alphabetical

[ˌælfəˈbɛɾɪkəl]

From Latin alphabēticus + -al. By surface analysis, alphabet + -ical.

But if an alphabeticall servility must be still urged, it may so fall out,

1644, John Milton, The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, page 31:


Traditional Chinese

/tɹəˈdɪʃənəl tʃaɪˈniːz/

Chinese written using the traditional form of Chinese characters, as opposed to Simplified Chinese (introduced by the PRC as script reform).

حُرُوف صِينِيَّة تَقْلِيدِيَّة

Chinese written using traditional characters


Simplified Chinese

Chinese written using the forms of Chinese characters introduced by the PRC as script reform. The characters are simplified (with a reduced number of strokes, etc.) compared to their pre-reform shapes.

حُرُوف صِينِيَّة مُبَسَّطَة

Chinese written using simplified characters


alphabet

From Middle English alphabete, borrowed from Late Latin alphabētum, from Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos), from ἄλφα (álpha) and βῆτα (bêta), the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, Α (A) and Β (B), lowercase forms α and β. The Greek names derived from aleph, the name of the Phoenician letter 𐤀 (ʾ, “ox”) and beth, the name of the letter 𐤁 (b, “house”), so called because they were pictograms of those objects, having developed from the Egyptian hieroglyphs F1 (𓃾) and pr (𓉐).
 Doublet of alfabeto.

The Greek alphabet has only twenty-four letters.

In the first year of school, pupils are taught to recite the alphabet.

The set of letters used when writing in a language.

алфавит

an ordered set of letters used in a language

A writing system in which letters represent phonemes. (Contrast e.g. logography, a writing system in which each character represents a word, and syllabary, in which each character represents a syllable.)

A writing system in which there are letters for the consonant and vowel phonemes. (Contrast e.g. abjad.)

(Internet slang, politics) An agent of the FBI, the CIA, or another such government agency.


Greek

en-proper noun

Greek (countable and uncountable, plural Greeks)

Inherited from Old English Grēcas (“Greeks”), variant of Crēcas, from Proto-West Germanic *Krēkō, from Latin Graecus of uncertain origin, perhaps derived from the toponym Γραῖα (Graîa) or from other Paleo-Balkanic forms from a tribal name Graii.
Greek in any case has the cognate Γραικός (Graikós), the mythological ancestor of the Γραίοι (Graíoi, “Graecians”). Germanic cognates include Dutch Griek, German Grieche. The ⟨g⟩ in English and Germanic cognates was restored under influence from French grec and classical Latin Graecus. The adjective dates to 14th-century Middle English, replacing Old English Grēċisċ (“Greekish”) and earlier Middle English Gregeis. In reference to fraternities and sororities, a clipping of earlier Greek-letter in reference to their usual names being initialisms of mottos in the Greek language. In reference to terms used to analysize financial derivatives, from their usual names consisting of Greek letters.

inh+

The language spoken by people of Greece, particularly, depending on context, Ancient Greek or Modern Greek.


Hebrew

en-noun

Hebrew (countable and uncountable, plural Hebrews)

From Middle English Ebreu, from Old French Ebreu, from Latin hebraeus or hebraicus, from Ancient Greek Ἑβραῖος (Hebraîos), from Aramaic עִבְרַי (ʿiḇray), from Hebrew עִבְרִי (ʿiḇrī́).

der

Hebrew עִבְרִי (ʿiḇrī́)

(uncountable) The writing system used in Hebrew language.


Thai

en-noun

Thai (countable and uncountable, plural Thai or Thais)

Borrowed from Thai ไทย (tai). Doublet of Tai and Dai.

(uncountable) The main language spoken in Thailand (closely related to Lao).


Arabic

General American, Canada, Mary–marry–merry merger

From Latin arabicus, from Arabia + -icus, from Ancient Greek Ἀραβία (Arabía), ultimately from the Arabic عَرَب (ʕarab).

We’d gone to Arabic school as children and taken lessons in the summer holidays, and I still read the news in Arabic, but it wasn’t like I practised reciting the written language any more, with its complex rhythms and grammatical structures.

2023, Isabella Hammad, Enter Ghost, Jonathan Cape, page 74:

A major Semitic language originating from the Arabian peninsula, and now spoken natively (in various spoken dialects, all sharing a single highly conservative standardized literary form) throughout large sections of the Middle East and North Africa.


International Phonetic Alphabet

the International Phonetic Alphabet (canonical)

/ˌɪntəˈnæʃ(ə)nəl fəˈnɛtɪk ˈælfəˌbɛt/

[ˌɪntəˈnæʃ(ə)nəɫ fəˈnɛtɪk ˈæɫfəˌbɛt]

/ˌɪntɚˈnæʃ(ə)n(ə)l fəˈnɛɾɪk ˈælfəˌbɛt/

[ˌɪntɚˈnæʃ(ə)n(ə)ɫ fəˈnɛɾɪk ˈæɫfəˌbɛt]

The International Phonetic Alphabet is commonly used in books about Shanghainese because none of the existing romanizations are very popular.

(phonetics, phonology) A standardized set of symbols for representing the sounds of human speech.

اَلْأَبْجَدِيَّة الصَّوْتِيَّة الدُّوَلِيَّة

الْأَلِفْبَائِيَّة الصَّوْتِيَّة الدُّوَلِيَّة

халкьуннал дянивсса фонетикалул алфавит

xalqʼunnal daˤniws:a fonetikalul alfawit

אינטערנאַציאָנאַלער פֿאָנעטישער אַלפֿאַבעט


romaji

romaji (countable and uncountable, plural romajis)

/ˈɹəʊməd͡ʒi/

/ɹəʊˈmɑːd͡ʒi/

Transliteration from Japanese ローマ字(じ) (rōmaji, literally “Roman letters”).

ja-r

The romaji of the word ローマ字 is “rōmaji”.

The katakana and the hiragana are syllabic forms of writing derived from Chinese characters, while the romaji are the letters used in writing most European languages.

For example, in Japanese advertisements sexy and my house often appear in romaji, making the underlying concepts of eroticism and private ownership more exotic.

2006, Ralph Fasold, Jeffrey Connor-Linton, An Introduction to Language and Linguistics, page 410:

Today people ordinarily use kana-kanji conversion systems for inputting Japanese text. Because many of them can touch-type the romajis for the kanas, the O-code with kana-kanji conversion is more accessible.

2011, T Okadome, J Nakajima, S Ito, K Kakusho, “An Accessible Coded Input Method for Japanese Extensive Writing”, in Proceedings of the Workshop on Advances in Text Input Methods:

A representation of Japanese in Latin script.


hanja

Borrowed from Korean 한자(漢字) (hanja), from Middle Chinese 漢字 (MC xanH dziH, “Chinese character”, literally “Han Chinese + character”).
Compare Cantonese 漢字 /汉字 (hon³ zi⁶), Japanese 漢字 (kanji), Mandarin 漢字 /汉字 (hànzì), Vietnamese Hán tự. Doublet of kanji and Hanzi.

ltc-l

The Han character script used to write Korean, particularly in classical literature.

hanja

Any individual Han character as used in the Korean language.


Kannada

From Kannada ಕನ್ನಡ (kannaḍa). Doublet of Canara.

The Dravidian language that is the official language of the state of Karnataka, India.

The alphasyllabary used to write the aforementioned language, along with Konkani and Tulu.


Armenian

(uncountable) The language of Armenia and the Armenian people, whose older stages are Old Armenian and Middle Armenian.


Telugu

The train rumbled between narrow buildings with flat roofs and multicoloured walls, Telugu script crawling like creepers over them.

2019, Namwali Serpell, The Old Drift, Hogarth, page 497:


Lao

en-noun

Lao (countable and uncountable, plural Lao or Laos)

(countable) A Tai ethnic group native to Southeast Asia.

(uncountable) The official language of Laos that is closely related to Thai.


Lao

Of, from, or pertaining to Laos, the Lao people or their Kra-Dai Lao language.

Laosiaans

of, from, or pertaining to Laos, the people or their language


Lao

A barangay of Ormoc, Leyte, Philippines.


kwukyel

Borrowed from kwūkyel, the Yale romanization of Korean 구결(口訣) (gugyeol), from Middle Chinese 口訣 (MC khuwX kwet, “mnemonic rhyme”), from 口 (kǒu, “mouth”) + 訣 /诀 (jué, “rhymed saying”).

compound

Abbreviated Chinese characters used to represent Korean grammatical items, inserted into a Chinese-character (Classical Chinese or itwu) text.


Georgian

en-noun

Georgian (countable and uncountable, plural Georgians)

/ˈd͡ʒɔːd͡ʒən/

/ˈd͡ʒɔɹd͡ʒən/

/ˈd͡ʒɔʊ.d͡ʒən/

/ˈd͡ʒoːd͡ʒən/

(uncountable) The language of Georgia, a country in Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

(countable) A person or a descendant of a person from Georgia, a country in Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

United States of America
United States of America

(countable) A native or resident of the state of Georgia in the United States of America.

