The cuneiform (kjuːniːəfɔːm) script is the earliest known form of written expression. Created by the Sumerians from ca. 3000 BC (with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium Uruk IV period^[1]), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. Over time, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract. Unicode (as of version 5. ... A Chinese logogram A logogram, or logograph, is a single written character which represents a word or a morpheme (a meaningful unit of language). ... A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate) syllables, which make up words. ... Akkadian (lišānum akkadÄ«tum) was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians. ... Eblaite is an extinct East Semitic language which was spoken in the 3rd millennium BC in the ancient city Ebla, in modern Syria. ... Elamite is an extinct language, which was spoken by the ancient Elamites (also known as Ilamids). ... Hattic was a non-Indo-European language spoken in Asia Minor between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC, before the appearance of the Hittites. ... Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern BoÄŸazkale) in north-central Anatolia (modern Turkey). ... Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians (Khurrites), a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in... Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is part of the Anatolian branch of the Indo European language family and has been preserved in three forms: (1) Cuneiform Luwian, (2) Hieroglyphic-Luwian and (3), the somewhat later Lycian. ... Sumerian ( native tongue) was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia from at least the 4th millennium BCE. It was gradually replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language in the beginning of the 2nd millenium BCE, but continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific... Urartian (also called Vannic, in older literature also (Turanian, is Iranian) Chaldean) is the conventional name for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu in the region of Lake Van in modern-day Turkey in the highlands of Armenia. ... // Ceremonial temple butcher knife made of flint, with the Horus name of the pharaoh Djer inscribed on its gold handle. ... (Redirected from 1st century AD) (1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century - other centuries) The 1st century was that century which lasted from 1 to 99. ... Writing systems evolved in the Early Bronze Age (late 4th millennium BC) out of neolithic proto-writing. ... Old Persian cuneiform is the primary script used in Old Persian writings. ... The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform version of the Levantine consonant alphabet (abjad), used from around 1300 BC for the Ugaritic language, an extinct Canaanite language discovered in Ugarit, Syria. ... Unicode’s Universal Character Set potentially supports over 1 million (1,114,112 = 220 + 216 or 17 × 216, hexadecimal 110000) code points. ... ISO 15924, Codes for the representation of names of scripts, defines two sets of codes for a number of writing systems (scripts). ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... Writing systems of the world today. ... Sumer (or Å umer; Sumerian: KI-EN-GIR [1]) was the earliest known civilization of the ancient Near East, located in lower Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), from the time of the earliest records in the mid 4th millennium BC until the rise of Babylonia in the late 3rd millennium BC. The term... (32nd century BC – 31st century BC – 30th century BC – other centuries) (5th millennium BC – 4th millennium BC – 3rd millennium BC) Events c. ... The Uruk period (ca. ... Pictography is a form of writing whereby ideas are transmitted through drawing. ...

Cuneiforms were written on clay tablets, on which symbols were drawn with a blunt reed for a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform ("wedge shaped"). Small tablets made out of clay were used from late 4th millennium BC onwards as a writing medium in Sumerian, Mesopotamian, Hittite, and Minoan/Mycenaean civilizations. ... This article is about common reed. ... For the online music and film magazine, see Stylus Magazine. ...

The Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite (and Luwian), Hurrian (and Urartian) languages, and it inspired the Old Persian and Ugaritic national alphabets. Akkadian (lišānum akkadītum) was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians. ... Elamite is an extinct language, which was spoken by the ancient Elamites (also known as Ilamids). ... Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern Boğazkale) in north-central Anatolia (modern Turkey). ... Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is part of the Anatolian branch of the Indo European language family and has been preserved in three forms: (1) Cuneiform Luwian, (2) Hieroglyphic-Luwian and (3), the somewhat later Lycian. ... Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians (Khurrites), a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in... Urartian (also called Vannic, in older literature also (Turanian, is Iranian) Chaldean) is the conventional name for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu in the region of Lake Van in modern-day Turkey in the highlands of Armenia. ... Old Persian cuneiform is the primary script used in Old Persian writings. ... The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform version of the Levantine consonant alphabet (abjad), used from around 1300 BC for the Ugaritic language, an extinct Canaanite language discovered in Ugarit, Syria. ...

Ancient Mesopotamia
Euphrates • Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Eridu • Kish • Uruk • Ur • Lagash • Nippur • Ngirsu
Elam: Susa
Akkadian Empire: Akkad • Mari
Amorites: Isin • Larsa
Babylonia: Babylon • Chaldea
Hittites • Kassites • Hurrians/Mitanni
Assyria: Assur • Nimrud • Dur-Sharrukin • Nineveh
Chronology
History of Mesopotamia
History of Sumer • Kings of Sumer
Kings of Assyria
Kings of Babylon
Mythology
Enûma Elish • Gilgamesh
Assyro-Babylonian religion
Language
Sumerian • Elamite
Akkadian • Aramaic
Hurrian • Hittite

Mesopotamia was a cradle of civilization geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq. ... Image File history File links Babylonlion. ... For the song River Euphrates by the Pixies, see Surfer Rosa. ... The Tigris is the eastern member of the pair of great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of Anatolia through Iraq. ... Sumer (or Šumer; Sumerian: KI-EN-GIR [1]) was the earliest known civilization of the ancient Near East, located in lower Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), from the time of the earliest records in the mid 4th millennium BC until the rise of Babylonia in the late 3rd millennium BC. The term... Eridu (or Eridug) was an ancient city seven miles southwest of Ur . ... Kish [kish] (Tall al-Uhaymir) was an ancient city of Sumer, now in central Iraq. ... Uruk (Sumerian Unug, Biblical Erech, Greek Orchoë and Arabic وركاء Warka), was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates, on the line of the ancient Nil canal, in a region of marshes, about 140 miles (230 km) SSE from Baghdad. ... For other uses, see Ur (disambiguation). ... At the time of Hammurabi, Lagash was much closer to the gulf. ... The city of Nippur (Sumerian Nibru, Akkadian Nibbur) (now it is in Afak town,Al Qadisyah Governorate) was one of the most ancient (some historians date it back to 5262 B.C. [1][2]) of all the Babylonian cities of which we have any knowledge, the special seat of the... Elam (Persian: تمدن ایلام) is one of the oldest recorded civilizations. ... For other uses, see Susa (disambiguation). ... The Akkadian Empire usually refers to the Semitic speaking state that grew up around the city of Akkad north of Sumer, and reached its greatest extent under Sargon of Akkad. ... For the Egyptian writer, see Abbas Al-Akkad. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For the language, see Amorite language. ... An International Securities Identifying Number (ISIN) uniquely identifies a security. ... Larsa (the Biblical Ellasar, Genesis 14:1), was an important city of ancient Babylonia, the site of the worship of the sun-god, Shamash, represented by the ancient ruin mound of Senkereh (Senkera). ... Babylonia was a state in southern Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq, combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. ... For other uses, see Babylon (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Chaldean. ... Relief of Suppiluliuma II, last known king of the Hittite Empire The Hittites were an ancient people from Kaneš who spoke an Indo-European language, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa (Hittite URU) in north-central Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite... // The Kassites were a Near-Eastern mountain tribe which migrated to the Zagros Mountains and Mesopotamia (present Doroud) in 3000 and 4000 BC.[1] They spoke a non-Indo-European, non-Semitic language. ... For the history of the kingdom of Mitanni (1500–1300 BC), see Mitanni. ... Kingdom of Mitanni Mitanni (cuneiform KUR URUMi-it-ta-ni, also Mittani Mi-ta-an-ni, in Assyrian sources Hanigalbat, Khanigalbat cuneiform Ḫa-ni-gal-bat ) was a Hurrian kingdom in northern Mesopotamia from ca. ... For other uses, see Assyria (disambiguation). ... Assur (Assyrian: ܐܫܘܪ) also spelled Ashur, from Assyrian Aššur, was the capital of ancient Assyria. ... Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. ... Human-headed winged bull, found during Bottas excavation. ... , For other uses, see Nineveh (disambiguation). ... // The chronology of the Ancient Near East is divided into three parts 1) A series of rulers and dynasties whose existence is based mostly on the Sumerian King List, later versions of literature such as Gilgamesh, and bits and pieces of archaeological discoveries. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... The history of Sumer, taken to include the prehistoric Ubaid and Uruk periods, spans the 5th to 3rd millennia BC, ending with the downfall of the Third Dynasty of Ur around 2004 BC, followed by a transition period of Amorite states before the rise of Babylonia in the 18th century... The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language listing kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties. ... This page lists the Kings of Lamestia from the late sixties. ... The following is a list of the Kings of Babylon, a major city of ancient Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq. ... Mesopotamian mythology is the collective name given to Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian mythologies from the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq. ... Enûma Eliš is the Babylonian creation epic. ... For other uses, see Gilgamesh (disambiguation). ... Assyrian demon Pazuzu. ... Sumerian ( native tongue) was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia from at least the 4th millennium BCE. It was gradually replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language in the beginning of the 2nd millenium BCE, but continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific... Elamite is an extinct language, which was spoken by the ancient Elamites (also known as Ilamids). ... Akkadian (lišānum akkadītum) was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians. ... Aramaic is a group of Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. ... Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians (Khurrites), a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in... Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern Boğazkale) in north-central Anatolia (modern Turkey). ...

