This list is a Language recognition chart. It describes a variety of simple clues one can use to determine what language a document is written in with high accuracy.

Characters [ edit ]

The language of a foreign text can often be identified by looking up characters specific to that language.

Latin alphabet (possibly extended) [ edit ]

Lots of Latin roots.

Accented letters: â ç è é ê î ô û , rarely ë ï ; ù only in the word où , à only in the word à and at end of words ; never á í ì ó ò ú

, rarely ; only in the word , only in the word and at end of words ; never Angle quotation marks: « » (though "curly-Q" quotation marks are also used); dialogue traditionally indicated by means of dashes

Many apostrophised contractions, i.e. words beginning with l' or d' , less often c ' , j ' , m ' , n ' , s ' , t ' — only before vowels and h

or , less often , , , , , — only before vowels and Common words: de , la , le , du , des , il , et ;

, , , , , , ; Letter w is rare and used only in loanwords (e.g whisky ).

is rare and used only in loanwords (e.g ). Ligatures œ and æ are conventional

Words ending in -ux, especially -aux or -eux;

Common words: lé , dé , tchi , ès , i' , ch'

, , , , , Tch , dg , th and în are common character combinations. ou is frequently followed by another vowel.

, , and are common character combinations. is frequently followed by another vowel. Many apostrophised short forms, e.g. words beginning with l', d' or r'. é frequently alternates with an apostrophe e.g. c'mîn/quémîn.

Characters: ¿ ¡ (inverted question and exclamation marks), ñ

All vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú) may take an acute accent

The letter u can take a diaeresis (ü), but only after the letter g

Some words frequently used: de, el, del, los, la(s), uno(s), una(s), y

No apostrophised contractions

Word beginnings: ll- (check not Welsh)

Word endings: -o, -a, -ción, -miento, -dad

Angle quotation marks: « » (though "curly-Q" quotation marks are also used); dialogue often indicated by means of dashes

Almost every word ends in a vowel. Exceptions include non , il , per , con , del .

, , , , . Common one-letter word: è .

. Common word: perché .

. Letter sequences: gli , gn , sci .

, , . Letters j , k , w , x and y are rare and used only in loanwords (e.g. whisky ).

, , , and are rare and used only in loanwords (e.g. ). Word endings: -o , -a , -zione , -mento , -tà , -aggio .

, , , , , . Grave accent (e.g., on à) almost always occurs in the last letter of words.

Double consonants (tt, zz, cc, ss, bb, pp, ll, etc.) are frequent.

Character combination l·l and tz

and Letter sequences: tx (check not Basque) and tg

(check not Basque) and Letters k and w are rare and only used in loanwords (e.g. walkman )

and are rare and only used in loanwords (e.g. ) Word endings: -o, -a, -es, ció, -tat

Word beginning: ll-

Characters: ă â î ș ț

Common words: și, de, la, a, ai, ale, alor, cu

Word endings: -a, -ă, -u, -ul, -ului, -ţie (or -ţiune), -ment, -tate; names ending in -escu

Double and triple i: copii, copiii

Note that Romanian is sometimes written online with no diacritics, making it harder to identify. A cedilla is sometimes used on S (ş) and on T (ţ) instead of the correct diacritic, the comma (above).

Characters: ã, õ, â, ê, ô, á, é, í, ó, ú, à, ç

Common one-letter words: a, à, e, é, o

Common two-letter words: ao, as, às, da, de, do, em, os, ou, um

Common three-letter words: aos, com, das, dos, ele, ela, mas, não, por, que, são, uma

Common endings: -ção, -dade, -ismo, -mente

Common digraphs: ch, nh, lh; examples: chave, galinha, baralho.

The letters k, w and y are rare. They are found mostly in loanwords, e.g.: keynesianismo , walkie-talkie , nylon .

, , . Most singular words end in a vowel, l, m, r, or z.

Plural words end in -s.

Characters: å, é, è, ê, î, ô, û

Common digraphs and trigraphs: ai, ae, én, -jh-, tch, oe, -nn-, -nnm-, xh, ou

Common one-letter words: a, å, e, i, t', l', s', k'

Common two-letter words: al, ås, li, el, vs, ki, si, pô, pa, po, ni, èn, dj'

Common three-letter words: dji, nén, rén, bén, pol, mel

Common endings: -aedje, -mint, -xhmint, -ès, -ou, -owe, -yî, -åcion

Apostrophes are followed by a space (preferably non breaking one), eg: l' ome instead of l'ome.

