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The writing systems

Every writing system is a design choice about which units of spoken language — sounds, syllables or meanings — to write down.

Latin alphabet · Vietnamese (chữ Quốc ngữ)

Tiếng Việt

Alphabet — letters for consonants and vowels · written left-to-right

Separate letters for consonants and vowels — the Latin alphabet English also uses (Vietnamese leaves out f, j, w and z). It adds marks for tone (six tones in the standard Northern dialect, five in the South) and marks that change the vowel (ă â ê ô ơ ư), plus the letter đ.

Where it came from: Catholic missionaries wrote Vietnamese in Latin letters in the 1600s; Alexandre de Rhodes printed a Vietnamese–Portuguese–Latin dictionary in 1651. Source: de Rhodes, Dictionarium Annamiticum (1651).

Cyrillic · Ukrainian

мама

Alphabet — letters for consonants and vowels · written left-to-right

An alphabet like Latin, but several letters look like Latin letters and sound different: р is "r", с is "s", н is "n".

Where it came from: Made in the First Bulgarian Empire around 900 CE by followers of the missionaries Cyril and Methodius. Source: Daniels & Bright (eds.), The World’s Writing Systems (Oxford, 1996).

Show the key (17 signs)
  • а a
  • б b
  • в v (looks like "b")
  • д d
  • е e
  • і i
  • к k
  • л l
  • м m
  • н n (looks like "h")
  • о o
  • п p
  • р r (looks like "p")
  • с s (looks like "c")
  • т t
  • у u (looks like "y")
  • ц ts

Arabic script · Arabic

كتب

Abjad — letters mostly for consonants; vowels usually left out · written right-to-left

Written right to left. Letters stand for consonants; short vowels are usually not written, so readers supply them from the word and context. The root k-t-b (كتب) can be read as kataba "he wrote" or kutub "books".

Where it came from: Grew out of the Nabataean script, and was in use by about the 500s CE. Source: Daniels & Bright (eds.), The World’s Writing Systems (Oxford, 1996).

Show the key (3 signs)
  • ك k
  • ت t
  • ب b

Devanagari · Hindi

कमल

Abugida — each consonant carries a built-in vowel that marks change · written left-to-right

Each consonant letter carries a built-in "a". A vowel mark changes it (कि = ki). In Hindi the built-in "a" is usually dropped at the end of a word, so कमल is kamal, not kamala.

Where it came from: Grew out of the ancient Brahmi script over many centuries; its modern form was settled by about 1000 CE. Source: Daniels & Bright (eds.), The World’s Writing Systems (Oxford, 1996).

Show the key (22 signs)
  • क ka
  • ग ga
  • ज ja
  • त ta
  • द da
  • न na
  • प pa
  • ब ba
  • म ma
  • य ya
  • र ra
  • ल la
  • व va
  • स sa
  • ह ha
  • ◌ा aa (vowel mark)
  • ◌ि i (vowel mark)
  • ◌ी ii (vowel mark)
  • ◌ु u (vowel mark)
  • ◌ू uu (vowel mark)
  • ◌े e (vowel mark)
  • ◌ो o (vowel mark)

Hiragana · Japanese

ねこ

Syllabary — one sign for each syllable · written top-to-bottom or left-to-right

One sign per syllable: か is "ka", き is "ki". There is no separate letter for the k — the sign is the whole syllable.

Where it came from: Grew from Chinese characters written quickly in cursive, in Japan around the 800s CE. Source: Daniels & Bright (eds.), The World’s Writing Systems (Oxford, 1996).

Show the key (24 signs)
  • あ a
  • い i
  • う u
  • え e
  • お o
  • か ka
  • き ki
  • く ku
  • こ ko
  • さ sa
  • し shi
  • す su
  • た ta
  • な na
  • に ni
  • ね ne
  • ま ma
  • み mi
  • も mo
  • や ya
  • ら ra
  • り ri
  • る ru
  • ぬ nu

Hangul · Korean

한글

Featural alphabet — consonant shapes reflect how the sounds are made; letters stack into syllable blocks · written left-to-right

Consonant letters sketch the mouth and tongue that make them (the vowels are built from a dot, a flat line and an upright line), and letters stack into square syllable blocks: ㄴ + ㅏ = 나 (na). Each block is one syllable, read left to right and top to bottom inside the block — in 글 the letters ㄱ, ㅡ, ㄹ sit one above the other.

Where it came from: Made at King Sejong’s court and announced in 1446, with a book explaining how each letter was designed. Source: the Hunminjeongeum (1446).

Show the key (12 signs)
  • ㄱ g
  • ㄴ n
  • ㄷ d
  • ㅁ m
  • ㅂ b
  • ㅅ s
  • ㅇ silent at the start of a block; "ng" at the end
  • ㅏ a
  • ㅓ eo
  • ㅗ o
  • ㅜ u
  • ㅣ i

Chinese characters · Chinese

明

Logography — signs mainly stand for words or meaning-parts, often with a hint about the sound · written top-to-bottom or left-to-right

Characters stand mainly for meaning-units (a word or part of a word), not for individual sounds. Many are built from parts: 日 (sun) + 月 (moon) = 明 (bright); 木 (tree) doubled is 林 (woods). Most characters also contain a part that hints at the pronunciation.

Where it came from: The oldest large body of Chinese writing is the oracle-bone inscriptions of the Shang dynasty, about 1200 BCE. Source: Daniels & Bright (eds.), The World’s Writing Systems (Oxford, 1996).

Show the key (5 signs)
  • 日 sun (rì)
  • 月 moon (yuè)
  • 木 tree (mù)
  • 人 person (rén)
  • 山 mountain (shān)