This is an alphabetical list of any individuals, legendary or real, who are purported by traditions to have invented

alphabets 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 ...

or other

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, whether this is proven or not.

A

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (; ; 14 September 1486 – 18 February 1535) was a German polymath, physician, legal scholar, soldier, theologian, and occult writer. Agrippa's '' Three Books of Occult Philosophy'' published in 1533 dre ...

- German alchemist, created the

Transitus Fluvii Transitus Fluvii ("passing through the river" in Latin) or ''Passage Du Fleuve'' (in French) is an occult alphabet consisting of 22 characters described by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in his '' Third Book of Occult Philosophy'' (Cologne, 1533, bu ...

Malachim Malachim was an alphabet published by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in the 16th century. Other alphabets with a similar origin are the Celestial Alphabet and Transitus Fluvii. "Malachim" is a plural form from Hebrew (מלאך, mal'ach) and means "a ...

, and

Celestial Alphabet The Celestial Alphabet, also known as Angelic Script, is an set of characters described by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in the 16th century. It is not to be confused with John Dee and Edward Kelley's Enochian alphabet, which is also sometimes called ...

s, c. 1525. *

Guru Angad Guru Angad (31 March 1504 – 29 March 1552; Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਅੰਗਦ, pronunciation: ) was the second of the ten Sikh gurus of Sikhism. After meeting Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, becoming a Sikh, and serving and working with ...

- Sikh Guru, ascribed invention of

Gurmukhi script Gurmukhī ( pa, ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ, , Shahmukhi: ) is an abugida developed from the Laṇḍā scripts, standardized and used by the second Sikh guru, Guru Angad (1504–1552). It is used by Punjabi Sikhs to write the language, commonly re ...

c. 1539 according to tradition. * Anigouran - Tuareg folk hero, ascribed invention of

Tifinagh Tifinagh ( Tuareg Berber language: or , ) is a script used to write the Berber languages. Tifinagh is descended from the ancient Libyco-Berber alphabet. The traditional Tifinagh, sometimes called Tuareg Tifinagh, is still favored by the Tuar ...

according to tradition. * Afáka Atumisi - Surinamese, invented

Afaka script The Afaka script ( ''afaka sikifi'') is a syllabary of 56 letters devised in 1910 for the Ndyuka language, an English-based creole of Suriname. The script is named after its inventor, Afáka Atumisi. It continues to be used to write Ndyuka in t ...

in 1908. * Moubao Azong - Tibetan king, ascribed invention of Dongba script, c. 1250 (?), according to traditional Naxi genealogy.

B

* Celadet Bedir Khan - Kurd linguist, developed Bedirxan alphabet in 1932. * Alexander Melville Bell - American teacher, invented Visible Speech in 1867 * Anton Bezenšek - Slovenian linguist, developed Bezenšek Shorthand c. 1879 * Charles K. Bliss - Australian engineer, invented

Blissymbolics Blissymbols or Blissymbolics is a constructed language conceived as an ideographic writing system called Semantography consisting of several hundred basic symbols, each representing a concept, which can be composed together to generate new symb ...

c. 1949. *

Lako Bodra Ot Guru Kol Lako bodra (; 19 September 1919 – 29 June 1986) (in Ho: ''jonom chanduh aangai-aten chanduh atowari'' ) is the creator of the Warang Chiti writing system used for writing the Ho language. Early life Ott Guru Kol Lako Bodra was b ...

- Indian railway clerk and community leader. Invented the

Warang Citi Warang Citi (also written Varang Kshiti or Barang Kshiti; , IPA: /wɐrɐŋ ʧɪt̪ɪ/) is a writing system invented by Lako Bodra for the Ho language spoken in East India. It is used in primary and adult education and in various publications. I ...

script in the mid-1900s. * Robert Boyd - American, invented Boyd's Syllabic Shorthand in 1903. *

Louis Braille Louis Braille (; ; 4 January 1809 – 6 January 1852) was a French educator and the inventor of a reading and writing system, named braille after him, intended for use by visually impaired people. His system is used worldwide and remains virtua ...

- French teacher, invented

Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille disp ...

writing around 1821. *

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, also known as Cheik Nadro (11 March 1923 – 28 January 2014), was an Côte d'Ivoire, Ivorian artist. Life and career Bouabré was born in Idibouo-Zépréguhé, Zépréguhé, Ivory Coast, and was among the first Ivoria ...

- Ivorian artist, invented the Bété syllabary in the mid-1950s. * Momolu Duwalu Bukele - Liberian, invented

Vai syllabary The Vai syllabary is a syllabic writing system devised for the Vai language by Momolu Duwalu Bukele of Jondu, in what is now Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia. Bukele is regarded within the Vai community, as well as by most scholars, as the s ...

around 1833. *

John Byrom John Byrom or John Byrom of Kersal or John Byrom of Manchester FRS (29 February 1692 – 26 September 1763) was an English poet, the inventor of a revolutionary system of shorthand and later a significant landowner. He is most remembered as t ...

- British poet, invented a system of

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''st ...

c. 1715.

C

* Cadmus - legendary Phoenician prince, ascribed invention of

Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as w ...

c. 1350 BC (?) according to tradition. *

Cangjie Cangjie () is a legendary ancient Chinese figure said to have been an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. Legend has it that he had four eyes, and that when he invented the characters, the deities an ...

