Another visualization for Corriere della Sera - La Lettura: “Gli alfabeti nella storia e chi li ha decifrati”, number 473, 20th of December 2020.
This infographic shows a wide collection of writing systems, arranged according to their respective phylogenetic relationships. Lines skirting the outer edge represent existing systems, while those that stop earlier refer to systems that are no longer in use.
We are able to read most of the systems nowadays, and connect to languages that have been or are still spoken. The few still unknown are labeled in black, those only partially know are labeled in dark grey.
Some systems are linked to the names of the scholars who deciphered them and made them intelligible. and the date they succeded, some others are linked to the historical figures who created them out of the blue.
Upper right, there are two keys about the writing direction and the type of writing system. All the writing systems - as they are overall defined by scholars, who avoid using the word alphabet instead - presents a range of different solutions for the sake of communicating a meaning: ideographic (each linguistic sign representing a unique concept), logographic (each sign representing a concept and a sound, normally the initial sound of the word associated with the concept), alphabetic (each sign representing a sound or a combination of sounds), syllabic (each sign representing at least a consonant sound plus a vowel), abjad (signs represent only the consonants, no vowels expressed) and abugida (consonants plus diacritic marks that refer to vowels).
This art piece has been conceived as part of a series about visual linguistics and follows the previous visualizations on toponymy and kinship names. The original idea, researches, and design are from me. More coming, hopefully.
