The earliest writing systems evolved at the same time in Egypt and Mesopotamia, but research shows that Mesopotamia’s writing appeared first. Mesopotamia’s writing system emerged about 3,500 BC. People living in Mesopotamia developed a form of writing to record and communicate different types of information. This was called cuneiform. Once Mesopotamia developed writing the idea went to many other places, this is called cultural borrowing. VOCABULARY Cuneiform - written language of Sumer Cultural Borrowing – the transfer of ideas from one culture to another.

Writing started as pictographs, instead of words there were pictures. For example, to record the amount of fish given to a temple Sumerian priests would draw a fish shape and add marks to show how many. Many pictographs were hard to print into wet clay so Sumerian scribes simplified them. They began to create new symbols therefore the number of cuneiform symbols increased to more than 2,000. VOCABULARY Pictographs- pictures that represent words

Some symbols evolved over time into sounds. For example, the cuneiform word for arrow was said as “tih”. Once Sumerians developed symbols for every syllable they could string symbols to words. This new change allowed Sumerians to reduce the symbols to 600.

Next was the creation of the alphabet. By combining symbols in various ways a writer can record anything, which makes a flexible writing system. Around 3000 B.C Egyptians created a language based on hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs are symbols that stood for objects, ideas, and sounds. Over time, they developed simple writing system and used 24 symbols to stand for consonants. Every alphabet today evolved from these symbols. VOCABULARY Alphabet-a small set of letters/symbols, each stands for a single sound

The Egyptians got the idea of writing from Mesopotamians. The groups from the Middle East borrowed symbols from the Egyptians to create their own alphabet. Phoenician traders traveled the Mediterranean sea, their trading partners such as Greece adopted their alphabet. But the Greece made more changes. In fact, the word alphabet comes from the first two letters in the Greek alphabet (alpha and beta). The result was an alphabet like today from all these changed alphabets.

#1 WHAT IS THE MEANING OF CUNEIFORM? Cuneiform is the written language of Sumer. #2 WHAT IS THE MEANING OF CULTURAL BORROWING? Cultural borrowing is the transfer of ideas from one place to another. #3 WHAT IS THE MEANING OF PICTOGRAPHS? Pictographs are pictures that represent words. #4 WHAT IS THE MEANING OF ALPHABET? Alphabet is a small set of words representing a single sound. #5 Why did Sumerians simplify symbols? They simplified symbols to make them easier to press in wet clay. #6 What was arrow said as? An arrow was said as “tih”. #7 What makes a flexible writing system. What made a flexible writing was by combining symbols in various ways.

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