2016 Notes On Writing and Literacy

Notes on writing and literacy
Piers Kelly
The Mint research group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena
kelly at shh.mpg.de
This document contains my notes relevant to the study of writing systems. In
compiling these notes, the focus of my research has been on new writing systems
invented in Southeast Asia, the Pacific and West Africa. Some of the notes on
Philippine systems have been pasted from !Notes on the Philippines where they are
tagged #writing systems, #literacy and #folk literacy. Note, however, that there may
be new Philippines materials added here that do not appear in the original !Notes on
the Philippines document.
Themes related to writing but not explicitly about writing can be found in the other
notes documents, tagged #unintelligibility #antinganting #urasyun #language
ideology
All commentary on Australian message sticks is in the document !Notes on message
sticks.
REMOVED FROM ONLINE VERSION

• All forthcoming papers
• All annotations
Tags
#acrophony #acquisition #africa: west #alaska #alphabet follows religion
#artificiality #asynchronicity #australia #authenticity #autoethnography
#article: gypsy alphabet #article: eskaya and medefaidrin #article: sophisticated [PK:
assessing difference between sophisticated and unsophisticated grammatogeny]
#article: supernatural literacy #article: west africa
#bagam #bamum #bete #body part iconism
#caroline islands script #cherokee #combinatoriality #contrast scripts [PK: refers to
Houston and Rojas’ model of accommodation, contrast and rupture]
#conventionalisation and compression #corpus planning #crackpots #creativity
#cognition #cypher
#decipherment #decra [ie, for DECRA application, but for any grant or postdoc
application] #definition: alphabet #definition: alphasyllabary #definition: ideography
#definition: literacy #definition: pictography #definition: syllabary #definition:
writing #deliberate script change #diffusion #diffusion: writing #djuka
#elites #evolution of writing #evolution of writing: intervention hypothesis [talented
inviduals created writing all at once]
1
#filipino pre-contact literacy #filipino post-contact literacy #folklore #folklore:
antiquity #folklore: lost book [PK: see also #origin stories] #fula
#gender #gola #grassroots literacy
#history #hypothesis: needs based origin #hypothesis: onomastics #hypothesis:
predisposition to phonography #hypothesis: primacy of the syllable
#idea of writing talk #ideologies: writing #implicational universals #institutional
literacy transmission #ingesting writing [see also #folklore: lost book] #inspiration
#intro [PK: general introductory ideas, as if for the start of a book]
#kikakui (also known as Mende) #khipus
#language as technology [see also #writing as technology] #leke #literacy vs. orality
#literate networks #logography #loma #lost tribes of israel
#mama #masaba #materiality [eg, transduction a la Keane] #medefaidrin [PK:
changed from #oberi okaime] #message sticks #methodology #methodology:
documentation #morphological equivalence #morphology #motivation #motivation:
cultural documentation #motivation: ethnic identity #motivation: literacy
#motivation: prestige #motivation: secrecy #motivation: universality #mpi
#nationalism #nko #nsibidi #numerals
#old persian cuneiform #oracle bone script #orientation #origin of writing #origin
stories #orthography #ottomaung
#peacock’s tail #philology #phonography #phylogeny #pictography
#postcolonialism #practice #primacy of writing #primacy of speech #progressivism:
language #progressivism: denial of indigenous sophistication [PK: aliens, lost tribes of
israel etc invoked to account for indigenous technology or symbolic culture; see also
first story in anting anting stories of the filipinos in which natives pass on treasure map
without being able to read it] #progressivism: writing
#rebel literacies #rebus #register #restriction vs. accessibility #rongorongo
#script #script: complexity #script utopianism #sign language #sorang sompeng
#state societies #stimulus diffusion #stimulus diffusion: Chinese #system #system:
hierarchy
#ta’u #theory #type 2 [in Olivier’s typology] #typology
#unintelligibility #hypothesis: use based origin
#vai #validity [as object of study] #varang kshiti #vitality
#western apache #world philologies talk #writing = model of language #writing as
symbol #writing as technology #writing systems: theory #writing and civilisation
#writing and language change #writing is language #writing system is folk analysis of
language [PK: has now been changed to #writing = model of language]
#yoruba holy writing
Tags of relevance in !Notes on theory and method document

#messianism
2
#ritual registers
Undated
Ezekiel 3, New International Version,
http://biblehub.com/niv/ezekiel/3.htm
And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and
speak to the people of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to
eat.
3 Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your
stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.
4 He then said to me: “Son of man, go now to the people of Israel and speak my
words to them. 5 You are not being sent to a people of obscure speech and strange
language, but to the people of Israel— 6 not to many peoples of obscure speech and
strange language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to
them, they would have listened to you. 7 But the people of Israel are not willing to
listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for all the Israelites are
hardened and obstinate. 8 But I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they
are. 9 I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be
afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people.”
10 And he said to me, “Son of man, listen carefully and take to heart all the words I
speak to you. 11 Go now to your people in exile and speak to them. Say to them,
‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says,’ whether they listen or fail to listen.”
#ingesting writing
1500–1599
Pigafetta, Antonio. [1525] 1903. Primo viaggio intorno al
mondo. In The Philippine Islands, edited by E. H. Blair and J. A.
Robertson. Cleveland: A.H. Clark. Vol XXXIII.
Jnanzi q̃ venisse lora de cenare donay molte cose al re q̃ haueua portati scrisse asai
cosse como le ciamanão Quanto Lo re et le alti me vistenno scriuere et li diceua qelle
sue parolle tutti restorono atoniti in questo mezo venne lora de cenare 118
Before the supper hour I gave the king many things which I had brought. I wrote
down the names of many things in their language. When the king and the others saw
me writing, and when I told them their words, they were all astonished. While
engaged in that the supper was announced. 119
#filipino pre-contact literacy
They told us that their king [of Brunei] was willing to let us get water and wood, and
to trade at our plesure. Upon hearing that seven of us entered their prau bearing a
present to their king, which consisted of a green velvet robe made in the Turkish
3
manner, a violet velvet chair, five brazas of red cloth, a cap, a gilded drinking glass, a
covered glass vase, three writing books of paper, and a gilded writing case. 215
Loarca, Miguel de. [1582] 1903. Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas. In

Blair and Robertson, vol 5, pages 34-187
There are two kinds of people in this land [the Pintados islands], who, although of the
same race, differ somewhat in their customs and are almost always on mutually
unfriendly terms. One class includes those who live along the coast, the other class
those who live in the mountains; and if peace seems to reign among them, it is
because they depend upon each other for the necessities of life. The inhabitants of the
mountains cannot live without the fish, salt, and other articles of food, and the jars
and dishes, of other districts; nor, on the other hand, can those of the coast live
without the rice and cotton of the mountaineers. In like manner they have two
different beliefs concerning the beginning of the world; and since these natives are not
acquainted with the art of writing, they perserve their ancient lore through songs,
which they sing in a very pleasing manner – commonly while plying their oars, as they
are island-dwellers. 121
...y ansi tienen dos opiniones, en lo del prinçipio del mundo y por careçer de letras
guardan esto naturales sus antiguedades en los cantares los quales coantan de
ordinario en sus bogas como son ysleños con muy buena graçia 120
They [the Tagalogs] are punctiliously courteous and affectionate in social intercourse
and are fond of writing to one another with the utmost propriety and most delicate
refinement. 279
Acosta, de. [1590] 1894. Historia natural y moral de las Indias. 2

vols. Vol. 2. Madrid: Ramón Anglés.
[…] ó por pintura, como cuasi en todo el mundo se ha usado, pues como se dice en el
Concilio Xiceno segundo, la pintura es libro para los idiotas que no saben leer; […]
151
#funny
[…] es á saber, que ninguna nación de Indios, que se ha descubierto en nuestros
tiempos, usa de letras, ni escritura, sino de las otras dos maneras, que son imágenes ó
figuras; y entiendo esto, no solo de los Indios del Perú y de los de Nueva-España, sino
en parte también de los Japones y Chinos; y aunque parecerá á algunos muy falso lo
que digo, por haber tanta relación de las grandes librerías y estudios de la China y del
Japón, y de sus chapas, provisiones y cartas; pero es muy llana verdad, como se enten-
derá en el discurso siguiente. 152
#progressivism: writing
Del género de letras y libros que usan los Chinos.
4
Las escrituras que usan los Chinos, piensan muchos, y aun es común opinión, que son
letras como las que usamos en Europa, quiero decir, que con ellas se puedan escribir
palabras ó razones, y que solo difieren de nuestras letras y escritura en ser sus
caracteres de otra forma, como difieren los Griegos de los Latinos, y los Hebreos y
Caldeos; y por la mayor parte no es así, porque ni tienen alfabeto, ni escriben letras,
ni es la diferencia de caracteres, sino en que principalmente su escribir es pintar ó
cifrar, y sus letras no significan partes de dicciones como las nuestras, sino son figuras
de cosas, como de Sol, de fuego, de hombre, de mar, y así de lo demás. Pruébase esto
evidentemente, porque siendo las lenguas que hablan los Chinos, innumerables, y
muy diferentes entre sí, sus escrituras y chapas igualmente se leen y entienden en
todas lenguas, como nuestros números [153],de guarismo igualmente se entienden en
Francés y Español, y en Arábigo; porque esta figura 8, donde quiera dice ocho,
aunque ese número el Francés le llama de una suerte, y el Español de otra. De aquí
es, que como las cosas son en sí innumerables, las letras ó figuras que usan los Chinas,
para denotarlas, son cuasi infinitas, porque el que ha de leer ó escribir en la China,
como los Mandarines hacen, ha de saber, por lo menos, ochenta y cinco mil figuras ó
letras; y los que han de ser perfectos en esta lectura ciento y veinte y tantas mil. 154
#chinese #ideography
[…] esta llaman la lengua Mandarina, que ha menester la edad de un hombre para
aprenderse; y es de advertir, que aunque la lengua en qne hablan los Mandarines, es
una, y diferente de las vulgares, que son muchas, y allá se estudia como acá la Latina
ó Griega, y solo la saben los letrados que están por toda la China; pero lo que se
escribe en ella, en todas las lenguas se entiende, porque aunque las Provincias no se
entienden de palabra unas á otras, mas por escrito sí, porque las letras ó figuras son
unas mismas para todos, y significan lo mismo; mas no tienen el mismo nombre, ni
prolacion, porque, como he dicho, son para denotar cosas, y no palabras, así como en
el ejem- plo de los números de guarismo que puse, se puede fácilmente entender. De
aquí también procede, que siendo los Japones y Chinas naciones y lenguas tan
diferentes, leen y entienden los unos las escrituras de los otros; y si hablasen lo que
leen ó escriben, poco ni mucho no se entenderían. 155
#chinese #ideography
[…] ero todo ello es de muy poca substancia, porque en efecto toda la ciencia de los
Chinos viene á parar en saber escribir y leer no mas, porque ciencias mas altas no las
alcanzan; y el mismo escribir y leer no es verdadero escribir y leer, pues no son letras
las suyas, que sirvan para palabras, sino figurillas de innumerables cosas, que con
infinito trabajo y tiempo, prolijo se alcanzan; y al cabo de toda su ciencia sabe mas un
Indio del Perú ó de Méjico, que ha aprendido á leer y escribir, que el mas sabio
Mandarín de ellos, pues el Indio con veinte y cuatro letras que sabe escribir y juntar,
escribirá, y leerá todos cuantos vocablos hay en el mundo, y el Mandarín con sus cien
mil letras estará muy du-[159]doso para escribir cualquier nombre propio de Martin
ó Alonso, y mucho menos podrá escribir los nombres de cosas que no conoce, porque
en resolución el escribir de la China es género de pintar ó cifrar. 160
Hállase en las naciones de la Nueva-España gran noticia y memoria de sus
antiguallas. Y queriendo yo averiguar en qué manera podian los Indios conservar sus
historias y tantas particularidades, entendí, que aunque no tenían tanta curiosidad y
delicadeza como los Chinos y Japones, to-davía no les faltaba algún género de letras y
libros, con que á su modo conservaban las cosas de sus mayores. 160
5
PK: I’m guessing that this is what Elizabeth Hill Boone was referring to when she noted
that “Acosta naturally gave first place to the alphabetic systems of western Europe; he
gave second place to the ideograms of China”.
De los memoriales y atentas que usaron los Indios del Perú. 165
[…] [PK: a whole chapter on khipus]
[…] y mucho mejor se saben ellos poner en cuenta y razón de lo que cabe á cada uno
de pagar ó dar, que sabremos nosotros dárselo por pluma y tinta averiguado. Si esto
no es ingenio, y si estos hombres son bestias, juzgúelo quien quisiere, que lo que yo
juzgo de cierto es, que en aquello á que se aplican, nos hacen grandes ventajas. 168
#khipus
Los de Méjico, por la misma razón, no escribían en renglón de un lado á otro, sino al
revés de los Chinos, comenzando de abajo, iban subiendo, y de esta suerte iban en la
cuenta de los dias, y de lo demás que notaban; aunque cuando escribían en sus rue-
das ó signos, comenzaban de en medio, donde pintaban al Sol, y de allí iban subiendo
por sus. años hasta la vuelta de la rueda. Finalmente, todas cuatro diferencias se
hallan en escrituras: unos escriben de la derecha á la izquierda: otros, de la izquierda
á la derecha: otros de arriba abajo: otros de abajo arriba, que tal es la diversidad de-
los ingenios de los hombres. 169
#orientation
1600–1699
Chirino, Pedro. S.J. [1604] 1969. Relacion de las Islas Filipinas.
Translated by R. Echevarria. Manila: Historical Conservation
Society.
[PK: More notes on this text in !Notes on the Philippines]
They [the Tagalogs] are punctiliously courteous and affectionate in social intercourse
and are fond of writing to one another with the utmost propriety and most delicate
refinement. 279
The Bisayans are more artless and unpolished, as their language is more uncultivated
and coarse. They do not have so many terms expressive of good breeding, as they had
no writing before they adopted that of the Tagalogs many years ago. 279
[Los Bisayas son más rústicos y llanos, como su lengua más bronca, y grosera. No
tienen tantos términos de crianza, como ni tenían letras; pués las tomaron de los
tagalos, bien pocos años há. 45]
So accustomed are all these islanders to writing and reading that there is scarcely a
man, and much less a woman, who cannot read and write in letters proper to the
island of Manila, very different from those of China, Japan and India […] 280
6
[Son tán dados todos esto isleños á escribir y leer, que no hay casi hombre y mucho
menos muger, que no lea y escriba en letras propias de la isla de Manila, diversísimas
de las de China, Japón, y de la India […] 45]
In spite of this [deletion of syllable-final consonants in the writing system] they
understand and make themselves understood wonderfully well and without
ambiguities: the reader easily and skillfully supplies the omitted consonants. They
have taken after us to writing horizontally from left to right, but formerly they used to
write from top to bottom putting the first vertical line on the left hand side (if I
remember well) and continuing towards the right, quite differently from the Chinese
and Japanese who though they write from top to bottom proceed from the right hand
side towards the left.
They wrote on bamboos or on palm leaves, using an iron point for a pen. Now they
write not only their own letters, but ours as well, with a very well cut pen and on
paper like ourselves. They have learned our language and pronunciation and write it
as well as we do, and even better, because they are so clever that they learn anything
very quickly. I have brought home letters written by their hand in a very fine, flowing
script. In Tigbauan I had a small [281] boy in school who in three months, by
copying letters that I received written in good script, learned to write much better
than I, and translated important papers for me most accurately, without errors or
falsehoods. But enough now of languages and letters, and let us return to our business
of souls. 282
#filipino pre-contact literacy #baybayin scripts #phonotactics
Not for any of these three things [the false belief in the divinity of their idols, of their
priests and priesteses, of their sacrifices and superstitions] – nor for government and
public order – did they make use of their letters, for as we have said they never used
these except to correspond with one another. 296
Chirino, Pedro. [1604] 1979. Relation of the Philippine Islands.

