List of constructed scripts
Encyclopedia
Constructed script
A constructed script is a new writing system specifically created by an individual or group, rather than having evolved as part of a language or culture like a natural script...
is in alphabetical order. ISO 15924 codes beginning with "Qa" are unofficial codes that have been taken from the Proposed script codes for the ConScript Unicode Registry by Doug Ewell. This list does not include any shorthand systems.
| Script name | ISO 15924 | Year created | Creator | Comments | |
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| Aiha Always Coming Home Always Coming Home is a novel by Ursula K. Le Guin published in 1985. This novel is about a cultural group of humans—the Kesh—who "might be going to have lived a long, long time from now in Northern California." Always Coming Home is a novel by Ursula K. Le Guin published in 1985. This novel is... |
Qaba | 1985 | Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction... |
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| Alphabet 26 | 1950 | Bradbury Thompson Bradbury Thompson Bradbury Thompson was an influential American graphic designer and art director of the twentieth century.-Life and work:Communication Arts said of Bradbury "When it came to the blending of photography, typography and color, nobody did it better than Bradbury Thompson..... |
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| Alzetjan | Qaaa | mid 1980s | Herman Miller | ||
| Amman-Iar | Qabn | David Bell | |||
| Armenian Armenian alphabet The Armenian alphabet is an alphabet that has been used to write the Armenian language since the year 405 or 406. It was devised by Saint Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader, and contained originally 36 letters. Two more letters, օ and ֆ, were added in the Middle Ages... |
Armn | 405/406 | Saint Mesrob Saint Mesrob Saint Mesrop Mashtots was an Armenian monk, theologian and linguist. He is best known for having invented the Armenian alphabet, which was a fundamental step in strengthening the Armenian Church, the government of the Armenian Kingdom, and ultimately the bond between the Armenian Kingdom and... |
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| aUI AUI (language) aUI is a constructed language credited to John W. Weilgart, created in the beginning of the 1960s. Because of its structure it is classified as a logical language or philosophical language.- History :... |
Qabi | early 1960s | John W. Weilgart | ||
| Aurebesh | 1993 | Stephen Crane (West End Games) http://www.echostation.com/features/aurebesh.htm | |||
| Blissymbol | Blis | 1949 | Charles K. Bliss Charles K. Bliss Charles K. Bliss was a chemical engineer and semiotician, inventor of Blissymbolics. He was born in Austria, and got the Australian citizenship.-Early life:... |
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| Braille Braille The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two... |
Brai | 1821 | Louis Braille Louis Braille Louis Braille was the inventor of braille, a system of reading and writing used by people who are blind or visually impaired... |
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| Canadian Aboriginal syllabics Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Canadian Aboriginal syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is a family of abugidas used to write a number of Aboriginal Canadian languages of the Algonquian, Inuit, and Athabaskan language families.... |
Cans | 1840s | James Evans | ||
| Cherokee Cherokee syllabary The Cherokee syllabary is a syllabary invented by Sequoyah to write the Cherokee language in the late 1810s and early 1820s. His creation of the syllabary is particularly noteworthy in that he could not previously read any script. He first experimented with logograms, but his system later developed... |
Cher | 1819 | Sequoyah Sequoyah Sequoyah , named in English George Gist or George Guess, was a Cherokee silversmith. In 1821 he completed his independent creation of a Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible... |
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| Chinook | Dupl | 1891 | Father Jean Marie Raphael LeJeune | Adaptation of Duployé Shorthand | |
| Cirth Cirth The Cirth are the letters of an semi-artificial script which was invented by J. R. R. Tolkien for the constructed languages he devised and used in his works. The initial C in Cirth is pronounced as a K, never as an S.... |
Cirt | J. R. R. Tolkien J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,... |
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| Clear Script | 1648 | Zaya Pandit Zaya Pandit Zaya Pandita or Namkhaijantsan was a Buddhist missionary priest and scholar of Oirat origin who is the most prominent Oirat Buddhist scholar.... |
