History Main / ForeignersWriteBackwards

* Ancient Greek could be written boustrophedon style, which, given that it's also all block capitals and written without punctuation, can be confusing to read.

* In ''ACanticleForLeibowitz,'' the wandering Jew (well, ''a'' wandering Jew) refers to Gentiles writing backwards when he reads what Brother Francis writes on a rock.

* "[[MyFairLady And the Hebrews learn it backward, which is absolutely frightening]]."

* "[[MyFairLady And the Hebrews do it backward, which is absolutely frightening]]."

So you have a CipherLanguage or your characters write in {{Wingdinglish}}. But it needs to be made just a little bit more exotic. How would you do that?

* The Lilliputians of GulliversTravels write "neither from the left to the right, like the Europeans; nor from right to the left, like the Arabians; nor from up to down, like the Chinese; nor from down to up, [[OverlyLongGag like the Cascagians]]; but aslant from one corner to the other, like [[TakeThat ladies in England]]."

* ''[[{{Homestuck}} Hivebent]]'': the script used on Alternia is typed right-to-left.

* A plot point in the ''{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/MovingPictures'': A book written in pictograms depicts a "man behind the door", which is translated as [[SealedEvilInACan "a prisoner"]]. When the Librarian start reading it and follows his read with his finger, the protagonist notices him reading backwards and understand the man is ''in front of'' the door, "a guardian".

* On {{Gor}} writing is done left-to-right for the first line, then right-to-left for the second, etc.

* The Fairies in ArtemisFowl are mentioned writing in spirals. Later {{Defied}} by having the green text horizontal and explaining that the spirals gave the fairies migraines.

** Not to mention that the font, [[TheElderScrolls Daedric]], is written upside down.

* Korean was originally written using Chinese characters and read vertically. When the Korean alphabet, called "hangul", was introduced, it also was written vertically. Modern Koreans write horizontally left-to-right, but some documents may still be published in older formats. Also, Korean clusters its letters in syllables that, depending on the vowel used, must be read vertically, horizontally, or a combination of both. (If you're confused, look at how these syllables are constructed: da=다, dal=달, dalk=닭, do=도, dol=돌, dolm=돎.)

* [[MagicTheGathering Phyrexian]] written language is implied to be read left-to-right, but with the characters rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. A long vertical stroke marks the beginning of each sentence.

* Ancient Greek could be written boustrophedon style, which, given that it's also all block capitals and written without punctuation, can be [[{{Understatement}} a little confusing to read]].

One particularly popular style of writing seems to be boustrephedonic writing, in which the first line is written from left to right, the second line from right to left, the third line from left to right, the fourth line from right to left, and so on.

[[folder: Boustrephedonic writing]]

* Occasionally, geneticists write the code for DNA boustrephedonically.

* Korean was originally written using Chinese characters and read vertically. When the Korean alphabet, called "hangul" was introduced, it also was written vertically. Modern Koreans write horizontally left-to-right, but some documents may still be published in older formats. Also, Korean clusters its letters in syllables that, depending on the vowel used, must be read vertically, horizontally, or a combination of both. (If you're confused, look at how these syllables are constructed: da=다, dal=달, dalk=닭, do=도, dol=돌, dolm=돎.)

* Korean was originally written using Chinese characters and read vertically. When the Korean alphabet, called "hangul" was introduced, it also was written vertically. Modern Koreans write horizontally left-to-right, but some documents may still be published in older formats. Also, Korean clusters its letters in syllables that, depending on the vowel used, must be read vertically, horizontally, or a combination of both. (If you're confused, da=다, dal=달, dalk=닭, do=도, dong=동.)

* Korean was originally written using Chinese characters and read vertically. When the Korean alphabet, called "hangul" was introduced, it also was written vertically. Modern Koreans write horizontally left-to-right, but some documents may still be published in older formats. Also, Hangul clusters its letters in syllables that, depending on the vowel used, must be read vertically, horizontally, or a combination of both. (If you're confused, da=다, dal=달, dalk=닭, do=도, dong=동.)

** Korean was originally written using Chinese characters. When Hangul was developed, it was also written top-to-bottom and did not include punctuation. Modern Koreans write horizontally left-to-right, but some documents may still be published in archaic formats. Hangul also clusters its letters in stacks by syllable (although it's still read phonetically, making this much easier to read, and technically the nature hangul would make it impossible to read otherwise).

* Occasionally, the code for DNA is written boustrephedonically by geneticists.

* The Lilliputians of GulliversTravels write "neither from the left to the right, like the Europeans; nor from right to the left, like the Arabians; nor from up to down, like the Chinese; nor from down to up, [[OverlyLongGag like the Cascagians]] ; but aslant from one corner to the other, like ladies in England."

Just mention someone writing it right to left, or top to bottom, or in other directions, and that instantly cements the language's foreignness! This writing order generally also carries over to illustrations or {{Feelies}}. The direction of writing is occasionally ([[HistoryMarchesOn now rarely) characterized to be a holdover from writing in ink or clay, the direction preventing a trailing sleeve from smudging the writing.

Just mention someone writing it right to left, or top to bottom, or in other directions, and that instantly cements the language's foreignness! This writing order generally also carries over to illustrations or {{Feelies}}.