- legendary Chinese scribe, also ascribed invention of Chinese characters c. 2650 BC (?) according to tradition. * Carmenta - legendary Roman prophetess and mother of

Evander Evander is a masculine given name. It is an anglicization of the Greek name Εὔανδρος (lit. "good man", Latinized ''Evandrus''). It has also been adopted as an anglicization of the Gaelic name Iomhar (the Gaelic variant of the name Ivor ...

, ascribed adoption of Greek alphabet to

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...

c. 1250 BC (?) according to tradition. * Chao Yuen Ren - Chinese-American linguist, led the development of Gwoyeu Romatzyh in 1925–6. * Saint Clement of Ohrid - Archbishop, ascribed invention of Cyrillic c. 900, according to tradition. * Woyo Couloubayi - Malian, developed the Masaba syllabary for Bambara in the early 1930s. * Gregg M. Cox - linguist who developed the Coorgi-Cox alphabet in 2005. * Saint Cyril - Greek monk, believed to have created

Glagolitic alphabet The Glagolitic script (, , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril, a monk from Thessalonica. He and his brother Saint Methodius were sent by the Byzan ...

c. 863.

D

* John Dee - English alchemist and mathematician, invented an

Enochian Enochian ( ) is an occult constructed language — said by its originators to have been received from angels — recorded in the private journals of John Dee and his colleague Edward Kelley in late 16th-century England. Kelley was a scryer who w ...

alphabet (not to be confused with that of Pantheus) c. 1582. *

Émile Duployé Émile Duployé was a French clergyman, born in 1833 in Liesse-Notre-Dame ( Aisne) and died in 1912 in Saint-Maur-des-Fosses (now in Val-de-Marne). He is the author of the Duployan shorthand technique which was widely used in France in the earl ...

- French abbot, inventor of

Duployan shorthand The Duployan shorthand, or Duployan stenography (french: Sténographie Duployé), was created by Father Émile Duployé in 1860 for writing French. Since then, it has been expanded and adapted for writing English, German, Spanish, Romanian, Lati ...

, 1868. * Reginald John Garfield Dutton - British, invented Dutton Speedwords shorthand in 1922.

E

* C.C. Elian (artist) - invented Elian script, c. 1980s, a transformation of the Latin alphabet into lines and dashes, allowing for multiple variations of the same word. *

Enmerkar Enmerkar was an ancient Sumerian ruler to whom the construction of Uruk and a 420-year reign was attributed. According to literary sources, he led various campaigns against the land of Aratta. Historical king Late Uruk period The tradition ...

- legendary Sumerian king, ascribed invention of

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 wedge-sh ...

c. 2300 BC (?) according to ''

Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta ''Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta'' is a legendary Sumerian account, preserved in early post-Sumerian copies, composed in the Neo-Sumerian period (ca. 21st century BC). It is one of a series of accounts describing the conflicts between Enmerkar, ...

'' epic. *

Enos Enos or Enosh (Hebrew: , Standard ''Enosh'', Tiberian ''ʼĔnôš''; "mortal man”) may refer to: People in religious scripture * Enos (biblical figure), a genealogical figure in the Bible. * The Book of Enos, one of the books that make up the B ...

- Biblical patriarch, ascribed introduction of consonantal Ge'ez alphabet c. 3350 BC (?) according to tradition. * James Evans - Canadian missionary, invented a syllabary used for Ojibwe and Cree c. 1840, these days referred to as

Cree syllabics Cree syllabics are the versions of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics used to write Cree dialects, including the original syllabics system created for Cree and Ojibwe. There are two main varieties of syllabics for Cree: Western Cree syllabics and ...

F

Scott Fahlman Scott Elliott Fahlman (born March 21, 1948) is a computer scientist and Professor Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University's Language Technologies Institute and Computer Science Department. He is notable for early work on automated planning and s ...

- American computer scientist, proposed the first

smiley A smiley, sometimes referred to as a smiley face, is a basic ideogram that represents a smiling face. Since the 1950s it has become part of popular culture worldwide, used either as a standalone ideogram, or as a form of communication, such a ...

emoticon An emoticon (, , rarely , ), short for "emotion icon", also known simply as an emote, is a pictorial representation of a facial expression using characters—usually punctuation marks, numbers, and letters—to express a person's feelings, ...

in 1982. * Assane Faye - Senegalese, invented the Garay alphabet for Wolof, 1961. * Fenius Farsa - legendary Scythian king, ascribed invention of

Ogham Ogham ( Modern Irish: ; mga, ogum, ogom, later mga, ogam, label=none ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish langu ...

writing c. 2000 BC (?) according to tradition. *

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

- American statesman, developed Benjamin Franklin's phonetic alphabet c. 1768. *

Frumentius Frumentius ( gez, ፍሬምናጦስ; died c. 383) was a Phoenician Christian missionary and the first bishop of Axum who brought Christianity to the Kingdom of Aksum. He is sometimes known by other names, such as Abuna ("Our Father") an ...

- Syrian saint who converted the African kingdom of Aksum to Christianity, traditionally credited with development of consonantal Ge'ez script into vocalic Ge'ez script in the mid 4th-century. * Fu Hsi - legendary Chinese king, ascribed invention of

Chinese characters 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 ''kanji ...

c. 2850 BC (?) according to tradition.

