Gothic alphabet

Gothic

Script type	Alphabet
Period	From c. 350, in decline by 600
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	Gothic
Related scripts
Parent systems	Greek alphabet augmented with Latin and possibly Runic (questionable) Gothic
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Goth (206), Gothic
Unicode
Unicode alias	Gothic
Unicode range	U+10330–U+1034F

History of the alphabet

Egyptian hieroglyphs 32nd c. BCE
- Hieratic 32nd c. BCE
  - Demotic 7th c. BCE
    - Meroitic 3rd c. BCE
- Proto-Sinaitic 19th c. BCE
  - Ugaritic 15th c. BCE
  - Ancient South Arabian 9th c. BCE
    - Geʽez c. 5th c. BCE
  - Phoenician 12th c. BCE
    - (see below)
Hangul 1443
Thaana c. 1601
Adlam 1989

Phoenician 12th c. BCE
- Paleo-Hebrew 10th c. BCE
  - Samaritan 6th c. BCE
- Aramaic 8th c. BCE
  - Unknown Kushan script 600–200 BCE
  - Kharosthi 3rd c. BCE
  - Brahmi 3rd c. BCE
    - (Brahmic)
      - Pallava 4th century
        Cham 4th century
        
        Dhives Akuru 6th century
        
        Khmer 611
      - Tibetan 7th century
        ʼPhags-pa 1269
      - Devanagari 10th century
        Canadian Aboriginal 1840
  - Hebrew 3rd c. BCE
  - Pahlavi 2nd c. BCE
    - Avestan 4th century
  - Palmyrene 1st c. BCE
  - Nabataean 2nd c. BCE
    - Arabic 4th century
      - N'Ko 1949
  - Syriac 1st century
    - Sogdian 2nd century
      - Old Turkic 8th century
        Old Hungarian c. 650
      - Old Uyghur
        Mongolian 1204
  - Mandaic 2nd century
- Greek 8th c. BCE
  - Etruscan 8th c. BCE
    - Latin 7th c. BCE
      - Deseret 1854
      - Great Lakes Algonquian 19th century
      - Blackfoot 1888
      - Fraser 1915
      - Saanich 1978
      - Osage 2006
    - Runic 2nd century
    - Ogham 4th century
  - Lycian 5th c. BCE
  - Coptic 3rd century
  - 3rd century
  - Armenian 405
    - Caucasian Albanian c. 420
  - Georgian c. 430
  - Glagolitic 862
  - Cyrillic c. 940
    - Old Permic 1372
- Libyco-Berber 10th c. BCE
  - Tifinagh 4th century
    - Neo-Tifinagh 1970
- Paleohispanic 7th c. BCE

The Gothic alphabet is an alphabet for writing the Gothic language. It was developed in the 4th century AD by Ulfilas (or Wulfila), a Gothic preacher of Cappadocian Greek descent, for the purpose of translating the Bible.^[a]

In form, most letters resemble letters of the Greek alphabet. The origin of the alphabet is disputed: it is debated whether (or how) the Latin and Runic alphabets were used as a source. The set of letters, and the way that they are used, show some innovations to express Gothic phonology.

^ Streitberg (1910:20)

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