list of writing systems#alternative alphabets

Ideographic scripts (in which graphemes are ideograms representing concepts or ideas rather than a specific word in a language) and pictographic scripts (in which the graphemes are iconic pictures) are not thought to be able to express all that can be communicated by language, as argued by the linguists John DeFrancis and J. Marshall Unger. Essentially, they postulate that no true writing system can be completely pictographic or ideographic; it must be able to refer directly to a language in order to have the full expressive capacity of a language. Unger disputes claims made on behalf of Blissymbols in his 2004 book Ideogram.

Although a few pictographic or ideographic scripts exist today, there is no single way to read them because there is no one-to-one correspondence between symbol and language. Hieroglyphs were commonly thought to be ideographic before they were translated, and to this day, Chinese is often erroneously said to be ideographic.Halliday, M.A.K., Spoken and written language, Deakin University Press, 1985, p.19 In some cases of ideographic scripts, only the author of a text can read it with any certainty, and it may be said that they are interpreted rather than read. Such scripts often work best as mnemonic aids for oral texts or as outlines that will be fleshed out in speech.

There are also symbol systems used to represent things other than language:

In logographic writing systems, glyphs represent words or morphemes (meaningful components of words, as in mean-ing-ful) rather than phonetic elements.

No logographic script is composed solely of logograms. All contain graphemes that represent phonetic (sound-based) elements as well. These phonetic elements may be used on their own (to represent, for example, grammatical inflections or foreign words), or may serve as phonetic complements to a logogram (used to specify the sound of a logogram that might otherwise represent more than one word). In the case of Chinese, the phonetic element is built into the logogram itself; in Egyptian and Mayan, many glyphs are purely phonetic, whereas others function as either logograms or phonetic elements, depending on context. For this reason, many such scripts may be more properly referred to as logosyllabic or complex scripts; the terminology used is largely a product of custom in the field, and is to an extent arbitrary.

• Hieroglyphic, Hieratic, and Demotic – the writing systems of Ancient Egypt
• Egyptian language

• Anatolian hieroglyphs – Luwian.
• Cuneiform – Sumerian, Akkadian, other Semitic languages, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hurrian, and Urartian.
• Aegean scripts – Cretan hieroglyphs, Linear A (Minoan language) and Linear B (Mycenaean Greek).
• Chinese characters – Chinese, Japanese (called Kanji), Korean (called Hanja), Vietnamese (called Chữ Hán, obsolete).
• Sawndip – Zhuang
• Chữ Nôm - Vietnamese
• Khitan large script – Khitan
• Khitan small script – Khitan
• Jurchen script – Jurchen
• Tangut script – Tangut
• Sui script – Sui language
• Yi (classical) – various Yi/Lolo languages
• Pau Cin Hau logographic script – Tedim
• Eghap (or Bagam) script – Məgaka
• Mi'kmaw hieroglyphs – originally a pictorial system, transformed into a logographic system by French priest Father Le Clerq.
• Maya script – Ch'olan, Yucatecan and Tzeltalan, especially Epigraphic Ch'olti'.
• Mixteca-Puebla script – Nahuan languages, especially Classical Nahuatl (Aztec script),{{Cite book |last=Clemmensen |first=Mikkel Bøg |url=https://books.google.es/books?id=tC3EEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA44&dq=western+mesoamerican+calendars+and+writing+systems&hl=ca&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_9IHT0_2MAxXyA9sEHTtjMesQ6AF6BAgIEAM |title=Western Mesoamerican Calendars and Writing Systems: Proceedings of the Copenhagen Roundtable |last2=Helmke |first2=Christophe |date=2023-06-08 |publisher=Archaeopress Publishing Ltd |isbn=978-1-80327-486-7 |language=en}} Mixtecan languages (Mixtec script), others.

In a syllabary, graphemes represent syllables or moras. (The 19th-century term syllabics usually referred to abugidas rather than true syllabaries.)