History

The cuneiform writing system originated perhaps around 3000 BC^[2] in Sumer; its latest surviving use is dated to 75 AD. ^[3] Sumer (or Å umer; Sumerian: KI-EN-GIR [1]) was the earliest known civilization of the ancient Near East, located in lower Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), from the time of the earliest records in the mid 4th millennium BC until the rise of Babylonia in the late 3rd millennium BC. The term...

The cuneiform script underwent considerable changes over a period of more than two millennia. The image below shows the development of the sign SAG "head" (Borger nr. 184, U+12295 𒊕).

Stage 1 shows the pictogram as it was drawn around 3000 BC. Stage 2 shows the rotated pictogram as written around 2800 BC. Stage 3 shows the abstracted glyph in archaic monumental inscriptions, from ca. 2600 BC, and stage 4 is the sign as written in clay, contemporary to stage 3. Stage 5 represents the late 3rd millennium, and stage 6 represents Old Assyrian ductus of the early 2nd millennium, as adopted into Hittite. Stage 7 is the simplified sign as written by Assyrian scribes in the early 1st millennium, and until the script's extinction. Image File history File links SAG.svg‎ Original author: Dbachmann, Original image (there is also a description) evolution of the cuneiform sign SAG head, 3000-1000 BC, after Samuel Noah Kramer, Thirty Nine Firsts In Recorded History (see [1], see also de:Bild:Keilschriften. ...

Pictograms

Originally, pictograms were drawn on clay tablets in vertical columns with a pen made from a sharpened reed stylus, or incised in stone. This early style lacked the characteristic wedge-shape of the strokes. For other uses, see Clay (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Pen (disambiguation). ... This article is about common reed. ... For the online music and film magazine, see Stylus Magazine. ...

Certain signs to indicate names of gods, countries, cities, vessels, birds, trees, etc., are known as "determinants", and were the Sumerian signs of the terms in question, added as a guide for the reader. Proper names continued to be usually written in purely "ideographic" fashion. In mesopotamian cuneiform texts (i. ...

From about 2900 BC, many pictographs began to lose their original function, and a given sign could have various meanings depending on context. The sign inventory was reduced from some 1,500 signs to some 600 signs, and writing became increasingly phonological. Determinative signs were re-introduced to avoid ambiguity. This process is directly parallel to, and possibly not independent of, the development of Egyptian hieroglyphic orthography. In mesopotamian cuneiform texts (i. ... A section of the Papyrus of Ani showing cursive hieroglyphs. ...

Archaic cuneiform

Sumerian inscription in monumental archaic style, ca. 26th century BCE

Letter sent by the high-priest Lu'enna to the king of Lagash (maybe Urukagina), informing him of his son's death in combat, c. 2400 BC, found in Telloh (ancient Ngirsu).

In the mid-3rd millennium, writing direction was changed to left to right in horizontal rows (rotating all of the pictograms 90° counter-clockwise in the process), and a new wedge-tipped stylus was used which was pushed into the clay, producing wedge-shaped ("cuneiform") signs; these two developments made writing quicker and easier. By adjusting the relative position of the tablet to the stylus, the writer could use a single tool to make a variety of impressions. The word "cuneiform" comes from the Latin word cuneus, meaning "wedge". Gifts from the High and Mighty of Adab to the High Priestess, on the occasion of her election to the temple MS in Sumerian language on creamy stone, Sumer, 26th century BC, 1 tablet, 9,2x9,2x1,2 cm, 6+6 columns, 120 compartments of cuneiform script by an expert... Gifts from the High and Mighty of Adab to the High Priestess, on the occasion of her election to the temple MS in Sumerian language on creamy stone, Sumer, 26th century BC, 1 tablet, 9,2x9,2x1,2 cm, 6+6 columns, 120 compartments of cuneiform script by an expert... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (830x640, 373 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Cuneiform script Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (830x640, 373 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Cuneiform script Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to... At the time of Hammurabi, Lagash was much closer to the gulf. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Cuneiform tablets could be fired in kilns to provide a permanent record, or they could be recycled if permanence was not needed. Many of the clay tablets found by archaeologists were preserved because they were fired when attacking armies burned the building in which they were kept. Charcoal Kilns, California Gold Kiln, Victoria, Australia Hop kiln. ...

The script was also widely used on commemorative stelae and carved reliefs to record the achievements of the ruler in whose honour the monument had been erected. This article is about the stone structure. ...

Akkadian cuneiform

A list of Sumerian deities, ca. 2400 BC

The archaic cuneiform script was adopted by the Akkadians from ca. 2500 BC, and by 2000 BC, had evolved into Old Assyrian cuneiform, with many modifications to Sumerian orthography. The Semitic equivalents for many signs became distorted or abbreviated to form new "phonetic" values, because the syllabic nature of the script as refined by the Sumerians was unintuitive to Semitic speakers. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (594x601, 118 KB) Please see the file description page for further information. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (594x601, 118 KB) Please see the file description page for further information. ... Akkad (or Agade) was a city and its region of northern Iraq) between Assyria to the northwest and Sumer to the south. ... The Semitic languages are the northeastern subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic languages, and the only family of this group spoken in Asia. ...

At this stage, the former pictograms were reduced to a high level of abstraction, and were composed of only five basic wedge shapes: horizontal, vertical, two diagonals and the Winkelhaken impressed vertically by the tip of the stylus. The signs exemplary of these basic wedges are

• AŠ (B001, U+12038) 𒀸: horizontal;
• DIŠ (B748, U+12079) 𒁹: vertical;
• GE₂₃, DIŠ tenû (B575, U+12039) 𒀹: downward diagonal;
• GE₂₂ (B647, U+1203A) 𒀺: upward diagonal;
• U (B661, U+1230B) 𒌋: the Winkelhaken.

Except for the Winkelhaken which is tail-less, the length of the wedges' tails could vary as required for sign composition. The Winkelhaken (German for angular hook, also simply called hook in English) is one of five basic wedge elements appearing in the composition of signs in Akkadian cuneiform. ...

Signs tilted by (ca.) 45 degrees are called tenû in Akkadian, thus DIŠ is a vertical wedge and DIŠ tenû a diagonal one. Signs modified with additional wedges are called gunû, and signs crosshatched with additional Winkelhaken are called šešig.

