Writing Scripts and Alphabets
The Alphabet function returns the list of characters in a given language, alphabet, or writing script.
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_48.png)
Alphabet[Entity["Alphabet", "English::ff9sd"]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_33.png)
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_49.png)
Alphabet[Entity["Alphabet", "SerbianCyrillic::933zb"]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_34.png)
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_50.png)
Alphabet[Entity["Alphabet", "Hindi::7cxj8"]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_35.png)
The alphabet of a writing script refers in general to the most common base letters used by alphabets of that writing script.
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_51.png)
Alphabet[Entity["WritingScript", "Latin::6tr5q"]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_36.png)
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_52.png)
Alphabet[Entity["WritingScript", "Arabic::3y92v"]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_37.png)
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_53.png)
Alphabet[Entity["WritingScript", "Devanagari::t85j5"]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_38.png)
The alphabet of a language is usually the same as the main alphabet used in this language.
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_54.png)
Alphabet[Entity["Language", "Georgian"]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_39.png)
If a language uses more than one alphabet, applying Alphabet will return the most common alphabet used by that language.
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_55.png)
Alphabet[Entity["Language", "Serbian"]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_40.png)
It is common that an alphabet does not use all the characters from its writing script.
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_56.png)
Entity["Language", "Russian"]["WritingScripts"]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_41.png)
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_57.png)
Alphabet[Entity["WritingScript", "Cyrillic::73gxm"]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_42.png)
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_58.png)
Alphabet[Entity["Language", "Russian"]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_43.png)
Russian and Cyrillic (Russian's writing script) contain different sets of letters.
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_59.png)
Complement[Alphabet[Entity["WritingScript", "Cyrillic::73gxm"]],
Alphabet[Entity["Language", "Russian"]]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_44.png)
The Latin language and the Latin alphabet must not be confused with the Latin writing script.
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_60.png)
Alphabet[Entity["Language", "Latin"]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_45.png)
The classical Latin alphabet does not include a few (now common) writing script letters.
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_61.png)
Complement[Alphabet[Entity["WritingScript", "Latin::6tr5q"]],
Alphabet[Entity["Alphabet", "Latin::x7687"]]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_46.png)
And in this case, if the input is the simple "Latin" string, it will assume the writing script.
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_62.png)
Alphabet["Latin"]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_47.png)
Also, many alphabets include diacritics, ligatures, and double characters as part of their basic set of letters.
![Click for copyable input](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/In_63.png)
Alphabet[Entity["Alphabet", "Slovak::kj62d"]]
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_48.png)
You can build a table with the difference between the set of letters for some alphabets and their writing scripts.
![](assets.en/writing-scripts-and-alphabets/O_49.png)