In Garcia, Mauro (ed.). Readings in Philippine prehistory. Manila:
Filipiniana Book Guild. PK: translator/date unknown. Find
original
I shall speak first concerning the false belief that they hold concerning the divinity of
their idols; second, of their priests and priestesses; third, and last, of their sacrifices and
superstitions. Their art of writing was of no service to them in any one of these three
things, or in matters of government and civilization (of which I shall perhaps later tell
the little that I know); for they never used their writing except to exchange letters, as
we have said. All their government and religion is founded on tradition, an on custom
introduced by the Devil himself, who spoke to them through their idols and the
ministers of these. They preserve it in songs, which they know by heart and learn
when children, by hearing these sung when they are sailing or tilling their fields, when
they are rejoicing and holding feasts, and especially, when they are mouring their
dead. 251
7
Morga, Antonio de. [1609] 1971. Sucesos de las islas Filipinas.
Edited and translated by J. S. Cummins. London: Cambridge
University Press.
The language of Luzon and of the surrounding islands is very different from that of
the Bisayas; and even in Luzon Island there is not a universal language, for the
Cagayans have one and the Ilocaons another. The Zambales have their own peculiar
tongue; the Pampangans’ is different again from the others. The natives of Manila
province, who are called Tagalogs, have a language of their own, also, which is rich
and fully capable of expressing whatever a person wishes to say elegantly and in many
ways and manners. It is not a difficult language to learn or pronounce.
Throught the islands the natives write very well, using certain characters, almost like
Greek or Arabic, fifteen in number, three of them being vowels equivalent of our five.
The consonants are twelve. All are used with certain dots and commas, and in
combination they express what they wish to write with all the fluency and ease of our
Spanish alphabet.
The manner of writing, once on bamboo, is now on paper, the lines running from
right to left in the Arabic manner. All the natives, women as well as men, write in this
language, and there are very few who do not write well and correctly. 269
#filipino pre-contact literacy #baybayin scripts
The act of drawing up a will consisted merely in making a written or oral statement
before acquaintances. 276
At the same time, besides teaching them their catechism the religious also work to
instruct the natives for their material improvement, opening schools to teach the boys
to read and write in Spanish, […] 291
#filipino post-contact literacy
In addition each settlement has its own elected local governor, [293] together with his
alguaziles, known as Vilangos. […] This governor, in addition to the vilangos and the
clerk (in whose presence he makes his decrees, in the written language of the natives of
the province), also has under his control and order the chief men and lords of the
Barangay, as well as those who are not chiefs […] 294
#filipino post-contact literacy
de Morga, Antonio. [1609?] 1979. Relation of the Philippine

Islands and ot their natives, antiquity, customs, and
government. In Garcia, Mauro (ed.). Readings in Philippine
prehistory. Manila: Filipiniana Book Guild. PK: translator/date
unknown. Find original
The language of all the Pintados and Bicayas is one and the same, by which they
understand one another when talking, or when writing with the letters and characters
8
of their own which they possess. These resemble those of the Arabs. The common
manner of writing among the natives is on leaves of trees, and on bamboo bark. 293
The natives throughout the island [Luzon] can write excellently with certain
characters, almost like the Greek or Arabic. These characters are fifteeen in all. Three
are vowels, which are used as are our five. The consonants number twelve, and each
and all of them combine with certain dots or commas, and so signify whatever one
wishes to write, as fluently and easily as is done with our Spanish alphabet. The
method of writing was on bamboo, but is now on paper, commencing the lines at the
right and running to the left, in the Arabic fasion. Almost all the natives, both men
and women, write in this language. There are very few who do not write it excellently
and correctly. 294
#filipino pre-contact literacy #baybayin scripts
de Morga, Antonio [?]. [1609?] 1979. The manners, customs

and beliefs of the Filipinos of long ago. In Garcia, Mauro (ed.).
Readings in Philippine prehistory. Manila: Filipiniana Book Guild.
PK: translator/date unknown. Find original
Description of the land of the province of Cagayan
They have certain characters that serve them as letters with which they write what
they want. They are very different looking from the rest that we know up to now.
Women commonly know how to write with them and when they write do son the
bark of certain pieces of bamboo, of which there are in the islands. In using these
pieces which are four fingers wide, they do not write with ink but with some stylus that
breaks the surface and bark of the bamboo, to write the letters. They have neither
books nor histories, and they do not write at length except missives and notes to one
another. for this purposes they have letters which total only seventeen. Each letter is a
syllable and with certain points placed to one side or the other of a letter, or above or
below, they compose words and write and say with these whatever they wish. It is very
easy to learn this and any person can do so in two months of studying. They are not so
quick in writing, because they do it very slowly. The same thing is in reading; which is
like when schoolchildren do their spelling. 339.
#philippiness #chapter 1
Colin, Francisco. [1660]1904. Labor Evangélica de los Obreros de

la Compañia de Jesús en las Islas Filipinas. Barcelona: Heinrich y
Compañía.
Conforme al origen, que dimos en el capitulo quarto (sic) a las Naciones Politicas de
estas Islas, es tambien su habilidad, lenguas, y letras: son descendientes de los Malayos
de la tierra firme de Malaca, y assi se les parecen en la capacidad, letras, y lenguas.
La figura, numero, y vso de los caracteres, y letras desta Nacion, claramente se vee,
que es todo tomado de Moros Malayos, y deducido de los Arabes. Las letras vocales
en el numero son tres solamente, y en el vso siruen de cinco, porque la segunda, y
9
tercera, son indiferentes, e, i, y, o, u, segun lo pide el sentido del vocable, ó razon que
se dize ó escriue. 54
[According to the source, we gave in chapter four, the political nations of these
islands are further characterised by their ability, language, and literacy (letras). They
are descendants of the Malays of the Malaccan mainland, and thus too they appear to
be in their capacity, literacy (letras) and languages.
It can be cleary seen that the form, number, and use of characters, and letters of this
Nation, is taken from the Moorish Malays, and inferred from the Arabic. The vowel
letters are but three in number, and in their use serve for five, because the second, and
third, are neutral, e, i, y, o, u, according to the sense of the word, or its stated or
written justification.] 54
#literacy #philippines
Alcina, Ignacio Francisco. [1668] 2002. History of the Bisayan

people in the Philippine Islands: Evangelization and culture at the
contact period: Historia de las Islas e indios de Bisayas. Part One,
Book 1, Volume 1. Manila: UST Publishing House.
[PK: Spanish trans is even numbered pages, English is facing odd pages. Text is marred by
inane annotations]
They neither knew nor even used the alphabet in the beginnings […] 73
[…] ni usaron ni supieron en su principio letras […] 72
#literacy
Alcina, Ignacio Francisco. [1668] 2005. History of the Bisayan

people in the Philippine Islands: Evangelization and culture at
the contact period: Historia de las Islas e indios de Bisayas.
Part One, Book 3, Volume III. Manila: UST Publishing House.
[PK: Have not read in detail from approx p295 onwards. Probably not too much in the
way of language material here but some pretty interesting ethnographic detail ]
At the end of this chapter I shall give their method of writing and reading whith the
characters that they use to today (and which are) new among the Bisayans; for in their
antiquity they did not know these, nor did they use them until very shortly before they
became Christians, as we shall say later. 31
[[…] en el remate de este capítulo, pondré su modo de escribir y leer con los
caracteres que hoy se usan, nuevos entre los bisayas, pues en su antigüedad no les
supieron ni los usaron hasta muy pocos años que fuesen cristianos, como luego
diremos.] 30
#literacy
These [vowels] are: A, which always has a constant and an invariable pronunciation;
E which they fail to distinguish from the I; instead they so confuse them that many
neither pronounce I clearly, nor the E, but rather as a dipththong of E and I. They
interchange them ans substitute one for the other even when writing in our language
10
and in the Spanish characters. [This they do] to such an extent that I do not know
whether to this day a native has been found – whether Bisayan or Tagalog, for in this
matter all are the same – who does not confuse and interchange them, even though he
may be well versed in our language and disciplined in our character. 33
#orthogaphy #philippines #phonology: allophones #phonotactics
The same may be said about the O and the U, which they also confuse in their writing
as well as in their pronunciation. 33
#orthogaphy #philippines #phonology: allophones #phonotactics
Let us bring this chapter to a conclusion with the letters of these Bisayans, or to put it
better, those which they have used for the past several years until now – a skill which
was communicated to them by the Tagalogs who , in turn, had learned it from the
Borneans. These came from the Island of Borneo to Manila, for they had considerable
trade with them; together whith this, they infected the Tagalogs with the evil sect of
Mohammed long before the Spaniards arrived here. 49
[Acabemos este capítulo con los caracteres de estos naturales, o, por mejor decir, de
que usan de pocos años a este parte, enseñanza que se les comunicó de los tagalos, y
esto aprendieron de los burneyes que vinieron de su gran isla de Bornei a la de
Manila, […]] 48
#literacy
The Tagalogs learned their characters from the Borneans and the Bisayans from the
Tagalogs. This is why they call these letters or characters ‘Moro’ [characters], because
the Moros taught these to them. Although they never came to the Bisayas, or they did
not admit this accursed sect, they learned their letters. Today they are widely used,
and by the women more than by the men. The former read and write them more
fluently than the latter. 49
#literacy
Boswell, James. [1791] 1807. The life of Samuel Johnson. Boston:

W. Andrews and L. Blake.
Johnson called the East-Indians barbarians. BOSWELL “You will except the Chinese,
Sir?” JOHNSON. “No, Sir.” BOSWELL. “Have they not arts?” JOHNSON. “They have
pottery.” Boswell. “What do you say to the written characters of their language?”
JOHNSON. “Sir, they have not an alphabet. they have not been able to form what all
other nations have formed.” BOSWELL. “there is more learning in their language than
in any other, from the immense number of their characters.” JOHNSON. “It is only
more difficult from its rudeness; as there is more labour in hewing down a tree with a
stone than with an axe.” 52
11
1800–1869
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. [1837] 2001. The philosophy of
history. Translated by J Sibree. Kitchener, Ontario: Batoche
Books.
The periods — whether we suppose them to be centuries or millennia — that were
passed by nations before history was written among them — and which may have
been filled with revolutions, nomadic wanderings, and the strangest mutations — are
on that very account destitute of objective history, because they present no subjective
history, no annals. We need not suppose that the records of such periods have
accidentally perished; rather, because they were not possible, do we find them
wanting. Only in a State cognizant of Laws, can distinct transactions take place,
accompanied by such a clear consciousness of them as supplies the ability and suggests
the necessity of an enduring record. It strikes every one, in beginning to form an
acquaintance with the treasures of Indian literature, that a land so rich in intellectual
products, and those of the profoundest order of thought, has no History; and in this
respect contrasts most strongly with China — an empire possessing one so
remarkable, one going back to the most ancient times. India has not only ancient
books relating to religion, and splendid poetical productions, but also ancient codes;
the existence of which latter kind of literature has been mentioned as a condition
necessary to the origination of History — and yet History itself is not found. 77
#writing and civilisation
Africa proper, as far as History goes back, has remained — for all purposes of
connection with the rest of the World — shut up; it is the Gold-land compressed
within itself — the land of childhood, which lying beyond the day of self-conscious
history, is enveloped in the dark mantle of Night. 109
#progressivism
The Negro, as already observed, exhibits the natural man in his completely wild and
untamed state. We must lay aside all thought of reverence and morality — all that we
call feeling — if we would rightly comprehend him; there is nothing harmonious with
humanity to be found in this type of character. The copious and circumstantial
accounts of Missionaries completely confirm this, and Mahommedanism appears to
be the only thing which in any way brings the Negroes within the range of culture.
111
#progressivism
At this point we leave Africa, not to mention it again. For it is no historical part of the
World; it has no movement or development to exhibit. 117
#progressivism #writing as civilisation
What we properly understand by Africa, is the Unhistorical, Undeveloped Spirit, still
involved in the conditions of mere nature, and which had to be presented here only as
on the threshold of the World’s History. 117
#progressivism
12
The nature of their Written Language is at the outset a great hindrance to the
development of the sciences. Rather, conversely, because a true scientific interest does
not exist, the Chinese have acquired no better instrument for representing and
imparting thought. They have, as is well known, beside a Spoken Language, a Written
Language; which does not express, as our does, individual sounds — does not present
the spoken words to the eye, but represents the ideas themselves by signs. This
appears at first sight a great advantage, and has gained the suffrages of many great
men — among others, of Leibnitz. In reality, it is anything but such. For if we
consider in the first place, the effect of such a mode of writing on the Spoken
Language, we shall find this among the Chinese very imperfect, on account of that
separation. For our Spoken Language is matured to distinctness chiefly through the
necessity of finding signs for each single sound, which latter, by reading, we learn to
express distinctly. The Chinese, to whom such a means of orthoepic development is
wanting, do not mature the modifications of sounds in their language to distinct
articulations capable of being represented by letters and syllables. Their Spoken
Language consists of an inconsiderable number of monosyllabic words, which are
used with more than one signification. The sole methods of denoting [152]
distinctions of meaning are the connection, the accent, and the pronunciation —
quicker or slower, softer or louder. The ears of the Chinese have become very sensible
to such distinctions. Thus I find that the word Po has eleven different meanings
according to the tone: denoting “glass” — “to boil” — “to winnow wheat” — “to
cleave asunder” — “to water” — “to prepare” — “an old woman” — “a slave” — “a
liberal man” — “a wise person” — “a little.” — As to their Written Language, I will
specify only the obstacles which it presents to the advance of the sciences. Our
Written Language is very simple for a learner, as we analyze our Spoken Language
into about twenty-five articulations, by which analysis, speech is rendered definite, the
multitude of possible sounds is limited, and obscure intermediate sounds are banished:
we have to learn only these signs and their combinations. Instead of twenty-five signs
of this sort, the Chinese have many thousands to learn. The number necessary for use
is reckoned at 9,353, or even 10,516, if we add those recently introduced; and the
number of characters generally, for ideas and their combinations as they are presented
in books, amounts to from 80,000 to 90,000. As to the sciences themselves, History
among the Chinese comprehends the bare and definite facts, without any opinion or
reasoning upon them. In the same way their Jurisprudence gives only fixed laws, and
their Ethics only determinate duties, without raising the question of a subjective
foundation for them. 153
#type 4 #progressivism: writing #progressivism: language #chinese
The Hindoos on the contrary are by birth given over to an unyielding destiny, while
at the same time their Spirit is exalted to Ideality; so that their minds exhibit the
contradictory processes of a dissolution of fixed rational and definite conceptions in
their Ideality, and on the other side, a degradation of this ideality to a multiformity of
sensuous objects. This makes them incapable of writing History. All that happens is
dissipated in their minds into confused dreams. What we call historical truth and
veracity — intelligent, thoughtful comprehension of events, and fidelity in
representing them — nothing of this sort can be looked for among the Hindoos. 180
Written language is still a hieroglyphic; and its basis is only the sensuous image, not
the letter itself.
13
Thus the memorials of Egypt themselves give us a multitude of forms and images that
express its character; we recognize a Spirit in them which feels itself compressed;
which utters itself, but only in a sensuous mode. 218
#ideography
Anubis is called the friend and companion of Osiris. To him is ascribed the invention
of writing, and of science generally — of , grammar, astronomy, mensuration, music,
and medicine. 230
#origin stories
Durville, Dumont. 1843. Voyage au pole sud et dans l’Océanie sur

