Category Archives: Rating: 3 “I did not know that”

Devanagari — 1000 AD, India

Posted on April 14, 2011 by ducky

Devanagari developed from Gupta via an intermediary script called “Nagari” which has very little information about it available.  “Nagri” means “urbane”, so presumably it was used for commercial purposes.  “Deva” means “deity”, so calling the derivative script “Devanagari” presumably was … Continue reading →

Posted in Abugida, Rating: 3 "I did not know that" | 2 Comments

Khudawadi — 900 AD, Pakistan

Posted on April 4, 2011 by ducky

In the tenth century AD, merchants simplified the Sharada script for quick note-taking.  There were a number of common features in their scripts, common enough that the name “Landa” was given to all of these scripts.  However, as Landa was … Continue reading →

Posted in Abugida, mercantile script, Rating: 3 "I did not know that" | 1 Comment

Naxi Geba — 1200 AD? S. China

Posted on March 23, 2011 by ducky

Like its sibling (parent?) script, Naxi Dongba, Naxi Geba is highly idiosyncratic and used mostly for religious writings.  Unlike Naxi Dongba, Naxi Geba is a syllabary, but different people used different symbols for the same syllable. This makes it less … Continue reading →

Posted in now ceremonial, Rating: 3 "I did not know that", Syllabaries | 2 Comments

Pahlavi — 150 BC, Iran

Posted on February 20, 2011 by ducky

As a result of Alexander the Great tromping through Central Asia, Greek deposed Imperial Aramaic as the official language of the region.  However, although Alexander might have been great, didn’t have much staying power: he died at age 32.  His … Continue reading →

Posted in Abjad, Evolved slowly from parent, Rating: 3 "I did not know that", stupid | 4 Comments

South Arabian — 800 BC, Yemen

Posted on February 11, 2011 by ducky

Proto-Sinaitic split into two branches: a northern one which spawned almost all the writing systems of the modern world, and a southern one that did not.  Perhaps it is fairer to say that one branch of the script went to … Continue reading →

Posted in Abjad, Evolved slowly from parent, Rating: 3 "I did not know that" | Leave a comment

Etruscan — Italy, 700 BC

Posted on February 2, 2011 by ducky

Somewhat unusually, the Etruscan writing system is completely understood, but the Etruscan language is not.  With the early Cypriot script, archeological linguists can guess that the symbols in early Cypriot writing system corresponded to the same pronunciation and orthography as … Continue reading →

Posted in Alphabet, language unknown, Rating: 3 "I did not know that" | 3 Comments

Linear B — 1400BC?, Greece

Posted on January 25, 2011 by ducky

Ancient Crete had not one but three writing systems at roughly the same time: the Cretan hieroglyphics, Linear A, and Linear B.  Linear A and the Cretan hieroglyphics have not been deciphered, but Linear B has. Linear B has about … Continue reading →

Posted in Logograms, Rating: 3 "I did not know that", Syllabaries | 1 Comment

Proto-Sinaitic — 1900 BC, Egypt

Posted on January 21, 2011 by ducky

Proto-Sinaitic — also called Proto-Canaanite — was probably the very first writing system that was purely phonetic, i.e. that did not use logograms.  It did not include all the vowels (so is classified as an abjad and not an alphabet) … Continue reading →

Posted in Abjad, Rating: 3 "I did not know that" | 4 Comments

Chinese Oracle bones — ~1500BC, China

Posted on January 6, 2011 by ducky

Written Chinese is, by some measures, the most successful writing system on the planet.  It has persisted for thousands of years and is still in use today.  While it has gone through a number of distinct changes, those changes have … Continue reading →

Posted in first in its area, Logograms, probably developed by illiterate(s), Rating: 3 "I did not know that" | 2 Comments

Vinca — 5300 BC, Serbia

Posted on January 4, 2011 by ducky

There are some cases where there are symbols that experts can’t definitively agree are or are not writing.  Maybe the symbols are just decoration. Vinca is one such script, found on pottery and figurines in modern-day Serbia and adjoining countries … Continue reading →

Posted in developed by illiterate(s), first in its area, Rating: 3 "I did not know that", Undeciphered | 3 Comments