Iberian

native or resident of the Eurasian country of Georgia

goober

native or resident of the US state of Georgia


Georgian

/ˈd͡ʒɔːd͡ʒən/

/ˈd͡ʒɔɹd͡ʒən/

/ˈd͡ʒɔʊ.d͡ʒən/

/ˈd͡ʒoːd͡ʒən/

Of, from, or pertaining to the U.S. State of Georgia or its Georgian English dialect.


Burmese

Of or relating to Burma (Myanmar) or its people or language.


Gothic

From Late Latin gothicus (“Gothic, barbaric”), from Ancient Greek Γοτθικός (Gotthikós), from Ancient Greek Γότθοι (Gótthoi, “Goths”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”), proposed to derive from unattested Gothic *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌰 (*guta). Equivalent to Goth + -ic. The various usages of the adjective are introduced nearly simultaneously in the first half of the 17th century. The literal meaning “of the Goths” is found in the 1611 preface of the King James Bible, in reference to the Gothicke tongue. The generalized meaning of “Germanic, Teutonic” appears in the 1640s. Reference to the medieval period in Western Europe, and specifically the architecture of that period (“barbaric style”, initially a term of abuse), also appears in the 1640s, as does reference to “Gothic characters” or “Gothic letters” in typography.

der

An extinct Germanic language, once spoken by the Goths.


Gothic

en-adj

Gothic (comparative more Gothic, superlative most Gothic)

more Gothic (comparative)
most Gothic (superlative)

готически

of the type formerly used for printing German

“[W]hat he holds of all things to be most gothic, is gallantry to the women.”

1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, II.iii.6:

Enormities which gleam like comets through the darkness of gothic and superstitious ages.

1812 letter, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prose Works, volume II, quoted in OED, published 1888, page 384:

(figuratively) Barbarous, rude, unpolished, belonging to the “Dark Ages”, medieval as opposed to classical.

Gothic letters

black letter
black letter#English:_typography

(typography, England) Synonym of black letter


Gothic

One hundred fifty Gothics sold over 1.5 million copies a month last spring.

1996, Nora Sayre, Sixties going on seventies, page 180:


Malayalam

From Malayalam മലയാളം (malayāḷaṁ), from മല (mala, “hill, mountain”) + അളം (aḷaṁ, “place”).

Padmanabhan uttered a command in Malayalam, the regional language.

2012 April 30, Jake Halpern, “The Secret of the Temple”, in The New Yorker:

A Dravidian language spoken in the states of Kerala and Lakshadweep, India.


Gujarati

/ˌɡʊd͡ʒəˈrɑːti/

/ˌɡuːd͡ʒəˈrɑːti/

Borrowed from Gujarati ગુજરાતી (gujrātī).

The Indic language spoken in the state of Gujarat, India


Sinhalese

en-noun

Sinhalese (countable and uncountable, plural Sinhalese)

(uncountable) The Indo-Aryan language of the Sinhalese people.

Some of these forms are no longer in current use


Tamil

Tamil (countable and uncountable, plural Tamils)

Borrowed from Tamil தமிழ் (tamiḻ, “Tamil”); see that entry for theories.

(uncountable) A Dravidian language spoken in the state of Tamil Nadu, India and in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia.


Bengali

Bengali (countable and uncountable, plural Bengalis)

Equivalent to Bengal + -i. Compare Assamese বঙালী (boṅali), Bengali বাঙ্গালী (baṅgali), Hindi बंगाली (baṅgālī), Classical Persian بنگالی (bangālī).

(uncountable) A language spoken in Bangladesh and the states of Assam, Tripura and West Bengal, India.

बंगाली भाषा

baṅgālī bhāṣā

बाङ्गला भाषा

bāṅgalā bhāṣā


Khmer

From Khmer ខ្មែរ (khmae).
Attributed to the Pali term khemara (“one who is wholesome”). The elision form, ក្មេរ (kmera), is found in ancient stone inscriptions, or a borrowing from Northern Khmer เขมร (/khmɛːr/).

An abugida used to write the Khmer language and sometimes Pali.


Cherokee

/ˌt͡ʃɛ.ɹəˈkiː/

Most likely from the Cherokee autonym ᏣᎳᎩ (tsalagi). Derivation from a Choctaw exonym meaning "those who live in caves" (compare chiluk (“cave”)) has also been suggested — the Iroquois term for the Cherokee was Oyata'ge'ronon (“inhabitants of the cave country”) — as has derivation from a Creek term for "person(s) who speak(s) a non-Creek language" (see celokketv (“to speak a non-creek language”)).
Whatever its origin, the ethnonym entered European languages at an early date, perhaps as early as the 1670s; in Spanish, the people are called the Tchalaquei as early as 1755.

census-designated place
census-designated place

A census-designated place in Swain County and Jackson County, North Carolina, capital of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

A city, the county seat of Alfalfa County, Oklahoma.

An unincorporated community in Grainger County, Tennessee.

An unincorporated community in San Saba County, Texas.

An unincorporated community in Hull, Marathon County, Wisconsin.


katakana

katakana (countable and uncountable, plural katakana or katakanas)

/ˌkætəˈkænə/

/ˌkætəˈkɑːnə/

/ˌkɑtəˈkɑːnə/

(uncountable) A Japanese syllabary used when writing words borrowed from foreign languages other than Chinese, specific names of plants and animals and other jargon, onomatopoeia, or to emphasize a word or phrase. Also used to write the Ainu language.


Glagolitic alphabet

(linguistics) The Glagolitic writing system, the oldest known Slavonic alphabet.


hiragana

hiragana (countable and uncountable, plural hiraganas or hiragana)

/ˌhɪ.ɹəˈɡæ.nə/

/ˌhɪ.ɹəˈɡɑː.nə/

(uncountable) The main syllabary for the Japanese language, used to represent native Japanese words, including particles, and when kanji is used, to represent verb and adjective endings.


shinjitai

Transliteration from Japanese 新(しん)字(じ)体(たい) (shinjitai).

Coordinate term: kyūjitai

However, when a traditional “correct” radical has been obscured by the postwar adoption of a simplified form (shinjitai), that radical is simply ignored.

1992, The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese, volume 26, issue 1, page 47:

The simplified form of Japanese kanji used after 1947.


Aramaic

/ˌæ.ɹəˈmeɪ.ɪk/

/ˌæɹ.əˈmeɪ.ɪk/

/ˌɛɹ.əˈmeɪ.ɪk/

From Aram, the place settled by Aramaeans; from the Aramaic ארם, ܐܪܡ (ʾarām).

ܐܪܡܝܐ

ʾārāmāyā, ʾărammāyā

A subfamily of languages in the Northwest Semitic language group, including, but not limited to:

The language of the Aramaeans from the tenth century BC: often called Old Aramaic.

The language of portions of the Hebrew Bible, mainly the books of Ezra and Daniel: often called Biblical Aramaic.

Jewish Palestinian Aramaic
Jewish Palestinian Aramaic

The language of Jesus of Nazareth: a form of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic or Galilean Aramaic.

Jewish Babylonian Aramaic
Jewish Babylonian Aramaic

The language of Jewish targums, Midrash and the Talmuds, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic.

The liturgical language of various Christian churches: often called Syriac.

The liturgical language of the Mandaeans: usually called Mandaic.


abugida

/ɑːbuˈɡiːdə/

First use appears c. 1961. See cite below.

азбугида

writing system — see also alphasyllabary

Words are entered under the Abugida system.

1961, Haile Sellassie I University (contributor), University College Review - Volume 1, Issue 1, page 137:

1997 [Routledge], Peter T. Daniels, 2: Scripts of Semitic Languages, Robert Hetzron (editor), The Semitic Languages, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2005, Transferred to Digital Printing, unnumbered page,
An abugida is a script that uses characters for CV syllables wherein the several characters for some consonant plus the language's array of vowels are modifications of the character for that consonant followed by the unmarked vowel (phonemically /a/).

In an abugida, each consonant carries an inherent vowel, usually /a/.

2007, Unicode Consortium, The Unicode Standard 5.0, Addison-Wesley, page 200:

(linguistics) A kind of syllabary (syllabic alphabet) in which a symbol or glyph representing a syllable contains parts representing a vowel and a consonant, such that symbols for syllables not including the default vowel are generated by adding a common notation to indicate the vowel that it does include.

1997 [Routledge], Peter T. Daniels, 2: Scripts of Semitic Languages, Robert Hetzron (editor), The Semitic Languages, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2005, Transferred to Digital Printing, unnumbered page,
For the scripts of the Semitic languages, five categories are needed: logography, syllabary, abjad, alphabet, and abugida. A sixth, featural script, appears when Arabic script is adapted to non-Semitic languages. […] (The English word "abugida" is borrowed from the Amharic term for the letters of the script when taken in the order known from the Ge'ez transliterations of the Hebrew letter names found in the superscriptions of the sections of Psalm 119, as used in the liturgy; it takes the first four consonants and the first four vowels in their traditional order of presentation.)

