Chapter-2 Grade:5A/B/C

History of writing
The earth would not be the way it is if humankind did
not have the ability to communicate, to organise itself
and to pass knowledge down from generation to
generation.
What is language?
Language is a human system of communication that
uses voice sounds, gestures, symbols, etc., Language is
necessary to express inner thoughts and emotions, fulfil our wants and needs, to
establish rules and maintain our culture.

During prehistoric times, people used to communicate orally, using gestures and signals.
But information could only be passed to a few people. The difficulty in comprehension,
also led to trouble in recollecting the information. This led to loss of information
passing it on to others. Hence, the need to record information was felt, which led to the
discovery of writing.

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
The earliest form of written
communication was through pictures.
Glyphs (or simplified pictures that
directly represented objects and
concepts were used). Early humans
drew pictures with the sharpened-
stone tool onto the walls of their cave
dwelling. The cave drawing
represented events in daily life such
as the planting of the crops, hunting
and victories.
Slowly, a number of civilizations
started carving pictures of animals and
other familiar things to record
interesting bits of information
Many such pictures and paintings can be seen on cave walls in countries like India and
France.
 Soon pictures were replaced by
symbols - hieroglyphs- which are
simple and stylized pictures that are
used to depict the actual object.
They were easier to draw. However,
they had to be agreed upon by the
society for everyone to understand.
Thus, the script came into being.
A script is a system of writing that
consists of symbols (hieroglyphs,
ideograms, mnemonicsetc.,)
commonly agreed upon by the
society.

People living in southern Mesopotamia

developed one of the earliest scripts in the
world. The writing system began with symbols
being drawn on clay tablets, using a
sharp-edged knife. The characters were usually
wedge shaped and the script was known
as the cuneiform script from Latin cuneus
meaning wedge and form meaning shape.
. Cuneiform script
However, these signs and symbol changed over the years. There are still countries like
China, Japan and Korea, that use pictorial scripts. These scripts are difficult to
read,write and understand. The Greek and the Roman alphabets were derived from
Cuneiform script which later led to the development of English language.

In India, the earliest form of writing

was discovered to be on seals, belonging
to Indus Valley Civilization. Seals were
made of clay, terracotta, copper, etc., and
had inscriptions of pictorial writing on
them. Experts are still trying to read it.
Such seals can be seen in the National
Museum of Delhi.
 One of the oldest writing systems that
emerged in India during that time was the
Brahmi script. Scripts of many Indian
languages have been developed from the
Brahmi script. For instance, the Devanagiri
script used for writing Hindi, the Official
language of India in which letters are based on
sounds not on pictures. We also use Urdu, Arabic
and Persian scripts in the country.

ORIGIN OF NUMBERS
From food gatherers, human beings became
food producers. They started growing crops
And started leading a settled life. They also
domesticated animals. When early humans felt
the need of counting the number of animals
they had hunted, which they did probably by
drawing or
using devices like stones, pebbles or sticks.
.They would draw as many animals they saw .
Soon this was replaced by dots, strokes and
symbols.

The concept of zero

and the decimal system
were also introduced
to the world by Indian
scholars. It is believed
that the method of
using ten fingers for
counting led to
development of
decimal system. The
Arabs adopted the
Indian numerals and
called them hindsa
meaning ‘from India’ and passed on the knowledge to the west. The international
system of numerals is now based on the Hindu-Arabic Numeral system. The Hindu-
Arabic Numeral system is based upon ten different glyphs(symbols)0-9,which can be
used to represent any number, no matter how large it is.
 As man learnt to read,write and count
he felt the need to record the
informationFor this he needed a flat
surface. We know in ancient times he
used clay tablets,big leaves or the bark
of certain trees. But as keeping records
became necessity, it led to the
invention of paper.
The Egyptians were the first to make
paper from a reed called Papyrus. The
word ‘paper’ is derived from’Papyrus’. Later, the Chinese found that paper could also
be made by pounding together rags , ropes or old fishing nets into pulp. The Arabs
learnt the art of making paper and spread the knowledge to the western world.

PRINTING
Initially, people used manuscripts or handwritten records to keep information. These
records were greatly valued as they were handwritten. Only limited copies of such
records were available which were accessible to a select few. The invention of printing
press made the production of many copies of books possible. So books were available
now to many more people. Printing was first introduced to the world by the Chinese.
They cut patterns on wooden blocks, dipped these blocks in ink and pressed them on
paper to get the impression of the patterns.

Nearly a thousand years later, in the 15th century,

Johannes Gutenberg set up the first printing press in
Germany in 1450. In 1456 first book was printed
known as “Gutenberg
Bible”. 200 copies of the
Bible were printed on
sheep skin.

Johannes Gutenberg
BOOKS FOR THE BLIND

The Braille System is a method that is

widely used by blind people to read and
write. It is named after a blind
Frenchman, Louis Braille,
Who invented this script. Each Braille
character is made up of six dot positions
arranged in a rectangle, containing two
columns of three dots each. The dots may
be raised at any of the six positions to
form sixty-four different letters. There are
many books written specially for the blind
people. Today, audio books called
’talking books’ are also available for the
blind students.

LITERACY AND PROGRESS

Although man has made remarkable progress in every field of life, there are crores of
people in India who are still illiterate. Many of them have never been to school.
Illiteracy and poverty closely related to each other. Illiteracy leads to superstitions and
backwardness. To remove illiteracy, we must promote education.

NEWTERMS
Manuscripts: Handwritten records of the past
Hieroglyphics: A pictographic script used by the ancient Egyptians.
Braille: A script consisting of raised dots on paper for people who could not see
Cuneiform: The earliest known form of writing
Papyrus: A plant used to make paper
Reed: a tall, slender leaved plant of the grass family

EXERCISES
I ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
1. What do you understand by the following?
i) glyphs
ii) hieroglyphs
iii) a script
iv)Language
2. How did people communicate before language was invented?
3. Why did early human feel the need to draw and write? Where did they draw
pictures?
4. Who developed the first scripts? What was it called?
5. Why is Indus Valley script still difficult to understand?
6. Compare between the hieroglyphics and Cuneiform writing
7. Why did hand written records have great value?
8. Besides Papyrus, what is the other method of making paper? Why do we need to use
paper wisely?
9. How did the invention of printing press bring about a revolution in the field of
knowledge?
10. Who invented the Braille System? Explain how it works?
11. How did the number system come into existence?
12. Why is literacy important?

REFLECTION:

a) Make a poster on the topic ‘Each one’ and ‘Teach one’

b) Write your name using Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

c) Find out how the numbers 1 to 10 are written in your mother tongue.

d) LIFE SKILLS
Find out more about the cave and rock paintings. There are many places in India which
have cave paintings made by the early men. Try to gather more information about
them.
THINK AND ANALYSE

What do you prefer-an e book or printed one? Why? Discuss the

limitations and advantages of each in the class.

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