A few terms:

Logogram: a sign that encodes and entire word. In English, the number 4 encodes the word “four”.

Ideogram: a sign that represents an idea, where the meaning, and not the pronunciation, are encoded.

Syllable: a combination of consonant and vowel

Alphabet: a set of letters that each encode a single sound, either a vowel or a consonant.

Syllabary: a set of signs for syllables where each sign encodes a combination of one consonant and one vowel.

The syllabary of the Classic Maya hieroglyphs

Alle mennesker er født frie og lige i værdighed og rettigheder. De er udstyret med fornuft og samvittighed, og de bør handle mod hverandre i en broderskabets ånd.

Alla människor är födda fria och lika i värde och rättigheter. De är utrustade med förnuft och samvete och bör handla gentemot Varandra i en anda av broderskap.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich an Würde und Rechten geboren. Sie sind mit Vernunft und Gewissen begabt und sollen einander im Geist der Brüderlichkeit begegnen.

Alle mensen worden vrij en gelijk in waardigheid en rechten geboren. Zij zijn begiftigd met verstand en geweten, en behoren zich jegens elkander in een geest van broederschap te gedragen.

Wszyscy ludzie rodzą się wolni i równi pod względem swej godności i swych praw. Są oni Obdarzeni rozumem i sumieniem i powinni Postępować wobec innych w duchu braterstwa.

Všichni lidé se rodí svobodní a sobě rovní co do důstojnosti a práv. Jsou nadáni rozumem a svědomím a mají spolu jednat v duchu bratrství.

Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i sviješću i trebaju jedna prema drugima postupati u duhu bratstva.

Sva ljudska bića rađaju se slobodna i jednaka u dostojanstvu i pravima. Ona su obdarena razumom i sviješću i trebaju jedna prema drugima postupati u duhu bratstva.

Cвa људскa бићa рaђajу сe слoбoднa и jeднaкa у дoстojaнству и прaвимa. Oнa су oбдaрeнa рaзумoм и свeшћу и трeбa jeдни прeмa другимa дa пoступajу у духу брaтствa.

Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité

Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos y, dotados como están de razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros.

Toate fiinţele umane se nasc libere şi egale în demnitate şi în drepturi. Ele sunt înzestrate cu raţiune şi conştiinţă şi trebuie să se comporte unele faţă de altele în spiritul fraternităţii.

Saolaítear na daoine uile saor agus comhionann ina ndínit agus ina gcearta. Tá bua an réasúin agus an choinsiasa acu agus dlíd iad féin d'iompar De mheon bráithreachais i leith a chéile.

aikki ihmiset syntyvät vapaina ja tasavertaisina arvoltaan ja oikeuksiltaan. Heille on annettu järki ja omatunto, ja heidän on toimittava toisiaan kohtaan veljeyden hengessä.

Все люди рождаются свободными и равными в своем достоинстве и правах. Они наделены разумом и совестью и должны поступать в отношении друг друга в духе братства.

Hebrew and Arabic are both written in scripts descending from proto-Sinaitic and while originally purely consonantal, are today written with diacritics for vowels.

These are abjad writing systems

The Devanagari script of India (used to write Hindi, Sanskrit and many other languages of the sub-continent) is another type of syllabic system, the abugida. There are signs for each of the vowels, plus syllables incorporating the consonants, but all with an “a” vowel.

To write syllables with vowels other than “a” you must add extra signs to the main syllable.

Sarbhī manuṣyōn2 kō gaurav aur adhikārōn2 kē māmalē mēn2 janmajāt svatantratā aur samānatā prāpt hai. Unhēn2 buḍhi aur antarātmā kī dēn hai aur paraspar unēn2 bhāīcārē kē bhāv sē bartāv karanā cāhiyē.

The Khmer writing system of Cambodia was modeled after that of India. However, the Khmer writing system does not have simply one “default vowel” in its syllables; it has two. Thus there are separate signs for ka and ko. To write ke and ki and ku, however, one must use extra, diacritical signs to indicate the modified vowel.

Unlike Hindi and Sanskrit, however, the Khmer language has a lot of different vowel sounds! There are many diacritics to be found both above and below the main signs.

Furthermore, there are even subscript symbols for consonants found in consonant clusters.

The result is a very beautiful, but very complex script.

The Japanese adopted their writing system from the Chinese. Originally they simply wrote in Chinese but in the 8th century they began using Chinese characters for their phonetic value to transcribe Japanese poetry. Eventually they began writing Japanese in Chinese symbols (kanji) and then developed two syllabaries to complement this. All three are used simultaneously.

Japanese writing includes a number of different scripts. There are two different syllabaries. The first, called katakana, records foreign words and those adopted into Japanese from other languages and new words, and is also used as our italics, to emphasize certain official names, such as those of companies.

neko

mimasu

mimashita

Hiragana records simple words as well as grammatical endings.

Kanji (which means“Chinese characters” in the Japanese language) are the Chinese characters used by the Japanese. Most nouns and proper Japanese names are written in Kanji. These two examples at the top are the names of the cities Tokyo and Osaka.

A major complicating factor in Kanji is that each sign can have multiple pronunciations. This is due to 2 features. One is that each Kanji has both a Chinese and a Japanese pronunciation. Since Chinese characters have an inherent meaning (this third example is “center”), the Japanese adopted the meaning but used the Japanese word. Thus this character reads both chu (Chinese) as well as naka (Japanese).

Japanese Kanji are yet more complicated because pronunciation of signs also varies based upon compound words they are found in. Depending on which other Kanji a specific sign is written next to can significantly change the pronunciation. Here we see the word Nihongo, “Japanese language”. The first sign can be read as NICHI, JITSU, hi or –ka, but here represents phonetic “ni” only. The second sign here reads HON but if you reversed the position of these first two signs you would not pronounce them hon-ni but rather hon-jitsu, “today” in Japanese.

A further complication is that Japanese can be written either vertically or horizontally, or left-to-right or right-to-left. While this may be a complication for foreigners learning Japanese, it is a feature that causes native readers no problems as context clearly establishes which way to read any given text.

This sample Japanese text shows the combination of both the hiragana and katakana syllabaries, plus Kanji characters. The newspaper below also uses western script, meaning readers need to know 4 different scripts to read!