessian as a redundant semi-syllabary, others treat it as a redundant alphabet. Zhuyin is semi-syllabic in a different sense: it transcribes half syllables. That is, it has letters for syllable onsets and syllable rime, rimes ''(kan = "k-an")'' rather than for consonants and vowels ''(kan = "k-a-n").'' *Bamum scriptBamum language, Bamum (a defective syllabary, with alphabetic principles used to fill the gaps) *Bopomofo, Bopomofo or Zhuyin fuhao phonetic script for the different varieties of Chinese. *Eskayan script, Eskayan Bohol, Philippines (a syllabary apparently based on an alphabet; some alphabetic characteristics remain) *Khom script (Ong Kommadam), Khom script Bahnaric languages, including Alak language, Alak and Jru' language, Jru'. (Onset-rime script) *Linear Elamite Elamite language *Paleohispanic scripts, Paleohispanic semi-syllabaries Paleo-Hispanic languages **Celtiberian script Celtiberian language **Northeastern Iberian script Iberian language **Southeastern Iberian script Iberian language **Southwest Paleohispanic script, Tartessian or Southwestern script Tartessian language, Tartessian or Southwestern language *Old Persian cuneiform Old Persian *History of writing in Vietnam#Quốc Âm Tân Tự, Quốc Âm Tân Tự Vietnamese (Onset-rime script)

