gl_ lecture 2 the development of writing

8/10/2019 GL_ Lecture 2 the Development of Writing

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The Development of Writing

By

George YuleAdapted by Humaira J Malik


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There are a large number of languages in theworld today that exist only in speech and do nothave a written form

For the languages that do have writing systems,the development of writing is a relatively recentphenomenon

The roots of writing tradition go back only a fewthousand years

An account of the early history graduallyemerged but it comprises many gaps and

ambiguities

It is difficult to decide whether a piece of graphicexpression should be taken as an artistic image or

as a symbol of primitive writing


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Practically it is possible to differentiate or assume asartistic expression conveys subjective and personalmeanings and linguistic symbol is conventionalizedand institutionalized

Problematic area: In Egyptian and Greek the sameword was used for both write and draw

The Fact: Writing systems evolved independently of

each other at different times in several parts of theworldin Mesopotamia, China, Meso-America andso on.

Much of the evidence used in the reconstruction of

ancient writing systems comes from inscriptions onstones or tablets found in the rubble of ruined cities

Traces of human attempts go back to 20,000 years

ago, or to clay tokens from about 10,000 years ago


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Clay tokens : early attempt at book keeping

Precursors of writing

Writings based on some type of alphabetic scriptaround 3,000 years ago


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Precursors

Tables discovered in various parts of the Middle Eastand south-east Europe from around 3500 BC.

Large number of tablets found in sites around theRivers Tigris and Euphratesmade by Sumerians

Such tablets seem to have recorded matters such asbusiness transactions, tax account, land sales etc.

However, The interpretation of single signs and earlygroups of signs is often not possible

There are no clear borders between picture/symbol

and what is already a sign in a writing system (specificphonetic content which would be read in the sameway by any reader in a group of readers)

The system was developed so that information could

be recorded
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/naqadavessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/writingtablets.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/writingtablets.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/writingtablets.html


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Predynastic tablets from Abydos and Symbols on

pottery
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/writingtablets.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/naqadavessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/naqadavessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/writingtablets.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/naqadavessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/naqadavessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/naqadavessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/writingtablets.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/writingtablets.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/writingtablets.html


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Use of clay tokens having several distinctive shapes,

seem to have been used as a system of accounting

from at least 9thmillennium BC.

Around 3100 B.C. people began torecord amounts of different crops.

Barley was one of the most important

crops in southern Mesopotamia and

when it was first drawn looked like this.
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/writing/story/page02.htmlhttp://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/writing/story/page02.htmlhttp://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/writing/story/page02.html


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Stages in the development of writing

Stage 1: Signs are only used as symbols

Stage 2: The beginning of writing: limited standardization

The surviving sources indicate that the hieroglyphicwriting system followed from the beginning therules/system which were used throughout Egyptianhistory

Early developments include the emergence of normsin writing direction, forms of individual signs,

orthography of single words, and the gradual tendency

towards writing longer inscr iptions

Already in the first dynasties the writing system beganto become standardized. Actions are often expressed notby writing a word (verb), but by depicting the action


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http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.html


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Inscriptions on predynastic jars

Numbers

early short phonetic Inscriptions

Stelae from Abydos

Ivory, bone and wooden tablets of the first Dynasty

T f W i i S
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlynumbers.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/phonetic.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlynames.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/tablets.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/phonetic.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlynames.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/tablets.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlynames.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/phonetic.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlynumbers.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/tablets.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlynames.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/phonetic.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlynumbers.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/tablets.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlynames.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlynames.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlynames.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/phonetic.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlynumbers.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.htmlhttp://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/writing/earlyvessels.html


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Types of Writing Systems

Pictograms and Ideograms

When the picture of something (like the sun) comes torepresent particular image or recognizable picture ofentities in a certain way, it can be described as a form ofpicture-writing or pictogram

A conventional relationship must exist between the symbol

and its interpretation.

