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Samples

Updated 10 November, 2024 • recent changes scripts/fontlist • leave a comment

This page provides samples of text in various languages, grouped by script. You'll need a font on your system to view each of these sample texts; see a list of fonts supported by macOS, Windows11, Noto, and SIL.

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adlamahomanatolian hieroglyphsarabicarmenianavestanbalinesebamumbassa vahbatakbengalibhaiksukibrahmibuginesebuhidcanadian syllabicscariancaucasian albanianchamchakmacherokeechinesecopticcuneiformcypriot syllabarycypro minoancyrillicdeseretdevanagaridives akurudograegyptian hieroglyphselbasanelymaicethiopicgaraygeorgianglagoliticgothicgranthagreekgujaratigunjala gondigurmukhihanifi rohingyahanunoohatranhebrewimperial aramaicjapanesejavanesekaithikannadakawikayah likharoshthikhitan small scriptkhmerkhojkikhudawadikirat raikoreanlaolatinlepchalimbulinear alinear blisulycianlydianmahajanimakasarmalayalammandaicmanichaeanmarchenmasaram gondimedefaidrinmende kikakuimeetei mayekmeroitic cursivemeroitic hieroglyphsmiaomodimongolianmromultanimyanmarnabataeannag mundarinandinagarinewanew tai luen'konushunyiakeng puachue hmongoghamol chikiold hungarianold italicold north arabianold permicold persianold south arabianold turkicold uighuroriyaosageosmanyapahawh hmongpahlavi (inscriptional)pahlavi (psalter)palmyreneparthianphags-paphoenicianrejangrunicsamaritansaurashtrasharadashaviansiddhamsinhalasogdiansora sompengsoyombosundanesesunuwarsyloti nagrisyriactai letagalogtagbanwatai thamtai viettakritamiltangsatangutteluguthaanathaitibetantifinaghtirhutatotougariticvaivithkuqiwanchowarang citiyezidiyizanabazar square


Meroitic Cursive

BCE 3rdC – 4thC CE
Archaic
Lineage: Egyptian Hieroglyphs > Hieratic > Demotic > Meroitic
Meroitic Cursive was an African abugida used by the Kush (Meroë) people for the Meroitic language. Centred in Sudan, this Nile kingdom moved 600 kilometers upriver to Meroë around BCE 850. The extra distance eroded the use of Egyptian language and script and led to the development of Meroitic cursive and hieroglyphic replacements. After the 4th century CE the language was replaced by Nubian, and by the 6th century the Meroitic scripts were superceded by Coptic. About 90% of known Meroitic text is written using the cursive characters; the remainder uses a separate set of hieroglyphic inscriptional characters. The two writing systems are always used separately, and not mixed. Meroitic Cursive text is read right-to-left, except for numbers. Shaping is only required for consonants followed by the vowel /i/, which ligate with the vowel. There are no combining marks. Words or phrases are commonly separated using a native separator character. Unicode 16 has 1 dedicated block for the cursive forms, comprising 90 characters, however 62 of those are for writing numbers and fractions.

Meroitic Cursive

𐦥𐦣𐦯:𐦥𐦡𐦴𐦪𐦤𐦢𐦪𐦳𐦡𐦬𐦢:𐦳𐦫𐦢:𐦨𐦡𐦴𐦫𐦫𐦢𐦳𐦣:𐦴𐦨𐦡𐦤𐦡𐦳𐦣𐦥𐦢:𐦤𐦢𐦳𐦫𐦡𐦲𐦤𐦡:𐦵𐦫𐦢𐦲𐦡𐦬𐦢 𐦵𐦫𐦢𐦲𐦡𐦬𐦣𐦥𐦢𐦲 𐦷𐦢𐦡𐦫𐦤𐦡:𐦵𐦷𐦭𐦡𐦬𐦢 𐦵𐦷𐦭𐦡𐦬𐦣𐦥𐦢 𐦯𐦣𐦯𐦣𐦪𐦵𐦡𐦬𐦦 𐦤𐦡𐦴𐦨𐦷𐦡𐦬𐦣𐦥𐦢𐦭𐦫𐦧 𐦭𐦪𐦲𐦡𐦯𐦣𐦤𐦡 𐦤𐦡𐦴𐦨𐦷𐦡𐦬𐦣𐦥𐦢𐦧𐦡 𐦫𐦢𐦵:𐦠𐦷𐦦𐦡𐦢𐦯 𐦱𐦳𐦴𐦢𐦲𐦬𐦤𐦡 𐦴𐦨𐦷𐦡𐦬𐦣𐦥𐦢:

Source: Omniglot.
URL: https://www.omniglot.com/writing/meroitic.htm

Notes

General usage

The default text used is article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, taken from this Unicode page, wherever I could find it. I created a few instances myself, where it was missing, and occasionally I resorted to other texts or even arbitrary lists of characters. I'm indebted to Omniglot for many of the less common samples.

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Metadata

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Passing parameters

Parameters can be passed in the URL for this page to show a particular script. For example, the following with open the page and display the samples for Adlam. The script value should be the ISO script code for the script in question.

index.html?script=adlm

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