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An Atlas of Endangered Alphabets: Writing Systems on the Verge of Vanishing
A global exploration of the many writing systems that are on the verge of vanishing, and the stories and cultures they carry with them.
If something is important, we write it down. Yet 85% of the world's writing systems are on the verge of vanishing - not granted official status, not taught in schools, discouraged and dismissed.
When a culture is forced to abandon its traditional script, everything it has written for hundreds of years - sacred texts, poems, personal correspondence, legal documents, the collective experience, wisdom and identity of a people - is lost.
This Atlas is about those writing systems, and the people who are trying to save them. From the ancient holy alphabets of the Middle East, now used only by tiny sects, to newly created African alphabets designed to keep cultural traditions alive in the twenty-first from a Sudanese script based on the ownership marks traditionally branded into camels, to a secret system used in one corner of China exclusively by women to record the songs and stories of their inner this unique book profiles dozens of scripts and the cultures they encapsulate, offering glimpses of worlds unknown to us - and ways of saving them from vanishing entirely.
If something is important, we write it down. Yet 85% of the world's writing systems are on the verge of vanishing - not granted official status, not taught in schools, discouraged and dismissed.
When a culture is forced to abandon its traditional script, everything it has written for hundreds of years - sacred texts, poems, personal correspondence, legal documents, the collective experience, wisdom and identity of a people - is lost.
This Atlas is about those writing systems, and the people who are trying to save them. From the ancient holy alphabets of the Middle East, now used only by tiny sects, to newly created African alphabets designed to keep cultural traditions alive in the twenty-first from a Sudanese script based on the ownership marks traditionally branded into camels, to a secret system used in one corner of China exclusively by women to record the songs and stories of their inner this unique book profiles dozens of scripts and the cultures they encapsulate, offering glimpses of worlds unknown to us - and ways of saving them from vanishing entirely.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 29, 2024
5 people are currently reading
198 people want to read
About the author
Tim Brookes
38 books18 followersI was born in England to parents who were poor, honest, and loved nothing more than going for long walks, preferably in the rain. My education consisted of being forced to take written exams every five or six weeks, and eat school lunches of liver and onions-until I got to Oxford, where we had written exams every eight weeks and had lunches of pickled onions and Guinness.
This was quite enough to make me flee the country and seek gainful employment in Vermont, where I have lived for 24 years, writing a great deal, playing the guitar, carving endangered alphabets, and trying to grow good raspberries.
This was quite enough to make me flee the country and seek gainful employment in Vermont, where I have lived for 24 years, writing a great deal, playing the guitar, carving endangered alphabets, and trying to grow good raspberries.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 11, 2024
I had absolutely no clue the number of writing systems that were in danger of dying out and being lost! Organized according to world region, there are so many languages included in this book. There are delicate flourishes as well as angular and linear scripts. I would have loved to see more examples and perhaps even selections written in each language, but this book is a stunning collection of endangered languages. Wonderful!
October 11, 2024
My thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Book Group, Quercus for an advance copy of this book that shows the threats to the knowledge, history and cultural understanding of many people around the world, based on the fact that their alphabets are disappearing from human memory.
There is much too worry about in this modern world. I was promised flying cars, hover skateboards, and so much more. Now we worry about loss of freedoms, loss of meaning, and even worse the loss of language and alphabets. I had been aware, mainly through reading about American indigenous people about efforts to reclaim and reeducate their people about the language. However I never knew the plight of alphabets, and their importance. Nor how alphabets are becoming extinct all around the world, due to people dying, government intervention, governmental control and other factors. This is why books like this are so important. We live in an age of unprecedented access to information. We spend it looking up meaning to songs, or spreading rumors about weather weapons. Meanwhile knowledge from the past, important knowledge is left indecipherable and forgotten. An Atlas of Endangered Alphabets: Writing Systems on the Verge of Vanishing by Tim Brookes is a look at some of these alphabets, their history, why they are being lost to us, and efforts to keep their meanings alive.
The book starts with an introduction about the process of how alphabets are listed and the dangers that seem to be all over the world to them. 85% of the worlds writing systems are on the verge of being lost to history. There are many reasons. Colonial forces love to wipe out the past. Governments love to control information of all kinds, and people being able to communicate in ways that are different or uncontrollable can be seen as a threat. Saddest of all is that the people who knew the meanings are dying out, taking their knowledge with them, as most others might be indifferent to learning. The book is broken into continents, with each alphabet given its own entry. This includes a history of the alphabet, when possible, graphics featuring the alphabet, and examples. There are also mentions of how people are trying to bring the alphabet back, efforts to preserve, or in some case, efforts to ban the alphabet entirely. This is not a complete book, but does give a good idea of what is happening in the world.