Cuneiform tablet from the Kirkor Minassian collection in the US Library of Congress, ca. 24th century.

One of the Amarna letters, 14th century.

Neo-Assyrian ligature KAxGUR₇ (𒅬); the KA sign (𒅗) was a Sumerian compound marker, and appears frequently in ligatures enclosing other signs. GUR₇ is itself a ligature of SÍG.AḪ.ME.U, meaning "to pile up; grain-heap" (Akkadian kamāru; karû).

"Typical" signs have usually in the range of about five to ten wedges, while complex ligatures can consist of twenty or more (although it is not always clear if a ligature should be considered a single sign or two collated but still distinct signs); the ligature KAxGUR₇ consists of 31 strokes. Construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building, from July 8, 1888 to May 15, 1894. ... Image File history File links Amarna_Akkadian_letter. ... Image File history File links Amarna_Akkadian_letter. ... EA 161, letter by Aziru, leader of Amurru, (stating his case to pharaoh), one of the Amarna letters in cuneiform writing on a clay tablet. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

Most later adaptations of Sumerian cuneiform preserved at least some aspects of the Sumerian script. Written Akkadian included phonetic symbols from the Sumerian syllabary, together with logograms that were read as whole words. Many signs in the script were polyvalent, having both a syllabic and logographic meaning. The complexity of the system bears a resemblance to classical Japanese, written in a Chinese-derived script, where some of these Sinograms were used as logograms, and others as phonetic characters. Akkadian (lišānum akkadītum) was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians. ... A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate) syllables, which make up words. ... Egyptian hieroglyphs, which have their origins as logograms. ... We dont have an article called Polyvalent Start this article Search for Polyvalent in. ...

Assyrian cuneiform

This "mixed" method of writing continued through the end of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, although there were periods when "purism" was in fashion and there was a more marked tendency to spell out the words laboriously, in preference to using signs with a phonetic complement. Yet even in those days, the Babylonian syllabary remained a mixture of ideographic and phonetic writing. Babylonia was a state in southern Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq, combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. ... For other uses, see Assyria (disambiguation). ...

Hittite cuneiform is an adaptation of the Old Assyrian cuneiform of ca. 1800 BC to the Hittite language. When the cuneiform script was adapted to writing Hittite, a layer of Akkadian logographic spellings was added to the script, with the result that we no longer know the pronunciations of many Hittite words conventionally written by logograms. The surviving corpus of Hittite texts is preserved in cuneiform script on clay tablets dating to the 2nd millennium BC (roughly spanning the 17th to 12th centuries). ... Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern BoÄŸazkale) in north-central Anatolia (modern Turkey). ...

In the Iron Age (ca. 10th to 6th c. BC), Assyrian cuneiform was further simplified. From the 6th century, the Assyrian language was marginalized by Aramaic, written in the Aramaean alphabet, but Neo-Assyrian cuneiform remained in use in literary tradition well into Parthian times. The last known cuneiform inscription, an astronomical text, was written in AD 75.^{[citation needed]} Aramaic is a group of Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. ... The Aramaic alphabet is an abjad alphabet designed for writing the Aramaic language. ... Parthia at its greatest extent under Mithridates II (123–88 BC) Capital Ctesiphon, Ecbatana Government Monarchy [[Category:Former monarchies}}|Parthia, 247 BC]] History  - Established 247 BC  - Disestablished 220 AD Parthian votive relief. ... Centuries: 1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century Decades: 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s - 70s - 80s 90s 100s 110s 120s Years: 70 71 72 73 74 - 75 - 76 77 78 79 80 Events Last known cuneiform inscription Accession of Han Zhangdi. ...

Derived scripts

The complexity of the system prompted the development of a number of simplified versions of the script. Old Persian was written in a subset of simplified cuneiform characters known today as Old Persian cuneiform. It formed a semi-alphabetic syllabary, using far fewer wedge strokes than Assyrian used, together with a handful of logograms for frequently occurring words like "god" and "king." The Ugaritic language was written using the Ugaritic alphabet, a standard Semitic style alphabet (an abjad) written using the cuneiform method. Sketch of the first column of the Behistun Inscription Old Persian is the oldest attested Persid language. ... Old Persian cuneiform is the primary script used in Old Persian writings. ... The Ugaritic language is only known in the form of writings found in the lost city of Ugarit in Syria since its discovery by French archaeologists in 1928. ... The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform version of the Levantine consonant alphabet (abjad), used from around 1300 BC for the Ugaritic language, an extinct Canaanite language discovered in Ugarit, Syria. ... ABCs redirects here. ... The first five letters of the Phoenician abjad, from right to left An abjad, sometimes also called a consonantary or consonantal alphabet, is a type of writing system in which there is one symbol per consonantal phoneme. ...

Decipherment

Knowledge of cuneiform was lost until Carsten Niebuhr brought the first copies of the inscriptions of Behistun to Europe. In 1802 Georg Friedrich Grotefend was able to read the signs. In1835 Henry Rawlinson, a British East India Company army officer, visited the Behistun inscriptions in Persia. Carved in the reign of King Darius of Persia (522 BC–486 BC), they consisted of identical texts in the three official languages of the empire: Old Persian, Babylonian, and Elamite. The Behistun inscription was to the decipherment of cuneiform what the Rosetta Stone was to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Carsten Niebuhr Carsten Niebuhr (March 17, 1733 - April 26, 1815) was a German traveller. ... The Behistun Inscription, carved into a cliffside, gives the same text in three languages, telling the story of King Darius conquests. ... Georg Friedrich Grotefend (June 9, 1775 - December 15, 1853), German epigraphist, was born at Munden in Hanover. ... | Come and take it, slogan of the Texas Revolution 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Henry Rawlinson Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet (April 11, 1810 – March 5, 1895) was an English soldier, diplomat and orientalist. ... The Behistun Inscription, carved into a cliffside, gives the same text in three languages, telling the story of King Darius conquests, with the names of twenty-three provinces subject to him. ... Anthem SorÅ«d-e MellÄ«-e Īrān Â² Capital (and largest city) Tehran Official languages Persian Demonym Iranian Government Islamic Republic  -  Supreme Leader  -  President Unification  -  Unified by Cyrus the Great 559 BCE   -  Parthian (Arsacid) dynastic empire (first reunification) 248 BCE-224 CE   -  Sassanid dynastic empire 224–651 CE   -  Safavid dynasty... Darius the Great (c. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 570s BC - 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC Events 529 BC - Cambyses II succeeds his father Cyrus as ruler of Persia. ... Centuries: 6th century BCE - 5th century BCE - 4th century BCE Decades: 530s BCE 520s BCE 510s BCE 500s BCE 490s BCE - 480s BCE - 470s BCE 460s BCE 450s BCE 420s BCE 430s BCE Years: 491 BCE 490 BCE 489 BCE 488 BCE 487 BCE - 486 BCE - 485 BCE 484 BCE... This article is about the ancient Rosetta Stone found in Egypt. ... It has been suggested that Hieroglyph (French Wiki article) be merged into this article or section. ...

