History of writing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page. It is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. WikiProject Linguistics or the Linguistics Portal may be able to help recruit one. Tagged since March 2009. It may need a complete rewrite to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since August 2008.

The history of writing is the history of how systems of representation of language through graphic means have evolved in different human civilizations. Writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, systems of ideographic and/or early mnemonic symbol.

Contents 1 Recorded history 2 Locations and timeframes 2.1 Proto-writing 2.1.1 Europe and Near East 2.1.2 India and Asia 2.2 Bronze Age writing 2.2.1 Cuneiform script 2.2.2 Egyptian hieroglyphs 2.2.3 Chinese writing 2.2.4 Elamite scripts 2.2.5 Anatolian hieroglyphs 2.2.6 Cretan scripts 2.2.7 Early Semitic alphabets 2.2.8 Indus scripts 2.2.9 Mesoamerica 2.3 Iron Age writing 2.4 Contemporary writing 3 See also 4 Further reading 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Recorded history

Writing systems
History Grapheme List of writing systems
Types
Alphabet Featural alphabet Abjad Abugida Syllabary Logography
Related topics
Pictogram Ideogram

Scholars make reasonable definition between prehistory and history with writing.^[1] Scholars have disagreed concerning when prehistory becomes history and when proto-writing became "true writing"; the definition is largely subjective.^[2] Writing, in it's most general terms, is just a drawn device to indicate a message and is composed of glyphs.^[3] The emergence of writing in a given area is usually followed by several centuries of fragmentary inscriptions. With the presence of coherent texts (such that is from the various writing systems and the system's associated literature), historians mark the "historicity" of that culture.^[1]

A conventional "proto-writing to true writing" system follows a general series of developmental stages:^[4]

• Picture writing system: glyphs represent directly objects and ideas or objective and ideational situations. In connection with this the following substages may be distinguished:
  1. The mnemonic: glyphs primarily a reminder;
  2. The pictographic (pictography): glyphs represent directly an object or an objective situation such as (1) chronological, (2) notices, (3) communications, (4) totems, titles, and names, (5) religious, (6) customs, (7) historical, and (8) biographical;
  3. The ideographic (ideography): glyphs represent directly an idea or an ideational situation.
• Transitional system: glyphs refer not only to the object or idea which it represents but to its name as well.
• Phonetic system: glyphs refer to sounds or spoken symbols irrespective of their meanings. This resolves itself into the following substages:
  1. The verbal: glyphs represents a whole word;
  2. The syllabic: glyphs represent a syllable;
  3. The alphabetic: glyphs represent an elementary sound.

The best known picture 'writing system of ideographic and/or early mnemonic symbols are:

• Jiahu Script, symbols on tortoise shells in Jiahu, ca. 6600 BC
• Vinča script (Tărtăria tablets), ca. 4500 BC
• Early Indus script, ca. 3500 BC

True writing, or phonetic writing, records were developed independently in four different civilizations in the world, namely Mesopotamia, China, Egypt^[5] and Mesoamerica. Except for the Mesoamerican writing systems, writing systems developed from neolithic writing in the Early Bronze Age (4th millennium BC). The invention of the phonetic system is roughly contemporary with the beginning of the Bronze Age in the late Neolithic of the late 4th millennium BC. The Sumerian archaic cuneiform script and the Egyptian hieroglyphs are generally considered the earliest writing systems, both emerging out of their ancestral proto-literate symbol systems from 3400–3200 BC with earliest coherent texts from about 2600 BC. The Chinese and Mesopotamian Phonetic systems have especially been influential in the development of the systems of writing in use in the world today.

Literature and writing, though obviously connected, are not synonymous. The very first writings from ancient Sumer by any reasonable definition do not constitute literature — the same is true of some of the early Egyptian hieroglyphics or the thousands of logs from ancient Chinese regimes. Scholars have also disagreed concerning when written record-keeping became more like "literature" than anything else and is again largely subjective.^{[citation needed]} In the early literate societies, as much as 600 years passed from the first inscriptions to the first coherent textual sources (ca. 3200 to 2600 BC).

