Todhri alphabet
The Todhri alphabet is an 18th-century Albanian alphabet invented for writing the Albanian language by Dhaskal Todhri. It is a complex writing system of fifty-two characters which was used sporadically for written communication in and around Elbasan from the late eighteenth century on. The Todhri alphabet was discovered in Elbasan by Johann Georg von Hahn who published it in 1854 his work Albanesische Studien in Jena. He considered it to be 'the original' Albanian alphabet and a derivative of the ancient Phoenician script. Leopold Geitler and Slovenian scholar Rajko Nahtigal subsequently studied the alphabet, concluding that it was derived primarily from the Roman cursive.
The earliest existing text in Todhri's script is Radhua Hesapesh of a local merchant partnership known as Jakov Popa i Vogël dhe Shokët. The entries in Todhri's script start on 10 August 1795 and continue until 1797.
