1. HU 2910 Writing Systems Fall ‘10

2. K yrs ago (BCE) 15K Cave drawings as pictograms 4K Cuneiforms 3K Hieroglyphics 1.5West Sumerian Syllabary of the Phoenicians 1Ancient Greeks borrow the Ph’n consonant αβ.75Etruscans borrow Greek αβ.5Romans adapt Etruscan-Greco αβ to Latin

3. Seeds of early writing systems Petroglyphs- early drawings by humans: Altamira (Spain) Approx 20 K yrs ago Maybe aesthetic expressions rather than pictorial comm.

4. Pictograms Later drawings are clear pictograms

5. Pictograms Later drawings are clear pictograms Unlike modern writing, each picture = a direct image

6. Pictograms Later drawings are clear pictograms Unlike modern writing, each picture = a direct image A ‘non-arbitrary’ relation b/w form & meaning

7. Pictograms Later drawings are clear pictograms Unlike modern writing, each picture = a direct image A ‘non-arbitrary’ relation b/w form & meaning Viz. comic strips sans captions

8. Pictograms Later drawings are clear pictograms Unlike modern writing, each picture = a direct image A ‘non-arbitrary’ relation b/w form & meaning Viz. comic strips sans captions Reps objects directly rather than through linguistic names given to objects

9. Pictograms Later drawings are clear pictograms Unlike modern writing, each picture = a direct image A ‘non-arbitrary’ relation b/w form & meaning Viz. comic strips sans captions Reps objects directly rather than through linguistic names given to objects They didn’t represent the words & sounds of spoken Lx

10. Pictograms - universal Found throughout the world, ancient & modern Used as int’l road signs Cf. US Park Service… “English unnecessary”

11. Pictograms - universal Found throughout the world, ancient & modern Used as int’l road signs Cf. US Park Service… “English unnecessary” …or irrelevant

12. Acceptance  extension Once the representation became ‘standard’ its meaning got extended to attributes of the object or concepts associated with it

13. Acceptance  extension Once the representation became ‘standard’ its meaning got extended to attributes of the object or concepts associated with it Pictograms thus began to represent ideas (rather than objects)  ‘ideograms’

14. Acceptance  extension Once the representation became ‘standard’ its meaning got extended to attributes of the object or concepts associated with it Pictograms thus began to represent ideas (rather than objects)  ‘ideograms’ Pict/Id – similar: Pict: tend to be more literal Id: less direct

15. Acceptance  extension Once the representation became ‘standard’ its meaning got extended to attributes of that object or concepts associated with it Pictograms thus began to represent ideas (rather than objects)  ‘ideograms’ Pict/Id – similar: Pict: tend to be more literal Id: less direct Cf. No Parking: ‘slanting red line over car’ vs. ‘towtruck removing car’

16. Standardizing images Picts/Ids became stylized & formulaic (‘standardizing’) – enabling literacy to expand.

17. Standardizing images Picts/Ids became stylized & formulaic (‘standardizing’) – enabling literacy to expand. The literal reps got so simplified that they lost ‘universality’

18. Standardizing images Picts/Ids became stylized & formulaic (‘standardizing’) – enabling literacy to expand. The literal reps got so simplified that they lost ‘universality’ Requiring formal study of the system

19. Standardizing images Picts/Ids became stylized & formulaic (‘standardizing’) – enabling literacy to expand. The literal reps got so simplified that they lost ‘universality’ Requiring formal study of the system As the ideogram came to stand for the sounds that rep’d the ideas, they became linguistic symbols…

20. Standardizing images Picts/Ids became stylized & formulaic (‘standardizing’) – enabling literacy to expand. The literal reps got so simplified that they lost ‘universality’ Requiring formal study of the system As the ideogram came to stand for the sounds that rep’d the ideas, they became linguistic symbols…a revolutionary step

21. Cuneiform Writing Sumerians (6K yrs ago) built a civilization in southern Mesopotamia - "meso" < μέσος (middle) + "potamia" < ποταμός (river)

22. Cuneiform Writing Sumerians (6K yrs ago) built a civilization in southern Mesopotamia - "meso" < μέσος (middle) + "potamia" < ποταμός (river) Their W.S. = the oldest one known

23. Cuneiform Writing Sumerians (6K yrs ago) built a civilization in southern Mesopotamia - "meso" < μέσος (middle) + "potamia" < ποταμός (river) Their W.S. = the oldest one known As commerce grew, so did a need for permanent records

24. Cuneiform Writing Sumerians (6K yrs ago) built a civilization in southern Mesopotamia - "meso" < μέσος (middle) + "potamia" < ποταμός (river) Their W.S. = the oldest one known As commerce grew, so did a need for permanent records Elaborate Pict. & system of tallies developed

25. Cuneiform Writing Sumerians (6K yrs ago) built a civilization in southern Mesopotamia - "meso" < μέσος (middle) + "potamia" < ποταμός (river) Their W.S. = the oldest one known As commerce grew, so did a need for permanent records Elaborate Pict. & system of tallies developed They used a wedge-shaped stylus on soft clay tablets Viz ‘cuneiform’

26. Logographs As cuneiform evolved, users started to think of the symbols in terms of the name of the thing being rep’d…

27. Logographs As cuneiform evolved, users started to think of the symbols in terms of the name of the thing being rep’d… and not the thing itself.

