Every Writing System on One Page: Alphabets Are Outnumbered

The 175 scripts of Unicode 18.0.0, counted by the type the Unicode Standard assigns each in its Table 6-1. Braille, Duployan and SignWriting sit outside the table as notation systems.

Unicode 18.0.0, released on September 16, 2026, gives 175 writing systems their own Script value, from Adlam to Zanabazar Square. Alphabets, the kind this sentence is written in, are not the largest group. The Unicode Standard sorts its scripts by type in Table 6-1, and on that list 66 are abugidas, scripts in which each consonant letter carries a built-in vowel, against 59 alphabets.

That 175 counts scripts the way Unicode defines them: every Script value in the Unicode Character Database file Scripts.txt, minus Common and Inherited, the two values that hold shared digits, punctuation, symbols and combining marks. It is not a count of every script ever written. Maya hieroglyphs, for one, appear on Unicode's roadmap as a proposal and have no Script value yet.

Two tables follow: 24 of the scripts with the earliest date the Unicode Standard gives, then all 175 with what the Unicode data files record about each.

What counts as a writing system here?

Scripts.txt gives every encoded character one Script value, and in version 18.0.0 the file uses 177 different values. Common holds 9,276 characters, among them the digits 0 to 9, most punctuation and thousands of symbols. Inherited holds 695, nearly all of them combining marks. This page omits both, which leaves 175.

The Standard itself uses "writing system" in two other senses. One is a type of script, such as an alphabet; the other is the way one language is written. Modern Japanese, the Standard's example, uses four scripts: Han, Hiragana, Katakana and Latin. So a single language can account for several of the 175.

Three of the 175 are what the Standard calls notational systems, not scripts for written languages. They are Braille, Duployan shorthand and Sutton SignWriting, which records sign languages. They appear on this page because the Unicode data lists them as scripts, not as a ruling by this site on whether they count as writing systems.

How many characters each script has in Unicode 18.0.0. Most scripts are small; Han is the outlier.

Most scripts are small. By this page's count, 126 of the 175 have fewer than 100 characters, and the median script has 72; Tagbanwa, with 18, is the smallest. Han alone has 103,352 characters, 63% of the 162,902 in all 175 scripts.

Generated illustration

An empty type case whose compartments differ widely in size. Scripts differ too: 126 of the 175 have fewer than 100 characters, and Han alone has 103,352.

What is the difference between an alphabet, an abjad and an abugida?

The Unicode Standard sorts scripts with terms developed by Peter T. Daniels, whom it calls a leading expert on the writing systems of the world. Its definitions turn on vowels: an alphabet has letters for both consonants and vowels, with equal status. An abjad writes consonants and typically leaves short vowels out, or marks them optionally with points above and below the letters. In an abugida, each consonant letter carries an inherent vowel, frequently transcribed as a, and a written vowel sign overrides it.

Three more types complete the list. In a syllabary, each symbol typically stands for a consonant and a vowel together. The Standard calls Hangul a featural syllabary: each syllable block is built from parts for its sounds, and the shapes of those parts were devised to reflect how the sounds are made. In a logosyllabary such as Han, signs mainly write words or parts of words, and some are used for their sound.

One syllable, five kinds of writing. Readings follow the Library of Congress romanization tables; glyphs are outlines from Noto fonts.

Take the syllable ka. Think of each script as a different key for writing it down. Greek spells it with two letters, kappa (U+03BA) and alpha (U+03B1).

Everyday Hebrew writes only the consonant, U+05DB HEBREW LETTER KAF. The Library of Congress table reads that letter as k or kh, depending on a dot that such text leaves out. It also notes that dictionaries are often needed to supply the vowels.

In Devanagari, U+0915 DEVANAGARI LETTER KA already reads ka. The Library of Congress table for Hindi says the vowel a is implicit after every consonant. The exceptions are a written vowel sign and the virama, a mark that cancels the vowel. Add U+093F DEVANAGARI VOWEL SIGN I and the same letter reads ki.

Hiragana has separate signs, U+304B for ka and U+304D for ki, and neither shape marks the k they share. Hangul writes the syllable as one character, U+AC00, which Unicode decomposes into a consonant part, U+1100, and a vowel part, U+1161. Unicode names that character HANGUL SYLLABLE GA, while the Library of Congress romanizes the same syllable ka. The diagram draws the two parts with the stand-alone letters U+3131 and U+314F.

