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Codes & LettersCiphers, scripts, symbols — every code humans write, taken apart.

Writing Systems

How the world's writing systems work, from alphabets and abjads to syllabaries and logosyllabic scripts, how they changed, and how lost ones were deciphered.

4 entries

Definitions: letter debt

  1. Every Writing System on One Page: Alphabets Are Outnumbered

    Unicode 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.

    Comparison or list ·

    Illustration: an empty wooden type case seen from above, its compartments ranging from one very large to many smallIllustration
    Picture creditIllustration: Codes & Letters. Generated schematic image — not a photograph or historical record. Reuse: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), to the extent any copyright exists in this image.

  2. Latin Alphabet: How 21 Letters Became 26, and Why Z Is Last

    Why 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.

    Entry ·

    Illustration: a teacher and two children seen from behind in a small Roman schoolroom, the children side by side on a benchIllustration
    Picture creditIllustration: Codes & Letters. Generated schematic image — not a photograph or historical record. Reuse: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), to the extent any copyright exists in this image.

  3. Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Picture Signs That Spell Consonants

    Egyptian 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.

    Entry ·

    Scribe's board, Dynasty 18: rows of black hieratic script with a few red marks, cracked across the lower half
    Picture credit"Scribe's Exercise Board with Hieratic Text - Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Amunhotep I, c. 1514-1493 BC, wood - Brooklyn Museum - Brooklyn, NY - DSC08694" by Daderot — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scribe%27s_Exercise_Board_with_Hieratic_Text_-_Egypt,_New_Kingdom,_Dynasty_18,_reign_of_Amunhotep_I,_c._1514-1493_BC,_wood_-_Brooklyn_Museum_-_Brooklyn,_NY_-_DSC08694.JPG — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

  4. Elder Futhark: 24 Runes, but the Vikings Wrote With Only 16

    The 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.

    Entry ·

    Gray limestone slab with a line of runes along its upper edge and a short word at upper right
    Picture credit"Kylverstenen - Historiska museet - DIG 61030" by Helena Bonnevier, SHM — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kylverstenen_-_Historiska_museet_-_DIG_61030.jpg — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)