Uyghur alphabet

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Uyghur alphabet

Uyghur (Уйғур / ئۇيغۇر)

Uyghur is a Turkic language with about 10 million speakers mainly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, and also in Afghanistan, Australia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkey, the USA and Uzbekistan.

Uyghur was originally written with the Orkhon alphabet, a runiform script derived from or inspired by the Sogdian script, which was ultimately derived from the Aramaic script.

Between the 8th and the 16th century, Uyghur was written with an alphabet derived from Sogdian known as Old Uyghur. Unlike Sogdian, which was written from right to left in horizontal lines, the Old Uyghur alphabet was written from left to right in vertical columns, or in other words, it was a version of Sogdian rotated 90° to the left. Uyghur was also written with the Syriac alphabet, mostly in Christian documents.

From the the 16th century until the early 20th century, Uyghur was written with a version of the Arabic alphabet known as 'Chagatai'. During the 20th century a number of versions of the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets were adopted to write Uyghur in different Uyghur-speaking regions. However the Latin alphabet was unpopular and in 1987 the Arabic script was reinstated as the official script for Uyghur in China.

The name of this language is variously spelt Uigur, Uiguir, Uighuir, Uygur, Uighur, Uygur, Uyghur or in Chinese, 维吾尔语 (Wéiwú'ěryǔ). Uyghur is the preferred spelling in the Latin alphabet: this was confirmed at a conference of the Ethnic Languages and Script Committe of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region held in October 2006.

Old Uyghur alphabet

Most of the Old Uyghur letters have different shapes depending on their position in a word. The initial shapes are used at the beginning of words, the medial shapes in the middle, and the final shapes at the ends of words.

Arabic alphabet for Uyghur (ئۇيغۇر ئېلىپبەسى)

Cyrillic alphabet for Uyghur (уйғур елипбәси)

Latin alphabets for Uyghur (uyghur élipbesi)

There is no standard or official Latin alphabet for Uyghur: this version, known as Yengi Yezik or Yeŋi Yeziq (New Writing) was used between 1969 and 1987.

This is the Uyghur Latin Yéziq (ULY), which was introduced between November 2000 and July 2001 at five conferences were held at Xinjiang University in Urumchi. It is intended to be a unified Latin script for Uyghur.

Sample texts in Uyghur

Arabic alphabet (Uyghur Ereb Yéziqi)

Cyrillic alphabet (Uyghur Siril Yéziqi)

Һемме адем занидинла еркин, иззет-һөрмет ве һоқуқта бапбаравер болуп туғулған. Улар еқилге ве вийдан'ға иге һемде бир-бириге қэриндашлиқ мунасивитиге хас роһ билен билен муамил қилиши кэрек.

Latin alphabet (Uyghur Yengi Yezik)

H̡əmmə adəm zatidinla ərkin, izzət-h̡ɵrmət wə hok̡uk̡ta babbarawər bolup tuƣulƣan. Ular ək̡ilƣə wə wijdanƣa igə h̡əmdə bir-birigə k̡erindaxlik̡ munasiwitigə hax roh bilən mu’amilə k̡ilixi kerək.

Latin alphabet (Uyghur Latin Yéziq)

Hemme adem zatidinla erkin, izzet-hörmet we hoquqta babbarawer bolup tughulghan. Ular eqilghe we wijdan'gha ige hemde bir-birige qérindashliq munasiwitige xas roh bilen muamile qilishi kérek.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Sample text in Uyghur (Arabic alphabet)

Transliteration

Hey, péqir uyghur, oyghan, uyqung yéter,

Sende mal yoq, emdi ketse jan kéter.

Bu ölümdin özengni qutqazmisang,

Ah, séning haling xeter, haling xeter.

Translation

Hey, poor Uyghur, wake up, you have slept long enough,

You have nothing, what is now at stake is your very life.

If you don't rescue yourself from this death,

Ah, your end will be looming, your end will be looming.

Part of ئويغان! / Oyghan! (Wake up), a poem by Abduxaliq Uyghur

N'Ko alphabet

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N'Ko alphabet

N'Ko   

The N'Ko alphabet was invented by Soulemayne Kante of Kankan, Guinea, in 1949. It is mainly used by speakers of Maninka, Bambara, Dyula and their dialects in Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali.

