Linguistics Stack Exchange
Linguistics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [writing-systems]

A writing system is a system to record spoken language visible on a permanent medium.

Writing systems (also known as scripts) include ideographic writing systems, sylabaries, abugidas (only consonants are written by default) and alphabets.

Well known writing systems are the Chinese script, the Indic scripts, the Arabic script, and the Greek, Cyrillic and Latin Script.

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Is the Cyrillic letter 'Z' the same as the number 3

Why do the Cyrillic 'Z'(З) and the number '3' seem to be the same glyph? Is there a difference that I'm just not seeing? They look identical to me
jastako
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Writing systems that do not preserve spoken order

Are there writing systems where there are cases of written form of words not preserving the order of speech, i.e. text(A) precedes text(B) in the written form, but speech(B) precedes speech(A)? Only words written in the native script(s) should be…
Ryan Li
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Why does “&” look nothing like e and t

“&” (ampersand) was from a ligature of e and t. but it looks nothing like e and t put together. Why?
Keon N
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Which writing systems have the highest/lowest stroke-to-sound ratios?

Preemptive note: This question is about sound-based writing systems, excluding logographic systems like Chinese. Transitional systems like Egyptian hieroglyphs, Maya script or Man’yōgana are also excluded, as are heterograms, etc. I’m only asking…
Janus Bahs Jacquet
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Why does capitalization exist?

For background, I'm a systems developer, not a linguist. There's a tendency to dismiss any grammar rules in my line of work namely because of how "strict" (read: dumb, simple) the computers and programs are. There's also tendency to dismiss anything…
Dragas
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If the letter V occurs in a few native words, why isn't it included in the Irish Alphabet?

So, I read about the Irish alphabet once, and there was a phrase saying that "V" occurs in a few native words like "vácarnach" which means to quack in English. Shouldn't the letter V be in the alphabet then if it occurs in some native words?
Akshat Goswami
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Number of languages without a writing system

Is there some data about how many languages exist with or without a writing system? Etnologue enumerates about 6800 living languages and for each language it registers writing systems the language uses, so it might contain the number. Are there any…
Vik
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A term for sign/symbol that represents multiple letters

At the time the Quran was revealed, the Arabic letters that we know of today was different. As I understand it, they did not have the concept of letter in the meaning we understand today. For example, the letters in the second row are, from left to…
blackened
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Learning a script as an adult

It is well-known that it is difficult to compete with native speakers when learning a language as an adult. But is there a similar phenomenon with writing systems? Can non-natives (e.g. of Arabic or Chinese) read and write as fast as natives for…
Mathieu Bouville
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Wraparound writing system?

I don't know if linguistics is the right place to ask about writing systems (and if not please let me know where to look) but here's the question. When reading something, I often find that when I finish a line and go to the next that I end up…
Sam Spiro
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ù - Are there other words (in which languages?) other than the french word "Où" that uses it?

I was discovering lately that the only French word using "ù" was the only word "où" which means "where". On the french layout keyboard (aka AZERTY), there's a key only dedicated to this "ù". We were wondering if there are any other languages that is…
Stephane Rolland
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What evidence is there that Cyrillic is a single script?

What linguistic evidence is there why the writing system used by Russian is considered to use the same script (Cyrillic) as the writing system used for Macedonian or Serbian (when written in Cyrillic letters)? When Hungarian text refers to a foreign…
b_jonas
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Any online resources on dongba language and hieroglyph？

I visited Yunnan last year and found the fascinating dongba hieroglyph of naxi people and their great epic poetry. I am curious about any online resources on this dongba hieroglyph? I, personally, start an amateur project to draw these glyph by…
Mountain
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What are some languages that have largest set of characters?

What are some languages that have largest set of letters (like alphabet or kanji) aside from Chinese and Japanese?
stacko
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Does the Rejang language have a Latin orthography in use?

There is a Malayo-Polynesian language in Bengkulu, Indonesia with about 350,000 speakers called Rejang, Redjang, or Rejangese. It has its own native Brahmic abugida. But I'm wondering if it also has a Latin orthography which is used to a degree…
hippietrail
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