About Scriptologue
Scriptologue is a comprehensive reference for the world's writing systems, providing authoritative information on scripts, languages, script families, writing systems, characters, Unicode blocks, ISO 15924, and related international standards. You can also detect writing scripts, separate different scripts, and explore script metrics through one structured, unified and authoritative linguistic dataset.
Scriptologue uses the ISO 15924 standard for script codes (e.g., Latn for Latin, Arab for Arabic) to systematically categorize writing systems worldwide.
The taxonomy records multiple-source attestation and single-source attestation. These evidence categories do not establish contemporary or historical usage.
Multiple-source attestation (MAIN/Core): A relationship supported by at least two source groups in GlotScript. This does not establish prevalence, official status or current usage.
Single-source attestation (AUXILIARY): A relationship supported by one upstream source group. Its usage context is unknown unless separately documented.
LREC-COLING 2024
This tool is based on the research paper:
"GlotScript: A Resource and Tool for Low Resource Writing System Identification"
by Amirhossein Kargaran, François Yvon, and Hinrich Schütze.
APA
Kargaran, A., Yvon, F., & Schütze, H. (2024). GlotScript: A resource and tool for low resource writing system identification. In Proceedings of the 2024 Joint International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-COLING 2024) (pp. 7774–7784). ELRA and ICCL. https://aclanthology.org/2024.lrec-main.687/
BibTeX
@inproceedings{kargaran-etal-2024-glotscript,
title = "{G}lot{S}cript: A Resource and Tool for Low Resource Writing System Identification",
author = "Kargaran, Amirhossein and Yvon, Fran{\c{c}}ois and Sch{\"u}tze, Hinrich",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2024 Joint International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-COLING 2024)",
month = may,
year = "2024",
address = "Torino, Italia",
publisher = "ELRA and ICCL",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2024.lrec-main.687/",
pages = "7774--7784",
}ISO 639-3 Language Names
Language names are sourced from the ISO 639-3 code tables maintained by SIL International, the registration authority for ISO 639-3. The code tables are freely available at iso639-3.sil.org. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
ISO 639-3 is the de facto standard for language identification, with Ethnologue (published by Derivation, a subsidiary of SIL Global) as the primary reference catalogue — the source from which the ISO 639-3 inventory was originally derived and continues to be maintained.
APA
SIL International. (2025). ISO 639-3 code tables. SIL International. https://iso639-3.sil.org
BibTeX
@misc{sil-iso639-3,
author = {{SIL International}},
title = {{ISO 639-3 Code Tables}},
year = {2025},
url = {https://iso639-3.sil.org},
note = {Registration authority for ISO 639-3. Licensed under CC BY 3.0},
}ISO 15924 Script Names
Script names follow the ISO 15924 standard (Codes for the representation of names of scripts), maintained by the Unicode Consortium on behalf of ISO. Licensed under the Unicode License v3.
APA
Unicode Consortium. (2025). ISO 15924: Codes for the representation of names of scripts. Unicode Consortium. https://unicode.org/iso15924/
BibTeX
@misc{unicode-iso15924,
author = {{Unicode Consortium}},
title = {{ISO 15924: Codes for the Representation of Names of Scripts}},
year = {2025},
url = {https://unicode.org/iso15924/},
note = {Maintained on behalf of ISO. Licensed under Unicode License v3},
}IANA Language Subtag Registry
Script registration metadata — including official alternate names and registry dates — is sourced from the IANA Language Subtag Registry, maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. This registry is the authoritative source for BCP 47 language tags and script subtags. Licensed under CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication).
APA
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. (2025). IANA language subtag registry. IANA. https://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry/language-subtag-registry
BibTeX
@misc{iana-subtag-registry,
author = {{Internet Assigned Numbers Authority}},
title = {{IANA Language Subtag Registry}},
year = {2025},
url = {https://www.iana.org/assignments/language-subtag-registry/language-subtag-registry},
note = {Licensed under CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)},
}Writing System Type Classification
The writing system type categories shown on script pages (Alphabet, Abjad, Abugida, Syllabary, Logographic, etc.) are an enrichment layer not defined by ISO 15924 itself. The typology originates with Peter T. Daniels & William Bright (eds.), The World's Writing Systems (Oxford University Press, 1996), which introduced the terms Abjad and Abugida and systematised the classification of writing systems. Primary classification here is derived from ISO 15924 numeric code ranges, which loosely group related scripts. A curated override file maintained by this project supplies individually verified classifications for all major scripts, superseding the range-based estimate where available. Both the range mapping and the override file are original app-maintained metadata and are not covered by the book's copyright.
APA
Daniels, P. T., & Bright, W. (Eds.). (1996). The world's writing systems. Oxford University Press.
BibTeX
@book{daniels1996worlds,
editor = {Daniels, Peter T. and Bright, William},
title = {The World's Writing Systems},
year = {1996},
publisher = {Oxford University Press},
address = {Oxford},
isbn = {0-19-507993-0},
}Unicode Block Names & Ranges
The named Unicode block ranges displayed on the Unicode Blocks pages (e.g. Basic Latin U+0000–007F, Devanagari U+0900–097F) are sourced from Blocks.txt in the Unicode Character Database (UCD), maintained by the Unicode Consortium. Licensed under the Unicode License v3. Block descriptions and script associations are app-maintained original metadata.
