A long-overlooked writing system from 5000 years ago is still largely undeciphered, but could mark the moment humans first represented their speech with written words ...

The early Greek alphabet was painted on the body of an Attic black-figure cup. Credit: flickr / Dan Diffendale CC BY-SA 2.0 ...

Twenty-six years ago, two brothers decided their native language needed a new alphabet. The scripts they’d been using to read and write their native Fulani, an African language spoken by at least 40 ...

The number has not been consistent throughout its existence. Russians use an alphabet based on the Cyrillic script. The modern Russian alphabet has 33 letters: 21 consonants, ten vowels and two signs.

The Arabic and Simplified Chinese scripts aren't in danger of going anywhere anytime soon, but the same can't be said for Balinese, Mali, Pahawh (or Pahauh) Hmong, and the other 100-some alphabets ...