Most of the world writes in a handful of systems. Of the 241 languages here, 160 use the Latin alphabet — more than every other script combined. The long tail is where translation gets interesting.
At a glance
| Writing system | Languages | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Latin | 160 | Left to right |
| Arabic | 21 | Right to left |
| Cyrillic | 21 | Left to right |
| Devanagari | 11 | Left to right |
| Ge'ez | 3 | Left to right |
| Chinese characters | 3 | Left to right |
| Bengali | 2 | Left to right |
| Hebrew | 2 | Right to left |
| Kannada | 2 | Left to right |
| Khmer | 2 | Left to right |
| Burmese | 2 | Left to right |
| Tibetan | 2 | Left to right |
| Armenian | 1 | Left to right |
| Georgian | 1 | Left to right |
| Greek | 1 | Left to right |
| Japanese kana and kanji | 1 | Left to right |
| Hangul | 1 | Left to right |
| Malayalam | 1 | Left to right |
| Sinhala | 1 | Left to right |
| Tamil | 1 | Left to right |
| Telugu | 1 | Left to right |
| Thai | 1 | Left to right |
Why direction matters more than it looks
2 of these systems read right to left — Arabic, Hebrew. When you translate from a left-to-right language into one of them, the text does not merely change characters: the whole line reverses, punctuation moves to the opposite end, and any interface around it has to mirror too. It is the single most common source of layout bugs in multilingual products.
Latin
160 languages · left to right
AcehneseAcholiAfrikaansAlbanianAlurAymaraBalineseBambaraBaouleBasqueBatak KaroBatak SimalungunBatak TobaBembaBetawiBikolBretonCatalanCebuanoChamorroChichewaChuukeseCorsicanCroatianCzechDanishDinkaDombeDutchDyulaEnglishEsperantoEstonianEweFaroeseFijianFilipinoFinnishFonFrenchFrisianFriulianGaGalicianGermanGuaraniHaitian CreoleHakha ChinHawaiianHiligaynonHmongHungarianHunsrikIbanIcelandicIgboIlocanoIndonesianInuktut LatinInuktut SyllabicsIrishItalianJamaican PatoisJavaneseJingpoKalaallisutKanuriKapampanganKigaKikongoKinyarwandaKitubaKokborokKrioLatgalianLatinLatvianLigurianLimburgishLingalaLithuanianLombardLugandaLuoLuxembourgishMadureseMakassarMalagasyMalayMalteseMamManxMaoriMarshalleseMauritian CreoleMinangMizoNahuatl Eastern HuastecaNdauNdebele SouthNorwegianNuerOccitanOromoPangasinanPapiamentoPolishPortuguesePortuguese PortugalQeqchiQuechuaRomaniRomanianRundiSami NorthSamoanSangoSantali LatinScots GaelicSepediSesothoSeychellois CreoleShonaSicilianSilesianSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSusuSwahiliSwatiSwedishTagalogTahitianTamazightTamazight TifinaghTetumTivTok PisinTonganTshilubaTsongaTswanaTumbukaTurkishTurkmenTwiUzbekVendaVenetianVietnameseWarayWelshXhosaYorubaYucatec MayaZapotecZulu
Arabic
21 languages · right to left
ArabicAzerbaijaniBaluchiChechenCrimean TatarDariEgyptian ArabicFulaniHausaJawiKurdish KurmanjiKurdish SoraniKyrgyzMarwadiPashtoPersianSindhiTajikUrduUyghurWolof
Cyrillic
21 languages · left to right
AbkhazAvarBashkirBelarusianBosnianBulgarianBuryatChuvashKazakhKomiMacedonianMeadow MariMongolianOssetianRussianSerbianTatarTuvanUdmurtUkrainianYakut
Devanagari
11 languages · left to right
AwadhiBhojpuriDogriGujaratiHindiKonkaniMaithiliMarathiNepalbhasa NewariNepaliSanskrit
Ge'ez
3 languages · left to right
Chinese characters
3 languages · left to right
Bengali
2 languages · left to right
Hebrew
2 languages · right to left
Kannada
2 languages · left to right
Khmer
2 languages · left to right
Burmese
2 languages · left to right
Tibetan
2 languages · left to right
Armenian
1 language · left to right
Georgian
1 language · left to right
Greek
1 language · left to right
Japanese kana and kanji
1 language · left to right
Hangul
1 language · left to right
Malayalam
1 language · left to right
Sinhala
1 language · left to right
Tamil
1 language · left to right
Telugu
1 language · left to right
Thai
1 language · left to right
Related
Method and limitations
Each language's script is taken from its own description and reflects current usage, not historical usage. Many languages have changed script: Turkish moved from Arabic to Latin in 1928, Swahili from Arabic to Latin, Tagalog from Baybayin to Latin. Those appear under Latin here, with their earlier scripts noted only in passing.
Languages using more than one script are listed under their primary one. Japanese is a genuine mixed case — kana and kanji together — and is treated as its own system rather than split.
Covers 248 languages for which we hold structural data.