Topic 2 - Development of Writing

7/29/2019 Topic 2 - Development of Writing

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The DevelopmentofWriting


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Pictograms Pictogram picture writing

Modern forms of pictograms lead you

to the phone booth, bus stop, coffeeshop and to the restrooms at theairport (even if you don't speak and

read the particular language).


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Pictograms


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Ideograms When a pictogram takes a more fixed

symbolic form and comes to be used

for instance not only to represent'sun' but also 'heat' and 'daytime', itis considered as part of a system ofidea-writing or ideograms.


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A key property of both pictogramsand ideograms is that they do not

represent words or sounds in aparticular language.


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Logograms

A large number of symbols in laterwriting systems are thought to havepictographic or ideographic origins.

When the symbols come to representwords in a language, they are describedas examples of word-writing or

logograms.


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In Egyptian hieroglyphicsmeans 'house'(and derives from adiagram representing the floor-planof a house.)

In Chinese writingmeans 'river'(and derives from thepictural description of a streamflowing between two banks.)

Logograms


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Cuneiform


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Cuneiform


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Chinese


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Rebus Writing The process of Rebus writing is a

way of using existing symbols to

represent the sounds of language. The symbol for one entity is takenover as the symbol for the sound of

the spoken word that is used torefer to that entity.


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This, of course, establishes asizeable reduction of the number of

symbols needed in a writing system. /ba/ means 'boat

'/baba/ means 'father'

Rebus Writing


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Modern Rebus Writing


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Modern

RebusWriting


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Syllabic Writing When a writing system employs a set of

symbols which represent thepronunciation of syllables, it is describedas syllabic writing.

There do not seem to be any purelysyllabic writing systems in use today, but

Japanese can be described as having an atleast partly syllabic writing system.


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Syllabic Writing

In the 19th century CherokeeIndians invented and used a syllabic

writing system to produce writtenfrom spoken language. The first fullydeveloped syllabic writing system wasused by the Phoenicians at around1000 B.C..


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Alphabetic Writing

An alphabet is essentially a set ofwritten symbols which each

represent a single type of sound.This is what seems to have occurredin languages such as Arabic andHebrew.


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Alphabetic Writing

The early Greeks included symbolsfor vowels in their alphabet, and the

modern European alphabet can betraced from Egyptian to Phoenicianthen to Early Greek and finally to theRoman alphabet.


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Topic 2 - Development of Writing