How many scripts of each type are there?

Table 6-1 of the Unicode Standard 18.0.0 covers the 172 scripts for written languages. It lists 66 abugidas, 59 alphabets, 21 abjads, 14 syllabaries and 11 logosyllabaries, plus one featural syllabary, Hangul. All 66 abugidas sit in the Standard's chapters on South, Central and Southeast Asia, and the Standard explains that such regional labels normally name the region where a script originated. It also says Brahmi, attested from the third century BCE, grew regional varieties that became the modern Indian writing systems.

The 175 scripts grouped by the regional chapters of the Unicode Standard 18.0.0 and split by type. Every abugida falls in the South, Central and Southeast Asia chapters.

None of these types is a better or worse way to write. They are different ways of matching signs to sounds and words.

The Standard calls its table "an approximate guide, rather than a definitive classification." Ethiopic shows why: Table 6-1 lists it among the syllabaries, while the same chapter says it "is traditionally analyzed as an abugida." A script's type can also change with the language it writes: the Standard calls Arabic an abjad for Arabic and Persian but an alphabet for Kurdish and Uyghur.

Which writing systems are written right to left?

By this page's count of Unicode's bidirectional data, 37 of the 175 scripts in Unicode 18.0.0 have letters that run right to left by default, and 138 run left to right. The right-to-left group includes Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac and Thaana, and also N'Ko and Adlam, both devised in the 20th century. Many historic scripts are in it too, such as Phoenician and Imperial Aramaic. Kharoshthi, an abugida, is another: the Standard notes that unlike other Indic scripts, it is written right to left.

Default direction of each script's letters in Unicode 18.0.0, shown by four-letter code. Shaded cells run right to left.

Twenty of the 21 abjads run right to left. The exception is Multani, which the Standard describes as based on the Brahmi model but behaving like an abjad.

The default is a property of each character, not a record of every surviving text. The Standard notes that most Etruscan texts were written right to left, yet Old Italic is encoded left to right because many scholars prefer that presentation.

Some directions fall outside the left-or-right setting entirely. Mongolian is usually written in vertical columns from top to bottom, with the columns running left to right. East Asian scripts are often written vertically too. Early Greek used boustrophedon, in which lines alternate direction, and the Standard says it gives no direct support for such historical layouts.

Writing direction describes the page, not the sentence. The order of subject, verb and object is a separate question, taken up in Word Order.

When were these scripts first written?

The first table takes 24 scripts, spread across the types, whose descriptions in the Standard give an earliest date. The two oldest in it are cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs. Cuneiform is first attested in the Uruk IV period, about 3500 to 3200 BCE, and the Standard says hieroglyphic writing appeared in Egypt at the end of the fourth millennium BCE. This page gives both dates as the Standard states them and does not rank the two.

Earliest dates given in the Unicode Standard 18.0.0 for 24 scripts. Bars mark a stated range, such as a century.

The dates come from a character encoding standard. This site treats it as a starting point rather than the final word on ancient history. The Standard says the Latin alphabet came from an Etruscan model around the mid-seventh century BCE or a bit earlier, and that runes were in use from the first century CE. At the young end, it dates N'Ko to 1949, Sutton SignWriting to 1974 and Adlam to the late 1980s.

In the table, Type follows Table 6-1; SignWriting sits outside that table as one of the Standard's notational systems. The date paraphrases the section linked in the last column, and identifier status is explained in the next section.

