# What's your favorite written language to look at (not necessarily read)? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 9, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483 "2012-11-09T15:06:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/21 "2012-11-10T01:14:57Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > Edit: It might be [Telugu](http://www.ancientscripts.com/telugu.html). Half of those look like butts. Some of which are . . . doing what butts do . . . Yes, I am 12. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/22 "2012-11-10T01:35:43Z")
I like Finnish and Tibetan. Those other scripts are beautiful too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/23 "2012-11-10T01:54:08Z")
Hungarian. I can’t understand it, but it’s spiky and intimidating, with lots of long words and a heavy peppering of accents. It looks to me as if it should be spoken in a kind of eerie, nasal drone, perhaps with one’s eyeballs popping out. > [@a website for Hungarians in London](#): > > Csomagot szeretnél küldeni Magyarország és Anglia között? Költözködsz, vagy repülés helyett kisbusszal utaznál? Ne keresgélj tovább, mi időt es pénzt spórolunk meg Neked! Költségmentesen továbbítjuk igényeid a szállítók felé és a lehető legrövidebb időn belül a legjobb ajánlatokat küldjük el részedre. > > Az árajánlat igényléshez csupán kattints az alul lévő gombra. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/24 "2012-11-10T02:08:11Z")
So many beautiful, artful scripts, I’m surporised there are so many mentions of Finnish, since it’s written in the ordinary Roman alphabet. It’s a wonderful language for magic incantations, but that’s spoken, not written. I, too, like the look of Tengwar and the Voynich manuscript, Javanese and Tibetan, Arabic and Thai. I knew nothing of the Gerogian before this thread, and I am so impressed with it…lovely. A fan-invented language, [Golic Vulcan](http://http://www.omniglot.com/writing/vulcan.htm) is pleasing to look at, too. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/25 "2012-11-10T03:35:57Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Half of those look like butts. Some of which are . . . doing what butts do . . . > > Yes, I am 12. Heh, I found what I was originally thinking of: not Telugu, but [Sinhalese](http://www.visiblemantra.org/sutra/ye-dhamma-sinhala.gif), which is related to it, but even more butt-like. I guess I have a type. 🙂 BTW, [this webpage](http://www.visiblemantra.org/dharma-hetuprabhava.html) takes a passage of Buddhist scripture and compares the way it is written in Sanskrit, Lantsa, Tibetan, and Sinhalese scripts. They’re all pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/26 "2012-11-10T04:23:25Z")
[I’ve liked the Tamil script for a long time.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_script) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/27 "2012-11-10T05:14:32Z")
Sanskrit. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/28 "2012-11-10T09:57:10Z")
Gothic script for whatever language. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/29 "2012-11-10T15:51:56Z")
> [@Weeping\_Wyvern](#): > > [Indeed.](http://www.danielreeve.co.nz/LOTR/Calligraphy/images/RingVerse.jpg) I am very fond of Tengwar. 🙂 Nothing makes a woman weak in the knees that writing her a letter in Tengwar. Except for Klingon, they love that stuff. > [@NitroPress](#): > > …now. If Windows didn’t feel that every single one of us needs 47 obscure Asian alphabets on our systems… I mean, rah rah for multiculturalism but I will NEVER need to write or display anything in Uighur. And it’s next to impossible to remove the fonts; they’re embedded at a system level. > > End of rant apologies for any hijack exit stage left HD space that could be better spent on Klingon and Klingon porn, eh? Those of you who like Finnish should check out Estonian. As far as scripts go, [Blackletter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackletter)/[Fraktur](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraktur_%28script%29) are okay, if a bit loaded. I like [Uncial](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncial_script) and [related](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_script) [scripts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_type). ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/30 "2012-11-10T16:53:14Z")
(I hope I’m forgiven for a slightly off-topic response.) Until a few decades ago, the Keno writers in Nevada casinos had a special way to write the digits 0 to 9. The shape of each digit was exaggerated beautifully so there could be no ambiguity whatsoever about what the digits were. But this art disappeared with computer-printed tickets _ **and I can find no examples of that Keno-writer script with Google.** _ :mad: Help, please. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/31 "2012-11-10T17:06:17Z")
I think I’m the only one who listed “Mayan”, but if there are any other admirers, you should see if you can get hold of the PBS NOVA episode on how that script was decoded. It’s not only a fascinating story, but the complexity of the script is a marvel in and of itself. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/32 "2012-11-10T17:47:43Z")
I happen to like the high k- and z-ratios in [Breton](http://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brezhoneg) ---
**Author:** ![Feyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/fbc32d/32.png) [@Feyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feyrat)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/33 "2012-11-10T17:59:20Z")
Arabic. Every time I see it, I wish I could write in it, it’s just aesthetically beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/34 "2012-11-10T18:51:52Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Sanskrit. Sanskrit has been written in a large number of scripts over thousands of years. As far as South Asian scripts go, I love to look at [Grantha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grantha_script), though I have seen some early modern Kashmiri texts that give this a run for its money. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/35 "2012-11-10T18:59:39Z")
Check out the [Hawara Homer](http://ipap.csad.ox.ac.uk/Hawara-bw/72dpi/Hawara_Homer%28viii%29.jpg), discovered by WM Flinders Petrie. This is an especially attractive piece of Greek calligraphy found in Egypt. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/36 "2012-11-10T19:11:39Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Gothic script for whatever language. [How about the Gothic script for the Gothic language?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_alphabet) ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/37 "2012-11-10T21:36:51Z")
[Thaana](http://www.omniglot.com/writing/thaana.htm), but I did design a tattoo for myself using the Gothic alphabet. Though I may go with runes instead. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/38 "2012-11-10T21:51:55Z")
Agree with the OP about Thai. You don’t need fancy calligraphy to appreciate it, though, it looks gorgeous even in the [Metro](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3075/3226585458_d6dc497a5f_z.jpg) (with apologies to Sue for that picture). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/39 "2012-11-10T22:35:17Z")
> [@Feyrat](#): > > Arabic. Every time I see it, I wish I could write in it, it’s just aesthetically beautiful. It’s not at all difficult to learn. You could probably do so pretty easily in a week or two if you put your mind to it. An employee of mine taught me years ago in just a few sessions. Now, learning the art of calligraphy is a different matter… ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/40 "2012-11-10T23:14:20Z")
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