It sometimes seems that the Roman script which we use in English is taking over; even in countries where different scripts are used, there are signs and adverts using Roman characters… which were originally from the Greek, and which make up the alphabet, usually of twenty-six letters.
Some written languages using Roman script combine letters to make a single sound, such as ‘ch’ and ‘th’ in English, and sometimes three letters are put together, such as ‘sch’ in German.Sometimes these combinations get squidged together to form a new ‘letter’, such as ‘Æ/æ’ in words like encyclopædia, and ‘Œ/œ’ in words like… diarrhœa! When letters have accents or markers above or below them, in effect they become a new letter, é, å, î, ö, ç, ñ, š …
When the Roman script arrived, some languages introduced completely new characters, maybe from a former written alphabet. I’m very familiar with this idea as I’ve recently been back to Iceland, and have also been looking at Icelandic; these ‘new’ letters which were in English as well as Icelandic and Faroese, were derived from runes, the Viking script: Ƿ/ƿ, Þ/þ and Ð/ð.
The reason these thoughts popped into my head is that it’s a friend’s birthday today, and to wish her a lovely day, I wrote a greeting in her language, Georgian, and I couldn’t help but think how attractive it looks. I don’t have a dictionary, but with the help of Google translate, I got this:
ბედნიერი დაბადების დღე
In my latest novel, Thomas Radwinter has an Armenian friend; if it was his birthday it would be written:
ծնունդդ շնորհավոր
These examples make English look pretty dull!
Lois Elsden 
It’s Greek to me!
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Isn’t the development of language and alphabets interesting?! I was able to take Russian for a year at school and loved the way it sounded, and looked. But the different alphabet does add another challenge to the whole thing!
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You’re right, it’s fascinating! I just wish I was better at learning languages!
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I recommend the films of Andrei Tarkovsky
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I will check him out – youtube?
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possibly. he only made 7 films, 5 in russian, 1 in italian and 1 in swedish
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You see that ‘nL’ thing – that is one letter not two = u /oo
for example, happy… (i don’t seem to be able to get the transliteration online so I will write it how it sounds)
oorakh
Ուրախ
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and thanks for bednieri as georgian equivalent
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It’s very attractive, isn’t it
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http://15levels.com/art/armeniancalligraphy/
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Thank you
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