Rawlinson correctly deduced that the Old Persian was a phonetic script and he successfully deciphered it. After translating the Persian, Rawlinson and, working independently of him, the Anglo-Irish Egyptologist Edward Hincks, began to decipher the others. (The actual techniques used to decipher the Akkadian language have never been fully published; Hincks described how he sought the proper names already legible in the deciphered Persian while Rawlinson never said anything at all, leading some to speculate that he was secretly copying Hincks.^[4]) They were greatly helped by Paul Émile Botta's discovery of the city of Niniveh in 1842. Among the treasures uncovered by Botta were the remains of the great library of Assurbanipal, a royal archive containing tens of thousands of baked clay tablets covered with cuneiform inscriptions. Anglo-Irish was a term used historically to describe a ruling class inhabitants of Ireland who were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy[1], mostly belonging to the Anglican Church of Ireland or to a lesser extent one of the English dissenting churches, such as the Methodist church. ... Edward Hincks Edward Hincks (August 19, 1792 - December 3, 1866), Irish Assyriologist and one of the decipherers of Mesopotamian cuneiform. ... Decipherment is the analysis of documents written in ancient languages, where the language is unknown, or knowledge of the language has been lost. ... Akkadian (lišānum akkadÄ«tum) was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language family) spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians. ... Paul-Émile Botta (December 6, 1802 in Torino, Italy - March 29, 1870 in Achères, France) was French Consul in Mosul (then in the Ottoman Empire, now in Iraq) since 1842. ... This article is about the ancient Middle Eastern city of Nineveh. ... Assurbanipal in a relief from the north palace at Nineveh There were several Assyrian kings named Assur-bani-pal, also spelled Asurbanipal, Assurbanipal (most commonly), Ashurbanipal and Ashshurbanipal, but the best known was Assurbanipal IV.  Ashurbanipal, or Assurbanipal, (reigned 668 - 627 BCE), the son of Esarhaddon and Naqia-Zakutu...

By 1851, Hincks and Rawlinson could read 200 Babylonian signs. They were soon joined by two other decipherers: young German-born scholar Julius Oppert, and versatile British Orientalist William Henry Fox Talbot. In 1857 the four men met in London and took part in a famous experiment to test the accuracy of their decipherments. Edwin Norris, the secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, gave each of them a copy of a recently discovered inscription from the reign of the Assyrian emperor Tiglath-Pileser I. A jury of experts was empanelled to examine the resulting translations and assess their accuracy. In all essential points the translations produced by the four scholars were found to be in close agreement with one another. There were of course some slight discrepancies. The inexperienced Talbot had made a number of mistakes, and Oppert's translation contained a few doubtful passages due to his unfamiliarity with the English language. But Hincks' and Rawlinson's versions were virtually identical. The jury declared itself satisfied, and the decipherment of Akkadian cuneiform was adjudged a fait accompli. 1851 (MDCCCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Julius Oppert (July 9, 1825 - August 21, 1905), German Assyriologist, was born at Hamburg, of Jewish parents. ... William Henry Fox Talbot (February 11, 1800 - September 17, 1877) was one of the first photographers and made major contributions to the photographic process. ... Edwin Norris (October 24, 1795 - 1872) was an English philologist, linguist and intrepid orientalist who authored numerous works on languages of Asia and Africa and his most famous works include his uncompleted Assyrian Dictionary and his translation and annotation of the three plays of the Ordinalia. ... Article 90a of the bylaws of the Royal Asiatic Society. ... Tiglath-Pileser I (the Hebraic form of Tukulti-apil-Esharra, my trust is in the son of Esharra) was King of Assyria (1114 BC - 1076 BC). ...

In the early days of cuneiform decipherment, the reading of proper names presented the greatest difficulties. However, there is now a better understanding of the principles behind the formation and the pronunciation of the thousands of names found in historical records, business documents, votive inscriptions and literary productions. The primary challenge was posed by the characteristic use of old Sumerian non-phonetic ideograms in other languages that had different pronunciations for the same symbols. Until the exact phonetic reading of many names was determined through parallel passages or explanatory lists, scholars remained in doubt, or had recourse to conjectural or provisional readings. Fortunately, in many cases, there are variant readings, the same name being written phonetically (in whole or in part) in one instance, and ideographically in another.

Transliteration

Cuneiform has a specific format for transliteration. Because of the script's polyvalence, transliteration is not only lossless, but may actually contain more information than the original document. For example, the sign DINGIR in a Hittite text may represent either the Hittite syllable an or may be part of an Akkadian phrase, representing the syllable il, or it may be a Sumerogram, representing the original Sumerian meaning, 'the creator'. In transliteration, a different rendition of the same glyph is chosen depending on its role in the present context. Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system. ... In linguistics, valency or valence refers to the capacity of a verb to take a specific number and type of arguments (noun phrase positions). ... In Islamic context, an Ilah is the concept of a deity, lord or god and does not necessarily refer to Allah. ...

Therefore, a text containing DINGIR and MU in succession could be construed to represent the words "ana", "ila", god + "a" (the accusative ending), god + water, or a divine name "A" or Water. Someone transcribing the signs would make the decision how the signs should be read and assemble the signs as "ana", "ila", "Ila" ('god"+accusative case), etc. A transliteration of these signs, however, would separate the signs with dashes "il-a", "an-a", "DINGIR-a". This is still easier to read than the original cuneiform, but now the reader is able to trace the sounds back to the original signs and determine if the correct decision was made on how to read them. The accusative case (abbreviated ACC) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. ...

There are differing conventions for transliterating Sumerian, Akkadian (Babylonian) and Hittite (and Luwian) cuneiform texts. One convention that sees wide use across the different fields is the use of acute and grave accents as an abbreviation for homophone disambiguation. Thus, u is equivalent to u₁, the first glyph expressing phonetic u. An acute accent, ú, is equivalent to the second, u₂, and a grave accent ù to the third, u₃ glyph in the series (while the sequence of numbering is conventional but essentially arbitrary and subject to the history of decipherment). In Sumerian transliteration, a multiplication sign 'x' is used to indicate ligatures. The word ligature can mean more than one thing. ...

Since the Sumerian language has only been widely known and studied by scholars for approximately a century, changes in the accepted reading of Sumerian names have occurred from time to time. Thus the name of a king of Ur, read Ur-Bau at one time, was later read as Ur-Engur, and is now read as Ur-Nammu or Ur-Namma; for Lugal-zaggisi, a king of Uruk, some scholars continued to read Ungal-zaggisi; and so forth. Also, with some names of the older period, there was often uncertainty whether their bearers were Sumerians or Semites. If the former, then their names could be assumed to be read as Sumerian, while, if they were Semites, the signs for writing their names were probably to be read according to their Semitic equivalents, though occasionally Semites might be encountered bearing genuine Sumerian names. There was also doubt whether the signs composing a Semite's name represented a phonetic reading or an ideographic compound. Thus, e.g. when inscriptions of a Semitic ruler of Kish, whose name was written Uru-mu-ush, were first deciphered, there was a disposition to regard this as an ideographic form, and to read phonetically Alu-usharshid ("he founded a city," with the omission of the name of the deity), but scholarly opinion finally accepted Urumu-ush (Urumush) as the correct designation. For other uses, see Ur (disambiguation). ... Ur-Nammu (or Ur-Namma, Ur-Engur, ca. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Uruk (Sumerian Unug, Biblical Erech, Greek Orchoë and Arabic وركاء Warka), was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates, on the line of the ancient Nil canal, in a region of marshes, about 140 miles (230 km) SSE from Baghdad. ...

Syllabary

The tables below show signs used for simple syllables of the form CV or VC. As used for the Sumerian language, the cuneiform script was in principle capable of distinguishing 14 consonants, transliterated as

b, d, g, ḫ, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, š, t, z

as well as four vowel qualities, a, e, i, u. The Akkadian language needed to distinguish its emphatic series, q, ṣ, ṭ, adopting various "superfluous" Sumerian signs for the purpose (e.g. qe=KIN, qu=KUM, qi=KIN, ṣa=ZA, ṣe=ZÍ, ṭur=DUR etc.) Hittite as it adopted the Akkadian cuneiform further introduced signs for the glide w, e.g. wa=we=PIN, wi₅=GEŠTIN) as well as a ligature I.A for ya. Emphatic consonant is a term widely used in Semitic linguistics to describe one of a series of obstruent consonants which originally contrasted with series of both voiced and voiceless obstruents. ...

