Ogham
Ogham is an early medieval alphabetic script devised to write the Primitive and Old Irish language and perhaps other languages (such as Pictish). It is sometimes referred to as the “Celtic Tree Alphabet”. Monumental Ogham inscriptions are found in Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England, and on the Isle of Man.
Unicode blocks | Ogham |
Alternate names | Celtic Tree Alphabet |
Timeframe | 5C to 7C |
Regions | European |
Type | alphabet |
Alternate names | variable |
Status | historical |
Number of speakers | 0 |
Languages | Primitive and Old Irish, possibly Pictish |
Main sources | McManus, D. 1996. "Ogham" in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 340-345. |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | http://www.evertype.com/standards/og/ogham.html |
Ol Chiki
Ol Chiki, also known as Ol, Ol Ciki, Ol Cemet’ and Santali, is used to write the Santali and other Munda languages. It is used in the Mayurbhanj district of the Indian state of Orissa. Pandit Raghunath Murmu created the Ol Chiki script in the 1920s as part of his efforts to promote Santali culture. The script has received some governmental support.
Unicode blocks | Ol Chiki |
Alternate names | Ol, Ol Ciki, Ol Cemet', Santali |
Timeframe | 1920s to present |
Regions | European |
Type | alphabet |
Alternate names | left to right |
Status | living |
Number of speakers | 6.1 million |
Languages | Santali and possibly other languages |
Main sources | Zide, N. 1996. “Scripts for the Munda Languages: Ol Cemet'” in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 614-615. |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2984.pdf |
Old Italic
The Old Italic script unifies a number of related historical alphabets from the Italian peninsula. These alphabets were used to write Etruscan, Faliscan, South Picene, North Picene, Oscan, Umbrian, and other Sabellian languages. The Old Italic alphabets developed from the West Greek alphabet from Euboea, which was used at Ischia and Cumae in the bay of Naples in the 8C BCE.
Unicode blocks | Old Italic |
Alternate names | Etruscan |
Timeframe | x-8C to -1C |
Regions | European |
Type | alphabet |
Alternate names | variable |
Status | historical |
Number of speakers | 0 |
Languages | Etruscan, Faliscan, South Picene, North Picene, Oscan, and Umbrian and other Sabellian languages |
Main sources | Bonfante, L. "The Scripts of Italy" in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 297-311. |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | — |
Old Persian
The Old Persian script, an alphabetic writing system that contains some syllabic aspects, was invented for use in monumental inscriptions of the Achaemenid king Darius I by about 525 BCE. This is one of the cuneiform scripts. Although it may appear similar to Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, only one sign (LA) was borrowed from Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform.
Unicode blocks | Old Persian |
Alternate names | — |
Timeframe | x-525 to -4C |
Regions | European |
Type | alphabet (with syllabic elements) |
Alternate names | left to right |
Status | historical |
Number of speakers | 0 |
Languages | Old Persian |
Main sources | Schmitt, Rüdiger. 2004. "Old Persian" in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages, ed. Roger Woodard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 718-723. |
Secondary sources | Testen, D. "Old Persian Cuneiform" in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 134-137. |
Proposal | http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2583.pdf |
Old South Arabian
The Old South Arabian script (also caled Ancient South Arabian) was used throughout the Arabian Peninsula, and most commonly used to write Sabaic. It was also used for a variety of other languages, such as Minaic, Qatabanic, Hadramitic, and Himyaritic. Samples of Old South Arabian can be traced back to the 8C BCE. Usage had declined by 7C CE when it was gradually supplanted by the Arabic script. The script appears in an angular form in monumental inscriptions, and a cursive form found on objects such as wood and leather. Some older texts are in boustrophedon style.
