Random language tangent

[kajarainbow]

What are the most visually pretty written languages you know of? Right now, my vote goes to Arabic, but I'm sure there're prettier languages I don't know or haven't thought of. But all those smoothly flowing curves!

Comments

[kowaiyukidono.livejournal.com]

My vote goes to Thai. It's all little curls, elegant curves, mathematical without being, ah, kludgy.

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Drat, you beat me to it! :D Most of the related Southeast Asian scripts are lovely, actually. I've always been fond of... off the top of my head, I think it's Burmese and Telugu?

[kowaiyukidono.livejournal.com]

I like anything that makes me think "wow this could have come from another planet". Anything developed in relative isolation is beautiful to me. (I'm a complete xenophile, I know.)

I've been researching scripts and written languages for a while in an attempt to create my own "alien language" for some project or another. The link you posted below will result in much squealing and flailing in friends' faces. ^_^

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I'll go through and peek through the second half of Omniglot tonight and post the good ones. Aren't the Javanese letter marks just amazing?

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Here's the site I'll be hunting through while I piece together my reply! It's one of my favorite resources for these things. Enjoy!

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Real language scripts:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tibetan.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/bengali.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/burmese.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/khmer.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/javanese.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/devanagari.htm

Conlangs:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ayeri.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/cpg.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/curvetic.php
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/dni.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tengwar.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/evion.htm (this one is VERY striking!)

Come to think of it, you could probably make an amusing quiz by asking people to tell real from artificial scripts...

And my mom needs the Mac for a few minutes so I'll break off here and continue thru (our) alphabet when she's done. :)

more pretty glyphs

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/georgian2.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/glagolitic.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hmong.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/inuktitut.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/inspired.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ihavsabeired.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ilocano.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/kpelle.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/kapunuan.htm (one of my favorite conlang scripts)
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/kannada.htm (one of my very favorite real scripts -- I think THIS is the #1 I was thinking of...)
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/laz.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/lepcha.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/malayalam.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/thaana.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/manchu.htm (another particular favorite)
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/mandaic.htm (note the bit about "raze")
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/manipuri.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/mayan.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/mesa.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/modi.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sheren.htm

[relee.livejournal.com]

I for one really like Kanji, especially when it's used for signs. All those little pictographs one on top of the other describing where you are in such a dramatic fashion. They look cool, too. Pictographs, some of them, others, not so much. All cool though.

[xinjinmeng.livejournal.com]

Well, I may be biased, but I prefer Lì shu.