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| Coorgi-Cox alphabet Coorgi-Cox alphabet The Coorgi-Cox alphabet is an alphabet developed by the linguist Gregg M. Cox and is used by a number of individuals within Kodagu. It is used for the endemic language Kodava, also known sometimes as Coorgi, a minority language.... |
2005 | Gregg M. Cox | |||
| Cyrillic | Cyrl / Cyrs | ~940 | Saint Cyril Saints Cyril and Methodius Saints Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers born in Thessaloniki in the 9th century. They became missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Bulgaria, Great Moravia and Pannonia. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they... or his students |
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| DanceWriting DanceWriting DanceWriting is a form of dance notation. Developed in 1972 by Valerie Sutton, it is part of a greater body of work called MovementWriting or the International Movement-Writing Alphabet.... |
1972 | Valerie Sutton Valerie Sutton Valerie Sutton is a developer of movement notation and a former dancer.She was born in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City, the daughter of a physicist father and a poet/model mother... |
part of the IMWA International Movement Writing Alphabet The International Movement Writing Alphabet is an ordered set of symbols used to record movement, developed by Valerie Sutton. It was originally designated Suttons's Sign Symbol Sequence. The IMWA is used in MovementWriting which consists of five subdivisions:#SignWriting, for writing the... |
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| Deseret Deseret alphabet The Deseret alphabet is a phonemic English spelling reform developed in the mid-19th century by the board of regents of the University of Deseret under the direction of Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.In public statements, Young claimed the... |
Dsrt | mid-19th century | University of Deseret | ||
| Engsvanyáli | Qaae | M. A. R. Barker M. A. R. Barker Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker is a retired professor of Urdu and South Asian Studies who created one of the first roleplaying games, Empire of the Petal Throne, and has authored several fantasy/science fantasy novels based in his associated world setting of Tékumel.-Early life:Born in Spokane,... |
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| Ewellic | Qabe | 1980 | Doug Ewell | ||
| Ferengi | Qabf | Timothy Miller | |||
| Fraser Fraser alphabet The Fraser alphabet or Old Lisu Alphabet is an artificial script invented around 1915 by Sara Ba Thaw, a Karen preacher from Myanmar, and improved by the missionary James O. Fraser, to write the Lisu language. It is a single-case alphabet.... |
1915 | James O. Fraser James O. Fraser James Outram Fraser was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China with the China Inland Mission. He pioneered work among the Lisu people of Southwestern China in the early part of the 20th century.- First years in Yunnan:... |
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| Gargoyle | Qaag | 1990 | Herman Miller | ||
| Glagolitic | Glag | 862/863 | Saints Cyril and Methodius Saints Cyril and Methodius Saints Cyril and Methodius were two Byzantine Greek brothers born in Thessaloniki in the 9th century. They became missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Bulgaria, Great Moravia and Pannonia. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they... |
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| HamNoSys | 1985 | University of Hamburg | |||
| Hangul Hangul Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean... |
Hang | 1443 | King Sejong | ||
| Ilianore | Qaal | Jeff Smith | |||
| International Phonetic Alphabet International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic... |
Latn | 1888 | International Phonetic Association International Phonetic Association The International Phonetic Association is an organization that promotes the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science. The IPA’s major contribution to phonetics is the International Phonetic Alphabet—a notational standard for the phonetic... |
Regarded as being an extension of the Latin script | |
| Kazat ?Akkorou | Qabk | Herman Miller | |||
| Kazvarad | Qabv | Herman Miller | |||
| Kelwathi | Qabw | Herman Miller | |||
| Kēlen Kēlen Kēlen is a constructed language created by Sylvia Sotomayor. It is an attempt to create a truly alien language by violating a key linguistic universal — namely that all human languages have verbs. In Kēlen, relationships between the noun phrases making up the sentence are expressed by one... |
1980 | Sylvia Sotomayor | The Kēlen Writing System http://www.terjemar.net/writing.php | ||
| Kinya (galme xornaf variant) | Qaan | Maurizio M. Gavoli | |||
