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A guide to all the wonderful and interesting information about writing systems and languages you can find on Omniglot.

Contents

Writing systems | Constructed scripts | Languages | Language learning | Multilingual pages | Useful phrases | Articles | Links | Offshoots of Omniglot


Writing Systems

Information about over 290 different writing systems. Each page contains an illustration of a writing system; details of its origin, usage, notable features and the language(s) written with it; a sample text, and useful links.

This section is divided as follows:

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Constructed scripts

Alphabets and other writing systems invented by visitors to this site, and that appear in books, TV programmes, films and computer games.

Constructed scripts for: Ainu | Arabic | Chinese languages | Dutch | English | Hawaiian | Hungarian | Japanese | Korean | Lingala | Malay & Indonesian | Persian | Tagalog / Filipino | Russian | Sanskrit | Spanish | Taino | Turkish | Vietnamese | Welsh | Other natural languages | Colour-based scripts | Tactile scripts | Phonetic/universal scripts | Constructed scripts for constructed languages | Adaptations of existing alphabets | Fictional alphabets | Magical alphabets | A-Z index | How to submit a constructed script

Constructed and adapted scripts by language

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Languages

Details of many different languages, including their pronunciation, usage, status and sample texts.

Alphabetic index of languages

Index of languages arranged by the writing systems used to write them

Index of languages arranged by language family (includes information about each language family)

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Language learning

A collection of advice, suggestions, tips and techniques for learning languages.

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Multilingual pages

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Useful phrases

Greetings and small talk

Welcome | Hello | Hello (on the phone) | Good morning | Good afternoon | Good evening | Good night | How are you? | Long time no see | Please | Thank you | Excuse me | Sorry | Yes, No | Maybe | Goodbye | Bon voyage

Getting to know people

Pleased to meet you | What's your name? | Where are you from?

Language difficulties

Do you understand? | I understand | I don't understand | Please say that again | Please speak more slowly | Please write it down | Do you speak English? | Do you speak [your language]? | I'm learning [your language] | Do you speak a language other than [your own]? | Speak to me in [your language] | How do you say ... in [your language]? | I don't know

Difficult situations

Go away! | Leave me alone! | Help! | Fire! | Stop! | Call the police!

Special occasions

Merry Christmas | Happy New Year | Happy Easter | Happy Birthday | Congratulations

Other phrases

Good luck | Cheers! | Have a nice day | Have a nice weekend | Bon appetit | I would like ... | How much is this? | Would you like to dance? | Do you come here often? | Where's the toilet? | Get well soon | I miss you | I love you | This gentleman/lady will pay for everything | One language is never enough

Silly phrases

My hovercraft is full of eels | Stop the world, I want to get off! | Say cheese! | Colorless green ideas sleep furiously | I am the king of the chickens | Thingamajig

Multilingual Phrase Finder

The phrase finder enables you to view the useful phrases in any combination of two languages. The phrases are available in over 300 different languages.

Telling the time

Telling the time | Days of the week | Months of the year | Seasons

Weather words | Family words | Terms of endearment | Idioms | Tongue twisters | Proverbs and sayings | Signs | Compass directions | Names of the seven dwarfs | Zodiac signs | Computer parts | Animal sounds

Phrases by language

  1. Abkhaz, Acholi, Adyghe, Afrikaans, Aklan, Albanian (Gheg), Albanian (Tosk), Aleut, Alsatian, Altay, American Norwegian, Amharic, Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Lebanese), Arabic (Modern Standard), Arabic (Moroccan), Aragonese, Aramaic, Aranese, Arapaho, Armenian (Eastern), Armenian (Western), Aromanian, Assamese, Assyrian, Asturian, Atikamekw, Aymara, Azerbaijani

  2. Balinese, Bambara, Bamum, Banjar, Bashkir, Basque, Bassa, Batsbi, Bavarian, Belarusian, Bemba, Bengali, Bete (Daloa), Bhojpuri, Bikol, Bislama, Blaan, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Burmese

  3. Cape Verdean Creole, Capiznon. Catalan, Cebuano, Chabacano de Cavite, Chabacano de Zamboanga, Chamorro (Guam dialect), Chamorro (North Marianas dialect), Chechen, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chichewa, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Hakka), Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Shanghainese), Chinese (Taiwanese), Chinese (Teochew), Chipewyan, Choctaw, Chokwe, Chuukese, Chuvash , Cimbrian, Comanche, Cornish, Corsican, Croatian, Cree, Cumbric, Cuyonon, Czech

  4. Dangme, Danish, Dari, Dholuo, Duala, Dusun (Central), Dutch, Dzongkha

  5. Efik, Elfdalian, English (British), Erzya, Estonian, Ewe, Extremaduran

  6. Faroese, Fijian, Finnish, Flemish (West), French, Frisian (North - Bökingharde), Frisian (North - Sylt), Frisian (Saterland), Frisian (West), Friulian, Fula

  7. Galician, Gallo, Garhwali, Garifuna, Gascon, Georgian, German, Gothic, Greek (Ancient), Greek (Modern), Greenlandic, Guaraní, Gujarati

  8. Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Herero, Hiligaynon, Hindi, Hmong (White), Hungarian

  9. Iban, Icelandic, Igbo, Ilocano, Indonesian, Inuktitut, Iñupiaq, Irish (Gaelic), Italian

  10. Jamaican, Japanese, Javanese, Jenesch, Jèrriais

  11. Kabiye, Kabyle, Kadazan (Coastal), Kalmyk, Kam, Kannada, Kaqchikel, Karuk, Kashmiri, Kashubian, Kazakh, Khmer, Khoekhoe (Nama), Kichwa, Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Kiribati, Kokborok, Korean, Kumyk, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Kurdish (Sorani), Kven, Kyrgyz