Script	Type (Table 6-1)	Earliest date the Standard gives	Identifier status	Section
Cuneiform	logosyllabary	first attested c. 3500–3200 BCE	excluded	§11.1
Egyptian Hieroglyphs	logosyllabary	appeared at the end of the 4th millennium BCE	excluded	§11.4
Han	logosyllabary	developed in the 2nd millennium BCE	recommended	ch. 18
Linear A	logosyllabary	used from c. 1700 BCE	excluded	§8.1
Phoenician	abjad	evolved from about the 12th century BCE	excluded	§10.3
Cypriot	syllabary	used from about 800 BCE	excluded	§8.3
Imperial Aramaic	abjad	a distinct script by the mid-8th century BCE	excluded	§10.4
Old Italic	alphabet	earliest Etruscan inscriptions c. 700 BCE	excluded	§8.6
Latin	alphabet	taken from an Etruscan model by about 650 BCE	recommended	§8.6
Brahmi	abugida	attested from the 3rd century BCE	excluded	§14.1
Kharoshthi	abugida	first appears c. 250 BCE	excluded	§14.2
Runic	alphabet	in use from the 1st century CE	excluded	§8.7
Syriac	abjad	earliest datable writing 6 CE	limited use	§9.3
Armenian	alphabet	devised about 406 CE	recommended	§7.6
Cyrillic	alphabet	earliest attestations in the 10th century CE	recommended	§7.4
Tangut	logosyllabary	created about 1036 CE	excluded	§18.11
Mongolian	alphabet	created around the start of the 13th century	excluded	§13.5
Phags Pa	abugida	promulgated in 1269	excluded	§14.4
Yi	syllabary	earliest surviving example 1485	limited use	§18.7
Cherokee	syllabary	devised 1815–1821	limited use	§20.1
Vai	syllabary	developed in the early 1830s	limited use	§19.5
Nko	alphabet	devised in 1949	limited use	§19.4
SignWriting	notation system	developed in 1974	excluded	§21.7
Adlam	alphabet	devised in the late 1980s	limited use	§19.9

Which scripts are still in everyday use?

Unicode does not count readers. Its rules for identifiers, such as names in program code and hashtags, do sort scripts into three groups, largely by how widely each is used today. UAX #31, revision 45, recommends 28 scripts that are in widespread modern customary use or used by large regional communities, lists 35 as limited use and suggests excluding 111. The excluded group holds historic and obsolete scripts, scripts used mostly in worship and scripts of very small communities, plus some with unresolved technical issues.

Those lists cover 174 of the 175 scripts. Braille is on none of them: the annex sets it aside as a special case that consists only of symbols.

Unicode identifier status of the 175 scripts, split by type. Recommended scripts are in widespread modern use or used by large communities; Braille is on none of the lists.

The 28 recommended scripts lean the same way as the full list. Fifteen are abugidas, from Bengali to Tibetan. Six are alphabets: Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Armenian, Georgian and Thaana. The rest are two abjads (Arabic, Hebrew), three syllabaries (Hiragana, Katakana, Ethiopic), Han and Hangul.

Excluded does not mean dead. Coptic is on the excluded list. The Standard says the Coptic language died out in the fourteenth century, but Coptic Christians maintain it as a liturgical language. UAX #31 also notes significant revival efforts for limited-use scripts such as Balinese, Cham, Ol Chiki and Vai, where large communities may speak the language even though the script is not in widespread use.

When did Unicode add each script?

Counted by each script's earliest character in DerivedAge.txt, Unicode 1.1, released in 1993, already had 24 of today's 175 scripts. By this count, 100 of the 175 arrived in version 5.2, from 2009, or later. The biggest single jump came in version 7.0 in 2014, which added 23, among them Linear A, Manichaean and Duployan. Version 18.0 added three: Jurchen, Proto-Cuneiform and Seal.

Scripts in Unicode, version by version, counted from each script's earliest character.

Dating a script by its earliest character can mislead. Coptic shows 1.1 because 14 Coptic characters sat in the Greek and Coptic block from the start, while the separate Coptic block dates from 4.1. DerivedAge.txt also tracks ages only from version 1.1, so a 1.1 in the table means a script was in Unicode by 1993, not that it was first added that year.

In the table below, Script is the name the Unicode data uses, with spaces between words: Old_Italic appears as Old Italic. Code is the four-letter ISO 15924 code that Unicode lists for it. Characters counts code points with that Script value. The code-point column gives the lowest and highest code point, with the number of separate ranges in parentheses; the CSV download lists every range.