Modern forms ofpictograms lead you to the phonebooth, bus stop, coffee shop and to the restrooms at theairport even if you don't speak and read the particular

language When apictogram takes a more fixed symbolic form and

comes to be used for instance not only to represent 'sun'but also 'heat' and 'daytime', it is considered as part of asystem of idea-writing or ideograms

N i t ti t d th lit tl


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No intention to draw the reality exactly orartistically rather symbols must be sufficientlyclear and simple to enable them to beimmediately recognized and reproduced asoccasion demands as part of a narrative

The sequence of the symbols may be describedverbally in variety of ways

Importance of context and backgroundinformation

Convey abstract or conventional meaning

Ideograms or ideographs display no clear

pictorial link with external reality No pure ideographic system exists

All primitive writing system were mixture of

pictographic, ideographic, and linguistic elements


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The distinction between pictograms and ideograms

is essentially a difference between the symbol and

the entity it represents

The more picture-like forms are pictograms, the

more abstract and derived forms are ideograms

A key property of both pictograms and ideograms

is that they do not represent words or sounds in a

particular language


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Modern pictograms: language independent

General thinking: number of symbols turn up in

writing . Egyptian hieroglyphics

Symbol

When symbols come to be used to represent words

is a language , they are described as examples of

word-writing or logograms

L


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Logogram

A large number of symbols in later writing systems arethought to have pictographic or ideographic origins

When the symbols come to represent words in alanguage, they are described as examples of word-writing or logograms where the graphemes or charactersrepresent words

In Egyptian hieroglyphics means 'house and derivesfrom a diagram representing the floor-plan of a house

In Chinese writing it means 'river and derives from thepictorial description of a stream flowing between twobanks


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Examples: Chinese and its derivative script &

Japanese kanji

Several thousand graphemes are involved in a

logographic system

Great Chinese dictionary of KangHis (1662-1722)

Contains nearly 50, 000 characters, most of them are

highly specialized or archaic

Characters are classified on the basis of strokes

used to write them


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Rebus Writing The process of Rebus writing is a way of using

existing symbols to represent the sounds oflanguage

The symbol for one entity is taken over as thesymbol for the sound of the spoken word that is

used to refer to that entity This, of course, establishes a sizeable reduction of

the number of symbols needed in a writing system

/ba/ means 'boat /baba/ means 'father'

One symbol can be used in many different ways ,

with a range of meanings.

ll b


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Syllabic Writing When a writing system employs a set of symbols

which represent the pronunciation of syllables, it is

described as syllabic writing Phonological system

Each grapheme corresponds to a spoken syllable,vowel-consonant pair usually

There do not seem to be any purely syllabic writingsystems in use today, but Japanese can be describedas having an at least partly syllabic writing system

In the 19th century Cherokee Indians invented and

used a syllabic writing system to produce written fromspoken language

The first fully developed syllabic writing system wasused by the Phoeniciansat around 1000 B.C.

Alphabetic Writing


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Alphabetic Writing

An alphabet is essentially a set of writtensymbols which each represent a single type ofsound

Direct correspondence between graphemes andphonemes

System needs a small number of units

Arbitrary Nature

This is what seems to have occurred in languagessuch as Arabic and Hebrew

The early Greeks included symbols for vowels intheir alphabet, and the modern Europeanalphabet can be traced from Egyptian toPhoenician then to Early Greek and finally to theRoman alphabet

W i E li h


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Written English

There does seem to be a frequent mismatch between the

forms of written and the sounds of spoken English today

There may be a number of historical reasons for this,

one of them is language change

Fixed spelling of written English in the form that was

used in fifteenth century England Derivations from forms used in writing in other

languages

Recreation from old English in sixteenth century by

spelling reformers

Written form provide unreliable clues with reference to

spoken English
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~rober/linguistics/history.htmlhttp://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~rober/linguistics/history.html

gl_ lecture 2 the development of writing

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