• Afaka{{spaced ndash}} Ndyuka
• Alaska or Yugtun script{{spaced ndash}} Central Yup'ik
• Bété
• Cherokee{{spaced ndash}} Cherokee
• Cypro-Minoan – Cypro-Minoan (probably ancestral to Eteocypriot).
• Cypriot{{spaced ndash}} Arcadocypriot Greek, Eteocypriot
• Geba{{spaced ndash}} Naxi
• Iban or Dunging script{{spaced ndash}} Iban
• Kana{{spaced ndash}} Japanese (although primarily based on moras rather than syllables).
• Hiragana
• Katakana
• Man'yōgana
• Kikakui – Mende
• Kpelle{{spaced ndash}} Kpelle
• Lisu Bamboo script
• Loma{{spaced ndash}} Loma
• Masaba – Bambara
• Nüshu{{spaced ndash}}Chinese
• Nwagu Aneke script{{spaced ndash}}Igbo
• Vai{{spaced ndash}}Vai
• Woleaian{{spaced ndash}}Woleaian (a likely syllabary)
• Yi (modern){{spaced ndash}} various Yi/Lolo languages

In most of these systems, some consonant-vowel combinations are written as syllables, but others are written as consonant plus vowel. In the case of Old Persian, all vowels were written regardless, so it was effectively a true alphabet despite its syllabic component. In Japanese a similar system plays a minor role in foreign borrowings; for example, [tu] is written [to]+[u], and [ti] as [te]+[i]. Paleohispanic semi-syllabaries behaved as a syllabary for the stop consonants and as an alphabet for the rest of consonants and vowels.

The Tartessian or Southwestern script is typologically intermediate between a pure alphabet and the Paleohispanic full semi-syllabaries. Although the letter used to write a stop consonant was determined by the following vowel, as in a full semi-syllabary, the following vowel was also written, as in an alphabet. Some scholars treat Tartessian as a redundant semi-syllabary, others treat it as a redundant alphabet. Other scripts, such as Bopomofo, are semi-syllabic in a different sense: they transcribe half syllables. That is, they have letters for syllable onsets and rimes (kan = "k-an") rather than for consonants and vowels (kan = "k-a-n").

• Bamum script{{spaced ndash}}Bamum (a defective syllabary, with alphabetic principles used to fill the gaps)
• Eskayan{{spaced ndash}} Bohol, Philippines (a syllabary apparently based on an alphabet; some alphabetic characteristics remain)
• Linear Elamite{{spaced ndash}} Elamite language
• Paleohispanic semi-syllabaries{{spaced ndash}} Paleo-Hispanic languages
• Celtiberian script{{spaced ndash}} Celtiberian language
• Northeastern Iberian script{{spaced ndash}} Iberian language
• Southeastern Iberian script{{spaced ndash}} Iberian language
• Southwest Paleohispanic script{{spaced ndash}} Tartessian
• Old Persian cuneiform{{spaced ndash}} Old Persian

• Bopomofo{{spaced ndash}}phonetic script for different varieties of Chinese.
• Khom script{{spaced ndash}} Bahnaric languages, including Alak and Jru'.
• Quốc Âm Tân Tự{{spaced ndash}} Vietnamese

A segmental script has graphemes which represent the phonemes (basic unit of sound) of a language.

Note that there need not be (and rarely is) a one-to-one correspondence between the graphemes of the script and the phonemes of a language. A phoneme may be represented only by some combination or string of graphemes, the same phoneme may be represented by more than one distinct grapheme, the same grapheme may stand for more than one phoneme, or some combination of all of the above.

Segmental scripts may be further divided according to the types of phonemes they typically record:

An abjad is a segmental script containing symbols for consonants only, or where vowels are optionally written with diacritics ("pointing") or only written word-initially.