G

* Franz Xaver Gabelsberger - German secretary, invented Gabelsberger shorthand around 1817. * Chief Gbili - Liberian, invented Kpelle syllabary c. 1935. * Mangei Gomango - Indian, invented Sorang Sompeng script in 1936. *

John Robert Gregg John Robert Gregg (17 June 1867 – 23 February 1948) was an Irish educator, publisher, humanitarian, and the inventor of the eponymous shorthand system Gregg Shorthand. Life Childhood John Robert Gregg was born in Shantonagh, Ireland, as th ...

- Irish author, invented

Gregg Shorthand Gregg shorthand is a form of shorthand that was invented by John Robert Gregg in 1888. Like cursive longhand, it is completely based on elliptical figures and lines that bisect them. Gregg shorthand is the most popular form of pen stenography in ...

c. 1888. *

Gregory of Durrës Gregory of Durrës ( sq, Gregori i Durrësit; el, Γρηγόριος ο Δυρραχίου, Grêgorios ho Dyrrakhíu; la, Gregorius Dyrrhachii; Gregory of Dyrrachium)Grigori is also recorded as Grigori Voskopojari ( Eng: Gregory of Voskopoja) ( ...

- Albanian monk, ascribed invention of the

Elbasan script The Elbasan script is a mid 18th-century alphabetic script created for the Albanian language ''Elbasan Gospel Manuscript'', also known as the ''Anonimi i Elbasanit'' ("the Anonymous of Elbasan"), which is the only document written in it. The doc ...

c. 1761

H

Thomas Harriot Thomas Harriot (; – 2 July 1621), also spelled Harriott, Hariot or Heriot, was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer and translator to whom the theory of refraction is attributed. Thomas Harriot was also recognized for his con ...

- English mathematician, invented phonetic alphabet for transcribing

Carolina Algonquian language Carolina Algonquian (also known as Pamlico, Croatoan) was an Algonquian language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup formerly spoken in North Carolina, United States. Carolina Algonquian was formerly spoken by Secotan (later known as Machapunga), ...

in 1584. *

Hemadpant Hemādri Paṇḍit, popularly known as Hemāḍapanta, was a polymath and a prime minister from 1259 to 1274 C.E. in the regimes of King Mahādev (1259–1271) and King Ramachandra (1271–1309) of Seuna Yādav Dynasty of Devagiri, which ruled i ...

- A scholar from ancient

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and Prime Minister in

Yadava Dynasty The Seuna, Sevuna, or Yadavas of Devagiri ( IAST: Seuṇa, –1317) was a Medieval Indian dynasty, which at its peak ruled a kingdom stretching from the Narmada river in the north to the Tungabhadra river in the south, in the western part of ...

, according to one theory invented the

Modi Script Modi ( mr, मोडी, , ; also Mudiya) is a script used to write the Marathi language, which is the primary language spoken in the state of Maharashtra, India. There are multiple theories concerning its origin. The Modi script was used along ...

that was used to write

Marathi Language Marathi (; ''Marāṭhī'', ) is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the official language of Maharashtra, and additional official language in the state of Goa. It is one of t ...

till 19th century before

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...

was officially adopted to write Marathi. *

Hildegard of Bingen Hildegard of Bingen (german: Hildegard von Bingen; la, Hildegardis Bingensis; 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher ...

- German nun, invented Litterae ignotae c. 1150. * James Hill - British, developed

Teeline Shorthand Teeline is a shorthand system developed in 1968 by James Hill, a teacher of Pitman Shorthand. It is accepted by the National Council for the Training of Journalists, which certifies the training of journalists in the United Kingdom. It is ma ...

in 1970. *

Honorius of Thebes Honorius may refer to: People * Honorius (emperor) (Flavius Honorius Augustus, 384–423), western Roman emperor 395–423 * Honorius of Canterbury (Saint Honorius, died 653), archbishop of Canterbury 627–653 * Honoratus of Amiens (Saint Honor ...

- possibly mythical author, ascribed invention of

Theban alphabet The Theban alphabet is a writing system, in particular a substitution cipher of the Latin alphabet, used by early modern occultists and popular in the Wicca movement. Publication history It was first published in Johannes Trithemius's ''Polygra ...

c. 1220 (?).

K

Hussein Sheikh Ahmed Kaddare Hussein Sheikh Ahmed Kaddare ( so, Xuseen Sheekh Axmed Kaddare, ar, حسين الشيخ أحمد كاداري; March 2 1934 – February 2015) was a Somali inventor, linguist, and researcher in Somali traditions and folklore. Kaddare contribute ...

- Somali, invented

Kaddare script The Kaddare alphabet is a writing script created to transcribe Somali, a Cushitic language in the Afroasiatic language family. History The orthography was invented in 1952 by a Sufi Sheikh, named Hussein Sheikh Ahmed Kaddare. A phonetically ...

c. 1953. * Kisimi Kamara - Sierra Leonean tailor, invented Mende syllabary, ''Ki-ka-ku'', in 1921. *

Solomana Kante Solomana Kanté (also written as Sùlemáana Kántε, Souleymane Kanté or Sulemaana Kantè; , 1922 – November 23, 1987) was a Guinean writer and educator, best known as the inventor of the N'Ko alphabet for the Mandé languages of Africa. K ...