| Kinya (soþne xornaf variant) | Qaao | Maurizio M. Gavoli | |||
| Kinya (tolle xornaf variant) | Qaat | Maurizio M. Gavoli | |||
| Klingon (KLI pIqaD) | Qaak | Astra Image Corporation | |||
| Klingon (Skybox pIqaD) | Skybox | ||||
| Klingon (Mandel script) | 1980 | Matt Jeffries | |||
| Mando'a | 2005 | Karen Traviss Karen Traviss Karen Traviss is a science fiction author, and full-time novelist from Wiltshire, England. Originally from the Portsmouth area, Traviss worked as both a journalist and defence correspondent before turning her attention to writing fiction. She also served in both the Territorial Army and the Royal... |
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| Mizarian | Qaam | Herman Miller | |||
| Monofon | Qabm | ~1996 | Steve T. Bett | ||
| Night writing Night writing Night writing was a system of code that used symbols of twelve dots arranged as two columns of six dots embossed on a square of paperboard, and is now remembered as the forerunner of Braille. It was designed by Charles Barbier in response to Napoleon's demand for a code that soldiers could use to... |
1819 | Charles Barbier Charles Barbier Charles Barbier de la Serre was the creator of night writing.Charles Barbier de la Serre was a Captain in the French Army during the early 19th century. "Ecriture Nocturne" was invented in response to Napoleon's demand for a code that soldiers could use to communicate silently and without light at... |
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| Nísklôz | Qabb | Herman Miller | |||
| N'Ko N'Ko N'Ko 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. The term N'Ko means 'I say' in all Manding languages.... |
Nkoo | 1949 | Solomana Kante Solomana Kante Soulemayne Kante or Solomana Kante was an African writer and inventor of the N'Ko alphabet for the Mande languages of West Africa... |
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| Olaetyan | Qabc | Herman Miller | |||
| Ophidian | Qabo | 1993 | Unknown | ||
| Phags-pa | Phag | 1269 | Drogön Chögyal Phagpa Drogön Chögyal Phagpa Zhogön Qögyä Pagba, Zhogoin Qoigyai Phagspa or Drogön Chögyal Phagpa , born Lochö Gyäcän or Lochoi Gyaicain , was the fifth leader of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He became the first vice-king of Tibet and played an important political role... |
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| Phaistos Phaistos Disc The Phaistos Disc is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the Greek island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age . It is about 15 cm in diameter and covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols... |
Qaap | 2nd millennium BC | Unknown | ||
| Pikto | Qabp | 1959 | John E. Williams | ||
| Pollard Pollard script The Pollard script, also known as Pollard Miao, is an abugida loosely based on the Latin alphabet and invented by Methodist missionary Sam Pollard. Pollard invented the script for use with A-Hmao, one of several dialects of the Hmong language. The script underwent a series of revisions until 1936,... |
Plrd | 1936 | Sam Pollard Sam Pollard - Sources used : — Dingle describes how Sam Pollard used positioning of vowel marks relative to consonants to indicate tones — Morrison recounts meeting Sam Pollard and his wife at the Bible Christian Mission in 1894 — reports on an article in The Sunday Times describing the... |
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| Quikscript Quikscript Quikscript is an alphabet specifically designed for the English language. Quikscript replaces traditional English orthography, which uses the Latin alphabet, with completely new letters. It is phonemically regular, compact, and comfortably and quickly written... |
1966 | Ronald Kingsley Read Ronald Kingsley Read Ronald Kingsley Read was one of four contestants chosen to share the prize money for the design of the Shavian alphabet, a completely new alphabet intended for writing English... |
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| Røzhxh | Qaar | Herman Miller | |||
| Rynnan | Qabr | Herman Miller | |||
| Saklor | Qabg | Herman Miller | |||
| Sarati Sarati Sarati is an artificial script created by J. R. R. Tolkien. According to Tolkien's mythology, the Sarati alphabet was invented by the Elf Rúmil of Tirion.- External history :... |
Sara | 1910s | J. R. R. Tolkien J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,... |
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| Sarkai | Qabj | Herman Miller | |||
| Serivelna | Qabq | Herman Miller | |||
| Seussian Latin Extensions | Qaas | 1955 | Theodor Geisel Theodor Geisel Theodor Geisel may refer to:* Dr. Seuss, American author* Theodor Geisel , German physicist... |
