why is arabic, greek, chinese, hebrew, latin written from right to left and...?

Question

english and other european languages from left to right (am i right here?) is itr all european languages? please correct me if i am wrong? and why did they? what was the 1st language to write frm left to write (like english) and what made them do it that way when before, all the languages were from right to left. there must be a reason.

mind you, whatever way you are writting, left to right or vice versa, u are always writting away from the letters you have just written so do you still think the smudging theory could still be true. try it.see what you think.

Answer 1

Originally, there was no preference for writing direction. Cuneiform was done by punching clay. Chinese and Egyptian hieroglyphs were done with brushes.

Once pen and ink were invented, however, since most people are right handed, going from left to right gave time to let the ink dry before returning to the left, one line down.

Basically, it keeps the ink from smearing.

Answer 2

Greek and latin is written from left to right. European languages are mainly derivatives of greek and latin which is why they all write from left to right. The english language is made up of between 20-30% greek words.

Answer 3

English, Greek and Latin are all written from left to right. English and many other European languages derive from Latin, so it is a common practice amongst them all.

I believe that Chinese used to be written downwards and from left to right, but it seems that it is now more usual for it to be written from left to right in common with European languages. Greek may have preceded Latin, but the Romans seem to have adopted the sounds of the Greek alphabet (albeit not the letters) and continued with left to right script.

Arabic and Hebrew are written from right to left, and I can see no reason why either direction should be favoured, other than that when writing by hand, a right handed person is better able to see what he has just written (and not smudge the ink!) if the writing proceeds from left to right. I wonder how left handed people managed to avoid smudging when thay had to write in ink from left to right?

Answer 4

Latin wasn't written from right to left. The Forum inscription, one of the oldest known Latin inscriptions, is written boustrophedon (alternating right-to-left and left-to-right), albeit irregularly.
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 Latin or Cyrillic scripts, Azeri is written left-to-right (LTR). When written in the Arabic script, it is written right-to-left.



But as to your question (and a darn good one, by the way), no one seems to know why - probably because even written languages started so long ago.
But here's some info:

"Different scripts are written in different directions. The early alphabet could be written in any direction: either horizontal (left-to-right or right-to-left) or vertical (up or down). It could also be written boustrophedon: starting horizontally in one direction, then turning at the end of the line and reversing direction. Egyptian hieroglyph is one such script, where the beginning of a line written horizontally was to be indicated by the direction in which animal and human ideograms are looking.

The Greek alphabet and its successors settled on a left-to-right pattern, from the top to the bottom of the page. Other scripts, such as Arabic and Hebrew, came to be written right-to-left. Scripts that incorporate Chinese characters have traditionally been written vertically (top-to-bottom), from the right to the left of the page, but nowadays are frequently written left-to-right, top-to-bottom, due to Western influences, a growing need to accommodate terms in the Roman alphabet, and technical limitations in popular electronic document formats. The Mongolian alphabet is unique in being the only script written top-to-bottom, left-to-right; this direction originated from an ancestral Semitic direction by rotating the page 90° counter-clockwise to conform to the appearance of Chinese writing. Scripts with lines written away from the writer, from bottom to top, also exist, such as several used in the Philippines and Indonesia."

Answer 5

Israelis speak Hebrew, but other people will learn it. Some people learn it because of their proximity with Israel, like Palestinians, or because they want to pursue studies into Judaism. However, the Biblical Hebrew isn't the same as modern Hebrew, just like how modern English isn't the same as Middle English. Most people who are studying Hebrew for religious reasons will be studying Biblical or Classical Hebrew.

Answer 6

Greek and Latin are written left to right and Chinese is written in columns, starting on the left.

Arabic and Hebrew are written right to left. But then these are both Semitic languages and there is a rumour abroad that left-handed people are more inclined to homicide.
Just a thought! Don't pounce on me.

Answer 7

Greek is writen from left to right like English.
In on period in ancient Greece existed the "voudistrofon" style which kind of means "the way the veal turns".
It was named like that because you would start, say, writing from left to right, and on the next line from right to left, and then from left to right again, and so on.

Answer 8

Latin wasn't right to left. Which is strange 'cos they carved so many inscriptions it would have been easier (try pretending to hold a hammer n chisel and see which direction YOU would want the letters to go)

Answer 9

The first script to be written from left to right is cuneiform I think. First it was top to bottom, then right to left. I think Egyptian heiroglyphs can go either direction - you just have to reverse your lettle pictures.

Answer 10

latin is written from left to right. there were some scripts where one line was written from left to right, then the line below was in the opposite direction etc... as in the sabean civilisation of south arabia.