Horizontal and vertical writing in East Asian scripts facts for kids
Have you ever noticed that some languages are written differently than English? In many parts of East Asia, like China, Japan, and Korea, people can write their languages in two main ways: horizontally (across the page) or vertically (down the page). This article explores how different cultures write and how these styles have changed over time.
How Writing Directions Work
Imagine reading a book. In English, you read from left to right, line by line. This is called horizontal writing. But there are other ways to write!
Some languages, like Arabic and Hebrew, are also written horizontally, but they go from right to left. Think of it like reading a mirror image of an English sentence.
Then there's vertical writing. This is common in many East Asian languages. When written vertically, words usually go from top to bottom. The columns of text can then be arranged either from right to left across the page, or sometimes from left to right.
For a long time, countries like China, Japan, and Korea mostly wrote vertically, with columns moving from right to left. If they needed to write horizontally, they would also write from right to left.
Changes Over Time
As Western cultures started to influence East Asia, writing styles began to change. Today, it's very common to see East Asian languages written horizontally from left to right, just like English. This is especially true in modern books, newspapers, and on computer screens.
However, you can still find vertical writing, especially in traditional books, comics (manga), and some newspapers. It's a cool example of how cultures adapt while keeping their traditions.
Ancient Writing Styles
Long, long ago, people used hieroglyphs in places like ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs were pictures that stood for words or sounds. They were very flexible! Sometimes, a line of hieroglyphs would be read from left to right. Then, the next line would be read from right to left. This back-and-forth style is called boustrophedon.
To know which way to read, you just looked at the pictures of animals or people. If they were facing left, you read the line from left to right. If they were facing right, you read from right to left. It was like the pictures were pointing you in the right direction!
Images for kids
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An unfolded Chinese bamboo book. The text is written vertically along the strips of bamboo.
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Text on the sides of China Post vehicles runs from the front of the car to the rear. This means it's left to right on the vehicle's left side, and right to left on its right side.
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This old sign for Nintendo from the Meiji era is written from right-to-left.
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This newspaper article is written vertically in Traditional Chinese. The headline is horizontal and reads from left to right. Notice how Latin letters and Arabic numerals are rotated when used with vertical text.
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The slogans on Tiananmen Square are written in Simplified Chinese from left to right.
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Highway markings are read from bottom to top. The right lane says "slow lane" and the middle lane says "fast lane".
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This sign in a Seoul subway station shows Korean text written vertically. The station name "Dongdaemun History and Culture Park" needs two columns, which run from right to left.