CV:

VC:

	a-	e-	i-	u-
	a 𒀀, á 𒀉	e 𒂊, é 𒂍 É[1] is the Sumerian for house or temple, written ideographically with the cuneiform sign (Borger nr. ...	i 𒄿, í=IÁ 𒐊	u 𒌋, ú 𒌑
-b	ab 𒀊, áb 𒀖	eb=IB 𒅁, éb=TUM 𒌈	ib 𒅁, íb=TUM 𒌈	ub 𒌒, úb=ŠÈ 𒂠
-d	ad 𒀜, ád 𒄉	ed=Á 𒀉	id=Á 𒀉, íd=A.ENGUR 𒀀𒇉	ud 𒌓, úd=ÁŠ 𒀾
-g	ag 𒀝, ág 𒉘	eg=IG 𒅅, ég=E 𒂊	ig 𒅅, íg=E 𒂊	ug 𒊌
-ḫ	aḫ 𒄴, áḫ=ŠEŠ 𒋀	eḫ=AḪ 𒄴	iḫ=AḪ 𒄴	uḫ=AḪ 𒄴, úḫ 𒌔
-k	ak=AG 𒀝	ek=IG 𒅅	ik=IG 𒅅	uk=UG 𒊌
-l	al 𒀠, ál=ALAM 𒀩	el 𒂖, él=IL 𒅋	il 𒅋, íl 𒅍	ul , úl=NU 𒉡 Image File history File links Cuneiform_UL.png‎ cuneiform UL glyph of FreeIdgSerif File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Cuneiform script Unicode cuneiform List of cuneiform signs Hittite cuneiform ...
-m	am 𒄠, ám=ÁG 𒉘	em=IM 𒅎	im 𒅎, ím=KAŠ4 𒁽	um 𒌝, úm=UD 𒌓
-n	an 𒀭	en 𒂗, én, èn=LI 𒇷 Dingir is the Sumerian for deity. It is written as an ideogram in the cuneiform script (Borger 2003 nr. ... EN (Borger 2003 nr. ...	in 𒅔, in4=EN 𒂗, in5=NIN 𒊩𒌆 NIN = EREÅ  is the sign for lady. NIN.DINGIR (Akkadian entu) divine lady, lady of [a] god is a priestess. ...	un 𒌦, ún=U 𒌋
-p	ap=AB 𒀊	ep=IB , ép=TUM 𒌈	ip=IB 𒅁, íp=TUM 𒌈	up=UB 𒌒, úp=ŠÈ 𒂠
-r	ar 𒅈, ár=UB 𒌒	er=IR 𒅕	ir 𒅕, íp=A.IGI 𒀀𒅆	ur 𒌨, úr 𒌫
-s	as=AZ 𒊍	es=GIŠ 𒄑, és=EŠ 𒂠	is=GIŠ 𒄑, ís=EŠ 𒂠	us=UZ, ús=UŠ 𒍑
-š	aš 𒀸, áš 𒀾	eš 𒌍/𒐁, éš=ŠÈ 𒂠	iš 𒅖, íš=KASKAL 𒆜	uš 𒍑, úš𒍗=BAD 𒁁
-t	at=AD 𒀜, át=GÍR gunû 𒄉	et=Á 𒀉	it=Á 𒀉	ut=UD 𒌓, út=ÁŠ 𒀾
-z	az 𒊍	ez=GIŠ 𒄑, éz=EŠ 𒂠	iz= GIŠ 𒄑, íz=IŠ 𒅖	uz , úz=UŠ 𒍑, ùz 𒍚 Image File history File links Cuneiform_UZ.png‎ cuneiform UZ glyph of FreeIdgSerif File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Cuneiform script List of cuneiform signs ...

Sign inventories

See also: List of cuneiform signs

The Sumerian cuneiform script had of the order of 1,000 unique signs (or about 1,500 if variants are included). This number was reduced to about 600 by the 24th century BC and the beginning of Akkadian records. Not all Sumerian signs are used in Akkadian, and not all Akkadian signs are used in Hittite. The following is a list of cuneiform signs, ordered by their 2003 Borger number (Borger 2003 lists 907 signs; Borger 1981 lists 598 signs in use in Assyrian orthography around 2000 BC). ...

• Falkenstein (1936) lists 939 signs used in the earliest period (late Uruk, 34th to 31st centuries)
• Borger (2003) lists 907 signs.
• Deimel (1922) lists 870 signs used in the Early Dynastic IIIa period (26th century).
• Borger in 1981 lists 598 signs used in Assyrian/Babylonian writing, and 907 in 2003. His numbering is based on Deimel's Sumerisches Lexikon.
• Rosengarten (1967) lists 468 signs used in Sumerian (pre-Sargonian) Lagash.
• Signs used in Hittite cuneiform are listed by Forrer (1922), Friedrich (1960) and the HZL (Rüster and Neu 1989). The HZL lists a total of 375 signs, many with variants (for example, 12 variants are given for number 123 EGIR)

The Uruk period (ca. ... Sargon of Akkad, also known as Sargon the Great (Akkadian Å arru-kinu, cuneiform Å AR.RU.KI.IN , meaning the true king or the king is legitimate), was an Akkadian king famous for his conquest of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th and 23rd centuries BC.[1] The founder of... At the time of Hammurabi, Lagash was much closer to the gulf. ... The surviving corpus of Hittite texts is preserved in cuneiform script on clay tablets dating to the 2nd millennium BC (roughly spanning the 17th to 12th centuries). ...

Unicode

Main article: Unicode cuneiform

Unicode (as of version 5.0) assigns to the Cuneiform script the following ranges: Unicode (as of version 5. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ...

U+12000–U+1236E (879 characters) "Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform"

U+12400–U+12473 (103 characters) "Cuneiform Numbers"

The proposal for Unicode encoding of the script had been submitted by the Initiative for Cuneiform Encoding (ICE) in June 2004. [1] The base character inventory is derived from the list of Ur III signs compiled by the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative of UCLA based on the inventories of Miguel Civil, Rykle Borger (2003), and Robert England. Rather than opting for an ordering by glyph shape and complexity, according to the numbering of an existing catalogue, the Unicode order of glyphs is the Latin alphabet order of their 'main' Sumerian transliteration. The third dynasty of Ur reinstalled Sumerian rule after several centuries of Akkadian and Gutian kings (Sumerian Renaissance). ... Binomial name Ucla xenogrammus Holleman, 1993 The largemouth triplefin, Ucla xenogrammus, is a fish of the family Tripterygiidae and only member of the genus Ucla, found in the Pacific Ocean from Viet Nam, the Philippines, Palau and the Caroline Islands to Papua New Guinea, Australia (including Christmas Island), and the...

See also

• Journal of Cuneiform Studies
• List of cuneiform signs
• Old Persian cuneiform script
• Ugaritic alphabet

The Journal of Cuneiform Studies was founded in 1947 by the Baghdad School of the American Schools of Oriental Research. ... The following is a list of cuneiform signs, ordered by their 2003 Borger number (Borger 2003 lists 907 signs; Borger 1981 lists 598 signs in use in Assyrian orthography around 2000 BC). ... Old Persian cuneiform is the primary script used in Old Persian writings. ... The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform version of the Levantine consonant alphabet (abjad), used from around 1300 BC for the Ugaritic language, an extinct Canaanite language discovered in Ugarit, Syria. ...

