Writing: a representation of spoken or signed language
Spoken Form vs. Writing
Writing Visual signs used to represent language, to
record and to communicate information
Children learn to speak naturally through exposure to language, without formal training
One must learn how to read and write
Spoken Form vs. Writing
Whats the importance of the writing system of a language?
The invention of writing comes relatively late
Many spoken languages lack a writing system
Kinds of signs in writing systems
Pictograms Ideograms Logograms Rebuses Phonographic symbols Syllabic writing Consonantal writing Alphabetic writing
Types of Writing Systems
Logographic - each symbol represents a word or morpheme
Syllabic - each symbol represents a syllable Consonantal alphabetic - each symbol
represents a consonant (vowels may be marked by diacritics)
Alphabetic - each symbol represents a vowel or consonant
Pictograms
Or picture writings
Represent objects directly and literally.
Can be interpreted relatively independently of any particular language
Pictograms
Q
Ideograms
idea picture or idea writing
The meaning of a pictogram is extended to attributes of that object, or concepts associated with it
R: warmth, heat, light, daytime
Ideograms
Ideograms: less literal, less direct representations
One may need to learn what a particular ideogram means
VS.
Ideograms
Ideograms may become linguistic symbols, e.g. sounds to represent the ideas (words of the language) Revolutionary step in the development of
writing systems!
Logograms
Signs in logographic writing represent whole words (or morphemes). $ % @ # 1 2 + : represent whole words
without spelling them out alphabetically
Logogram example
Mayan Logograms BALAM
(Jaguar)
Logograms + Syllables
BA + LA + MA BALAM
Rebus Signs
Some words are not easy to depict graphically
Rebus signs use the depiction of something easier to represent graphically for other words that sound like the one easier to draw Belief =
The Rebus Principle
Using pictograms purely for their sounds to represent new words.
Many ancient writing systems used the Rebus principle to represent abstract words, which otherwise would be hard to be represented by pictograms.
Ex.I represented by
Syllabic Writing
Each symbol represents a syllable Mayan glyphs (see example above) Japanese
Two kana syllabaries, which are 'alphabets' based on syllables rather than single sounds
Katakana: loan words or special effects similar to italics in European writing
Hiragana: native words Kanji: borrowed Chinese characters
Syllabic Writing-Japanese
Syllabic Writing-Japanese (kanji red, hiragana blue, katakana green, others black):
radokurifu, marason gorin daihy ni
1 man m shutsuj ni mo fukumi "Radcliffe, Olympic marathon contestant, to consider also appearing in the 10,000 m"
Consonantal Writing
Semitic languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic, are written with alphabets that have no vowels
Hebrew: each symbol represents a consonant and vowels may be represented by diacritical marks (p.516)
Consonantal Writing
Arabic: Consonants form the root of most ktb: root of words associated with write katab He wrote ( ) aktub I write ( ) kutub books ( )
Reading consonantal writing:
Hw cn y rd a sntnc wtht vwls?
Phonographic Symbols
Primarily denote the way in which the word is articulated.
European languages are nearly exclusively written in phonographic symbols.
Japanese employs both ideographic and phonographic symbols.
Alphabetic Writing
Each symbol represents a vowel or consonant
Phonemic principle No need to represent the [ph] in pit and [p] in
spit by two different letters No phonemic difference Allophones of the same phoneme
Alphabets represent the distinctive phonemes
Alphabetic Writing (an example)
Korean Hangul alphabet :17 consonants and 11
vowels Designed on the phonemic principle
[l] and [r] are allophones of the same phoneme. So, they are represented by a single letter.
Also true for [s] and [], [ts] and [t]
For example
The theory of the monogenesis of writing
Theory that writing was invented only once and that all subsequent writing systems were offshoots of this original
Was writing invented only once, and did the technique of
representing language with written signs spread out from one center all over the world, or was writing developed multiple times and independently?
The various systems of coding oral language that have been
developed at different places show a great variety and have adapted a coding system to represent specific characteristics of the language.