• Ancient North Arabian{{spaced ndash}} Dadanitic, Dumaitic, Hasaitic, Hismaic, Safaitic, Taymanitic, and Thamudic
• Ancient South Arabian{{spaced ndash}} Old South Arabian languages including Himyaritic, Hadhramautic, Minaean, Sabaean and Qatabanic; also the Ethiopic language Geʽez.
• Libyco-Berber –Berber languages
• Aramaic, including Khwarezmian ({{sc|aka}} Chorasmian), Elymaic, Palmyrene, and Hatran
• Arabic{{spaced ndash}} Arabic, Azeri, Bengali (historical occasion), Chittagonian (historical occasion), Punjabi, Baluchi, Kashmiri, Pashto, Persian, Kurdish (vowels obligatory), Sindhi, Uighur (vowels obligatory), Urdu, Malay (as Jawi) and many other languages spoken in Africa and Western, Central, and Southeast Asia,
• Hebrew{{spaced ndash}} Hebrew and other Jewish languages
• Manichaean script
• Nabataean{{spaced ndash}} the Nabataeans of Petra
• Pahlavi script{{spaced ndash}} Middle Persian
• Parthian
• Psalter
• Phoenician{{spaced ndash}} Phoenician and other Canaanite languages
• Proto-Canaanite and Proto-Sinaitic – Bronze Age Canaanites.
• Sogdian –Sogdian language
• Samaritan (Old Hebrew){{spaced ndash}} Aramaic, Arabic, and Hebrew
• Syriac{{spaced ndash}} Classical Syriac, Sureth, Turoyo and other Neo-Aramaic dialects
• Tifinagh{{spaced ndash}} Tuareg
• Ugaritic{{spaced ndash}} Ugaritic, Hurrian

A true alphabet contains separate letters (not diacritic marks) for both consonants and vowels.

[[File:Alphabets in Europe.svg|thumb|300px|Writing systems used in countries of Europe.This maps shows languages official in the respective countries; if a country has an independent breakaway republic, both languages are shown. Moldova's sole official language is Romanian (Latin-based), but the unrecognized de facto independent republic of Transnistria uses three Cyrillic-based languages: Ukrainian, Russian, and Moldovan. Georgia's official languages are Georgian and Abkhazian (in Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia), the sparsely recognized de facto independent republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia use Cyrillic-based languages: Both republics use Russian. Additionally, Abkhazia also uses Abkhaz, and South Ossetia uses Ossetian. Additionally, Serbia's sole official language is Cyrillic Serbian, but within the country, Latin script for Serbian is also widely used.

{{legend|#008000|Greek }}

{{legend|#008080|Greek & Latin (Cyprus)}}

{{legend|#000080|Latin}}

{{legend|#8000C0|Latin & Cyrillic (Bosnia, Serbia, Moldova)}}

{{legend|#FF0000|Cyrillic}}

{{legend|#FF9955|Georgian }}

{{legend|#80B0FF|Latin & Armenian (Azerbaijan)}}

{{legend|#FFCC00|Armenian}}]]

Linear alphabets are composed of lines on a surface, such as ink on paper.

