Supported Scripts

The Unicode Standard encodes scripts rather than languages. When writing systems for more than one language share sets of graphical symbols that have historically related derivations, the union of all of those graphical symbols is treated as a single collection of characters for encoding and is identified as a single script. Each script then serves as an inventory of graphical symbols, which are drawn upon for the writing systems of particular languages. In many cases, a single script, such as the Latin script, may be used to write tens or even hundreds of languages. In other cases, only one language employs a particular script—for example, Hangul, which is typically used only to write the Korean language. The writing systems for some languages may also use more than one script; for example, Japanese traditionally makes use of the Han (Kanji), Hiragana, and Katakana scripts, and modern Japanese usage commonly mixes in the Latin script as well.

The scripts supported by the Unicode Standard include all of those listed in the following table. The listing in the table is ordered by the version of the Unicode Standard in which a particular script was first encoded. In many instances, supplemental characters for a given script have been encoded in subsequent versions of the standard, after the initial addition of the script. Details about most of these scripts can be looked up at the ScriptSource website.

 

Version (Year)	Scripts Added			Totals
1.1 (1993)				23
	Arabic	Gujarati	Lao
	Armenian	Gurmukhi	Latin
	Bengali	Han	Malayalam
	Bopomofo	Hangul	Oriya
	Cyrillic	Hebrew	Tamil
	Devanagari	Hiragana	Telugu
	Georgian	Kannada	Thai
	Greek	Katakana
2.0 (1996)				+1, = 24
	Tibetan
3.0 (1999)				+13, = 37
	Braille (patterns)	Mongolian	Syriac
	Canadian Syllabics	Myanmar	Thaana
	Cherokee	Ogham	Yi
	Ethiopic	Runic
	Khmer	Sinhala
3.1 (2001)				+3, = 40
	Deseret	Gothic	Old Italic
3.2 (2002)				+4, = 44
	Buhid	Tagalog
	Hanunóo	Tagbanwa
4.0 (2003)				+7, = 51
	Cypriot	Osmanya	Ugaritic
	Limbu	Shavian
	Linear B	Tai Le
4.1 (2005)				+8, = 59
	Buginese	Kharoshthi	Syloti Nagri
	Coptic	New Tai Lue	Tifinagh
	Glagolitic	Old Persian Cuneiform
5.0 (2006)				+5, = 64
	Balinese	Phags-pa	Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform
	N'Ko	Phoenician
5.1 (2008)				+11, = 75
	Carian	Lycian	Saurashtra
	Cham	Lydian	Sundanese
	Kayah Li	Ol Chiki	Vai
	Lepcha	Rejang
5.2 (2009)				+15, = 90
	Avestan	Inscriptional Parthian	Old South Arabian
	Bamum	Javanese	Old Turkic
	Egyptian Hieroglyphs	Kaithi	Samaritan
	Imperial Aramaic	Lisu	Tai Tham
	Inscriptional Pahlavi	Meetei Mayek	Tai Viet
6.0 (2010)				+3, = 93
	Batak	Brahmi	Mandaic
6.1 (2012)				+7, = 100
	Chakma	Miao	Takri
	Meroitic Cursive	Sharada
	Meroitic Hieroglyphs	Sora Sompeng
7.0 (2014)				+23, = 123
	Bassa Vah	Mahajani	Pahawh Hmong
	Caucasian Albanian	Manichaean	Palmyrene
	Duployan (shorthand)	Mende Kikakui	Pau Cin Hau
	Elbasan	Modi	Psalter Pahlavi
	Grantha	Mro	Siddham
	Khojki	Nabataean	Tirhuta
	Khudawadi	Old North Arabian	Warang Citi
	Linear A	Old Permic
8.0 (2015)				+6, = 129
	Ahom	Hatran	Old Hungarian
	Anatolian Hieroglyphs	Multani	Sutton SignWriting
9.0 (2016)				+6, = 135
	Adlam	Marchen	Osage
	Bhaiksuki	Newa	Tangut
10.0 (2017)				+4, = 139
	Masaram Gondi	Soyombo
	Nushu	Zanabazar Square
11.0 (2018)				+7, = 146
	Dogra	Makasar	Sogdian
	Gunjala Gondi	Medefaidrin
	Hanifi Rohingya	Old Sogdian
12.0 (2019)				+4, = 150
	Elymaic	Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong
	Nandinagari	Wancho
13.0 (2020)				+4, = 154
	Chorasmian	Khitan Small Script
	Dives Akuru	Yezidi
14.0 (2021)				+5, = 159
	Cypro-Minoan	Tangsa	Vithkuqi
	Old Uyghur	Toto
15.0 (2022)				+2, = 161
	Kawi	Nag Mundari
16.0 (2024)				+7, = 168
	Garay	Gurung Khema	Kirat Rai
	Ol Onal	Sunuwar	Todhri
	Tulu-Tigalari

 

In addition to the scripts listed above, a large number of other collections of characters are also encoded by Unicode. These collections include the following:

• Numbers
• General Diacritics
• General Punctuation
• General Symbols
• Mathematical Symbols (Western and Arabic)
• Musical Symbols (Western, Byzantine, Ancient Greek, and other)
• Technical Symbols
• Emoji: For details, see Emoji Versions
• Dingbats
• Arrows, Blocks, Box Drawing Forms, and Geometric Shapes
• Game Symbols
• Miscellaneous Symbols
• Presentation Forms
• Kangxi and other CJK radicals

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