Similar to Portuguese; the indefinite article "unha" (fem. plural), the suffix -çom and a heavier usage of the letter "x" usually sign Galician.

Definite articles o or ó (masc. sing.), os (masc. plural), a (fem. sing.), as (fem. plural)

Common diagraphs: nh (ningunha)

The letters j, k, w and y are not in the alphabet, and appear only in loanwords

words: a , an , and , in , of , on , the , that , to , is , I ( should always be a capital)

, , , , , , , , , , ( always be a capital) letter sequences: th , ch , sh , ough , augh

, , , , word endings: -ing , -tion , -ed , -age , -s , -’s , -’ve , -n’t , -’d

, , , , , , , , diacritics or accents only in loanwords (piñata)

letter sequences ij (capitalized as IJ , and also found as a ligature, Ĳ or ĳ ), ei , doubled vowels (but not ii ), kw , sch , oei , ooi , and uw (especially eeuw , ieuw , auw , and ouw ).

(capitalized as , and also found as a ligature, or ), , doubled vowels (but not ), , , , , and (especially , , , and ). words: het, op, en, een, voor (and compounds of voor ).

(and compounds of ). word endings: -tje , -sje , -ing , -en , -lijk ,

, , , , , at the start of words: z-, v-, ge-

t/m occasionally occurs between two points in time or between numbers (e.g. house numbers).

letter sequences: ij , ei , oa

, , words: yn

Words: 'n , as , vir , nie .

, , , . Similar to Dutch, but: the common Dutch letters c and z are rare and used only in loanwords (e.g. chalet ); the common Dutch vowel ij is not used; instead, i and y are used (e.g. -lik , sy ); the common Dutch word ending -en is rare, being replaced by -e .



umlauts (ä, ö, ü), ess-zett (ß)

letter sequences: ch , sch , tsch , tz , ss ,

, , , , , common words: der , die , das , den , dem , des , er , sie , es , ist , ich , du , aber

, , , , , , , , , , , , common endings: -en , -er , -ern , -st , -ung , -chen , -tät

, , , , , , rare letters: x , y (except in loanwords)

, (except in loanwords) letter c rarely used except in the sequences listed above and in loanwords

rarely used except in the sequences listed above and in loanwords long compound words

a period (.) after ordinal numbers, e.g. 3. Oktober

many capitalised words in the middle of sentences.

letters å, ä, ö, rarely é

common words: och , i , att , det , en , som , är , av , den , på

, , , , , , , , , long compound words

letter sequences: stj , sj , skj , tj , ck , än , and occasionally surnames ending in -qvist

, , , , , , and occasionally surnames ending in -qvist no use of characters w, z except for foreign proper nouns and some loanwords but x is used, unlike Danish and Norwegian, which replace it with ks

letters æ, ø, å

common words: af, og, til, er, på, med, det, den ;

; common endings: -tion , -ing , -else , -hed ;

, , , ; long compound words;

no use of character q , w , x and z except for foreign proper nouns and some loanwords;

, , and except for foreign proper nouns and some loanwords; to distinguish from Norwegian: uses letter combination øj; frequent use of æ; spellings of borrowed foreign words are retained (in particular use of c), such as centralstation.

letters æ, ø, å

common words: av, ble, er, og, en, et, men, i, å, for, eller ;

; common endings: -sjon , -ing , -else , -het ;

, , , ; long compound words;

no use of character c , w , z and x except for foreign proper nouns and some loanwords;

, , and except for foreign proper nouns and some loanwords; two versions of the language: Bokmål (much closer to Danish) and Nynorsk – for example ikke, lørdag, Norge (Bokmål) vs. ikkje, laurdag, Noreg (Nynorsk); Nynorsk uses the word òg ; printed materials almost always published in Bokmål only;

(Bokmål) vs. (Nynorsk); Nynorsk uses the word ; printed materials almost always published in Bokmål only; to distinguish from Danish: uses letter combination øy; less frequent use of æ; spellings of borrowed foreign words are ‘Norsified’ (in particular removing use of c), such as sentralstasjon.

letters á, ð, é, í, ó, ú, ý, þ, æ, ö

common beginnings: fj- , gj- , hj- , hl- , hr- , hv- , kj- , and sj- ,

, , , , , , , and , common endings: -ar (especially -nar ), -ir (especially -nir ), -ur , -nn (especially -inn )

