#List of numbers in different languages full#
#List of numbers in different languages plus#

In a true syllabary like hiragana they don't.Д¬onsonantal scripts represent consonants but not (all) vowels. Curiously, the unadorned glyph represents a consonant + a the glyphs for ke, ki, ku, ko and simple k are then formed by adding a graphic variation representing the vowel to the ka glyph.ДЇield notes: In a modified syllabary, the different syllables that begin with one consonant all have a graphic element in common. Depending on the language's syllable structure, the total number of glyphs will range from a few dozen to a thousand or so.Дevanagari, the Sanksrit script- the ancestor of all the scripts shown above- is sometimes called a syllabary, but it is more accurately described as an alphabet in which a single consonant+vowel sequence is written as a combined unit. However, at least one syllabary has been invented from scratch: Sequoyah's, invented for Cherokee.ДЇield notes: A syllabary, unlike a morphosyllabic script, has just one symbol for each possible syllable type, rather than a set of alternatives. Most syllabaries have developed out of morphosyllabic scripts, as people realize that language can be written down just by recording the sounds. This wouldn't work so well in English, where there are thousands of possible syllables but it works quite nicely in Japanese there are not that many more syllabic signs than there are letters in English. The Japanese hiragana system shown here is a pure syllabary, with a separate glyph for each of the 45 possible syllables in Japanese (plus one for final -n).

#List of numbers in different languages full#

The transition to a full writing system occurs when it occurs to someone that the pictures can be borrowed to write words that sound the same but are hard to draw.ДЇield notes: Can be recognized by the great number of symbols, in the thousands. The system begins, conceptually and presumably chronologically, with pictograms but these form only a small fraction of the system. The Sumerian, Maya, and Ancient Egyptian systems workedДЄbout the same way.

#List of numbers in different languages plus#

Most characters can be decomposed into two simpler characters, a radical vaguely indicating the meaning plus a phonetic giving the approximate pronunciation.

Field notes are provided for recognizing each type in the wild.Д¬hinese characters each represent a single syllable, and in the vast majority of cases a single morpheme. The samples are arranged by type of writing system, rather than by language family, as in the main list. In some cases, like Japanese, it would be rather strange to write out the numbers this way- the Japanese would use the Chinese or Western symbols, instead. Note that these are the names of the numbers, exactly as they are represented in the numbers list (like 'one, two, three'), and not symbols for numbers (like 1, 2, 3). The Numbers in Various Writing Systems The Numbers in Various Writing SystemsДЄs a supplement to my list of the numbers from 1 to 10 in over a thousand languages, here are the numbers written in a few native writing systems, plus ASL.