The Todhri script is an 18th-century Albanian

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...

ical writing system invented for writing the

Albanian language Albanian ( endonym: or ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Europ ...

by Theodhor Haxhifilipi, also known as Dhaskal Todhri.

History

It is a complex writing system of fifty-two characters which was used sporadically for written communication in and around

Elbasan Elbasan ( ; sq-definite, Elbasani ) is the fourth most populous city of Albania and seat of Elbasan County and Elbasan Municipality. It lies to the north of the river Shkumbin between the Skanderbeg Mountains and the Myzeqe Plain in central ...

from the late eighteenth century on. The earliest dated text in Todhri's script is ''Radhua Hesapesh'' ( daybook) of a local merchant partnership known as Jakov Popa i Vogël dhe Shokët (Jakov Popa Junior and Friends). The entries in Todhri's script start on 10 August 1795 and continue until 1797. An even older text written in Todhri script was discovered recently in a family notebook in Elbasan, dated 1 January 1780. Other older texts possibly written by Todhri himself cannot be dated or confirmed. The Todhri script was rediscovered in Elbasan by

Johann Georg von Hahn Johann Georg von Hahn (11 July 1811 – 23 September 1869) was an Austrian and later Austro-Hungarian diplomat, philologist and specialist in Albanian history, language and culture. Hahn was born in Frankfurt am Main. In 1847, he was named Aust ...

(1811–1869) who published it in 1854 his work Albanesische Studien in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

. He thought it was 'the original' Albanian script and a derivative of the ancient

Phoenician script The Phoenician alphabet is an alphabet (more specifically, an abjad) known in modern times from the Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions found across the Mediterranean region. The name comes from the Phoenician civilization. The Phoenician alph ...

. Leopold Geitler (1847–1885) and

Slovenian Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Sloven ...

scholar Rajko Nahtigal (1877–1958) subsequently studied the script, concluding that it was derived primarily from the

Roman cursive Roman cursive (or Latin cursive) is a form of handwriting (or a script) used in ancient Rome and to some extent into the Middle Ages. It is customarily divided into old (or ancient) cursive and new cursive. Old Roman cursive Old Roman cursiv ...

References

{{reflist Albanian scripts Alphabets Obsolete writing systems Constructed scripts

History

See also

References