(especially ), (especially ), , (especially ) no use of character c, q, w, or z except for foreign proper nouns, some loanwords, and, in the case of z, older texts.

letters á, ð, í, ó, ú, ý, æ, ø

letter combinations: ggj , oy , skt

, , to distinguish from Icelandic: does not use é or þ, uses ø instead of ö (occasionally rendered as ö on road signs, or even ő).

uses diacritics: ā, č, ē, ģ, ī, ķ, ļ, ņ, ō, ŗ, š, ū, ž

does not have letters: q, w, x, y

no longer uses ō or ŗ in modern language

extremely rare doubling of vowels

rare doubling of consonants

a period (.) after ordinal numbers, e.g. 2005. gads

common words: ir, bija, tika, es, viņš

visual abundance of letters ą, č, ę, ė, į, š, ų, ū, ž

does not have letters q, w, x

extremely rare doubling of vowels and consonants

many varying forms (usually endings) of the same word, e.g. namas, namo, namus, namams, etc.

generally long words (absence of articles and fewer prepositions in comparison to Germanic languages)

common words: ir, yra, kad, bet.

consonant clusters rz, sz, cz, prz, trz

includes: ą, ę, ć, ś, ł, ó, ż, ź

words w, z, k, we, i, na (several one-letter words)

(several one-letter words) words jest, się

words beginning with był, będ, jest (forms of copula być, "to be").

visual abundance of letters ž š ů ě ř

words je, v

to distinguish from Slovak: does not use ä, ľ, ĺ, ŕ or ô; ú only appears at the beginning of words.

visual abundance of letters ž š č ;

; uses: ä, ľ, and ô and (very rarely) ĺ and ŕ;

typical suffixes: -cia , -ť ;

, ; to distinguish from Czech: does not use ě, ř or ů.

similar to Serbian

letters-digraphs dž, lj, nj

does not have q, w, x, y

typical suffixes: -ti , -ći

, special letters: č, ć, š, ž, đ

common words: a, i, u, je

to distinguish from Serbian: infixes -ije- and -je- are common, verbs ending in -irati, -iran

similar to Croatian

letters-digraphs dž, lj, nj (lj and nj are somewhat more common than dž, although not by much)

(lj and nj are somewhat more common than dž, although not by much) no q, w, x, y

typical verb suffixes -ti , -ći (infinitive is much less used than in Croatian)

, (infinitive is much less used than in Croatian) foreign words might end in -tija , -ovan , -ovati , -uje

, , , special letters: đ (rare), č, š (common), ć, ž (less common)

common words: a, i, u, je, jeste

future tense suffix -iće , -ićeš , -ićemo , -ićete (not found in Croatian)

, , , (not found in Croatian) infixes -ije- and -je- are very often in Serbian that is spoken in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia (ijekavica), but it does not appear in Serbia because each of those infixes are substituted with -e- (ekavica).

uses Џ, Ј, Љ, Њ, Ђ, Ћ

does not use Щ, Ъ, Ы, Ь, Э, Ю, Я, Ё, Є, Ґ, Ї, І, Ў

to distinguish from Macedonian: does not use Ѕ, Ѓ, Ќ

letters Ŵ, ŵ used in Welsh

used in Welsh words y, yr, yn, a, ac, i, o

letter sequences wy, ch, dd, ff, ll, mh, ngh, nh, ph, rh, th, si

letters not used: k, q, v, x, z

letter only used rarely, in loanwords: j

commonly accented letters: â, ê, î, ô, û, ŵ, ŷ , although acute ( ´ ), grave ( ` ), and dieresis ( ¨ ) accents can hypothetically occur on all vowels

, although acute ( ), grave ( ), and dieresis ( ) accents can hypothetically occur on all vowels word endings: -ion, -au, -wr, -wyr

y is the most common letter in the language

is the most common letter in the language w between consonants ( w in fact represents a vowel in the Welsh language)

between consonants ( in fact represents a vowel in the Welsh language) circumflex accent (^) is by far the commonest diacritical mark, although diacritics are often omitted altogether

vowels with acute accents: á é í ó ú

words beginning with letter sequences bp dt gc bhf

letter sequences sc cht

frequent bh, ch, dh, fh, gh, mh, th, sh

to distinguish from (Scottish) Gaelic: there may be words or names with the second (or even third) letter capitalized instead of the first: hÉireann.

vowels with grave accents: à è ì ò ù ( é and ó still occasionally seen but usage is now discouraged)

( and still occasionally seen but usage is now discouraged) letter sequences sg chd

frequent bh, ch, dh, fh, gh, mh, th, sh

to distinguish from Irish: prefixes are hyphenated, so capitals in the middle of words generally do not occur: an t-Oban.

unique letters: ë , ç .