  12. Ladino, Lakota (Sioux), Lao, Latin, Latvian, Laz, Lezgi, Limburgish, Lingala, Lithuanian, Livonian, Livvi-Karelian, Loma, Low Saxon, Lozi, Luganda, Luxembourgish

  13. Macedonian, Magahi, Maithili, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Maldivian, Maltese, Mam, Manipuri, Manx, Māori, Marathi, Marshallese, Mauritian Creole, Mazandarani, Míkmaq, Moksha, Monégasque, Mongolian, Mossi, Mozarabic Muscogee (Creek-Seminole),

  14. Nahuatl, Navajo, Ndebele (Northern - South Africa), Ndebele (Northern - Zimbabwe), Ndebele (Southern), Neolatin, Nepali, Newar, Niuean, Nkore, Nogai, Norfuk, Northern Sotho, Norwegian

  15. Occitan, Odia (Oriya), Ojibwe, Okinawan, Old East Slavic, Old English, Omaha, Oʼodham, Oromo, Oshiwambo, Ossetian

  16. Palauan, Papiamento, Pashto, Pennsylvania German/Dutch, Persian (Farsi), Picard, Pohnpeian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (European), Punjabi

  17. Quechua

  18. Rapa Nui, Réunion Creole, Romani, Romanian, Romanian Tatar, Romansh, Russian, Rusyn

  19. Sakha (Yakut), Samala, Sámi (Lule), Sámi (Northern), Sámi (Southern), Samoan, Samogitian, Sanskrit, Sardinian (Campidanese), Sardinian (Logodorese), Sauk, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Serrano, Sesotho, Shona, Sicilian, Sierra Leone Creole, Sindhi, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian (Lower), Sorbian (Upper), Spanish, Stellingwarfs, Sundanese, Swahili, Swati, Swedish, Swiss German (Basel dialect), Swiss German (Chur dialect), Swiss German (Lucerne dialect), Sylheti

  20. Tabassaran, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tajik, Tamasheq, Tamil, Tatar, Telugu, Tem, Tetum, Thai, Tibetan, Tigrinya, Tiv, Tokelauan, Tok Pisin, Tongan, Tsez, Tsonga, Tsotsil, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen, Tuvaluan, Tuvan, Twi

  21. Udi, Udmurt, Ukrainian, Umbundu, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek

  22. Vai, Venda, Venetian, Veps, Värmlandic, Vietnamese, Võro

  23. Walloon, Wayuu, Welsh, Welsh (Gwentian), West Jutlandic, Westrobothnian, Wolof, Wymsorys

  24. Xhosa

  25. Yapese, Yiddish, Yolngu, Yongbei Zhuang, Yoruba, Yucatec Maya

  26. Zazaki, Zulu

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Phrases in constructed languages (conlangs)

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Index by phrase | Index by language | Index by language family | Multilingual Phrase Finder | Silly phrases

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Articles

Writing systems | Language and languages | Language learning | Pronunciation | Learning vocabulary | Language acquisition | Motivation and reasons to learn languages | Arabic | Basque | Celtic languages | Chinese | English | Esperanto | French | German | Greek | Hebrew | Indonesian | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Latin | Portuguese | Russian | Sign Languages | Spanish | Swedish | Other languages | Minority and endangered languages | Constructed languages (conlangs) | Reviews of language courses and books | Language learning apps | Teaching languages | Languages and careers | Being and becoming bilingual | Language and culture | Language development and disorders | Translation and interpreting | Multilingual websites, databases and coding | History | Travel | Food | Other topics | Spoof articles | How to submit an article


Writing, writing systems and other visual communication systems

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Language and linguistics

Academic papers / articles

Other articles related to language and linguistics

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Language learning

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Pronunciation

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Learning vocabulary

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Language acquisition

Articles about how language is acquired, especially by children


Motivation and reasons to learn languages

How to motivate yourself and others to learn languages, and reasons to learn languages.

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Articles about particular languages

Arabic language


Basque language

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Celtic languages

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Chinese language(s)

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English language

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Esperanto language

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French language

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German language

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Greek language

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Hebrew language

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Indonesian language

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Italian language

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Japanese language

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Korean language

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Latin language

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Polish language

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Portuguese language

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Russian language

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Sign languages

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Spanish language

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Swedish language

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Thai language

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Other languages

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Minority and endangered languages

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Constructed languages (conlangs)

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Reviews of language courses and books

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Language learning apps

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Teaching languages (and other things)

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Languages and careers

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Being and becoming bilingual and multilingual

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Language and culture

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Language development and disorders

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Translation, interpreting and localization

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Multilingual websites, databases and coding

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History

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Travel

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Food

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Other topics

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Spoof articles

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Links

If you find a link that is no longer working or that has moved, or would like to add a new link to this page, please contact me

Links for individual languages

Ancient Egyptian | Arabic | Celtic languages | Chinese | Dutch | English | French | German | Greek | Hebrew | Hindi | Irish | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Latin | Manx | Persian (Farsi) | Portuguese | Russian | Scottish Gaelic | Spanish | Welsh | Tolkien's languages and alphabets

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Offshoots of Omniglot

What people are saying about Omniglot

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Search this site

 

Please note

Omniglot is not affiliated with any academic or other institution. It is the creation of one man, Simon Ager, with corrections, suggestions and additional material provided by visitors. It started way back in 1998 as a hobby which I worked on in my spare time, but since June 2008 I have been working on it full-time and it is now my main source of income.

While I make every effort to ensure that the information is accurate, there will inevitably be some errors and mistakes. If you spot any, please contact me. Your input is always welcome and very much appreciated.

If you would like to use any of the information or images from this site, please contact me.

All the material is available to you free of charge. I also do my best to answer your questions and provide advice on a range of writing and language-related topics.

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