Script	Code	First in Unicode	Characters	Code points (lowest–highest, ranges)	Default direction	Identifier status
Adlam	Adlm	9.0	88	U+1E900–U+1E95F (3)	right to left	limited use
Ahom	Ahom	8.0	65	U+11700–U+11746 (3)	left to right	excluded
Anatolian Hieroglyphs	Hluw	8.0	583	U+14400–U+14646 (1)	left to right	excluded
Arabic	Arab	1.1	1,452	U+0600–U+1EEF1 (56)	right to left	recommended
Armenian	Armn	1.1	99	U+0531–U+FB17 (3)	left to right	recommended
Avestan	Avst	5.2	61	U+10B00–U+10B3F (2)	right to left	excluded
Balinese	Bali	5.0	127	U+1B00–U+1B7F (2)	left to right	limited use
Bamum	Bamu	5.2	657	U+A6A0–U+16A38 (2)	left to right	limited use
Bassa Vah	Bass	7.0	36	U+16AD0–U+16AF5 (2)	left to right	excluded
Batak	Batk	6.0	56	U+1BC0–U+1BFF (2)	left to right	limited use
Bengali	Beng	1.1	98	U+0980–U+11DF1 (15)	left to right	recommended
Beria Erfe	Berf	17.0	50	U+16EA0–U+16ED3 (2)	left to right	excluded
Bhaiksuki	Bhks	9.0	97	U+11C00–U+11C6C (4)	left to right	excluded
Bopomofo	Bopo	1.1	77	U+02EA–U+31BF (3)	left to right	limited use
Brahmi	Brah	6.0	115	U+11000–U+1107F (3)	left to right	excluded
Braille	Brai	3.0	256	U+2800–U+28FF (1)	left to right	not listed
Buginese	Bugi	4.1	30	U+1A00–U+1A1F (2)	left to right	excluded
Buhid	Buhd	3.2	20	U+1740–U+1753 (1)	left to right	excluded
Canadian Aboriginal	Cans	3.0	726	U+1400–U+11ABF (3)	left to right	limited use
Carian	Cari	5.1	49	U+102A0–U+102D0 (1)	left to right	excluded
Caucasian Albanian	Aghb	7.0	53	U+10530–U+1056F (2)	left to right	excluded
Chakma	Cakm	6.1	71	U+11100–U+11147 (2)	left to right	limited use
Cham	Cham	5.1	83	U+AA00–U+AA5F (4)	left to right	limited use
Cherokee	Cher	3.0	172	U+13A0–U+ABBF (3)	left to right	limited use
Chorasmian	Chrs	13.0	28	U+10FB0–U+10FCB (1)	right to left	excluded
Coptic	Copt	1.1	137	U+03E2–U+2CFF (3)	left to right	excluded
Cuneiform	Xsux	5.0	1,393	U+12000–U+12686 (4)	left to right	excluded
Cypriot	Cprt	4.0	55	U+10800–U+1083F (6)	right to left	excluded
Cypro Minoan	Cpmn	14.0	99	U+12F90–U+12FF2 (1)	left to right	excluded
Cyrillic	Cyrl	1.1	508	U+0400–U+1E08F (10)	left to right	recommended
Deseret	Dsrt	3.1	80	U+10400–U+1044F (1)	left to right	excluded
Devanagari	Deva	1.1	165	U+0900–U+11B0A (5)	left to right	recommended
Dives Akuru	Diak	13.0	72	U+11900–U+11959 (8)	left to right	excluded
Dogra	Dogr	11.0	60	U+11800–U+1183B (1)	left to right	excluded
Duployan	Dupl	7.0	143	U+1BC00–U+1BC9F (5)	left to right	excluded
Egyptian Hieroglyphs	Egyp	5.2	5,105	U+13000–U+143FA (2)	left to right	excluded
Elbasan	Elba	7.0	40	U+10500–U+10527 (1)	left to right	excluded
Elymaic	Elym	12.0	23	U+10FE0–U+10FF6 (1)	right to left	excluded
Ethiopic	Ethi	3.0	523	U+1200–U+1E7FE (36)	left to right	recommended
Garay	Gara	16.0	69	U+10D40–U+10D8F (3)	right to left	excluded
Georgian	Geor	1.1	173	U+10A0–U+2D2D (10)	left to right	recommended
Glagolitic	Glag	4.1	134	U+2C00–U+1E02A (6)	left to right	excluded
Gothic	Goth	3.1	27	U+10330–U+1034A (1)	left to right	excluded
