Category Archives: Rating: 5 “Whoa!!”

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

Hiragana — ~800 AD, Japan

Posted on March 4, 2011 by ducky

It was easier to write Japanese with Manyogana than with exclusively Chinese logograms, but it was still difficult because the same glyph would represent a word in one place and a sound in another. For their next attempt, the Japanese … Continue reading →

Posted in previous script didn't quite work, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!", significant female influence, Syllabaries | 9 Comments

Manyogana — 450 AD, Japan

Posted on March 3, 2011 by ducky

China was culturally very dominant in East Asia, and so educated people in Japan learned the Chinese script when writing first came to Japan.  Eventually, Japanese people wanted to write in Japanese, but unfortunately, the Chinese script was not well … Continue reading →

Posted in previous script didn't quite work, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!", Syllabaries | 3 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

Old Uyghur — 700 AD, China

Posted on February 26, 2011 by ducky

The Old Uyghur script descended from the “Uyghur” version of the Sogdian script, and was used from around 700 AD to around 1700 AD.  Woodblock printing and movable type printing was developed by Uyghurs in around 1250, around 200 years … Continue reading →

Posted in Alphabet, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!" | 2 Comments

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

Kharosthi — 350 BC, Pakistan

Posted on February 12, 2011 by ducky

The Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered huge tracts of Asia in around 500 BC, and held it until about 330 BC.  They spread the use of their official language, Aramaic, and with it the Aramaic writing system.  Near the end of … Continue reading →

Posted in Abugida, previous script didn't quite work, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!" | 2 Comments