The Ge'ez writing system of Ethiopia is considered Semitic it is likely of semi-independent origin, having roots in the Meroitic Sudanese ideogram system.^[6] The Chinese script likely developed independently of the Middle Eastern scripts, around 1600 BC. The pre-Columbian Mesoamerican writing systems (including among others Olmec and Maya scripts) are also generally believed to have had independent origins. It is thought that the first true alphabetic writing appeared around 2000 BC, as a representation of language developed for Semitic slaves in Egypt by Egyptians (see History of the alphabet). Most other alphabets in the world today either descended from this one innovation, many via the Phoenician alphabet, or were directly inspired by its design. In the case of Italy, about 500 years passed from the early Old Italic alphabet to Plautus (750 to 250 BC), and in the case of the Germanic peoples, the corresponding time span is again similar, from the first Elder Futhark inscriptions to early texts like the Abrogans (ca. 200 to 750 CE).

[edit] Locations and timeframes

Early examples

The Tărtăria tablets, subject of considerable controversy among archaeologists by representing an early form of writing in the world Example of the Jiahu symbols, a writing-like markings, found on tortoise shells were dated around 6000 BC.

The Dispilio tablet markings (charagmata) dated around the final Middle Neolithic stage Oracle bone script replica of the originals used in divination in Bronze Age China.

[edit] Proto-writing

The history of human communication dates back to the earliest era of humanity. Symbols were developed about 30,000 years ago, and writing about 7,000. The early writing systems of the late 4th millennium BC are not considered a sudden invention. Rather, they were based on ancient traditions of symbol systems that cannot be classified as writing proper, but have many characteristics strikingly reminiscent of writing. These systems may be described as proto-writing. They used ideographic and/or early mnemonic symbols to convey information yet were probably devoid of direct linguistic content. These systems emerged in the early Neolithic period, as early as the 7th millennium BC.

[edit] Europe and Near East

The Vinča signs show an evolution of simple symbols beginning in the 7th millennium, gradually increasing in complexity throughout the 6th millennium and culminating in the Tărtăria tablets of the 5th millennium with their rows of symbols carefully aligned, evoking the impression of a "text". The "Slavic runes" mentioned by a few medieval authors may also have been a system of proto-writing. The Quipu of the Incas (sometimes called "talking knots") may have been of a similar nature. A historical example is the system of pictographs invented by Uyaquk before he developed the Yugtun syllabary.

The Dispilio Tablet of the late 6th millennium is similar. The hieroglyphic scripts of the Ancient Near East (Egyptian, Sumerian proto-Cuneiform and Cretan) seamlessly emerge from such symbol systems, so that it is difficult to say at what point precisely writing emerges from proto-writing. Adding to this difficulty is the fact that very little is known about the symbols' meanings.

[edit] India and Asia

The 4th to 3rd millennium BC Indus script may similarly constitute proto-writing, possibly already influenced by the emergence of writing in Mesopotamia.

In 2003, tortoise shells were discovered in China, which had Jiahu Script carved into them. These shells were determined as dating back to the 6th millennium BC, via radiocarbon dating. The shells were found buried with human remains, in 24 Neolithic graves unearthed at Jiahu, Henan province, northern China. According to some archaeologists, the writing on the shells had similarities to the 2nd millennium BC Oracle bone script.^[7] Others,^[8] however, have dismissed this claim as insufficiently substantiated, claiming that simple geometric designs such as those found on the Jiahu Shells, cannot be linked to early writing.

[edit] Bronze Age writing

Writing emerged in a variety of different cultures in the Bronze age.

[edit] Cuneiform script

The original Sumerian writing system derives from a system of clay tokens used to represent commodities. By the end of the 4th millennium BC, this had evolved into a method of keeping accounts, using a round-shaped stylus impressed into soft clay at different angles for recording numbers. This was gradually augmented with pictographic writing using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted. Round-stylus and sharp-stylus writing was gradually replaced about 2700-2500 BC by writing using a wedge-shaped stylus (hence the term cuneiform), at first only for logograms, but developed to include phonetic elements by the 29th century BC. About 2600 BC cuneiform began to represent syllables of the Sumerian language. Finally, cuneiform writing became a general purpose writing system for logograms, syllables, and numbers. From the 26th century BC, this script was adapted to the Akkadian language, and from there to others such as Hurrian, and Hittite. Scripts similar in appearance to this writing system include those for Ugaritic and Old Persian.