, . ë is the most common letter in the language.

is the most common letter in the language. the letter w is not used except in loanwords.

is not used except in loanwords. dh , gj , ll , nj , rr , sh , th , xh , and zh are considered one letter instead of two.

, , , , , , , , and are considered one letter instead of two. common words: po, jo, dhe, i, të, me

unique letters: "ċ", "ġ", "ħ", "għ", "ħ", "ż"

semitic origin, fairly intelligible with Arabic

uses il-xxx for the definite article

The word xwe (oneself, myself, yourself etc.) is highly specific (xw combination) and frequent.

(oneself, myself, yourself etc.) is highly specific (xw combination) and frequent. Most frequent letter is ( I, i ) which equivalent to (Schwa).

Using circumflex ( ^ ): ê, î, û.

Using cedilla ( ¸ ): ç, ş.

Have eight vowels (a, e, ê, i, î, o, u, û) where impossible to find a word without any vowel.

Have lots of compound words.

distinct letters ä and ö ; but never õ or ü ( y takes the place of ü )

and ; but never or ( takes the place of ) b , f , z , š and ž appear in loanwords and proper names only; the last two are substituted with sh or zh in some texts

, , , and appear in loanwords and proper names only; the last two are substituted with or in some texts c , q , w , x appear in (typically foreign) proper names only

, , , appear in (typically foreign) proper names only outside of loanwords, d appears only between vowels or in hd

appears only between vowels or in outside of loanwords, g only appears in ng

only appears in outside of loanwords, words do not begin with two consonants; this is reflected in the general syllable structure, where consonant clusters only occur across syllable boundaries, except in some loanwords

common words: sinä , on

, common endings: -nen , -ka / -kä , -in , -t (plural suffix)

, / , , (plural suffix) common vowel combinations: ai , uo , ei , ie , oi , yö , äi

, , , , , , unusually high degree of letter duplication, both vowels and consonants will be geminated, for example aa , ee , ii , kk , ll , ss , yy , ää

, , , , , , , frequent long words

distinct letters: õ , ä , ö and ü ; but never ß or å

, , and ; but never or similar to Finnish, except: letter y is not used, except in loanwords ( ü is the corresponding vowel) letters b and g (without preceding n ) are found outside of loanwords occasional use of š and ž , mainly in loanwords (plus combination tš ) loanwords more common generally than in Finnish, mainly loaned from German words end in consonants more frequently than in Finnish, word-final b , d , v being particularly typical letter d is much more common in Estonian than in Finnish, and in Estonian it is often the last letter of the word (plural suffix), which it never is in Finnish double öö more common than in Finnish; other doubles can include õõ , üü , rarely hh (for German ch ) and even šš

common words: ja, on, ei, ta, see, või.

letters ő and ű (double acute accent) unique to Hungarian

accented letters á and é frequent

and frequent letter combinations: cs, gy, ly, ny, sz, ty, zs (all classed as separate letters), leg‐, ‐obb (note: sz also common in Polish)

(all classed as separate letters), (note: also common in Polish) common words: a, az, ez, egy, és, van, hogy

letter k very frequent (plural suffix)

long polysynthetic words (a single word can number 30+ letters)

relatively abundant n , q (not necessarily followed by u ), u

, (not necessarily followed by ), ubiquitous double consonants and vowels ( aa , ii , qq , uu , more rarely ee , oo )

, , , , more rarely , ) vowels a , i , u conspicuously more frequent than e , o (which are only found before q and r )

, , conspicuously more frequent than , (which are only found before and ) no diphthongs except occasional word-final ai , only consonant combinations besides double consonants and (n)ng consist of r + consonant

, only consonant combinations besides double consonants and consist of + consonant old spellings (now abolished in spelling reform) sometimes included acute accent, circumflex and/or tilde: Qânâq vs. Qaanaaq.

vowels with acute accent, ogonek (nasal hook), or both: á, ą, ą́

doubled vowels: aa, áá, ąą, ą́ą́

slashed l : ł (check not Polish!)