les corvettes L’Astrolabe et La Zélée. Vol. 5. Paris: Gide.
[http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015092915670;view=1up;seq=182]
Je n’ai vu nulle part un peuple aussi sale; on ne peut respirer sous leurs cases, tant elles
son infectes: su rest la plus grande pauvreté semble pese sur ces malheureux. Leurs
vêtements en toile tissée, son tout ce que pourraient leur ambitionner les peuples de
l’Océanie que nous avons déjà visités. Sis dans leurs mains des frondes artistement
travail-[166]ées sont des armes terribles, ils ignorent la puissance de l’arc et des
flèches, dont les peuplades noires leurs voisines font un si terrible usage. 167
[Trans from Hezel but it’s not exact or could be from another version of original:
“The reputation of the Carolines has been tarnished, for we have found here
treacherous and wicked people, however engaging their appearance. In no part of
Oceania have we found such self-interested hospitality as here. The people do not give
much and are very demanding in their requests. They are dirty; it is hard to breathe
in their houses. Even though beautifully worked branches can become dangerous
weapons in their hands, they know nothing of the bow and arrow.”]
#progressivism #caroline islands script
Koelle, S. W. 1849. Narrative of an expedition into the Vy country

of West Africa and the discovery of a system of syllabic writing
recently invented by the natives of the Vy tribe. London: Seeleys,
Fleet Street; Hatchards, Picadilly; J. Nisbet and Co. Berners
Street.
[PK: Note that this text is virtually identical to Koelle 1854 which I read first, so the notes
copied here are from places where the two texts differ, or where I have needed to
extract an original quote for a paper. Be sure to read Koelle 1854 but better to quote
from Koelle 1849 or both. The earlier text is more lurid and has more of the war and
slaving context in it]
#vai #article: west africa
Preface [By Church Missionary Society, Sept. 6th, 1849.]
It has been frequently asserted that no attempt has been made by the Native Tribes of
the Western Coast of Africa to reduce their languages to writing: the only known
method of intercommunication having been by means of the Arabic language,
introduced by Mahometan scholars. This fact has been often alleged as a proof of the
14
low intellectual qualities of the natives. Hence, when intelligence reached Sierra
Leone of the discovery of a written language in the interior, and of the arrival of a
man with a written book, which he was able to read, the whole population was deeply
interested in the discovery. The Missionaries hoped that such a language might be the
means of introducing the Scriptures, and of throwing a new light upon the philology
of West Africa. iii
But at the same tune, Mr. Koelle’s Narrative affords such a proof of intellectual ability
and enterprize in the Natives, as well as of a certain degree of moral and religious
feeling, that it holds out bright hopes of the introduction of civilization and
Christianity, if under the Divine blessing the right means be applied: and if the awful
and degrading evils of the Slave-trade shall be checked. iv
#progressivism: writing #writing as civilisation
In the course of a few months two most interesting scientific discoveries in Africa are
made known by the Missionaries of this Society: namely, the existence of a mountain
covered with perpetual snow, within three degrees of the Equator, upon the East
Coast,* and this investigation of the recent invention of a Syllabic System of
Orthography. v
[fn]: Mr. Koelle is a native of Germany. 8
Almost daily they had some fighting in the forest which was close to us, and we could
not say which party was going to be victorious. Once, the party favouring slave-trade
came very near to us, both by water and byland; but they were successfully resisted,
and at last driven back by the other party.! 9
The war itself is connected with the slave-trade, and, therefore, I will tell how it arose.
The men-of-war try to make treaties with the Native chiefs, that they should have
nothing more to do with foreign slave-trade. They succeeded, some years ago, in
concluding such a treaty with the Vei king, who has faithfully kept this treaty. But now
a party formed themselves, who wanted to carry on slave-trade, yet, at first, without
openly resisting the opposite party. 11
This bloody deed [assassination of a king] brought about an open rupture; the
previous suspicion and dissension became a determined hostility; a civil war broke out
which lasted till after my departure. 11
On the other side of this stockade, towards the town, there is a girdle, fully four feet
broad, and consisting of sharp-pointed sticks three feet long, which are rammed into
the ground with their points upwards, all around the town, like a trackle of wood. This
girdle of pointed sticks will almost render it impossible for any body to climb up the
stockade, and leap over it into the town. 14
All the other Vei towns which I have seen were fortified in the same way, like Datia,
or in a very similar one. When I expressed my surprise to the people that they built
their houses so close together for they are so cramped that you can scarcely move
between them, and that the dust and heat become almost intolerable for a European
they told me, that this is on account of the war. Before the war many had their houses
scattered in the bush, but when the war came, they all removed their houses into the
stockade, which thereby became quite crowded. 14
15
Next morning they early came, and reminded me of my promise, upon which I told
them that I had heard of some men here who have written their own language, but
that their books were now old, and so I came to bring them new paper, on which they
might copy them, and then let me have the old books, that I might show them to my
friends in the Poro country, (very likely originally equal to Portuguese country, but
now to “ white man’s country” in general) great friends of the black people. 19
It seems, therefore, to be of the same kind as that still used in Japan. 19
And this [alphabetic writing] cannot be expected of a people when making the very
first attempt in writing. 20
Yet from the nature of the characters, they can also be written and joined in an
opposite direction, and a few men I saw do so ; but Doalu himself, and the majority of
the people write in the same direction as ourselves. 20
The mode of writing, therefore, is very undeveloped, and it is to be considered as
fortunate, in a certain sense, that it is not too extensively known ; so that a better
system of orthography may at once be introduced, without much difficulty, together
with the introduction of [20] Christianity. It would be really a pity to make use of such
an unweildy and inaccurate orthography, in case books should be translated into the
Vei language. Nevertheless, it does much credit to the people, as a first attempt at
writing. 21
[PK: Note Koelle excludes this tract from later reproduction of the same text. Probably
changed his mind after noting success of system in intervening years]
And as an illustration to what a degree of accuracy it is carried, I can state, that once
in translating a manuscript, I could not get the assistance of a man who could read,
and therefore had to take one who could not. To him I read from the manuscript, and
he translated it into English. Afterwards, when I was again assisted by a reading man,
I translated the same piece over again, and found, when comparing both, the
translations, that upon the whole they agreed. 21
There is, therefore, also no connexion, as has been supposed, between the Chinese
and the Vei writings. 21
He said : About fifteen years ago, I had a dream, in which a tall, venerable looking
white man appeared to me, saying, “I am sent to [21] you by other white men.”
Doalu asked,”What is the object for which you are sent to me?” The white man
replied, “I bring you a book.” Doalu said, “This is very good but tell me now, what is
the nature of this book.” The white messenger answered: “I am sent to bring this book
to you, in order that you bring it to the rest of the people. But I must tell you, that
neither you, nor any one who will become acquainted with the book, are allowed to
eat the flesh of dogs and monkeys, nor of any thing found dead, whose throat was not
cut ; and to touch the book on those days on which you have touched the fruit of the
To-tree (a kind of very sharp pepper).” The messenger then showed Doalu his book,
and taught him, to write any Vei words in the same way, in which the book was
written. This made a deep impression on Doalu’s mind, and he described it to me
quite graphically. He said: “Look, this sign (writing the sign with his finger on the
ground) Doalu means i (English e). Then he wrote close to it another sign, saying, and
this means na. Now, Doalu, read both together!” Doalu did so and was quitedelighted
to have learnt to read the word ina, i. e. come here! In the same way the messenger
showed him how a great number of other words can be written. At last Doalu asked
16
his instructor concerning the contents of the book he had brought. But the answer
was: “Wait a little ; I shall tell you by and by.” After this Doalu awoke, but, as he told
me in a sorrowful tone, was never afterwards told what was written in the book. In the
morning he called his friends together, in order to tell them his dream, viz. his brother
Dshara Barakora, and his cousins, Dshara Kali, Kali Bara, Fa Gbasi, and So Tabaku,
all of whom are still alive, with the exception of So Tabaku who died about three
years ago. They were all exceedingly pleased with the dream, and quite sure, that it
contained a divine revelation. A few days after, Kali Bara also, as he himself told me,
had a dream, the reality of which, however, I doubt very much, in which a white man
told him that the book came from God, and that they must mind it well. 22
As regards intelligence, I was told by a native trader in Liberia, who is well acquainted
with a number of African tribes, and who once lived for eight years in the Vei
country, that the tribes in the interior are more intelligent than all the tribes on the
coast, the Vei tribe not excepted. He attributed this circumstance to the long-
continued degrading influence of slave-trade upon the tribes near the coast. Besides
this, the Vei tribes is by no means a very extensive tribe. I do not think, that it
amounts to 50,000 souls altogether. The constant intercourse also which the Vei
people keep up with Liberia, where American Missionary Societies are carrying on a
prosperous work, seems to show that it would be most natural for these Societies to
extend their operations to the Vei country, as they have also already done, by sending
a School-master there. 28
As regards the occupations of the people, the freemen generally attend to their trade,
and look after the slaves and women who work the farms. 29
[PK: In other words, Vai practise slavery at this time]
I was told, that the wealth of a man is estimated by the number of wives he can have
on the Sandbeach to prepare salt. Salt is the chief article of trade with the tribes in the
interior. Slaves, laden with salt, are sent thither, and bring in return cattle and ivory.
30
Their food appears to be simple, consisting chiefly of rice, cassadas, and fish, and
sometimes, especially in the rainy season, some venison, e. g., of deer, of which they
have several kinds in the bush. 30
[…]though they have fine goats, yet do they not milk them. Their cows give no milk,
for the tribes in the interior from whom they get them, prevent the Vei people from
raising cattle; and so secure to themselves the continuance of their trade in cattle. 31
Buzeta, Manuel, and Felipe Bravo. 1851. Diccionario geográfico,

