Why do some languages use funny letters?

Facebook friend and Wycliffe colleague Ed Lauber has written a blog in a mini series in which he answers the most asked questions that he encountered on a recent trip home to the USA: what alphabet do you use to write an unwritten language?

But first here’s a puzzle to solve. The five scripts are not matched with the correct areas of the world where they are used. Can you match them correctly?

Did you sort them out? Answers at the end of the blog.

But how many different scripts are used around the world to write down languages?

There are at least 130 scripts currently in use. That doesn’t include the 84 historical scripts the database ScriptSource lists or the two fictional scripts – both developed by JRR Tolkien for the languages of Middle-earth. So when starting a Bible translation in a language that has never been written down, how do you whittle down those 130 choices?

Over to Ed…

Most of the languages of the world which do not have a translation of the Bible, have never been written. So they do not have an alphabet. One of the first tasks is to develop an alphabet for the language. But languages are written with many different kinds of alphabets.

So, which script do we use? That depends. Usually it depends on the more prestigious languages found in the same place. People speaking a minority language in Thailand, for example, will usually want their language written in Thai Script. For one thing, that makes it easier from them to learn and read the official language – Thai.

And here are a few examples of John 1:1 in several scripts.

John 1:1 in 3 different alphabets

And John 1:1 in Thai
ในปฐมกาลพระวาทะทรงดำรงอยู่และพระวาทะทรงอยู่กับพระเจ้า และพระวาทะทรงเป็นพระเจ้า

Read Ed’s whole blog post here.

Find out more about scripts at ScriptSource.org. Read more answers to frequently asked questions – including ‘Are sign languages really languages?’ and ‘Why don’t you use Google Translate?’ – on the Wycliffe UK blog.

Answers: 1: Georgia 2: Zaghawa, Chad 3: Ainu, Japan 4: Cherokee, USA 5: Telegu, S India