Alphabets of Anatolia

Alphabets in use in Iron Age Anatolia

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History of the alphabet

Egyptian hieroglyphs 32nd c. BCE
- Hieratic 32nd c. BCE
  - Demotic 7th c. BCE
    - Meroitic 3rd c. BCE
- Proto-Sinaitic 19th c. BCE
  - Ugaritic 15th c. BCE
  - Ancient South Arabian 9th c. BCE
    - Geʽez c. 5th c. BCE
  - Phoenician 12th c. BCE
    - (see below)
Hangul 1443
Thaana c. 1601
Adlam 1989

Phoenician 12th c. BCE
- Paleo-Hebrew 10th c. BCE
  - Samaritan 6th c. BCE
- Aramaic 8th c. BCE
  - Kharosthi 3rd c. BCE
  - Brahmi 3rd c. BCE
    - (Brahmic)
      - Pallava 4th century
        Cham 4th century
        
        Dhives Akuru 6th century
        
        Khmer 611
      - Tibetan 7th century
        ʼPhags-pa 1269
      - Devanagari 10th century
        Canadian Aboriginal 1840
  - Hebrew 3rd c. BCE
    - Square Aramaic 2007
  - Pahlavi 3rd c. BCE
    - Avestan 4th century
  - Palmyrene 2nd c. BCE
  - Nabataean 2nd c. BCE
    - Arabic 4th century
      - N'Ko 1949
  - Syriac 2nd c. BCE
    - Sogdian 2nd c. BCE
      - Old Turkic 6th century
        Old Hungarian c. 650
      - Old Uyghur
        Mongolian 1204
  - Mandaic 2nd century
- Greek 8th c. BCE
  - Etruscan 8th c. BCE
    - Latin 7th c. BCE
      - Deseret 1854
      - Great Lakes Algonquian 19th century
      - Blackfoot 1888
      - Fraser 1915
      - Saanich 1978
      - Osage 2006
    - Runic 2nd century
    - Ogham 4th century
  - Lycian 5th c. BCE
  - Coptic 3rd century
  - Gothic 3rd century
  - Armenian 405
    - Caucasian Albanian c. 420
  - Georgian c. 430
  - Glagolitic 862
  - Cyrillic c. 940
    - Old Permic 1372
- Libyco-Berber 10th c. BCE
  - Tifinagh 4th century
    - Neo-Tifinagh 1970
- Paleohispanic 7th c. BCE

Various alphabetic writing systems were in use in Iron Age Anatolia to record Anatolian languages and Phrygian. Several of these languages had previously been written with logographic and syllabic scripts.

The alphabets of Asia Minor proper share characteristics that distinguish them from the earliest attested forms of the Greek alphabet. Many letters in these alphabets resemble Greek letters but have unrelated readings, most extensively in the case of Carian. The Phrygian and Lemnian alphabets by contrast were early adaptations of regional variants of the Greek alphabet; the earliest Phrygian inscriptions are contemporary with early Greek inscriptions, but contain Greek innovations such as the letters Φ and Ψ which did not exist in the earliest forms of the Greek alphabet.

The Anatolian alphabets fell out of use around the 4th century BCE with the onset of the Hellenistic period.

Alphabets

The Lydian script, an alphabet used to record the Lydian language from ca. the 5th to 4th centuries BCE; a related script is the "Para-Lydian" alphabet known from a single inscription in Sardis.
The Para-Lydian script, known from a single inscription found in Sardis Synagogue, language unknown, undeciphered but closely resembles the Lydian script, hence the name.
The Carian script, recording the Carian language, known from inscriptions in Caria, Egypt and Athens. Only partially understood, there were 45 letters. Many of these resemble the Greek alphabet in form, but have different values.
The Lycian script, an alphabet recording the Lycian language from the 5th to 4th centuries BCE.
The Sidetic script, an alphabet of 25 letters, only a few of which are clearly derived from Greek, known from coin legends in what might be a Sidetic language.
The Pisidian script, an alphabet used to write the Pisidian language. It is attested in about 30 inscriptions around the region of Pisidia.
The Phrygian script, an alphabet of 21 letters used for the Phrygian language (22 for the Mysian language) which is very similar to early Greek epichoric alphabets, except for the presence of a special character for j.