In a

script Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...

(commonly shortened to right to left or abbreviated RTL, RL-TB or R2L), writing starts from the right of the page and continues to the left, proceeding from top to bottom for new lines. Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Pashto, Urdu,

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...

and Sindhi are the most widespread R2L writing systems in modern times. ''Right-to-left'' can also refer to (TB-RL or vertical) scripts of tradition, such as

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

, Japanese, and Korean, though in modern times they are also commonly written (with lines going from top to bottom). Books designed for predominantly vertical TBRL text open in the same direction as those for RTL horizontal text: the spine is on the right and pages are numbered from right to left. These scripts can be contrasted with many common modern writing systems, where writing starts from the left of the page and continues to the right. The

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...

is mostly but not exclusively right-to-left; mathematical expressions, numeric dates and numbers bearing units are embedded from left to right.

Uses

Arabic, Hebrew and Persian are the most widespread RTL writing systems in modern times. As usage of the Arabic script spread, the repertoire of 28 characters used to write the Arabic language was supplemented to accommodate the sounds of many other languages such as

, Pashto, etc. While the Hebrew alphabet is used to write the Hebrew language, it is also used to write other

Jewish languages Jewish languages are the various Language, languages and Dialect, dialects that developed in Jewish communities in the Jewish diaspora, diaspora. The original Jewish language is Hebrew, supplanted as the primary vernacular by Aramaic following th ...

such as

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

and

Judaeo-Spanish Judaeo-Spanish or Judeo-Spanish (autonym , Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew script: , Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: ), also known as Ladino, is a Romance languages, Romance language derived from Old Spanish language, Old Spanish. Originally spoken in Spain ...

. Syriac and Mandaean (Mandaic) scripts are derived from Aramaic and are written RTL. Samaritan is similar, but developed from Proto-Hebrew rather than Aramaic. Many other ancient and historic scripts derived from Aramaic inherited its right-to-left direction. Several languages have both Arabic RTL and non-Arabic LTR writing systems. For example, Sindhi is commonly written in Arabic and Devanagari scripts, and a number of others have been used. Kurdish may be written in Arabic, Latin,

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

or Armenian script. Thaana appeared around 1600 CE. Most modern scripts are LTR, but

N'Ko N'Ko () is a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949, as a modern writing system for the Mandé languages of West Africa. The term ''N'Ko'', which means ''I say'' in all Mandé languages, is also used for the Mandé literary standard written i ...

(1949),

Mende Kikakui The Mende Kikakui script is a syllabary used for writing the Mende language of Sierra Leone. History It was devised by Mohamed Turay (born ca. 1850), an Islamic scholar, at a town called Maka (Barri Chiefdom, southern Sierra Leone). One of ...

(19th century), Adlam (1980s) and Hanifi Rohingya (1980s) were created in modern times and are RTL. Ancient examples of text using alphabets such as Phoenician, Greek, or Old Italic may exist variously in left-to-right, right-to-left, or boustrophedon order; therefore, it is not always possible to classify some ancient writing systems as purely RTL or LTR.

Computing support

Right-to-left, top-to-bottom text is supported in common computer software. Often, this support must be explicitly enabled. Right-to-left text can be mixed with left-to-right text in bi-directional text.

List of RTL scripts

Examples of right-to-left scripts (with ISO 15924 codes in brackets) are:

Current scripts

* Persian language – used for Persian, Urdu,

. *

( 160, 161) – used for Arabic and many other languages. * Hebrew alphabet ( 125) – used for Hebrew,

and some other

. * Thaana ( 170) – used for

Dhivehi Dhivehi, also spelled Divehi, may refer to: *Dhivehi people, an ethnic group native to the historic region of the Maldive Islands. *Dhivehi language, an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by about 350,000 people in the Republic of Maldives ...

. *

Syriac alphabet The Syriac alphabet ( ) is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language since the 1st century AD. It is one of the Semitic abjads descending from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet, and shares similarities with ...

( 135, variants 136–138 , , ) – used for varieties of the

Syriac language The Syriac language (; syc, / '), also known as Syriac Aramaic (''Syrian Aramaic'', ''Syro-Aramaic'') and Classical Syriac ܠܫܢܐ ܥܬܝܩܐ (in its literary and liturgical form), is an Aramaic language, Aramaic dialect that emerged during ...