- Guinean author, invented the

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 ...

alphabet in 1949. * Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Serbian

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, developed

Serbian Cyrillic alphabet The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( sr, / , ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, t ...

c. 1818, adapting Cyrillic alphabet. *

Osman Yusuf Kenadid Osman Yusuf Kenadid ( so, Cusmaan Yuusuf Keenadiid; ar, عثمان يوسف كيناديد; 1889 – 14 August 1972) was a Somali poet, writer, teacher and ruler. Born in Ceel Huur in 1889, he went on to create the Osmanya alphabet for writing ...

- Somali, invented

Osmanya script The Osmanya script ( so, Farta Cismaanya 𐒍𐒖𐒇𐒂𐒖 𐒋𐒘𐒈𐒑𐒛𐒒𐒕𐒖), also known as Far Soomaali (𐒍𐒖𐒇 𐒘𐒝𐒈𐒑𐒛𐒘, "Somali writing") and, in Arabic, as ''al-kitābah al-ʿuthmānīyah'' (الكتا ...

c. 1921. *

Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mono ...

- Persian mathematician, helped codify the

Hindu–Arabic numeral system The Hindu–Arabic numeral system or Indo-Arabic numeral system Audun HolmeGeometry: Our Cultural Heritage 2000 (also called the Hindu numeral system or Arabic numeral system) is a positional decimal numeral system, and is the most common syste ...

c. 825 *

Ong Kommandam Ong Kommandam (also Ong Kommadam) was the confidant and successor of Ong Keo as the leader of the Mon-Khmer tribes of southern Laos in their struggle for independence from French and Lao rule. Ong Keo was assassinated in 1910 by the Commissioner o ...

- Laotian freedom fighter, developed the

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 ...

, first used 1926. * Tony Koyu - from Arunachal Pradesh invented Tani Lipi a scientific script of Arunachal Pradesh in 2001. *

Kūkai Kūkai (; 27 July 774 – 22 April 835Kūkai was born in 774, the 5th year of the Hōki era; his exact date of birth was designated as the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the Japanese lunar calendar, some 400 years later, by the Shingon se ...

- Japanese monk, ascribed invention of

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 p ...

syllabary c. 806, according to tradition. *

Shigetaka Kurita (born May 9, 1972, Gifu Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese interface designer and often cited for his early work with emoji sets. Many refer to him as the creator of the emoji, a claim clarified in recent years. He was part of the team that cr ...

- Japanese designer, created the NTT DoCoMo emoji set.

J

* Krishna Bahadur Jenticha - invented the Jenticha script for the

Sunwar language Sunuwar, Sunuwar, or Kõinch (; ; other spellings are Koinch and Koincha), is a Kiranti language spoken in Nepal and India by the Sunuwar people. It was first comprehensively attested by the Himalayan Languages Project. It is also known as K ...

in 1942

L

* Jean-Marie-Raphaël Le Jeune - Canadian, created Chinook writing, 1893, an adaptation and expansion of Duployan. *

Francis Lodwick Francis Lodwick Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (or Lodowick; 1619–1694) was a pioneer of a priori language, ''a priori'' languages (what in the seventeenth century was called a 'philosophical language'). Biography Francis Lodwick was a mer ...

- Dutch linguist, invented ''Universal Alphabet'' in 1686. * Karl Richard Lepsius - German linguist, developed Standard Alphabet by Lepsius c. 1855. * Lontanna Igwe Onduze - Nigerian software designer and artist, created the Ndèbe script c. 2008.

M

* Mani - Ancient Iranian prophet, invented

Manichaean alphabet The Manichaean script is an abjad-based writing system rooted in the Semitic family of alphabets and associated with the spread of Manichaeism from southwest to central Asia and beyond, beginning in the 3rd century CE. It bears a sibling relation ...

Aulay Macaulay Aulay Macaulay (died 1788) was an 18th-century English tea-dealer, based in Manchester, who invented a system of shorthand which could be used in English and many other languages. He died on 19 March 1788, in Manchester. In the 18th century Mac ...

- English tea-dealer, who invented ''Polygraphy'', a system of

in 1747. * John R. Malone - American, developed the UNIFON alphabet c. 1955. *

Mesrop Mashtots Mesrob or Mesrop ( hy, Մեսրոպ) is an Armenian given name. Mesrob / Mesrop may refer to: * Mesrop Mashtots, also Saint Mesrop, Armenian monk, theologian and linguist. Inventor of the Armenian alphabet ** Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient M ...

- Armenian monk, created the

Armenian alphabet The Armenian alphabet ( hy, Հայոց գրեր, ' or , ') is an alphabetic writing system used to write Armenian. It was developed around 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader. The system originally had ...

in c. 405. * Olof Melin - Swedish colonel, invented Melin Shorthand c. 1880. * Mongkut - Thai king, invented the Ariyaka script *

Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...

- English author, invented

Utopian alphabet The Utopian language is the language of the fictional land of Utopia, as described in Thomas More's ''Utopia''. A brief sample of the constructed language is found in an addendum to More's book, written by his friend Peter Giles. Pretending to ...

in 1516. *

Adrien-Gabriel Morice Adrien-Gabriel Morice (27 August 1859 – 21 April 1939) was a missionary priest belonging to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He served as a missionary in Canada, and created a writing system for the Carrier language. Early life Father Morice wa ...