Soulemayne Kante was born in 1922. As a young man, he was angered when he read that some foreigners considered Africans cultureless since they didn't have an indigenous writing system. In response, he developed Nko to give African people their own alphabet to record their cultures and histories in their native languages. He wrote hundreds of educational materials in Maninka using the N'ko alphabet. His aim was to explain complex or foreign ideas to speakers of Maninka using their own language. He wrote introductory books on subjects as diverse as astrology, economics, history and religion. Many of his works are still available from l'Association ICRA-N'KO.

Publications in the N'Ko alphabet include the Qur'an, textbooks on various subjects, poetry, philisphical works, a dictionary and a number of local newspapers.

Notable features

• Type of writing system: alphabet
• Direction of writing right to left in horizontal lines
• Diacritics placed below a vowel indicate nazalisation
• Diacritics placed over a vowel of syllabic indicate length or tone

Used to write:

Maninka (Maninkakan), or Eastern Maninka, is a group of closely related languages and dialects belonging to the southeastern Manding subgroup of the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo languages. There are about 3.3 million Maninka speakers mainly in Guinea and Mali, and also in Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire. Maninka is closely related to Bambara.
Dioula (Julakan), a Mande language spoken by about 2.7 million people in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali. It is about known as Jula and Dyula and is closely related to Bambara. It is written with the Latin, Arabic and N'Ko alphabets.
Bambara (Bamanankan), a Mande language with about 3 million speakers in Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ghana.

N'Ko alphabet

Latin alphabet for Mininka

Arabic alphabet for Mininka

Sample text in Mininka

Adamadennu bɛɛ sɔdɔnɲa kakan, hɔrɔya dɔ, fabadenɲa dɔ ani sariya ta fan dɔ. Hankili ni sɔnɔmɛ ye alu bɛɛ ma, a kakan wo dɔ alu ye bakelenɲa sila lataaman alu ɲɔɔn tɛ.

Greek alphabet

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Greek alphabet

Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο)

Origin

The Greek alphabet has been in continuous use for the past 2,750 years or so since about 750 BC. It was developed from the Canaanite/Phoenician alphabet and the order and names of the letters are derived from Phoenician. The original Canaanite meanings of the letter names was lost when the alphabet was adapted for Greek. For example, alpha comes for the Canaanite aleph (ox) and beta from beth (house).

At first, there were a number of different versions of the alphabet used in various different Greek cities. These local alphabets, known as epichoric, can be divided into three groups: green, blue and red. The blue group developed into the modern Greek alphabet, while the red group developed into the Etruscan alphabet, other alphabets of ancient Italy and eventually the Latin alphabet.

By the early 4th century BC, the epichoric alphabets were replaced by the eastern Ionic alphabet. The capital letters of the modern Greek alphabet are almost identical to those of the Ionic alphabet. The minuscule or lower case letters first appeared sometime after 800 AD and developed from the Byzantine minuscule script, which developed from cursive writing.

Notable features

• Type of writing system: alphabet - the first one to include vowels.
• Direction of writing: Originally written horizontal lines either from right to left or alternating from right to left and left to right (boustrophedon/βουστροφηδόν). Around 500 BC the direction of writing changed to horizontal lines running from left to right.
• Diacritics to represent stress and breathings were added to the alphabet in around 200 BC. In 1982 the diacritics representing breathings, which were not widely used after 1976, were officially abolished by presidential decree.
• The letter sigma has a special form which is used when it appears at the end of a word.

Used to write

Greek (Ελληνικά), an Indo-European language spoken by about 14 million people mainly in Greece and Cyprus, where it is an official language. Greek is also recognised as a minority language in parts of Turkey, Italy and Albania.

Today the Greek alphabet is used only to write Greek, however at various times in the past it has been used to write such languages as Lydian, Phrygian, Thracian, Gaulish, Hebrew, Arabic, Old Ossetic, Albanian, Turkish, Aromanian, Gagauz, Surguch and Urum.

Ancient Greek alphabet

This alphabet is based on inscriptions from Crete dated to about 800 BC. Greek was written from right to left in horizontal lines at this time. The names of the letters were slightly different to those for later varities Greek.

