The origins of writing

1700-1500 BC: Canaanite miners working for Egypt developed a script for their own language based on shapes of Egyptian hieroglyphs. This script had characters for individual consonants based on principle of acrophony. This script developed into a number of consonantal scripts in the Levant, including the Phoenician script by about 1200 BC. Phoenician traders introduced it to Greece by 800 BC.

How and when did the alphabet develop?

● 8000 - 7500 BC was the beginning of agriculture in Fertile Crescent ● Grain based economy requires careful planning and storage, which in turn requires record-keeping. ● Appearance of simple tokens coincides with change from hunting and herding to grain cultivation and village life. They were marks indicating different goods that helped in record-keeping. ● Complex tokens coincide with the advent of cities around 3300 BC. ● Urban civilization produces more types of manufactured goods. ● Construction of temples and other public buildings requires taxation and more administration. ● Increased complexity of reckoning device reflects growth of complex state and a growing need for a more advanced record-keeping systems.

How did cuneiform originate?

● Cuneiform was primarily written on clay tablets using a reed stylus. ● Corner of stylus pressed into the soft clay creates the characteristic wedgeshape. ● Also inscribed on stone monuments. ● Scribes were trained in special schools, and worked as a distinct profession. ● Majority of early tablets are financial records, but also used for religious, literary, scientific, mathematical texts. ● Famous literary works include Gilgamesh and Enûma Eliš, as well as Hammurabi's Laws.

Describe various facts about cuneiform writing.

Egyptians made papyrus sheets out of plants growing in the Nile delta. Papyrus provided a good material on which to write in ink with brushes. When papyrus was too expensive for ordinary use, people wrote on a bit of broken pottery - an ostrakon. And, of course, they also carved heiroglyphs on stone monuments.

What material did the Egyptians use for writing?

Aramaic script develops in Syria from Phoenician, then becomes 'lingua franca' of mid-east. Gives rise to numerous scripts Including: Hebrew, Arabic, and Indian.

What other alphabets developed from Phoenician?

"...for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves."

What was Socrates' view on writing in Plato's 'Phaedrus'?

It is hard to determine a precise date, however scientists estimated that anatomically modern humans evolved 100,000 years ago and they believe it's the best estimate date of the development of the spoken language. Most probably language evolution began much earlier and advanced in steps over a long period of time.

When did the spoken language develop?

Early Egyptian symbols were probably pictographs. Rock carvings from 4000 BC are found along the Nile. These were converted to phonetic signs by start of the dynastic period (~3100 BC), partially by the rebus process, but especially by acrophony. Acrophony means the use of a word as the name of the phonetic symbol representing the initial sound of that word. (for example, children's alphabet books: A is for apple, B is for ball, C is for cat.)

How did hieroglyphs develop?

Linear A and B syllabic scripts were used on Crete and parts of Greece 1650 - 1200 BC. It was exclusively used for palace accounting records. Greeks learned letters from Phoenician traders ~900-800 BC. Consonantal script did not fit the structure of Greek language: Greek has words that start with vowels, etc. So Greeks adapted certain Phoenician consonants as vowel symbols. ( Phoen. 'aleph /'/ → Grk. alpha /a/ ) It was the first alphabet with separate symbols for consonants and vowels. Greek alphabet was adapted by Etruscans, then Romans, which passed to modern European languages.

How did the Greek alphabet develop?

Tokens were first stored in hollow clay balls, which served as record keeping method. These sets of enclosed tokens represented debts owed, transactions to be fulfilled, etc. In order to tell the contents of the envelope without breaking it open, scribes learned to impress the tokens into the clay of the envelope before sealing. Eventually, they dispensed with the contained tokens and used the impressions alone onto a tablet as the record. By 3200 BC signs are inscribed on clay tablets. Some of the pictographs are based on the design of tokens formerly used for different items while others are based on pictures of the items themselves. However, there was a need for symbolising abstract concepts where no pictogram was obvious to the reader, including names. Sumerians started using the rebus principle which substituted words that sound similar to a particular meaning. For example Sumerian word arrow sounded similar to life, therefore they started using arrows to signify 'life'. Eventually, symbols took on phonetic values. By 2800 BC, with phonetic components via the rebus principle Sumerians could write anything in their language. Over time, their signs became less pictorial and more abstracted. Texts included a mix of logographic (word) signs and phonetic signs and the confusion rising over multiple meanings for signs was addressed by adding phonetic markers and determanitives.

