A Brief History of Reading

Spoken language is a natural, biological form of human communication that is over 6

million years old. Reading is an invention that is only 6000 years old. There simply
hasn't been enough evolutionary time, yet, for the human physiology of reading to be
perfected.

Speech is Natural ... 6,000,000

Years. 

Text is an Invention ... 6000

Years. 

Aristotle, the world's first psychologist, understood this fundamental difference and
relationship between spoken language and written language.

Spoken words are the

symbols of mental
 experience, and written
words are the symbols of
spoken words.
Aristotle--On
Interpretation

Over history, humans have found methods to represent their spoken words with
written symbols. The first writing - Sumerian logographs from 4000 BC - were simply
pictures of objects and activities:

Sumerian Logographs -- circa 4000 BC

Medium Message
In 2000 BC, the Phoenicians developed the first methods to represent spoken
language - an alphabet consisting entirely of consonants:

SPKNWRDSRTHSYMB
L
SFMNTLXPRNCNDWR
 T
TNWRDSRTHSYMBLS
F
SPKNWRDS.
2000 BC--Phoenician alphabet contained
consonants only.

In 1000 BC, the first major upgrade occurred in the technology of representing
language - the Greeks added vowels to the alphabet. This is essentially the same
alphabet we use today - and it is considered one of humanity's greatest inventions.

SPOKENWORDSARET
HES
YMBOLSOFMENTALE
XPE
RIENCEANDWRITTEN
WO
 RDSARETHESYMBOL
SOF
SPOKENWORDS.
1000 BC--the Greeks added vowels.

About 1000 years later, in 200 BC, the next major upgrade in writing appeared:
punctuation marks. Punctuation was first observed in Alexandrian manuscripts of
plays written by Aristophanes.

SPOKENWORDSARET
HES
YMBOLSOFMENTALE
XPE
RIENCE,ANDWRITTE
NW
ORDSARETHESYMBO
LSO
 FSPOKENWORDS.
200 BC--Aristophanes' plays add punctuation.

Yet another 1000 years passed before the next improvement in text, namely the
invention of lower case characters by Medieval Scribes.

Spokenwordsarethesymb
olsofm
entalexperience,andwritte
nword
sarethesymbolsofspoken
words.
700 AD--lower case

About 1000 years ago, in 900 AD, the last major upgrade in text took place: the
insertion of spaces between words. Also developed by Medieval Scribes, this
invention made it possible, for the first time, for the vast majority of readers to be able
to read silently. Prior to this, most readers had to read out loud in order to be able to
 read at all. The few who could read text silently without these spaces between the
words, like Julius Caesar and St. Ambrose, were viewed as so extraordinary that this
ability is specifically recorded in historical records.

Spoken words are the

symbols of mental
experience, and written
words are the symbols of
spoken words.
900 AD--spaces between words.

For the past 1000 years, there has been essentially no change in the formatting of text,
the technology of spatially symbolizing natural spoken language, whether one
considers the handwritten scripts of 900 AD, the Gutenberg Bible of 1500 AD, or the
EBook of 2000 AD.

1000 AD 1500 AD 2000 AD

The great reading opportunity of electronic text is that digital content can be read by a
machine. This machine readability can be used to analyze text for syntactic structure,
grammatical attributes, word difficulty, pronunciation attributes, and the like, and the
results of this analysis can then be used to give shape to the presentation of text, using
patterns that enable the eye and the mind to work together to build meaning for the
reader. The LiveInk method of attribute extraction and varied presentation of text can
be automatically performed, and finally transforms Aristotle's sentence into this:

   Spoken words
      are the symbols
              of mental experi
ence,
          and written words
              are the symbols
                   of spoken wor
ds.
2000 AD--LiveInk®

LiveInk represents the most fundamental advance in the readability of text in the past
1000 years.
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(c) Copyrighted Walker Reading Technologies, Inc. 2001
US Patent No. 5,802,533 and Patents Pending.
Live Ink® is a registered trademark of Walker Reading Technologies, Inc.

Walker Reading Technologies, Inc.

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Bloomington, MN 55425
 All Rights Reserved.

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