Languages, Writing Scripts, and Alphabets

Version 11 includes 6,000+ languages, 200+ writing scripts, and 150+ alphabets. They are described using the Entity framework, which provides easy and consistent access to their listings and multiple properties.

A spoken language may use one or more different writing scripts (or writing systems), which can be based on an alphabet of letters. Different languages may share the same writing script and/or the same alphabet. For example, most European languages use the Latin writing script, with various alphabets.

Spanish uses the Latin writing script with the Spanish alphabet.

In[1]:=

Entity["Language", "Spanish"][ EntityProperty["Language", "WritingScripts"]]

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In[2]:=

Entity["Language", "Spanish"][EntityProperty["Language", "Alphabet"]]

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Some languages use more than one writing script.

In[3]:=

Entity["Language", "Serbian"][ EntityProperty["Language", "WritingScripts"]]

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Serbian has an associated alphabet for each of those writing scripts.

In[4]:=

Entity["Language", "Serbian"][EntityProperty["Language", "Alphabet"]]

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Vice versa, you can get the languages that use a given alphabet.

In[5]:=

Entity["Alphabet", "SerbianCyrillic::933zb"][ EntityProperty["Alphabet", "Languages"]]

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A few alphabets may be used by more than one language.

In[6]:=

Entity["Alphabet", "UzbekArab::6zds4"][ EntityProperty["Alphabet", "Languages"]]

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This alphabet has only one writing script.

In[7]:=

Entity["Alphabet", "UzbekArab::6zds4"][ EntityProperty["Alphabet", "WritingScripts"]]

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