Segmental scripts

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 dialect, Hasaitic, Hismaic, Safaitic, Taymanitic, and Thamudic *Ancient South Arabian script, Ancient South Arabian Old South Arabian, Old South Arabian languages including Himyaritic language, Himyaritic, Hadramautic language, Hadhramautic, Minaean language, Minaean, Sabaean language, Sabaean and Qatabanian language, Qatabanic; also the Ethiopic language Geʽez. *Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic, including Khwarezmian language#Writing system, Khwarezmian ( Chorasmian (Unicode block), Chorasmian), Elymaic, Palmyrene alphabet, Palmyrene, and Hatran Aramaic#Alphabet, Hatran *Arabic script, Arabic Arabic, Azeri language, Azeri, Chittagonian language, Chittagonian (historically), Punjabi language, Punjabi, Baluchi language, Baluchi, Kashmiri language, Kashmiri, Pashto, Persian language, Persian, Kurdish language, Kurdish (vowels ''obligatory''), Sindhi language, Sindhi, Uyghur language, Uighur (vowels ''obligatory''), Urdu, Malay language, Malay (as Jawi (script), Jawi) and many other languages spoken in Africa and Western Asia, Western, Central Asia, Central, and Southeast Asia, *Hebrew script, Hebrew Hebrew language, Hebrew and other Jewish languages *Manichaean script *Nabataean alphabet, Nabataean the Nabataeans of Petra *Pahlavi script Middle Persian **Parthian language, Parthian **Psalter alphabet, Psalter *Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician Phoenician language, Phoenician and other Canaanite languages *Proto-Canaanite alphabet, Proto-Canaanite *Sogdian alphabet, Sogdian *Samaritan alphabet, Samaritan (Old Hebrew) Aramaic, Arabic, and Hebrew language, Hebrew *Syriac alphabet, Syriac Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, Syriac language, Syriac, Turoyo and other Neo-Aramaic languages *Tifinagh Tuareg languages, Tuareg *Ugaritic alphabet, Ugaritic Ugaritic language, 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. *Fula alphabets#Adlam alphabet, Adlam Fula language, Fula *Armenian alphabet, Armenian Armenian language, Armenian *Avestan alphabet, Avestan Avestan language, Avestan *Avoiuli Raga language, Raga *Borama script, Borama Somali language, Somali *Carian alphabets, CarianCarian language, Carian *Caucasian Albanian alphabet, Caucasian Albanian Caucasian Albanian language, Caucasian Albanian *Coorgi–Cox alphabet Kodava language, Kodava *Coptic alphabet, Coptic Egyptian language, Egyptian *Cyrillic script, Cyrillic Eastern South Slavic, Eastern South Slavic languages (Bulgarian language, Bulgarian and Macedonian language, Macedonian), the Western South Slavic languages, South Slavic Serbian language, Serbian, Eastern Slavic languages (Belarusian language, Belarusian, Russian language, Russian, Ukrainian language, 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 language, English *Elbasan script, Elbasan Albanian language, Albanian *Fraser alphabet, Fraser Lisu language, Lisu *Gabelsberger shorthand German language, German *Garay alphabet, Garay Wolof language, Wolof and Mandinka language, Mandinka *Georgian scripts, Georgian Georgian language, Georgian and other Kartvelian languages *Gjirokastër alphabet, Gjirokastër (also called Veso Bey) Albanian language, Albanian *Glagolitic alphabet, Glagolitic Old Church Slavonic *Gothic alphabet, Gothic Gothic language, Gothic *Greek alphabet, Greek Greek language, Greek, historically a variety of Greek alphabet#Other uses, other languages *Hanifi Rohingya script, Hanifi Rohingya language, Rohingya *International Phonetic Alphabet *Kaddare script, Kaddare Somali language, Somali *Latin script, Latin Roman originally Latin language; most current western and central Languages of Europe, European languages, Turkic languages, languages of Africa, 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 alphabet, Lycian Lycian language, Lycian *Lydian alphabet, Lydian Lydian language, Lydian *Manchu alphabet, Manchu Manchu language, Manchu *Mandaic alphabet, Mandaic Mandaic language, Mandaic dialect of Aramaic language, Aramaic *Medefaidrin also called Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ; used for the religious language of the same name *Mongolian script, Mongolian Mongolian language, Mongolian *Mundari Bani Mundari language, Mundari *Mru language#Script, Mru Mru language, Mru *Neo-Tifinagh Berber languages, Tamazight *Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong Hmong language, Hmong *N'Ko script, N'Ko Maninka language, Bambara, Dyula language *Ogham Goidelic languages, Gaelic, Brythonic languages, Britannic, Pictish language, Pictish *Ol Chiki script, Ol Chiki Ol Cemet' or Ol Chemet' Santali language, Santali *Old Hungarian script, Old Hungarian (in Hungarian ''magyar rovásírás'' or ''székely-magyar rovásírás'') Hungarian language, Hungarian *Old Italic alphabet, Old Italic a family of connected alphabets for the Etruscan language, Etruscan, Oscan language, Oscan, Umbrian language, Umbrian, Messapian language, Messapian, South Picene language, South Picene, Raetic language, Raetic, Venetic language, Venetic, Lepontic language, Lepontic, Camunic languages *Old Permic script, Old Permic (also called ''Abur'') Komi language, Komi *Old Turkic script, Old Turkic Old Turkic *Old Uyghur alphabet, Old Uyghur Old Uyghur *Ol Onal Bhumij language, Bhumij Language *Osmanya script, Osmanya Somali language, Somali *Pau Cin Hau script Zomi and other Northern Kuki-Chin languages *Runes Germanic languages *Hmong writing#Sayaboury script, Sayaboury (also called Eebee Hmong or ''Ntawv Puaj Txwm'') Hmong language, Hmong Daw *Sorang Sompeng script, Sorang Sompeng Sora language, Sora *Tai Lue language, Tai Lue Dai people, Lue *Tangsa language#Orthography, Tangsa Tangsa language *Todhri alphabet, Todhri Albanian language, Albanian *Kurukh language#Writing systems, Tolong Siki Kurukh language, Kurukh *Toto language#Writing system, Toto Toto language, Toto *Unifon – proposed for English, never adopted *Bassa script, Vah Bassa language, Bassa *Vellara alphabet, Vellara Albanian language, Albanian *Vithkuqi script, Vithkuqi Beitha Kukju Albanian language, Albanian *Wancho script, Wancho Wancho language, Wancho *Yezidi (script), Yezidi Kurmanji *Zaghawa script, Zaghawa Zaghawa language, Zaghawa *Zou language#Writing systems, Zoulai Zou language, Zou (also has alphasyllabic characteristics)