[edit] Egyptian hieroglyphs

Writing was very important in maintaining the Egyptian empire, and literacy was concentrated among an educated elite of scribes. Only people from certain backgrounds were allowed to train to become scribes, in the service of temple, pharonic, and military authorities. The hieroglyph system was always difficult to learn, but in later centuries was purposely made even more so, as this preserved the scribes' position.

Scholars generally believe that Egyptian hieroglyphs “came into existence a little after Sumerian script, and ... probably [were]... invented under the influence of the latter ...”, ^[9] although some believe that “the evidence for such direct influence remains flimsy” and that “a very credible argument can also be made for the independent development of writing in Egypt...” ^[10] See further Egyptian hieroglyphs.

[edit] Chinese writing

In China, historians have found out a lot about the early Chinese dynasties from the written documents left behind. From the Shang Dynasty most of this writing has survived on bones or bronze implements. Markings on turtle shells, or jiaguwen, have been carbon-dated to around 1500 BC. Historians have found that the type of media used had an effect on what the writing was documenting and how it was used.

There have recently been discoveries of tortoise-shell carvings dating back to c. 6000 BC, like Jiahu Script, Banpo Script, but whether or not the carvings are of sufficient complexity to qualify as writing is under debate.^[7] At Damaidi in theNingxia Hui Autonomous Region, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6,000-5,000 BCE have been discovered featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing. These pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese. If it is deemed to be a written language, writing in China will predate Mesopotamian cuneiform, long acknowledged as the first appearance of writing, by some 2000 years, however it is more likely that the inscriptions are rather a form of proto-writing, similar to the contemporary European Vinca script. Undisputed evidence of writing in China dates from ca. 1600 BC.

[edit] Elamite scripts

The undeciphered Proto-Elamite script emerges from as early as 3200 BC and evolves into Linear Elamite by the later 3rd millennium, which is then replaced by Elamite Cuneiform adopted from Akkadian.

[edit] Anatolian hieroglyphs

Anatolian hieroglyphs are an indigenous hieroglyphic script native to western Anatolia first appears on Luwian royal seals, from ca. the 20th century BC, used to record the Hieroglyphic Luwian language.

[edit] Cretan scripts

Cretan hieroglyphs are found on artifacts of Crete (early to mid 2nd millennium BC, MM I to MM III, overlapping with Linear A from MM IIA at the earliest). Linear B has been deciphered while Linear A has yet to be deciphered.

[edit] Early Semitic alphabets

The first pure alphabets (properly, "abjads", mapping single symbols to single phonemes, but not necessarily each phoneme to a symbol) emerged around 1800 BC in Ancient Egypt, as a representation of language developed by Semitic workers in Egypt, but by then alphabetic principles had a slight possibility of being inculcated into Egyptian hieroglyphs for upwards of a millennium. These early abjads remained of marginal importance for several centuries, and it is only towards the end of the Bronze Age that the Proto-Sinaitic script splits into the Proto-Canaanite alphabet (ca. 1400 BC) Byblos syllabary and the South Arabian alphabet (ca. 1200 BC). The Proto-Canaanite was probably somehow influenced by the undeciphered Byblos syllabary and in turn inspired the Ugaritic alphabet (ca. 1300 BC).

[edit] Indus scripts

The Middle Bronze Age Indus script which dates back to the early Harrapan phase of around 3000 BC in Pakistan, has not yet been deciphered.^[11] It is unclear whether it should be considered an example of proto-writing (a system of symbols or similar), or if it is actual writing of the logographic-syllabic type of the other Bronze Age writing systems. Mortimer Wheeler recognises the style of writing as boustrophedon, where "this stability suggests a precarious maturity".

[edit] Mesoamerica

A stone slab with 3,000-year-old writing was discovered in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and is an example of the oldest script in the Western Hemisphere preceding the oldest Zapotec writing dated to about 500 BC. ^[12][13][14]

Of several pre-Columbian scripts in Mesoamerica, the one that appears to have been best developed, and the only one to be deciphered, is the Maya script. The earliest inscriptions which are identifiably Maya date to the 3rd century BC, and writing was in continuous use until shortly after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century AD. Maya writing used logograms complemented by a set of syllabic glyphs, somewhat similar in function to modern Japanese writing.