Grantha	Gran	7.0	85	U+11300–U+11374 (15)	left to right	excluded
Greek	Grek	1.1	520	U+0370–U+1DFF4 (37)	left to right	recommended
Gujarati	Gujr	1.1	91	U+0A81–U+0AFF (14)	left to right	recommended
Gunjala Gondi	Gong	11.0	63	U+11D60–U+11DA9 (6)	left to right	excluded
Gurmukhi	Guru	1.1	80	U+0A01–U+0A76 (16)	left to right	recommended
Gurung Khema	Gukh	16.0	58	U+16100–U+16139 (1)	left to right	excluded
Han	Hani	1.1	103,352	U+2E80–U+33479 (21)	left to right	recommended
Hangul	Hang	1.1	11,739	U+1100–U+FFDC (14)	left to right	recommended
Hanifi Rohingya	Rohg	11.0	50	U+10D00–U+10D39 (2)	right to left	limited use
Hanunoo	Hano	3.2	21	U+1720–U+1734 (1)	left to right	excluded
Hatran	Hatr	8.0	26	U+108E0–U+108FF (3)	right to left	excluded
Hebrew	Hebr	1.1	136	U+0591–U+FB4F (9)	right to left	recommended
Hiragana	Hira	1.1	382	U+3041–U+1F200 (7)	left to right	recommended
Imperial Aramaic	Armi	5.2	31	U+10840–U+1085F (2)	right to left	excluded
Inscriptional Pahlavi	Phli	5.2	27	U+10B60–U+10B7F (2)	right to left	excluded
Inscriptional Parthian	Prti	5.2	30	U+10B40–U+10B5F (2)	right to left	excluded
Javanese	Java	5.2	90	U+A980–U+A9DF (3)	left to right	limited use
Jurchen	Jurc	18.0	965	U+18E00–U+191D2 (2)	left to right	excluded
Kaithi	Kthi	5.2	68	U+11080–U+110CD (2)	left to right	excluded
Kannada	Knda	1.1	92	U+0C80–U+0CF3 (13)	left to right	recommended
Katakana	Kana	1.1	327	U+30A1–U+1B168 (15)	left to right	recommended
Kawi	Kawi	15.0	87	U+11F00–U+11F5A (3)	left to right	excluded
Kayah Li	Kali	5.1	47	U+A900–U+A92F (2)	left to right	limited use
Kharoshthi	Khar	4.1	68	U+10A00–U+10A58 (8)	right to left	excluded
Khitan Small Script	Kits	13.0	477	U+16FE4–U+18CFF (3)	left to right	excluded
Khmer	Khmr	3.0	146	U+1780–U+19FF (4)	left to right	recommended
Khojki	Khoj	7.0	65	U+11200–U+11241 (2)	left to right	excluded
Khudawadi	Sind	7.0	69	U+112B0–U+112F9 (2)	left to right	excluded
Kirat Rai	Krai	16.0	58	U+16D40–U+16D79 (1)	left to right	excluded
Lao	Laoo	1.1	83	U+0E81–U+0EDF (11)	left to right	recommended
Latin	Latn	1.1	1,653	U+0041–U+1DFFF (40)	left to right	recommended
Lepcha	Lepc	5.1	74	U+1C00–U+1C4F (3)	left to right	limited use
Limbu	Limb	4.0	68	U+1900–U+194F (5)	left to right	limited use
Linear A	Lina	7.0	341	U+10600–U+10767 (3)	left to right	excluded
Linear B	Linb	4.0	211	U+10000–U+100FA (7)	left to right	excluded
Lisu	Lisu	5.2	49	U+A4D0–U+11FB0 (2)	left to right	limited use
Lycian	Lyci	5.1	29	U+10280–U+1029C (1)	left to right	excluded
Lydian	Lydi	5.1	27	U+10920–U+1093F (2)	right to left	excluded
Mahajani	Mahj	7.0	39	U+11150–U+11176 (1)	left to right	excluded
Makasar	Maka	11.0	25	U+11EE0–U+11EF8 (1)	left to right	excluded
Malayalam	Mlym	1.1	118	U+0D00–U+0D7F (7)	left to right	recommended
Mandaic	Mand	6.0	29	U+0840–U+085E (2)	right to left	limited use
Manichaean	Mani	7.0	51	U+10AC0–U+10AF6 (2)	right to left	excluded
Marchen	Marc	9.0	68	U+11C70–U+11CB6 (3)	left to right	excluded