- French, developed Carrier syllabary c. 1885. *

Samuel F. B. Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...

- American inventor, invented Morse code c. 1835. * Ali Moslehi Moslehabadi - Iranian comparative linguist, developed IPA2, also known as Pársik in 2004. *

Pandit Raghunath Murmu Pandit Raghunath Murmu (May 1905 – 1 February 1982) was an Indian Santali writer and educator. He developed the Ol Chiki script for Santali language. Until the nineteenth century, Santali people had no written language and knowledge was tran ...

- Indian, created

Ol Chiki script The Ol Chiki () script, also known as Ol Chemetʼ (Santali: ''ol'' 'writing', ''chemet'' 'learning'), Ol Ciki, Ol, and sometimes as the Santali alphabet invented by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in the year 1925, is the official writing system for San ...

in 1925. * Ol Guru Mahendra Nath Sardar - Indian, created Ol Onal script.

N

Ibrahim Njoya King Ibrahim Mbouombouo Njoya ( Bamum: , ''Iparəim Nʃuɔiya'', formerly spelled in Bamum as , and Germanicized as ''Njoja'') in Yaoundé, was seventeenth in a long dynasty of kings that ruled over Bamum and its people in western Cameroon dati ...

- King of Bamum (Cameroon), invented

Bamum script The Bamum scripts are an evolutionary series of six scripts created for the Bamum language by Ibrahim Njoya, King of Bamum (now western Cameroon) at the turn of the 19th century. They are notable for evolving from a pictographic system to a s ...

c. 1910. *

Nurhaci Nurhaci (14 May 1559 – 30 September 1626), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Qing (), was a Jurchen chieftain who rose to prominence in the late 16th century in Manchuria. A member of the House of Aisin-Gioro, he reigned ...

(king), or possibly his translators Erdeni and Gagai ? - Manchurians, created

Manchu alphabet The Manchu alphabet ( mnc, m=, v=manju hergen, a=manju hergen) is the alphabet used to write the now nearly-extinct Manchu language. A similar script is used today by the Sibe people, Xibe people, who speak a Xibe language, language consider ...

in 1599.

O

* Odin/*Wōdanaz - the chief god in Scandinavian/Germanic paganism. Associated in the

Hávamál ''Hávamál'' ( ; Old Norse: ,Unnormalised spelling in the :Title: Final stanza: ../ref> classical pron. , Modern Icelandic pron. , ‘Words of he High One��) is presented as a single poem in the Icelandic , a collection of Old Norse poems fr ...

with the origins of the

Runic alphabet Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

Futhark Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialis ...

(Later

Futhorc Anglo-Saxon runes ( ang, rūna ᚱᚢᚾᚪ) are runes used by the early Anglo-Saxons as an alphabet in their writing system. The characters are known collectively as the futhorc (ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ ''fuþorc'') from the Old English sound va ...

). * Ogma - legendary Irish deified chieftain, also ascribed invention of Ogham writing c. 1875 BC (?) according to tradition. * Narayan Oraon - Indian doctor. Invented the Tolong Siki alphabet for Kurukh in 1999.

P

Zaya Pandita Zaya Pandita or Namkhaijamts (1599–1662) was a Buddhist missionary priest and scholar of Oirat origin who is the most prominent Oirat Buddhist scholar. Among his accomplishments is the invention of the Clear Script. Biography Zaya Pandita ...

- Oirat lama, developed Todo script in 1648. * Johannes Pantheus - German author, invented

alphabet (not to be confused with that of Dee) in 1478. * Paracelsus - Swiss alchemist, invented Alphabet of the Magi c. 1520. * Chögyal Phagpa - Tibetan monk, invented Phagspa script in 1269. *

Pharnavaz I of Iberia Pharnavaz I (; ka, ფარნავაზ I ) was a king of Kartli, an ancient Georgian kingdom known as Iberia in classical antiquity. ''The Georgian Chronicles'' credits him with being the first monarch founding the kingship of Kartli ...

- Iberian king, ascribed development of Georgian alphabet in 284 BC, according to tradition. *

Francisco de Pina Francisco de Pina (1585 – 1625) was a Portuguese Jesuit interpreter, missionary and priest, credited with creating the first Latinized script of the Vietnamese language, on which the modern Vietnamese alphabet is based. Biography Francisco ...

, and other Portuguese missionaries - created the

Vietnamese alphabet The Vietnamese alphabet ( vi, chữ Quốc ngữ, lit=script of the National language) is the modern Latin writing script or writing system for Vietnamese. It uses the Latin script based on Romance languages originally developed by Portuguese m ...

c. 1620s. *

Isaac Pitman Sir Isaac Pitman (4 January 1813 – 22 January 1897) was a teacher of the :English language who developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand. He first proposed this in ''Stenographic Soundhand'' in 183 ...

- British teacher, invented

Pitman shorthand Pitman shorthand is a system of shorthand for the English language developed by Englishman Sir Isaac Pitman (1813–1897), who first presented it in 1837. Like most systems of shorthand, it is a phonetic system; the symbols do not represent lett ...

in 1837. *

Sam Pollard Sam Pollard may refer to: * Sam Pollard (missionary) (1864-1915) British missionary to China * Sam Pollard (filmmaker) Samuel D. Pollard is an American film director, editor, producer, and screenwriter. His films have garnered numerous awards su ...