Featural linear alphabets

A Featural alphabet, featural script has elements that indicate the components of articulation, such as bilabial consonants, fricative consonant, fricatives, or back vowels. Scripts differ in how many features they indicate. *ASL-phabet *Ditema tsa Dinoko, Ditema tsa Dinoko IsiBheqe SoHlamvu for Southern Bantu languages *Duployan Shorthand *Gregg Shorthand *Hangul Korean *Osage alphabet, Osage Osage language, 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

*Hangul Korean *Great Lakes Algonquian syllabicsFox language, Fox, Potawatomi language, Potawatomi, Winnebago language, Ho-Chunk, Ojibwa language, Ojibwe *Ditema tsa Dinoko, IsiBheqe SoHlamvuSouthern Bantu languages *ʼPhags-pa scriptMongolian language, Mongolian, Chinese, Persian language, 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, American manual alphabet (used with slight modification in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Paraguay, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand) *Two-handed manual alphabet, 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 language, 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 Union, 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, 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 *Korean Braille, Braille (Korean) *American Braille, Braille (American) (defunct) *New York Point a defunct alternative to Braille *International maritime signal flags (both alphabetic and ideographic) *Morse code, 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) *Semaphore line, Optical telegraphy (defunct) *Flag semaphore (made by moving hand-held flags)

Abugidas

, 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 script, Ge'ez: አ (A) ቡ (bu) ጊ (gi) ዳ (da) — (compare with ''Alphabet#Etymology, alphabet''). Unlike abjads, the diacritical marks and systemic modifications of the consonants are not optional.

Abugidas of the Brāhmī family

Manuscripts in the Yunnan Nationalities Museum - DSC03945

*Ahom alphabet, Ahom *Balinese alphabet, Balinese *Batak script, Batak Toba Batak language, Toba and other Batak (Indonesia), Batak languages *Baybayin Formerly used for Ilokano language, Ilokano, Pangasinan language, Pangasinan, Tagalog language, Tagalog, Bikol languages, Visayan languages, and possibly other Philippine languages *Bengali alphabet, Bengali and Assamese alphabet, Assamese- Bengali, Assamese, Meithei language, Meithei, Bishnupriya Manipuri language, Bishnupriya Manipuri *Bhaiksuki alphabet, Bhaiksuki *Brāhmī script, Brahmi Sanskrit, Prakrit *Buda script, Buda Old Sundanese language, Old Sundanese and Old Javanese language, Old Javanese *Buhid script, Buhid *Burmese alphabet, Burmese Burmese language, Burmese, Karen languages, Mon language, Mon, and Shan language, Shan *Cham alphabet, Cham *Chakma alphabet, Chakma *Devanagari Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi language, Marathi, Nepali language, Nepali, and many other languages of northern India *Dhives Akuru *Grantha alphabet, Grantha Sanskrit *Gujarati script, Gujarati Gujarati language, Gujarati, Kutchi language, Kutchi, Vasavi language, Vasavi, Sanskrit, Avestan *Gurmukhi script Punjabi language, Punjabi *Hanunoo script, Hanuno’o *Javanese script, Javanese *Kaithi *Kannada script, Kannada Kannada, Tulu language, Tulu, Konkani language, Konkani, Kodava language, Kodava *Kawi script, Kawi *Khema script Gurung language, Gurung *Khojki *Saka language, Khotanese *Khudabadi script, Khudabadi *Khmer alphabet, Khmer *Kulitan alphabet *Lampung language#Writing system, Lampung *Lao alphabet, Lao *Leke script, Leke Eastern Pwo language, Eastern Pwo, Western Pwo language, Western Pwo, and Karen language, Karen *Lepcha alphabet, Lepcha *Limbu alphabet, Limbu *Lontara alphabet, Lontara’ Buginese language, Buginese, Makassar language, Makassar, and Mandar language, Mandar *Mahajani *Makasar script, Makasar Formerly used for Makassar language, Makassar *Malayalam script, Malayalam *Zhang-Zhung language, Marchen – Zhang-Zhung *Meithei script, Meetei Mayek *Modi alphabet, Modi Marathi language, Marathi *Multani alphabet, Multani – Saraiki dialect, Saraiki *Nandinagari – Sanskrit *New Tai Lue alphabet, New Tai Lue *Odia script, Odia *Phagspa script, Phags-pa Mongolian language, Mongolian, Chinese, and other languages of the Yuan Dynasty Mongol Empire *Pracalit script , Pracalit script Newa Nepal Bhasa, Sanskrit, Pali *Pyu script, Pyu Pyu language (Burma), Pyu *Ranjana script, Ranjana Nepal Bhasa, Sanskrit *Rejang alphabet, Rejang *Rencong script, Rencong *Saurashtra script, Saurashtra *Sharada script, Sharada Sanskrit, Kashmiri language, Kashmiri *Siddham script, Siddham Sanskrit *Sinhala script, Sinhala *Sirmauri language#Script, Sirmauri *Soyombo script, Soyombo *Sundanese script, Sundanese *Sylheti Nagri – Bengali language, Bengali, Dobhashi, Sylheti language, Sylheti *Tagbanwa alphabet, Tagbanwa Ethnic Groups of Palawan, Languages of Palawan *Tai Le script, Tai Le Dehong Dai Tai Nuea language, Tai Nuea *Tai Tham script, Tai Tham Khün language, Khün, and Northern Thai language, Northern Thai *Tai Viet script, Tai Viet *Takri alphabet, Takri *Tamil script, Tamil *Telugu script, Telugu *Thai alphabet, Thai *Tibetan alphabet, Tibetan *Tigalari alphabet, Tigalari Sanskrit, Tulu language, Tulu *Tirhuta used to write Maithili language, Maithili *Tocharian script, Tocharian *Vatteluttu *Horizontal square script, Zanabazar Square *Zhang-Zhung language, Zhang zhung scripts

