Every script in the world, at a glance

Explore the birth, spread, and extinction of 201 writing systems. Phylogenetic trees, world maps, timelines, and decipherment stories — all in one portal.

Scripts203+
Years of History5,000+
Endangered49
Still in Use70
Maps & Visualization
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World Map
Global script distribution
🌳 Phylogeny📡 Spread Map⏳ Timeline
Decipherment Stories
Discovered 1907 · deciphered from 1931 onward
Decipherment of Sogdian — The Ancient Letters of Dunhuang
Branching from Aramaic, Sogdian was the lingua franca of the Silk Road. It was deciphered through the five Dunhuang letters of 1907 and comparison with related Iranian languages, and revealed as the ancestor of the Uyghur, Mongolian, Manchu, and Todo scripts.
Wang Yuanlu (Daoist priest)Aurel Stein
Endangered Scripts
Script of the Day
Scripts by Country
world map
Which scripts are used where?
70 active scripts by country
Learn
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Script Types
Alphabet, Abjad, Abugida & more
🌱 How Scripts Are Born🌲 Script Families🔍 Decipherment Stories
5 topics

YouTube Storytelling

Stories of writing systems — 15 episodes in production.

Coming Soon