APA
Unicode Consortium. (2022). Blocks.txt (Unicode 15.0). Unicode Character Database (UCD). https://unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/Blocks.txt
BibTeX
@misc{unicode-blocks,
author = {{Unicode Consortium}},
title = {{Blocks.txt: Unicode Character Database}},
year = {2022},
url = {https://unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/Blocks.txt},
note = {Unicode 15.0. Licensed under Unicode License v3},
}OpenType Script Tags
The four-character OpenType script tags shown on script and writing-system pages (e.g. latn, arab, dev2) are sourced from the OpenType Script Tag Registry maintained by Microsoft as part of the OpenType specification (ISO/IEC 14496-22). The specification is freely available to read and implement; no separate open-source licence is published for the registry itself. Script family, geographic origin, historical status, and editorial notes are app-maintained original metadata.
APA
Microsoft. (n.d.). OpenType script tag registry. Microsoft. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/opentype/spec/scripttags
BibTeX
@misc{opentype-scripttags,
author = {{Microsoft}},
title = {{OpenType Script Tag Registry}},
url = {https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/opentype/spec/scripttags},
note = {Part of the OpenType Specification (ISO/IEC 14496-22)},
}Script Direction Metadata
Script writing direction (left-to-right / right-to-left) is derived from Unicode CLDR scriptMetadata.txt, maintained by the Unicode Consortium. CLDR data is commercially usable under the Unicode License v3. Vertical writing traditions and special-case overrides are app-maintained original metadata.
APA
Unicode Consortium. (2024). CLDR scriptMetadata.txt. Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR). https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr
BibTeX
@misc{unicode-cldr-scriptmetadata,
author = {{Unicode Consortium}},
title = {{Unicode CLDR scriptMetadata.txt}},
year = {2024},
url = {https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unicode-org/cldr/main/common/properties/scriptMetadata.txt},
note = {Licensed under Unicode License v3},
}Script Example Text
Typographic specimen text shown on script pages is sourced from the googlefonts/lang dataset maintained by Google Fonts — a curated collection of per-language typographic metadata covering sample text, exemplar characters, and script information for over 1,600 language variants. Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.
APA
Google Fonts. (2026). googlefonts/lang: Language metadata for fonts [Dataset]. GitHub. https://github.com/googlefonts/lang
BibTeX
@misc{googlefonts-lang,
author = {{Google Fonts}},
title = {{googlefonts/lang: Language Metadata for Fonts}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://github.com/googlefonts/lang},
note = {Licensed under Apache License 2.0},
}Exemplar Character Data (SLDR)
Exemplar character sets displayed on language pages — the actual letters and characters used to write each language — are fetched on demand from the LDML API hosted by SIL International, which serves data from the SIL Locale Data Repository (SLDR). SLDR is a community-maintained collection of LDML (Locale Data Markup Language) files covering over 900 language varieties, including main, auxiliary, index, and punctuation character sets, script orientation, and locale metadata. SLDR data files carry the Unicode License v3 (SPDX: Unicode-3.0), consistent with the Unicode CLDR which SLDR feeds into.
APA
SIL International. (2026). SIL locale data repository (SLDR) [Dataset]. GitHub. https://github.com/silnrsi/sldr
BibTeX
@misc{sldr,
author = {{SIL International}},
title = {{SIL Locale Data Repository (SLDR)}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://github.com/silnrsi/sldr},
note = {Licensed under Unicode License v3},
}Scriptologue draws from several upstream sources, each with its own release cadence. Below is a snapshot of what version of each source is currently in use.
| Dataset | Current as of | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GlotScript language–script mapping | 2024 | Core data from the LREC-COLING 2024 paper by Kargaran, Yvon & Schütze. Determines which scripts each language uses (main/auxiliary). |
| ISO 639-3 language codes | 2025–2026 | Sourced from SIL International's code tables (iso639-3.sil.org). No version date is embedded in the published download; the local copy was last refreshed in 2026. |
| ISO 15924 script codes | April 2025 | The most recently registered scripts in the dataset are Seal and Hntl, both dated 2025-04-24. Unicode 16.0 scripts added after that date are not yet included. |
| IANA Language Subtag Registry | May 2025 | Provides script alternate names and registry dates. The most recent entry is dated 2025-05-14 (Seal/Hntl). IANA publishes updates irregularly. |
| Unicode Blocks | Unicode 15.0 + partial 16.0 | Core block data covers through CJK Unified Ideographs Extension H (U+31350, Unicode 15). Eight Unicode 16.0 script blocks have been added manually (Sunuwar, Garay, Gurung Khema, Kirat Rai, Ol Onal, Todhri, Tulu-Tigalari, Cypro-Minoan). Remaining Unicode 16.0 blocks are not yet included. |
| Unicode CLDR scriptMetadata.txt | ~2024–2025 | Provides writing direction (LTR/RTL) per script. No version string is embedded; assembled alongside the other 2024–2025 datasets. CLDR releases quarterly. |
| GoogleFonts/lang (specimen text) | ~2026 | Sample text shown on script pages. Fetched from the googlefonts/lang repository; no explicit version pinned. |
| SLDR / LDML API (exemplar characters) | Live | Exemplar character sets on language pages are fetched on demand from SIL's LDML API. Always reflects the current SLDR snapshot. |
| App-maintained enrichment data | July 2026 | Script type classifications, family assignments, geographic origin, historical status, Unicode block descriptions, and writing-direction overrides are curated by this project. Last updated July 2026. |
The gap between source release dates is normal — the datasets are updated at different cadences (ISO 15924 irregularly, CLDR quarterly, ISO 639-3 annually). A language or script registered after the dates above will not yet appear in this database.