Masaram Gondi	Gonm	10.0	75	U+11D00–U+11D59 (7)	left to right	excluded
Medefaidrin	Medf	11.0	91	U+16E40–U+16E9A (1)	left to right	excluded
Meetei Mayek	Mtei	5.2	79	U+AAE0–U+ABF9 (3)	left to right	limited use
Mende Kikakui	Mend	7.0	213	U+1E800–U+1E8D6 (2)	right to left	excluded
Meroitic Cursive	Merc	6.1	90	U+109A0–U+109FF (3)	right to left	excluded
Meroitic Hieroglyphs	Mero	6.1	32	U+10980–U+1099F (1)	right to left	excluded
Miao	Plrd	6.1	149	U+16F00–U+16F9F (3)	left to right	limited use
Modi	Modi	7.0	79	U+11600–U+11659 (2)	left to right	excluded
Mongolian	Mong	3.0	168	U+1800–U+1166C (6)	left to right	excluded
Mro	Mroo	7.0	43	U+16A40–U+16A6F (3)	left to right	excluded
Multani	Mult	8.0	38	U+11280–U+112A9 (5)	left to right	excluded
Myanmar	Mymr	3.0	243	U+1000–U+116E3 (4)	left to right	recommended
Nabataean	Nbat	7.0	40	U+10880–U+108AF (2)	right to left	excluded
Nag Mundari	Nagm	15.0	42	U+1E4D0–U+1E4F9 (1)	left to right	excluded
Nandinagari	Nand	12.0	65	U+119A0–U+119E4 (3)	left to right	excluded
New Tai Lue	Talu	4.1	83	U+1980–U+19DF (4)	left to right	limited use
Newa	Newa	9.0	97	U+11400–U+11461 (2)	left to right	limited use
Nko	Nkoo	5.0	62	U+07C0–U+07FF (2)	right to left	limited use
Nushu	Nshu	10.0	397	U+16FE1–U+1B2FB (2)	left to right	excluded
Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong	Hmnp	12.0	71	U+1E100–U+1E14F (4)	left to right	limited use
Ogham	Ogam	3.0	29	U+1680–U+169C (1)	left to right	excluded
Ol Chiki	Olck	5.1	48	U+1C50–U+1C7F (1)	left to right	limited use
Ol Onal	Onao	16.0	44	U+1E5D0–U+1E5FF (2)	left to right	excluded
Old Hungarian	Hung	8.0	108	U+10C80–U+10CFF (3)	right to left	excluded
Old Italic	Ital	3.1	39	U+10300–U+1032F (2)	left to right	excluded
Old North Arabian	Narb	7.0	32	U+10A80–U+10A9F (1)	right to left	excluded
Old Permic	Perm	7.0	43	U+10350–U+1037A (1)	left to right	excluded
Old Persian	Xpeo	4.1	50	U+103A0–U+103D5 (2)	left to right	excluded
Old Sogdian	Sogo	11.0	40	U+10F00–U+10F27 (1)	right to left	excluded
Old South Arabian	Sarb	5.2	32	U+10A60–U+10A7F (1)	right to left	excluded
Old Turkic	Orkh	5.2	73	U+10C00–U+10C48 (1)	right to left	excluded
Old Uyghur	Ougr	14.0	26	U+10F70–U+10F89 (1)	right to left	excluded
Oriya	Orya	1.1	93	U+0B01–U+0B77 (14)	left to right	recommended
Osage	Osge	9.0	72	U+104B0–U+104FB (2)	left to right	limited use
Osmanya	Osma	4.0	40	U+10480–U+104A9 (2)	left to right	excluded
Pahawh Hmong	Hmng	7.0	127	U+16B00–U+16B8F (5)	left to right	excluded
Palmyrene	Palm	7.0	32	U+10860–U+1087F (1)	right to left	excluded
Pau Cin Hau	Pauc	7.0	57	U+11AC0–U+11AF8 (1)	left to right	excluded
Phags Pa	Phag	5.0	56	U+A840–U+A877 (1)	left to right	excluded
Phoenician	Phnx	5.0	29	U+10900–U+1091F (2)	right to left	excluded
Proto Cuneiform	Pcun	18.0	164	U+125A8–U+1264B (1)	left to right	excluded
Psalter Pahlavi	Phlp	7.0	29	U+10B80–U+10BAF (3)	right to left	excluded
Rejang	Rjng	5.1	37	U+A930–U+A95F (2)	left to right	excluded
