Codes & Letters https://codesandletters.com/ Ciphers, scripts, symbols — every code humans write, taken apart. en Every Writing System on One Page: Alphabets Are Outnumberedhttps://codesandletters.com/writing-systems/all/https://codesandletters.com/writing-systems/all/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTUnicode 18.0.0 encodes 175 scripts. By the Unicode Standard's own typology, 66 are abugidas and 59 alphabets; 37 run right to left. Full table and CSV. Anatomy of a Letter: Why the O Is Drawn Taller Than the Hhttps://codesandletters.com/letterforms/anatomy/https://codesandletters.com/letterforms/anatomy/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe parts of a letter, from baseline and x-height to stem, bowl, counter, serif and terminal, measured in two open fonts, and why the O is drawn taller than H. Caesar Cipher: Why 'Find the E' Is the Weak Way to Break Ithttps://codesandletters.com/ciphers/caesar-cipher/https://codesandletters.com/ciphers/caesar-cipher/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTHow the Caesar cipher works, what Suetonius says Caesar wrote, and a 10,000-message test: on 20 letters, matching all 26 counts beat hunting for E, 95% to 30%. Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Picture Signs That Spell Consonantshttps://codesandletters.com/writing-systems/egyptian-hieroglyphs/https://codesandletters.com/writing-systems/egyptian-hieroglyphs/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEgyptian hieroglyphics explained: one sign as a word, a sound or a silent label, the 24 consonant signs, why vowels went unwritten, and how many signs exist. Elder Futhark: 24 Runes, but the Vikings Wrote With Only 16https://codesandletters.com/writing-systems/elder-futhark/https://codesandletters.com/writing-systems/elder-futhark/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe 24 Elder Futhark runes in three groups of eight, the Kylver stone, where the rune names come from, and why the row shrank to 16 before the Viking Age. Emoji: Unicode Sets the Name and Number, Not the Picturehttps://codesandletters.com/symbols/emoji/https://codesandletters.com/symbols/emoji/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTUnicode fixes an emoji character's code point and name; fonts draw the picture. Three open sets compared, the pistol turned water gun, and 3,963 emoji counted. Evidentiality: When Grammar Marks How You Knowhttps://codesandletters.com/grammar/evidentiality/https://codesandletters.com/grammar/evidentiality/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEvidentiality marks how a speaker knows: seen, inferred or heard from others. In WALS, 237 of 418 languages mark it in grammar; English has none. Map and data. Grammatical Gender: 145 of 257 Languages in WALS Have Nonehttps://codesandletters.com/grammar/grammatical-gender/https://codesandletters.com/grammar/grammatical-gender/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTIn WALS, 145 of 257 languages have no grammatical gender. What gender means to a linguist, why English counts as having three, and how nouns get one. Kerning: Space Six Words by Eye, Then Check the Fonthttps://codesandletters.com/letterforms/kerning/https://codesandletters.com/letterforms/kerning/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTKerning is the spacing a font file stores for one pair of letters. Spectral pulls A and V 80 units closer, yet 84% of pairs in three English novels get none. Latin Alphabet: How 21 Letters Became 26, and Why Z Is Lasthttps://codesandletters.com/writing-systems/latin-alphabet/https://codesandletters.com/writing-systems/latin-alphabet/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy Z is the last letter: Latin dropped it, gave its seventh place to G, then added it back at the end. How Cicero's 21 letters grew to 26, step by step. Letter Frequency: E Is Commoner in German Than in Englishhttps://codesandletters.com/ciphers/letter-frequency/https://codesandletters.com/ciphers/letter-frequency/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTLetter frequency tables counted from nine novels: e is 12.5% of English letters, 16.0% of German and 17.2% of French. Umlauts, accents and letter pairs too. Male and Female Symbols: Linnaeus Took Them From the Planetshttps://codesandletters.com/symbols/male-and-female-symbols/https://codesandletters.com/symbols/male-and-female-symbols/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe male and female symbols began as the planet signs of Mars and Venus. Linnaeus made them mark father and mother plants in 1751, and ♂ also meant biennial. Morse Code: Why the Common O Takes as Long as a Rare Zhttps://codesandletters.com/ciphers/morse-code/https://codesandletters.com/ciphers/morse-code/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTInternational Morse code chart and timing rules: a dot is 1 unit, a dash 3. O and Z both take 11 units, though O is about 86 times as common in English novels. Peace Symbol: Semaphore N and D, by Its Designer's Accounthttps://codesandletters.com/symbols/peace-symbol/https://codesandletters.com/symbols/peace-symbol/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTWho designed the peace symbol in 1958, why Gerald Holtom said it combines semaphore N and D, his second story about Goya, and what CND says about copyright. Road Signs: A Red Triangle Means Danger Only by Treatyhttps://codesandletters.com/symbols/road-signs/https://codesandletters.com/symbols/road-signs/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy warning signs are red triangles across much of Europe and yellow diamonds in the US: treaties from 1909 to 1968 set the shapes, and Vienna allows both. Serif vs Sans Serif: Reading Tests Found No Clear Winnerhttps://codesandletters.com/letterforms/serif-vs-sans-serif/https://codesandletters.com/letterforms/serif-vs-sans-serif/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTSerif vs sans serif: reading tests that change only the serifs find no clear winner. Studies side by side, the Trajan inscription, and measured Noto font data. Thou vs You: Thou Was the Familiar Form, Not the Formal Onehttps://codesandletters.com/grammar/thou-vs-you/https://codesandletters.com/grammar/thou-vs-you/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTIn Chaucer's and Shakespeare's English, thou was the familiar word and the plural ye or you the polite one. How thou faded, and where 207 WALS languages stand. Vigenère Cipher: Named for a Man Who Didn't Invent Ithttps://codesandletters.com/ciphers/vigenere-cipher/https://codesandletters.com/ciphers/vigenere-cipher/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTHow the Vigenère cipher works, why Bellaso's 1553 keyword cipher came before Vigenère's book, and how repeats and letter counts give away the keyword. Word Order: English's SVO Isn't the World's Most Commonhttps://codesandletters.com/grammar/word-order/https://codesandletters.com/grammar/word-order/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTIn WALS, 564 of 1,376 languages put the verb last (SOV) and 488 use English-style SVO. Count by genus and the gap widens; German has no dominant order. X-Height: Same Font Size, Different Letter Sizes, Measuredhttps://codesandletters.com/letterforms/x-height/https://codesandletters.com/letterforms/x-height/Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTX-height measured from 13 open font files: at one font size, the lowercase x stands 40.5% of that size in EB Garamond and 55.0% in JetBrains Mono.