Evidence for the indigenous origin of Chinese The decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs
The invention of writing
Sumerian cuneiform Egyptian hieroglyphs Chinese writing system Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican writing
systems (including Olmec and Maya scripts)
Mesoamerican Writing Systems
Logosyllabic: combined the use of logograms (symbols representing words as well as concepts) with a syllabary
May be up to 2,500 years old
Include Olmec, Mayan, and Zapotec Systems
Monte Alban Inscriptions
The Zapotec script - one of the earliest writing systems in Mesoamerica.
The first examples of Zapotec writing are in the form of danzante slabs, carved stone monuments with brief inscriptions
The majority of danzantes are found in Monte Albn (600BCE)
The Evolution of Cuneiform
SAG (head) as it evolved from a pictogram to an abstract representation.
Logographic: each symbol represents the word as well as the concept
From Pictograms to Syllables
Cuneiform spread throughout the Middle East and Asia Minor
It was adapted to represent the sounds of the languages spoken in those places (Babylonian, Assyrian, and Persian), evolving into a syllabic writing system
Syllabic system: each syllable is represented by a different symbol
Egyptian Hieroglyphics
Same time as Sumerian cuneiform (4000 BC) - independent origin
Pictographic carvings that became logographic, then syllabic
Hieroglyphics > Proto-Sinaitic Script > Proto-Canaanite alphabet
The Phoenicians
Lived in what is now Lebanon
Developed a writing system of 22 consonants by 1500 B.C. called the West Semitic Syllabary
Evolved from Proto-Canaanite alphabet
From Phoenician to Hebrew and Arabic
Phoenician is the basis for both the Hebrew and Arabic writing systems
Still do not represent vowels, only consonants (known as abjads)
Worldwide Use of Arabic Script
Arabic script used to write unrelated languages such as Farsi, Urdu, Kurdish, Azerbaijani, Dari, Pashto, Punjabi, Kashmiri
Dark green Arabic script is the only official orthography; Light green Arabic script is used alongside other orthographies.
From Phoenician to Greek to Roman
The Greeks borrowed the Phoenician system and added vowels, inventing the first alphabet (1000 B.C.)
The Romans borrowed the Greek alphabet and adapted it to Latin (500 B.C.) We still use the Roman alphabet today
In Sum:
From Egyptian
Hiero-glyphics to
Our Modern Alphabet
The Cyrillic Alphabet
Adapted from Greek by Saint Cyril, a Byzantine monk, around 900 A.D.
Used to write Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Tajik, Mongolian, Kazakh, Uzbek
Where Cyrillic is Used
Indian Writing Systems
Sinhala (Spoken in Sri Lanka)
Devangar (used to write Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Sindhi, Konkani, Nepali, and others)
Devangar
Each consonant is inherently associated with the following vowel
Vowels can be written as independent letters, or by using a variety of diacritical marks which are written above, below, before or after the consonant they belong to.
When consonants occur together in clusters, special conjunct letters are used
Basic Principles of the Chinese Writing System
Not alphabetic Logographic or Word-writing system
Each character represents both the meaning and pronunciation of each word or morpheme
Longer words are formed by combining words or morphemes (compounding)
Basic Principles of the Chinese Writing System
din electric, electricity din-dng electric light dng=? din-l electric power l=? din-sh television sh=? din-q electrical machine q=?
More difficult one din-no computer no=?
Basic Principles of the Chinese Writing System
din electric, electricity din-dng electric-light=electric light din-l electric-power=electric
power din-sh electric-vision=television din-q electric-
machine=electrical machine
din-no electric-brain=computer
Problems and advantages of the English writing system
Based on English spoken in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries
The advent of printing (15th C) froze the current spelling
Advantages of a historically based alphabetic system
Writing a signed language? Stokoe Notation
http://www.signwriting.org/forums/linguistics/ling006.html
Used to capture values of phonological parameters (handshape, place of artic, movement)
SignWriting http://www.omniglot.com/writing/signwriting.htm Created in 1974 by Valerie Sutton Limited circulation of a newsletter printed in
SignWriting Neither system above is learned/used by
the vast majority of signed language users