2015, Patricia Donegan, 1: The Emergence of Phonological Representation, Brian MacWhinney, William O'Grady (editors, The Handbook of Language Emergence, John Wiley & Sons (Wiley Blackwell), page 39,
The widespread use and easy learnability of alphabetic writing systems, the typical arrangement of syllabic or abugida phoneme classes (as with Japanese kana, or devanagari), rhyme and alliteration, folk naming of correlative phoneme sets (like the “hard” and “soft” consonant groups of Slavic languages), differential learning of L2 sounds that can and cannot be readily identified with an L1 phoneme (Best, McRoberts, and Sithole, Werker and Tees, 1984b; Best and Tyler, 2007) - all assure us that phonemic perception and representation are not merely a result of alphabetic writing.

(linguistics) A kind of syllabary (syllabic alphabet) in which a symbol or glyph representing a syllable contains parts representing a vowel and a consonant, typically such that symbols for different syllables are generated by adding, altering or removing the vowel portion, often by applying a diacritic to a stable consonant symbol.


Ogham

Borrowed from Irish ogham, from Middle Irish ogam, from Proto-Celtic *ogmos (“furrow, path”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂óǵmos.
The Irish word is frequently folk-etymologized as og-úaim, referring to ogham being supposedly made by the point of a sharp weapon, but this approach faces serious phonological and morphological problems in that:
* The name of ogham and the supposed second element (úaimm (“seam”)?) inflected very differently in Early Irish, "ogham" being an o-stem and the second element being a neuter n-stem.
* Middle Irish ogmóir (“skilled in ogham”) should have a vowel in between the g and m because vowels lengthened by compensatory lengthening after consonant loss are usually not syncopated in Early Irish.

m+

The rectangular sandstone rock that Graham Senior had discovered was inscribed in ogham, an alphabet used in the early medieval period primarily for writing in the Irish language.

2024 May 8, Dalya Alberge, “Teacher finds stone with ancient ogham writing from Ireland in Coventry garden”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

An ancient Celtic alphabet historically used to write Primitive Irish.


Oriya

Odia, the language spoken in the state of Odisha, India.


Runic

From rune + -ic, because such languages were written using runes.

So likewise a day comes when the Runic Thor, with his Eddas, must withdraw into dimness; and many an African Mumbo-Jumbo and Indian Pawpaw be utterly abolished.

1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Symbols”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 155:

(nonstandard, lax) Any of the ancient Germanic languages which were written using runes.


rune

→ Mandarin: 盧恩 /卢恩 (lú'ēn)

Borrowed from Old Norse rún, which is from Proto-Germanic *rūnō (“letter, literature, secret”), which is borrowed either from Proto-Celtic *rūnā or from the same source as it; compare Dutch rune, German Rune, Raune, Danish rune and Swedish runa. Compare roun.

der

Go language defines the type rune as an alias for the type int32 to represent a Unicode code point. A string in Go is a sequence of runes.

2016, Shiju Varghese, Go Recipes, Apress, →ISBN, page 12:

programming language
programming language

(programming, in the Go programming language) A Unicode code point.


shorthand

en-verb

shorthand (third-person singular simple present shorthands, present participle shorthanding, simple past and past participle shorthanded)

shorthands (present singular third-person)
shorthanding (participle present)
shorthanded (participle past)
shorthanded (past)

The noun is derived from short + hand (“handwriting; style of penmanship”). The verb is derived from the noun.

compound

All the time she'd pretended to be fiddling with her purse over there behind the man, she'd been shorthanding him down—every word, every quotation, every date, every name.

1947, Bill [i.e., Elijah William] Cunningham, The Pearl of Her Sex, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 23:

Most everything is in the safe on digital media, but there were some sessions he didn't record. He'd just shorthanded his notes during and after the sessions. I never learned shorthand, so there's no way I could decipher most of it, if you know what I mean.

2012, J. L. Dobias, chapter 19, in Cripple Mode: Hot Electric, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, pages 383–384:

(transitive) To render (spoken or written words) into shorthand.


kyūjitai

Transliteration from Japanese 旧(きゅう)字(じ)体(たい) (kyūjitai, literally “old character form”).

ja-r

Coordinate term: shinjitai

Although the kyūjitai kanji were not banned, the obsolete kyūjitai kanji have become unreadable to more and more readers over time, thus making texts including them difficult for modern readers, but at least there is a recognized mapping from new form to old form.

2020, Stewart Arneil, “Encoding Disappearing Characters: The Case of Twentieth-Century Japanese-Canadian Names”, in Journal of the Text Encoding Initiative, number 12, Text Encoding Initiative Consortium, →DOI, →ISSN:

The traditional form of Japanese kanji used before 1947.


Cyrillic

Cyrillic script
Saints Cyril and Methodius

From the name Cyril + -ic, from Medieval Latin Cȳrillus, from Ancient Greek Κῡ́ρῐλλος (Kū́rĭllos), denoting Saint Cyril, who devised a predecessor to the Cyrillic script, the Glagolitic alphabet, and whose students later devised the Cyrillic script itself.

Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic#English

Denoting an alphabet devised for writing the Old Church Slavonic liturgical language, and its adaptations used for several languages of Eastern Europe and Asia; of or relating to this writing system.


Cyrillic

Russian is typically written in Cyrillic.

The Cyrillic alphabet or writing system.


Syriac

From Ancient Greek συριακός (suriakós), an adjective pertaining to Συρία (Suría), the Greek name for Aram, and probably based on the name Assyria.

Syriac Orthodox Church
Syriac Orthodox Church


ICAO spelling alphabet

Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.

The ICAO radiotelephony spelling alphabet of the International Civil Aviation Organization. This alphabet assigns names to letters of the alphabet for clearer enunciation (and for the same reason pronounces the numeral 9 as "niner"):


phonetic alphabet

en-noun

phonetic alphabet (plural phonetic alphabets)

International Phonetic Alphabet

A writing system used to unambiguously transcribe the sounds of human speech.


Latin alphabet

A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z

The 26-letter alphabet consisting of the following letters (presented in majuscule and minuscule pairs):

Any relatively minor variation of the 26-letter Latin alphabet.


Latinize

en-verb

Latinize (third-person singular simple present Latinizes, present participle Latinizing, simple past and past participle Latinized)

Latinizes (present singular third-person)
Latinizing (participle present)
Latinized (participle past)
Latinized (past)

Guglielmus is a Latinized form of William.

(transitive) To translate something into the Latin language; or make a word similar in appearance or form to a Latin word.

latinalaistaa

to make a word similar in appearance or form to a Latin word

The Cyrillic letter Л can be Latinized as L.

(transitive) To transliterate something into the characters of the Latin script; to Romanize

to Latinize the Church of England

(transitive) To make like the Roman Catholic Church or diffuse its ideas in.


hieroglyph

/ˈhaɪ.ɹəˌɡlɪf/

/ˈhaɪ.ɹəʊˌɡlɪf/

/ˈhaɪɚ.əˌɡlɪf/

First attested around 1598, a back-formation from hieroglyphic (1580s), from Middle French hiéroglyphique, from Late Latin hieroglyphicus, from Ancient Greek ἱερογλυφικός (hierogluphikós) (Plutarch τά ἱερογλυφικά [γράμματα] "hieroglyphic [writing]), ἱερόγλυφος (hierógluphos, “carver of hieroglyphs”) (Ptolemy), a compound of ἱερός (hierós, “sacred, holy”) and γλυφή (gluphḗ, “carved work”), a calque of Egyptian mdw-nṯr (“the god’s word”), nTr-md. By surface analysis, hiero- + glyph.

der

ἱερογλυφικός

Hieroglyphs were discovered on the wall inside the temple.

An element (individual sign or glyph) of a hieroglyphic writing system.


Chinese character

en-noun

Chinese character (plural Chinese characters)

There are no Publick Schools in all China (though ſome Writers have erroneouſly ſet forth the contrary) but every perſon chuſes his own Maſter, by whom he is taught in his Houſe, at his own charge. And in regard of the great difficulty in teaching the Chineſe Characters, in reſpect of their vaſt number and variety, it is impoſſible for one to teach many ſeveral perſons ; and therefore every Maſter of a Family takes an Intſructer into his Houſe for his Children, of whom if there be two or three to learn, they are as many as one Tutor can well teach.

1669, John Nievhoff, translated by John Ogilby, An Embassy from the Eaſt-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China, London: John Macock, page 163:

Had it not been for the casual discovery in the year 1625 of a deeply buried black marble tablet near Hsi-an containing nearly 1,700 Chinese characters, and a long list of names of priests in Syriac, the fact that such a sect rooted itself in the Celestial Empire would never have been believed, as indeed after the tablet was unearthed it was for a long time discredited.

1912, Arthur Henderson Smith, “Uplifting Leaders”, in The Uplift of China, →OCLC, page 117:

Any character used in the written form of several languages of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

кита́йская гра́мота

can also be derogatory, "something unreadable"


syllabary

/ˈsɪləˌbɛɹi/

From Neo-Latin syllabārium, from syllaba.

It shouldn't be hard to come up with a musical syllabary in which pitches code for vowels and timbres code for consonants.

