Alphabets & Writing Systems
Explore 7 writing systems covering 324+ characters used by 4.2B+ speakers worldwide.
Mandarin Chinese - Hanzi (Simplified & Traditional)
🇨🇳 China • 1118M speakers • 100 characters
普通话
Learn Mandarin Chinese →About Alphabets & Writing Systems
An alphabet is a standardized set of letters or symbols that represent the sounds of a language. The English alphabet uses the Latin script, which originated from the ancient Roman writing system and has become one of the most widely used alphabets worldwide. Each of the 26 letters has both uppercase and lowercase forms, serving different purposes in writing.
Beyond the Latin alphabet, the world contains hundreds of unique writing systems. The Cyrillic script serves Russian, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian. The Arabic script flows right-to-left across the Middle East and North Africa. East Asian languages use Chinese characters (Hanzi). The Devanagari script represents Hindi and Sanskrit. Bengali serves Bangladesh and parts of India. The Urdu script, based on Persian-Arabic, is used in Pakistan and India.
Our mission is to document and teach every alphabet and writing system from around the globe. Whether you're learning your first letters or exploring scripts from distant cultures, our interactive tools provide pronunciation guides, audio examples, and visual aids to help you master any writing system.