- British missionary, invented

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 ...

in 1905. *

Parley P. Pratt Parley Parker Pratt Sr. (April 12, 1807 – May 13, 1857) was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement whose writings became a significant early nineteenth-century exposition of the Latter Day Saint faith. Named in 1835 as one of the first ...

- American Mormon leader, developed Deseret alphabet with George D. Watt c. 1855. * George Psalmanazar - European impostor and scholar, invented a (fraudulent) Formosan alphabet in 1704.

R

Ram Khamhaeng the Great Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * Ra ...

- Thai king, ascribed invention of

Thai alphabet 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� ...

in 1283, according to tradition. * Ronald Kingsley Read - British, invented the

Shavian The Shavian alphabet (; also known as the Shaw alphabet) is an alphabet conceived as a way to provide simple, phonemic orthography for the English language to replace the difficulties of English orthography, conventional spelling using the E ...

(early 1960s) and

Quikscript QUIKSCRIPT is a simulation language derived from SIMSCRIPT, based on 20-GATE.a programming language for the 1960s Bendix G-20 computer References * "Quikscript - A Simscript-like Language for the G-20", F.M. Tonge et al., Communications of ...

(1966) writing systems. * Jeremiah Rich - English, invented a system of

in 1654. * Ríg - (identified as

Heimdall In Norse mythology, Heimdall (from Old Norse Heimdallr) is a god who keeps watch for invaders and the onset of Ragnarök from his dwelling Himinbjörg, where the burning rainbow bridge Bifröst meets the sky. He is attested as possessing forekno ...

) gave the runes to his son,

Jarl Jarl is a rank of the nobility in Scandinavia. In Old Norse, it meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. ''Jarl'' could also mean a sovereign prince. For example, the rulers of several of the petty k ...

(

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic med ...

poem

Rígsþula ''Rígsþula'' or ''Rígsmál'' (Old Norse: 'The Lay of Ríg') is an Eddic poem, preserved in the manuscript (AM 242 fol, the Codex Wormianus), in which a Norse god named Ríg or Rígr, described as "old and wise, mighty and strong,", fathers ...

)

(Later

) c. 150 AD (?) per tradition. *

Alexandre de Rhodes Alexandre de Rhodes (15 March 1593 – 5 November 1660) was an Avignonese Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who had a lasting impact on Christianity in Vietnam. He wrote the '' Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum'', the first triling ...

- Avignonese missionary, developed

c. 1625, basing on works by Portuguese missionaries such as

S

* Carl W. Salser - American teacher, developed

Personal Shorthand ''Personal Shorthand'', originally known as ''Briefhand'' in the 1950s, is a completely alphabetic shorthand. There are three basic categories of written shorthand. Best known are pure ''symbol'' (stenographic) shorthand systems (e.g., Gregg, ...

with C. Theo Yerian. c. 1955. * Thikúng Men Salóng - Bhutanese scholar, invented

Lepcha script The Lepcha script, or Róng script, is an abugida used by the Lepcha people to write the Lepcha language. Unusually for an abugida, syllable-final consonants are written as diacritics. History Lepcha is derived from the Tibetan script, and ma ...

some time around 1700. * Bakri Sapalo - Oromo poet, writer, and teacher from Ethiopia, invented an alphasyllabic

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 ...

for the Oromo language c. 1956. * Johann Martin Schleyer - created three letters (ꞛ, ꞝ, and ꞟ) for his international auxiliary language

Volapük Volapük (; , "Language of the World", or lit. "World Speak") is a constructed language created between 1879 and 1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Catholic priest in Baden, Germany, who believed that God had told him in a dream to create an ...

at the end of the 19th century. *

Saraswati Saraswati ( sa, सरस्वती, ) is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. She is one of the Tridevi, along with the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati. The earliest known mention of Saraswati as a g ...

- Indian goddess, created

devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...

alphabet. * Sejong the Great - Korean king of Joseon, invented

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...

writing in c. 1443, promulgated in 1446. *

Seol Chong Seol Chong (650 - 730 AD) was a leading scholar of the Unified Silla period from the Gyeongju Seol clan. He studied Confucian writings and the related Chinese classics. He is also known by the courtesy name Chongji and the pen name Bingwoldang. ...

- inventor of the Korean

Idu script Idu (이두, hanja : , meaning ''official's reading'') is an archaic writing system that represents the Korean language using hanja. The script, which was developed by Buddhist monks, made it possible to record Korean words through its equiva ...

and Gugyeol script (c.650 - c.730), according to tradition. * Sequoyah, Cherokee silversmith, invented

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, t ...

syllabary c. 1819. * Seth, son of Adam, is mentioned in the Chronicle of Malalas as being the "first to invent

Hebrew script The Hebrew alphabet ( he, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish ...

and to write with it"John Malalas, ''Chronographia'', book I, section 1 (translation by Elizabeth Jeffreys, Michael Jeffreys, Roger Scott et al. 1986, page 2) *

Sheikh Abdurahman Sheikh Nuur Sheikh Abdurahman Sh. Nur ( so, Sheekh Cabdiraxmaan Sheekh Nuur, ar, شيخ عبد الرحمن شيخ نور) was a Somali Sheikh (religious leader), qādi (judge) of the government at that time and the inventor of the Borama script for the ...