I learned a lot from this book, and enjoyed it far more than I thought, though many of the entries filled me with a sadness I did not expect. One reads of people coming up with a set of graphics, in our own time, to help their people communicate, brining it to the world, even having Google make a keyboard for it. Brookes is a very good writer, able to share history, efforts, even interviews and fit them in the narrative without lecturing, but more sharing what Brookes has learned. These are inspiring stories. I loved the history, how many alphabets came from dreams. Or my favorite starting at a brick wall, and following the lines in it to create letters. I must admit I never thought of language and alphabets as seperarte things, and was quite surprised at how one alphabet can be adapted to another language, and used to save that language. Or its past. I don't know why this was new to me, but again this is why I love books like this. These books make me, remind me how much wonder is in the world. How much I don't understand, and how so many people are working in ways to preserve the past, and how much effort is being expended to destroy the past. On a nerd note, I do find it amazing how many of this endangered alphabets have made appearances as alien languages on science fiction shows.
If one is interested in language, or graphics and type, this is the book for you. For people who love to read about things they knew little about, and get a feeling for the larger world, this is also a great read, one that will make one think in different ways. Also, and I hate to trivialize this would be a great resource for writers and role players, to design alphabets for their campaigns or books. A very well done resource.
There is much too worry about in this modern world. I was promised flying cars, hover skateboards, and so much more. Now we worry about loss of freedoms, loss of meaning, and even worse the loss of language and alphabets. I had been aware, mainly through reading about American indigenous people about efforts to reclaim and reeducate their people about the language. However I never knew the plight of alphabets, and their importance. Nor how alphabets are becoming extinct all around the world, due to people dying, government intervention, governmental control and other factors. This is why books like this are so important. We live in an age of unprecedented access to information. We spend it looking up meaning to songs, or spreading rumors about weather weapons. Meanwhile knowledge from the past, important knowledge is left indecipherable and forgotten. An Atlas of Endangered Alphabets: Writing Systems on the Verge of Vanishing by Tim Brookes is a look at some of these alphabets, their history, why they are being lost to us, and efforts to keep their meanings alive.
The book starts with an introduction about the process of how alphabets are listed and the dangers that seem to be all over the world to them. 85% of the worlds writing systems are on the verge of being lost to history. There are many reasons. Colonial forces love to wipe out the past. Governments love to control information of all kinds, and people being able to communicate in ways that are different or uncontrollable can be seen as a threat. Saddest of all is that the people who knew the meanings are dying out, taking their knowledge with them, as most others might be indifferent to learning. The book is broken into continents, with each alphabet given its own entry. This includes a history of the alphabet, when possible, graphics featuring the alphabet, and examples. There are also mentions of how people are trying to bring the alphabet back, efforts to preserve, or in some case, efforts to ban the alphabet entirely. This is not a complete book, but does give a good idea of what is happening in the world.
I learned a lot from this book, and enjoyed it far more than I thought, though many of the entries filled me with a sadness I did not expect. One reads of people coming up with a set of graphics, in our own time, to help their people communicate, brining it to the world, even having Google make a keyboard for it. Brookes is a very good writer, able to share history, efforts, even interviews and fit them in the narrative without lecturing, but more sharing what Brookes has learned. These are inspiring stories. I loved the history, how many alphabets came from dreams. Or my favorite starting at a brick wall, and following the lines in it to create letters. I must admit I never thought of language and alphabets as seperarte things, and was quite surprised at how one alphabet can be adapted to another language, and used to save that language. Or its past. I don't know why this was new to me, but again this is why I love books like this. These books make me, remind me how much wonder is in the world. How much I don't understand, and how so many people are working in ways to preserve the past, and how much effort is being expended to destroy the past. On a nerd note, I do find it amazing how many of this endangered alphabets have made appearances as alien languages on science fiction shows.
If one is interested in language, or graphics and type, this is the book for you. For people who love to read about things they knew little about, and get a feeling for the larger world, this is also a great read, one that will make one think in different ways. Also, and I hate to trivialize this would be a great resource for writers and role players, to design alphabets for their campaigns or books. A very well done resource.
