Alphabets & Writing Systems

[h1]Alphabets vs. Writing Systems[/h1]Believe it or not, there is a difference between an alphabet and a writing system. While you may think “Hey, an alphabet is a writing system, isn’t it,” you are correct, however there are a things that distinguish the two.

Alphabet

An alphabet is a system of writing where symbols or letters represent all the sounds of a language. An example of this would be the alphabet that we use to write English. Each letter has a specific sound that helps to pronounce a word. 

Some of the most commonly used alphabets across the world include:

  • Latin
  • Greek
  • Cyrillic
  • Armenian
  • Georgian
  • Korean

Writing System

As you can guess, a writing system is a little bit different than an alphabet. A writing system will often consist of the use of numbers, symbols or characters to help a reader or writer express a word or an idea.

Chinese is one of the most commonly used writing systems today.

Over the next couple weeks we will be exploring more about writing systems and alphabets, along with the most commonly used systems and alphabets.

References

http://www.ancientscripts.com/ws_types.html

http://www.sixtyvocab.com/blog/many-alphabets-world/