(orthography) A writing system where each character represents a complete syllable.


alphabetically

en-adv

alphabetically (comparative more alphabetically, superlative most alphabetically)

more alphabetically (comparative)
most alphabetically (superlative)

In alphabetically written languages the conventions governing the graphemic system G are intimately connected with those governing the phonemic system P

1978, Hans H. Wellisch, The conversion of scripts, its nature, history, and utilization, page 65:


Hanzi

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 漢字 /汉字 (Hànzì). Doublet of kanji and hanja.

On May 21, 1957, the Jen min je pao published the text of the previous day’s discussions during which writers and scholars of various tendencies had examined before the Commission the proposed reform (which, in the opinion of certain “leftists,” entailed in fact the suppression of the han tzŭ, the Chinese characters).

[1959, Etiemble, “One China or Two?”, in Evergreen Review, volume 2, number 8, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 31:

Chinese character
Chinese character#English

Synonym of Chinese character (specifically in relation to Chinese)


cuneiform

From French cunéiforme or New Latin cuneifōrmis, from Classical Latin cuneus (“wedge”) + fōrma.

There, too, it was originally the vulgar script in contrast with the official cuneiform script employed for all official documents, compacts, etc.

1911, Alvin Sylvester Zerbe, The Antiquity of Hebrew Writing and Literature, page 182:

The text is inscribed on a clay tablet of a very unusual format. The only other known mathematical cuneiform text on a clay tablet of a similar format is also the only previously known Kassite (and therefore post-Old-Babylonian) mathematical cuneiform text.

2000, Jöran Friberg, A Remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical Texts, page ix:

Written in the cuneiform writing system.


cuneiform

An ancient Mesopotamian writing system, adapted within several language families, originating as pictograms in Sumer around the 30th century BC, evolving into more abstract and characteristic wedge shapes formed by a blunt reed stylus on clayen tablets.

釘頭文字 /钉头文字

ding¹ tau⁴ man⁴ zi⁶, deng¹ tau⁴ man⁴ zi⁶

(anatomy) A wedge-shaped bone, especially a cuneiform bone.


braille

en-verb

braille (third-person singular simple present brailles, present participle brailling, simple past and past participle brailled)

brailles (present singular third-person)
brailling (participle present)
brailled (participle past)
brailled (past)

Borrowed from French braille, named after French educator Louis Braille (1809–1852). The /eɪl/ seems to reflect a spelling-pronunciation; French has /aj/ instead.

named-after

I played back my recorded notes and brailled them.

the sponsorship statement on respondent's brailled volumes [...] He admittedly had no knowledge of just how respondent's book [...] came to be brailled

1967, Carlton Fredericks, Federal Trade Commission Decisions, volume 71, page 237:

To write in, or convert into, the braille writing system.


Latin

en-proper noun

Latin (countable and uncountable, plural Latins)

From Middle English Latin, Latyn, from Old English Lǣden, from Vulgar Latin *ladinum (“Latin”) and Old French latin (“Latin”); all from Latin Latinus (“belonging to Latium”). Later influenced in form by the Latin word. Compare Dutch Latijn (“Latin”), German Latein (“Latin”), Swedish Latin (“Latin”).

Supper being over, the lawyer took his leave, and the doctor began to ſound the learned clerk reſpecting his proficiency in the dead languages. "As to dead languages," replied the ſchoolmafter, "I was once a vaſt pretty ſcholar indeed, but want of exercise has made me main ſlack—I can't get over my ground as I uſed to do. Then as to the t'other dead fellow, I could never greek it at all, that's flat. And, Lord bleſs you! my Latin is of no more uſe to me here than—than—" Here he ſtuck for want of a ſimile; when Mr. Le Dupe helped him out by ſaying, "that it is to a young man at college, where it is conſidered a pedantic inſult, and an unpardonable bore, to utter a Latin ſentence."

1799, Edward Dubois, A Piece of Family Biography, volume II, page 20:

To Hall [Robert A. Hall, Jr.], the development would be something as follows: Latin > Proto-Romance (dated late Republic and Early Empire) > Proto-Continental Romance > Proto-Italo-Western Romance (to which Hall would limit the term "Vulgar Latin") > Proto-Western Romance > Proto-Gallo Romance, etc. Each of these main divisions splits off into further languages: Latin > Classical Latin; Proto-Romance > Proto-Southern Romance > Sardinian, Lucianian, Sicilian; Proto-Continental Romance > Proto-Eastern Romance > Proto-Balkan Romance, etc.

1999, Karl Strecker, transl. by Robert B. Palmer, Introduction to Medieval Latin: English Tranlation and Revision, 2nd ed. (2nd reprint of the ed. Dublin/Zürich 1971 (Berlin 1957)), Weidmann: Zürich & Hildesheim, p. 29

When the Christian Church rose in stature in the Dark Ages, its adoption of Latin as the official language assured its eternal life.

2003, Natalie Harwood, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Latin, 2nd edition, page 13:

Like Copernicus and Galileo, Johannes Kepler was a renowned astronomer who wrote in Latin.

2010, Elizabeth Heimbach, A Roman Map Workbook, page 134:

(uncountable) The language of the ancient Romans, other Latins and of the Roman Catholic church, especially Classical Latin.

ܠܸܫܵܢܵܐ ܠܵܛܝܼܢܵܝܵܐ

liššānā lāṭīnāyā

Anglo-Latin

(varieties of Latin) Latin; Biblical Latin, Classical Latin, Church Latin / Ecclesiastical Latin, Late Latin, Low Latin, Medieval Latin / Middle Latin, New Latin / Neo-Latin, Old Latin, Recent Latin / Contemporary Latin, Renaissance Latin, Vulgar Latin


Samaritan

/səˈmæɹɪtən/

/səˈmɛɹɪtən/

From Latin Samarītānus, from Ancient Greek Σαμαρείτης (Samareítēs), from Σαμαρεία (Samareía, “Samaria”), derived from Biblical Hebrew שֹׁמְרוֹנִים (Šōmərôním) and שֹׁמְרוֹן (Šōmərôn) respectively. Attested in Old English.

The ancient language of Samaria: a dialect of Hebrew.


NATO phonetic alphabet

ICAO spelling alphabet
ICAO spelling alphabet


hangul

[Alt: 한글 ㅎ=h ㅏ=a ㄴ=n ㄱ=g ㅡ=eu ㄹ=l]
From Korean 한글 (han'geul, “Korean script”).

The phonetic alphabet used to write the Korean language.


Phoenician

Attested as a noun in Middle English as phenicienes (only plural); from Ancient Greek Φοῖνιξ (Phoînix, “Phoenician”).

der

The ancient civilisation of Phoenicia, and its empire

(historical) An inhabitant of Phoenicia (a country located on the shores of North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean Sea around the year 1000 BCE).


Devanagari

/ˌdeɪvəˈnɑːɡ(ə)ɹɪ/

/ˌdɛvəˈnɑːɡ(ə)ɹɪ/

/ˌdeɪvəˈnɑɡəɹi/

Borrowed from Sanskrit देवनागरी (devanāgarī), compound of देव (deva, “deity, divine”) + नगर (nagara, “town, city”).

bor+

The etymologies gave words from Hindustani in the Devanagari script accompanied by transliterations in parentheses.

2018, James Lambert, “Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles”, in World Englishes, volume 37, page 251:

Of the Devanagari script or of a Devanagari alphabet.


Devanagari

/ˌdeɪvəˈnɑːɡ(ə)ɹɪ/

/ˌdɛvəˈnɑːɡ(ə)ɹɪ/

/ˌdeɪvəˈnɑɡəɹi/

An abugida script used to write many languages originating in India and Nepal, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Maithili, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri, and Nepali.


Glagolitic

/ˌɡlæɡəʊˈlɪtɪk/

/ˌɡlæɡəˈlɪtɪk/

Learned borrowing from New Latin glagoliticus, from Old Church Slavonic глаголица (glagolica), from глаголъ (glagolŭ, “word, speech”), Glagolitic spelling ⰳⰾⰰⰳⱁⰾⰻⱌⰰ (glagolica).

der

(linguistics) The oldest known Slavonic alphabet, designed around 862–863 by Saint Cyril in order to translate the Bible and other texts into Old Church Slavonic. Mostly replaced by Cyrillic alphabet in Orthodox Christian Slavic countries, but still in use in the Croatian Church along the Dalmatian coast, in Czech and Croatian recensions of Church Slavic.

格拉哥里字母

gélāgēlǐ zìmǔ


Lycian

An extinct Indo-European language in the Anatolian group.


Greek alphabet

Α α, Β β, Γ γ, Δ δ, Ε ε, Ζ ζ, Η η, Θ θ, Ι ι, Κ κ, Λ λ, Μ μ, Ν ν, Ξ ξ, Ο ο, Π π, Ρ ρ, Σ σ ς, Τ τ, Υ υ, Φ φ, Χ χ, Ψ ψ, Ω ω

The 24-letter alphabet of the Greek language, first adopted by Athens in 403 BC and now consisting of the following upper- (majuscule) and lower-case (minuscule) pairs:

Wiktionary:Greek transliteration and Ancient Greek romanization and pronunciation


pictograph

A picture that represents a word or an idea.