References

• R. Borger, Assyrisch-Babylonische Zeichenliste, 2nd ed., Neukirchen-Vluyn (1981)
• R. Borger, Mesopotamisches Zeichenlexikon, Münster (2003). [2]
• A. Deimel, Liste der archaischen Keilschriftzeichen (WVDOG 40; Berlin 1922) [3]
• F. Ellermeier, M. Studt, Sumerisches Glossar
  • vol. 1: 1979-1980, ISBN 3-921747-08-2, ISBN 3-921747-10-4
  • vol. 3.2: 1998-2005, A-B ISBN 3-921747-24-4, D-E ISBN 3-921747-25-2, G ISBN 3-921747-29-5
  • vol. 3.3: ISBN 3-921747-22-8 (font CD ISBN 3-921747-23-6)
  • vol. 3.5: ISBN 3-921747-26-0
  • vol 3.6: 2003, Handbuch Assur ISBN 3-921747-28-7
• A. Falkenstein, Archaische Texte aus Uruk, Berlin-Leipzig (1936) [4]
• E. Forrer, Die Keilschrift von Boghazköi, Leipzig (1922)
• J. Friedrich, Hethitisches Keilschrift-Lesebuch, Heidelberg (1960)
• Jean-Jacques Glassner, The Invention of Cuneiform, English translation, Johns Hopkins University Press (2003), ISBN 0-8018-7389-4.
• René Labat, Manuel d'epigraphie Akkadienne, Geuthner, Paris (1959); 6th ed., extended by Florence Malbran-Labat (1999), ISBN 2-7053-3583-8.
• O. Neugebauer, A. Sachs (eds.), Mathematical Cuneiform Texts, New Haven (1945).
• Y. Rosengarten, Répertoire commenté des signes présargoniques sumériens de Lagash, Paris (1967) [5]
• Chr. Rüster, E. Neu, Hethitisches Zeichenlexikon (HZL), Wiesbaden (1989)
• Nikolaus Schneider, Die Keilschriftzeichen der Wirtschaftsurkunden von Ur III nebst ihren charakteristischsten Schreibvarianten, Keilschrift-Paläographie; Heft 2, Rom: Päpstliches Bibelinstitut (1935). [6]
• Wolfgang Schramm, Akkadische Logogramme, Goettinger Arbeitshefte zur Altorientalischen Literatur (GAAL) Heft 4, Goettingen (2003), ISBN 3-936297-01-0.
• F. Thureau-Dangin, Recherches sur l'origine de l'écriture cunéiforme, Paris (1898).
• Ronald Herbert Sack, Cuneiform Documents from the Chaldean and Persian Periods, (1994) ISBN 0945636679

Rykle Borger is German Assyriologist with Dutch origin. ... Adam Falkenstein (September 17, 1906 - October 15, 1966) was a German Assyriologist. ... Otto E. Neugebauer (May 26, 1899 – February 19, 1990) was an Austrian-American mathematician and historian of science who became known for his research on the history of astronomy and the other exact (i. ...

Notes

Excavations at the South Area of Çatal Höyük Çatalhöyük (also Çatal Höyük and Çatal Hüyük, or any of the three without diacritics; çatal is Turkish for fork, höyük for mound) was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern... View of Kamyana Mohyla Kamyana Mohyla (Ukrainian: ; Russian: ; literally: stone tomb) is an archaeological site in the Molochna River valley, about a mile from the village of Terpinnya, Zaporizhia Oblast, Ukraine. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Cuneiform

• Online Translator - Translates English words, sentences, and phrases into ancient Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian cuneiform
• Budge, E.A. Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, &c. in the British Museum London, Harrison and Sons, 1896.
• Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. A Joint Project of the University of California at Los Angeles and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.
• Online interactive cuneiform tablet from the State Library of Victoria collection.
• CDLI wiki
• ETCSL sign list
• Evolution of Cuneiform
• Akkadian sign list (alain.be)

Digital encoding and rendering

• cuneiformsigns.org Analysis and reports to support an international standard for computer encoding of the Cuneiform writing system
• iClay Java applet for the "interactive viewing of 2D+ images of cuneiform tablets over the Internet"

Fonts

• Unicode
  • Akkadian (reproduces the archaic (Ur III) glyphs given in the Unicode reference chart, themselves based on a font by Steve Tinney)
  • A free Cuneiform font, Cuneiform Composite, also Ur III. Designed by Steve Tinney with input from Michael Everson.
  • FreeIdgSerif (branched off FreeSerif), encodes some 390 Old Assyrian glyphs used in Hittite cuneiform.
• non-Unicode
  • Cuneiform fonts for TeX/LaTeX/PDFLaTeX by Karel Piska (Type 1, GPL)
  • Ullikummi (Hittite package) by Sylvie Vanséveren (TrueType, freeware)
  • UR III font by Guillaume Malingue (TrueType, freeware)
  • Sumerian font by Carsten Peust (TrueType, freeware)