Other abugidas

*Canadian Aboriginal syllabics Cree syllabics (for Cree language, Cree), Inuktitut syllabics (for Inuktitut language, Inuktitut), Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, Ojibwe syllabics (for Ojibwe language, Ojibwe), and various systems for other languages of Canada. Derived scripts with identical operating principles but divergent character repertoires include Carrier syllabics, Carrier and Blackfoot language#Syllabic Writing System, Blackfoot syllabics. *Dham script, Dham Dhimal language, Dhimal *Geʽez, Ge'ez Amharic language, Amharic, Ge'ez language, Ge’ez, Tigrigna language, Tigrigna *Kharoṣṭhī Gandhari language, Gandhari, Sanskrit *Lontara Bilang-bilang script Buginese language, Buginese *Mandombe *Meroitic script, Meroitic Meroë *Mwangwego script, Mwangwego Chichewa, Chewa and other Bantu languages of Malawi *Pitman Shorthand *Pollard script Hmong language, Miao *Oromo language#Writing systems, Sapalo script Oromo language, Oromo *Qiang language#Writing system, Rma script Qiang language, Qiang *Sunwar language#Sunuwar (or Jenticha, Koĩts, Mukhiya) native alphabet in Sikkim, India, Sunuwar Jenticha *Thaana Dhivehi language, Dhivehi *Sunwar language#Tikamuli native abugida (since 2005), Tikamuli Sunwar language, Sunuwar *Thomas Natural Shorthand

Final consonant-diacritic abugidas

In at least one abugida, not only the vowel but any syllable coda, 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 language, 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 language, Hmong