Gurmukhi

Borrowed from Punjabi ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ (gurmukhī) / گُرْمُکھی (gurmukhī), commonly translated as "from the Mouth of the Guru", since it was standardised by Guru Angad in the 16th century.

An abugida script, or writing system, designed for writing the Punjabi language used primarily in Punjab, India


Deseret

From the Book of Mormon, in which the word is said to mean honey bee in the language of the Jaredites.

A script, invented in Utah, conceived of as a radical reform and replacement of the Latin script, intended for writing English phonetically. Example: the word seven in Deseret is 𐑅𐐯𐑂𐐮𐑌.


abjad

From Arabic أبجد (ʔabjad), the term for the traditional ordering of the Arabic script (from the first four letters: أ (ʔ), ب (b), ج (j), د (d)). Compare English ABC and alphabet.
Linguistics sense coined by Peter T. Daniels.

consonantary

writing system with a glyph for each consonant

In Rabghuzi's Stories of the Prophets, a teacher asked Jesus, who was seven years old at the time, to repeat the alphabet and the abjad by rote.

2014, Agnès Nilüfer Kefeli, Becoming Muslim in Imperial Russia: Conversion, Apostasy, and Literacy, Cornell University Press, unnumbered page:

Abjad is the writing system used in this book, and it's also the writing system used throughout the Arabic world. For instance, most newspapers you pick up in the Middle East use the abjad writing system, whereby the consonants are included but not the vowels.

2018, Amine Bouchentouf, Arabic for Dummies, 3rd edition, Wiley, page 16:

A writing system for Arabic, historically also employed as a numeral system, in which there is one glyph (symbol or letter) for each consonant but vowels are not specified.


hornbook

(law) A legal textbook that provides a basic overview of a particular area of law.


Elbasan

Borrowed from Albanian Elbasan, itself likely from Ottoman Turkish ايلبصان.

A mid 18th-century alphabet created for the Albanian language Elbasan Gospel Manuscript.


Ge'ez

He takes out a leather-bound Bible, written in Ge'ez, illuminated by drawings of angels with large, soulful eyes.

2019, Maaza Mengiste, The Shadow King, Canongate Books (2020), page 328:

An Ethiopian language which is extinct but still used liturgically.

The writing system originally used for the Ge’ez language.


futhark

From the first six letters of the runic alphabet, ᚠ (“f”), ᚢ (“u”), ᚦ (“þ”), ᚨ (“a”), ᚱ (“r”), ᚲ (“k”).

The Germanic runic alphabet; especially specifically the Elder or Younger futhark alphabet (of Scandinavia and the European mainland), as contrasted with the Anglo-Saxon futhorc.


Coptic

The Afroasiatic language traditionally spoken by the Copts in Egypt, now extinct and used only as a liturgical language.


battledore

From Middle English batildore, batylledore, batildure, batyldoure, batyndore, probably as a blend of Middle English betel (“bat, club”) and Old Occitan batedor (“beater, bat”).

battledore and shuttlecock
battledore and shuttlecock

A game played with a shuttlecock and rackets (properly battledore and shuttlecock); a forerunner of badminton.


Ugaritic

From Ugarit + -ic, via a Semitic medium from Sumerian 𒀀𒃼 (a-gar₃ /agar/, “arable land”).

uder

The Northwest Semitic language of the ancient city of Ugarit in Syria. Extinct since 1100 B.C.E., it was written in cuneiform.


Latin script

en-noun

Latin script (countable and uncountable, plural Latin scripts)


analphabet

From Late Latin analphabetus (“unable to read and write; illiterate”), from Ancient Greek ἀναλφάβητος (analphábētos, “illiterate”), from ἀν- (an-, “un-”) + ἀλφάβητος (alphábētos, “alphabet”); analysable as an- + alphabet. The English word was probably influenced by cognate words in other languages such as French analphabète (adjective), German Analphabetus, Analphabet (nouns), analphabeten (adjective), Italian analfabeta (adjective, noun), analfabeto (adjective, noun), Portuguese analfabeto (adjective, noun), Spanish analfabeto (adjective, noun).
The adjective was derived from the noun.

der

In 1861, out of a total population of 21,777,331, there were no less than 16,999,701 "analphabetes," or persons absolutely unable to read.

1896, J[ohn] M[orrison] Reid, J. T. Gracey, “Part XI. Mission to Italy.”, in Missions and the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church […] In Three Volumes, volume III, New York, N.Y.: Hunt & Eaton; Cincinnati, Oh.: Cranston & Curts, section 7 (Annual Conferences, 1886–1887), page 327:

The governor of a distant province receives a telegram from the Ministry asking how many analphabets (illiterates) there are in his area. Neither he nor his colleagues know what an analphabet is, but as anarchism also begins with 'an' they guess that an analphabet must be a dangerous enemy of the state, and report that they have only one—the schoolmaster.

1960, Opera, volume 11, London: Rolls House Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 281:

The Beckettian progression appears occasionally: while Miss Counihan (static) is an omnivorous reader and Murphy (transitional) a strict non-reader, Cooper is an analphabete.

1968, Robert [Ligon] Harrison, Samuel Beckett’s Murphy: A Critical Excursion (University of Georgia Monographs; no. 15), Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, →OCLC, page 57:

As to [Paulo] Freire's methods, we should keep in mind that they were primarily developed to teach adult analphabets their own language, as a part of a 'conscientization' process.

1985, Jacob L[ouis] Mey, “Language Manipulation”, in Whose Language?: A Study in Linguistic Pragmatics, Amsterdam, Philadelphia, Pa.: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, section 1.3 (Concluding Remarks), paragraph 66, page 84:

The porter was an analphabete, but together / we found your name, down among the Os, / and there you were, my brave love, / in a loose hospital gown that covered nothing; […]

1986, Michael Hofmann, “From A to B and Back Again”, in Frank Ormsby, Robert Johnstone, editors, The Honest Ulsterman, number 82, Belfast: Michael Stephens, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16; reprinted in Mark Ford, editor, London: A History in Verse, Cambridge, Mass., London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012, →ISBN, page 704:

(1) What is the impact of not learning written language on the aphasic semeiology of an analphabet? (2) How do physiological mechanisms relate to the production of language in an analphabet? (3) What relationships, if any, can be discerned between an adult analphabet and the aphasia of a child before learning how to write.

1989, David Yau-Fai Ho, John A. Spinks, Cecilia Siu-Hing Yeung, editors, Chinese Patterns of Behavior: A Sourcebook of Psychological and Psychiatric Studies, New York, N.Y., London: Praeger, →ISBN, page 380, column 2:

A person who does not know the letters of the alphabet; a partly or wholly illiterate person.

analfabet

person who does not know the letters of the alphabet — see also illiterate


aljamiado

From Spanish aljamiado (composed of aljamía + -ado), from Arabic عَجَمِيَّة (ʕajamiyya) or اَلْعَجَمِيَّة (al-ʕajamiyya), from عَجَم (ʕajam, “non-Arabs, esp. Persians”) + ـِي (-ī, “relative adjective (nisba) suffix”) + ـَة (-a, “feminine marker, also used to mark language names or to generally form nouns from the adjectives”).

Text of non-Semitic language, especially European languages, written in Arabic letters.

aljamia

non-Semitic language written in Arabic letters


Proto-Canaanite alphabet

An abjad of twenty-plus acrophonic glyphs, found in Levantine texts of the Late Bronze Age (from ca. the 15th century B.C.E.), by convention taken to last until a cut-off date of 1050 B.C.E., after which it is called Phoenician.


aett

1984 Fortune -Telling By Runes, David & Julia Line, The Aquarian Press, →ISBN page 15.
Known as aettir, these basic divisions were sometimes named after Norse deities: Freya's eight, Hagal's eight and Tiu's eight.

1993 The Elements of The Runes, Bernard King, Element, →ISBN, page 110.
When we examined runic divination, we related, in passing, the phases of the moon to the three ættir of the Common Germanic Futhark.

The runic futhark is usually divided into three aetts.

1998, The Norse Tradition a beginners guide, Pete Jennings, Headway, →ISBN, page 36:

Each aett is named after the rune that begins it, which may be regarded as the patriarch of the family it heads. This trine of families was so important that it survived the increase of the runes in England and the decrease in their number […]

2009, Donald Tyson, Runic Astrology: Chart Interpretation Through the Runes, Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN:

Each Aett contains certain runes that cover similar concepts. For example each has a rune for light, as in Kanauz the torch, Sowelo the sun, and Dagaz the day. The light becomes greater in power as we progress through the Aettir.

2016, Kim Farnell, Runes, Plain & Simple: The Only Book You'll Ever Need, Hampton Roads Publishing, →ISBN, page 38:

(sometimes paganism) A division of the runic alphabet containing eight runes.


Zhuyin fuhao

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 注音符號 /注音符号 (zhùyīn fúhào, literally “symbol(s) for annotation of sounds”).

bor

A phonetic alphabet used to transcribe Mandarin for students of that language and for inputting Chinese, now used primarily only in Taiwan. Variants also exist for other Chinese lects spoken in Taiwan.