Greek alphabet (Classical Attic pronunciation)

Note

• Σ = [z] before voiced consonants

Obsolete and archaic letters

Greek numerals and other symbols

The Ancient Greeks had two numeric systems: the Acrophonic or Attic system used the letters iota, delta, gamma, eta, nu and mu in various combinations. These letters were used as they represented the first letters of the number names, with the exception of iota: Γέντε (gente) for 5, which became Πέντε (pente); Δέκα (Deka) for 10, Ηἑκατόν (Hektaton) for 100, Χίλιοι (Khilioi) for 1,000 and Μύριον (Myrion) for 10,000. This system was used until the first century BC.

The Acrophonic system was replaced by an alphabetic system that assigned numerical values to all the letters of the alphabet. Three obsolete letters, stigma, koppa and sampi, were used in addition to the standard Greek letters, and a apostrophe-like numeral sign was used to indicate that letters were being used as numerals.

Greek alphabet (Modern pronunciation)

Downloads

Download a Greek alphabet chart in PDF format

Sample text in Greek

Transliteration

Óli i ánthropi yeniúnde eléftheri ke ísi stin aksioprépia ke ta dhikeómata. Íne prikizméni me loyikí ke sinídhisi, ke ofílun na simberiféronde metaksí tus me pnévma adhelfosínis.

Sample text in Polytonic Greek

Sample text in handwritten Greek

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

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Etruscan alphabet

Etruscan alphabet

The Etruscan alphabet developed from a Western variety of the Greek alphabet brought to Italy by Euboean Greeks. The earliest known inscription dates from the middle of the 6th century BC. Most Etruscan inscriptions are written in horizontal lines from rigth to left, but some are boustrophedon (running alternately left to right then right to left).

More than 10,000 Etruscan inscriptions have been found on tombstones, vases, statues, mirrors and jewellery. Fragments of an Etruscan book made of linen have also been found. Etruscan texts can be read: i.e. the pronunciation of the letters is known, though scholars are not sure what all the words mean.

No major literary works in Etruscan have survived, however there is evidence for the existence of religious and historical literature and drama. It is also possible that the Etruscans had a notation system for music.

The Etruscan language was spoken by the Etruscans in Etruria (Tuscany and Umbria) until about the 1st century AD, after which it continued to be studied by priests and scholars. The emperor Claudius (10 BC - 54 AD) wrote a history of the Etruscans in 20 volumes, none of which have survived, based on sources still preserved in his day. The language was used in religious ceremonies until the early 5th century.

Etruscan was related to Raetic, a language once spoken in the Alps, and also to Lemnian, once spoken on the island of Lemnos. It was also possibly related to Camunic, a language once spoken in the northwest of Italy.

Archaic Etruscan alphabet (7th-5th centuries BC)

Neo-Etruscan alphabet (4th-3rd centuries BC)

Sample text in Etruscan

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Kayah Li

Kayah Li   

Kayah or Kayah Li is a member of Karen branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is spoken by about 590,000 people in the Kayah and Karen states of Burma (Myanmar). The language and people who speak it are also known as Western Kayah, Karenni, Karennyi, Red Karen, Yang Daeng or Karieng Daeng.

The Kayah Li alphabet was devised by Htae Bu Phae in March 1962. It is taught in schools in refugee camps in Thailand. It appears to be modelled, to some extent, on scripts such as Thai and Burmese.

Notable features

• Type of writing system: alphabet
• Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
• Consonants Other vowels are written with separate letters or with diacritics attached to the letter a.
• Tones are indicated by diacritics below the consonants.
• Used to write: Kayah or Kayah Li, a Karen language spoken in Burma by about 590,000 people.

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Dalecarlian Runes

Dalecarlian Runes   

Dalecarlian runes were a runic alphabet used in the Swedish province of Dalarna/Dalecarlia until the early 20th century, mainly to write the Elfdalian language. They developed from Younger Futhork during the 16th century and other time became increasingly mixed with letters from the Latin alphabet. This alphabet is also known as Elfdalian runes or dalrunes.

