# What's the name of our script?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-name-of-our-script/126103>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 29, 2002, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-name-of-our-script/126103 "2002-08-29T15:24:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mlerose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@mlerose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlerose)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-name-of-our-script/126103/1 "2002-08-29T15:24:12Z")

</div>

Last night, I was talking to some friends about runes, and I realized I don’t know the name of the script/alphabet used to write western European languages. I know that some slavic languages use Cyrillic, and Arabic, Hebrew, and Japanese are all written with different kinds of script.

I figure you’re the bunch most likely to be able to answer my quesiton. So, what’s the name of the script/alphabet used to write English, Spanish, French, and German?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-name-of-our-script/126103/2 "2002-08-29T15:32:37Z")

</div>

Roman.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![glass\_onion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@glass\_onion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glass_onion)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-name-of-our-script/126103/3 "2002-08-29T15:34:03Z")

</div>

Latin Script?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-name-of-our-script/126103/4 "2002-08-29T15:34:31Z")

</div>

My first hunch was _Latin alphabet;_ a quick flip to my Merriam-Webster’s unabridged confirmed this, with a note that it is also called the _Roman alphabet._

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mlerose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@mlerose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlerose)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-name-of-our-script/126103/5 "2002-08-29T15:36:11Z")

</div>

Thank you!

My friend and I had both thought Roman, too, but weren’t sure.