How did writing evolve from tokens?

Hieroglyphs used only consonants in order to convey the meaning of words. However, this made it difficult to figure out what things meant. Therefore, in case where there were more than one meanings possible, Egyptians used determinatives (basically, pictures with clues) at the end of the word to help people read the meaning correctly.

What are determinatives used in the Egyptian writing?

Logographic: each symbol represents a morpheme Chinese, Mixtec Logophonetic: some symbols denote morphemes, others denote sounds Cuneiform, Egyptian, Mayan Syllabic: symbols represent phonetic syllables Brahmi, Cherokee, Japanese Kana Consonantal (abjads): symbols represent individual consonants only, vowels are not written Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic Alphabet: symbols represent individual consonant or vowel sounds Greek, Latin, Cyrillic

What are different types of writing systems?

It's open-ended, productive, recursive and allows displacement. Can produce infinite 'new' sentences which are meaningful by applying iterative grammatical rules.

What are distinct features of the human language?

● Claim that writing affects memory - either by dulling it or by freeing mental energy from need to remember. ● Abstraction of Sentences: Separate the word from the speaker. Written statements stand on their own without the speaker present. 'Autoglottic' sentences enable abstract enquiry such as logic. (Harris) ● Abstraction of Numbers: Pre-literate culture counted number of things. Move from tokens to written numbers separated numbers from things, abstract numbers meant counting had no limit and enabled growth of mathematics. (Schmandt-Besserat) ● Abstraction of Laws: Written law codes, such as Hammurabi's, abstracted the law from the law giver, thus requiring everyone, even the King, to adhere to an given standard. "Is a law just?" questionable by notions of inherent virtues.

What are the possible effects of writing on thought?

There are formal Hieroglyphs and cursive Hieratic. Hieratic was derived from Heiroglyphs, but both appear in use early. Hieroglyphs were used for monumental inscriptions and religious texts. Hieratic was used for recordkeeping and other texts.

What are two styles of Egyptian writing?

Hieroglyph writing appeared in Egypt around 3200 BC, although new finds indicate predecessors from 3400 BC. Egyptian writing may have been inspired by Sumerian writing, but early evidence is unclear. They appear at the same time and both of the cultures were in contact, however, their writing systems developed separately.

What is Egyptian system of writing?

Writing is a symbolic system which conveys full range of human language. It was independently invented by many different cultures around the globe, including Sumer, Meso-America, Egypt, China and potentially many other of which we don't know. It was spread to other cultures by adoption, adaptation, and inspiration.

What is a writing and where was it invented?

One of the earliest systems of writing, that we know of, is cuneiform which originated 3200 BC, in Sumer. It's distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks and was in use for over 3000 years. It was first used for writing Sumerian but since then it's been adapted to Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Hittite, Elamite, and others.

What is cuneiform system of writing?

● Symbolic Systems for communication with a limited domain of expressions ● Symbols are often Ideographic or Mnemonic ● Not directly linked to spoken language ● Numerous Indigenous Inventions all over the world The oldest version of pre-writing known is 40,000 years old.

What is proto, or pre-writing?

Spoken language is a naturally evolved feature of the brain whereas writing is a technology that has particular historical inventions.

What is the difference between spoken language and writing?

They originated in different cultures and are suited to their respective languages. Different language structures are better represented by different types of writing systems. For example Alphabetic systems have advantage of flexibility. It is useful for languages with complex syllable structures (such as English).

Why are there many different writing systems?