Writing Systems of the World's Languages Morris Alper [email protected] In English, words look like this: word Tibetan: Korean: Why do we use different scripts? Do these scripts work differently? How are they spread out in the world? Agenda: 1. Introduction 2. Typology — types of writing systems 3. History of writing 4. World distribution Introduction Introduction ~7,000 spoken languages in the world (SIL) spoken language ● universal, unlearned ● "language" — English, Spanish, Japanese written language ● minority, learned ● "writing system" (/ "script") — Latin alphabet, Japanese script