Writing systems or scripts are methods of using written symbols to represent spoken languages.

Broadly there are three types of writing systems:

• Logographic systems use symbols to represent words.
• Syllabic systems use symbols to represent syllables.
• Alphabetic systems use symbols to represent individual sounds.

List of selected writing systems

Logographic

• Chinese characters
  • Kanji (Japanese)
  • Hanja (Korean)
• Egyptian hieroglyphics

Syllabic

• Maya hieroglyphics
• Hiragana and Katakana (Japanese)

Alphabetic

• Phoenician alphabet
  • Aramaic alphabet
    • Hebrew alphabet
    • Arabic alphabet
  • Brahmi alphabet (Indian)
    • Devangari alphabet
    • Tamil alphabet
    • Telugu alphabet
    • Tibetan alphabet
    • Thai alphabet
    • Burmese alphabet
  • Greek alphabet
    • Cyrillic alphabet
    • Latin alphabet
    • Runic alphabet
• Hangul alphabet (Korean)