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| Shavian | Shaw | ~1960 | Ronald Kingsley Read Ronald Kingsley Read Ronald Kingsley Read was one of four contestants chosen to share the prize money for the design of the Shavian alphabet, a completely new alphabet intended for writing English... |
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| SignWriting SignWriting SignWriting is a system of writing sign languages. It is highly featural and visually iconic, both in the shapes of the characters, which are abstract pictures of the hands, face, and body, and in their spatial arrangement on the page, which does not follow a sequential order like the letters that... |
Sgnw | 1974 | Valerie Sutton Valerie Sutton Valerie Sutton is a developer of movement notation and a former dancer.She was born in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City, the daughter of a physicist father and a poet/model mother... |
part of the IMWA International Movement Writing Alphabet The International Movement Writing Alphabet is an ordered set of symbols used to record movement, developed by Valerie Sutton. It was originally designated Suttons's Sign Symbol Sequence. The IMWA is used in MovementWriting which consists of five subdivisions:#SignWriting, for writing the... |
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| Solresol Solresol Solresol is an artificial language devised by François Sudre, beginning in 1827. He published his major book on it, Langue musicale universelle, in 1866, though he had already been publicizing it for some years... |
Qabs | 1866 | Jean-François Sudre François Sudre Jean-François Sudre was a French author and musician born in Albi, France in 1787 and died in Paris in 1862.He is best known for his work on developing a musical language called Solresol, as well as patenting the Sudrophone.- External links :*... |
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| Soyombo Soyombo script The Soyombo script is an abugida developed by the Mongolian monk and scholar Bogdo Zanabazar in 1686 to write Mongolian.It can also be used to write Tibetan and Sanskrit.... |
1686 | Bogdo Zanabazar Bogdo Zanabazar Undur Geghen Zanabazar , born Eshidorji , was the first Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism for the Khalkha in Outer Mongolia. His name 'Zanabazar' is the Mongolian rendition of the Sanskrit 'Jnana-vajra' meaning thunderbolt of wisdom... |
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| Ssûraki | Qaau | Herman Miller | |||
| Stokoe notation Stokoe notation Stokoe notation is the first phonemic script used for sign languages. It was created by William Stokoe for American Sign Language , with Latin letters and numerals used for the shapes they have in fingerspelling, and iconic glyphs to transcribe the position, movement, and orientation of the hands... |
1960 | William Stokoe William Stokoe William C. Stokoe, Jr. was a scholar who researched American Sign Language extensively while he worked at Gallaudet University. He coined the term cherology, the equivalent of phonology for sign language .Stokoe graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY in 1941, and in... |
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| Streich | Qabh | Tommaso Donnarumma | |||
| Syai | Qaay | Brian Lilburn | |||
| Telarasso | Qabt | Herman Miller | |||
| Tengwar Tengwar The Tengwar are an artificial script created by J. R. R. Tolkien. In his fictional universe of Middle-earth, the tengwar were invented by the Elf Fëanor, and used first to write the Elven tongues: Quenya, Telerin, and also Valarin. Later a great number of languages of Middle-earth were written... |
Teng | 1930s | J. R. R. Tolkien J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,... |
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| Thelwik | Qabl | Herman Miller | |||
| Traumae | 1996 | Devine Lu Linvega | |||
| Unifon Unifon Unifon is a phonemic orthography for English designed in the mid-1950s by Dr. John R. Malone, a Chicago economist and newspaper equipment consultant. It was developed into a teaching aid to help children acquire reading and writing skills. Like the pronunciation key in a dictionary, Unifon matches... |
Qabu | mid-1950s | John R. Malone | ||
| Verdurian | Qaav | Mark Rosenfelder | |||
| Visible Speech Visible Speech Visible speech is the writing 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. The system is composed of symbols that show the position and movement of the throat, tongue, and lips as they... |
Visp | 1867 | Alexander Melville Bell Alexander Melville Bell Alexander Melville Bell was a teacher and researcher of physiological phonetics and was the author of numerous works on orthoepy and elocution.... |
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| Xaîni | Qabx | Paul Blake | |||
| Zarkhánd | Qabd | Herman Miller | |||
| Zírí:nka | Qaaz | Herman Miller |