• Adlam{{spaced ndash}} Fula
• Armenian{{spaced ndash}} Armenian
• Ariyaka script{{spaced ndash}} Pali, Isan, Lao
• Avestan{{spaced ndash}} Avestan
• Avoiuli{{spaced ndash}} Raga
• Borama{{spaced ndash}} Somali
• Bosančica – Bosnian
• Carian{{spaced ndash}}Carian
• Caucasian Albanian{{spaced ndash}} Caucasian Albanian
• Coorgi–Cox alphabet{{spaced ndash}} Kodava
• Coptic{{spaced ndash}} Egyptian
• Cyrillic{{spaced ndash}} Eastern South Slavic languages (Bulgarian and Macedonian), the Western South Slavic Serbian, Eastern Slavic languages (Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian), the other languages of Russia, Kazakh language, Kyrgyz language, Tajik language, Mongolian language. Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are changing to the Latin alphabet but still have considerable use of Cyrillic. See Languages using Cyrillic.
• Deseret alphabet – proposed for English but never adopted
• Eclectic shorthand{{spaced ndash}} English
• Elbasan{{spaced ndash}} Albanian
• Fraser{{spaced ndash}} Lisu
• Gabelsberger shorthand{{spaced ndash}} German
• Garay{{spaced ndash}} Wolof and Mandinka
• Georgian{{spaced ndash}} Georgian and other Kartvelian languages
• Gjirokastër (also called Veso Bey){{spaced ndash}} Albanian
• Glagolitic{{spaced ndash}} Old Church Slavonic
• Gothic{{spaced ndash}} Gothic
• Greek{{spaced ndash}} Greek, historically a variety of other languages
• Hanifi{{spaced ndash}} Rohingya
• International Phonetic Alphabet
• Kaddare{{spaced ndash}} Somali
• Latin script{{spaced ndash}} originally Latin language; most current western and central European languages, Turkic languages, sub-Saharan African languages, indigenous languages of the Americas, languages of maritime Southeast Asia and languages of Oceania use developments of it. Languages using a non-Latin writing system are generally also equipped with Romanization for transliteration or secondary use.
• Lycian{{spaced ndash}} Lycian
• Lydian{{spaced ndash}} Lydian
• Manchu{{spaced ndash}} Manchu
• Mandaic{{spaced ndash}} Mandaic dialect of Aramaic
• Medefaidrin{{spaced ndash}} also called Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ; used for the religious language of the same name
• Mongolian{{spaced ndash}} Mongolian
• Mundari Bani{{spaced ndash}} Mundari
• Mru script{{spaced ndash}} Mru
• Neo-Tifinagh{{spaced ndash}} Tamazight
• Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong{{spaced ndash}} Hmong
• N'Ko{{spaced ndash}} Maninka language, Bambara, Dyula language
• Oduduwa script{{spaced ndash}} Yoruba
• Ogham{{spaced ndash}} Gaelic, Britannic, Pictish
• Ol Chiki {{sc|aka}} Ol Cemet' or Ol Chemet'{{spaced ndash}} Santali
• Old Hungarian (in Hungarian magyar rovásírás or székely-magyar rovásírás){{spaced ndash}} Hungarian
• Old Italic{{spaced ndash}} a family of connected alphabets for the Etruscan, Oscan, Umbrian, Messapian, South Picene, Raetic, Venetic, Lepontic, Camunic languages
• Old Permic (also called Abur){{spaced ndash}} Komi
• Old Turkic{{spaced ndash}} Old Turkic
• Old Uyghur{{spaced ndash}} Old Uyghur
• Ol Onal{{spaced ndash}} Bhumij Language
• Osmanya{{spaced ndash}} Somali
• Pau Cin Hau alphabetic script{{spaced ndash}} Paite and other Northeastern Kuki-Chin languages
• Runes{{spaced ndash}} Germanic languages
• Sayaboury (also called Eebee Hmong or Ntawv Puaj Txwm){{spaced ndash}} Hmong Daw
• Sorang Sompeng{{spaced ndash}} Sora
• Tai Lue{{spaced ndash}} Lue
• Tangsa{{spaced ndash}} Tangsa language
• Todhri{{spaced ndash}} Albanian
• Tolong Siki{{spaced ndash}} Kurukh
• Toto{{spaced ndash}} Toto
• Unifon – proposed for English, never adopted
• Vah{{spaced ndash}} Bassa
• Vellara{{spaced ndash}} Albanian
• Vithkuqi script{{spaced ndash}} Albanian
• Wancho{{spaced ndash}} Wancho
• Yezidi{{spaced ndash}} Kurmanji
• Zaghawa{{spaced ndash}} Zaghawa
• Zoulai{{spaced ndash}} Zou (also has alphasyllabic characteristics)

A featural script has elements that indicate the components of articulation, such as bilabial consonants, fricatives, or back vowels. Scripts differ in how many features they indicate.

• ASL-phabet
• Ditema tsa Dinoko for Southern Bantu languages
• Duployan Shorthand
• Gregg Shorthand
• Hangul{{spaced ndash}} Korean
• Osage{{spaced ndash}} Osage
• Shavian alphabet – proposed for English, never adopted
• SignWriting and its descendants si5s and ASLwrite for sign languages
• Stokoe notation for American Sign Language, and its descendant, the Hamburg Notation System or HamNoSys
• Tengwar (a fictional script)
• Visible Speech (a phonetic script)

• Hangul{{spaced ndash}}Korean
• Great Lakes Algonquian syllabics{{spaced ndash}}Fox, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe
• IsiBheqe SoHlamvu{{spaced ndash}}Southern Bantu languages
• ʼPhags-pa script{{spaced ndash}}Mongolian, Chinese, Persian, Sanskrit

Manual alphabets are frequently found as parts of sign languages. They are not used for writing per se, but for spelling out words while signing.