Runic	Runr	3.0	86	U+16A0–U+16F8 (2)	left to right	excluded
Samaritan	Samr	5.2	61	U+0800–U+083E (2)	right to left	excluded
Saurashtra	Saur	5.1	82	U+A880–U+A8D9 (2)	left to right	limited use
Seal	Seal	18.0	11,328	U+3D000–U+3FC3F (1)	left to right	excluded
Sharada	Shrd	6.1	104	U+11180–U+11B67 (2)	left to right	excluded
Shavian	Shaw	4.0	48	U+10450–U+1047F (1)	left to right	excluded
Siddham	Sidd	7.0	92	U+11580–U+115DD (2)	left to right	excluded
Sidetic	Sidt	17.0	26	U+10940–U+10959 (1)	right to left	excluded
SignWriting	Sgnw	8.0	672	U+1D800–U+1DAAF (3)	left to right	excluded
Sinhala	Sinh	3.0	111	U+0D81–U+111F4 (13)	left to right	recommended
Sogdian	Sogd	11.0	42	U+10F30–U+10F59 (1)	right to left	excluded
Sora Sompeng	Sora	6.1	35	U+110D0–U+110F9 (2)	left to right	excluded
Soyombo	Soyo	10.0	83	U+11A50–U+11AA2 (1)	left to right	excluded
Sundanese	Sund	5.1	72	U+1B80–U+1CC7 (2)	left to right	limited use
Sunuwar	Sunu	16.0	44	U+11BC0–U+11BF9 (2)	left to right	excluded
Syloti Nagri	Sylo	4.1	45	U+A800–U+A82C (1)	left to right	limited use
Syriac	Syrc	3.0	88	U+0700–U+086A (4)	right to left	limited use
Tagalog	Tglg	3.2	23	U+1700–U+171F (2)	left to right	excluded
Tagbanwa	Tagb	3.2	18	U+1760–U+1773 (3)	left to right	excluded
Tai Le	Tale	4.0	35	U+1950–U+1974 (2)	left to right	limited use
Tai Tham	Lana	5.2	127	U+1A20–U+1AAD (5)	left to right	limited use
Tai Viet	Tavt	5.2	72	U+AA80–U+AADF (2)	left to right	limited use
Tai Yo	Tayo	17.0	55	U+1E6C0–U+1E6FF (3)	left to right	excluded
Takri	Takr	6.1	68	U+11680–U+116C9 (2)	left to right	excluded
Tamil	Taml	1.1	123	U+0B82–U+11FFF (18)	left to right	recommended
Tangsa	Tnsa	14.0	89	U+16A70–U+16AC9 (2)	left to right	excluded
Tangut	Tang	9.0	7,061	U+16FE0–U+18DF2 (4)	left to right	excluded
Telugu	Telu	1.1	101	U+0C00–U+0C7F (13)	left to right	recommended
Thaana	Thaa	3.0	50	U+0780–U+07B1 (1)	right to left	recommended
Thai	Thai	1.1	86	U+0E01–U+0E5B (2)	left to right	recommended
Tibetan	Tibt	2.0	207	U+0F00–U+0FDA (7)	left to right	recommended
Tifinagh	Tfng	4.1	59	U+2D30–U+2D7F (3)	left to right	limited use
Tirhuta	Tirh	7.0	82	U+11480–U+114D9 (2)	left to right	excluded
Todhri	Todr	16.0	52	U+105C0–U+105F3 (1)	left to right	excluded
Tolong Siki	Tols	17.0	54	U+11DB0–U+11DE9 (2)	left to right	excluded
Toto	Toto	14.0	31	U+1E290–U+1E2AE (1)	left to right	excluded
Tulu Tigalari	Tutg	16.0	80	U+11380–U+113E2 (11)	left to right	excluded
Ugaritic	Ugar	4.0	31	U+10380–U+1039F (2)	left to right	excluded
Vai	Vaii	5.1	300	U+A500–U+A62B (1)	left to right	limited use
Vithkuqi	Vith	14.0	70	U+10570–U+105BC (8)	left to right	excluded
Wancho	Wcho	12.0	59	U+1E2C0–U+1E2FF (2)	left to right	limited use
Warang Citi	Wara	7.0	84	U+118A0–U+118FF (2)	left to right	excluded
Yezidi	Yezi	13.0	47	U+10E80–U+10EB1 (3)	right to left	excluded
Yi	Yiii	3.0	1,220	U+A000–U+A4C6 (2)	left to right	limited use
Zanabazar Square	Zanb	10.0	72	U+11A00–U+11A47 (1)	left to right	excluded

