Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...
uses various non-Latin-based
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 fo ...
s. The writing systems below are listed by
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...
.
Austroasiatic languages
*
Khmer script
Khmer script ( km, អក្សរខ្មែរ, )Huffman, Franklin. 1970. ''Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader''. Yale University Press. . is an abugida (alphasyllabary) script used to write the Khmer language, the official la ...
(for
Khmer language
Khmer (; , ) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Khmer people, and the official and national language of Cambodia. Khmer has been influenced considerably by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, throug ...
)
*
Khom script Khom script may refer to either of the following writing systems derived from the Khmer script:
*Khom Thai script, a script based on ancient Khmer and historically used in Thailand
*Khom script (Ong Kommadam), a script developed in Laos by the rebe ...
(for
Bahnaric languages
The Bahnaric languages are a group of about thirty Austroasiatic languages spoken by about 700,000 people in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Paul Sidwell notes that Austroasiatic/Mon–Khmer languages are lexically more similar to Bahnaric and Katu ...
)
*
Chữ Nôm
Chữ Nôm (, ; ) is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters ('' Chữ Hán'') to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represent ...
(historical writing for
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese ( vi, tiếng Việt, links=no) is an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic language originating from Vietnam where it is the national language, national and official language. Vietnamese is spoken natively by over 70 million people, ...
)
*
Mon script
Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to:
Places
* Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar
* Mon, India, a town in Nagaland
* Mon district, Nagaland
* Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India
* Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons
* A ...
(for
Mon language)
Austronesian languages
Most Austronesian languages use Latin script today. Some non-Latin-based writing systems are listed below.
*
Jawi alphabet
Jawi (; ace, Jawoë; Kelantan-Pattani: ''Yawi''; ) is a writing system used for writing several languages of Southeast Asia, such as Acehnese, Banjarese, Kerinci, Maguindanaon, Malay, Minangkabau, Tausūg, and Ternate. Jawi is based ...
(for
Malay and a number of other languages)
*
Cham script
The Cham script is a Brahmic abugida used to write Cham, an Austronesian language spoken by some 245,000 Chams in Vietnam and Cambodia. It is written horizontally left to right, just like other Brahmic abugidas.
History
The Cham script is a ...
(for
Cham language
Cham (Cham: ꨌꩌ) is a Malayo-Polynesian languages, Malayo-Polynesian language of the Austronesian languages, Austronesian family, spoken by the Cham people, Chams of Southeast Asia. It is spoken primarily in the territory of the former Kingdo ...
)
*
Eskayan script (for
Eskayan language)
*
Kawi script
The Kawi or or Old Javanese script is a Brahmic script found primarily in Java and used across much of Maritime Southeast Asia between the 8th century and the 16th century.Aditya Bayu Perdana and Ilham Nurwansah 2020Proposal to encode Kawi/ ...
(used across
Maritime Southeast Asia
Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. Maritime Southeast Asia is sometimes also referred to as Island Southeast Asia, Insular Southeast Asia or Oceanic Sout ...
)
**
Balinese script
The Balinese script, natively known as and , is an abugida used in the island of Bali, Indonesia, commonly for writing the Austronesian Balinese language, Old Javanese, and the liturgical language Sanskrit. With some modifications, the script ...
**
Batak script
The Batak script (natively known as ''surat Batak'', ''surat na sampulu sia'' ("the nineteen letters"), or ''si-sia-sia'') is a writing system used to write the Austronesian Batak languages spoken by several million people on the Indonesia ...
**
Baybayin
***
Buhid script
Surat Buhid is an Abugida used to write the Buhid language. As a Brahmic script indigenous to the Philippines, it closely related to Baybayin and Hanunó'o. It is still used today by the Mangyans, found mainly on island of Mindoro, to write the ...
***
Hanunó'o script
Hanunoo (), also rendered Hanunó'o, is one of the scripts indigenous to the Philippines and is used by the Mangyan peoples of southern Mindoro to write the Hanunó'o language.
It is an abugida descended from the Brahmic scripts, closely r ...
***
Kulitan alphabet (for
Kapampangan language
Kapampangan or Pampangan is an Austronesian language, and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. It is the primary and predominant language of the entire province of Pampanga and southern Tarlac, on the southern part of Luzon' ...
)
***
Tagbanwa script
Tagbanwa is one of the scripts indigenous to the Philippines, used by the Tagbanwa and the Palawan people as their ethnic writing system.
The Tagbanwa languages (Aborlan, Calamian and Central), which are Austronesian languages with about 25,000 ...
**
Javanese script
**
Lontara script
**
Makasar script
The Makasar script, also known as Ukiri' Jangang-jangang (bird's script) or Old Makasar script, is a historical Indonesian Writing system that was used in South Sulawesi to write the Makassarese language between the 17th and 19th centuries unti ...
**
Old Sundanese script
Old Sundanese script () is a script that developed in West Java in the 14th–18th centuries which was originally used to write Old Sundanese language. The Old Sundanese script is a development of the Pallava script which has reached the stage ...
***
Sundanese script
Standard Sundanese script (''Aksara Sunda Baku'', ) is a writing system which is used by the Sundanese people. It is built based on Old Sundanese script (''Aksara Sunda Kuno'') which was used by the ancient Sundanese between the 14th and 18th ...
**
Rejang script
The Rejang alphabet, is an abugida of the Brahmic family, and is related to other scripts of the region, like Batak, Lontara, and others. Rejang is a member of the closely related group of Surat Ulu scripts that include the script variants of ...
**
Rencong script
The Rencong script, locally known as ''Surat Ulu'' ('upstream script') is a writing system family found in central and south Sumatra, in the regions of Kerinci, Bengkulu, Palembang and Lampung, Indonesia. It was used to write manuscripts in Sum ...