: ł (check not Polish!) n with acute accent: ń

with acute accent: ń quotation mark: ' or ’

sequences: dl, tł, tł’, dz, ts’, ií, áa, aá

may have rather long words

In addition to the above,

may use: u or ú

may use vowels with macron: ā ą̄

does not use ų

In addition to the above,

does not use u, ú, or ų

In addition to the above,

uses: u, ú, ų

does not use o, ó, or ǫ

lots of tildes over vowels (including y) and n

tilde over g: g̃—it's the only language in the world to use it. Example words: hagũa and g̃uahẽ .

and . b, d, and g usually do not occur without m or n before (mb, nd, ng) unless they're Spanish loan words.

f, l, q, w, x, z extremely rare outside loan words

does not use c without h: ch

words: desu, aru, suru , esp. at end of sentences;

, esp. at end of sentences; word endings: -masu, -masen, -shita ;

; letters: Japanese almost always alternates between a consonant and a vowel. Exceptions are digraphs shi and chi , fricative tsu , gemination (two of the same consonant in a row) and palatalization (a consonant followed by the letter y ).

and , fricative , gemination (two of the same consonant in a row) and palatalization (a consonant followed by the letter ). a macron or circumflex may be used to indicate doubled vowels, eg. Tōkyō

common words: no, o, wa, de, ni

(Note: Romaji is not often used in Japanese script. It is most often used for foreigners learning the pronunciation of the Japanese language.)

Almost all written words are quite short (one syllable).

Syllables (unless they are pronounced with mid tone) end in a tone letter: one of b s j v m g d , leading to apparent "consonant clusters" such as -wj

, leading to apparent "consonant clusters" such as w can be the main vowel of a syllable (e.g. tswv )

can be the main vowel of a syllable (e.g. ) Syllables can begin with sequences such as hm-, ntxh-, nq- .

. Syllables ending in double vowels (especially -oo, -ee) possibly followed by a tone letters (as in Hmoob "Hmong").

Roman characters with more than one diacritical mark on the same vowel. See above.

Almost all written words are quite short (one syllable, mostly less than six characters long).

Words beginning with ng or ngh

or Words ending with nh

common words: cái, không, có, ở, của, và, tại, với, để, đã, sẽ, đang, tôi, bạn, chúng, là

The following characters (often in combination) after vowels: ^ ( + ' ` ? ~ .

DD, Dd, or dd

The following character before punctuation: \

Vietnamese VNI encoding [ edit ]

The digits 1-8 after vowels

The digit 9 after a D or d

The following character before numbers: \

The following characters after vowels: s f r x j

The following vowels, doubled up: a e o

The letter w after the following characters: a o u

after the following characters: a o u DD, Dd, or dd

Chinese, Romanized [ edit ]

In general, Mandarin syllables end only in vowels or n, ng, r; never in p, t, k, m

Words beginning with x, q, zh

Tone marks on vowels, such as ā, á, ǎ, à For convenience while using a computer, these are sometimes substituted with numbers, e.g. a1, a2, a3, a4



Words do not begin with b, d, g, z, q, x, r

Words beginning with hs

Many hyphenated words

Apostrophes after initial letters or digraphs, e.g. t'a, ch'i

Many unusual vowel combinations such as ae, eei, ii, iee, oou, yy, etc.

Insertion of r, e.g. arn, erng, etc.

Words ending in nn, nq

In general, Cantonese syllables can end in p, t, k, m, n, ng; never r

Double aa is common but double ee/ii/oo/uu is rare

Many hyphenated words.

Words can end in p, t, k, m, n, ng, h; never r

Roman characters with many diacritical marks on vowels. Unlike Vietnamese, each character has at most one such mark.

Unusual combining characters, namely · (middle dot, always after o) and | (vertical bar). ¯ (macron) is also common.

May contain the following:

Prefixes: me-, mem-, memper-, pe-, per-, di-, ke-

Suffixes: -kan, -an, -i

Others (these almost always written in lowercase): yang, dan, di, ke, oleh, itu



Malay and Indonesian are mutually intelligible to proficient speakers, although translators and interpreters will generally be specialists in one or other language. See Comparison of Standard Malay and Indonesian.

Frequent use of the letter 'a' (comparable to the frequency of the English 'e').

Note that some Turkic languages like Azeri and Turkmen use a similar Latin alphabet (often Jaŋalif) and similar words, and might be confused with Turkish. Azeri has the letters Əə, Xx and Qq not present in the Turkish alphabet, and Türkmen has Ää, Žž, Ňň, Ýý and Ww. Latin Characters uniquely (or nearly uniquely) used for Turkic languages: Əə, Ŋŋ, Ɵɵ, Ьь, Ƣƣ, Ğğ, İ, and ı. All Turkic languages can form long words by adding multiple suffixes.

