The Origins of Writing

Introduction

• We have studied the emergence of societies that produced food, were sedentary and increasingly specialised, urbanised and hierarchical, and engaged in large-scale trade.

• Why might writing be both more possible and more desirable in this kind of society (than in nomadic hunter-gatherer societies)?

Writing

• Representation of language in a textual medium through use of shared signs and symbols

Letters represent phonemes• Each letter represents an individual

phoneme

• A phoneme is a basic sound unit in the language

• There are actually 40 phonemes in English. As well as those represented by the 26 letters, other phonemes are represented by the use of two letter combinations like sh and th.

• Phonograms (individual or combined letters) represent phonemes

Logograms represent whole words • A logogram is a written

symbol that stands for a whole word

• Chinese, Kanji (Japanese), Egyptian hieroglyphics, Maya, Sumerian cuneiform all include logograms

• We often use logograms, like the symbol for ‘dollar’

• A system of writing that relies on logograms is called a logography

A Syllabogram represents symbols• Syllabograms – use a written sign for each syllable in the language• A system of writing which rellies on syllabograms is known as a

syllabary• Examples of syllabaries include Linear B in Mycenean Greece and

the Japanese kana syllabary

Unit Represented Symbol System of Writing

Phoneme Phonogram (letter or combination of letters)

Alphabet

Word Logogram Logography

Syllable Syllabogram Syllabary

Pictograms

• A pictogram conveys meaning through pictorial resemblance.

• Can represent a word (a logogram) or an idea (ideogram)

Cuneiform• Emerged in Sumer in the 4th Millenium BCE• Developed from pictograms but subsequently

added syllabograms• Use of clay tablets as a writing surface. Clay

scratched with pointed tools that evolved into reed styluses

• Wedge-shaped impressions left by the stylus gave rise to the name, cuneiform, from the Latin cuneus for wedge

• Adapted to numerous other languages, eg. Akkadian and Hittite

Only two indisputably independent inventions of writing...

Only two indisputably independent inventions of writing...

• Sumerians of Mesopotamia some time before 3000 B.C.

Only two indisputably independent inventions of writing...

• Mayans before 600 B.C.

Only two indisputably independent inventions of writing...

• Egyptian writing (3000 B.C.)

• and Chinese writing (1300 B.C.)

May also have arisen independently.

The origin of syllabograms in cuneiform

• Started with logograms, eg. a picture of a fish or a bird.

• Numerals plus nouns would make up accounting reports

• Gradually, signs became more abstract (especially with the introduction of reed styluses).

• New signs were created by combining old signs, eg. combining signs for head and bread came to mean eat.

How do you represent an abstract noun (like ‘life’)?

• This is an example of what the Sumerians did: the word for ‘arrow’ in Sumerian was

pronounced ti. Ti was also the sound for ‘life’. Thus, the Sumerians used the easy-to-draw arrow symbol for ‘life’.

Ti = arrow/ life

Rebus Principle

• Using existing symbols, such as pictograms, purely for their sounds regardless of their meaning, to represent new words

The Rebus Principle

• The resulting ambiguity was resolved by a silent sign called a determinative (which told readers what kind of noun it was).

• In linguistics, using existing symbols, such as pictograms, purely for their sounds regardless of their meaning, to represent new words, is known as the rebus principle.

Expanding the use of the rebus principle

• Logograms were used to make grammatical endings. So, in English, it would be pretty hard to depict –tion so a solution would be to use the sign for shun.

Expanding the use of the rebus principle

• Longer words were made by a series of pictures representing each syllable. So, in English we might combine the logograms for ‘bee’ and ‘leaf’ to create a sign for ‘believe’.

Expanding the use of the rebus principle

• Additionally the same logogram – eg, a picture of a tooth - could be used for a number of words – eg, ‘tooth’, ‘speech’, ‘speaker’ but the ambiguity would be resolved by adding a phonetically appropriate sign – eg, ‘two’, ‘each’, or ‘peak’.