estadístico, histórico de las Islas Filipinas. Vol. 1. Madrid: D. José
C. de la Peña.
IDIOMA Los dialectos varian no solo entre las castas sino que cada distrito y aun
cada familia tienen el suyo peculiar. Esta diversidad se esplica por el estado de
barbarie en que viven todos los pueblos la ignorancia y el aislamiento son causas
suficientes para ello. Lo mismo se observa en las tribus sumisas como en la de los
isinayas aunque poseen diccionarios. Sin embargo entre tanta multitud de dialectos se
distinguen particularmente el bisayo el tagalo y el pampango que parecen ser las
lenguas madres por mas completas y perfectas. Quedan muy pocos fragmentos de la
escritura de estas lenguas porque reduciéndose á signos trazados sobre pedazos de la
17
hoja del banana con una punta de bambú no se ha podido conservar lo poco que
escribieran. Estos escritos se reducian á hojas sueltas espresando los búfalos que
poseian y otros pormenores de interés personal y doméstico. Mucho se ha trahajado
en averiguacion del origen de aquellas lenguas y su relacion con las antiguas unos las
han considerado semejantes al árabe otros han creido ser su carácter mas análogo á la
China y Japona y no pocos encarecedores del hebreo presentan esta lengua como su
originaria. Nosotros no podemos menos de orillar los origenes hebráicos si bien
consideramos que el estremo Oriente hubo de tener una lengua propia progenitora de
todas las demas lenguas inclusa la misma hebrea siendo [64] do todos estos los
resultados del cambio de aquella hecho por la accion tópica y la cultura ó el atraso de
los distintos paises y tiempos. Dicese generalmente que los dialectos filipinos deben su
origen á la lengua malaya y no lo contradiremos si se entiende en esta aquella lengua
primitiva. Diferentes dialectos de los que se hablan en las islas Visayas presentan la
mayor relacion con esta lengua. Se encuentra no obstante que palabras de igual
pronunciacion tienen significado distinto y que otras muy diferentes son de sentidos
análogos. Las voces malayas olo cabeza puti blanco langil cielo mata ojo susu pecho batu
piedra se encuentran en los idiomas tagalo bisayo y en los dialectos cebuano y lutao
otras palabras como lina lengua babi puerco ete solo ofrecen muy pequeña diferencia
en la pronunciacion diciéndose dita babuy ete. La lengua primitiva y propia del pais
ha sido tambien adulterada por los dialectos advenedizos. La lengua espanola ha dado
sus caracteres á los filipinos cultos. La lengua tagala es clara rica elegante metafórica y
poética prestándose mucho á la improvisacion en la que se distingue el genio del pais.
La dificultad de esta lengua se esplica diciendo que para aprenderla se necesita un año
de arte y dos de bahaque esto es de ejecucion y práctica pues se llama haha [PK: baba?]
que el ceñidor ó taparrabo que llevan los indigenas de las montanas. La escritura de
estos pueblos en su estado natural es de derecha á izquierda como todos los orientales
usando diferentes signos cuyo significado se altera por el número de puntos que se
coloca en la parte superior ó inferior de modo que una sola palabra escrita tiene
muchas veces seis ó siete significaciones. Tienen diez y siete caracteres ó signos de los
cuales tres son vocales valiendo por los cinco nuestros pues uno representa la A otro la
y tiene tambien el sonido de y otro equivale á la O y á la U. De aqui nace gran parte
de la diversidad de pronunciaciones tubi permitidme se pronuncia tambien tabe olo se
pronuncia ulu. Las consonantes son catorce y se pronuncian siempre con la A si se
escriben simplemente asi los signos que representan la С M se pronuncian Ça Ma
pero poniendo un punto arriha se pronuncian con la E ó con la I y puesto abajo con
la O ó con la U. La С y la S no se distinguen la D se pronuncia muchas veces R como
en Madali que articulan marali la F se cambia tambien en La С se cambia algunas
veces en M la G en У en la poesia. Esta última letra la G se pronuncia nasal cuando
está eu medio de palabra y acentuada segun se nota en esta palabra manga que indica
el plural. Las silabas Ge Ji se pronuncian muchas veces como guy la como J espanola
la Q como A y la U como la espanola La pronunciacion de la g acentuada como en el
monosilabo щ solo se puede aprender por el uso. Esta palabra no es mas que una
conjuncion eufónica que se coloca entre toda especie de dicciones. Asi se traducirá la
[65]proposicion hermoso cahallo mabuting ñga cavayo en vez de mabwting cavayn
uniendo el adjetivo al sustantivo. La lengua espanola ha introducido con sus
caracteres otras muchas novedades en los pueblos cultos pero ha dejado intacta la
pronunciacion. Estas lenguas tienen sus nombres declinables por seis casos tienen
tambien sus conjugaciones de modo que puede escribirse en las tagala y visaya como
en las europeas. Asi es que se han publicado obras en prosa y en verso entre lias
tratados sagrados poemas tragedias y odas que han sido impresas en Manila. La
18
pasion ha sido completamente traducida y los indios de aquella y sus atrededores la
cantan durante los cuarenta dias de la cuaresma haciéndolo muchas veces reunidos
acompanándose con una música por cierto no muy agradable. Los idiomas de los
naturales sumisos á los espanoles pueden reducirse al tagalo pampango zombal á los
de Pangasinan Cagayan llocos Camarines ó vicol al Vi sayo Vatonés y el chamorro.
El tagalo y el visayo pueden considerarse como las lenguas madres. Se habla la lengua
tagala que es la mas estendida en las provincias de Tonda Bu lacan Bataan Satangas
Laguna Nueva Ecija Tayabas Cavite Mindoro y Zamboanga. Tambien se habla en
las islas Marianas á donde la llevaron los deportados. Se habla la visaya en todas las
islas visayas pero se diferencia en algunas provincias de modo que los habitantes de
Iloilo no entienden bien á los de Samar no obstante hallarse en frecuentes relaciones.
Por esto se divide la visaya en cuatro dialectos
i. El de la isla de Panay que se habla en Iloilo en las pequeñas islas de Romblon
Tablas y Sebuyan en la parte noroeste de la de los Negros en Zamboanga en las
provincias de Misamis y Caraga
2 El de Capis que se diferencia poco del de Iloilo 5 El Cebúano que muchos
consideran como lengua particular este se habla tambien en la isla de Bohol y en la
parte de la de los Negros que mas se aproxima á la de Cebú. Sus naturales
comprenden fácilmente el de Iloilo 4 El de las islas Calamianes y Paragna en la parte
sumisa á los espanoles este es el resultado dela mezcla de las lenguas tagala y visaya.
Los demas idiomas se hablan solo en las provincias de que toman nombre. La isla de
Mindanao está como la de Luzon dividida en gran número de tribus teniendo todas
ellas sus dialectos particulares que seria imposible detallar no obstante la lengua mas
general es la illana semejante á la malaya. En Luzon los igorrotes tinguianes fugaos
gaddanes ibilaos i letapanes negritos ó itus raza primitiva diseminada en casi todas las
cordilleras ete hablan dialectos que varian hasta por tribus ó rancherias fíC [66]
#history: language documentation (Spanish period) NEW #chapter 1 #philippines
#lost tribes of israel
Forbes, F. E. 1851. “Despatch concerning the discovery of a

native written character.” Journal of the Royal Geographical
Society of London 20:89-101.
#vai
It will be observed that the language is of the Phonetic order ; that the characters are
not symbolical ; and, according to my teacher, it was invented ten or twenty years ago
by the following eight men :—
[…]
“Mormorro Dualoo Wohgnae” thus writes his name :--Mo mo du dua du wó yé.
He informs me that at first the language was studied by many, and that schools were
established ; but that such extraordinary signs of civilization aroused the jealousy of
their Spanish neighbours at Gallinas, who, by intrigue and presents, soon laid the
whole country into such a state of anarchy as overthrew the progress of learning.
If the language be one of such. recent origin, or even an introduction, how far we
must have mistaken the African’s constitution! 91
19
The foregoing vocabulary is of the “Vahie” or Vei language, which extends over the
following countries: Cape Mount, Soungrie, Marma, and Gallinas, on the sea coast,
and several interior countries. 101
Norris, E. 1851. “Notes on the Vei language and alphabet.”

Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 20:101-113.
#vai
It seemed that now, for the first time, we had an opportunity of becoming acquainted
with the less obvious peculiarities of a negro tongue; every writing in a negro language
which had been hitherto within the reach of philologers being either the production of
foreigners, or of natives who had been so long under foreign instruction that they may
fairly be supposed to have lost something of the original purity of their own
languages—to their great advantage, no doubt, but not so much to our purpose!. 102
#article: west africa
I am sorry to confess that I have not been very successful in getting at the peculiarities
of the language. The manuscripts are written without any division between words or
sentences […]. 102
#orientation
As many of the characters are found in every position, I am inclined to think that
these characters are only one, and that they represent the Semitic! ‫ע‬, an additional
trace of a (so-called) Semitic element found in an African language. 104
With respect to the question of the fitness of this character for the language in which it
is adopted, the rapid way in which it has spread through the country where it was
invented, seems to be decisive. Within a very few years after its first promulgation, we
find it written and read by large numbers of all ages, in as great a proportion perhaps
as readers and writers are found in most countries of Europe, and taught in regular
schools until war broke up the establishments and dispersed the teachers. Even now,
in Bandakoro, the chief Vei town, “all the grown up people of the male sex are more
or less able to read and to write.”* [*The originals are referred to by the letters A, C,
D, and by the number of the line. If these MSS. should ever be published, this will
enable a future investigator to test my results; and if not, there is no doubt that a
Church Missionary Society will afford ready access to persons desirous of consulting
the MSS.] And this, be it observed, was wholly uninfluenced by European teaching,
while all our endeavours have barely sufficed to induce a single tribe to adopt the
Roman alphabet generally. We may, therefore, suppose that a syllabic alphabet is
more suited to the ability, or, it may be, caprice of a negro, than our analytic
alphabets. Again, all people receive inventions of their own with greater favour than
foreign importations: the Armenians are said to have used for ages the Greek and
Syriac alphabets, and they produced with them little, !if anything, which has come
down to us; but in the fifth century, when Mesrop invented what we think his clumsy
alphabet, they immediately began to write, and they produced in the following
centuries a respectable literature, original and translated, which might vie in quantity
with that of most European nations of the same period. The invention of the Arabic
alphabet, in the sixth century, seems to have had the same result among the Arabs.
20
The Cherokees, thirty years ago, invented a syllabarium; they immediately began
writing and printing it, and they even produced a good newspaper: the development
of this germ of civilization, the first of the kind ever displayed by a native American
tribe, was checked, and probably destroyed, by the barbarian policy of the local
government of Georgia. 112
#article: west africa #writing and civilisation #hypothesis: primacy of the syllable
Irrespective of these considerations it may admit of a question whether a syllabarium
may not be better suited than our alphabets, to a language of so simple a syllabic
structure as the Vei, the number of whose sounds is so limited; and, moreover, when
many words in a language have the same sound with a different meaning, it must be
difficult to understand a system of writing which conveys the sound only. Many
nations do make a variation in spelling for such cases: thus we write sent, cent, and
scent; pare, pear, and pair. The French too write parler, parlé, parlais, parlait,
parlaient; in each case with a different meaning, but the same sound; and there can be
no doubt that such non-phonetic [112] variations add much to the facility of reading.
In the Vei language these differences of meaning with the same sound appear to be
very much more numerous than in English or French, and we hardly see how the
difficulty is to be got over without some such system as that in question, unless we
would have recourse to such a plan as is adopted from necessity in this paper, which is
certainly more difficult to be learned by a person ignorant of both systems. It is true
that the number of characters is large, but more than a quarter of them are of rare
occurrence, being only used for Names, probably for the sake of distinction, like our
capital letters, and these might be retrenched by the use of a larger character for such
a purpose. It must be remembered too that when the syllabarium is learned the art of
reading is acquired, while with us the learning of the alphabet is the smallest part of
the work, and children know their alphabet perfectly a long time before they are able
to read. It would be too much to recommend the casting of types, but with the
facilities offered by lithography, it might be worth while to try how far the translation
and dissemination of a few tracts in a simple style may be available to awake a spirit of
inquiry which may ultimately result in the civilization of the negro.
To judge from the structure of the language, the same character would be equally
available for the Bambarra, Mandingo, and Susu nations, with populations of several
millions, spread over a large surface of Africa. 113
#hypothesis: predisposition to phonography #hypothesis: onomastics #writing and
civilisation
Koelle, S. W. 1854. Outlines of a grammar of the Vei language