Turkish Alphabet [ edit ]

Lowercase: a b c ç d e f g ğ h ı i j k l m n o ö p r s ş t u ü v y z

Uppercase: A B C Ç D E F G Ğ H I İ J K L M N O Ö P R S Ş T U Ü V Y Z

Common words [ edit ]

bir — one, a

— one, a bu — this

— this ancak — but

— but oldu — was

— was şu — that

Look for word endings. Tense changes in Turkish verbs are created by adding suffixes to the end of the verb. Pluralizations occur by adding -lar and -ler . Common Tense Changes: -yor -mış -muş -sun Possessivity/person: -im -un -ın -in -iz -dur -tır Example: Yap mıştır , "[He] did it"; Yap is the verb stem meaning "to do", -mış indicates the perfect tense, -tır indicates the third person (he/she/it). Example: Ada lar , "Islands"; Ada is a noun meaning "island", -lar makes it plural.) Example: Ev imiz , "Our house"; Ev is a noun meaning "house", -im indicates the first-person possessor, which -iz then makes plural.)

and .

Azeri can be easily recognized by the frequent use of ə. This letter is not used in any other officially recognized modern Latin alphabet. In addition, it uses the letters x and q, which are not used in Turkish.

Common words: və , ki , ilə , bu , o , isə , görə , da , də

, , , , , , , , Frequent use of diacritics: ç , ə , ğ , ı , İ , ö , ş , ü

, , , , , , , Words ending in -lar , -lər , -ın , -in , -da , -də , -dan , -dən

, , , , , , , Words never beginning with ğ or ı

or Words rarely beginning with two or more consonants

Transliteration of foreign words and names, e.g. Audrey Hepburn = Odri Hepbern

No spaces, except between punctuation marks and (sometimes) foreign words.

Arabic numerals (0-9) sometimes used

Punctuation: Period 。(not .) Serial comma 、(distinguished from the regular comma ，) Ellipse …… (six dots)

No hiragana, katakana, or hangul

May be written vertically

Note: Many characters were not simplified. As a result, it is common for a short word or phrase to be identical between Simplified and Traditional, but it is rare for an entire sentence to be identical as well.

Common radicals different between Traditional and Simplified:

Simplified: 讠钅饣纟门 (e.g. 语 银 饭 纪 问 )

(e.g. ) Traditional: 訁釒飠糹門 (e.g. 語 銀 飯 紀 問 )

Common characters different between Traditional and Simplified:

Simplified: 国 会 这 来 对 开 关 门 时 个 书 长 万 边 东 车 爱 儿

Traditional: 國 會 這 來 對 開 關 門 時 個 書 長 萬 邊 東 車 愛 兒

Standard written Chinese (based on Mandarin) vs written Vernacular Cantonese [ edit ]

Note: Cantonese-speakers live in Mainland China, Hong Kong,Taiwan and Macau, so written Cantonese can be written in either Simplified or Traditional characters.

Common characters in Vernacular Cantonese that do not occur in Mandarin (only characters that are the same between Traditional and Simplified are chosen here):

嘅 咗 咁 嚟 啲 唔 佢 乜 嘢

Some of the above characters are not supported in all character encodings, so sometimes the 口 radical on the left is substituted with a 0 or o, e.g.

o既 0既

Katakana (カタカナ) and hiragana (ひらがな) characters mixed with kanji (漢字)

Few or no spaces

Arabic numerals (0-9) sometimes used

Punctuation: Period 。 Comma 、(，also used) Quotation marks 「」

Occasional small characters beside large ones, eg. しゃ りゅ しょ って シャ リュ ショ ッテ

Double tick marks (known as dakuon or handakuon) appearing at upper right of characters, eg. で が ず デ ガ ズ

Empty circles (maru) appearing at upper right of characters, eg. ぱ ぴ パ ぴ

Frequent characters: の を は が

May be written vertically

Western-style punctuation marks

Western-style spacing

Hangul letters, e.g. ㅎ h, ㅇ ng, ㅂ b, etc.

Hangul letters used to form syllable blocks; e.g. ㅅ s + ㅓ eo + ㅇ ng = 성 seong

Circles and ellipses are commonplace in Hangul; are exceedingly rare in Chinese.

General appearance has relatively-uniform complexity, as contrasted with Chinese or Japanese.

