The Routledge Handbook of Scripts and Alphabets

George L Campbell, Christopher Moseley

Routledge, May 7, 2013 - Foreign Language Study - 200 pages

The Routledge Handbook of Scripts and Alphabets is a unique reference to the main scripts and alphabets of the world.

The Handbook presents over 60 alphabets covering an enormous scope of languages; from Amharic and Chinese to Thai and Cree. Full script tables are given for every language and each entry is accompanied by a detailed overview of its historical and linguistic context.

New to this second edition:

• enhanced introduction discussing the basic principles and strategies utilized by world writing systems
• expanded to include more writing systems
• improved presentation of non-Roman scripts.
• organised into ancient, contemporary and autochthonous writing systems
• many new entries on fascinating and lesser-known writing systems

This handy resource is the ideal reference for all students and scholars of language and linguistics.

It has been brought to our attention that in some of the copies of the book there is an alignment error in the tables for Cyrillic Scripts (pages 88-90) and Roman Scripts (pages 140-44). Please contact us at [e-mail] to receive replacement copies of the corrected tables, free of charge.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Contents

• Acknowledgements: 1
• Note on phonetic symbols: 2
• the worlds families of scripts: 3
• Ancient writing systems: 6
• Contemporary writing systems: 42
• Autochthonous writing systems: 166
• Further reading: 182
• Index: 183

About the author

Christopher Moseley is a linguist and lecturer at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London. He is co-editor (with Prof. R.E.Asher) of the Atlas of the World’s Languages (Routledge, 2007) and general editor of the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (2010).

George L. Campbell worked for the BBC World Service and was a polyglot linguist and translator.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Routledge Handbook of Scripts and Alphabets
• Authors: George L Campbell, Christopher Moseley
• Edition: 2, illustrated, revised
• Publisher: Routledge, 2013
• ISBN: 1135222967, 9781135222963
• Length: 200 pages
• Subjects: Foreign Language Study / General; Juvenile Nonfiction / Foreign Language Study / General; Language Arts & Disciplines / General