- Somali, invented

Borama script The Gadabuursi script also known as the Borama alphabet (Borama: ), is a writing script for the Somali language. It was devised around 1933 by Sheikh Abdurahman Sh. Nur of the Gadabuursi clan. History Though not as widely known as Osmanya, ...

c. 1933. * Thomas Shelton - English translator, developed ''Short Writing'', an early

, in 1626. *

Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche Tonpa Shenrab ( "Teacher Shenrab") or Shenrab Miwo ()—also called the Buddha Shenrab, Guru Shenrab and a number of other titles—is the legendary founder of the Bon tradition of Tibet. The story of Tonpa Shenrab was revealed in a fourtee ...

- Tibetan religious teacher of uncertain historicity, ascribed creation of the Dongba script by religious fables. * Shong Lue Yang - Hmong, created

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 ''( ...

alphabet in 1959. * M. Siahzathang - Zo author, invented the Zoulai script for the

Zou language Zo or Zokam (literally "of the hills"), is a Northern Kuki-Chin-Mizo language originating in northwestern Burma and spoken also in Mizoram and Manipur in northeastern India, where the name is spelled Zou. The name Zou is sometimes used as a cov ...

in 1952. * Sirijonga - Nepalese king, ascribed invention of Limbu alphabet c. 880, according to tradition. * Kai Staats - American filmmaker, created

iConji iConji is a free pictographic communication system based on an open, visual vocabulary of characters with built-in translations for most major languages. In May 2010 iConji Messenger was released with support for Apple iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod) ...

in 2010. * Stephen of Perm - Russian missionary, invented the Old Permic alphabet in 1372. * Heron Stone - invented Phonographics in 1994 *

Valerie Sutton Valerie Sutton (born February 22, 1951) is an American developer of movement notation and a former dancer. Early life She was born in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City, the daughter of a physicist father and a poet/model mother. She ha ...

- American choreographer, developed MovementWriting for transcribing dance in 1972 and

SignWriting Sutton SignWriting, or simply SignWriting, is a system of writing sign languages. It is highly featural and visually iconic, both in the shapes of the characters, which are abstract pictures of the hands, face, and body, and in their spatial arr ...

for transcribing

sign languages Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

in 1974.

T

Taautus Taautus of Byblos, according to the Phoenician writer Sanchuniathon, was the son of Misor and the inventor of writing, who was bequeathed the land of Egypt by Cronus. Sanchuniathon's writings, through the translation of Philo, were transmitted to ...

, legendary inventor of the

Phoenician alphabet 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 a ...

* Samuel Taylor - British, invented Universal Stenography system of

in 1792. * Tenevil - Chukchi reindeer herder, developed a writing system for Chukchi language c. 1931. *

Charles Allen Thomas Charles Allen Thomas (February 15, 1900 – March 29, 1982) was a noted American chemist and businessman, and an important figure in the Manhattan Project. He held over 100 patents. A graduate of Transylvania College and Massachusetts Institute ...

- invented

Thomas Natural Shorthand Thomas Natural Shorthand is an English shorthand system created by Charles A. Thomas which was first published in 1935. Thomas described his system as "designed to meet the existing need for a simple, legible shorthand that is based on already fam ...

in 1935. *

Thonmi Sambhota Thonmi Sambhota (Thönmi Sambhoṭa, aka Tonmi Sambhodha;, Tib. , Wyl. thon mi sam+b+ho Ta; b. seventh cent.) is traditionally regarded as the inventor of the Tibetan script and author of the ''Sum cu pa'' and ''Rtags kyi 'jug pa'' in the 7th cen ...

- legendary Tibetan scribe, ascribed invention of

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 ...

c. 650, according to tradition. *

Thoth Thoth (; from grc-koi, Θώθ ''Thṓth'', borrowed from cop, Ⲑⲱⲟⲩⲧ ''Thōout'', Egyptian: ', the reflex of " eis like the Ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or ...

- mythical Egyptian deity, ascribed invention of Egyptian hieroglyphics c. 3000 BC (?) according to tradition. * John William Tims - Missionary, developed Blackfoot syllabary c. 1890. *

Marcus Tullius Tiro Marcus Tullius Tiro (died 4 BC) was first a slave, then a freedman, of Cicero from whom he received his nomen and praenomen. He is frequently mentioned in Cicero's letters. After Cicero's death Tiro published his former master's collected w ...

- Roman secretary, ascribed invention of

Tironian notes Tironian notes ( la, notae Tironianae, links=no) are a set of thousands of signs that were formerly used in a system of shorthand (Tironian shorthand) dating from the 1st century BCE and named after Tiro, a personal secretary to Marcus Tullius Ci ...

shorthand c. 63 BC, according to tradition. *

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

- British author, invented the

Tengwar The Tengwar script is an artificial script, one of several scripts created by J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of ''The Lord of the Rings''. Within the fictional context of Middle-earth, the Tengwar were invented by the Elf Fëanor, and use ...

, Cirth and

Sarati Sarati is an artificial script, one of several scripts created by J. R. R. Tolkien. According to Tolkien's mythology, the Sarati alphabet was invented by the Elf Rúmil of Tirion. External history As Tolkien strove to create a world that w ...

c. 1930. * Dhaniram Toto - Indian social worker, author, and Toto community elder; invented an alphabetic script for the

Toto language Toto ( Bengali: , Toto: ) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken on the border of India and Bhutan, by the tribal Toto people in Totopara, West Bengal along the border with Bhutan. It is also spoken in Subhapara, Dhunchipara, and Panchayatpara hi ...