This alphabet was mainly inscribed into wood and stone on furniture, buildings, bowls, measuring sticks, etc. to write the names of the owners and/or makings. The earliest known inscription in Daelcarlian runes, for example, appears on a bowl from Åsen, a village in Älvdalen parish, and says "Anders has made (this) bowl anno 1596".

Notable features

• Type of writing system: alphabet
• Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
• Used to write: mainly Elfdalian

Dalecarlian runes

Notes

• The names of the letters come from Runakänslanäs läräspan (The first knowledge of runic learning) a copperplate engraving by Johannes Bureus dating from 1599.
• The shapes of the letters changed over time, so most letters have several different shapes. 

Oirat Clear Script

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Oirat Clear Script

Kalmyk (Хальмг келн)

Kalmyk is a member of the Kalmyk-Oirat subgroup of Mongolic languages. It is spoken by about 500,000 people in Kalmykia in the Russian Federation between the Volga and Don rivers, and in Western China and in Western Mongolia.

Kalmyk was first written with the Uyghur script in the 11th century. Then in 1648 a Kalmyk Buddhist monk called Zaya Pandita Oktorguin Dalai created the Kalmyk alphabet or Todo Bichig (Clear Script) by adapting the Classical Mongolian script. The Clear script is still used by Kalmyks in China, but Kalmyks in Russia adopted the Cyrillic alphabet, as shown below, in 1924.

Kalmyk-Oirat Clear Script (Todo Bichig)

The Kalmyk-Oirat Clear Script is written in vertical columns running from top to bottom and left to right. Each letter has a different shape depending where it appears in a word, and special letters are used for combinations of some letters.

Kalmyk alphabet and pronunciation

Notes

• в = [v] in Russian names and loanwords
• At the beginning of words, e = [jɛ], ë = [jɔ]
• Letters in blue are only used in Russian names and loanwords

Information about Kalmyk pronunciation compiled by Wolfram Siegel.

Sample text in Kalmyk (Oirat Clear Script)

Sample text in Kalmyk (Cyrillic)

Мана Теңгрин эцк! Нернтн әрүн болтха! Тана йосн иртхә! Тенгрт бутсн таалтн һазр деер бүттхә! Эркн кергтә өдмг Эндр өдрт илгәһит! Яһҗ бидн күүнә килнц тәвнәвидн, Тиигҗ Та килнцмдн тәвүлит! Сөрдг юмнла бичә харһулыт! Эрлгәс гетлгит!

Transliteration

Mana Teñgrin eck! Nerntn ärün boltxa! Tana josh irtxä! Tengrt butsn taaltn hazr deer büttxä! Erkn kergtä ödmg Endr ödrt ilgähit Jahǧ bidn küünä kilnc täwnüwidn, Tiigǧ Ta kilncmdn täwülit! Södg jumnla biča xarhulyt! Erlgäs getlgit!

Translation

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. 

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Caucasian Albanian

Caucasian Albanian

The Caucasian Albanian alphabet, which is also known as the Old Udi script, was used by the Caucasian Albanians, speakers of a northeast Caucasian language who lived in parts of what is now Azerbaijan and Daghestan. The alphabet was mentioned in some early sources, and was rediscovered in 1937 by Professor Ilia Abuladze in an Armenian language manuscript dating from the 15th century. The manuscript contained details of alphabets such as Armenian, Greek, Latin, Georgian, Coptic and Caucasian Albanian, which was referred to as "Ałuanic girn e", which means "Aghuanic alphabet/writing" in Armenian. Professor Abuladze believed the alphabet was based on the Georgian alphabet.

Further examples of the Caucasian alphabet were found in the 1940s and 1950s in the form of short inscriptions on a stone altar post, and on candlesticks, tiles and vessels. In 2003 a longer text on a palimpsest was found in St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt.

Georgian scholars believe that King Pharnavaz I (ფარნავაზი) of Kartli (Iberia) created the Caucasian Albanian alphabet, probably in the late 4th or early 5th century AD, however Armenian scholars believe that Mesrop Mashtots' (Մեսրոպ Մաշտոց), an Armenian missionary, did so.

Udi, a northeast Caucasian language spoken in parts of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, is thought to be a descendant of the Caucasian Albanian language.