July 14, 2025
First in a planned trilogy, An Atlas of Endangered Alphabets: Writing Systems on the Verge of Vanishing presents the research and work of the Endangered Alphabet Project, headed by Tim Brookes. This project's web presence was launched in 2019 and surveys the history and current status of around 100 written scripts.
The book is arranged roughly geographically. Brookes moves region to region with each script having from 1 to 4 pages. For many of the alphabets, the entry discusses the key figure who created the script or is leading a revitalization campaign. Each entry includes some sample letters, a developmental history and current status and challenges. Some of the larger entries also include written phrases, often the opening of the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights. Some of the entries have a transliteration of a specific character, but most are just listed in a short grid at the top of the page or a three quarters page display.
As all of the writing systems are minority based, the entries list erasures of time, tales of repression, cultural hegemony or the threats of modernization. But not all is despair, Brookes also highlights the ways languages have been adapted or coded to the internet or how some key figures are able to upload and teach via YouTube.
A welcome tour of endangered languages and cultures. My one minor complaint is that the languages are all presented with the same coloring and font size. It would have been more complicated permissions wise, but I found myself frequently wishing to see images of the writing systems as seen in key documents or traditional usage.
Recommended to readers or researchers of languages, global cultures or the development and usages of alphabets.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
The book is arranged roughly geographically. Brookes moves region to region with each script having from 1 to 4 pages. For many of the alphabets, the entry discusses the key figure who created the script or is leading a revitalization campaign. Each entry includes some sample letters, a developmental history and current status and challenges. Some of the larger entries also include written phrases, often the opening of the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights. Some of the entries have a transliteration of a specific character, but most are just listed in a short grid at the top of the page or a three quarters page display.
As all of the writing systems are minority based, the entries list erasures of time, tales of repression, cultural hegemony or the threats of modernization. But not all is despair, Brookes also highlights the ways languages have been adapted or coded to the internet or how some key figures are able to upload and teach via YouTube.
A welcome tour of endangered languages and cultures. My one minor complaint is that the languages are all presented with the same coloring and font size. It would have been more complicated permissions wise, but I found myself frequently wishing to see images of the writing systems as seen in key documents or traditional usage.
Recommended to readers or researchers of languages, global cultures or the development and usages of alphabets.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
January 30, 2025
Thorough and brilliant research
So much history is explored through the written languages from around the world in this book. It made me contemplate the actual purpose for language, is to communicate thoughts and values to another human in a precise method.
If we relied on the written form as our primary communication today, reminiscent of my childhood, with each family member passing the newspaper sections around the breakfast table, while we quietly ate. Fast forward to today, each of us click buttons to see television commentary streaming into our consciousness, or swiping through a series of boxes on a screen that is literally fed to us in a unique way, and no one receives the same talking heads, although the thoughts and ideas seem to be very narrow views.
Thank you so much Tim, for opening my eyes to global language, so I can see past my myopic view of the world, expanding my vision and understanding if humanity. There is no limit to my intrigue and the desire to travel and meet the tribes of people who are passionate in keeping language alive for generations to come.
So much history is explored through the written languages from around the world in this book. It made me contemplate the actual purpose for language, is to communicate thoughts and values to another human in a precise method.
If we relied on the written form as our primary communication today, reminiscent of my childhood, with each family member passing the newspaper sections around the breakfast table, while we quietly ate. Fast forward to today, each of us click buttons to see television commentary streaming into our consciousness, or swiping through a series of boxes on a screen that is literally fed to us in a unique way, and no one receives the same talking heads, although the thoughts and ideas seem to be very narrow views.
Thank you so much Tim, for opening my eyes to global language, so I can see past my myopic view of the world, expanding my vision and understanding if humanity. There is no limit to my intrigue and the desire to travel and meet the tribes of people who are passionate in keeping language alive for generations to come.
November 3, 2025
If you love beautiful typography, calligraphry, orthography, this book is a feast. I had fun picking out my faves & least faves throughout. However, I would have gotten more from the book had the alphabets been categorized. For example, are these letters, syllables, or ideographs? How many glyphs are there? What's the alpha & omega? What are its influences, its lineage? Inception date: ancient or recent? These are easy enough to include as a block per alphabet or as an Appendix.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews