Alfabetos
Alfabetos
Alfabetos
The Amharic script is used for various languages in Ethiopia and Somalia
including Amharic, Tigre and Tigrinya.
The Arabic Alphabet
and Numbers
The Letters of the Alphabet
Vowel Sounds
The Numbers
The Arabic script is used by the Arabic language spoken in Middle East, North
Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The script is also used in the Muslim holy book,
the Quran and so is known by many who are not speakers of the Arabic language. The
script has been modified for use by other languages in the Middle East and Asia.
The Arabic numerals were borrowed by the Arabs from India and brought to
Europe where they were modified and replaced Roman numerals.
The Aramaic Alphabet
Aramaic was the language of Aram state in Ancient Syria. The alphabet is a
development of the original alphabet developed by the Phoenicians. The Greek and
Latin alphabets are both decendents of this script.
The Armenian alphabet is used for the Armenian language spoken in Armenia
in the Caucasian region between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. It has been
influenced by the Greek alphabet and ancient Persian scripts.
The Bengali Syllabary
and Numbers
Vowels
Consonants
The Numbers
The Berber script was used in North Africa to write various Berber languages,
the forerunners of languages like Tuareg and Kabyle.
The Brahmi Syllabary
The Consonants
The Wowels
The Brahmi script was used by the Maurian Dynasty of Central India. It is aslo
called the Ashoka script, after the Buddhist emperor. It was the basis of many Indian
scripts.
The Burmese Syllabary
and Numbers
The Consonants
The Vowels
The Numbers
The Burmese script resembles the writing systems of South India. The script
allows for the tonal nature of the Burmese language.
The Cham Syllabary
and Numbers
The Consonants
The Vowels
The Numbers
The Cham script is derived from the writing systems of South India. It is used for
the Cham language which is spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Chinese Characters
Pictograms
Ideograms
Numbers
Compounds
Homophones
Modern Words
The Coptic alphabet is used for the Coptic language of Egypt. This is now the
religious language used by Egyptian Christians. It is derived from Greek and Nubian
writing.
Cuniform
Old Persian Writing
Ukrainian
Bulgarian
Macedonian
Serbian
Mongolian
Old Church Slavonic
The Cyrillic alphabet has been influenced by both the Greek and Latin
alphabets.The original is called Old Church Slavonic.
It is used for several languages in Eastern Europe: Russian, Ukrainian,
Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian.
The Etruscan Alphabet
The Etruscan alphabet was used for the language of the Etruscans.They were a
pre-Roman people from ancient Italy.It is an adaptation of the Greek alphabet and later
influenced the Latin alphabet.
The Georgian Alphabet
The Georgian script (also called Khutsuri or Mkhedruli) is used for the
Georgian language spoken in Georgia, a Caucasian country.
The Greek Alphabet
The Greek alphabet was the first alphabet to include vowels. It is over 2500 years
old. It is used for all forms of Greek.
The Gujarati Syllabary
and Numbers
The Syllabary
The Numbers
Hebrew Vowels
Yiddish
Ladino
The Hebrew alphabet is over 2200 years old. It is derived from Aramaic and is used
for both ancient Hebrew (the language of Judaism) and the modern language of Israel,
Ivrit.
Versions of this alphabet are used for languages spoken by Jews in Central Europe
(Yiddish) and Asia (Ladino).
The Hindi Syllabary
and Numbers
The Syllabary
Additional Symbols
The Numbers
The Hindi script is derived from the Devanagari script of Sanskrit. It is used for
several North Indian languages (Hindi, Marathi, Rajasthani) and Nepalese. The
numerals were borrowed by the Arabs and brought to Europe where (after
modification) they replaced Roman numerals.
The Japanese Alphabets
Hiragana
Katakana
The Japanese language is written with Chinese characters (Kanji). It also uses two
alphabets for word endings and for foreign words. These are called Hiragana and
Katakana.
The Javanese Syllabary
The Consonants
Extra Consonants
The Vowels
The Javanese script (used on Java in Indonesia) is based on the writing systems
of South India.
The Kannada Syllabary
and Numbers
The Syllabary
The Numbers
Kannada is a language from South India with its own script.The syllabary is
similar but not identical to the script for Telugu.It is a typical South Indian writing
system with few straight lines.
The Khmer Syllabary
and Numbers
The Consonants
The Vowels
The Numbers
Khmer is the script used for the language of the same name used in Cambodia.
It is derived from the scripts of South India.
The Korean Alphabet
The Consonants
The Vowels
Hangul is the name of the alphabet used to write the Korean language spoken in
Korea and parts of China. It was devised by King Sejong in 1443.