Unicode blocks | Old South Arabian |
Alternate names | Ancient South Arabian, Ancient South Arabian monumental script, Sabaic, Sabaean, Qatabani, Hadramite |
Timeframe | x-8C to ca. 7C |
Regions | European |
Type | abjad |
Alternate names | right to left |
Status | historical |
Number of speakers | 0 |
Languages | Sabaic, Minaic, Qatabanic, Hadramitic, Himyaritic |
Main sources | Nebes, Norbert, and Peter Stein. 2004. "Ancient South Arabian" in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages, ed. Roger Woodard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 455-456. |
Secondary sources | O’Connor, M. 1996. “Epigraphic Semitic scripts” in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 88-107. |
Proposal | http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3937.pdf |
Old Turkic
The Old Turkic script is the earliest known script used to write the Old Turkic language. It was used in a wide area, spanning the grasslands of Mongolia, but was concentrated in area of the Orkhon River in Mongolia and Yenisei River in Siberia. The script is probably derived from an Aramaic script used for Iranian. The characters bear a superficial resemblance to the Germanic Runic alphabet, and hence the script has been called "Turkic Runes" or "Turkic Runiform." Inscriptions dating to the 8C CE were found in the 19C in the Orkhon River valley in Mongolia. The script served as the national script of the Türk empire of Mongolia and surrounding areas, but seems to have died out in the 9C, when Uighur script (of the Uighur empire) supplanted it. A later variant of the script, known as Yenisei or Siberian runes, were used in the Yenisei area and other parts of Siberia in the later 8C CE. A few Iranian texts have been found in this script.
Unicode blocks | Old Turkic |
Alternate names | Orkhon, Turkic Runes, Orkhon-Yenisey script, Turkic Runiform, Yenisei, Kök Turki, Göktürk, Gök-Turk, Kök-Turk Alphabet, Kokturk |
Timeframe | 8C to 9C |
Regions | European |
Type | alphabet |
Alternate names | right to left vertically |
Status | historical |
Number of speakers | 0 |
Languages | Old Turkic, Middle Iranian language |
Main sources | Kara, G. 1996. "Aramaic Scripts for Altaic Languages" in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 536-558. |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3357.pdf |
Optical Character Recognition
The Optical Character Recognition block includes those symbolic characters of the OCR-A character set that do not correspond to ASCII characters. It also includes magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) symbols used to process checks. The OCR-A font was developed to meet the standards of the American National Standards Institute in order to process documents by businesses such as banks and credit card companies. It dates back to ca. 1966. MICR was developed in the 1950s.
Unicode blocks | Optical Character Recognition |
Alternate names | OCR |
Timeframe | 1950s and 1960s to present |
Regions | European |
Type | symbols |
Alternate names | — |
Status | living |
Number of speakers | — |
Languages | — |
Main sources | The Unicode Consortium. 2011. The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0, defined by: The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0. Mountain View, CA: The Unicode Consortium, p. 498 (Section 15.6). |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | — |
Oriya
The Oriya script is used to write the Oriya language of the Orissa state in India as well as Sanskrit and minority languages such as Kuvi (Khondi) and Santali. The script is categorized as a North Indian script, structurally similar to Devanagari. Some of the letter shapes resemble those used for the Tamil script. The Oriya script was developed ca. 1051.
Unicode blocks | Oriya |
Alternate names | — |
Timeframe | 1051 to present |
Regions | European |
Type | abugida |
Alternate names | left to right |
Status | living |
Number of speakers | 38.6 million |
Languages | Oriya, Sanskrit, Kuvi, Santali |
Main sources | Mahapatra, B.P. 1996. “Oriya Writing” in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 404-407. |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | — |
Osmanya
The Osmanya script is an alphabet used for the Somali language. It was created circa 1920 by Cismaan Yuusuf Keenadiid to replace an Arabic-based orthography devised by Sheikh Uweys of the Confraternity Qadiriyyah. Osmanya has since been replaced by the Latin orthography of Muuse Xaaji Ismaaciil Galaal (1914–1980). Although the Osmanya script was adopted in 1961 in Somalia, in 1969 a coup took place in Somalia, and one of the stated goals was to resolve the debate over the writing sytem. In 1973, the Latin orthography was adopted. A few users may still be using the Osmanya script, but it is classified as "historical" here.
Unicode blocks | Osmanya |
Alternate names | Soomaali, Cismaanya |
Timeframe | 20C |
Regions | European |
Type | alphabet |
Alternate names | left to right |
Status | historical |
Number of speakers | 0 |
Languages | Somali |
Main sources | Gregersen, Edgar A. 1977. Language in Africa: An Introductory Survey. New York: Gordon and Breach. |
Secondary sources | Afkeenna iyo fartiisa: buug koowaad (Our language and its handwriting: book one). Xamar: Goosanka afka iyo suugaanta Soomaalida, 1971. |
Proposal | — |
Phags-pa
The Phags-pa script is an historic writing system that was used to write Mongolian and Chinese and a few other languages. The script was created by the Tibetan lama Blo-gros rGyal-mtshan (1235–1280 CE) to replace the Uighur-derived script that had been used to write Mongolian since the time of Genghis Khan (ruled 1206-1227). The new script, commissioned by Khubilai Khan (reigned 1260–1294), was also meant to write the other languages spoken in the Mongol empire. In 1269, an imperial edict promulgated Phags-Pa as the national script of the Mongol empire, which from 1279 to 1368, as the Yuan dynasty, encompassed all of China. It was used extensively in the Yuan dynasty, but never succeeded in replacing the earlier Mongolian script.
