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