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Types	Abjads (Numerals) Aramaic · Arabic · Hebrew · Jawi · Nabatean · Pahlavi · Phoenician · Proto-Canaanite · Psalter · Sabaean · Samaritan · South Arabian · Sogdian · Syriac · Tifinagh · Ugaritic Abugidas Brahmic family: Ahom · Balinese · Batak · Baybayin · Brāhmī · Buhid · Burmese · Chakma · Cham · Devanāgarī · Dhives Akuru · Eastern Nagari · Grantha · Gujarati · Gupta · Gurmukhī · Hanunó'o · Javanese · Kadamba  · Kaithi · Kalinga · Kannada · Khmer · Lanna · Lao · Lepcha · Limbu · Lontara · Malayalam · Meitei Mayek · Mithilakshar · Modi · Mon · Nāgarī · Nepal  · Old Kawi · Old Sundanese · Oriya · Pallava · Phagspa · Ranjana · Rejang · Śāradā · Saurashtra · Sinhala · Siddhaṃ · Soyombo · Sundanese · Sylheti Nagari · Tagbanwa · Tai Dam · Tai Le · Takri · Tamil · Telugu · Thai · Tibetan · Tocharian · Varang Kshiti Other: Boyd's Syllabic Shorthand · Canadian Aboriginal · Ge'ez · Hebrew cursive · Japanese braille · Kharosthi · Meroitic · Pitman Shorthand · Pollard script · Sorang Sompeng · Thaana · Thomas Natural Shorthand Alphabets Linear: Arabic · Armenian · Avestan · Beitha Kukju · Coptic · Cyrillic · Eclectic Shorthand · Elbasan · Fraser · Gabelsberger shorthand · Georgian · Glagolitic · Gothic · Gregg Shorthand · Greek · Greco-Iberian alphabet · Hangul · International Phonetic · Latin · Manchu · Mandaic · Mongolian · Neo-Tifinagh · N'Ko · Ogham · Ol Chiki · Old Hungarian · Old Italic · Old Permic · Orkhon · Osmanya · Runic · Shavian alphabet · New Tai Lue · Bassa Vah · Visible Speech · Zhùyīn fúhào · Pahawh Hmong Non-linear: Braille · Hebrew braille · Korean braille · Maritime flags · Morse code · New York Point · Semaphore line · Flag semaphore Ideo- & Pictograms Blissymbol · DanceWriting · Dongba · Mi'kmaq · New Epoch Notation Painting · SignWriting Logograms Egyptian consonant-based: Demotic · Hieratic · Hieroglyphs Syllable-based: Anatolian · Cuneiform  · Dongba script · Maya · Tangut script · Yi Chinese-based: Chinese characters (Traditional · Simplified) · Chữ Nôm · Hanja · Geba · Jurchen · Kanji · Khitan · Zhuang Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... A panoramic view of the library facade, forecourt and lawns from Swanston Street The State Library lit up at night. ... Michael Everson in Isfahan Michael Everson (born January 9, 1963) is a linguist, script encoder, typesetter, and font designer. ... Free UCS Outline Fonts (also known as freefont) is a project for developing fonts by collecting characters from other free fonts and joining them in one package. ... PostScript (PS) is a page description language used primarily in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. ... The GNU logo For other uses of GPL, see GPL (disambiguation). ... TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobes Type 1 fonts used in PostScript. ... Writing systems of the world today. ... Writing systems evolved in the Early Bronze Age (late 4th millennium BC) out of neolithic proto-writing. ... In typography, a grapheme is the atomic unit in written language. ... Image File history File links Kielitynkäkuva. ... A list of writing systems (or scripts), classified according to some common distinguishing features. ... . ... This is a list of languages by first written accounts which consists of the approximate dates for the first written accounts that are known for various languages. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... This is a chronological list of any individuals, legendary or real, who are purported by traditions to have invented alphabets or other writing systems, whether this is proven or not. ... A list of writing systems (or scripts), classified according to some common distinguishing features. ... The first five letters of the Phoenician abjad, from right to left An abjad, sometimes also called a consonantary or consonantal alphabet, is a type of writing system in which there is one symbol per consonantal phoneme. ... The Abjad numerals are a decimal numeral system which was used in the Arabic-speaking world prior to the use of the Hindu-Arabic numerals from the 8th century, and in parallel with the latter until Modern times. ... Bilingual inscription (Greek and Aramaic) by the Indian emperor Ashoka the Great, 3rd century BC. The Aramaic alphabet is an abjad alphabet designed for writing the Aramaic language. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing languages such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and others. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Yawi. ... The Nabatean alphabet is a consonantal alphabet (abjad) that was used by the Nabateans in the 2nd century BC. Important inscriptions are found in Petra. ... The Pahlavi script was used broadly in the Sasanid Persian Empire to write down Middle Persian for secular, as well as religious purposes. ... The Phoenician alphabet is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention taken to begin with a cut-off date of 1050 BCE. It was used by the Phoenicians to write Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language. ... The Proto-Canaanite alphabet is an abjad of twenty-plus acrophonic glyphs, which is found in Levantine texts of the Late Bronze Age (from ca. ... The Samaritan alphabet is a direct descendant of the paleo-Hebrew variety of the Phoenician alphabet, the more commonly known Hebrew alphabet having been adapted from the Aramaic alphabet under the Persian Empire. ... The ancient South Arabian alphabet (also known as musnad) branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in ca. ... The Sogdian alphabet is derived from Syriac, the descendant script of Aramaic alphabet. ... 11th century book in Syriac Serto. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform version of the Levantine consonant alphabet (abjad), used from around 1300 BC for the Ugaritic language, an extinct Canaanite language discovered in Ugarit, Syria. ... An inscription of Swampy Cree using Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, an abugida developed by Christian missionaries for Aboriginal Canadian languages An abugida (from Ge‘ez አቡጊዳ ’äbugida) is a segmental writing system in which each letter (basic character) represents a consonant accompanied by a specific vowel; other vowels are indicated by modification... The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas (writing systems) used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, descended from the BrāhmÄ« script of Mauryan India. ... Basic signs of the Balinese script The Balinese alphabet is a type of alphabet called an abugida that was used to write the Balinese language, an Austronesian language spoken by about three million people on the Indonesian island of Bali. ... Baybayin (sometimes called Alibata) is a pre-Hispanic Tagalog writing system that originated from the Javanese script Kavi. ... Variation of BrāhmÄ« with dates. ... An indigenous Brahmic script of the Philippines. ...   The Eastern (Vietnamese) Cham Writing Script The Cham alphabet is used to write Cham, an Austronesian language spoken by the Cham people in Vietnam and Cambodia. ... () is an abugida script used to write several Indo-Aryan languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Gujarati,Marathi, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Marwari, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Pahari (Garhwali and Kumaoni), Santhali, Nepali, Newari, Tharu and sometimes Kashmiri and Romani. ... This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... The Kanai Baraxiboa rock inscription near Guwahati. ... Grantha (Punjabi , Tamil , from Sanskrit ग्रन्थ grantha meaning book or manuscript) is an ancient script that was prevalent in South India. ... The Gujarati script (ગુજરાતી લિપિ GujarātÄ« Lipi), which like all NāgarÄ« writing systems is strictly speaking an abugida rather than an alphabet, is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. ... The Gupta script was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the Gupta Empire of India which was a period of material prosperity and great religious and scientific developments. ... The GurmukhÄ« (ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ) script is derived from the Later Sharada script and was standardized by the second Sikh guru, Guru Angad Dev, in the 16th century for writing the Punjabi language. ... Javanese script is the script that Javanese is originally written in (not to be confused with Javascript, which is a programming language). ... The Kadamba script marks the birth of a dedicated Kannada script that was used for Kannada language. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... This article or section uses Khmer characters which may be rendered as boxes or other nonsensical symbols. ... Kham Mueang in its own alphabet The Northern Thai language or Kham Mueang (คำเมือง) is the language of the Thai Yuan people of Lannathai, Thailand. ...   Lepcha script is used by the Lepcha people. ... The Limbu alphabet, or Kirat-Sirijonga script, is a Brahmic script used to write the Limbu language of northern India and Nepal. ... The Lontara script was a native scripts used for writing the Buginese language and also other Malayo-Polynesian languages of southeast Asia. ... The Malayalam script is an abugida of the Brahmic family, used to write the Malayalam language. ...   Sample of Meitei Mayek script, showing the main consonants in the alphabet Meitei Mayek script (also Meithei Mayek, Meetei Mayek, Manipuri script) (Manipuri: Meetei Mayek) is a syllabic script used for the Meitei language (Manipuri), one of the official languages of the Indian state of Manipur. ... Mithilakshar (also known as Tirhuta) is the traditional script of the Maithili language, which is is spoken in the Indian state of Bihar and eastern Nepal. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Old Kawi is the oldest Kawi script used on Bali in 775 AD. It is written on palm leaves. ... The Oriya script is used to write the Oriya language. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Tamil script. ... The word Wiki in Phagspa characters The Phagspa script (also square script) was an Abugida designed by the Lama Phagspa for the emperor Kublai Khan during the Yuan Dynasty in China, as a unified script for all languages within the Mongolian Empire. ... The Newari script also known as the Ranjana script is used for writing the Newari language of Nepal. ... The Rejang script, sometimes spelt Redjang and locally known as Aksara Kaganga (Ka Ga Nga alphabet) after its first three letters, is an abugida of the Brahmic family, and is related to other scripts of the region, like Batak, Buginese, and Kerinci. ...   