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What is the origin of Southeast Asian alphabets?

The Thai alphabet may be one of the best known Southeast Asian writing systems? But where did those ornate letters come from?

Thai is one of the many Southeast Asian alphabets that originate from the ancient … Read More

Is handwriting and calligraphy still necessary in a world where everything is typed?

I am a calligrapher, so you can consider that I have a bias in that direction. I am older, so I have another bias in that I have spent most of my life writing things down … Read More

Who designs the covers for books? How much do they tell the story even before the first page is read?

You may be surprised that authors usually have little to no input on the cover designs for their books. It is understandable that professional designers create book covers. After all, the skill of the writer rarely … Read More

How can Persian be written in Arabic script when it isn’t a Semitic language?

I am often asked how Persian can be written using Arabic script when it is not a Semitic language.

It might surprise you to learn that the majority of languages that use the Arabic writing system … Read More

Which country has the most written languages?

The answer may be India. India certainly has a large inventory of spoken languages, over 2000 (see note at bottom) at a conservative estimate, and a great many of them are languages with a written heritage. … Read More

Numerals vs. Alphabets

 

Sometimes there is a technology that is just so good that it gets adopted nearly universally. Typically it is something that is disarmingly simple, but amazingly effective. There also has to be a mechanism for it to be shared. … Read More

Why is Urdu almost always written in Nasta’liq, but Persian reserves it for poetry?

Nasta’liq is a style of writing the Arabic script, particularly the adapted version of the script sometimes called Perso-Arabic which is used to write Persian, Urdu, and formerly, Turkish. Developed in the 14th and 15th centuries during the … Read More

Nushu: Chinese script only women could write

In 1988, Yi Nianhua, a woman in her 80s, spent many evenings scribbling elegant characters at a table in her kitchen in a small rice-farming village in Shangjiangxu, China. With only a blunt writing brush, the elongated script … Read More

Miyaan Saraa

I am working to put my recent exhibit of new works online. It should be ready shortly!

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Oldest Written Record

Read Aditya Kabir's answer to What is the earliest recorded event in human history? on Quora

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