You might assume that all languages have the same subject-verb-object order , or that all languages are read left-to-right or right-to-left depending on your starting point. Perhaps you grew up speaking only English and were later somewhat surprised to learn that Hebrew and Arabic are read from right to left, or that some languages, like Mandarin and Mongolian, are written top to bottom. Suffice it to say that the rivers of language run in many directions. The written orientation of a language is called directionality.
A group of researchers found that the directionality of a language can affect the way people represent time spatially. That makes sense when you consider that training your eye and hand movements in a certain direction also creates deep associations with the way chronological order works visually, or with the way you organize information generally.
What may not be as readily apparent is how languages settled into various grooves of directionality in the first place. A prevailing theory is that directionality was a mechanical consequence of the way languages were written. For instance, East Asian languages, which are often written top to bottom, were once written on scrolls. It would be easier for someone to write top to bottom with one hand holding the paper. Intended audience: anyone who wants to know which scripts are associated with right-to-left text.
Here are links to frequently asked questions about the direction of written text, and their answers. Click on any link to go directly to the question and answer, or scroll the page to view them all. The Unicode Consortium's glossary uses the following definition:. Microsoft offers the following definition on their globalization web site :.
Knowing the directionality of text, based on the script s to be used, is important to web designers and authors, because right-to-left text can be more complicated for beginners to work with and the organization and directionality of the page layout are affected.
Therefore, knowing the writing direction can be relevant to estimating the work involved to create web pages in a new language. Languages don't have a direction. Scripts have a writing direction, and so languages written in a particular script, will be written with the direction of that script. Languages can be written in more than one script.
For example, Azeri can be written in any of the Latin, Cyrillic, or Arabic scripts. When written in the Arabic script, it is written right-to-left. If a language can be written in more than one script, which script should a web designer or localizer use, or should the text be provided in all scripts?
The answer will depend on your target audience. The script may change for different countries or regions. The script may also change by legislation or with changes in government policy. Ideographic languages e. Japanese, Korean, Chinese are more flexible in their writing direction.
They are generally written left-to-right, or vertically top-to-bottom with the vertical lines proceeding from right to left.
Traditionally, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are written vertically in columns going from top to bottom and ordered from right to left, with each new column starting to the left of the preceding one. In this format, the characters are written in columns going from top to bottom. These include Mongolian, Chinese, certain Japanese dialects, and a couple Korean dialects, though some are written vertically from left to right, and some are written vertically from right to left.
Just like European languages, Hindi is written from left to right. In Hindi, unlike in European languages, words are written as they are pronounced because each character has a different sound.
When written vertically, Japanese text is written from top to bottom, with multiple columns of text progressing from right to left. When written horizontally, text is almost always written left to right, with multiple rows progressing downward, as in standard English text. Why does the Japanese language have to use three different types of script; Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana?
This is because each of the three types of script, Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana, has its own specific role. Because they serve different purposes. Hiragana and Katakana are syllabaries, while Kanji is logographic. Kanji is used for the basic meaning of words. Hiragana is used for things like particles, conjugations, prepositions, etc. However, they have the syllables: ta, ti, tu, te, and to.
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