Linguistics & Languages of Theology and the World

Every faith on this site speaks. Scripture, prayer, creed, and doctrine reach us in languages; Hebrew and Greek, Arabic and Sanskrit, Pali and Latin; and the language shapes what is said and what can be said. This section treats language itself as a lens: the languages of the world's scriptures and liturgies, their families and scripts, the technical words of theology, and the great translations by which the texts have travelled.

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Indo-European

Living Punjabi The living vernacular of Sikhism, written in Gurmukhi, the script of the Guru Granth Sahib. Indo-European · Indo-Iranian

Classical Sant Bhasha The sacred composite language of the Guru Granth Sahib, the scripture and eternal Guru of Sikhism. Indo-European · Indo-Iranian

Writing Systems

One language may use several scripts, and one script may serve many languages. Each script below records its ISO 15924 code, its Unicode range, and the languages on this site that use it.

A folio of the Aleppo Codex, its two columns written in the square Hebrew script with vowel points and Masoretic notes.

Hebr (125) Hebrew Square Script The square letterforms adopted from Imperial Aramaic, in which the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, and nearly all later Jewish literature are written. Script · Right to left

The Siloam inscription, a limestone panel covered with lines of early Hebrew letters carved in the First Temple period.

Phnx (115) Paleo-Hebrew Script The early alphabetic script of ancient Israel, derived from Phoenician; it survives in some Dead Sea Scrolls and in the divine name written within square-script manuscripts. Script · Right to left

A sheet of the Samaritan Pentateuch scroll, its columns written in the Samaritan alphabet, the community's own descendant of the old Hebrew script.

Samr (123) Samaritan Script The descendant of Paleo-Hebrew kept by the Samaritan community, used for the Samaritan Pentateuch to this day. Script · Right to left

A folio of Codex Sinaiticus showing four columns of Greek uncial letters, the capital-letter hand of the great biblical codices.

Grek (200) Greek Alphabet Written first in majuscule (uncial) hands for the great biblical codices, then in minuscule for medieval manuscripts; the script of the Septuagint, the New Testament, and the Greek fathers. Script · Left to right

A manuscript page of Luke's Gospel written in Carolingian minuscule, with clear rounded Latin letters and red initials.

Latn (215) Latin Alphabet The script of the Vulgate and of Western theology, carried in insular and Carolingian minuscule hands through the medieval schools and now the most widely used script in the world. Script · Left to right

A canon-table page from the Rabbula Gospels, its arches framing columns of Syriac text in the Estrangelo hand.

Syrc (135) Syriac Scripts Three hands of one alphabet: Estrangelo, the stately book hand of the early Peshitta manuscripts; Serto, the Western cursive; and Madnhaya, the Eastern hand. Script · Right to left

A page of a Coptic codex written in large Coptic uncial letters, Greek-derived characters with added Demotic signs.

Copt (204) Coptic Alphabet Greek letters supplemented by characters from Egyptian demotic, devised to write the Egyptian language for the Coptic church. Script · Left to right

An opening of an Ethiopic Gospel book with decorated canon tables and columns of Ge'ez text.

Ethi (430) Ge'ez Script An abugida of Ethiopic civilization, created for Ge'ez and still writing Amharic and Tigrinya; the script of the Ethiopian biblical canon and its vast manuscript tradition. Script · Left to right

An illuminated Armenian manuscript page with a seraph miniature above lines of Armenian bolorgir text.

Armn (230) Armenian Alphabet Created by Mesrop Mashtots around 405 so that Scripture could be translated into Armenian; its invention marks the beginning of Armenian literature. Script · Left to right

An opening of the Adishi Gospels, its four columns written in Georgian Asomtavruli, the monumental uncial script of Georgia's oldest Gospel book.

Geor (240) Georgian Scripts Three scripts for one language: Asomtavruli capitals, the Nuskhuri minuscule of the manuscripts (together forming the ecclesiastical Khutsuri), and the modern Mkhedruli. Script · Left to right

A page of the Ostromir Gospels with two columns of Church Slavonic in Cyrillic uncial and a decorated initial letter.

Cyrl (220) Cyrillic Named for Cyril, developed by his disciples in the First Bulgarian Empire, and the script of Church Slavonic books and of the Slavic Orthodox world. Script · Left to right

The Baška tablet, a stone slab carved with eleven lines of angular Glagolitic letters beneath a carved vine border.

Glag (225) Glagolitic The first Slavic alphabet, devised by Cyril and Methodius for their ninth-century mission; it survives in Croatian liturgical use. Script · Left to right

A folio of the Blue Qur'an, its Arabic verses written in gold Kufic script on deep blue vellum.

Arab (160) Arabic Script The script of the Qur'an, adapted for Persian, Urdu, and many other languages; its calligraphy became a central sacred art of Islam. Script · Right to left

A manuscript page of the Rigveda's marriage hymn written in Devanagari, its letters joined by the script's continuous headline.

Deva (315) Devanagari The principal Brahmic script of Sanskrit, Hindi, and Marathi, in which most modern editions of the Hindu scriptures are printed. Script · Left to right

A long narrow folio of the Old Tibetan Annals from Dunhuang, written in the Tibetan uchen script.

Tibt (330) Tibetan Script A Brahmic-derived script created in the seventh century for translating Buddhist texts from Sanskrit; it carries the Kangyur and Tengyur. Script · Left to right

A carved wooden printing block of the Tripitaka Koreana, its surface covered with reversed Chinese characters.