注音符号

ちゅういんふごう, chūin fugō, ちゅうおんふごう, chūon fugō


Zhuyin alphabet

en-noun

Zhuyin alphabet (plural Zhuyin alphabets)

ㄅ ㄆ ㄇ ㄈ ㄉ ㄊ ㄋ ㄌ ㄍ ㄎ ㄏ ㄐ ㄑ ㄒ ㄓ ㄔ ㄕ ㄖ ㄗ ㄘ ㄙ ㄚ ㄛ ㄜ ㄝ ㄞ ㄟ ㄠ ㄡ ㄢ ㄣ ㄤ ㄥ ㄦ ㄧ ㄨ ㄩ ㄪ ㄫ ㄬ ㄭ

The 37/40 letter alphabet consisting of the following letters:


Lydian

A native or inhabitant of ancient Lydia.


Lydian

An extinct Indo-European language in the Anatolian subgroup.


Lydian

Pertaining to Lydia, or its people, language or culture.

And all the while sweet Musicke did diuide
 Her looser notes with Lydian harmony […]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(music) Designating a mode of ancient Greek music, reputed to be light and effeminate.


Carian

/ˈkɛː.ɹɪ.ən/

/ˈkɛə.ɹɪ.ən/


Ol Cemet'

An alphabet with 30 letters, used for the Santali language.


Lontara

A syllabary used in writing the Buginese language.


Linear B

Named by British archaeologist Arthur Evans, to distinguish it from the other linear script, Linear A.

(archaeology, linguistics) A syllabary used to write Mycenaean Greek in the second millennium BC, before the invention of the Greek alphabet.


Linear A

Named by British archaeologist Arthur Evans, to distinguish it from the other linear script, Linear B.

(archaeology, linguistics) A syllabary used to write the as-yet-undeciphered Minoan language, and an apparent predecessor to other scripts, such as Linear B.


Tibetan script

An abugida writing system of Indic origin used to write Tibetan as well as Dzongkha, Ladakhi, and sometimes Balti.


Thaana

The modern writing system of the Dhivehi language spoken in the Maldives.


Kaithi

A script historically used in parts of North India to write legal and administrative records.


Limbu

Their Tibeto-Burman language, written in a unique script.


stroke order

the standard sequence in which a Chinese character is written in Chinese, Japanese or Korean writing


Cham

The Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by these people.


Sogdian

An extinct Middle Iranian language spoken around Sogdiana.


Romanization

Romanization (countable and uncountable, plural Romanizations)

/ˌɹəʊmənaɪˈzeɪʃən/

(usually uncountable) The act or process of putting text into the Latin (Roman) alphabet, by means such as transliteration and transcription.

romanizim

As an alternate name for Sakyamuni, Kircher gave "Omyto", which is a romanization of A-mi-to-fu, whom Kircher stated was commonly called "Amida", i.e., the Japanese pronunciation.

1989, David E. Mungello, Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology, →ISBN, page 160:

Furthermore, certain places and people are already internationally well known by particular romanizations of their names, and these romanizations may not conform to any of the official systems detailed above.

2005, Chris Berry, Feii Lu, Island on the Edge: Taiwan New Cinema and After, →ISBN, page 11:

(countable) An instance (a string) of text transliterated or transcribed from another alphabet into the Latin alphabet.


Visible Speech

An early phonetic alphabet, devised by Alexander Melville Bell in 1867, with the characters intended to suggest the articulations of the speech organs when uttering them.


Mkhedruli

Borrowed from Georgian მხედრული (mxedruli, “cavalry, military; secular, worldly”).

bor

One of three forms of the Georgian alphabet. Mkhedruli, a unicameral script, is the form of the Georgian alphabet that is now used for writing the Modern Georgian language.


Asomtavruli

Borrowed from Georgian ასომთავრული (asomtavruli, “capital letters”), from ასო (aso, “letter, type”) + მთავარი (mtavari, “main, chief, principal, head”).

One of three forms of the Georgian alphabet. Asomtavruli, a monumental script, is the oldest form of the Georgian alphabet, but it is no longer used for writing the language. Due to its design, it is still sometimes used for headlines and titles.


Kawi

The theory that Balinese religion was a branch of Indian Hinduism led the society to believe that the literature of ancient Bali should be in the classical language of India, but in fact the Kawi language has absolutely no grammatical connection to Sanskrit.

2012, Adrian Vickers, Bali: A Paradise Created, 2nd edition, Tuttle, page 118:

A literary and prose language based on Old Javanese with a large number of Sanskrit loanwords, and used on the islands of Java, Bali, and Lombok; or the script used in writing this language.


moonrunes

From moon + runes. Apparently coined based from moonspeak, an anime reference (of which see there), ultimately associating East Asian languages with celestial levels of foreignness.

Can anyone here read moonrunes?

I'm still learning moonrunes.

This imported box of Pocky is covered in moonrunes; I can barely read it.

(Internet slang, sometimes derogatory, sometimes humorous) An incomprehensible writing script, or the language associated with it, usually referring to Japanese, but may also refer to Chinese, Korean and other East Asian writing scripts.


Lepcha

Lepcha language
Lepcha people
Lepcha script

Their language, a Himalayish language in the Sino-Tibetan family, spoken by about 30000-50000 people.


Chorasmian

an extinct Eastern Iranian language once spoken in Chorasmia


Rumi

Unadapted borrowing from Malay Rumi, ultimately derived from Persian رومی (rumi, “Roman”).

The Latin alphabet or writing system used for Malay and Indonesian.


Jawi

The Arabic alphabet or writing system used for Malay or related languages.


Pahlavi

From Persian پهلوی (pahlavi, “earlier, older”).

The Pahlavi script, a writing system derived from the Aramaic script and used to write several Iranian languages, the most common form of which was the Book Pahlavi.


Brahmi

(linguistics) A script once used in south and central Asia.


Chakma

Borrowed from Bengali চাকমা (cakma), from Chakma 𑄌𑄇𑄴𑄟 (cakma), 𑄌𑄋𑄴𑄟𑄳𑄦 (caṅmha), ultimately from Sanskrit शक्तिमान (śaktimāna, literally “powerful”), composed of शक्ति (śakti, “power”) + -मान (-māna).

der

The Bengali-Assamese language and abugida of the Chakmas. In the early medieval period, they underwent a language shift from their original Jingpho-Luish tongue (of the Tibeto-Burman family).


Nabataean

Latin Nabataeus, Ancient Greek Ναβαταῖος (Nabataîos), ultimately from the same root as Arabic أَنْبَاط (ʔanbāṭ)

uder

Arabic أَنْبَاط (ʔanbāṭ)


Tangut

Bilgä Qaǧan
Ming dynasty
Richard Hakluyt
Secret History of the Mongols
Tangut language
Tangut people
Tangut script
William of Rubruck

From a Middle Mongol exonym used by the Mongols, which would become the Classical Mongolian ᠲᠠᠩᠭᠤᠳ (tangɣud) that was phonetically transcribed in Ming-era Early Mandarin Chinese as 唐兀_惕 (/*tʰaŋ(ŋ)ut/) in the Chinese edition of the Secret History of the Mongols (《元朝秘史》). The designation ultimately derives from Old Turkic 𐱃𐰭𐰆𐱃 (t¹ŋut¹) as attested in the 8th-century Bilgä Qaǧan stele. The English word, and similar forms in European languages, derives from Medieval Latin Tangut (*Tangunt in the Leiden manuscript) from the accounts of William of Rubruck compiled in the 1250s. The English form was attested in the writings of Richard Hakluyt who translated parts of William's accounts in the late 16th century.

A Qiangic people of mediaeval northern China.


Tangut

The logographic script uniquely used to write their language.

西夏文

the script used to write the Tangut language


Tangut

en-adj

Tangut (not generally comparable, comparative more Tangut, superlative most Tangut)

more Tangut (comparative)
most Tangut (superlative)

Of or pertaining to the Tangut people, language or script.


Pazend

From Zoroastrian Middle Persian pʾcnd (pāzand), from Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 𐬰𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬙𐬌 (paⁱti zainti, “according to understanding”); see Zend for more.

der

𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 𐬰𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬙𐬌

A variant of Avestan alphabet used to write Middle Persian.

پازند

variant of the Avestan alphabet to write Middle Persian


Palmyrene

From Ancient Greek Παλμυρηνός (Palmurēnós).

The first panel is a bilingual text in Greek and Palmyrene, the second entirely in Palmyrene, and the third and fourth entirely in Greek.

1989, Jean-Marie Dentzer, Winfried Orthmann, Archéologie et histoire de la Syrie, page 74:

In one such inscription, Odaenathus is referred to in Palmyrene simply as Ras Tadmor without any indicators of Roman rank.

2003, Gary K. Young, Rome's Eastern Trade, page 209:

The auxiliaries also occasionally left behind bilingual dedications in Palmyrene with Greek or Latin.

2017, Kyle H. Keimer, Gillan Davis, Registers and Modes of Communication in the Ancient Near East:


Bamum

One of the Benue-Congo languages of Cameroon.


Pollard script

Invented by Methodist missionary Sam Pollard.

An abugida loosely based on the Latin alphabet, designed for use with the Miao language A-Hmao.