Unicode blocks | Phags-pa |
Alternate names | Mongolian Quadratic Script, 'Phags-pa |
Timeframe | ca. 1260 to 1368 |
Regions | European |
Type | abugida |
Alternate names | vertical |
Status | historical |
Number of speakers | 0 |
Languages | Mongolian, Chinese |
Main sources | Van der Kuijp, L. 1996. "The Tibetan Script and Derivatives” in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 431-441. |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2869.pdf |
Phaistos Disc
The Phaistos disc, a disc of fired clay imprinted on two sides with stamped symbols, was found during an archaeological dig in Phaistos, Crete in 1908. The date of the disc is probably the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age, from the mid-18C to mid-14C BCE, and is contemporary with Linear A. The symbols, which appear on the disc in a spiral pattern, remain undeciphered. The disc seems to be the only known example of these symbols.
Unicode blocks | Phaistos Disc |
Alternate names | — |
Timeframe | x-18C? or later |
Regions | European |
Type | symbols |
Alternate names | unknown |
Status | historical |
Number of speakers | 0 |
Languages | — |
Main sources | Bennett, E. 1996. "Aegean Scripts" in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 125-133. |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3066.pdf |
Phoenician
The Phoenician alphabet evolved from ca. 12 C BCE until 2C BCE in the area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. An early form of the alphabet acted as the forerunner of Etruscan, Latin, Greek, Aramaic, Syriac, and Hebrew scripts. The Phoenician alphabet might be considered the first alphabetic script to have been widely used. The characters in the Phoenician block are meant to represent texts in Palaeo-Hebrew, Archaic Phoenician, Phoenician, Early Aramaic, late Phoenician cursive, Phoenician papyri, Siloam Hebrew, Hebrew seals, Ammonite, Moabite, and Punic.
Unicode blocks | Phoenician |
Alternate names | — |
Timeframe | x-12C to -2C |
Regions | European |
Type | abjad |
Alternate names | right to left |
Status | historical |
Number of speakers | 0 |
Languages | Phoenician, Early Aramaic |
Main sources | O’Connor, M. 1996. “Epigraphic Semitic scripts” in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 88-107. |
Secondary sources | Goerwitz, R. 1996. "The Jewish Scripts" in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 487-498. |
Proposal | http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2746.pdf |
Phonetic Extensions
The Phonetic Extensions block is made up of non-IPA phonetic extensions. The block is comprised of superscript modifier letters and characters from technical orthographies used by linguists, especially those from the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA, also called Finno-Ugric Transcription or FUT), a highly specialized system used in Uralic linguistic description for more than 100 years. Additional phonetic characters appear in the Phonetic Extensions Supplement block.
Unicode blocks | Phonetic Extensions, Phonetic Extensions Supplement |
Alternate names | — |
Timeframe | — |
Regions | European |
Type | alphabet |
Alternate names | — |
Status | living |
Number of speakers | — |
Languages | — |
Main sources | MacMahon, M. 1996. “Phonetic Notation” in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 821-846. |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | — |
Playing Cards
The Playing Cards block includes characters that can represent the 52-card deck commonly used today and the 56-card deck found in some European games. The characters map to the 56-card Minor Arcana of Western Tarot, whence they derive. Regional variants, found for example in German or Swiss-German playing cards, can be handled in fonts.
Unicode blocks | Playing Cards |
Alternate names | — |
Timeframe | — |
Regions | European |
Type | symbols |
Alternate names | — |
Status | living |
Number of speakers | — |
Languages | — |
Main sources | The Unicode Consortium. 2011. The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0, Mountain View, CA: The Unicode Consortium, p. 506 (Section 15.8). |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | — |
Private Use Area
There are no glyphs in this Unicode block
Unicode blocks | Supplementary Private Use Area |
Alternate names | — |
Timeframe | — |
Regions | European |
Type | — |
Alternate names | — |
Status | historical |
Number of speakers | 0 |
Languages | — |
Main sources | The Unicode Consortium. 2011. The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0, defined by: The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0. Mountain View, CA: The Unicode Consortium, pp. 534-535 (Section 16.5). |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | — |
Rejang
The Rejang script is used for the Rejang language in southeast Sumatra, Indonesia. It has been in use since the 18C. Rejang is descended from Brahmi, and derived from the Javanese script Old Kawi. The Rejang alphabet is used mainly to write magic spells and medical incantations and some poetry. Some examples have been cut into bamboo and bark. It is related to other scripts in Indonesia, such as Batak and Buginese.
