Lars Marius Garshol <larsga at garshol dot priv dot no> wrote:
> | How many different writing systems are there?
>
> Like Peter says there cannot really be a definitive, objective answer
> to this. My database of scripts, however, contains 174 scripts. I
> don't think it's complete, but there aren't that many missing. So
> maybe ~200.
>
> <URL: http://www.ontopia.net/i18n/scripts.jsp >
I'm not sure what to make of a raw count of this list. Ewellic is
included, as well as a few other lesser-known "artificial" scripts like
Geyinzi, so not everyone will agree as to how many "real" scripts are
listed. Some experts might not count the "artificial" scripts.
Then there are some duplicate listings: "Ol," "Ol Cemet'," and "Ol Ciki"
are listed individually, as are "Ethiopic" and "Amharic script." I
don't know whether Lars counted these as 3 and 2, or 1 and 1.
ISO 15924 contains 100 entries for scripts, but the mapping between
entries and actual scripts is not 1-to-1.
--
Doug Ewell
Fullerton, California
http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/