. * Mandaic alphabet ( 140) – closely related to Syriac, used for the Mandaic language. * Samaritan alphabet ( 123) – closely related to Hebrew, used for the

Samaritans Samaritans (; ; he, שומרונים, translit=Šōmrōnīm, lit=; ar, السامريون, translit=as-Sāmiriyyūn) are an ethnoreligious group who originate from the ancient Israelites. They are native to the Levant and adhere to Samarit ...

' writings. *

( 438) – for Mende in Sierra Leone. Devised by Mohammed Turay and Kisimi Kamara in the late 19th century. Still used, but only by about 500 people. * N'Ko script ( 165) – devised in 1949 for the Manding languages of West Africa. * Garay alphabet – designed in 1961 for the Wolof language. * Adlam ( 166) – devised in the 1980s for writing the

Fula languages Fula ,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh also known as Fulani or Fulah (, , ; Adlam: , , ), is a Senegambian language spoken by around 30 million people as a set of various dialects in a continuum that stre ...

of West and Central Africa. * Hanifi Rohingya ( 167) – developed in the 1980s for the Rohingya language. * Yezidi ( 192) – used for two 12th- or 13th-century Yazidi Kurdish texts; attempts have been made to revive it since 2013.

Ancient scripts

* Indus script * Egyptian hieroglyphs * Cypriot syllabary ( 403) – predates Phoenician influence. * Phoenician alphabet ( 115) – ancient, precursor to Hebrew, Imperial Aramaic, and Greek. *

Imperial Aramaic alphabet The ancient Aramaic alphabet was adapted by Arameans from the Phoenician alphabet and became a distinct script by the 8th century BC. It was used to write the Aramaic languages spoken by ancient Aramean pre-Christian tribes throughout the Fert ...

( 124) – ancient, closely related to Hebrew and Phoenician. Spread widely by the Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid empires. The later Palmyrene form ( 126) was also used to write Aramaic. * Old South Arabian () *

Old North Arabian Ancient North Arabian (ANA)http://e-learning.tsu.ge/pluginfile.php/5868/mod_resource/content/0/dzveli_armosavluri_enebi_-ugarituli_punikuri_arameuli_ebrauli_arabuli.pdf is a collection of writing system, scripts and possibly a language or family ...

() * Pahlavi scripts (130–133: , , , ) – derived from Aramaic. * Avestan alphabet ( 134) – from Pahlavi, with added letters. Used for recording the Zoroastrian sacred texts during the Sassanid era. * Hatran alphabet ( 127), used to write the

Aramaic of Hatra Aramaic of Hatra, Hatran Aramaic or Ashurian ( ') designates a Middle Aramaic dialect, that was used in the region of Hatra and Assur in northeastern parts of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), approximately from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century ...

* Sogdian ( 141 and 142) and

Manichaean Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...

( 139, associated with the Manichaean religion) – derived from Syriac. Sogdian eventually rotated from RTL to top-to-bottom, giving rise to the Old Uyghur, Mongolian, and Manchu vertical scripts. *

Nabatean alphabet The Nabataean script is an abjad (consonantal alphabet) that was used to write Nabataean Aramaic and Nabataean Arabic from the second century BC onwards.Old Ge'ez alphabet ( 495) *

Kharosthi The Kharoṣṭhī script, also spelled Kharoshthi (Kharosthi: ), was an ancient Indo-Iranian script used by various Aryan peoples in north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely around present-day northern Pakistan and ...

( 305) – an ancient script of India, derived from Aramaic. * Old Turkic runes (also called Orkhon runes 175) * Old Hungarian runes ( 176). *

Old Italic alphabets The Old Italic scripts are a family of similar ancient writing systems used in the Italy, Italian Peninsula between about 700 and 100 BC, for various languages spoken in that time and place. The most notable member is the Etruscan alphabet, ...

( 210) – Early

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities **Etruscan ...

was RTL but LTR examples later became more common. Umbrian, Oscan, and Faliscan were written right-to-left. Unicode treats Old Italic as left-to-right, to match modern usage. Some texts are boustrophedon Fibula Praenestina

:* Old Latin could be written from right to left (as were Etruscan and early Greek) or boustrophedon. * Lydian alphabet ( 116) – ancient; some texts are left-to-right or boustrophedon.

References

{{Reflist

External links

* Everson, Michael (2001-01-08) ''Roadmapping early Semitic scripts'' https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2001/01024-n2311.pdf * Buntz, Carl-Martin (2000-21-12) ''L2/01-007, Iranianist Meeting Report: Encoding Iranian Scripts in Unicode'' https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2001/01007-iran.txt Character encoding Writing direction