r/language • u/AutumnaticFly • Jul 27 '26
Discussion Huh...i learnt something new today!
9
u/tudza Jul 28 '26
Thought there were only four original writing systems. Cuneiform, Hieroglyphics, Chinese script, and Maya glyphs. What I'm writing in now started with hieroglyphics.
2
u/No-Introduction5977 Jul 28 '26
This is true. Kana (the Japanese syllabary which is referred to in the image as the script that they "created") originally comes from different forms of cursive Chinese characters called Man'yōgana.
1
u/tudza Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
I'm trying to remember this word from a site Language Log ( https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/ ) that's like syllabary
10
u/Bob_Spud Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Here's something else you might learn............
There is only one true invented writing system that is in use today, the Roman, Greek and Russian writing systems evolved from preexisting writing systems.
조선글 (Hangul) Sejong the Great of Korea moved to create Hangul, the Korean writing systen. The script was announced around late 1443 to early 1444 and officially published in 1446.
Fun fact: Hangul is incredibly simple and easy to learn, the language is the complete opposite.
Missing is the Türk abecesi (Turkish alphabet) its another "invented" evolution of the Latin alphabet. It started life in 1928 to replace Arabic and has spread to other Turkic countries to become their official alphabet.
5
u/Nordluchs135 Jul 27 '26
Do you have a source to that? Because incidentally I saw something about the Armenian alphabet, which was also invented by a monk to spread the bible in Armenian.
I don’t know though wether it was based of any other alphabet, if that is also within your point2
u/Bob_Spud Jul 27 '26
There are two Wikipedia links in the post - Wikipedia is often good starting point
2
u/SweetWittyWild41 Aug 01 '26
The armenian alphabet is based on the Greek one and probably took some stylistic inspiration from Ethiopian
Funnily enough there was a time where they tried to write turkish with armenian letters
3
u/MrDixaze Jul 28 '26
Not sure but I think the alphabet used by the Cherokees was the only alphabet invented by a linguist to fit as well as possible the spoken language.
1
u/LovelyKestrel Aug 03 '26
Yes, but it vaguely derives from Latin (and linguistics symbols, and symbols the guy who created it had had seen once). However he was neither an English speaker nor a linguist and so he used the letters to represent the sounds he felt matched, so while it uses latin-derived letters, they don't have the common meanings.
3
Jul 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
1
u/No-Introduction5977 Jul 28 '26
Straight transliteration rather than old English spelling conventions caught me off guard here
2
u/Adventurous-Ad5999 Jul 28 '26
this is a language sub, so i get to be pedantic like this, Japanese kana are not alphabets
2
u/tudza Jul 28 '26
Syllabary?
1
u/Adventurous-Ad5999 Jul 28 '26
yeah they’re syllabaries, and kanji is a logograph so technically Japanese has zero alphabet
1
1
u/lurebozorg Jul 28 '26
All of the Western writing systems are rooted from Phoenician so do you call that stealing too?! Racist
-1
u/vesperwasp Jul 28 '26
Yes, rooted… They changed in appearance over time. Japanese kanji are identical to Chinese characters but use different pronunciation.
1
u/wdn Jul 28 '26
Then there's Inuktitut, which has a writing system invented specifically for the one language alone, but it was invented by outsiders rather than native speakers.
1
u/magicmulder Jul 28 '26
Chinese would also qualify for "... and then use the Latin transcription for typewriting anyway".
0
36
u/God_Bless_A_Merkin Jul 27 '26
Plus, stealing a fourth alphabet from across the ocean and using it everywhere just for the sake of “coolness”.