The alphabets tag has no wiki summary.
10
votes
2answers
210 views
Is there any point in the current ordering of the letters in the alphabet?
I know we inherit our alphabets (including its ordering) from the Romans, and if we trace it further we will end up with the Phoenicians or some other civilizations in the ancient Middle East. Do (or ...
10
votes
2answers
220 views
Is there an active alphabetic writing system not based on the Phoenician or the Brahmic lineage?
The vast majority of alphabetic writing systems are part of the Phoenician lineage (e.g. Latin, Cyrillic and friends) or Brahmic (Devanagari and friends). Is there an active alphabetic system outside ...
10
votes
1answer
188 views
Do all non-syllabic, non-logographic scripts have pronounceable names for their letters for spelling?
If you ask an English speaker to spell a word, there are specific, widely-known names for all the letters to fill this need. The same appears to be true for all Phoenician-derived alphabets that I can ...
8
votes
6answers
450 views
Which language was regularly written in the most alphabets?
There are a number of languages which have historically been written in more than one alphabet (Hindi/Urdu, Serbo-Croatian, Uzbek and so on). I am wondering which single language has been regularly ...
5
votes
2answers
227 views
What is the origin of letters corresponding to consonant clusters?
The Greek alphabet has ψ (psi) and ξ (ksi) , both letters correspond to a bi-consonantal sequence. Latin has X, Cyrillic alphabet has Щ which in some languages corresponds to ʃt͡ʃ, etc.
Normally, an ...
5
votes
0answers
54 views
What sounds do the graphemes ⟨ś⟩ and ⟨ź⟩ represent in Montenegrin?
As of 2009 the Montenegrin alphabet was adopted in Montenegro. It consists of the same alphabet as used in Serbia, with the addition of two graphemes.
The graphemes ⟨ś⟩/⟨с́⟩ and ⟨ź⟩/⟨з́⟩ are said ...
4
votes
3answers
352 views
Are there any “simple” languages?
In all the languages I know, at least one of the following aspects is complex/difficult:
Alphabet: Complex meaning a large alphabet like in Chinese.
Pronunciation: Complex meaning that, for example, ...
2
votes
2answers
101 views
In which script(s) is the Kazakh language actually written in Kazakhstan?
According to the Wikipedia article on the Kazakh language it can be written in Cyrillic, Latin and Perso-Arabic scripts as it's a language that does not have its own native script like Armenian or ...
1
vote
1answer
43 views
Is there any method of assigning a numeral score to the extent to which a given alphabet is phonemic?
Is there any method of assigning a numerical score to the extent to which a given alphabet is phonemic? If so, then obviously, the score for a given alphabet would vary across the languages that it ...
