Languages and Scripts

 

This page has been superseded. For more up-to-date information, see the Unicode CLDR charts: Scripts and Languages
 

The table below presents a list of languages and the scripts used to write them.  It is not a complete list of the world's languages, but covers a large number of prominent languages. It is intended only to aid people in ascertaining whether a given language can be represented in Unicode. The list is intentionally abbreviated for languages written in the Latin script:  only a few of the more prominent languages are listed.

Some languages are, or have historically been, written in more than one script. Many of these cases are indicated in the table as a comma-separated list of script names.  If more than one script is required to write a language, the sign "+" is used between script names; otherwise the scripts are used independently. When more than one script is listed, the script thought to be most current or most widely used is listed first.  An arrow (→) indicates a modern or recent return to a previously used script.

Not all variants of language names are listed, only the one or two most widely used. For less common languages it is often difficult to determine the precise list of characters used to write them. The "Notes" field lists some countries in which the language is used, especially for lesser-known languages, but is not intended to be exhaustive.

This page is no longer maintained or updated as of December 11, 2007

Abbreviations:
[1] = Not yet encoded in Unicode.
[2] = Has one or more extinct or minor native script(s), not yet encoded.
[3] = Formerly or historically used this script, now uses another.

Language	Script(s)	Notes
Abaza	Cyrillic
Abkhaz	Cyrillic
Adygei	Cyrillic
Afrikaans	Latin
Ainu	Katakana, Latin	Japan
Aisor	Cyrillic
Albanian	Latin [2]
Altai	Cyrillic
Amharic	Ethiopic	Ethiopia
Amo	Latin	Nigeria
Arabic	Arabic
Armenian	Armenian, Syriac [3]
Assamese	Bengali	Bangladesh, India
Assyrian (modern)	Syriac
Avar	Cyrillic
Awadhi	Devanagari	India, Nepal
Aymara	Latin	Peru
Azeri	Cyrillic, Latin
Azerbaijani	Arabic, Cyrillic, Latin
Badaga	Tamil	India
Bagheli	Devanagari	India, Nepal
Balear	Latin
Balkar	Cyrillic
Balti	Devanagari, Balti [2]	India, Pakistan
Bashkir	Cyrillic
Basque	Latin
Batak	Batak [1], Latin	Philippines, Indonesia
Batak toba	Batak [1], Latin	Indonesia
Bateri	Devanagari	(aka Bhatneri) India, Pakistan
Belarusian	Cyrillic	(aka Belorussian, Belarusan)
Bengali	Bengali	Bangladesh, India
Bhili	Devanagari	India
Bhojpuri	Devanagari	India
Bihari	Devanagari	India
Bosnian	Latin	Bosnia-Herzegovina
Braj bhasha	Devanagari	India
Breton	Latin	France
Bugis	Buginese	Indonesia, Malaysia
Buhid	Buhid	Philippines
Bulgarian	Cyrillic
Burmese	Myanmar
Buryat	Cyrillic
Bahasa	Latin	(see Indonesian)
Catalan	Latin
Chakma	Bengali, Chakma [1]	Bangladesh, India
Cham	Cham [1]	Cambodia, Thailand, Viet Nam
Chechen	Cyrillic	Georgia
Cherokee	Cherokee, Latin
Chhattisgarhi	Devanagari	India
Chinese	Han
Chukchi	Cyrillic
Chuvash	Cyrillic
Coptic	Greek	Egypt
Cornish	Latin	United Kingdom
Corsican	Latin
Cree	Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, Latin
Croatian	Latin
Czech	Latin
Danish	Latin
Dargwa	Cyrillic
Dhivehi	Thaana	Maldives
Dungan	Cyrillic
Dutch	Latin
Dzongkha	Tibetan	Bhutan
Edo	Latin
English	Latin, Deseret [3], Shavian [3]
Esperanto	Latin
Estonian	Latin
Evenki	Cyrillic
Faroese	Latin	Faroe Islands
Farsi	Arabic	(aka Persian)
Fijian	Latin
Finnish	Latin
French	Latin
Frisian	Latin
Gaelic	Latin
Gagauz	Latin, Cyrillic
Garhwali	Devanagari	India
Garo	Bengali	Bangladesh, India
Gascon	Latin
Ge'ez	Ethiopic	Eritrea, Ethiopia
Georgian	Georgian
German	Latin
Gondi	Devanagari, Telugu	India
Greek	Greek
Guarani	Latin
Gujarati	Gujarati
Garshuni	Syriac
Hanunóo	Latin, Hanunóo	Philippines
Harauti	Devanagari	India