together with a Vei-English vocabulary. London: Church
Missionary House.
#vai #article: west africa
Deference to the national principle in orthography will at least raise the question,
whether, in writing the Vei language, the Vei characters ought not to be made use of;
the more so, as, among the large number of Negro languages, Vei is the only one
which can boast of a national orthography. But the fact of its being a syllabic mode of
writing will at once prove that it cannot be suited for the present era of the world. And
much credit as it does to the modest inventor, and the Vei tribe in general, a
21
comparison of words written in it with those written in a proper alphabetic
orthography will show that, as must be expected, it bears quite the character of a first
attempt, and is not developed in a sufficient degree of completion and accuracy.
Besides, the wars which had broken out not long after its invention, and which have
been devastating the country for about twenty years, up to the beginning of the
present, could not but prevent its spread among the bulk of the people. At the
Gallinas the fact of the invention is scarcely known; and the jealousy between both
places would raise a strong objection amongst the people! of the Gallinas against
whatever has been invented near Cape Mount. And of late the natives have learnt
that it is so much to their advantage to speak and write English—during my present
stay here the whole country round Cape Mount has been purchased by the English-
speaking Liberian Government—that it is very unlikely the Vei mode of writing will
ever see a revival.
Even independent of the question of desirableness, the state of obscurity in which the
African languages are still buried, and the impossibility of tracing their gradual
development, at once exclude an application of the etymological principle of
orthography in any greater extent, than merely to let it appear when vowels or
consonants have been dropped. 15
#hypothesis: primacy of the syllable
It has been suggested that, an account should be added to this Grammar respecting the
mode of writing invented by the Vei people themselves, and that the memory of this
interesting fact should thus be preserved, especially as the pamphlet which contained
such an account, viz. the “Narrative of an Expedition into the Vei country of West
Africa, and the Discovery of a System of Syllabic Writing, by the Rev. S. W. Koelle, is
nearly out of print. I respond to this wish the more gladly, as it will afford me another
opportunity for making honourable mention of my late friend, Momoru Doalu
Bukere (English, Muhammed Doalu Gunwar) or Doalu Gburomo (English, Doalu,
the Bookman), the noble and modest originator of the only mode of native writing
ever discovered amongst the negro race, and who is now no longer in the flesh, but
yonder in the world of spirits, which so often had occupied his contemplative mind
before his translation thither.
Perhaps it will be best for our present purpose to give a short extract of the above-
named pamphlet.
About the middle of January 1849, Lieutenant Forbes, Commander of H.M.S.
Bonetta, came to Fourah Bay, in order to inquire, whether the Missionaries of Sierra
Leone had ever heard of a written language amongst the native, some distance down the
coast. He had been ashore near Cape Mount, and observed that there the natives had
a mode of writing of their own. On inquiring as to its origin, he was told that four men
had once brought this art from the interior of Africa. We could not doubt the
existence of such a language, as the captain showed us a manuscript written in it.
As no trace of negro writing had ever been found, and as, had the statement proved
true, that the newly-discovered writing was brought from the interior, we might have
had reason to look [230] out for a literary nation in the unknown regions of Africa;
the local Committee here thought the matter of importance, and appointed me to
take a journey into the country, and to collect all possible information respecting it. A
passage immediately offering itself, I left Freetown on the 27th of January, and arrived
at the Sandbeach, near Cape Mount, on the 1st of Febuary. The vessel in which I
22
went was bound for Liberia, and therefore she went on, as soon as I was landed. But
the supercargo, a Liberian, kindly accompanied me ashore, and introduced me to an
American trader, a man of colour, who was living on the Sandbeach. As there were
not many natives dwelling there, I wanted to go up the country at once; but the
American to whom I had been introduced told me that this was quite impracticable,
on account of a civil war by which the country was disturbed. Accordingly, I had to
avail myself of his offer to stop with him, till it would be possible to proceed further
inland.
A fortnight after my arrival on the Sandbeach, one of the contending parties came
there and took possession of it. I was now in the power of the chief, who, however,
was friendly towards the English. As I had learnt that the inventor of the Vei writing
was living in their territory, I at once asked his permission to let me proceed thither.
But he refused, saying, “You are now in my power; if I let you go, and you are killed
up in the country, the English will come and require your blood at my hands. Wait,
till we have driven our enemies out of the country, and then you may go up and stop
as long as you please.” So I had to be content to stay longer on the sea-shore
When, in the course of the war, the town of Tuso was besieged, which had been
obstructing the road from the Sandbeach to the upper part of the country, I again
made an attempt to get permission from the chief, to let me go up to Bandakoro,
where the inventor of the Vei mode of writing was said to reside. After some
hesitation, he told me that in the evening he had to send a canoe to fetch provisions,
and that I could go in it. These were glad tidings to me, for I had now been detained
on the Sandbeach for nearly four weeks. At five o’clock the same day I left, together
with a wounded soldier, and two boys who had to row the canoe. 230
Da is situated on the river Bisuma which might be more properly called a lake. Its
water is stagnant, and its breadth about [231] eight or nine miles. Originally,
however, it must have been the lower course of the river, which could only with
difficulty have found its way through extensive masses of sand into the sea, and has,
therefore, no doubt formed swamps thereabouts for a long time. At last, the sea broke
through the masses of sand, and covered the low land, through which the Ma wound
its way as far up as Da. 232
Having replied to this, I said, “I want to see a certain Doalu Bukere; can you not tell
me where he lives? Then the man with whom I spoke laughed heartily, and said,
“You want to see Doalu? that is myself, who am now speaking with you.” This
promised success to my mission; for hitherto I had ended fears lest the people should
refuse to give me sufficient explanation of their country books. As soon as they heard
that I intended to stop with them some days, they said, “Then come with us, and we
will show you where to dwell, till you go back again”. Then I followed them to a neat
new hut, belonging to Kali Bara, Doalu’s companion, which I occupied during my
whole stay in Bandakoro. A short while ago, Doalu went away and brought some
more men to induce them to me. Then he said, “We are now prepared to hear more
about the object of your coming amongst us.” But I was obliged to beg them to wait
till the next day, for I was quite exhausted from the troubles of the journey, having
had nothing to eat since morning.
The next morning they came early, and reminded me of my promise; upon which I
told them that I had heard of some men here who had written their own language,
but that their books were now old, and so I came to bring them new paper, on which
23
they might copy them, and then let me have the old books, that I might show them to
my friends, who were also great friends of the black people. They were pleased with
this, and at once my landlord began to copy his book. However, I had to finish it, and
Doalu Bukere afterwards said to me, “White people can write better than black
people: you must copy my book for me.” I gladly accepted the offer; but was not able
to write with so little appa-[233] ratus as they do. They sit upon a low bench, and
then their knees serve for their writing-desk. When I asked them for a table, they
informed me, there was not one in the whole village. I therefore put my two trunks
one upon the other, and so contrived a writing-desk, which, perhaps, was not much
more convenient than theirs. But an old European camp-stool, the only one in the
village, was afterwards brought for my use. This shows that they have but few
commodities. As to their writing-materials, Doalu told me that they do not write with
“bird’s hair,” as we do, but with pens made of reed, and that they prepare their ink
from leaves in the bush, which they call ink-leaves. 234
The nature of the Vei writing plainly shows its entire independence of both the Arabic
and the Latin. In proof of this, I refer not so much to the shape of the letters, though
this also shows it at first sight, as to the fact, that the Vei is a syllabic mode of writing,
whereas the Arabic and Latin are alphabetic. Each syllable in the Vei writing has only
one simple sign for its representation. An alphabetic mode of writing is the most
developed method of representing thoughts to the eye. Such a system pre-supposes
some grammatical knowledge, and an ear already exercised to a certain degree. And
this cannot be expected of a people, when making their very first attempt in writing.
The syllabic character, therefore, of the Vei writing speaks much in favour of its
natural origin. The people write from left to right, which is another proof of their
independence of the Arabic; yet, from the nature of the characters, they can also write
from right to left, or from top to bottom, and this I saw a few men do; but Doalu
himself, and the majority of the people, write in the same way as ourselves. It will be
seen, from the subjoined specimen, that the letters are not joined, as in English, but
loosely follow one another, as in Hebrew. No interpunction is used, neither are the
words separated from each other, but character follows character, in a “serie
continuâ,” just as in very ancient Greek manuscripts. 234
#progressivism: writing #hypothesis: primacy of the syllable
But although the Vei mode of writing is very undeveloped, yet it does not stand so low
as to be merely hieroglyphic or symbolical; on the contrary, it is fully entitled to be
called phonetical; for the three characters which appear to be symbolic, viz, ꖜ [PK: note
this is the modern symbol for bhu, but in Koelle’s text it is inverted], bu, “gun;” ꕀ, tshi,
“water;” and ꗬ [PK:Note that in Koelle’s text there is no line between two circles]
gba, “money” [234] from such a small proportion of the whole number of characters,
which are above 200, that they alone cannot decide the question; and they are,
moreover, used as frequently in a phonetic capacity as in the one which might be
called symbolic. Neither is the case altered by the circumstance that most of these
simple characters seem to have been originally intended to represent distinct words;
for in a language containing so large a proportion of monosyllabic words as the Vei, a
syllabic mode of writing could scarcely avoid the coincidence of many of its characters
with monosyllabic words. But although certain characters uniformly represent certain
monosyllabic words, yet they are, at the same time, used for other words of a similar
sound, and even as mere parts of polysyllabic words, which could not be done if the
signs were not considered as really phonetic. Nor can it be of consequence in deciding
such a general question, that we meet with a few simple characters which represent
24
polysyllabic proper names, for these are mere mementoes for the writer himself, and
not generally legible.
We are therefore justified in characterizing the Vei mode of writing as independent,
original, syllabic, and phonetic. 235
#rebus #hypothesis: predisposition to phonography
Having thus considered the nature of the Vei writing, let us now review its origin and
its history. Doalu Bukere, who was about forty years old when I paid him this visit in
Bandakoro, was the real inventor of it, assisted by five of his friends. The first impulse
to attempt it, was given him in a dream, which he narrated to me as follows:—About
fifteen years ago, I had a dream, in which a tall, venerable-looking white man, in a
long coat, appeared to me, saying: “I am sent to you by other white men.” Doalu
asked: “What is the object for which you are sent to me ?” The white man replied: “I
bring you a book.” Doalu said: “This is very good; but tell me now, what is the nature
of this book?” The white messenger answered: “I am sent to bring this book to you, in
order that you should take it to the rest of the people. But I must tell you, that neither
you, nor any one who will become acquainted with the book, are allowed to eat the
flesh of dogs and monkeys, nor of any thing found dead, whose throat was not cut; nor
to touch the book on those days on which you have touched the fruit of the To-tree (a
kind of very sharp pepper). The messenger then showed Doalu his book, and taught
him to write any Vei words in the same way, in which the book [235] was written.
This made a deep impression on Doalu’s mind, and he described it to me most
graphically. He said the man thus addressed me: “Look, Doalu, this sign (writing the
sign with his finger on the ground) means i. Then he wrote close to it another sign,
saying, and this means, na. Now, Doalu, read both together!” Doalu did so, and was
delighted to have learnt to read the word ina, i.e. “Come here !” In the same way the
messenger showed him how a great number of other words could be written. At last
Doalu asked his instructor concerning the contents of the book he had brought. But
the answer was: “Wait a little; I shall tell you by and by.” After this, Doalu awoke, but,
as he told me in a sorrowful tone, was never afterwards informed of what was written
in the book. In the morning he called his friends together, in order to tell them his
dream, viz. his brother Dshara Barakora, and his cousins, Dshara Kali, Kalia Bara,
Fa Gbasi, and So Tabaku, the latter of whom died about three years ago. They were
all exceedingly pleased with the dream, and quite sure that it was a divine revelation.
A few days after, Kali Bara also, as he himself told me, had a dream the reality of
which, however, I doubt—in which a white man told him that the book had come
from God, and that they must mind it well.
Perhaps it will not be amiss to state here what, in my opinion, will account for Doalu
Bukere’s dream. Doalu Bukere was a thinking man; and what once occupied his mind
seemed to occupy it altogether and constantly: all his thoughts and energies seemed to
be concentrated on this subject. Now there was once a white Missionary the country,
with whom Doalu, when quite a little boy, had learnt to read for about three months,
till the Missionary’s departure. This, in some measure, awakened his desire for
learning. He could still read some verses from the English Bible, which he had learnt
from that Missionary. Afterwards he was employed as a servant by slave-traders and
common traders on the coast. They often sent him on an errand to distant places,
from which he had generally to bring back letters to his master. In these letters his
master was sometimes informed, when Doalu had done any mischief in the place to
which he had been sent. Now this forcibly struck him. He said to himself: “How is
25
this, that my master knows every thing which I have done in a distant place ? He only
looks into the book, and this tells him all. Such a thing we ought also to have, by
which we could speak with each other, though sepa-[236] rated by a great distance.”
The want of a mode of writing seems to have been felt even more generally. This I
conclude from a passage in Kali Bara’s book, in which he speaks of the time, when
that art was invented. He says: “At that time my father Doalu Worogbe began to like
books And the people said: The Poros (Europeans) have long heads. Nobody has such
a long head as the Poros. But some of our people did not believe this. Then said I to
Doalu (Worogbe) : Why do you call what I maintain a lie? Can any Vei man write a
letter and send it to his friend, and could he read it? But Doalu Bukere’s mind
especially was so entirely wrapped up in this ardent desire to be able to read and
write, that it occupied his thoughts day and night, and this formed the natural basis of
his curious dream, which seems to have been the reflex of his waking thoughts.
Though Doalu had been well instructed in his dream, yet, as he told me, in the
morning he could not remember all the signs which had been shown him by night.
Therefore—these are his own words—he and his friends had to put their heads
together, in order to make new ones. And on this ground we are fully justified in
speaking of a real invention of the Vei mode of writing.
But these six men being then only from twenty to thirty years of age feared, lest the
people might not pay them proper attention. So they agreed to take 100 salt sticks, i.e.
100 parcels of salt, as thick as an arm, and three or four feet long, and to bring them
to king Fa Toro, or Goturu, in Tianimani, in order to make him favourably disposed
to their object. Their present had the desired effect. The king declared himself
exceedingly pleased with their discovery, which, as he said, would soon raise his
people on a level with the Poros and Mandengas, who hitherto had been the only
book-people. He expressed the curious opinion that this was most likely the book, of
which the Mandengas (who are Muhammadans) say, that it is with God in heaven,
and will one clay be sent down upon earth. He requested them to teach this new art in
Dshondu, where they resided, and to make known his will that all his subjects should
be instructed by them. Accordingly, they erected a large house in Dshondu, provided
it with benches and wooden tablets, instead of slates, for the scholars, and then kept a
regular day-school, in which not only boys and girls, but also men, and even some
women, learnt to [237] write and read their own language. So they went on
prosperously for about eighteen months, and even people from other towns came to
Dshondu, to become acquainted with this “new book.” But then a war broke out with
the Guras, in which Dshondu was taken by surprise, and committed to the flames,
with! all the goods and books it contained. The destruction of Dshondu forms a crisis
in the history of the Vei writing. By it the literary zeal of the people was so much
checked, that they have never had any schools since. After the destruction of
Dshondu, the book-men, i.e. the people who can read and write, were scattered
throughout the country, and it was only about five years ago that many of them
collected together and built a new town, some miles distant from the place where
Dshondu stood. The name of this new town is Bandakoro, literally, cotton-tree ground,
from the abundance of cotton trees which are growing thereabouts. At the time I first
visited it, it appeared to me that a great proportion of the male adults in Bandakoro
were more or less able to read and write, and that in most other Vei towns, near Cape
Mount, there were at least some men who could likewise spell their “country-book;”
but a few days before my second visit, Bandakoro also was taken in war, burnt, and its
population scattered.
26
Doalu Bukere was a very interesting man, and distinguished from his countrymen, not
so much by a greater intelligence, as by an altogether nobler spirit. The Vei people, in
general, I must call a very sensual and carnal people, the females especially unchaste
and shameless. They live without God, and without hope in this world. Idols they
have none ; and to the God who is a spirit they cannot elevate their carnal thoughts. I
saw no mode of worship among them, except the Muhammadan. And, as if
Muhammadanism even were too spiritual for them, not one fourth of the population
are professed followers of the false prophet. But all the nominal Muhammadans I saw
drink wine and spirits whenever they could get them: they also take as many wives as
they can atrord to buy. All those who are not Muhammadans are real heathen, a
godless people, a people with no other god, than their belly. No wonder that such a
people have gone the common way from atheism to superstition, and that they are
now slaves to a childish fear of evil spirits and witches, so that you may see them often
carry about on their bodies actual loads of [238] greegrees to guard themselves against
their influence. Amongst such people, to meet with a man like Doalu Bukere, is an
indescribable pleasure to a Missionary. I always felt very happy in his company, and
he also felt attached to me: so that once, when he was called to another town, he said
to me on his return: “My heart did not lie down the whole day, because I could not be
with you; but now it has laid down again.”
Doalu was an open, upright, and honest man. His modesty and humility surprised me
the more, as these are virtues of very rare occurrence among the negro race. He was
gratetful for kindness received, and could value disinterested motives. When I was
lying sick of the fever in Bandakoro, he said to me in one of his visits: “My heart
troubles me much, because you have come amongst us, not in order to trade or to
make any gain, but merely to tell us the true road to life; and now you have also to
suffer sickness for our sakes. But never mind, God will soon make you well again.” His
mind appeared to have been frequently engaged with metaphysical and divine things.
In our walks which we took together, and in which he had often to walk behind me,
from the narrowness of the paths, I not unfrequently heard him ejaculate, with deep
emotion, words like the following: “Ever-lasting! God Almighty! Jesus Christ!
Alakabaru!” He seemed to have been under real concern for his soul’s salvation, and
earnestly seeking to secure it. In a conversation I had with him, he once said to me:
“My heart seeks after God. Once I thought to find God in our book-palaver, but it
was not so. Afterwards, I believed that I could find God in Muhammadanism, and
have now been praying after the Mandenga fashion these seven years; but my heart
has not yet found God. Now if you can help me, so that I may really find God, I shall
be very thankful to you.” I was of coarse delighted to point out to him the new and
living way which leads to God and heaven. He was very attentive to, and much
pleased with, what I said to him on this subject. On the day after this conversation, he
came again, and asked me in a very serious manner, whether it was really my full
conviction that the Muhammadan road leads to fire, and only the Christian road to
heaven. I now told him my whole mind about Muhammadanism, and he was so
much impressed with what I said, that he promised to give up the repetition of his
unintelligible Arabic prayer [239] and to pray henceforward to our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.
In order to ascertain, as I conceive, whether I should be able to refute the objections
of his Muhammadan guide, he introduced this Malam to me. I then told the latter
that I was sorry to see him walking on a road which could not lead to heaven. He
returned the same compliment to me. Therefore I showed him, in a long
27
conversation, that he neither knew my road, nor had a thorough acquaintance with
his own and that, consequently, he had no reason to pity me. At length he could
gainsay no longer, but ran away, the bystanders saying: “This time palaver caught
him.” Even Doalu appeared to be pleased with the defeat of his master. Before I left
the country, I offered to take Doalu Bukere with me to Sierra Leone, in order to
instruct him more fully in the Christian religion. But he declined the offer, on the
ground that there was then war in the country; “for,” said he, “if I were to go now, the
people would say on my return—He left us while we had war in the country; so he
must now pay a large sum of money.’”
I regretted that Doalu could not make up his mind to accompany me to Sierra Leone,
the more so, when I afterwards found, that his remaining days of grace were to be so
few. On my second arrival at Cape Mount, November 2d, 1850, when I wanted to
visit him again, I was informed that he had departed this life several months
previously. Thus, however, he was spared the grief of seeing Bandakoro taken and laid
waste by their enemies: he was permitted to descend to the grave in peace, whereas
his brother, Dshara Barakora, one of his assistants at the introduction of the new
mode of writing, fell at the capture of Bandakoro, in the night of October 27th, 1850,
after a brave resistance, in which he himself killed four men with the sword. Doalu
died of a cutaneous disease, called in their own language “kondshe-kira,” i.e. ball-
sickness, which produced in him such an extraordinary drowsiness that he often fell
asleep while taking his meals.
We now give a specimen of his new mode of writing, which is taken from a
manuscript written by himself, and in which he first notices the birth of his firstborn
son, Fatoma Sell, and then the death of his father; and to this we add the Vei
syllabarium itself, with the value of the characters in English, in accordance with §. 2
in file grammar. 240
Müller, Friedrich Max. 1854. Letter to Chevalier Bunsen on the