To see one of the oldest entries sign by sign, go next to Egyptian hieroglyphs. For the same Unicode machinery applied to pictures rather than sounds, try emoji.

Sources

1. 1

   The Unicode Consortium. Unicode Character Database, Version 18.0.0: Scripts.txt, PropertyValueAliases.txt, DerivedAge.txt, UnicodeData.txt and extracted/DerivedBidiClass.txt (South San Francisco: The Unicode Consortium, 2026).

   https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/ (data files)

2. 2

   The Unicode Consortium. Unicode Technical Standard #39, Unicode Security Mechanisms, Version 18.0.0, data file IdentifierType.txt (2026).

   https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/security/ (data file IdentifierType.txt)

3. 3

   The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard, Version 18.0.0 (South San Francisco: The Unicode Consortium, 2026. ISBN 978-1-936213-36-8), core specification.

   https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode18.0.0/core-spec/ (table of contents; sections 2.10, 6.1 with Table 6-1, 7.3 and 14.2; the chapter 21 introduction and section 21.1; and the script sections linked in the first table)

4. 4

   Mark Davis and Robin Leroy, eds. Unicode Standard Annex #31, Unicode Identifiers and Syntax, revision 45 (The Unicode Consortium, 2026-09-01).

   https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr31/tr31-45.html (summary; section 2.4 with Tables 4, 5 and 7 and the special cases that follow them)

5. 5

   The Unicode Consortium. "Unicode 18.0.0" (release summary, 2026-09-16).

   https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode18.0.0/ (section A, Summary)

6. 6

   The Unicode Consortium. "Enumerated Versions of The Unicode Standard."

   https://www.unicode.org/versions/enumeratedversions.html (Year column of the version table)

7. 7

   Script Encoding Working Group. "Roadmap to the SMP," Roadmaps to Unicode (The Unicode Consortium).

   https://www.unicode.org/roadmaps/smp/ (Plane 1 map and presentation conventions)

8. 8

   Library of Congress. "Greek," ALA-LC Romanization Tables (July 2010).

   https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/greek.pdf (full table)

9. 9

   Library of Congress. "Hebrew and Yiddish," ALA-LC Romanization Tables.

   https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/hebrew.pdf (full table and rules of application)

10. 10

    Library of Congress. "Hindi Romanization Table," 2026 version, ALA-LC Romanization Tables.

    https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/hindi-2026.pdf (full table and notes 1–2)

11. 11

    Library of Congress. "Japanese Romanization Table," 2022 version, ALA-LC Romanization Tables.

    https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/japanese.pdf (Romanized/Kana Equivalent Charts, chart A)

12. 12

    Library of Congress. "Korean Romanization and Word Division," Korean Romanization Table (2009 version, minor updates July 2025), ALA-LC Romanization Tables.

    https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/korean.pdf (rules 1–5 and examples)

Download the data: All 175 scripts in Unicode 18.0.0 (CSV) (Data: Unicode Character Database 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/), © Unicode, Inc., Unicode License v3 (https://www.unicode.org/license.txt), retrieved 2026-10-15; UTS #39 Unicode Security Mechanisms data 18.0.0, IdentifierType.txt (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/security/), © Unicode, Inc., Unicode License v3 (https://www.unicode.org/license.txt), retrieved 2026-10-15)

Corrections

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Decode next:

• Egyptian Hieroglyphs: picture signs that can stand for a word, for consonants or for a word's category, from one of the two oldest dates in the table above.
• Emoji: the same Unicode system of names and code points, applied to pictures instead of letters.

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