The Development of Writing

1. The Development of Writing • Cave Drawings • About 20,000 years ago; to record events • Pictograms • Ideograms • Logograms • Rebus Writing • Syllabic Writing • Alphabetic Writing

2. Pictograms • A form of picture writing • Using pictures to represent particular images in a consistent way (symbol = picture of a thing) • A conventional relationship must exist between the symbol and its meaning • Not arbitrary; language independent • Not represent words or sounds in a lang. • Examples: star = sun = bathroom signs =

3. Ideograms • A system of “idea writing” • more abstract relationship (symbol = an idea, but not a concrete object) • more arbitrary (in terms of form & meaning) • more derived forms • Not represent words or sounds in a lang. • Example: • for “sun”, also “heat” • Egyptian writing for water: • 明 = “bright”

4. Logograms • A system of word writing • symbols represent words or morphemes in a particular language [sound + meaning] • grapheme = a concept; the smallest unit in a writing system • Examples • cuneiform writing: used by the Sumerians, referred to as the earliest writing system • cuneiform = wedge-shaped (Yule 11) • Chinese characters (but only represent meaning of words, not of sounds of spoken lang.) • advantage and disadvantage

5. Rebus Writing • A process (or a way) of using existing symbols to represent the sounds of lang. • borrow the symbol, take over the sound, but forget the meaning • reduce the number of symbols needed in a writing system • Examples • a non-English example: • in language games:

6. Syllabic Writing (Syllabary) • Every symbol represents one syllable • grapheme = syllable • e.g., Japanese (which also uses logographic characters—Kanji) • Examples in Japanese • Hiragana: ひと　（hito）　の　（no）くるま（kuruma ） Katakana: Kanji: 人の車 • たまご　（tamago） “egg”

7. Alphabetic Writing • Symbols represent single phonemes • grapheme = phoneme (i.e., symbols represent single phonemes) • definition of “letter” (each written symbol) vs. “alphabet” (a set of written symbols) (Yule 13) • Examples • alphabets representing mainly consonants: e.g., Arabic, Hebrew • alphabets representing both consonants & vowels: e.g., Greek

8. Conclusion • Cave drawings pictograms ideograms logograms (phonological) rebus writing syllabic writing alphabetic writing • Writing systems seem to have gone from syllabaries to alphabets representing mainly consonants, to alphabets representing both consonants and vowels. • This reflects the phonemic nature of lang., so can be considered a natural development—though not a necessary one or a “better” one.