Saurashtra was a script used to write the Saurashtra language. ... The Sinhala script is used to write the Sinhala language. ... Soyombo script - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Sundanese is a script that once was used to write the Sundanese language. ... Sylheti Nagari is the original script used for writing the Sylheti language. ... Tagbanwa is one of the indigenous writing systems of the Philippines. ... Tai Dam is a Tai language spoken in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and China (mostly in Jinping 金平). It is called paːsaː tai dam ภาษาไทดำ (Black Tai) in Thai and DÇŽidānyÇ” 傣担语 in Chinese. ...   Tai Le is a script used for the Tai Nüa language. ... The Takri script (sometimes called Tankri) is an abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Telugu script, an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts, is used to write Telugu, a Dravidian Language found in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh as well as several other neighboring states. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Boyds Syllabic Shorthand is a system of shorthand invented by Robert Boyd, published originally in 1903, and updated in 1912. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Hebrew cursive script is a style of Hebrew calligraphy that is very popular for writing Modern Hebrew by hand, since it is arguably easier to learn and faster to write than the traditional Hebrew script. ... Japanese braille is a braille code for writing the Japanese language. ... The Kharoṣṭhī script, also known as the Gāndhārī script, is an ancient alphabetic script used by the Gandhara culture of historic northwest India to write the Gandhari and Sanskrit languages (the Gandhara kingdom was located along the present-day border between Afghanistan and Pakistan between the Indus River and the... The Meroitic script is an alphabet of Egyptian (Hieroglyphic) origin used in Kingdom of Meroë. Some scholars, e. ... Pitman Shorthand is a system of shorthand for the English language developed by Sir Isaac Pitman (1813–1897), who first presented it in 1837. ... The Pollard script, also known as Pollard Miao, is an abugida or writing system invented by Methodist missionary Sam Pollard. ... Sora (also Saora, Saonras, Shabari, Sabar, Saura, Savara, Sawaria, Swara, Sabara) is a Munda language of India, spoken by some 288,000 native speakers (1997) in South Orissa, mainly in the Ganjam District, but also in the Koraput and Phulbani districts; other communities exist in Andhra Pradesh (Srikakulam District), Madhya... Thomas Natural Shorthand is an English shorthand system created by Charles A. Thomas which was first published in 1935. ... ABCs redirects here. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing languages such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and others. ... The Avestan alphabet was created in the 3rd century AD for writing the hymns of Zarathustra (a. ... Beitha Kukju was an Albanian who invented a script used for the Albanian language in about 1840, called the Beitha Kukju script after its inventor. ... The Coptic alphabet is an alphabet used for writing the Coptic language. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (pronounced also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is actually a family of alphabets, subsets of which are used by certain Slavic languages — Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian—as well as many other languages of the former Soviet Union... Eclectic shorthand (sometimes called Cross shorthand or Eclectic-Cross shorthand after its founder, J.G. Cross) is an English shorthand system of the 19th century. ... Elbasan script is an eighteenth-century script used for the Albanian language. ... The Fraser alphabet is an artificial script invented around 1915 by the missionary James O. Fraser to write the Lisu language. ... Gabelsberger shorthand, named for its creator Franz Xaver Gabelsberger, is a form of shorthand previously common in Germany. ... The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. ...   The Gothic alphabet is an alphabetic writing system attributed by Philostorgius to Wulfila, used exclusively for writing the ancient Gothic language. ... Gregg Shorthand is a form of shorthand that was invented by John Robert Gregg in 1888. ... Paleohispanic scripts A Greco-Iberian alphabet Lead plaque from la Serreta (Alcoi). ... Jamo redirects here. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz redirects here. ... Manchu and Chinese writing in the Forbidden City The word “Manju” (Manchu) written in Manchu script. ... The Mandaic alphabet is based on the Aramaic alphabet, and is used for writing the Mandaic language. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The word NKo written in the NKo alphabet NKo is both a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949 as a writing system for the Mande languages of West Africa, and the name of the literary language itself written in the script. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... The Ol Chiki script, also known as Ol Cemet (language of writing), Ol Ciki, Ol (and sometimes as the Santali alphabet, was created in 1925 by Pandit Raghunath Murmu for the Santali language. ... Hungarian Runes (Hungarian: , ( ) or simply ) is a type of runic writing system used by the Magyars (mainly by Székely Magyars) prior to AD 1000. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... The Old Permic script, sometimes called Abur, is an original ancient Permic writing system introduced by a Russian missionary Stepan Khrap, also known as Saint (Stephen of Perm) (Степан Храп, св. Стефан Пермский) in 1372. ... Orkhon tablet Inscription in Kyzyl using Orkhon script Orkhon script The Orkhon script (also spelled Orhon script, also Orkhon-Yenisey script, Old Turkic script, Göktürk script, Turkish: Orhon Yazıtları) is the alphabet used by the Göktürk from the 8th century to record the Old Turkic... An Arabic-based script for the Somali language, now replaced both officially and in practise by the Latin alphabet. ... Rune redirects here. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...   New Tai Lue is an alphabet used for the Tai Lü language. ... Visible speech is the name of the system used by Alexander Melville Bell, who was known internationally as a teacher of speech and proper elocution and an author of books on the subject. ... Zhuyin fuhao (Chinese: ; written in Zhuyin fuhao: ㄓㄨˋ 一ㄋ ㄈㄨˊ ㄏㄠˋ), often abbreviated as Zhuyin, is a phonetic system for transcribing Chinese, especially Mandarin, for people learning to read, write or speak Mandarin. ... The Pahawh Hmong script is an alphabet writing system for the Hmong language invented by Shong Lue Yang in 1959. ... Listen to this article ( info/dl) This audio file was created from a revision dated 2006-09-06, and may not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Hebrew Braille is the system of braille used by Hebrew speakers and specifically, in the State of Israel. ... Korean Braille is related to other braille systems found around the world. ... The system of international maritime signal flags is a way of representing individual letters of the alphabet in signals to or from ships. ... 1922 Chart of the Morse Code Letters and Numerals Morse code is a method for transmitting telegraphic information, using standardized sequences of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a message. ... New York Point is a system of writing for the blind invented by William Bell Wait (1839-1916), a teacher in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind. ... A Chinese character. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Blissymbols or Blissymbolics were conceived of as an ideographic writing system consisting of several hundred basic symbols, each representing a concept, which can be composed together to generate new symbols that represent new concepts. ... DanceWriting is a form of Dance notation. ... The Dongba are the shamans or priests of the Naxi people of southwestern China. ... Mikmaq hieroglyphic writing was a pictographic writing scheme and memory aid used by Mikmaq people both before and after European contact. ... New Epoch Art Notation is a conceptual writing system for pure visual images. ... A sign for photo model using SignWriting in the dictionary of the Flemish Sign Language Sign Writing is a system of writing the movements and handshapes of sign languages. ... Egyptian hieroglyphs, which have their origins as logograms. ... Demotic (from δημοτικά dimotika popular) refers to both the ancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms of hieratic used in the Delta, as well as the stage of the Egyptian language following Late Egyptian and preceding Coptic. ... Development of hieratic script from hieroglyphs; after Champollion. ... A section of the Papyrus of Ani showing cursive hieroglyphs. ... Drawing of the hieroglyphic seal found in the Troy VIIb layer. ... The Dongba are the shamans or priests of the Naxi people of southwestern China. ... Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, Mexico The Maya script, commonly known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only deciphered script of the Mesoamerican writing systems. ... The Tangut script is logographic, used for writing the Tangut language. ... The Yi scripts, also known as Cuan or Wei, are used to write the Yi languages. ... Japanese name Kanji: Hiragana: Korean name Hangul: Hanja: Vietnamese name Quốc ngữ: Hán tá»±: A Chinese character or Han character (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a logogram used in writing Chinese, Japanese, rarely Korean, and formerly Vietnamese. ... Traditional Chinese characters refers to one of two standard sets of printed Chinese characters. ... Simplified Chinese character (Simplified Chinese: or ; traditional Chinese: or ; pinyin: or ) is one of two standard sets of Chinese characters of the contemporary Chinese written language. ... Chữ nôm (𡦂喃 lit. ... Korean writing systems Hangul Hanja Hyangchal Gugyeol Idu Mixed script Korean romanization Revised Romanization of Korean McCune-Reischauer Yale Romanization Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. ... The Jurchens (Chinese: 女真, pinyin: nǚzhēn) were a Tungus people who inhabited parts of Manchuria and northern Korea until the seventeenth century, when they became the Manchus. ... Japanese writing Kanji Kana Hiragana Katakana Hentaigana Manyōgana Uses Furigana Okurigana Rōmaji   ) are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with hiragana (平仮名), katakana (片仮名), and the Arabic numerals. ... The Khitan language is a now-extinct language once spoken by the Khitan people. ... Zhuang logograms or sawndip is a logogram created as a derivative characters of Han characters and used by Zhuang in Guangxi, China. ... Aztec Semi-syllabaries Full semi-syllabaries: Celtiberian script  · Northeastern Iberian script  · Southeastern Iberian script Redundant semi-syllabaries: Southwestern script Syllabaries Afaka · Cherokee · Cypriot · Hiragana · Katakana · Kikakui · Kpelle · Linear B · Man'yōgana · Nü Shu · Old Persian Cuneiform · Vai · Woleaian · Yi · Yugtun