Khutsuri

An ecclesiastical Georgian writing system, combining Nuskhuri script with Asomtavruli illuminated capitals, principally used in hagiography, and currently supported by a few supporters.


Euclidean alphabet

Named after Euclid, the archon of Athens responsible for its adoption.

The classical Greek alphabet, a modified form of the Ionic alphabet adopted by Athens in 403 BC following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War.


Arebica

(linguistics) A Bosniak variant of the Perso-Arabic script, once used to write the Bosnian dialect of Serbo-Croatian.


extended shinjitai

en-noun

extended shinjitai (plural extended shinjitai)

Calque of Japanese 拡張新字体 (kakuchō shinjitai).

clq

An unofficial shinjitai (new character form) created by analogy.


Kharoshthi

From Sanskrit खरोष्ठी (kharoṣṭhī, “Kharoshthi script”).

bor

A script used in ancient Gandhara (primarily modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan) to write the Gandhari Prakrit and Sanskrit.


Musnad

From Arabic مُسْنَد (musnad), from Old South Arabian 𐩣𐩯𐩬𐩵 (ms³nd).

With a stretch of imagination, some Nabataean shapes can be made to resemble those of Jazm, but so do many Musnad shapes. Still, as stated earlier, shape's similarity is not the only indication of a script origin, especially since Nabataean, Aramaic, and Musnad, share the same roots.

2011, Saad D. Abulhab, DeArabizing Arabia, →ISBN:

But he wrote a message in the Himyar script (Musnad) with his knife on the saddle of a passing camel, and the message eventually reached his tribe in Hadhramaut.

2011, Freya Stark, The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut, →ISBN, page 203:

Since the characteristics of Musnad handwriting is not famous, and some of the readers may be unfamiliar with these scripts, a brief description of the important aspects of Musnad will be presented in this section.

2011, Mohammed A. Qatran, Template matching method for recognition Musnad characters based on correlation analysis:

Ancient South Arabian
Ancient South Arabian

The Ancient South Arabian alphabet, which branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in about the 9th century BC.


N'ko

A writing system invented for the Manding languages of West Africa.


snake case

Coined in 2004 by Ruby programmer Gavin Kistner, from its resemblance to the long body of a snake, and by analogy with other naming schemes based on lower- and upper-case letters.

Some evidence shows that coders are better able to read code (their code and code written by others) when using snake_case, not camelCase naming.

2018, Camille McCue, Sarah Guthals, Helping Kids with Coding For Dummies®, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., →ISBN, page 130:

While both camelCase and snake_case are perfectly valid syntax in Java, the development community functions better when everyone adopts the same style convention.

2020, Jeanne Boyarsky, Scott Selikoff, OCP Oracle Certified Professional Java SE 11 Programmer I: Study Guide, Exam 1Z0-815, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., →ISBN, page 49:

We were incorporating third-party Python libraries for some of our projects, leading to a mix within our codebase of our own CamelCase format with the externally preferred snake_case style.

2020, Titus Winters, Tom Manshreck, Hyrum Wright, Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time, O’Reilly Media, Inc., →ISBN:

(programming) The practice of writing identifiers using underscores to separate words.


Anatolian hieroglyphs

The ideographic script used to write the Luwian language, found in several inscriptions across Anatolia.


Garay

A writing system for the Wolof language introduced in the year 1961.


Kolezhuthu

Borrowed from Malayalam കോലെഴുത്ത് (kōleḻuttŭ).

bor+

One of the oldest writing systems in South India, formerly used to write Malayalam and Tamil.


Vatteluttu

An abugida writing system originating from the ancient Tamil people of South India.


'Phags-pa

From Tibetan འཕགས་པ ('phags pa, literally “noble”).

der

An alphabet designed in the 1200s by the Tibetan monk and State Preceptor Drogön Chögyal Phagpa for Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty.


Bukvitsa

The hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church declared Slavic writings (Bukvitsa, Runes, etc.) to be black magic and demonic writings; the result of which was the loss by the Slavic people of the ability to learn the ancestral experience of their Ancestors.

2016, Dmitriy Kushnir, Slava Rodu Magazine: Issue #1, page 49:

A pseudohistorical alphabet based on Cyrillic, created by Russian neopagan esoteric A. Yu. Khinevich, founder of Ynglism, but having no connection with historical Slavic writings.


Book Pahlavi

A smooth form of the Pahlavi script in which letters are joined to each other and often form complicated ligatures.


Clear Script

An alphabet created in 1648, based on the Mongolian script, with the goal of distinguishing all sounds in the spoken language, and to make it easier to transcribe Sanskrit and the Tibetic languages.


Ancient North Arabian

Attested since 1904. Calque of German Alt-Nord-Arabisch (itself from 1870s), which corresponds to Altnordarabisch in modern orthography

Macdonald (2000:28ff) has grouped the ancient languages in two classes: Ancient North Arabian (ANA) and Ancient South Arabian (ASA). The ANA comprises: Taymanitic, Dadanitic, Dumaitic, Dispersed ONA, Safaitic, Hismaic, Thamudic (B,C,D, and Southern), and Hasaitic.

2001, Muhammed A. Nayeem, Origin of Ancient Writing in Arabia and New Scripts from Oman: An Introduction to South Semitic Epigraphy and Palaeography, page 40:

A hypothetical Central Semitic language, language group or dialects, expressed by these scripts and closely related to Old Arabic.


chu nom

Chữ nôm was known only by the 5 percent or less of Vietnam's educated population, who used it not as a primary medium but rather as an aid to learning Chinese and for recording folk literature.

1997, Wm. C. Hannas, Asia's Orthographic Dilemma, page 83:

To write a vernacular word, Chu Nom used two Chinese ideograms—one to indicate the meaning, the other the sound.

1998, Kevin Bowen, Ba Chung Nguyen, Bruce Weigl, editors, Mountain River, page xxiv:

[P]olitical reforms along Western lines […] included […] developing modern science, agriculture, and commerce, and even creating a national writing system based on chu nom: ‘Have we not talented persons able to devise a script which will transcribe our national language?’

2016, Christopher Goscha, The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam, Penguin, published 2017, page 106:

(historical) A writing system formerly used for Vietnamese, based on Chinese characters.


Uyghurjin

An early form of the traditional Mongolian script.

уйгаржин

Early form of the traditional Mongolian script.


zetabetical

Whether the reader wants to know what a googol is (it's an extremely large number, written out in full: one, followed by one hundred zeros); something about game theory; about serendipity; series; stochastic processes; Z charts or zetabetical sequences (in reverse alphabetical order) - or countless useful bits of statistical and business mathematical information, they are all to be found here.

1974, Accountancy - Volume 85, page 120:

The stories might be arranged in alphabetical (or zetabetical!) order.

1989, Virginia A. Arnold, Connections: language arts/reading - Volume 1, →ISBN, page 32:

I'd cleaned the bathroom and washed the kitchen floor, taken out the recycling and arranged all the tins in the cupboard so that the labels were facing forwards in zetabetical order.

2017, Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, →ISBN, page 96:


Tanchangya

bor

Tanchangya 𑄖𑄧𑄐𑄴𑄌𑄧𑄁𑄉𑄴𑄡

The Indo-European language of this people


quoc ngu

Promoters of quoc ngu were Vietnamese intellectuals who were either collaborators or anticolonial revolutionaries.

2003, Thaveeporn Vasavakul, edited by Brown & Ganguly, Fighting Words, page 223:

Students studied French and quoc ngu. Most (not all) agreed that Chinese characters no longer sufficed.

2016, Christopher Goscha, The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam, Penguin, published 2017, page 107:

The romanized writing system used to write Vietnamese.


gukja

From Korean 국자(國字) (gukja). Doublet of kokuji.

Han characters invented and used only in Korea


Neo-Tifinagh

A modern, alphabetic variation of the Berber Tifinagh script.


Baybayin

A writing system used in the Philippines.


Caucasian Albanian

en-noun

Caucasian Albanian (countable and uncountable, plural Caucasian Albanians)

The extinct Northeast Caucasian language once spoken by these people, and from which Udi is descended.


Yañalif

From Tatar яңалиф (yañalif), which is a contraction of яңа (yaña, “new”) and әлифба (älifba, “alphabet”).

The first Latin alphabet used during the Soviet epoch of Latinization from 1928 until 1938.


Takri

First, “it may be connected with the word ṭankā, which suggests its origins as a commercial alphabet.” Second, it may be connected with ṭhakur, “in which case it may originally have been the script used by Rajput landlords.” George A. Grierson writes that the name means “the alphabet of the ṭakkas”, who “ruled the greater part of the northern Panjāb.

An abugida script (nearly extinct) used to write many languages originating in India, including Jammu Dogri, Chambeali, Kangri, Kahluri, Mandeali, Kullui, Gaddi, Mahasui, Kashtwari, Churahi, and Bhateali.


Dogra

From Dogri डोगरा (ḍogrā), from Sanskrit द्विगर्त (dvigarta). The script was officially referred to as Sanskrit द्विगर्त अक्षर (dvigarta akṣara, “Dogra letters”). Another indigenous name for the script is Dogri [script needed] (dogra akkharor, “New Dogra letters”).

m+

द्विगर्त अक्षर

An abugida script (nearly extinct) used to write Dogri, a language originating in India.


