Languages written from right to left

[linguaholic]

I know that Arabic and Hebrew are written from right to left. However, I am very positive that there are some other languages that are written from right to left. Please provide some more examples!

[Denis Hard]

Some Ethiopians I hear are descendants of a Jewish King named Solomon. Whether it's true or false no one knows but the oddest thing about their writing system is that like Hebrew it's written from left to write. So along with it, here are other languages also written from left to right:

Ethiopic.

Bengali.

Telugu.

p.s Does Chinese qualify?

[Baburra]

I did not know Hebrew and Arabic were supposed to be read from right to left, but I only see them as symbols instead of actual words so I guess it's understandable.  :confused: Anyway, Chinese is another language that is almost always written right to left, that is if it is being written vertically. When it's being written horizontally, I think it's still written as left to right as far as I know.

[g2narat]

Oh this thread has helped me learn something new! I've never tried any language that writes from right to left and only knew of arabic as an example of that. I find these languages particularly interesting as I am left handed. I think those whose language write from right to left that are also left handed probably have an easier time writing.

[diprod]

I think this is how the direction goes in Thailand too. The Japanese however, reads from right to left on a book. They start from the end of it that's what I mean which is fascinating.

[Trellum]

I think Urdu can also be added to the list. Kurdish can also be added to the list, not surprised tho, since both of them used the arabic script.  My first  boyfriend was Kurdish, actually I noticed they sometimes used our alphabet.  Weird isn't it?  Most kurds dislike to use the arabic script to write, specially the ones who come from north Iraq.

Other languages with a similar setting:

Yiddish.

Farsi.

Sorani (Kurdish dialect).

[Felicity]

Ottoman Turkish, similar to Arabic alphabeth but adapted to Turkish language. Old Turkic with Orkhun alphabeth. Orkhun alphabeth is a runic alphabeth like Futhark.

[Rosa]

I have been learning so much from this forum. I never imagined that there was that much languages written from right to left. I knew of Arabic and Chinese which I suppose are the ones most common but the others, I had no idea of.

[whnuien]

Arabic and Hebrew are the only two languages I knew being written and read from right to left all these times. And because of how interesting it is I tried writing in Arabic when I was a kid which was very unsuccessful

[Lasonax]

I think this is how the direction goes in Thailand too. The Japanese however, reads from right to left on a book. They start from the end of it that's what I mean which is fascinating.

They don't really start at the end, since they read in the other direction... So for them it's the beginning.

In japanese you typically read up to down, and then right to left. (as in, you read an entire line downwards, and the next line to read is the one to the left of that...)

They sometime write from right to left though, but in books/long texts they tend to do the "traditional" way.

[Bloomsie]

I know that most Aramaic languages are written and read from right to left. This includes Hebrew, Arabic and Farsi. Other languages that embed Hebrew are written and read the same way such as Ladino and Yiddish. But typically those two languages are often transliterated into English, so it's written and read left to right.

[Gelsemium]

They don't really start at the end, since they read in the other direction... So for them it's the beginning.

In japanese you typically read up to down, and then right to left. (as in, you read an entire line downwards, and the next line to read is the one to the left of that...)

They sometime write from right to left though, but in books/long texts they tend to do the "traditional" way.

I thought that this was true regarding Japanese, but only in classical or ancient texts, I think that modern Japanese is already written in a western way or am I wrong?

I think it should require a whole lot of training to write Arabic for example!

[Asaase]

Some Ethiopians I hear are descendants of a Jewish King named Solomon. Whether it's true or false no one knows but the oddest thing about their writing system is that like Hebrew it's written from left to write. So along with it, here are other languages also written from left to right:

Ethiopic.

Bengali.

Telugu.

p.s Does Chinese qualify?

I assuming when you say Ethiopic you are speaking of Ge'ez. Modern day Ge'ez is written from left to right. Whereas ancient Ge'ez was written from right to left. It is very true that the royal line of Ethiopia directly descends from and can be traced directly to King Solomon. This lineage is traced from the union of Queen Makeda (the then Queen of Ethiopia) and King Solomon. They had a son who was named Menelik I.

[JessiFox]

Wow, talking about learning something new all the time, what an educational thread this has been! Apart from the examples you mentioned, I didn't realize there were so many other ones as well. Fascinating .

[elenamarie]

The only language I know that's written from left to write are Arabic and Persian. I once watched the movie "Children of heaven" and I thought it's in Arabic so I shared it to my friend in Algeria. He told me, that's not Arabic, that's Persian and mentioned that they both look alike and written in the same pattern.

[enell.eryx117]

Actually,the most common languages that starts writing from write to left in our days is the two languages that you've just mentioned (English and Arabic), and if you are wondering of other languages, there are many, but unfortunately, most of them either extinct languages or ancient languages that is not been used any more in our modern days, for example:

The Syriac: writing of the original language of the Syrians.

N'ko: writing used for several languages in west Africa.

Mandaic: writing of the Mandaic language.

kharosthi: an ancient writing of India.

Old Turkic Alphabet.

[Baburra]

I think this is how the direction goes in Thailand too. The Japanese however, reads from right to left on a book. They start from the end of it that's what I mean which is fascinating.

Yes. Japanese originates from Chinese, as far as I know, so they are very similar in the way their words are read and written. I've read a lot of Japanese books and manga and I've always been comfortable with them because I was already used to reading lots of Chinese books and comics as well.

[gegegeno]

I thought that this was true regarding Japanese, but only in classical or ancient texts, I think that modern Japanese is already written in a western way or am I wrong?

I think it should require a whole lot of training to write Arabic for example!

For Japanese, writing vertically down the page and then right-to-left has been the standard as far back as I'm aware of. Here's an example of the famous scroll of the Tale of Genji from the 12th century.

Occasionally you see right-to-left on some old signs: the first photo on this page is of the restaurant Hyakuban (百番) in Osaka - the sign is written right-to-left as was common in the early 20th century when it was built. I've never the right-to-left style used in regular text, except perhaps as a title.

Modern books and newspapers are still written vertically. Magazines seem to go either way - ones with more articles write vertically while more visual magazines use more horizontal, left-to-right text. Technical and informational texts and textbooks mostly write horizontally. I've seen some magazines and informational books/leaflets mix them too - the Sapporo guidebook in front of me on my desk is mainly horizontal, but has some little sections written vertically, too.

[Chris4Davi]

I have heard of several such languages and I see a lot being named, the most commonly known ones for me are the Ethiopian languages which are ridiculously hard to learn and write, i.e for me. Someone already listed them at the top so I won't bother to do the same.

[GamerPerson]

I honestly didn't know that so many languages read from right to left! To add to the listen, I know that in most Asian cultures that I've seen they read right to left. (Thank you Shonen Jump for training me for that.) Seriously, when I first got a manga, I thought there was something wrong with the book. Makes me wonder, however, why is it that almost every other culture differs in some form or another.