28. Logographs As cuneiform evolved, users started to think of the symbols in terms of the name of the thing being rep’d… and not the thing itself. When a script begins to represent the words of a language (and not the thing itself), it’s called logographic …the oldest type of writing.

29. Logographs As cuneiform evolved, users started to think of the symbols in terms of the name of the thing being rep’d… and not the thing itself. When a script begins to represent the words of a language (and not the thing itself), it’s called logographic …the oldest type of writing. Here, the graph stands for both the word & the concept …which it still may resemble

30. Logographs As cuneiform evolved, users started to think of the symbols in terms of the name of the thing being rep’d… and not the thing itself. When a script begins to represent the words of a language (and not the thing itself), it’s called logographic …the oldest type of writing. Here, the graph stands for both the word & the concept …which it still may resemble Logograms = ideograms + the word in the Lx for that concept

31. Cuneiform Writing This W.S. spread throughout the Middle East & Asia Minor. Babylonians, Assyrians & Persian borrowed it

32. Cuneiform Writing This W.S. spread throughout the Middle East & Asia Minor. Babylonians, Assyrians & Persian borrowed it Often using the characters to represent the sounds of syllables in their own Lx.  cuneiform thus evolved into a syllabic W.S.

33. Cuneiform Writing This W.S. spread throughout the Middle East & Asia Minor. Babylonians, Assyrians & Persian borrowed it Often using the characters to represent the sounds of syllables in their own Lx.  cuneiform thus evolved into a syllabic W.S. Syllabic W.S Each syllable is rep’d by its own symbol Words are written syllable-by-syllable

34. Cuneiform as syllabic Though had evolved a syllabic function, it retained many symbols that stood for whole words.

35. Cuneiform as syllabic Though had evolved a syllabic function, it retained many symbols that stood for whole words. Assyrian could write ‘nation’ with one logogram or with syllabic letters. (Cf. modern Japanese)

36. Cuneiform as syllabic Though had evolved a syllabic function, it retained many symbols that stood for whole words. Assyrian could write ‘nation’ with one logogram or with syllabic letters. (Cf. modern Japanese) In the 6 th c. BCE, under Darius, Persia had simplified the ‘alphabet’ (w/ little use of word symbols) …internal logic? (Cf. Hangul)

37. The Rebus Principle As a graph loses its visual relationship to the concept it represents, it becomes a phonographic symbol

38. The Rebus Principle As a graph loses its visual relationship to the concept it represents, it becomes a phonographic symbol One graph can then represent all homophones (words with the same sound) E.g. English? Japanese?

39. The Rebus Principle As a graph loses its visual relationship to the concept it represents, it becomes a phonographic symbol One graph can then represent all homophones (words with the same sound) E.g. English? Japanese? A representation of words by pictures of objects whose names sound like the word = a rebus

40. From Hieroglyphics to the αβ Circa 4K BCE, as Sumerian pictography thrived, Egypt was using a similar system of their own.

41. From Hieroglyphics to the αβ Circa 4K BCE, as Sumerian pictography thrived, Egypt was using a similar system of their own. H’glyphs (pictograms) came to rep. a concept & the word for said concept …viz. ‘logographic’

42. From Hieroglyphics to the αβ Circa 4K BCE, as Sumerian pictography thrived, Egypt was using a similar system of their own. H’glyphs (pictograms) came to rep. a concept & the word for said concept …viz. ‘logographic’ Phoenicians (NB a Semitic Lx) lived north of Egypt & west of Sumeria and were likely influenced by both of them. Circa 1500 BCE – they develop an abjad: Cs not Vs

43. From Hieroglyphics to the αβ Circa 4K BCE, as Sumerian pictography thrived, Egypt was using a similar system of their own. H’glyphs (pictograms) came to rep. a concept & the word for said concept …viz. ‘logographic’ Phoenicians (NB a Semitic Lx) lived north of Egypt & west of Sumeria and were likely influenced by both of them. Circa 1500 BCE – they develop an abjad: Cs not Vs Greeks tried to borrow Ph. W.S. but Vs were a problem.

44. Phoenicia to Greece In Semitic Lx like Phoenician, vowels can be determined by grammatical context – Greek (like English) is different

45. Phoenicia to Greece In Semitic Lx like Phoenician, vowels can be determined by grammatical context – Greek (like English) is different Phoenician had more consonants than Greek, so they were used as vowels.

46. Phoenicia to Greece In Semitic Lx like Phoenician, vowels can be determined by grammatical context – Greek (like English) is different Phoenician had more consonants than Greek, so they were used as vowels. Alphabet ‘not invented’ – ‘discovered’ We brought our intuitive knowledge of the Lx sound system to consciousness: we discovered what we already knew

47. K yrs ago (BCE) 15K Cave drawings as pictograms 4K Cuneiforms 3K Hieroglyphics 1.5West Sumerian Syllabary of the Phoenicians 1Ancient Greeks borrow the Ph’n consonant αβ.75Etruscans borrow Greek αβ.5Romans adapt Etruscan-Greco αβ to Latin