Writing Systems of the World

by Akira Nakanishi

Book Overview

This unique, ambitious, and entertaining book presents twenty-nine scripts in detail and offers examples of a hundred more. Written in nontechnical prose and organized into brief but comprehensive... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804816549
• ISBN13: 9780804816540
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.2" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

An excellent reference!

Though this book was printed somewhere in 80s, its value has not diminished at all over the time, even though the political division of the world has changed since. The book allocates exactly 2 pages for each one of the world mostly used or known writing systems (about several tens of them) and it brilliantly manages to condense all the importnat information about the system into these 2 pages: the letters, the digits, the basic rules and an example. Of course, one cannot learn a language by the means of this book, but this book definitely 'demistifies' all these cryptic writings one can see on that or other occasion. Even more, I personally effectively used this book im several very partical application (a propos, computers), and above all the book is fascinating by the aesthetic beauty embedded in the writing itself.

The best in its category

If you are looking for an inexpensive guide that shows all of the modern writing systems, this is it. Even though it has not been updated in over 25 years, it still has almost everything you would want from such a book. The examples of newpaper front pages for many of the major languages is a great way to see the various writing systems in modern use. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in internationalization or written languages in general.

Fabulous book for writing samples

Mr. Nakanishi has done a superlative job of gathering native print samples from a vast array of different languages. For many languages he shows actual print samples, typically from a newspaper printed in that language. There are comparisons of languages and groupings into language families. For many languages he lists the "alphabet" (or syllabary or what have you for the given language) and includes a phonetic transcription of the individual characters. On the inside cover of the hard cover edition, there is a color map showing which scripts are predominantly used in different places around the Earth. The same map is in black and white in the back pages of the paperback edition. If you are looking for a book that shows you how characters look in many different languages, then this is the book for you. For just linguistic curiosity, it's a fascinating book, and extraordinarily helpful as a language/print reference source.

A Browser's Dream

This is one of my favorite books. There are others that perform the same task, (notably Kenneth Katzner's "Languages of the World," which includes far more languages and examples of scripts.) However, for some reason this book has it's own magic. It contains excerpts from newspapers in 29 different scripts, from all over the world. They are classified by geographical region. The phonetic value of the symbols are helpfully assessed for the reader, in alphabetic charts which accompany each selection. Each script shown is prefaced by a short paragraph explaining the history and development of that script.Don't miss the especially cool litle section at the end of each geographical collection. There is a section of "Other Scripts in West Asia," "Other Scripts in Africa," "Other Scripts in the Americas and Oceania," etc. These selections are not in newspaper format, but are given as short excerpts from whatever the original source may have been. Examples include the Easter Island script, Sumerian cuneiform, and the script of the Indus Valley civilization.Basically this book is a lot of fun, and it really opens the mind to a sense of wonder. I highly recommend it for anyone.

As beautiful as it is educational

Have you ever come across a label from an imported food item, or perhaps a local newspaper put out by an immigrant community, and found yourself mystified by a writing system which was utterly alien to you? Whether or not you've had such an experience, Akira Nakanishi's "Writing Systems of the World" will open your eyes to the glorious diversity of its title subject.Nakanishi's excellent reference work organizes the writing systems geographically. Each of the major writing systems is carefully profiled, and the phonetic equivalents (in Roman characters) are given for all syllabic and alphabetic characters.The book dramatically illustrates the major writing systems by reproducing pages from newspapers throughout the world. It is marvelous to see the Armenian alphabet, the Amharic syllabary, and many other writings systems thus used in the context of practical daily communication.In addition to the thorough profiles of nearly 30 major systems, Nakanishi gives shorter examples of dozens more writing systems, ranging from those used with extinct ancient languages to new writing systems invented in modern times. The book also contains appendices which explain the classification system for writing systems (ideographic versus phonetic, phonemic versus syllabic, etc.) and the variations in directions in which scripts are written. A glossary, a bibliography, and an index all add to the book's usefulness.Not only is this book informative, but it is also a visual feast which offers delights and surprises on every page. This is a reference work to be savored.