Encyclopedia of World Writing Systems: A Global Atlas of Alphabets, Abjads, Abugidas, Syllabaries, Logographic Systems, and Scripts of Living, Endangered, and Ancient Languages (Linguistics)

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD WRITING SYSTEMS
A Global Atlas of Alphabets, Abjads, Abugidas, Syllabaries, Logographic Systems, and Scripts of Living, Endangered, and Ancient Languages

Newly revised and improved in response to reader feedback.

Explore more than 100 writing systems from across the world and throughout human history in a 500-page reference volume.

The Encyclopedia of World Writing Systems is designed for readers who want to do more than admire unfamiliar scripts. It provides a practical introduction to how writing systems are structured, pronounced, developed, and used by languages and civilizations.

This revised edition has been reworked to improve clarity, organization, navigation, and reference value. Earlier material reflects reader feedback, making the book more useful for identifying, decoding, comparing, and pronouncing unfamiliar characters.

Inside, readers will find

• More than 100 ancient, medieval, modern, and constructed writing systems
• Alphabets, abjads, abugidas, syllabaries, logographic systems, and historic scripts
• Character charts and representative glyphs
• Pronunciation and phonetic information
• Historical and cultural background
• Examples showing how scripts function
• Comparative material for recognizing related scripts
• Coverage of widely used and rare writing traditions

Whether you are a linguist, language learner, historian, typographer, calligrapher, traveler, conlanger, educator, or researcher, this encyclopedia offers a broad visual and linguistic survey of humanity’s written forms.

Use it to:

Identify unfamiliar scripts
Decode letters and symbols
Compare writing systems
Study pronunciation
Explore the history of written language

WRITING SYSTEMS INCLUDED

Adlam
Arabic
Armenian
Avestan
Balinese
Bamum
Bangla (Bengali)
Batak
Baybayin
Berber (Tifinagh)
Buginese (Lontara)
Buhid
Burmese
Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics
Carian
Caucasian Albanian
Cham
Cherokee
Chinese
Coptic
Cypriot Syllabary
Cyrillic
Deseret
Devanagari
Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Elbasan
Ethiopic (Ge’ez)
Georgian (Mkhedruli, Nuskhuri, and Asomtavruli)
Gothic
Grantha
Greek
Gujarati
Gurmukhi
Hangul (Korean)
Hanunó’o
Hebrew
Inscriptional Pahlavi
Inscriptional Parthian
Japanese Hiragana
Japanese Kanji
Japanese Katakana
Japanese Romaji
Javanese
Kannada
Kayah Li
Kharoshthi
Khmer
Khojki
Khudawadi
Lao
Latin
Lepcha
Limbu
Linear B Ideograms
Linear B Syllabary
Lisu
Lycian
Lydian
Makasar
Malayalam
Mandaic
Marchen
Meitei Mayek
Mende Kikakui
Meroitic Hieroglyphs
Meroitic Cursive
Modi
Mongolian
Mro
N’Ko
Newa (Prachalit)
Odia (Oriya)
Ogham
Ol Chiki (Santali)
Old Hungarian
Old Italic
Old North Arabian
Old Permic
Old Persian
Old South Arabian
Old Turkic
Orkhon
Osage
Osmanya
Pahawh Hmong
Pau Cin Hau
Phoenician
Psalter Pahlavi
Rejang
Rohingya Hanifi
Runic
Samaritan
Saurashtra
Shavian
Siddham
Sinhala
Sundanese
Sylheti Nagari
Syriac
Tagbanwa
Tai Ahom
Tai Le
New Tai Lue
Tai Tham
Tai Viet
Takri
Tamil
Telugu
Thaana
Thai
Tibetan
Tirhuta (Maithili)
Ugaritic
Uighur
Vai
Warang Citi
Yi

From Latin, Arabic, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, Greek, and Thai to Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Ugaritic, Runic, Ogham, and Avestan, this book presents the written heritage of cultures across Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas.

The Encyclopedia of World Writing Systems is both a practical reference and a celebration of humanity’s genius in transforming speech, sound, meaning, memory, and identity into visible form.