The name "Albania" is Latin for "mountaneous land" and the Caucasian Albanians were not related to the Albanians of Albania, nor were their languages related.

Caucasian Albanian alphabet

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Glagolitic alphabet

Glagolitic alphabet

Origin

The Glagolitic alphabet was invented during the 9th century by the missionaries St Cyril (827-869 AD) and St Methodius (826-885 AD) in order to translate the Bible and other religious works into the language of the Great Moravia region. They probably modelled Glagolitic on a cursive form of the Greek alphabet, and based their translations on a Slavic dialect of the Thessalonika area, which formed the basis of the literary standard known as Old Church Slavonic.

Old Church Slavonic was used as the liturgical language of the Russian Orthodox church between the 9th and 12th centuries. A more modern form of the language, known as Church Slavonic, appeared during the 14th century and is still used in the Russian Orthodox church.

Glagolitic alphabet

Cursive version of the Glagolitic alphabet

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Tai Dam alphabet

Tai Dam alphabet   

Origin

The origins of the Tai Dam alphabet are unknown, though the shapes of the letters suggest that they might have been modelled on the Lao and/or Thai alphabets. Alternative writing systems, including some based on the Latin alphabet, are also used to write Tai Dam.

Notable features

• Type of writing system: alphabet
• Direction of writing: left to write in horizontal lines
• Each consonant letter has a high and low form, which combined with the presence or absence of the two tones marks, is used to indicate the six tones of the Tai Dam language.
• The high consonants are also used for the syllable final letters: -w, -y, -m, -n and -ng. The syllable final -k is written with the low letter k.
• Vowels are indicated using diacritics which appear above, below or to the left and/or right of the consonant letters.
• There is no standard order for the consonants, instead each scribe uses his own order.

Used to write:

Tai Dam, or Black Tai/Tai Noir, a Tai-Kadai language closely related to Lao and Thai which is spoken by around half a million people in north-western Vietnam and northern Laos. There are also Tai Dam speakers in Yunnan province of China, and in parts of northeastern and central Thailand, where they are known as Lao Song or Lao Song Dam.

Tai Dam alphabet

Additional symbols

These ideographic symbols are customarily addded after consonants

Vowel diacritics

Tone indication

	(no mark)
low consonants	tone 1	tone 2	tone 3
high consonants	tone 4	tone 5	tone 6

Tai Dam sample text

Elbasan alphabet

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Elbasan alphabet

Elbasan   

The Elbasan alphabet was invented around the middle of the 18th century and named after the city of Elbasan in central Albania. It was used mainly in a document called the Elbasan Gospel Manuscript, or Anonimi i Elbasanit (The Anonymous of Elbasan) in Albanian, which was created at St Jovan Vladimir's Church, published in 1761, and can now be found in the National Archives of Albania in Tiranë.

Notable features

• Type of writing system: alphabet
• Direction of writing: left to right
• Used to write: Albanian
• Consists of 40 letters: 35 common ones, and 5 there are used on rarely
• Each letter represents one phoneme

Elbasan alphabet

Tifinagh alphabet

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Tifinagh alphabet

Tifinagh   

Origin

The Tifinagh alphabet is thought to have derived from the ancient Berber script. The name Tifinagh possibly means 'the Phoenician letters', or possibly from the phrase tifin negh, which means 'our invention'.

Since September 2003, the Tifinagh alphabet children in Moroccan primary schools have been taught to write Tamazight with the Tifinagh alphabet. It is also used by the Tuareg, particularly the women, for private notes, love letters and in decoration. For public purposes, the Arabic alphabet is normally used.

Notable features

• Type of writing system: alphabet.
• Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines.

Used to write

Tamazight (Tamaziɣt / ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ), a family of Berber languages spoken by between 16 and 30 million people mainly in Morocco and Algeria, and also in Libya, Mali, Niger, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Egypt and Mauritania.

Neo-Tifinagh alphabet as used in Morocco

Sample text in Tamazight

Transliteration

Imdanen, akken ma llan ttlalen d ilelliyen msawan di lḥweṛma d yizerfan-ghur sen tamsakwit d lâquel u yessefk ad-tili tegmatt gar asen.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)