**
Buda script
Hmong-Mien languages
*
Romanized Popular Alphabet (Hmong RPA)
*
Pollard script
The Pollard script, also known as Pollard Miao (Chinese: 柏格理苗文 Bó Gélǐ Miao-wen) or Miao, is an abugida loosely based on the Latin alphabet and invented by Methodist missionary Sam Pollard. Pollard invented the script for use with A ...
*
Pahawh Hmong
Pahawh Hmong ( RPA: Phaj hauj Hmoob , Pahawh: ; known also as ''Ntawv Pahawh, Ntawv Keeb, Ntawv Caub Fab, Ntawv Soob Lwj'') is an indigenous semi-syllabic script, invented in 1959 by Shong Lue Yang, to write two Hmong languages, Hmong Daw ''( ...
*
Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong
Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong ( Hmong: ; RPA: ''Ntawv Nyiajkeeb Puajtxwm Hmoob'') is an alphabet script devised for White Hmong and Green Hmong in the 1980s by Reverend Chervang Kong for use within his United Christians Liberty Evangelical Church. T ...
*Eebee Hmong
Kra-Dai languages
Many
Southwestern Tai languages
The Southwestern Tai, Southwestern Thai or Thai languages are a branch of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia. Its dialects include Siamese (Central Thai), Lanna, Lao, Shan and others.
Classification
The internal classification of the South ...
are written using
Brāhmī-derived alphabets.
Zhuang languages
The Zhuang languages (; autonym: , pre-1982: , Sawndip: 話僮, from ''vah'', 'language' and ''Cuengh'', 'Zhuang'; ) are any of more than a dozen Tai languages spoken by the Zhuang people of Southern China in the province of Guangxi and adja ...
were traditionally written with
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 ''kanj ...
s, but are now usually written with romanized alphabets.
*
Thai script
The Thai script ( th, อักษรไทย, ) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols ( th, พยัญชน ...
*
Lao script
*
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 used ...
*
Shan script
*
Tai Viet script
*
Tai Le script
Tai or TAI may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Tai (comics) a fictional Marvel Comics supervillain
*Tai Fraiser, a fictional character in the 1995 film ''Clueless''
* Tai Kamiya, a fictional character in ''Digimon''
Businesses and organisation ...
*
New Tai Lue alphabet
New Tai Lue script, also known as Xishuangbanna Dai and Simplified Tai Lue, is an abugida used to write the Tai Lü language. Developed in China in the 1950s, New Tai Lue is based on the traditional Tai Tham alphabet developed . The governm ...
*
Tai Tham script
Tai Tham script ('' Tham'' meaning "scripture") is the name given to an abugida writing system used mainly for a group of Southwestern Tai languages i.e., Northern Thai, Tai Lü, Khün and Lao; as well as the liturgical languages of Buddhism ...
*
Tai Yo script
Tibeto-Burman languages
*
Burmese alphabet
**
S'gaw Karen alphabet
*
Ersu Shaba
*
Kayah Li alphabet
*
Fraser alphabet
The Fraser or Old Lisu script is an artificial abugida invented around 1915 by Sara Ba Thaw, a Karen preacher from Myanmar and improved by the missionary James O. Fraser, to write the Lisu language. It is a single-case ( unicameral) alphabet. It ...
(used to write the
Lisu language
Lisu ( Fraser alphabet: , or ; New Lisu script: ; zh, c=傈僳语, p=Lìsùyǔ; my, လီဆူဘာသာစကား, ) is a tonal Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Yunnan (Southwestern China), Northern Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand and ...
)
*
Naxi script
The Naxi language of southwestern China may be written in the syllabic ''geba'' script. There is also a Naxi tradition of pictographic symbols called ''dongba''; this may sometimes be glossed with ''geba'' for clarification, since a ''dongba'' t ...
**
Geba syllabary
''Geba'' is a syllabic script for the Naxi language. It is called ''¹Ggo¹baw'' in Naxi, adapted as ''Geba'', 哥巴, in Chinese. Some glyphs resemble the Yi script, and some appear to be adaptations of Chinese characters. ''Geba'' is used only ...
**
Dongba symbols
The Dongba, Tomba or Tompa or Mo-so symbols are a system of pictographic glyphs used by the '' ²dto¹mba'' (Bon priests) of the Naxi people in southern China. In the Naxi language it is called ''²ss ³dgyu'' 'wood records' or ''²lv ³dgyu'' ' ...
*
Zomi script
*
Tangut script
The Tangut script ( Tangut: ; ) was a logographic writing system, used for writing the extinct Tangut language of the Western Xia dynasty. According to the latest count, 5863 Tangut characters are known, excluding variants. The Tangut characte ...
*
Tibetan script
The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system (''abugida'') of Indic origin used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. It has also been used for some non-Tibetic langua ...
*
Tujia script
*
Yi script
The Yi script (Yi: ; ) is an umbrella term for two scripts used to write the Yi languages; Classical Yi (an ideogram script), and the later Yi Syllabary. The script is historically known in Chinese as ''Cuan Wen'' () or ''Wei Shu'' () and var ...
See also
*
Classification schemes for Southeast Asian languages There have been various classification schemes for Southeast Asian languages (see the articles for the respective language families).
Language families
The five established major language families are:
* Kra–Dai
* Austronesian
*Austroasiatic
* H ...
*
Writing systems of Africa
The writing systems of Africa refer to the current and historical practice of writing systems on the African continent, both indigenous and those introduced.
Today, the Latin script is commonly encountered across Africa, especially in the Western ...
References
{{Authority control
Writing systems
Languages of Southeast Asia