Writing Systems of the World: Alphabets, Syllabaries, Pictograms
by Akira Nakanishi
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Description
This unique, ambitious and entertaining book presents twenty-nine scripts in detail and offers examples of a hundred more. Written in nontechnical prose and organized into brief but comprehensive sections, it will serve as a handy reference for world travelers, stamp collectors, and calligraphers, along with providing hours of reading enjoyment to those who are fascinated by the written symbol itself. The scripts covered here are from all over the world. A few, like Greek or the Cyrillic show more script used for Russian, may be familiar to readers of Western languages. But others may seem strange, such as Pakistan's Urdu, which is written in a style so fine that newspapers are not typeset but reproduced from pages laboriously written out by hand. Each of the script sections includes charts of the symbols, reading tips, forms of numerals, and other features that help explain how the language is written. Further enhanced with maps, illustrations, a glossary, and useful appendixes,Writing Systems of the World is a remarkably concise and organized look at what is perhaps mankind's greatest achievement, the written language. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Lots of illustrations depicting different writing systems. Not an exhaustive study (e.g. even in discussing the Latin alphabet it merely says that "some" languages do not use all the letters -- which languages? which letters?) (e.g. omits any reference to the Inuktitut syllabary) (e.g. no mention of the zhuyin fuhao alphabet, which serves a didactic purpose in Taiwan) and research is sloppy in places (gives the name and exact date of originator of the Korean writing system, but leaves Sequoyah nameless and date vague in the brief description of the Cherokee alphabet). Lots of information but I would have liked more!
Somewhat idiosyncratic, but there are lots of interesting examples
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Tiro Typeworks on Grapholinguistics
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Author Information
3 Works 233 Members
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Sekai no Moji
- Original publication date
- 1975: Original Japanese edition; 1980: English edition with revised text and additions
- Original language
- Japanese
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, History, Art & Design
- DDC/MDS
- 652.1 — Applied science & technology Management & public relations Processes of written communication Handwriting
- LCC
- Z40 .N2613 — Bibliography, Library Science and Information Resources Books (General). Writing. Paleography Writing
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 232
- Popularity
- 140,719
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.07)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 2