[edit] Iron Age writing

The Phoenician alphabet is simply the Proto-Canaanite alphabet as it was continued into the Iron Age (conventionally taken from a cut-off date of 1050 BC). This alphabet gave rise to the Aramaic and Greek, as well as, likely via Greek transmission, to various Anatolian and Old Italic (including the Latin) alphabets in the 8th century BC. The Greek alphabet for the first time introduces vowel signs. The Brahmic family of India originated independently. The Greek and Latin alphabets in the early centuries of the Common Era gave rise to several European scripts such as the Runes and the Gothic and Cyrillic alphabets while the Aramaic alphabet evolved into the Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic abjads and the South Arabian alphabet gave rise to the Ge'ez abugida.

[edit] Contemporary writing

The nature of writing has been constantly evolving, particularly due to the development of new technologies over the centuries. The pen, the printing press, the computer and the mobile phone are all technological developments which have altered what is written, and the medium through which the written word is produced. Particularly with the advent of digital technologies, namely the computer and the mobile phone, characters can be formed by the press of a button, rather than making the physical motion with the hand. Written communication can also be delivered with minimal time delay (e-mail, SMS), and in some cases, instantly (instant messaging).

The nature of the written word, too, had evolved over time to make way for an informal, colloquial written style, where an everyday conversation can occur through writing rather than speaking. Also, writing creates the possibility to break spatial boundaries and travel through time, since a word normally spoken could only exist in the time and space it is spoken in. It creates a certain immortality, that could not be experienced without writing. Socially, writing is seen as an authoritative means of communication, from legal documentation, law and the media all produced through the medium. The growth of multimedia literacy can be seen as the first steps toward a postliterate society.

[edit] See also

v • d • e Writing systems Overview History of writing · History of the alphabet · Graphemes Lists Writing systems · Languages by writing system / by first written account · Undeciphered writing systems · Inventors of writing systems Types Alphabets · Abjads · Abugidas · Syllabaries · Ideogrammic · Pictographic · Logographic

Main

Palaeography, logograms, logographic, Vinča signs, Asemic writing

General

Alphabet, Palaeography, Inscriptions, Book, Manuscript, Shorthand, Latin alphabet, writing system, ogham, Indus script, Mixtec, uncials, hanja, Zapotec, kanji, Aurignacian, Chinese characters, Ugarit, katakana, Acheulean,Ethnoarchaeology, Hoabinhian, Gravettian, Oldowan, Uruk, Etruscan, Cretan hieroglyphs, Hadza, Nabataean, Luwian, Olmec, Busra

Other

Oral literature, History of developmental dyslexia

[edit] Further reading

21st century sources

• Steven R. Fischer A History of Writing, Reaktion Books 2005 CN136481
• Hoffman, Joel M. 2004. In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language. New York University Press. Chapter 3.

20th century sources

• Hans J. Nissen, P. Damerow, R. Englund, Archaic Bookkeeping, University of Chicago Press, 1993, ISBN 0-226-58659-6.
• Denise Schmandt-Besserat    HomePage, How Writing Came About, University of Texas Press, 1992, ISBN 0-292-77704-3.
• Saggs, H., 1991. Civilization Before Greece and Rome Yale University Press. Chapter 4.
• Jack Goody, The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society, Cambridge University Press, 1986
• Smith, William Anton. The Reading Process. New York: The Macmillan company, 1922.
• Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopedia Britannica; A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information. Cambridge, Eng: University Press, 1911. "Writing".
• Clodd, Edward. The Story of the Alphabet. Library of useful stories. New York: D. Appleton and Co, 1910.
• Rawlings, Gertrude Burford. The Story of Books. London: Newnes, 1901.

[edit] References

Footnotes

[edit] External links

• BBC on tortoise shells discovered in China
• Fragments of pottery discovered in modern Pakistan
• Egyptian hieroglyphs c. 3000 BC
• Denise Schmandt-Besserat  HomePage
• Children of the Code: A Brief History of Writing - Online Video
• Scriptorium Bulletin Board – A forum devoted to writing systems
• Alphabet & protoalphabet the manifest of astrologic doctrine?