classification of the Turanian languages. London.
[PK: See also notes in !Notes on theory and method on deliberate language change and
progressivism]
Humboldt’s view on the Malay language, as given in his posthumous work, “On the
Varieties of Human Language and its Influence on the Mental Development of
Mankind,” may be stated in his own words, as follows: […] [153]
“ […] But to explain properly the mixture of Malay and Hindu elements, and the
influence of India on the whole of the Indian Archipelago, we must discriminate between
its different modes of operation, and thereby commence with that which, early as it may
have began, has continued to the latest times, and consequently has left the clearest and
most indelible traces. It is not only the influence of a spoken foreign language which in this
case, as in all mixtures of nations, operates powerfully, but also the whole of the mental
culture which springs out of it. This phenomenon is unquestionably apparent in the
introduction of Indian language, literature, myths, and religious philosophy into Java. […]
The focus was so undoubtedly Java, […] Independent of Java, we find, however, distinct
and complete proofs of Indian civilisation amongst the proper Malays and Bugis of
Celebes. A true literature, from the essential elements of the formation of language, is only
capable of existing contemporaneously with a written character which is in daily use. It is
an important fact, therefore, for the mental development ot the South-eastern
Archipelago, that just that portion of the island group which has been designated as strictly
Malay possesses an alphabetic character. A distinction not to be overlooked, however, here
28
occurs. The alphabetic character in this part of the world is Indian. This arose [159]
naturally from the intellectual relations of these countries, and is visible in most of their
alphabets, with the exception, perhaps, of the Bugis, in the similarity of the letters, not to
mention their arrangement to designate sounds, which undoubtedly does not furnish any
decisive proof, as it might have been adopted subsequently to a foreign alphabet.
Nevertheless, a complete similarity, with merely an adaptation to the simpler phonetic
system of the indigenous tongues, occurs only in Java, and perhaps at Sumatra. The
character of the Tagalis and of the Bugis is so different, that it may be regarded as an
example of alphabetic invention. In Madagascar the Arabic character has planted itself, as
the Indian has done in the centre of the Archipelago. At what period this occurred is
uncertain. And there does not appear to be any trace of an original character which it
displaced. The use of the Arabic character amongst the Malays proper decides nothing as
to their intellectual relations, which we are now discussing, for it is notoriously a modern
introduction. I have already mentioned the total want of all writing in the South Sea
Islands, and amongst the woolly-haired races. 160
#writing and civilisation #caroline islands script #ottomaung

Turanian languages, particularly, are so pliant that they lend themselves to endless
combinations and complexities, unless a national literature or a frequent intercourse
with other tribes act as [222] safeguards against dialectical schism. Tribes who have
no literature and no sort of intellectual occupation, seem occasionally to take a delight
in working their language to the utmost limits of grammatical expansion. The
American dialects are a well-known instance : and the greater the seclusion of a tribe,
the more amazing this rank vegetation of their grammar. We can at present hardly
form a correct idea with what feeling a savage nation looks upon its language ;
whether, it may be, as a plaything, a kind of intellectual amusement, a maze in which
the mind likes to lose and to find itself. But the result is the same everywhere. If the
work of agglutination has once commenced, and there is nothing like literature or
society to keep it within limits, two villages, separated only for a few generations, will
become mutually unintelligible. 223
#writing and civilisation #deliberate language change
Wilson, J. Leighton. 1856. Western Africa: Its history, condition and

prospects. London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co.
#vai
The Mandingoes are more extensively known to the civilized world than the Jalofs.
They range over a vastly greater extent of country, and are more intelligent and
enterprising than any other people in Central or Western Africa. […]Taken
altogether they are perhaps the most civilized, influential, and enterprising of all the
tribes of Western Africa. Those of them I have met with at Sierra Leone, Monrovia,
and other places on the coast, have very black complexions, but not glossy like that of
the Jalofs […] 74
#vai
[PK: compare Dalby, relative prestige of Mandingos and ‘poros’ as motive for creating Vai
writing]
The [Mandingo] men always carry a short sabre in a leather case suspended from the
left shoulder; and a small leather bag or pouch in front, in which are scraps of paper
29
with Arabic written on them, and are regarded as charms or amulets to protect them
from harm. 75
They [Mandingos] are Mohammedans, but,·like the Jalofs, retain their pagan rites at
the same time. They are more zealous in propagating the Mohammedan faith,
however, than fhe Jalofs. Many of them read and write the Arabic with ease and
elegance, and they establish schools wherever they go for the purpose of teaching the
Arabic language and inculcating the prineipies of the Koran.
The writer remembers to have met one of these teachers some years ago near Cape
Mount, where his pupils were taking their first lessons by making Arabic characters in
the sand. When they locate temporarily in the neighborhood of a European
settlement, they employ themselves in making sandals, bridles, whips, sheaths, and
various other articles, out of leather of their own manufacture, and these they hawk
about the streets. They are also extensively engaged in manufacturing amulets, which
consist of scraps of Arabic writing sewed up in small leather pouches, which they sell
to the pagan negroes at very high prices. 75
#vai
Specimen of Vey writing. 94
#vai
The Veys. —This family, though not numerous or powerful, have recently invented an
alphabet for writing their own language, and are enjoying the blessings of a written
system, for which they are entirely indebted to their own ingenuity and enterprise.
This is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable achievements of this or any other
age, and is itself enough to silence forever the cavils and sneers of those who think so
contemptuously of the intellectual endowments of the African race. The characters
used in this system are !all new, and were invented by the people themselves within the
last twenty years. The idea of communicating thoughts in writing was probably
suggested by the use of Arabic among the Mandingoes, and from the practice of white
men who occasionally visit their country for the purpose of trade. But it is very evident
that they borrowed none of their written characters from either of these sources; nor
did they,! it is believed, receive any assistance whatever from any one !in perfecting this
wonderful invention. It was commenced about twenty years ago and the writer, who
visited their country about that time, found that they could even then communicate
some thoughts with the aid of this new alphabet; and some account of the discovery
was published in the Missionary Herald for July of 1834. Since then they have continued
to labor at it, and have brought it to a state of sufficient perfection for all practical
purposes. The agents! of the Church Missionary Society have taken it up, and metallic
types have been cast in London, with which several little books have been printed for
the use of the people, so that they are now enjoying the rich fruits of their own
enterprise, and have fairly won for themselves a reputation which no race of men on
the face·of the earth ought to despise.
The Veys occupy all the country along the sea-board from Gelinas to Cape Mount. It
is not known how numerous they are, but they probably do no exceed fifty or one
hundred thousand. They live in small huts like most of the in-[95]habitants of this
region of country, and have no clothing except a broad square cloth thrown over their
bodies, covering one arm and shoulder, and leaving the other exposed. 96
30
The invention of this new system of writing undoubtedly forms·a marked period in
their national history, and we lament that no greater efforts are made to diffuse the
blessing of the Christian religion through this channel, which bas been opened up in
so remarkable a manner. At an early period in the history of the colony of Liberia a
school was formed among this people by Lott Carey, but was discontinued after his
death.
The whole tribe have recently been brought within the jurisdiction of Liberia, and it is
hoped that by the joint influence of the missionaries and Christian emigrants from this
country, they may be brought within the Christian fold, and partake of all the rich
blessings of the Gospel.! 96
None of these people along the sea-coast regions, with the exception of the Veys, who
have recently invented an alphabet for themselves—a circumstance in itself sufficient
to establish the claims of the African race to a respectable position among the different
families of men—have any written literature. 381
As there is a tendency to the multiplication of dialects in all countries where there are
no written standards, the above fact furnishes a presumptive argument in favor of the
opinion that the northern portion of the continent must have been settled by the
negro race at a much earlier period than the southern; […] 452
1870–1879
Morgan, Lewis H. 1877. Ancient society. Chicago: Charles H.
Kerr & Company.
#progressivism
IV. Lower Status of Barbarism
[…]
All such tribes, then, as never attained to the art of pottery will be classed as savages,
and those possessing this art but who never attained a phonetic alphabet and the use
of writing will be classed as barbarians. 10
#literacy #writing systems: theory #progressivism: writing
VI. Upper Status of Barbarism.
It commenced with the manufacture of iron, and ended with the invention of a
phonetic alphabet, and the use of writing in literary composition. Here civilization
begins. […] 11
#literacy #writing systems: theory #writing and civilisation #progressivism: writing
VII. Status of Civilization.
It commenced, as stated, with the use of a phonetic alphabet and the production of
literary records, and [11] divides into Ancient and Modern. As an equivalent,
hieroglyphical writing upon stone may be admitted.
#literacy #writing systems: theory
31
The use of writing, or its equivalent in hieroglyphics upon stone, affords a fair test of
the commencement of civilization. [fn] Without literary records neither history nor
civilization can properly be said to exist. The production of the Homeric poems,
whether transmitted orally or committed to writing at the time, fixes with sufficient
nearness the introduction of civilization among the Greeks.
[Fn] The phonetic alphabet came, like other great inventions, at the end of successive
efforts. The slow Egyptian, advancing the hieroglyph through its several forms, had
reached a syllabus composed of phonetic characters, and at this stage was resting
upon his labors. He could write in permanent characters upon stone. Then came in
the inquisitive Phoenician, the first navigator and trader on the sea, who, whether
previously versed in hieroglyphs or otherwise, seems to have entered at a bound upon
the labors of the Egyptian, and by an inspiration of genius to have mastered the
problem over which the latter was dreaming. He produced that wondrous alphabet of
sixteen letters Which in time gave to mankind a written language the means for
literary and historical records. 31
#literacy #writing systems: theory
Tylor, Edward B. 1878. Researches into the early history of