Hausa	Latin, Arabic [3]
Hawaiian	Latin
Hebrew	Hebrew
Hindi	Devanagari
Hmong	Latin, Hmong [1]
Ho	Devanagari	Bangladesh, India
Hopi	Latin
Hungarian	Latin
Ibibio	Latin
Icelandic	Latin
Indonesian	Arabic [3], Latin
Ingush	Arabic, Latin
Inuktitut	Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, Latin	Canada
Iñupiaq	Latin	Greenland
Irish	Latin
Italian	Latin
Japanese	Han + Hiragana + Katakana
Javanese	Latin, Javanese [1]
Judezmo	Hebrew
Kabardian	Cyrillic
Kachchi	Devanagari	India
Kalmyk	Cyrillic
Kanauji	Devanagari	India
Kankan	Devanagari	India
Kannada	Kannada	India
Kanuri	Latin
Khanty	Cyrillic
Karachay	Cyrillic
Karakalpak	Cyrillic
Karelian	Latin, Cyrillic
Kashmiri	Devanagari, Arabic
Kazakh	Cyrillic
Khakass	Cyrillic
Khamti	Myanmar	India, Myanmar
Khasi	Latin, Bengali	Bangladesh, India
Khmer	Khmer	Cambodia
Kirghiz	Arabic [3], Latin, Cyrillic
Komi	Cyrillic, Latin
Konkan	Devanagari
Korean	Hangul + Han
Koryak	Cyrillic
Kurdish	Arabic, Cyrillic, Latin	Iran, Iraq
Kuy	Thai	Cambodia, Laos, Thailand
Ladino	Hebrew
Lak	Cyrillic
Lambadi	Telugu	India
Lao	Lao	Laos
Lapp	Latin	(see Sami)
Latin	Latin
Latvian	Latin
Lawa, eastern	Thai	Thailand
Lawa, western	Thai	China, Thailand
Lepcha	Lepcha [1]	Bhutan, India, Nepal
Lezghian	Cyrillic
Limbu	Devanagari, Limbu	Bhutan, India, Nepal
Lisu	Lisu (Fraser) [1], Latin	China
Lithuanian	Latin
Lushootseed	Latin	USA
Luxemburgish	Latin	(aka Luxembourgeois)
Macedonian	Cyrillic
Malay	Arabic [3], Latin	Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia
Malayalam	Malayalam
Maldivian	Thaana	Maldives (See Dhivehi)
Maltese	Latin
Manchu	Mongolian	China
Mansi	Cyrillic
Marathi	Devanagari	India
Mari	Cyrillic, Latin
Marwari	Devanagari
Meitei	Meetai Mayek [1], Bengali	Bangladesh, India
Moldavian	Cyrillic
Mon	Myanmar	Myanmar, Thailand
Mongolian	Mongolian, Cyrillic	China, Mongolia
Mordvin	Cyrillic
Mundari	Bengali, Devanagari	Bangladesh, India, Nepal
Naga	Latin, Bengali	India
Nanai	Cyrillic
Navajo	Latin
Naxi	Naxi [2]	China
Nenets	Cyrillic
Nepali	Devanagari
Netets	Cyrillic
Newari	Devanagari, Ranjana, Parachalit
Nogai	Cyrillic
Norwegian	Latin
Oriya	Oriya	Bangladesh, India
Oromo	Ethiopic	Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia
Ossetic	Cyrillic
Pali	Sinhala, Devanagari, Thai	India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka
Panjabi	Gurmukhi	India (see Punjabi)
Parsi-dari	Arabic	Afghanistan, Iran
Pashto	Arabic	Afghanistan
Polish	Latin
Portuguese	Latin
Provençal	Latin
Prussian	Latin
Punjabi	Gurmukhi	India
Quechua	Latin
Riang	Bengali	Bangladesh, India
Romanian	Latin, Cyrillic [3]	(aka Rumanian)
Romany	Cyrillic, Latin
Russian	Cyrillic
Sami	Cyrillic, Latin
Samaritan	Hebrew, Samaritan [1]	Israel
Sanskrit	Sinhala, Devanagari, etc.	India
Santali	Devanagari, Bengali, Oriya, Ol Cemet [1]	India
Selkup	Cyrillic
Serbian	Cyrillic
Shan	Myanmar	China, Myanmar, Thailand
Sherpa	Devanagari
Shona	Latin
Shor	Cyrillic
Sindhi	Arabic
Sinhala	Sinhala	(aka Sinhalese) Sri Lanka
Slovak	Latin
Slovenian	Latin
Somali	Latin
Spanish	Latin
Swahili	Latin
Swedish	Latin
Sylhetti	Syloti Nagri, Bengali	Bangladesh
Syriac	Syriac
Swadaya	Syriac	(see Syriac)
Tabasaran	Cyrillic
Tagalog	Latin, Tagalog
Tagbanwa	Latin, Tagbanwa
Tahitian	Latin
Tajik	Arabic [3], Latin, Cyrillic (→ Latin)	(aka Tadzhik)
Tamazight	Tifinagh, Latin
Tamil	Tamil
Tat	Cyrillic
Tatar	Cyrillic
Telugu	Telugu
Thai	Thai
Tibetan	Tibetan
Tigre	Ethiopic	Eritrea, Sudan
Tsalagi	(see Cherokee)
Tulu	Kannada	India
Turkish	Arabic [3], Latin
Turkmen	Arabic [3], Latin, Cyrillic (→ Latin)
Tuva	Cyrillic
Turoyo	Syriac	(see Syriac)
Udekhe	Cyrillic
Udmurt	Cyrillic, Latin
Uighur	Arabic, Latin, Cyrillic, Uighur [1]
Ukranian	Cyrillic
Urdu	Arabic
Uzbek	Cyrillic, Latin
Valencian	Latin
Vietnamese	Latin, Chu Nom
Yakut	Cyrillic
Yi	Yi, Latin
Yiddish	Hebrew
Yoruba	Latin

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