Official script

An official script is a writing system that is specifically designated to be official in the constitutions or other applicable laws of countries, states, and other jurisdictions. Akin to an official language, an official script is much rarer. It is used primarily where an official language is in practice written with two or more scripts. As, in these languages, use of script often has cultural or political connotations, proclamation of an official script is sometimes criticized as having a goal of influencing culture or politics or both. Desired effects also may include easing education, communication and some other aspects of life.

The letters of the Indic official scripts of the Indian Republic used by the official languages of India
(top row: Kannada/Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati;
middle row: Meitei, Devanagari, Bengali/Assamese;
bottom row: Odia, Malayalam, Gurmukhi)

These are the examples of the official scripts.

List of official scripts

Below is a partial list of official scripts used in different countries. Those in italics are states that have limited international recognition.

This list does not cover local variations of international scripts, such as which diacritics are used.

Historical

  • In the USSR, numerous languages were latinized during the 1920s–1930s. In the late 1930s the Latinization campaign was canceled and all newly romanized languages were converted to Cyrillic.

See also

References