mankind and the development of civilization. Boston: Estes &
Lauriat.
#progressivism #language ideology #writing systems #literacy
[PK: See also notes on Tylor in !Notes on Australia and !Notes on theory and method]
The deaf-and-dumb man’s remark, that the gesture-language is a picture-language,
finds its counterpart in an observation of Wilhelm von Humboldt’s, that “In fact,
gesture, destitute of sound, is a species of writing.” There is indeed a very close
relation between these two ways of expressing and communicating thought. 82
#writing is language
Both [gesture and picture writing] are found in very distant countries and times, and
spring up naturally under favourable circumstances, provided that a higher means of
supplying the same wants has not already occupied the place which they can only fill
very partially and rudely. 82
#writing is language #iconicity
It may be compared in this respect to the elliptical forms of expression which are
current in all societies whose attention is given specially to some narrow subject of
interest, and where, as all men’s minds have the same frame-work set up in them, it is
not necessary to go into an elaborate description of the whole state of things; but one
or two details are enough to enable the hearer to understand the whole. 84
Like the universal language of gestures, the art of picture-writing tends to prove that
the mind of the uncultured man works in much the same way at all times and
everywhere. 88
#progressivism: writing #iconicity
Indeed, the puzzles of this kind [rebuses] in children’s books keep alive to our own day
the great transition stage from picture-writing to word-writing, the highest intellectual
32
effort of one period in our history coming down, as so often happens, to be the child’s
play of a later time. 94
#progressivism: writing #rebus
Their [the Egyptians’] use of hieroglyphs in all these stages, picture, syllable, letter, is
of great interest in the history of writing, as giving the whole course of development by
which a picture, of a mouth for instance, meant first simply mouth, then the name of
mouth ro, and lastly dropped its vowel and became the letter r. Of these three steps,
the Mexicans made the first two. 97
#progressivism: writing #rebus
How it came to pass that, having come so early to the use of phonetic writing, they
[the Egyptians] were later than other nations in throwing off the crutches of picture-
signs, is a curious question. No doubt the poverty of their language, which expressed
so many things by similar combinations of consonants, and the indefiniteness of their
vowels, had [97] to do with it, just as we see that poverty of language, and the
consequent necessity of making similar words do duty for many different ideas, has led
the Chinese to use in their writing determinative signs, the so-called keys or radicals,
which were originally pictures, though now hardly recognizahle as such. Nothing
proves that the Egyptian determinative signs were not mere useless lumber, so well as
the fact that if there had been none, the deciphering of the hieroglyphics in modern
times could hardly have gone a step beyond the first stage, the spelling out of the
kings’ names.
We thus see that the ancient Egyptians and the Aztecs made in much the same way
the great step from picture-writing to word-writing. 98
#progressivism: writing #progressivism: language #rebus
In a language so poverty-stricken as the Chinese, which only allows itself so small a
stock of words, and therefore has [99] to make the same sound stand for so many
different ideas, the use of such a system needs no explanation. 100
#progressivism: writing #progressivism: language
It remains to point out the possibility of one people getting the art of writing from
another, without taking the characters they used for particular letters. Two systems of
letters, or rather of characters representing syllables, have been invented in modern
times, by men who had got the idea of representing sound by written characters from
seeing the books of civilized men, and applied it in their own way to their own
languages. Some forty years ago a halfbreed Cherokee Indian, named Sequoyah
(otherwise George Guess), invented an ingenious system of writing his language in
syllabic signs, which were adopted by the missionaries, and came into common use.
102
#cherokee #vai
The syllabic system invented by a West African negro, Momoru Doalu Bukere, was
found in use in the Vei country, about fifteen years since.[fn: Koelle, Grammar of the
Vei Language’, London, 1854, p229, etc. J. L. Wilson, ‘Western Africa ;’ London,
1856, p. 95] When Europeans inquired [102] into its origin, Doalu said that the
invention was revealed to him in a dream by a tall venerable white man in a long
coat, who said he was sent by other white men to bring him a book, and who taught
33
him some characters to write words with. Doalu awoke, but never learnt what the
book was about. So he called his friends together, and one of them afterwards had
another dream, in which a white man appeared to him, and told him that the book
had come from God. It appears that Doalu, when he was a boy, had really seen a
white missionary, and had learnt verses from the English Bible from him, so that it is
pretty clear that the sight of a printed book gave him the original idea which he
worked out into his very complete and original phonetic system. It is evident from
Fig.13 that some part of the characters he adopted were taken, of course without any
reference to their sound, from the letters he had seen in print. His system numbers
162 characters, representing mostly syllables, as a, be, bo, dso, fen, gba ; but sometimes
longer articulations, as seli, sediya, taro. Though it is almost entirely and purely
phonetic, it is interesting to observe that it includes three genuine picture-signs, [sign]
gba, “money;” [sign] bu “gun,” (represented by bullets) and [sign] chi, “water,” this
sign being identical to that which stands for water in Egyptian hieroglyphics
[diagram of Vai]
It appears from these facts that the transmission of the art of writing does not
necessarily involve a detailed transmission of the particular signs in use, and the
difficulty in tracing the origin of some of the Semitic characters may result from their
having been made in the same way as these American and African characters. If this
be the case, there is an end of all hope of tracing them any further. 103
#diffusion: writing #stimulus diffusion #vai
However this may be, the pictorial origin of [drawings of Roman I II III] is beyond
doubt. And in technical writing, such terms as T-square and S-hook, and phrases such
as “[kiss symbol] before clock 4 min.,” and “[moon symbol] rises at 8h. 35m.,” survive
to show that even in the midst of the highest European civilization, the spirit of the
earliest and rudest form of writing is not yet quite extinct. 105
In the uncivilized American or Polynesian, the strength of body and force of character
of a grown man are combined with a mental development in many respects not
beyond that of a young child of a civilized race. It has been already noticed how
naturally children can appreciate and understand such direct expressions of thought
as the gesture-language and picture-writing. 106
Lower down in the history of culture, the word and the idea are found sticking
together with a tenacity very different from their weak adhesion in our minds, and
there is to be seen a tendency to grasp at the word as though it were the object it
stands for, and to hold that to be able to speak of a thing gives a sort of possession of
it, in a way that we can scarcely realize. 149
#progressivism: language #progressivism: writing #materiality
In the next place, the collections of facts relating to various useful arts seem to justify
the opinion that, in such practical matters at least, the history of mankind has been on
the whole a history of progress. Over almost the whole world are found traces of the
former use of stone implements, now superseded by metal; rude and laborious means
of making fire have been supplanted by easier and better processes; over large regions
of the earth the art of boiling in earthen or metal pots over the fire has succeeded the
34
ruder art of stone-boiling ; in three distant countries the art of writing sounds is found
developing itself out of mere picture-writing, and this phonetic writing has superseded
in several districts the use of quipus, or knotted cords, as a means of record and
communication. 374
#progressivism #progressivism: writing
1880–1889
de los Reyes y Florentino, Isabelo. 1889. Las Islas Visayas en la
Epoca de la Conquista. Manila: De Chofré.
El P. San Agustin confirma lo que dice el P. Colin y escribe: “Los visayas tienen sus
letras y caracteres como los de los Malayos, de quienes los aprendieron y como ellos
escriben con unos punzones en cortezas de caña y hojas de palmas; pero nunca se les
halló escritura antigua alguna, ni luz de su orígen y venida á estas Islas”. 92
#philippines
“El orígen indio [de India] de estos alfabetos no se puede ponder en duda” 93
#philippines
1900–1909
Moody, J.D. 1900. Some aboriginal alphabets—a study: Part 1.
Annual Publication of the Historical Society of Southern
California and Pioneer Register, Los Angeles, (5)1: 9-12
[PK: Part two concerns Easter Island writing, nothing of immediate interest]
#africa: west
On the west coast of Africa there is found a tribe of natives, the Vei, belonging to the
great Mandingo family who have shown a capacity for advancement not found in the
surrounding tribes. They came from the western part of that great fertile region of
Africa called the Soudan. These people are lighter in color and finer in form than
those of other parts of Africa. Their intellect, low as it is, has felt the impress of a
higher intelligence, and shown a capacity for development by originating and using
alphabetic writing. Correspondence is carried on by means of it, and even a history
has been written in these characters. This alphabet is said to have been evolved in
1834. There is some uncertainty as to its origin. One statement is that a servant in an
English family, seeing the benefits of a written language, conceived the idea of
creating one for his people, the present Vei characters being the result. There are
some indications, however, tending to show that it was a slower growth, and the work
of more than one individual. The initial impulse was probably caused by a sight of
Arab writing, and what it did for these masters of the Soudan. 10
#vai #progressivism: denial of indigenous sophistication
In this case [of the invention of the Cherokee alphabet] as in the African [the
invention of Vei], given a genius, a fertile brain, a suggestion from a superior mind,
and you have as a result—an alphabet. 12
35
#vai #progressivism: denial of indigenous sophistication #cherokee
RPC 1900 [1900], vol. 1.

Among the many preposterous statements which have appeared concerning the
Philippines, perhaps the most ridiculous is that the percentage of illiteracy among the
civilized natives is lower than among the inhabitants of Massachussetts. 37
#folk literacy #philippines
RPC 1900 [1900], vol. 2.

As for the island of Samar, you might send four or five. I have nothing to do with it,
but, as for the islands of Leyte and Bohol, I should advise that no gunboat be sent, for
the people would immediately take to the mountains, and a great many would die.
They have nothing to eat; they are dying of hunger, and I wish to take right down
there and sell at the regular rate, on my own account, an amount of rice. I would like
a pass for this purpose from General Otis, so that if a gunboat should overtake the
ship I was in I could continue on by showing my pass, and I could also use it to come
back. 150
In saying culture I do not mean the simple knowledge to read and write, for there are
perhaps 75 per cent of the population of the Philippines who know how to read and
write mechanically, that is, they know how to make the letters only, without knowing
how to read. They read, they make letters to write and to read, but only mechanically
they can do it; they don’t understand the material that they are reading. The
explanation of this is to be found in the existence of the two parties when the question
arose about the teaching of Spanish. The party of friars was headed by Gianca—and
if a more eloquent witness is desired, one of them by the name of Miguel Lucio, a
Franciscan friar, wrote a book in Tagalo, in which he maintained that it would not be
advisable for the Filipinos to understand Spanish. 261
#literacy #article: broome [see also Hau and Tinto 2003] #philippines
Johnston, Harry. 1906. Liberia. Vol. I. London: Hutchison & Co.

#vai
On November 11th [1822], at daybreak, the struggle with the natives began. The
settlement was attacked by the De, the Mamba, and the Vai. The assault was at first
so overwhelming that many of the colonists fled in panic into the woods. Women were
wounded in their huts, and children killed or kidnapped. If the enemy had been
resolute they would have pushed on to the palisade and overwhelmed the small band
of resolute fighters under Ashmun, Carey, and Johnson. But they stopped and
scattered to plunder the goods of the colonists. This gave Ashmun his chance, and
under his directions “common shot” was fired from the five guns into the serried
masses of the marauders. Great execution was done, and the De fled precipitately
down the slopes of Mesurado promontory and away to their canoes.
Ashmun ordered a day of thanksgiving ; but this first defeat of the natives was not
decisive. Soon the little colony found itself living in a state of siege, and gradually they
withdrew from the larger area of the settlement to the restricted limits of the palisade.
138
36
[By 1838] A lighthouse had been built on Cape Mesurado ; the slave trade had been
practically abolished along the St. Paul’s River and on the Basa and Kru coasts, and
very nearly done away with at Cape Mount and in the Vai country. 160
Johnston, Harry. 1906. Liberia. Vol. II. London: Hutchison & Co.
#vai
The Vai men do not usually tattoo or cicatrise nowadays [fn: Biittikofer asserts that
they did as late as twenty years ago and that the body marks made on the Vai men
were a double row of small cicatrices down the back, extending from the nape of the
neck to the end of the spine.] [970] but on the other hand their women almost
invariably practise cicatrisation. This is done, generally when they pass through the
Sande or bush school of initiation just before puberty, on the back, chiefly over the
loins. The pattern which is thus marked in raised scars is either diamond-shaped and
divided into a sort of chessboard arrangement (as indicated in my drawing), or else
takes a shape resembling two triangles partially fused, overlapping at the apex. This
pattern is best explained by the accompanying drawing. 972
The manufactures of the native races of Liberia are simple, except perhaps for the
leather-work which has been introduced by the Mandingo, and the silversmiths’ work
amongst the Vai. 1008
Amongst the Vai and Mandingo, the Arab practice of divination by sand (sifting or
sprinkling the sand and drawing some deduction from the figures it assumes) has been
introduced, evidently through Muhammadan influence, as it is widely practised
through Muhammadan Africa, from the Senegal to the Red Sea, and from Egypt to
Nyasa. 1064
In the Vai and Kondo countries, and also in the interior of Eastern Liberia, there are
often slave towns, villages inhabited by nothing but slaves. 1081
The syllabarium which follows is copied mainly from the forms given by Forbes and
Koelle, which in all probability are more exactly those invented by Doalu Bukere and
his friends than are the cursive characters still in use after some sixty years amongst
the Vai of Liberia. A close inspection of these characters will reveal the fact that
many of them are clumsy adaptations of Roman letters or of conventional signs
employed by Europeans : only two or three bear any resemblance to Arabic
characters.
There was little “logic “ about this invention, and the tax on the memory and
patience in using this syllabarium to write a language so easily rendered in Roman
letters must be somewhat severe ; yet, as already mentioned, the Vai people
obstinately cling to the invention of Doalu Bukere and use it increasingly for literary
correspondence (they have taken to letter-writing as much as the Baganda). But they
have improved on Doalu [1114] Bukere’s system. Apparently, instead of more than
one type of character to be used at will for each syllable, modern teaching restricts
very wisely the use to one single sign, and the form of these syllabic letters is simplified
and better adapted for cursive writing. Their addiction to this system is somewhat of a
protest against “ Christian “ or missionary influence (the Vai are Muhammadan), and
it is also due to their desire to carry on a correspondence not readily deciphered by
the American Negro who rules their country. The Liberian Government can only
combat this movement by adopting a simple and logical orthography in Roman
37
letters for rendering Vai and other native languages, and then by spreading the
knowledge of reading and writing in the Roman character among its native races as
part of a secular education carried on by the State, and not associated with the
teaching of doctrinal religion.
In the following pages I have added to the old syllabarium of Forbes and Koelle the
modern types of the letters as accurately as I could obtain them from Vai scholars.
1115
THE ALPHABET OR SYLLABARIUM OF THE VAI LANGUAGE 1116
Decourdemanche, J. A. 1908. Grammaire du Tchingané. Paris:

