# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/41 "2012-11-10T23:33:40Z")
Russian. I took a semester in college and actually, learning Cyrillic is the _easy_ part. (It also tends to annoy me when people try to be amusing to use the “backwards R” to make something look Russian themed. It’s actually the character to represent the _ya_ sound. An “R” in Cyrillic is _P_.) ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/42 "2012-11-10T23:46:26Z")
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Thai, Inuktitut (and others written with variants of the [Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Aboriginal_syllabics).) All look so interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/43 "2012-11-10T23:55:59Z")
Koine Greek: Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή· οὐδεὶς ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, εἰ μὴ δι’ ἐμοῦ. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/44 "2012-11-11T00:38:49Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > Koine Greek: > > Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή· οὐδεὶς ἔρχεται πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, εἰ μὴ δι’ ἐμοῦ. Ego aymi ay odous kai ay adetheeia kai ay zooee. Outdeies erchetai pros ton Patera. Eh may di eumenou. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/45 "2012-11-11T00:52:45Z")
I don’t care what language as long as it’s a console font on a green monitor. That’s my favorite to look at. Every character takes up the same width and height. Everything is orderly and soothing. And only 256 or 512 characters to choose from, what more could you ask for? ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/46 "2012-11-11T00:57:21Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > I don’t care what language as long as it’s a console font on a green monitor. That’s my favorite to look at. Every character takes up the same width and height. Everything is orderly and soothing. And only 256 or 512 characters to choose from, what more could you ask for? ASCII. Only 128 characters. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/47 "2012-11-11T01:18:06Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > ASCII. Only 128 characters. Funny you can do Koine greek with those characters, anyway… ---
**Author:** ![Terra1041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Terra1041](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terra1041)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/48 "2012-11-11T01:24:40Z")
I always thought Cyrillic alphabets looked cool. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/49 "2012-11-11T02:17:06Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > I love to look at [Thai.](http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Thai+Calligraphy&FORM=RESTAB&adlt=strict) > > It makes me feel introspective and peaceful. I’m bored with Thai. I rather like looking at Arabic, although Chinese and Japanese characters can be nice too. Cyrillic as well. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/50 "2012-11-11T02:37:40Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > ASCII. Only 128 characters. Unicode works in terminals just fine. With (potentially) 32 bits per character (if the standard is expanded to fully cover that space), there’s a lot more than 128 characters possible. ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/51 "2012-11-11T05:29:23Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > Edit: It might be [Telugu](http://www.ancientscripts.com/telugu.html). They seem to have a breast fixation. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483/52 "2012-11-11T16:54:59Z")
Telugu script is an example of how many South Asian scripts had to be made of rounded forms. Kannada, Oriya, and especially Burmese scripts are almost entirely made of curves and arcs of circles. They had a very practical reason for this. In the old days, books were written on palm leaves with a pointed metal stylus without ink. By pressing the point of the stylus into the surface of a palm leaf, the incised lines became dark. If they used too many straight lines, it could cause the leaf to split apart along its longitudinal veins. Curvilinear letter forms protected the books from breaking up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-written-language-to-look-at-not-necessarily-read/640483.md?page=2)