• American manual alphabet (used with slight modification in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Paraguay, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand)
• British manual alphabet (used in some of the Commonwealth of Nations, such as Australia and New Zealand)
• Catalan manual alphabet
• Chilean manual alphabet
• Chinese manual alphabet
• Dutch manual alphabet
• Ethiopian manual alphabet (an abugida)
• French manual alphabet
• Greek manual alphabet
• Icelandic manual alphabet (also used in Denmark)
• Indian manual alphabet (a true alphabet?; used in Devanagari and Gujarati areas)
• International manual alphabet (used in Germany, Austria, Norway, Finland)
• Iranian manual alphabet (an abjad; also used in Egypt)
• Israeli manual alphabet (an abjad)
• Italian manual alphabet
• Korean manual alphabet
• Latin American manual alphabets
• Polish manual alphabet
• Portuguese manual alphabet
• Romanian manual alphabet
• Russian manual alphabet (also used in Bulgaria and ex-Soviet states)
• Spanish manual alphabet (Madrid)
• Swedish manual alphabet
• Yugoslav manual alphabet

These are other alphabets composed of something other than lines on a surface.

• Braille (Unified){{spaced ndash}} an embossed alphabet for the visually impaired, used with some extra letters to transcribe the Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic alphabets, as well as Chinese
• Braille (Korean)
• Braille (American) (defunct)
• New York Point{{spaced ndash}} a defunct alternative to Braille
• International maritime signal flags (both alphabetic and ideographic)
• Morse code (International){{spaced ndash}} a trinary code of dashes, dots, and silence, whether transmitted by electricity, light, or sound) representing characters in the Latin alphabet.
• American Morse code (defunct)
• Optical telegraphy (defunct)
• Flag semaphore{{spaced ndash}} (made by moving hand-held flags)

An abugida, or alphasyllabary, is a segmental script in which vowel sounds are denoted by diacritical marks or other systematic modification of the consonants. Generally, however, if a single letter is understood to have an inherent unwritten vowel, and only vowels other than this are written, then the system is classified as an abugida regardless of whether the vowels look like diacritics or full letters. The vast majority of abugidas are found from India to Southeast Asia and belong historically to the Brāhmī family, however the term is derived from the first characters of the abugida in Ge'ez: አ (a) ቡ (bu) ጊ (gi) ዳ (da) — (compare with alphabet). Unlike abjads, the diacritical marks and systemic modifications of the consonants are not optional.

File:Manuscripts in the Yunnan Nationalities Museum - DSC03945.JPG manuscript written in a Brahmic abugida]]