Khmer is written using the distinctive Khmer alphabet.

rarely uses spaces

Letters have a distinctively "taller" shape than other Brahmic scripts.

Uses Khmer numerals in writing ១ ២ ៣ ៤ ៥ ៦ ៧ ៨ ៩.

Has "clusters" of letters stuffed upon each other.

has 24 diacritics denoting syllable rhymes - ា ិ ី ឹ ឺ ុ ូ ួ ើ ឿ ៀ េ ែ ៃ េា ៅ ុំ ំ ាំ ះ ុះ េះ ោះ

use this as a full stop "។"

Modern Greek is written with Greek alphabet in monotonic, polytonic or atonic, either according to Demotic (Mr. Triantafilidis) grammar or Katharevousa grammar. Some people write in Greeklish (Greek with Latin script) which is either Visual-based, orthographic or phonetic or just messed-up (mixed). The only official orthographic forms of Greek language are Monotonic and Polytonic.

Normal Modern Greek (Greek Monotonic) [ edit ]

words και, είναι ;

; Each multi-syllable word has one accent/tone mark ( oxia ): ά έ ή ί ό ύ ώ

): ά έ ή ί ό ύ ώ The only other diacritic ever used is the tréma: ϊ/ΐ, ϋ/ΰ, etc.

Pre-1980s Greek (Greek Polytonic) [ edit ]

Katharevousa, Dimotiki (Triantafylidis' grammar)

Diacritics: ά, ᾶ, ἀ, ἁ, and combinations, also with other vowels.

Some texts, especially in Katharevousa, also have ὰ, ᾳ, in combination with other diacritics.

Ancient Greek [ edit ]

Diacritics: ά, ὰ, ᾶ, ἀ, ἁ, ᾳ, and combinations, also with other vowels; ῥ; tilde (ᾶ) often appears more like a rounded circumflex

some texts feature lunate sigma (looks like c) instead of σ/ς

Greek Atonic [ edit ]

Was common in some Greek media (television);

You will see Greek characters without accents/tones;

words: και, ειναι, αυτο.

Greek in Greeklish [ edit ]

Automated conversion software for Greeklish->Greek conversion exists. If you notice a Greeklish text it may be useful for the Greek el.wikipedia (after conversion).

Keep in mind: in Greeklish more than one character may be used for one letter. (example: th for Θ (theta)).

Orthographic Greeklish [ edit ]

words kai, einai.

Phonetic Greeklish [ edit ]

words ke, ine ;

; omega appears as o;

ei, oi appear as i;

ai appears as e.

Visual-based Greeklish [ edit ]

omega (Ω or ω) may appear as W or w;

epsilon (E) may appear as 3 ;

; alpha (A) may appear as 4 ;

; theta (Θ) may appear as 8 ;

; upsilon (Y) may appear as \|/ ;

; gamma (γ) may appear as y

More than one character may be used for one letter.

Messed-up (Mixed) Greeklish [ edit ]

words kai, eine ;

; combines principles of phonetic, visual-based and orthographic Greeklish according to writer's idiosyncrasy;

The most commonly used form of Greeklish.

Armenian can be recognised by its unique 38-letter alphabet:

Ա Բ Գ Դ Ե Զ Է Ը Թ Ժ Ի Լ Խ Ծ Կ Հ Ձ Ղ Ճ Մ Յ Ն Շ Ո Չ Պ Ջ Ռ Ս Վ Տ Ր Ց Ւ Փ Ք Օ Ֆ

Georgian can be recognised by its unique alphabet (note some characters have fallen out of use).

ა ბ გ დ ე ვ ზ ჱ თ ი კ ლ მ ნ ჲ ო პ ჟ რ ს ტ ჳ უ ფ ქ ღ ყ შ ჩ ც ძ წ ჭ ხ ჴ ჯ ჰ ჵ ჶ ჷ ჸ

Bolding denotes letters unique to the language

uses: ё, і, й, ў, ы, э, ’

features: шч used instead of щ

used instead of the only Cyrillic language not to feature и.

uses: ъ, щ, я, ю, й

words: със, в

features: ъ is used as a vowel; many words end in definite article –ът, –ят, –та, –то, –те

uses: ј, љ, њ, џ, ѓ , ќ , ѕ

, , words: во, со

features: р is usually found between consonants, for example првин

uses: ё, й, ъ, ы, э, щ

uses: ј, љ, њ, џ, ђ , ћ

, does not use: ъ, щ, я, ю, й

words: је, у

features: large consonant clusters, for example српски

uses: є, и, і, ї, й, ґ, є щ

does not use: ъ, ё, ы, э

Arabic alphabet [ edit ]

All languages using the Arabic alphabet are written right-to-left.

