Right-to-left

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A language is described as right-to-left (or RTL) if writing starts from the right of the page, and continues to the left. Examples include Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu, Syriac, and Yiddish.
Many languages that existed before the invention of ink were written right to left since this is the more natural for right handed people to hold a chisel in the left hand and the hammer in the right. After ink became the main method of writing, writing from left to right became preferable since it avoided smudging the ink.
For mixing right-to-left text with left-to-right text, see Bi-directional text.

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