Right-to-left script
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In a right-to-left, top-to-bottom script (commonly shortened to right to left or abbreviated RTL, RL-TB or R2L), writing starts from the right of the page and continues to the left, proceeding from top to bottom for new lines. Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian are the most widespread RTL writing systems in modern times.
Right-to-left can also refer to top-to-bottom, right-to-left (TB-RL or vertical) scripts of tradition, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, though in modern times they are also commonly written left to right (with lines going from top to bottom). Books designed for predominantly vertical TBRL text open in the same direction as those for RTL horizontal text: the spine is on the right and pages are numbered from right to left.
These scripts can be contrasted with many common modern
The Arabic script is mostly but not exclusively right-to-left; mathematical expressions, numeric dates and numbers bearing units are embedded from left to right.
Uses
Several languages have both Arabic RTL and non-Arabic LTR writing systems. For example,
Thaana appeared around 1600 CE. Most modern scripts are LTR, but N'Ko (1949), Mende Kikakui (19th century), Adlam (1980s) and Hanifi Rohingya (1980s) were created in modern times and are RTL.
Ancient examples of text using alphabets such as Phoenician, Greek, or Old Italic may exist variously in left-to-right, right-to-left, or boustrophedon order; therefore, it is not always possible to classify some ancient writing systems as purely RTL or LTR.
Computing support
Right-to-left, top-to-bottom text is supported in common computer software.
List of RTL scripts
Examples of right-to-left scripts (with ISO 15924 codes in brackets) are:
Current scripts
- Persian alphabet – used for Persian, Urdu, Kashmiri.
- Arabic and many other languages.
- Hebrew alphabet (Hebr 125) – used for Hebrew, Yiddish and some other Jewish languages.
- Dhivehi.
- Syriac alphabet (Syrc 135, variants 136–138 Syrn, Syrj, Syre) – used for varieties of the Syriac language.
- Mandaic alphabet (Mand 140) – closely related to Syriac, used for the Mandaic language.
- Samaritan alphabet (Samr 123) – closely related to Hebrew, used for the Samaritans' writings.
- Mende Kikakui(Mend 438) – for Mende in Sierra Leone. Devised by Mohammed Turay and Kisimi Kamara in the late 19th century. Still used, but only by about 500 people.
- N'Ko script (Nkoo 165) – devised in 1949 for the Manding languages of West Africa.
- Garay alphabet – designed in 1961 for the Wolof language.
- Fula languagesof West and Central Africa.
- Hanifi Rohingya (Rohg 167) – developed in the 1980s for the Rohingya language.
- Kurdishtexts; attempts have been made to revive it since 2013.
Ancient scripts
- Indus script[3]
- Egyptian hieroglyphs[4]
- Cypriot syllabary (Cprt 403) – predates Phoenician influence.
- Phoenician alphabet (Phnx 115) – ancient, precursor to Hebrew, Imperial Aramaic, and Greek.
- Imperial Aramaic alphabet (Armi 124) – ancient, closely related to Hebrew and Phoenician. Spread widely by the Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid empires. The later Palmyreneform (Palm 126) was also used to write Aramaic.
- Old South Arabian (Sarb)
- Old North Arabian(Narb)
- Pahlavi scripts (130–133: Prti, Phli, Phlp, Phlv) – derived from Aramaic.
- Avestan alphabet (Avst 134) – from Pahlavi, with added letters. Used for recording the Zoroastrian sacred texts during the Sassanid era.
- Aramaic of Hatra
- Manichaean (Mani 139, associated with the Manichaean religion) – derived from Syriac. Sogdian eventually rotated from RTL to top-to-bottom, giving rise to the Old Uyghur, Mongolian, and Manchu vertical scripts.
- Nabatean alphabet(Nbat) – intermediate between Syriac and Arabic.
- Old Ge'ez alphabet[5](Ethi 495)
- Kharosthi (Khar 305) – an ancient script of India, derived from Aramaic.
- Old Turkicrunes (also called Orkhon runes Orkh 175)
- Old Hungarianrunes (Hung 176).
- Lydian alphabet (Lydi 116) – ancient; some texts are left-to-right or boustrophedon.
See also
References
- ^ "Which Languages Are Written From Right to Left?". WorldAtlas. 2018-05-17. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
- ^ "Introduction to typing and using RTL (Right to Left) text, and configuring software applications to support RTL".
- ISBN 9788122411980.
- ^ Sir Alan H. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, Third Edition Revised, Griffith Institute (2005), p. 25.
- ^ "Ethiopic". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
Since the 4th cent. AD, when Ethiopia was Christianized, the Ethiopic script has been written from left to right, though previously the direction of writing was from right to left.
- ^ Davis, Mark; Everson, Michael; Freytag, Asmus; Jenkins, John H. (2001-05-16). "Unicode Standard Annex #27: Unicode 3.1".
Most early Etruscan texts have right-to-left directionality. From the third century BCE, left-to-right texts appear, showing the influence of Latin. Oscan, Umbrian, and Faliscan also generally have right-to-left directionality. Boustrophedon appears rarely, and not especially early .... Despite this, for reasons of implementation simplicity, many scholars prefer left-to-right presentation of texts, as this is also their practice when transcribing the texts into Latin script. Accordingly, the Old Italic script has a default directionality of strong left-to-right in this standard. When directional overrides are used to produce right-to-left presentation, the glyphs in fonts must be mirrored ...
- ^ a b Halsey, William D. (1965). Collier's encyclopedia, with Bibliography and Index. US: The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. p. 595.
External links
- Everson, Michael (2001-01-08) Roadmapping early Semitic scripts https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2001/01024-n2311.pdf
- Buntz, Carl-Martin (2000-12-21) L2/01-007, Iranianist Meeting Report: Encoding Iranian Scripts in Unicode https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2001/01007-iran.txt