Unicode blocks | Rejang |
Alternate names | Redjang, Kaganga, Surat Ulu |
Timeframe | 18C to present |
Regions | European |
Type | abugida |
Alternate names | left to right |
Status | living |
Number of speakers | 350000 |
Languages | Rejang |
Main sources | Kuipers, J., and R. McDermott. 1996. "Insular Southeast Asian Scripts" in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 474-484. |
Secondary sources | Nakanishi, Akira. 1980. Writing Systems of the World. Rutland, Vermont; Tokyo: Charles Tuttle, p. 81. |
Proposal | http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3096.pdf |
Rumi Numeral Symbols
Rumi, also known as Fasi, is a numeric system originating from the Coptic or Greek-Coptic tradition. Rumi numerals were used from the 10th to 17th centuries CE, across a wide area spanning from Egypt, across the Maghreb, to al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula. The numbers appear in manuscripts of religious, scientific, accounting and mathematical works, as well as on astronomical instruments.
Unicode blocks | Rumi Numeral Symbols |
Alternate names | Fasi |
Timeframe | 10C to 17C |
Regions | European |
Type | numeric |
Alternate names | left to right |
Status | historical |
Number of speakers | 0 |
Languages | — |
Main sources | The Unicode Consortium. 2011. The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0, defined by: The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0. Mountain View, CA: The Unicode Consortium, p. 487 (Section 15.3). |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3430.pdf; http://www.ucam.ac.ma/fssm/rydarab/doc/unicode/n3087-1.pdf; |
Runic
The Runic script was used from ca. 1C until the 19C to write the languages of the early and medieval societies in the German, Scandinavian, and Anglo-Saxon areas. There are approximately 6,000 Runic inscriptions. During its history, the Runic alphabet changed numerous times, both in the number and the shapes of the letters contained in it. It is also known as futhark after the first six letters.
Unicode blocks | Runic |
Alternate names | Futhark |
Timeframe | 1C to 19C |
Regions | European |
Type | alphabet |
Alternate names | variable |
Status | historical |
Number of speakers | 0 |
Languages | Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, Old English, and other medieval Germanic languages |
Main sources | Elliott, R. 1996. "The Runic Script" in The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels & William Bright. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 333-339. |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | — |
Samaritan
The Samaritan script is used to write Samaritan Hebrew and Samaritan Aramaic. Although the script is used today mainly for religious purposes, modern Samaritans, who number about 600 and reside on the West Bank and in Israel, continue to make use of a variety of the Samaritan script. A weekly newspaper is published in Israel in it. The script also appears in hundreds of manuscripts.
Unicode blocks | Samaritan |
Alternate names | Old Hebrew, ketab ibri |
Timeframe | x3C to present |
Regions | European |
Type | abjad |
Alternate names | right to left |
Status | liturgical |
Number of speakers | — |
Languages | Samaritan Aramaic, Samaritan Hebrew |
Main sources | Macuch, Rudolf. 1969. Grammatik des samaritanischen Hebräisch. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. |
Secondary sources | Ben-Hayyam, Ze’ev. 2000. A grammar of Samaritan Hebrew, based on the Recitation of the Law in comparison with the Tiberian and other Jewish traditions. Jersualem: Hebrew University Magnes Press. |
Proposal | http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3377.pdf |
Saurashtra
The Saurashtra script is used to write the Saurashtra language, an Indo-European language that is spoken in southern India. It has been in use since the late 19C. Saurashtra is derived from Brahmi. The language is also written with the Devanagari, Tamil, and Telugu scripts, though today Tamil predominates.
Unicode blocks | Saurashtra |
Alternate names | Sourashtra |
Timeframe | late 19C to present |
Regions | European |
Type | abugida |
Alternate names | left to right |
Status | living |
Number of speakers | 310000 |
Languages | Saurashtra |
Main sources | Norihiko Uida. 1991. Language of the Saurashtrans in Tirupati. 2nd revised ed. Bangalore:Mahalaxmi Enterprises. |
Secondary sources | — |
Proposal | http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2969.pdf |