Right-to-left languages

[rtyuirty]

The Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Urdu are right-to-left languages, are there any other right-to-left ones, how about Thai? Thanks!

[Soup]

Hi

Divehi, Bengali, Aramaic, Phoenician, Farsi (also called Persian), Syriac, Yiddish, Ancient Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and the oldest Latin could be written in both directions.

Chinese and Japanese (top to bottom and right to left).

Mayan or Aztec hieroglyphs were read in alternating directions.

[BobK]

Useless word of the day: boustrophedonic - Definitions from Dictionary.com



b

[atlaisha]

Divehi, Bengali, Aramaic, Phoenician, Farsi (also called Persian), Syriac, Yiddish, Ancient Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and the oldest Latin could be written in both directions.

I'm sorry, I think I can't understand you well. Do you mean all mentioned languages could be written in both directions (left to right and right to left) ?

:):)

[Soup]

Originally Posted by atlaisha

I'm sorry, I think I can't understand you well. Do you mean all mentioned languages could be written in both directions (left to right and right to left) ?

:):)

Greek and the oldest Latin could be written in both directions (Bidirectional, bidi).

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Soup

Greek and the oldest Latin could be written in both directions (Bidirectional, bidi).

Is that L-R or R-L at the writer's whim, or was there a system? (And would an old woman doing it be a 'bidi biddy'? )

b

[LeszekN]

Hi,

BobK - it depended rather on where and when the writers lived. For example in Athens were already L-R in use whereas in many other cities people used still the older R-L method.

bidi biddy sounds good

Best regards
Leszek

[Soup]

Originally Posted by BobK

Is that L-R or R-L at the writer's whim, or was there a system? (And would an old woman doing it be a 'bidi biddy'? )

b

Additionally, Greek and Latin, like Chinese and Japanese could be written top to bottom, and therefore could be read either from left to right or right to left.

Note that, in most bidi languages, numbers are usually written/read left to right.

[rtyuirty]

Chinese in Taiwan and Japanese are often written top to bottom, Chinese in P.R.China is often written left to right.

[stuartnz]

Originally Posted by Soup

Hi

Bengali...could be written in both directions.

I never knew this about Bangla. Is it still the case, or is it now strictly L to R?