Sundanese script

writing system used for Sundanese language, derived from Old Sundanese script


Ancient South Arabian

Old South Arabian
Old South Arabian#English


Ancient South Arabian

A branch of South Semitic abjads used from the late 2nd millennium BCE to the 6th century CE to write the Old South Arabian languages and the Ethiopic Ge'ez language.


Bhaiksuki

An ancient writing system used to write Buddhist texts in Sanskrit.


Nandinagari

Borrowed from Sanskrit नन्दिनागरी (nandināgarī). By surface analysis, Nandi + Nagari.

bor+

A writing system used to write in Sanskrit.


Pinyinise

en-verb

Pinyinise (third-person singular simple present Pinyinises, present participle Pinyinising, simple past and past participle Pinyinised)

Pinyinises (present singular third-person)
Pinyinising (participle present)
Pinyinised (participle past)
Pinyinised (past)

(transitive) Alternative spelling of Pinyinize.


pinyinize

pinyinize (third-person singular simple present pinyinizes, present participle pinyinizing, simple past and past participle pinyinized)

pinyinizes (present singular third-person)
pinyinizing (participle present)
pinyinized (participle past)
pinyinized (past)

(transitive) Alternative letter-case form of Pinyinize.


pinyinise

pinyinise (third-person singular simple present pinyinises, present participle pinyinising, simple past and past participle pinyinised)

pinyinises (present singular third-person)
pinyinising (participle present)
pinyinised (participle past)
pinyinised (past)

(transitive) Alternative letter-case form of Pinyinise.


Pinyinisation

en-noun

Pinyinisation (countable and uncountable, plural Pinyinisations)

From Pinyin + -isation or Pinyinise + -ation.


pinyinization

pinyinization (countable and uncountable, plural pinyinizations)

Alternative letter-case form of Pinyinization


pinyinisation

pinyinisation (countable and uncountable, plural pinyinisations)

Alternative letter-case form of Pinyinisation


Pinyinize

en-verb

Pinyinize (third-person singular simple present Pinyinizes, present participle Pinyinizing, simple past and past participle Pinyinized)

Pinyinizes (present singular third-person)
Pinyinizing (participle present)
Pinyinized (participle past)
Pinyinized (past)

The move to Pinyinise Chinese names in schools meant technically switching to a different system of spelling for names to which people were unaccustomed to.

1983, Ministry of Culture, The Mirror, numbers 19-20:

I'm not Chinese, but I can tell you that Mao Zedong's Chinese name, 毛泽东, would be officially Pinyinized as "Mao2 Ze2 Dong1", Deng Xiaoping's name, 邓小平, is "Deng4 Xiao3 Ping2" and Beijing's kanji, 北京, is "Bei3 Jing1".

2000 August 10, Your Name Here:, “MAO SAYDONG???”, in alt.tv.game-shows (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-23:

A quick Google on "French Revolution" "too soon" turns up scads of references to this famous and highly quotable remark, attributed variously to Chou and Mao; some of them even pinyinise the names to Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong.

2002 January 20, Phil Edwards, “Mao (or Chou) and the French Revolution”, in alt.folklore.urban (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-23:

To understand why many Singaporeans remained unimpressed with the state's call to Pinyinize personal names, particularly their family names, we need first to appreciate that the more successfully implemented SMC measures were successful precisely because Singaporeans were convinced of their pragmatic and communitarian rationales.

2011, Lionel Wee, Language Without Rights, page 119:

At the height of the movement to pinyinise place names in Singapore, Bukit Panjang, now a Housing and Development Board New Town, was known as Zhenghua, along with Yisbun for Nee Soon, and Zhujiao market for tek kha market in Kandang Kerbau.

2013, Victor R Savage, Brenda Yeoh, Singapore Street Names: A Study of Toponymics, page 55:

However, this distinctive dialect market is slowly being eroded as new parents choose to englishize and pinyinize their children's names.

2015, Jessieca Leo, Global Hakka: Hakka Identity in the Remaking, page 181:

(transitive) To romanize Standard Mandarin using the Pinyin system.


Pinyinization

en-noun

Pinyinization (countable and uncountable, plural Pinyinizations)

In Chinese, the speakability-readability problem is capable of various solutions depending on the audience for which the Pinyinized material is intended. A dilemma exists in the fact that the work of Pinyinization must be undertaken by people who are already literate—which means literate in characters—and Chinese literati, even of the newer generation, have displayed even less capacity than their Western counterparts to write in a style capable of ready comprehension by ordinary people.

1986, John DeFrancis, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy, page 198:

There are a couple of reasons for that. One is that official pinyinization only applies to PRC placenames. This lets out Taipei and, until recently, Hong Kong and Kowloon.

2000 June 18, Mike Wright, “一、台北市路牌；二、漢語拼音”, in sci.lang (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-23:

Chinese doesn't have any capitals, so it really doesn't matter :-)
If you're talking Pinyinization, I guess the only capitals would be Ni and Zhongwen.

2000 November 13, Dalai Lama, “Election Results...”, in alt.roundtable (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-23:

His rationale was that pinyinization was necessary to reduce dialect-based identity and to unite the Chinese community.

2003, Roxy Harris, Ben Rampton, The Language, Ethnicity and Race Reader, page 184:

No it's our good friend Juli Zhang who promotes pinyinisation of Chinese.

2005 July 23, Dylan Sung, “accoustic^([sic]) evidence for uninterruption of speech”, in sci.lang (Usenet), retrieved 2022-04-23:

Two other interventions in bilingual education should be noted here: (1) the introduction of a few other Indian languages as mother tongues for Indian learners; and (2) the not too successful attempt at Hanyu Pinyinization of Chinese pupils' names.

2011, Andrew W. Conrad, Alma Rubal-Lopez, Post-Imperial English: Status Change in Former British and American Colonies, 1940-1990, page 451:

(uncountable) The Romanization of Standard Mandarin using the Pinyin system.


hyangchal

Borrowed from Korean 향찰(鄕札) (hyangchal), either Revised Romanization or Yale romanization.

A method of using Chinese characters to write pure ancient Korean texts, used in Sillan hyangka / hyangga poetry. It is similar to the Japanese practice of Man'yōgana.

Revised Romanization
Yale romanization of Korean


itwu

Borrowed from Korean 이두(吏讀) (idu), in the Yale romanization.

A method of annotating Classical Chinese text so that it can be read as Korean, using additional characters that represent Korean grammatical items.


Nagari

Borrowed from Sanskrit नागरी (nāgarī), feminine of नागर (nāgara, “of the city”, adjective), from नगर (nagara). Related to negara, Angkor.

An ancient Indian script, the ancestor of Devanagari and Nandinagari.


consonantary

A script or writing system which has glyphs only for consonants.


Warang Citi

Borrowed from Ho 𑣙𑣗𑣁𑣜𑣊 𑣏𑣂𑣕𑣂 (warang citi, “undying writing”).

bor+

an alphabet designed for writing the Ho language


ḥPʻags-pa

Since the language of the ḥPʻags-pa is different from Written Mongolian, it cannot be discussed in this grammar.

1954, Nicholas Poppe, Grammar of Written Mongolian, page 6:


semisyllabary

Alternative form: semi-syllabary

A writing system that uses a combined alphabet and syllabary.


Bassa Vah

(linguistics) An alphabetic script for writing the Bassa language of Liberia.


Hatran

The extinct dialect of Middle Aramaic spoken in Hatra and Assur from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century CE..


Nuskhuri

Borrowed from Georgian ნუსხური (nusxuri, “small letters”), from ნუსხა (nusxa, “inventory, schedule”).

bor

One of three forms of the Georgian alphabet. Nuskhuri, a monumental script, is the 2nd form of the Georgian alphabet, but it is no longer used for writing the language.


Sorang Sompeng

Borrowed from Sora 𑃐𑃦𑃝𑃗 𑃐𑃦𑃖𑃛𑃣𑃗 (sorang sompeng).

bor+

The alphabet used to write the Sora language.


Arwi

Borrowed from Tamil அற்விய்யு (aṟviyyu).

The arabic writing system used for Tamil.


Pallava

An ancient writing system used to write several languages of India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc.


Thirke

An abugida used to write the Kodava language.


Pahawh Hmong

the writing system used for languages White Hmong and Green Hmong.


Khudabadi

An abugida script used to write the Sindhi language.


picturegraph

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-picturegraph.wav


Afaka

Named after its inventor, Afáka Atumisi.


Khitan small script

From Khitan + small + script, from a calque of Chinese 小字 (xiǎozì, “small script”), in reference to the script's comparatively small number of characters when contrasted with Khitan large script.

cal

(historical) A logographic and syllabaric script, used to write the Khitan language.


Khitan large script

From Khitan + large + script, from a calque of Chinese 大字 (dàzì, “large script”), in reference to the script's comparatively large number of characters when contrasted with Khitan small script.

(historical) A logographic script, used to write the Khitan language.