List of writing systems by adoption

Most popular script on Wikipedia on country

Undeciphered scripts and systems that may be writing

These systems have not been deciphered. In some cases, such as Meroitic script, Meroitic, the sound values of the glyphs are known, but the texts still cannot be read because the language is not understood. Several of these systems, such as Isthmian script, Epi-Olmec and Indus script, Indus, are claimed to have been deciphered, but these claims have not been confirmed by independent researchers. In many cases it is doubtful that they are actually writing. The Vinča symbols appear to be proto-writing, and quipu may have recorded only numerical information. There are doubts that Indus script, Indus is writing, and the Phaistos Disc has so little content or context that its nature is undetermined. *Byblos syllabary the city of Byblos *Cretan hieroglyphs *Indus script, Indus Indus Valley civilization *Isthmian script, Isthmian (apparently logosyllabic) *Linear A (a syllabary) Eteocretan, Minoan *Lukasa (Luba), Lukasa Kingdom of Luba (a memory device) *Mixtec script, Mixtec Mixtec (perhaps pictographic) *Neolithic signs in China, including: **Banpo symbols Yangshao culture (perhaps proto-writing) **Jiahu symbols Peiligang culture (perhaps proto-writing) **Sawveh Western Guangxi (disputed; perhaps proto-writing) *Olmec hieroglyphs, Olmec Olmec, Olmec civilization (possibly the oldest Mesoamerican script) *Alphabets of Asia Minor#Alphabets, Para-Lydian script Unknown language of Asia Minor; script appears related to the Lydian alphabet. *Phaistos Disc (a unique text, very possibly not writing) *Proto-Elamite Elam (nearly as old as Sumerian) *Proto-Sinaitic script, Proto-Sinaitic (likely an abjad) *Quipu Inca Empire (possibly numerical only) *Rongorongo Rapa Nui language, Rapa Nui (perhaps a syllabary) *Sidetic script, Sidetic Sidetic language, Sidetic *Trojan script (possibly related to Linear B) *Zapotec writing, Zapotec Zapotec language, Zapotec (another old Mesoamerican script)

Undeciphered manuscripts

Comparatively recent manuscripts and other texts written in undeciphered (and often unidentified) writing systems; some of these may represent ciphers of known languages or hoaxes. *Voynich manuscript *Rohonc Codex *Codex Seraphinianus *James Hampton (artist), Hamptonese *Dorabella cipher

Other

Asemic writing is a writing-like form of artistic expression that generally lacks a specific semantic meaning, though it sometimes contains ideograms or pictograms.

Phonetic alphabets

This section lists alphabets used to transcribe phonetics, phonetic or phoneme, phonemic sound; not to be confused with spelling alphabets like the ICAO spelling alphabet. Some of these are used for transcription purposes by linguists; others are pedagogical in nature or intended as general orthographic reforms. * International Phonetic Alphabet ** X-SAMPA (and original SAMPA while not covering all of IPA), is an encoding of a phonetic alphabet, i.e. IPA, using just ASCII. * Americanist phonetic notation * Uralic Phonetic Alphabet

Special alphabets

Alphabets may exist in forms other than visible symbols on a surface. Some of these are:

Tactile alphabets

* Braille * Moon type * New York Point * Night writing

Manual alphabets

* Fingerspelling For example: * American Sign Language * American manual alphabet * Korean manual alphabet * Cued Speech

Long-Distance Signaling

* International maritime signal flags * Morse code * Flag semaphore * Semaphore line, Optical telegraphy

Alternative alphabets

* Gregg Shorthand * Initial Teaching Alphabet * Pitman Shorthand * Quikscript

Fictional writing systems

* Ath (alphabet) * Aurebesh * D'ni language, D'ni * Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia#Other information, Hymmnos * Klingon writing systems, Klingon * ''On Beyond Zebra!'' * Scripts from ''The Lord of the Rings'' ** Cirth ** Sarati ** Tengwar * Unown * Utopian language#Writing system, Utopian

For animal use

* Yerkish uses "lexigrams" to communicate with non-human primates.

Notes

References

External links

Omniglot: a guide to writing systems

(Site with some introduction to different writing systems and group them int

* Michael Everson'
Alphabets of Europe

The World’s Writing Systems
catalogue of 294 writing systems, each with a typographic reference glyph and Unicode status
Deseret Alphabet

ScriptSource
– a dynamic, collaborative reference to the writing systems of the world {{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Writing Systems Lists of languages, Writing systems Encodings Writing systems,