• Ahom
• Balinese
• Batak{{spaced ndash}} Toba and other Batak languages
• Baybayin{{spaced ndash}} Formerly used for Ilokano, Pangasinan, Tagalog, Bikol languages, Visayan languages, and possibly other Philippine languages
• Bengali — Bengali, Assamese, Meithei, Bishnupriya Manipuri
• Bhaiksuki
• Brahmi{{spaced ndash}} Sanskrit, Prakrit
• Buda{{spaced ndash}} Old Sundanese and Old Javanese
• Buhid
• Burmese{{spaced ndash}} Burmese, Karen languages, Mon, and Shan
• Cham
• Chakma
• Devanagari{{spaced ndash}} Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, Nepali, and many other languages of northern India
• Dhives Akuru
• Grantha{{spaced ndash}} Sanskrit
• Gujarati{{spaced ndash}} Gujarati, Kutchi, Vasavi, Sanskrit, Avestan
• Gurmukhi script{{spaced ndash}} Punjabi
• Hanuno’o
• Javanese
• Kaithi
• Kannada{{spaced ndash}} Kannada, Tulu, Konkani, Kodava
• Kawi
• Khema script{{spaced ndash}} Gurung
• Khojki
• Khudabadi
• Khmer
• Kirat Rai{{spaced ndash}} Bantawa
• Kulitan alphabet
• Lai Tay{{spaced ndash}} Tai Yo
• Lampung
• Lao
• Leke{{spaced ndash}} Eastern Pwo, Western Pwo, and Karen
• Lepcha
• Limbu
• Lontara’{{spaced ndash}} Buginese, Makassar, and Mandar
• Mahajani
• Makasar{{spaced ndash}} Formerly used for Makassar
• Malayalam
• Marchen – Zhang-Zhung
• Meitei Mayek – Meitei
• Modi{{spaced ndash}} Marathi
• Multani – Saraiki
• Nandinagari – Sanskrit
• Naoriya Phulo script – Meitei
• New Tai Lue
• Odia
• Pracalit script {{spaced ndash}} Nepal Bhasa, Sanskrit, Pali
• Pyu{{spaced ndash}} Pyu
• Ranjana{{spaced ndash}} Nepal Bhasa, Sanskrit
• Rejang
• Rencong
• Saurashtra
• Sharada{{spaced ndash}} Sanskrit, Kashmiri
• Siddham{{spaced ndash}} Sanskrit
• Sinhala
• Sirmauri
• Soyombo
• Sundanese
• Sylheti Nagri – Sylheti
• Tagbanwa{{spaced ndash}} Languages of Palawan
• Tai Le script{{spaced ndash}} Tai Nuea
• Tai Tham{{spaced ndash}} Khün, and Northern Thai
• Tai Viet
• Takri
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Thai
• Tibetan
• Tigalari {{spaced ndash}}Sanskrit, Tulu
• Tirhuta{{spaced ndash}} used to write Maithili
• Tocharian
• Vatteluttu
• Zanabazar Square
• Zhang zhung scripts

• Canadian Aboriginal syllabics{{spaced ndash}} Cree syllabics (for Cree), Inuktitut syllabics (for Inuktitut), Ojibwe syllabics (for Ojibwe), and various systems for other languages of Canada. Derived scripts with identical operating principles but divergent character repertoires include Carrier and Blackfoot syllabics.
• Dham{{spaced ndash}} Dhimal
• Ge'ez{{spaced ndash}} Amharic, Ge’ez, Tigrigna
• Kharoṣṭhī{{spaced ndash}} Gandhari, Sanskrit
• Kurukh Banna{{spaced ndash}} Kurukh
• Lontara Bilang-bilang script{{spaced ndash}} Buginese
• Mandombe
• Meroitic{{spaced ndash}} Meroë
• Mwangwego{{spaced ndash}} Chewa and other Bantu languages of Malawi
• Pitman Shorthand
• Pollard script{{spaced ndash}} Miao
• Sapalo script{{spaced ndash}} Oromo
• Rma script{{spaced ndash}} Qiang
• Sunuwar alphabet
• Thaana{{spaced ndash}} Dhivehi
• Tikamuli{{spaced ndash}} Sunuwar
• Thomas Natural Shorthand

In at least one abugida, not only the vowel but any syllable-final consonant is written with a diacritic. That is, if representing [o] with an under-ring, and final [k] with an over-cross, [sok] would be written as {{IPA|s̥̽}}.

• Róng{{spaced ndash}} Lepcha

In a few abugidas, the vowels are basic, and the consonants secondary. If no consonant is written in Pahawh Hmong, it is understood to be /k/; consonants are written after the vowel they precede in speech. In Japanese Braille, the vowels but not the consonants have independent status, and it is the vowels which are modified when the consonant is y or w.

• Boyd's Syllabic Shorthand
• Japanese Braille{{spaced ndash}} Japanese
• Pahawh Hmong{{spaced ndash}} Hmong

{{Original research section|date=April 2023}}

The following list contains writing systems that are in active use by a population of at least 50,000.