Hani (500) Chinese Characters The logographic script in which the Chinese Buddhist canon and the Confucian and Taoist classics are written, shared across mutually unintelligible spoken languages. Script · Left to right

An open copy of the Guru Granth Sahib, its pages filled with hymns written in the Gurmukhi script.

Guru (310) Gurmukhi The Brahmic script standardized under Guru Angad, in which the Guru Granth Sahib is printed and Sikh scripture is read. Script · Left to right

A Burmese Kammavaca manuscript, its lacquered palm leaves covered with Pali text in the ornate Burmese tamarind-seed script.

Brah (300) and national Brahmic scripts Pali Canon Scripts Pali has no script of its own: the canon is written in Sinhala script in Sri Lanka, Burmese in Myanmar, Thai in Thailand, Khmer in Cambodia, and Devanagari or Latin letters elsewhere. Script · Left to right

The first folio of a Vendidad manuscript, its main text written in the Avestan alphabet beneath Pahlavi and Persian headings in red ink.

Avst Avestan Script The script devised in the Sasanian era to record the Avestan liturgy exactly, written right to left with a full vowel notation. Script · Right to left

A clay tablet from ancient Mesopotamia covered with wedge-shaped cuneiform signs pressed into its surface.

Xsux Cuneiform The wedge-shaped writing of ancient Mesopotamia, pressed into clay with a reed stylus and used for Sumerian, Akkadian, and their neighbours over three thousand years. Script · Left to right

Leaves of the Lammitlon Puya, a classical Meitei manuscript written in the Meetei Mayek script of Manipur.

Mtei Meetei Mayek The indigenous script of Manipur, whose letter names are parts of the human body, revived in the twentieth century as the script of Meitei. Script · Left to right

A clay incantation bowl whose inside is covered with a spiral of handwritten Mandaic script.

Mand Mandaic Script The cursive right-to-left script of the Mandaeans, in which the community's scriptures and ritual texts are written. Script · Right to left

Two palm-leaf manuscript folios densely inscribed with Tamil writing, the letters incised in long horizontal lines.

Taml Tamil Script The script of Tamil, descended from Brahmi, in use for one of the longest continuous literary traditions in the world. Script · Left to right

The great inscribed rock at Junagadh, its face covered with lines of Brahmi letters cut in the time of Ashoka and his successors.

Brah Brahmi The mother script of South and Southeast Asia, first carved in the edicts of Ashoka; nearly every Indic script descends from it. Script · Left to right

A legal document from early Islamic-era Tabarestan written in the flowing cursive of Book Pahlavi.

Phlp Pahlavi Script The right-to-left script of Middle Persian, used for the Zoroastrian books of the Sasanian era, famous for its Aramaic heterograms read aloud as Persian words. Script · Right to left

Columns of flowing hiragana calligraphy from an ink-drawn Tale of Genji scroll, the kana text written in the cursive grass style.

Hrkt Japanese Kana The hiragana and katakana syllabaries of Japanese, simplified from Chinese characters and written alongside them in classical and modern texts alike. Script · Left to right

Translation Traditions

How the scriptures passed from language to language: the Septuagint, the Targums, the Peshitta, the Vulgate, and the traditions that followed them.

A folio of Codex Sinaiticus containing the Greek text of Chronicles, written in four columns of uncial letters.

Greek The Septuagint (LXX) The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible made in Alexandria; the Old Testament of the early church and of Orthodoxy. Biblical Hebrew → Greek

A page of an eleventh-century Iraqi manuscript in Hebrew square script containing the biblical text with its Aramaic Targum.

Aramaic The Targums The Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible that accompanied synagogue reading and preserve ancient interpretation. Biblical Hebrew → Aramaic

A miniature from the Syriac Bible of Paris showing Job on the ash heap visited by his friends, above the Syriac text.

Syriac The Peshitta The Syriac standard Bible, the first complete Bible translation of the Christian era, still read across the Syriac churches. Hebrew and Greek → Syriac

The Ezra miniature from the Codex Amiatinus, the scribe-prophet writing at his desk before the cupboard of the Bible's nine volumes.

Latin The Vulgate Jerome's Latin Bible, the text of Western theology for a millennium and the Catholic Church's declared rule of faith at Trent. Hebrew and Greek → Latin

A page of the Codex Bobiensis written in large Latin uncials, its text of Mark's Gospel predating Jerome's revision.

Latin Vetus Latina (Old Latin) The Old Latin versions that preceded the Vulgate: the first Latin Bibles, and early witnesses to the Greek text. Greek → Latin

A canon-table page from the Garima Gospels, its painted arches framing small columns of Ge'ez text.

Coptic, Ge'ez, Armenian, Georgian, Church Slavonic The Ancient Church Translations: Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic The early versions of the daughter churches, which preserved texts lost elsewhere and made the Bible a literature in five more tongues. Greek (with Hebrew behind it) → Coptic, Ge'ez, Armenian, Georgian, Church Slavonic

The deep red cover of the Van Dyck Arabic Bible, its title 'The Holy Bible' stamped in gold Arabic calligraphy.

Arabic Arabic Bible Translations A thousand years of Arabic versions, differing by community and confession, down to the Van Dyck Bible of 1865. Hebrew and Greek (often through Syriac and Coptic) → Arabic

An engraving of William Carey at work with his Bengali pundit, translating at a table covered with papers.

The languages of the world Modern Missionary and Vernacular Translation The worldwide vernacular translation movement and the translation theory it produced, with its contested history. The biblical languages → The languages of the world

The Glossary

The technical words of theology; ousia and gratia, hesed and tawhid, dharma and atman; each with its language, its literal sense, and its theological meaning. 41 terms in the glossary.