1. The Development of English Unit 5: The development of writing

2. The Writing System of English The development of the alphabet

3. Stages in the development of the alphabet 1.Pictograms / graphs 2.Logograms/ graphs 3.Phonograms 1.Syllabic scripts 2.Alphabetic scripts 3.The Latin alphabet 4.The English alphabet

4. Pictograms / logograms (e.g. Ancient Egyptian, Chinese)  Syllabic symbols / consonantal symbols (e.g. Ancient Sumerian, ancient Semitic)  Alphabetic symbols (e.g. Ancient Greek)

5. “A shift in what a script ‘represents’ is a consequence of adapting a script to a language other than that for which it was originally developed, an activity that led logographs to be taken as representations of syllables and later for syllables to be taken as representations of phonemes.” Olson, 1994: 80

6. Logographs Made more efficient by: a)simpler, more stylized symbols (e.g. cuneiform); b)phonographic principle – a word which sounds the same as another could be used to represent that other (e.g. son/sun); c)use of ‘determinative’ which shows which of the two it means.

7. Logographs into syllables Sumerian logographs into Akkadian syllables: a + wi + lu + um = man (disregarding the fact that each bit in Sumerian had a meaning, represented a word) But still an enormous number of possible syllables.

8. Syllables into consonant (optional vowel) Ancient Semitic languages (Canaanite, Ugaritic, Moabite, Hebrew, Arabic…) ‘Water’ (pictogram) into the symbol ʌʌʌ Which became the ancient symbol Which came to represent the consonantal syllables [m ɑ], [mo], [mɪ], [mʊ] …

9. Consonant-based letters into true alphabet (phoneme-based) Semitic into Greek Consonants became single phonemes; separate symbols for vowels Greek into Latin Latin into modern European

10. Hebrew into Yiddish Sample text in Yiddish Transliteration Yeder mentsh vert geboyrn fray un glaykh in koved un rekht. Yeder vert bashonkn mit farshtand un gevisn; yeder zol zikh firn mit a tsveytn in a gemit fun brudershaft. Translation All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)