Category Archives: inventor known

Jenticha — 1942 AD, Nepal

Posted on April 30, 2011 by ducky

In Northern India and southern Nepal, there is a language called Sunuwar, alternatively Kõits-Lo, Mukhiya, Kiranti-Kõits, Koinch, Koincha, and Koints.  In 1942, Karna Jenticha developed a script for this language. There have been two versions of Jenticha: the first was … Continue reading →

Posted in Abugida, Alphabet, inventor known, National pride, Rating: 4 "Huh, interesting!" | 1 Comment

Gurmukhi — 1539 AD, India/Pakistan

Posted on April 10, 2011 by ducky

In about 1539 AD, the second Sikh Guru Angad Dev Ji developed a script, Gurmukhi, from Punjabi Landa.  While he used this script to write religious works in several different languages, it came to be a symbol of Punjabi — … Continue reading →

Posted in Abugida, inventor known, National pride, Rating: 4 "Huh, interesting!" | 4 Comments

Zetian characters — 690 AD, China

Posted on March 16, 2011 by ducky

There was one female ruler of China, Wu Zetian, who, among other things, mandated use of around twenty new characters.  (These characters were presented to her by a junior relative, Zong Qinke, but she went along with it.) She took … Continue reading →

Posted in government-mandated, inventor known, Logograms, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!", significant female influence | 2 Comments

Hangul — 1446 AD, Korea

Posted on March 12, 2011 by ducky

Chinese script didn’t work terribly well for Korean, even with Gugyeol, Hyangchul, or Idu additions.  Around 1440 AD, King Sejong the Great asked his board of scholarly advisers to advise him on a better writing system.  On October 9, 1446 … Continue reading →

Posted in Alphabet, inventor known, previous script didn't quite work, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!", Syllabaries | 2 Comments

Jurchen Scripts — 1119 AD and 1138 AD, Northeast China

Posted on March 2, 2011 by ducky

The Khitan (AKA Liao) Empire was in charge in Manchuria (northeastern China) for a while, and the local Jurchen people used the Khitan script and Chinese script for their writing.  They rebelled and overthrew their Khitan overlords in 1115, and … Continue reading →

Posted in inventor known, Logograms, National pride, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!", Syllabaries | 1 Comment

Khitan scripts — 920 AD and 925 AD, Mongolia

Posted on March 1, 2011 by ducky

Emperor Taizu of the Khitan (AKA Liao) people introduced a script in 920 AD for his nomadic Mongolian nation. They had been using Chinese script, but the Chinese script was  a poor fit for the Khitan language.  Spoken Khitan had … Continue reading →

Posted in Abjad, inventor known, language unknown, Logograms, previous script didn't quite work, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!", Syllabaries, Undeciphered | 1 Comment

Cree — ~1840 AD, Canada

Posted on February 17, 2011 by ducky

Missionary James Evans developed a romanization for the Ojibwe language in around 1830 AD, but found that Ojibwe students had difficulty switching between the two very different mappings of Latin characters to pronunciation.  Inspired by the stunning success of Cherokee … Continue reading →

Posted in Abugida, inventor known, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!", Syllabaries | 3 Comments

Shorthands — <300 BC, Greece?

Posted on February 16, 2011 by ducky

Shorthands — forms of writing that sacrifices accuracy and/or shared orthography for speed — are very old.  The earliest example of shorthand comes from Greece, and was sort of an inverse abugida: the vowels were primary, and consonants were noted … Continue reading →

Posted in Abjad, Abugida, Alphabet, inventor known, Logograms, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!" | 3 Comments

Cherokee — 1819 AD, USA

Posted on February 15, 2011 by ducky

The development and adoption of Cherokee are two hugely impressive accomplishments.  Chief Sequoyah, who was illiterate himself, single-handedly created a script for his language, and within eleven years, 90% of Cherokee were literate in their language.  Stop and marvel about … Continue reading →

Posted in developed by illiterate(s), inventor known, National pride, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!", Syllabaries | 4 Comments