A number of other languages have been written in the Arabic alphabet in the past, but now are more commonly written in Latin characters; examples include Turkish, Somali and Swahili.

short vowels are not written so many words are written with no vowel at all

common prefix: -ال

common suffix: ة-

words: إلى, من, على





uses: پ, چ, ژ, گ

words: که, به

uses: ‮ٹ‎, ڈ‎, ڑ‎, ں, ے

many words ending in ے

words: اور, ہے

to distinguish from Arabic: in many texts, Urdu is written stylistically with words ‘slanting’ downwards from top-right to bottom-left (unlike the ‘linear’ style of Arabic, Persian etc).

Syriac Alphabet [ edit ]

short vowels are not usually written so many words are written with no vowel at all

three styles of writing (estrangela, serto, mahdnaya) and two different ways of representing vowels

basic alphabet in Estrangela style is: ܐ ܒ ܓ ܕ ܗ ܘ ܙ ܚ ܛ ܝ ܟ ܠ ܡ ܢ ܣ ܥ ܦ ܨ ܩ ܪ ܣ ܬ

basic alphabet in Serto style is: ܬ , ܫ , ܪ , ܩ , ܨ , ܦ , ܥ , ܣ , ܢ , ܡ , ܠ , ܟ , ܝ , ܛ , ܚ , ܙ , ܘ , ܗ , ܕ , ܓ , ܒ , ܐ

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , basic alphabet in Madnhaya style is: ܬ , ܫ , ܪ , ܩ , ܨ , ܦ , ܥ , ܣ , ܢ , ܡ , ܠ , ܟ , ܝ , ܛ , ܚ , ܙ , ܘ , ܗ , ܕ , ܓ , ܒ , ܐ

Dravidian languages [ edit ]

All Dravidian languages are written from left to right.

All dravidian languages have different scripts. But similarity can be found in their orthography.

Tamil [ edit ]

common word endings :ள்ளது, கிறது, கின்றன, ம்

common words: தமிழ், அவர், உள்ள, சில

Tamil has a unique 30-letter alphabet. With the help of diacritics, as many as 247 letters can be written.

அ ஆ இ ஈ உ ஊ எ ஏ ஐ ஒ ஓ ஔ க ங ச ஞ ட ண த ந ப ம ய

In modern writing, Canadian Aboriginal syllabics are indicative of Cree languages, Inuktitut, or Ojibwe, though the latter two are also written in alternative scripts. The basic glyph set is ᐁ ᐱ ᑌ ᑫ ᒉ ᒣ ᓀ ᓭ ᔦ, each of which may appear in any of four orientations, boldfaced, superscripted, and with diacritics including ᑊ ᐟ ᐠ ᐨ ᒼ ᐣ ᐢ ᐧ ᐤ ᐦ ᕽ ᓫ ᕑ. This abugida has also been used for Blackfoot.

Other North American syllabics [ edit ]

Artificial languages [ edit ]

words: de , la , al , kaj

, , , Six accented letters: ĉ Ĉ ĝ Ĝ ĥ Ĥ ĵ Ĵ ŝ Ŝ ŭ Ŭ , their corresponding H-system representation ch Ch gh Gh hh Hh jh Jh sh Sh u U or their corresponding X-system representation cx Cx gx Gx hx Hx jx Jx sx Sx ux Ux

, their corresponding H-system representation or their corresponding X-system representation words ending in o, a, oj, aj, on, an, ojn, ajn, as, os, is, us, u, i, aŭ

When written in the Latin alphabet Klingon has the unusual property of a distinction in case; q and Q are different letters, and other letters are either always (e.g. D, I, S) or never (e.g. ch, tlh, v) written in upper case. This causes a large number of words that look quite strange to people who aren't used to it, for example: yIDoghQo ' , tlhIngan Hol (with mixed case).

and are different letters, and other letters are either always (e.g. D, I, S) or never (e.g. ch, tlh, v) written in upper case. This causes a large number of words that look quite strange to people who aren't used to it, for example: , (with mixed case). The apostrophe is fairly frequent, especially at the end of a word or syllable.

Common suffixes: -be', -'a '

Common words: ' oH , Qapla '

, May use one or more apostrophes in the middle of a word: SuvwI″a '