, published in 2015. * Johannes Trithemius - German cryptographer, invented an "Angelic" (magical) alphabet in 1499. * Deowan Turi - possibly mythical, ascribed invention of

alphabet c. 1250 (?) by Lako Bodra.

U

Ulfilas Ulfilas (–383), also spelled Ulphilas and Orphila, all Latinisation of names, Latinized forms of the unattested Gothic language, Gothic form *𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌰 Wulfila, literally "Little Wolf", was a Goths, Goth of Cappadocian Ancie ...

, Goth missionary, believed to have invented Gothic alphabet c. 350 AD, according to tradition. *

Uyaquk Uyaquq (also Uyaquk or Uyakoq; sometimes referred to in English as Helper Neck) (ca. 1860–1924) was a member of the Yup'ik people who became a Helper in the Moravian Church, noted for his linguistic abilities. He went from being an illitera ...

Yupik Yupik may refer to: * Yupik peoples, a group of indigenous peoples of Alaska and the Russian Far East * Yupik languages, a group of Eskimo-Aleut languages Yupꞌik (with the apostrophe) may refer to: * Yup'ik people The Yup'ik or Yupiaq (sg ...

(Alaska Native) missionary, invented Yugtun script c. 1900.

V

Naum Veqilharxhi Naum Veqilharxhi (born Naum Panajot Bredhi; 1797–1846) was an Albanian lawyer and scholar. In 1844, he created a unique alphabet for the Albanian language using characters he had created himself, the Vithkuqi script. Veqilharxhi is one of the ...

- Albanian, invented the Vithkuqi alphabet in 1845.

W

Wanyan Xiyin The Wanyan (; Manchu: ''Wanggiyan''; Jurchen script: ) clan was among the clans of the Heishui Mohe tribe living in the drainage region of the Heilong River during the time of the Khitan-led Liao dynasty. Of the Heishui Mohe, the clan was count ...

- Manchurian scribe, invented

Jurchen script The Jurchen script (Jurchen: ) was the writing system used to write the Jurchen language, the language of the Jurchen people who created the Jin Empire in northeastern China in the 12th–13th centuries. It was derived from the Khitan script, ...

in 1120. *

William Bell Wait William Bell Wait (1839–1916) was a teacher in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind who invented New York Point, a system of writing for the blind that was adopted widely in the United States before the braille system was unive ...

- American teacher, invented

New York Point New York Point (New York Point: ) is a braille-like system of tactile writing for the blind invented by William Bell Wait (1839–1916), a teacher in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind. The system used one to four pairs of poi ...

system in 1868. * Diedrich Westermann - German missionary, developed

Africa Alphabet The Africa Alphabet (also International African Alphabet or IAI alphabet) was developed by the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures in 1928, with the help of some Africans led by Diedrich Hermann Westermann, who served as d ...

in 1928. * George D. Watt - American Mormon leader, developed Deseret alphabet with

c. 1855. * W. John (or John W.) Weilgart - Austrian-born American psychoanalyst and philosopher; creator of the philosophical language aUI and its writing system. *

John Wilkins John Wilkins, (14 February 1614 – 19 November 1672) was an Anglican clergyman, natural philosopher, and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death. Wilkins is one of the f ...

- English academic. Invented the so-called '

real character Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010) ...

' as a writing system for a proposed Philosophical language in 1668. * John Willis - English, invented a system of

in 1602.

Y

* Yeli Renrong - Tangut scholar, invented

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 ...

in 1036. * Yelü Diela - Manchurian scribe, ascribed creation of

Khitan small script The Khitan small script () was one of two writing systems used for the now-extinct Khitan language (the other was the Khitan large script). It was used during the 10th–12th century by the Khitan people, who had created the Liao Empire in presen ...

c. 925. * C. Theo Yerian - American teacher, developed

with Carl W. Salser. c. 1955.

Z

Zhang Binglin Zhang Binglin (January 12, 1869 – June 14, 1936), also known by his art name Zhang Taiyan, was a Chinese philologist, textual critic, philosopher, and revolutionary. His philological works include ''Wen Shi'' (文始 "The Origin of Writing"), ...

- Chinese linguist, invented shorthand that was developed into

Zhuyin Bopomofo (), or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also named Zhuyin (), is a Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects. More commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin, it may also be used to transcribe ...

in 1913. *

Zhou Youguang Zhou Youguang (; 13 January 1906 – 14 January 2017), also known as Chou Yu-kuang or Chou Yao-ping, was a Chinese economist, banker, linguist, sinologist, Esperantist, publisher, and supercentenarian, known as the "father of Pinyin", a system f ...

- Chinese linguist, invented Pinyin romanisation, 1958 * Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar - Mongolian monk, created

Soyombo script The Soyombo script ( mn, Соёмбо бичиг, ''Soyombo biçig'') is an abugida developed by the monk and scholar Zanabazar in 1686 to write Mongolian. It can also be used to write Tibetan and Sanskrit. A special character of the script, the ...

in 1686 and Zanabazar square script. * Wido Zobo - Liberian, invented Loma syllabary c. 1935.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inventors Of Writing Systems

Writing systems 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 form ...

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References