1.General History of Writing
2.The Decimal Numeral System
3.Historical Alphabets and Syllabaries
General History of Writing
For a general idea of how the well known alphabets developed, start here:
For more verbal explanations, look here:
For deeper historical explanations including non-alphabetic writing, look here:
Miscellaneous, including typological information:
The Decimal Numeral System
A concise graphical history of 1,2,3... .
. Zahlenzeichen New. (German)
. The following two links are to different versions of the same page.
These two pages contain parallel comparisons of the various decimal numeral
systems, almost all of which descend from the Hindu-Arabic system. Both
versions require UNICODE compatible fonts.
Only one version should work on your browser automatically, but the other
version should also work after the proper settings are changed on your browser:
Specific Historical Alphabets and Syllabaries,
and other Phonetic Writing Systems:
Cuneiform Script :
Sumerian and Akkadian Cuneiform
Proto-Elamite
Old Persian Cuneiform Syllabary
Ugaritic Cuneiform Alphabet
Cretan and Cypriot Scripts :
Cretan
Hieroglyphic A and B
Phaistos
Linear A
Linear B
Cypriot
"Semitic" Scripts :
"Non-Semitic" scripts ultimately deriving from Semitic scripts :
Armenian and Georgian
(thought to derive from Phoenician either through an Iranian script or through Greek)
Coptic (a Greek script, with extra characters and a different calligraphy)
Greek (presumed to derive directly from an unknown form of Phoenician script)
Iranian Non-cuneiform Scripts (derived from Aramaic)
Italic Alphabets
(historical alphabets from the Italian peninsula, and their derivatives)
Latin (said to derive through Etruscan)
Latin derived = All modern Latin alphabets, including:
Other Italic alphabets
Slavic: Cyrillic and Glagolitic Alphabets
(derived through Greek; Slavic Latin alphabets are derived through Latin above)
. Drustvo prijatelja glagoljice (DPG)
Altaic Alphabets
(derived from Aramaic alphabets)
Indian and South East Asian Scripts :
(presumed to derive from some Semitic script, though the evidence is not strong)
Javanese and Balinese Script
Khmer
Philippine Scripts
Tibetan
Tocharian
Ogham :
(see also Runic)
Runic Scripts :
Germanic Runes
(thought by many to derive ultimately from Phoenician through Etruscan, or some other Italic script;
see also Ogham, which some experts have considered to be a type of Runic script).
. The Rune Poem Page
. The Runic Journey
. Virtually Virtual Iceland - Runes and Pronunciation
Old Hungarian Runic Script
Turkic Runes: Orkhon and Yenisei(?) Script
Native American Writing Systems :
. Cherokee
Yi Logographic (Ideographic) Script and Syllabary :
Writing Systems Invented Within the Last Two Centuries
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|| MODERN ALPHABETS AND SYLLABARIES
|| GRAMMATOLOGY
Suggestions for new links are welcome. Please email
H.D. bli blarg
at: scribitmihi AT yahoo DOT com
http://www.oocities.org/scribitmihi/langlinks/writing-abc-hist.html