{{Main|Undeciphered writing systems}}

These systems have not been deciphered. In some cases, such as Meroitic, the sound values of the glyphs are known, but the texts still cannot be read because the language is not understood. Several of these systems, such as Isthmian script and Indus script, are claimed to have been deciphered, but these claims have not been confirmed by independent researchers. In many cases it is doubtful that they are actually writing. The Vinča symbols appear to be proto-writing, and quipu may have recorded only numerical information. There are doubts that the Indus script is writing, and the Phaistos Disc has so little content or context that its nature is undetermined.

• Byblos syllabary{{spaced ndash}} the city of Byblos
• Indus script{{spaced ndash}} Indus Valley civilization
• Isthmian script (apparently logosyllabic).
• Neolithic signs in China, including:
• Banpo symbols{{spaced ndash}} Yangshao culture (perhaps proto-writing)
• Jiahu symbols{{spaced ndash}} Peiligang culture (perhaps proto-writing)
• Sawveh{{spaced ndash}} Western Guangxi (disputed; perhaps proto-writing)
• Olmec{{spaced ndash}} Olmec civilization (possibly the oldest Mesoamerican script)
• Para-Lydian script{{spaced ndash}} Unknown language of Asia Minor; script appears related to the Lydian alphabet.
• Phaistos Disc (a unique text).
• Proto-Elamite{{spaced ndash}} Elam (nearly as old as Sumerian).
• Quipu{{spaced ndash}} Andean Civilisation (possibly numerical only, though some expert assert it may have partly been logosyllabic).
• Rongorongo{{spaced ndash}} Rapa Nui (perhaps a logosyllabary)
• Trojan script{{spaced ndash}} Trojan language
• Zapotec script{{spaced ndash}} Zapotec (another old Mesoamerican script).

Comparatively recent manuscripts and other texts written in undeciphered (and often unidentified) writing systems; some of these may represent ciphers of known languages or hoaxes.

• Voynich manuscript
• Rohonc Codex
• Hamptonese
• Dorabella cipher

This section lists alphabets used to transcribe phonetic or phonemic sound; not to be confused with spelling alphabets like the ICAO spelling alphabet. Some of these are used for transcription purposes by linguists; others are pedagogical in nature or intended as general orthographic reforms.

• International Phonetic Alphabet
• X-SAMPA (and original SAMPA while not covering all of IPA), is an encoding of a phonetic alphabet, i.e. IPA, using just ASCII.
• Americanist phonetic notation
• Uralic Phonetic Alphabet

Alphabets may exist in forms other than visible symbols on a surface. Some of these are:

• Braille
• Moon type
• New York Point
• Night writing

• Fingerspelling
• American Sign Language
• American manual alphabet
• Korean manual alphabet
• Cued speech

• International maritime signal flags
• Morse code
• Flag semaphore
• Optical telegraphy

• Gregg Shorthand
• Initial Teaching Alphabet
• Pitman Shorthand
• Quikscript

See List of constructed scripts for an expanded version of this table.

• Constructed script (artificial script)
• Grapheme
• List of creators of writing systems
• List of ISO 15924 codes
• List of languages by first written accounts
• Unicode
• Writing systems without word boundaries

{{reflist|group="note"|30em}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws.html Ancient Scripts: Home]:(Site with some introduction to different writing systems and group them into [http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_types.html origins]/[http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_types.html types]/[http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_families.html families]/[http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_regions.html regions]/[http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_timeline.html timeline]/[http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_atoz.html A to Z])
• Michael Everson's [http://www.evertype.com/alphabets/index.html Alphabets of Europe]
• [https://www.worldswritingsystems.org/ The World’s Writing Systems], catalogue of 294 writing systems, each with a typographic reference glyph and Unicode status
• [http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks Deseret Alphabet]
• [http://scriptsource.org/ ScriptSource] – a dynamic, collaborative reference to the writing systems of the world

{{List of writing systems}}

{{Writing systems}}

{{Portal bar|Languages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Writing systems, List of}}

*

Category:Encodings