1. (n.) An ancient manner of writing; ancient writings, collectively; as, Punic paleography.

2. (n.) The study of ancient inscriptions and modes of writing; the art or science of deciphering ancient writings, and determining their origin, period, etc., from external characters; diplomatics.

IPA ITA Initial Teaching Alphabet International Phonetic Alphabet alphabet alphabetics autography bowwow theory calligraphy chirography comparative linguistics criticism cryptanalysis cryptography cryptology derivation descriptive linguistics diagnostics dialectology dingdong theory epigraphy etymology exegetics fist futhark glossematics glossology glottochronology glottology grammar graphanalysis graphemics graphology graphometry hand handwriting hermeneutics historical linguistics language study letters lexicography lexicology lexicostatistics linguistic geography linguistic science linguistics literary criticism manuscript mathematical linguistics metoposcopy morphology morphophonemics oneirology pathognomy pencraft penmanship penscript philology phonetics phonology physiognomics physiognomy psycholinguistics runic alphabet script scription scrive semantics semeiology semeiotics sociolinguistics structuralism stylography syllabary symptomatology syntactics textual criticism transformational linguistics tropology writing system