This book is a catalogue of 100 different writing systems around the world with full character charts and basic information on the left page and blank graph paper on the right page to start immediately experimenting all the different scripts. This is a great book for language enthuasiasts who want to see how different writing systems look like. This book can also be useful to identify unknown samples of writing or reading the signs while traveling.
The basic information provided above the character charts include:
- script type (abjad, abugida, alphabet, syllabary, logography)
- writing direction
- invention time
- time period when the script was used, if it's not used anymore
- regions with predominant usage
- list of languages associated with the script
So the theory part is kept to a bare minimum and there are better books for people who want to read more about the history of different writing systems.
The book includes both modern and ancient writing systems around the world. From every continent and every different type of writing systems.
Writing systems by type:
- 43 abugidas
- 33 alphabets
- 14 abjads
- 10 syllabaries
- 2 logographic scripts
Writing systems by continent:
- 70 Asia
- 16 Europe
- 9 Africa
- 4 the Americas
- 1 Oceania
There are two additional sections in the end of the book. One section containing numerals in 35 different writing systems. The last section is "design your own writing system", where you can write down your own writing system.
Full list of writing systems: Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Avestan, Avoiuli, Balinese, Bamum, Batak, Baybayin, Bengali, Brahmi, Buhid, Burmese, Carian, Chakma, Cham, Cherokee, Coptic, Cypriot, Cyrillic, Deseret, Devanagari, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Elbasan, Etruscan, Fraser (Old Lisu), Futhark, Garay, Ge'ez, Georgian, Glagolitic, Gothic, Greek, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hangul, Hanunó'o, Hanzi, Hebrew, Hiragana, Inscriptional Pahlavi, Inscriptional Parthian, Inuktitut, Javanese, Kaithi, Kannada, Katakana, Kayah Li, Kharosthi, Khmer, Lao, Lepcha, Limbu, Linear B, Lontara, Lycian, Lydian, Malayalam, Mandaic, Manichaean, Mayan, Meitei Mayek, Mongolian, Nabataean, New Tai Lue, N'Ko, Odia, Ogham, Ol Chiki, Old Hungarian, Old Permic, Old Turkic, Osmanya, Phags-pa, Phoenician, Rejang, Samaritan, Saurashtra, Shavian, Sinhala, South Arabian, Soyombo, Sumerian cuneiform, Sundanese, Sylheti Nagri, Syriac, Tagbanwa, Tai Le, Tai Tham, Tai Viet, Tamil, Telugu, Tengwar, Thaana, Thai, Tibetan, Tifinagh, Tocharian, Ugaritic cuneiform, Vai.
