Fundamentals of Linguistics -2017

Licda. Milvia Rosales G.

Writing
History of writing materials

Hieroglyphs
Sep 2006
and Phonetics
Oct 2015
and
First American
Cuneiform in papyrus in Egypt the alphabet 2nd c. BC -
Aug 2003 script
3rd c. AD
Mesopotamia Chinese
Mar 2012
The Egyptian characters
The Sumerian The seals of the The Arabic
Oct 2015
Jan 2009
Indus valley script

2nd c. BC - 3rd
century BC
century BC

century . AD
3100 BC
3100 BC

3000 BC

1600 BC
2500 BC

15th

5th
The first known writing derives from the lower reaches of
the two greatest rivers in this extended region,
the Nile and the Tigris.

The two civilizations responsible

for this transforming human development
are the Egyptian and the Sumerian (now Iraq).

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The Land between two Rivers

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 CUNEIFORM (MESOPOTAMIA)

On wet clay the scribes draw a simplified picture of

an item. They then make a similar mark in the clay
for the number counted and recorded. When
allowed to bake hard in the sun, the clay tablet
becomes a permanent document.

In Mesopotamia clay remains the most common

writing surface, and the standard writing implement
becomes the end of a sharply cut reed.
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-One of the earliest forms of written expression is cuneiform.

-Sumer, an ancient civilization of southern Mesopotamia, was the

place where written language was first invented around 3200
BCE.

Writing of language was invented in at least two places:

• Mesopotamia (Sumer) around 3200 BCE and
•Mesoamerican around 600 BCE (Olmec or Zapotec of Mexico)
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Hieroglyphs and papyrus in Egypt
•The second civilization to develop writing, after the
Sumerians, is Egypt, but the system is similar.
•Hieroglyphic inscriptions in temples and tombs by painters.
•With the introduction of papyrus, the Egyptian script is also
the business of scribes.
•The Egyptian scribe uses a fine reed pen to write on the
smooth surface of the papyrus scroll.
•There is one script for religious documents;
•literature and official documents;
and for private letters.
 The seals of the Indus valley: from 2500 BC

The Indus script, which has not yet been

deciphered, is known from thousands of
seals, carved in steatite or soapstone.

The centre of each seal is occupied by a

realistic depiction of an animal, with
above it a short line of formal symbols.

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The Indus Valley
(Sanskrit=the Sindhu)
•The Indus is the longest river
in Pakistan (Asia).

• Afghanistan is to the west,

China to the north, and India to
the east.

• The Indus River begins in the Himalaya Mountains, and

flows nearly 3,000 kilometers to the Arabian Sea. Start
 Chinese characters: from 1600 BC

The last of the early civilizations to develop

writing is China. But China outdoes the others
in devising a system which has evolved.

They have even provided the script for an

entirely different language, Japanese. And
also had influence on Korean, Vietnamese Chu
Nom and others.
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Chinese characters

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 Phonetics and the alphabet- 3200 BC

The most significant development in the history of writing is the

move from a pictographic or syllabic system to a phonetic one,
based on recording the spoken sound of a word.

Phoenician is a Semitic language and it is adopted by

Phoenicia and Palestine (Aramaic and Hebrew) .

Only the consonants are written, leaving the vowels to be

understood by the reader
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The contribution of the Greeks, adapting the Phoenician
system of writing is to add vowels.

The result is a Greek alphabet of twenty-four letters.

The Romans in their turn develops the Greek alphabet to form

letters suitable for the writing of Latin. Portable writing
materials such as papyrus, wooden tablets or leaves written
correspondence becomes a familiar part of everyday life.
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 ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Αʹ
4Ἡ ἀγάπη μακροθυμεῖ, χρηστεύεται ἡ ἀγάπη οὐ ζηλοῖ, [ἡ ἀγάπη] οὐ
περπερεύεται, οὐ φυσιοῦται, 5οὐκ ἀσχημονεῖ, οὐ ζητεῖ τὰ ἑαυτῆς, οὐ
παροξύνεται, οὐ λογίζεται τὸ κακόν, 6οὐ χαίρει ἐπὶ τῇ ἀδικίᾳ, συγχαίρει
δὲ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ· 7πάντα στέγει, πάντα πιστεύει, πάντα ἐλπίζει, πάντα
ὑπομένει.

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade
itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is
not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in
the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things.
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The Arabic script: from the 5th century BC

A stele, or inscribed column, is set up at Tema in

northwest Arabia.

Dating from the 5th century BC, its inscription is

the earliest known example of the writing which
evolves a millennium later into the Arabic script.
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 The first American script:
2nd c. BC - 3rd c. AD

Of the various early civilizations of central America, the

Maya make the greatest use of writing, but they are not
the inventors of writing in America.

The credit for this would be to the Olmecs,

they were the first to create a Calendar.

The first Mayan stele to be securely dated is

erected at Tikal in the equivalent of the year AD 292.
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Materials for writing

•Engrave on stone or metal, or other durable

material
•Lead,brass, and gold
•Clay
•The tablet and the roll
•Wooden
•Papyrus
•Wood-pulp paper
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Papyrus Plant

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 E-graphy
•http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=15
89&HistoryID=ab33&gtrack=pthc#ixzz3A6jVCId9
•http://www.omniglot.com/writing/greek.htm
•http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/writing/writing.htm
•http://ancienthistory.mrdonn.org/Mesopotamia.html#SEVEN
•http://www.ancientscripts.com/chinese.html
•http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/worldhistory/rosetta_sto
ne/
•http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/history/
egypt/hieroglyphs/
•http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/indus_valley/land_of_th
e_indus/ Start