The Lao Syllabary and Numbers
The Consonants
Isolated Vowels
The Numbers
The Lao script is used to write the language of the same name spoken in Laos. It
closely resembles Thai script and is derived from the South Indian scripts.
The Latin Alphabet
Roman
Modern English
Polish
Turkish
Note: lengthens the preceding vowel.
Special Letters
The Latin alphabet was developed from the Greek and Etruscan alphabets for
Latin, the language of the Roman Empire.
This is now the most used writing system in the world. Hundreds of languages use
it in Europe (English, French, German, Italian, Hungarian, Czech), Africa (Zulu,
Swahili, Wolof), The Americas (Spanish, Portuguese, Nahuatl, Quechua) and Asia
(Turkish, Malay, Vietnamese).
The Lepcha Syllabary
and Numbers
The Consonants
The Vowels
The Numerals
The Lepcha script is used for the language of the same name spoken in the state
of Sikkim in North India.
The Linear B Syllabary
Linear B is a script used to write an ancient form of Greek spoken on the island
of Crete over 3000 years ago.
The Malayalam Syllabary
The Consonants
The Vowels
The Malayalam syllabary is used to write the language of the same name spoken
in South India.It is a typical rounded South Indian script.
The Maldivian Alphabet
The Maldivian alphabet was invented in the 17th century to write the language of
the same name in the Maldive Islands. It is a fusion of Arabic and Telegu scripts.
Mayan Glyphs
Mayan glyphs were used to write the languages of the Mayan region in Mexico
and Guatemala.
The Mongolian Alphabet
and Numbers
The Mongolian alphabet is used for the Mongolian language in Mongolia and
Northern China. It is derived from Aramaic and is written downwards.
The Nastaliq Alphabet
Farsi (Iranian)
Urdu
Pashto
Kashmiri
Sindhi
Ottoman Turkish
Nastaliq is a form of the Arabic script which is used, with extra letters, to write
several languages in Asia including Farsi, Urdu, Pashto, Kasmiri and Sindhi. Under
the Ottoman Empire (before 1920), Turkish was also written in this script.
The Oriya Syllabary
and Numbers
The Consonants
The Vowels
The Numbers
The Oriya script is used for writing the langauge of the same name spoken in
Eastern India. The curved structure of the letters arises from the use of palm leaves for
writing. A straight line would cause the leaves to break.
The Phoenician Alphabet
Phoenician is one of the oldest alphabets in the world and the basis of most of the
world's alphabets and syllabaries. The language was spoken by the Phoenicians around
the Mediterranean Sea.
The Punjabi Syllabary
and Numbers
The Syllabary
The Numbers
The Pakistani version is written in a form of Arabic script called Nastaliq. The
Indian version is written in a script called Gurmukhi (meaning "from the mouth of the
guru"). It is derived from the Devanagari writing of Sanskrit.
The Runic Alphabet
Germanic
Hungarian
The Runic alphabet was developed for use with the widespread Germanic
languages of Central Europe. Other languages also used this alphabet.
The Samaritan Alphabet
The Samaritan script was used by the language of the same name in Ancient
Israel, over 2500 years ago.It is related to the Hebrew script.
The Sanskrit Syllabary
The Sanskrit script was developed for the language of the same name spoken in
North India over 2500 years ago.The Hindu holy books were written with this
language.
The script is the basis for most of the North Indian writing systems.
The Sinhalese Syllabary
Sinhalese is a typical curly South Indian script.The curly lines arose because the
language was written on palm leaves - these break if a straight line is used. It is used by
the language of the same name spoken on the island of Sri Lanka.
The Syriac Alphabet
Syriac (also called Nestorian) writing is used by the language of the same name
spoken in Ancient Syria. The language is still used by Syrian Orthodox Christians.
The script is related to Arabic.
The Tamil Syllabary
The Consonants
The Vowels
The Tamil script is used for the language of the same name spoken in South
India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. It is a typical South Indian writing
system but has few irregularities.
The Telugu Syllabary
The Consonants
The Vowels
Telugu script is used for the language of the same name spoken in South India. It
resembles Kannada writing.
The Thai Syllabary
and Numbers
The Consonants
The Vowels
The Numbers
The Thai script is used to write the language of the same name spoken in
Thailand. Apart from symbols for consonants and vowels, Thai also has tonal markers.
The Tibetan Syllabary
and Numbers
The Consonants
The Vowels
The Numbers
The Tibetan script is used for the language of the same name spoken in the Tibet
region of China, North India and Nepal. It is derived from the Devanagari script of
Sanskrit.
The Tocharian Syllabary
The Consonants
The Vowels
Ugarit is the oldest alphabet. It was used on the coastal regions of modern day
Syria and Lebanon.