Paul Geuthner.
#article: gypsy alphabet
L’alphabet a été d’abord constitué par 22 At first, the alphabet was comprised of 22
caractères, dont 5 voyelles et 17 characters of which 5 were vowels and 17
consonnes ; une consonne toute moderne consonants; an entirely modern
y a été ajoutée et porte maintenant le consonant was added to it bringing the
nombre de ces dernières à 18. present total to 18.
!Dans l’alphabet, les voyelles jouent un Within the alphabet, vowels play a dual
double rôle: celui de signes vocaliques, role: that of vowel signs like our own, and
comme nos voyelles et, de plus, celui additionally as indicators of the class to
d’indices de la classe à laquelle le mot which the word belongs.
appartient.
Each vowel takes two positions: one
Chaque voyelle prend deux positions: vertical, as a vowel sign; the other
l’une, verticale, comme signe vocalique ; horizontal, as a class indicator.
l’autre, horizontale, comme indice de
classe. !
En principe, aucun mot ne doit s’écrire In theory, no word may be written
sans être précédé d’un indice de classe. without being preceded by a class
En pratique, cet indice est souvent indicator. In practice this indicator is
remplacé par le trait horizontal, indice de often replaced by the horizontal line, a
la première classe, lequel marque indicator of the first class which simply
simplement alors la séparation d’un mot marks the separation of one word from
avec le suivant. another.
L’alphabet prend trois formes : l’alphabet

des enfants (c’avorengera kripta) ; l’alphabet
The alphabet takes three forms: the
des vieux, des morts (purengera kripta) ; children’s alphabet (c’avorengera kripta); the
enfin, l’alphabet des hommes (romengera alphabet of the elderly and the dead
kripta). (purengera kripta); and finally the alphabet
De l’alphabet des enfants dérivent les of men (romengera kripta).
deux autres. Celui des morts est lapidaire, It is from the children’s alphabet that the
celui des hommes est arborescent. other two are derived. That of the dead is
Les formes alphabétiques sont purement stone-like, that of men is tree-like.
38
hiéroglyphiques. [377] The alphabetic shapes are purely
hieroglyphic.
Les voyelles sont représentatives des
genres, savoir The vowels are representative of genders,
namely
A) du neutre simple;
A) simple neuter
O) du masculin;
O) masculine
I) du féminin;
I) feminine;
!E) du neutre composé ;
!E) compound neuter
U) du neutre absolu ou absence de genre.
U) absolute neuter or absence of gender
Les voyelles sont représentées, savoir:
The vowels are represented thus:
[symbol] A) par la verge seule, signe de
l’eunucat. [symbol] A) by the single rod, sign of the
eunucat [PK: could be Romani or could be
[symbol] O) par le phallus, signe du French eunuque ‘eunuch’]
masculin.
[symbol] O) by the phallus, the sign for
[symbol] I) par le pudendum muliebre, the masculine.
signe du féminin.
[symbol] I) by the pudendum muliebre
[symbol] E) par la verge accompagnée du [vulva], sign for feminine.
pudendum muliebre, signe du neutre
composé.! [symbol] E) by the rod accompanied by
the pudendum muliebre, signe for the
[symbol] U) par l’absence complète de compound neuter.
sexe, exprimée par le triangle, signe du
neutre absolu. [symbol] U) by the complete absence of
sex, expressed by the triangle, sign for the
A titre d’indice de classe, les voyelles absolute neuter.
déterminent la classe du mot qui suit
chacune.
A) terre, endroit, habitation.
O) force, chaleur, lumière.
I) mucosité, liquide.
E) être ou chose.!
U) cri, parole, bruit.
Les consonnes sont, chacune,

représentées par la graphie d’un objet.
Cet objet n’est pas choisi au hasard. Son
nom commence, dans la prononciation,
par la consonne qu’il représente. Ainsi D
s’appelle Dom, la maison, parce que D,
dans l’écriture, représente une maison.
Autrement dit, la forme de la maison,
appelée Dom, exprime D parce que le
39
nom de la maison : Dom a pour première
consonne D, dans la prononciation. [378]
Voici les formes des voyelles dans les trois

écritures :
[PK: see table]

[380]
Cette dernière consonne a été ajoutée à
une époque récente.
Toujours, A est supposé après une

consonne. On ne l’écrit donc pas, quand
il doit être prononcé. après une consonne.
On l’écrit, au contraire, après une
consonne, quand il ne doit pas être
prononcé, c’est-à-dire quand la consonne
se joint dans la prononciation, avec une
consonne immédiatement suivante. On
écrit encore A, qui doit alors être
prononcé, quand il est immédiatement
suivi, dans la prononciation, par une
autre voyelle. Ainsi, la diphtongue AI,
prononcée aie, s’écrit par A suivi de I.
De même A s’écrit et se prononce quand

il est l’initiale d’un mot.
L’écriture des enfants et celle des

vieillards se tracent, le plus souvent, de
gauche à droite. Quand le tracé s’opère
de droite à gauche, les formes susceptibles
de retournement le subissent.
L’écriture des hommes se trace de haut

en bas, le long d’un trait vertical non
interrompu. A droite de cette ligne se
tracent les voyelles, à gauche les
consonnes. Les indices de genre ou, à
défaut, le trait horizontal qui sépare un
mot du suivant, se tracent en travers du
trait vertical.
Dans l’écriture des enfants, il est loisible,

à la rigueur, de substituer, à l’hiéroglyphe
courante, tout autre objet d’un dessin
simple et de même consonne initiale.
Quand il y a lieu d’écrire le nom d’un

objet dont la représentation donne
40
ordinairement la valeur d’une consonne,
on se contente de faire précéder d’un
point la forme hiéroglyphique de cet
objet. Ainsi le signe “mui” précédé d’un
point, se lira mui et non plus “m”. 380
Migeod, F. W. H. 1909. “The syllabic writing of the Vai people.”

Journal of the Royal African Society 9 (33):46-58.
#vai
Not many Europeans in West Africa have had the opportunity of becoming
acquainted with the Vai nation owing to its comparative isolation; the existence
therefore of an indigenous writing which it possesses, and which has no resemblance
to either Roman or Arabic characters, is less known than it deserves to be. Yet the
Vais originated this writing for themselves, and for this reason have acquired a
position of distinction among all the nations of Africa.
The Mandingo, Hausa, and other nations of the Western Soudan, which possess the
art of writing, acquired it at the time of their conversion, compulsory or otherwise, to
Muhammadism. 46
The Vais, however, both readily use their own language for corresponding with one
another, and also possess their own characters wherewith to do so, and in this respect,
even if in no other, they possess a pre-eminence in West Africa in which no other
indigenous nation can claim a share. 47
In the year 1850 it reached from the Gallinas to Half Cape Mount, and stretched
forty or fifty miles inland, but at the Gallinas it was only a strip of coast line until
apparently about the year 1830, when the Chiefs were instigated by Spanish slave-
traders to annex further territory. 47
Doalu had as a young man been in the service of Europeans, and had therefore had
the opportunity of becoming acquainted with writing, without, however, learning the
art himself. 48
Dreams, I might mention, play a rather important part, seemingly, in influencing the
actions of the Vais. A Vai man once permitted me to make extracts from a manuscript
book he had which contained specifics to meet all descriptions of dreams. 48
Taking a hundred salt sticks, therefore, they gave them to Fatoro or Goturu, [48]
King of Tianimani, in order to gain his favour. This king was much pleased with the
discovery, which, he said, would soon raise his people to a level with Europeans and
Mandingos. He requested them to teach this new art in Jondu, their own town, and
directed everybody to acquire it. They built a school house, provided it with benches
and wooden tablets, and there boys and girls, as well as adults, learnt to read and
write their own language. A year and a half later war broke out with the Guras; Jondu
was burnt, and its inhabitants dispersed. About eight years later, which may place the
date at 1845, a new town named Bandakoro was built a few miles from the site of
41
Jondu, and here the writing was again studied; but only for a few years, for in 1850
Bandakoro also was taken and destroyed by the enemy. 49
That the Vai people originated a system of writing of their own points to the fact that
the nation at that time was going through a phase of mental activity, and acquiring a
considerable amount of wealth. This might be accounted for by their being the
middle-men for the Spaniards in the slave-trade, for the coast inhabitants themselves
were seldom shipped abroad, their services being too much in requisition for passing
down slaves from the interior, or conducting the raids necessary to maintain good
cargoes for the ships when they should call in. With raiding and trading the necessary
mental stimulus was given to the nation to enable it to produce such a man as Doalu,
and what is more to the point, for it to have acquired sufficient intelligence to
recognise a good thing, and to keep it. 49
There seems to have been practically no attempt made to give to those syllables, that
were the monosyllabic name of an animal or other material object, a pictorial
representation of those objects. The only one that can possibly be picked out as such is
“ji,” meaning water, which is depicted as a waving line. 50
#logography #ideography
Syllabary [PK: example of Vai script as in use in 1909] 52
[Editor writes]:
During the reign of Njoya’s father, some Hausa traders came to Bamum, bringing
with them a number of Arabic books, which so greatly interested the future chief, then
a lad of sixteen, that he paid a high price for seven volumes, including a Qurin. No
doubt the idea of a written character for his native language was thus first suggested to
him ; but he was unwilling to adopt either the Arabic or (when he became acquainted
with it at a later date) the Roman alphabet, being desirous that his people should have
a writing of their own. After his accession, he called together a number of his warriors,
and directed each man to invent a sign for every mono-syllabic word, and series of
signs for words of more than one syllable. (It would thus seem that he had not fully
grasped the idea of syllabic writing, in which polysyllables can be built up out of signs
already existing.) He then compared the various signs and selected those which he
considered best adapted for his purpose, simplifying or otherwise modifying as he
found it necessary.
Having fixed the written character, the next step was to spread the knowledge of it
among the people. He bought a large number of slates from the missionaries,
distributed these to his subjects, and began to instruct them in person. By the middle
of 1907 there were at the capital over 6oo natives able to read and write the new
character. The King exchanged frequent letters with his pupils in order to facilitate
their progress ; he has also begun to keep accounts of revenue and expenditure, to
record important events, &c.-in short, he has laid the foundations of what might be
called the national archives.
The complete alphabet, as given by Mr. Gohring, includes 350 signs, some of which
certainly have an ideographic character. M. van Gennep’s remarks on the subject will
be read with interest. Mr. Migeod suggests that, as Vai men frequently travel to
Kamerun, Njoya may have got the idea of his writing from them. We would also call
attention to the Rev. J. K. Macgregor’s paper on Nsibidi (a: kind of picture-writing in
42
use at Calabar) in the latest number of the Journal of tke Royal Antkropo!ogfral Institute.-
ED.] 58
#bamum
1910-1919
Massaquoi, Momolu. 1911. “The Vai People and Their Syllabic
Writing.” Journal of the Royal African Society 10 (40):459-466.
#vai
[…] the writing which the Vais believe was taught them by the great Spirit whose
favourites they are. 459
[PK: Includes chart of Vai syllabary between p459 and p460]
The late King Dassia of the Tawa country in Liberia—a great Vai scholar but without
knowledge of English letters—once visited a School at Cape Mount where a Vai class
was being taught by the writer. A copy of a translation into Vai of that portion of the
Iliad in which reference is made to the Fall of Troy, was placed before him. Being a
rapid reader King Dassia, anticipating the class, ran his eyes down the manuscript
and read the [462] account of King Priam begging for the dead body of his son. He
stopped the class while tears rolled down his cheeks, and turning to the teacher asked:
“And where were Helen and Paris all this time? “ 463
Great credit is ascribed to Dualu Bukelle and his literary party; but even prior to his
dream there were a few rude signs used by the Vais which did not express, but merely
suggested, ideas. These signs were in the form of hieroglyphics and Dualu seems to
have improved upon and utilize them thoroughly in his new compositions.
For instance,! [PK: diagram of logograms]
In the first example, looking at the symbol carefully, !we detect a rude picture with
outstretched arms and extended legs, as if in the act of walking. This represents
“man.” The second example is a circle with two dots within and a dash below the dots
showing two eyes and mouth. This indicates “head.” The third example shows a
flame blazing high on both sides of the middle stroke representing sticks or wood. This
symbol means “fire.” The fourth plainly shows a human body with a speck within.
This indicates a seed-bearing human being and stands for [463] “mother” or “large”.
464
#logography
That I may not appear to be advertising for employment for Vai Scholars, I would
mention in this connection that !tradition says that, in sending Dualu Bukelle to reveal
this writing to the Vais, the Spirit distinctly forbade that anyone should accept money
for teaching these characters and that the only fee for tuition should be one bottle of
palm wine, a portion of which must be poured on the ground in the name of the
Spirits of the book party. Upon the completion of the study a single fowl of white
plumage should be given to the teacher—”Freely ye have received, freely give,”—in
order that the teaching of the Spirit might go on.
43
A Vai man may charge a large sum for writing Vai or doing other literary work; but
he will charge nothing for teaching these characters. The present writer has taught
more pupils in Vai than any other living man in his country, and he has not yet
received a penny for tuition. Many Europeans, with plenty of money at their disposal,
have passed through his hands in Vai studies, but who first will violate the law of the
great Spirit teacher? 465
Brown, J Macmillan. 1914. “A new Pacific Ocean script.” Man

(14) 43: 89-91.
#caroline islands script
In July, 1913, I paid a visit to the small reef island, Oleai, or Uleai, or Wolea, of one
of the most westerly of the Caroline group. 89
This Oleai syllabic script is one stage further on in development towards an alphabet.
89
#progressivism
Most of the characters are highly conventionalised, but some retain a resemblance to
the thing to which their name or sound corresponds. In the [89] second column, the
seventh from the bottom, schrü means in the language of the islet “a fishbone,” and the
character clearly represents a fishbone ; the next, pu, means “fish,” and the character
has manifestly originated in a representation of a fish; the fifth from the bottom, lö,
means “a bottle,” and evidently the character retains something, of the form of the
coconut water-vessel. In the first column, the sixth, fifth, fourth, third, and second
from the bottom have a hint of what their syllable indicates; ngä meaning “bamboo,”
boa “ulcer,” warr “canoe,” râa “mast,” uh “sail.” So in the third column, the first, rä,
means “a saw” ; the second, lüh, “a young, coconut; the third, sthah, “a knife.” In a few
others there might be found by stretching the imagination a hint of the thing indicated
by the syllable. But the majority of the characters can be connected by no possibility
with the meaning of the sound indicated.! 90
The script is now known only to five men on the islet ; but it is probably a relic of a
wide usage in the archipelago. There is no possibility of any one of the five having
invented it, and if invented by them since Europeans arrived it would have taken the
forms either of the European alphabet or of the things bought or sold, of whose names
and numbers they wished to keep a record. 90
This Oleai script is manifestly the product of long ages for the use of the organisers of
a highly-organised community of considerable size. In other words, it must have
belonged to the ruling class of an empire of some extent, that needed constant record
of the facts of intercourse and organisation. 90
I have found it difficult to explain the existence of this script in a tiny islet, whose
population (600 all told) has a struggle to live on a poor soil and in presence of the
recurring havoc of cyclones, without some such assumption, based on other
indications in the archipelago. 91
44
Fowler, Harold North. 1914. Plato: with an English translation.
Vol. I. Cambridge, Massachusetts & London: Harvard
University Press & William Heinemann
SOCRATES. I heard, then, that at Naucratis, in Egypt, was one of the ancient gods of
that country, the one whose sacred bird is called the ibis, and the name of the god
himself was Theuth. He it was who invented numbers and arithmetic and geometry
and astronomy, also draughts and dice, and, most [561] important of all, letters. Now
the king of all Egypt at that time was the god Thamus, who lived in the great city of
the upper region, which the Greeks call the Egyptian Thebes, and they call the god
himself Ammon. To him came Theuth to show his inventions, saying that they ought
to be imparted to the other Egyptians. But Thamus asked what use there was in each,
and as Theuth enumerated their uses, expressed praise or blame, according as he
approved or disapproved. The story goes that Thamus said many things to Theuth in
praise or blame of the various arts, which it would take too long to repeat; but when
they came to the letters, “This invention, O king,” said Theuth, “will make the
Egyptians wiser and will improve their memories; for it is an elixir of memory and
wisdom that I have discovered.” But Thamus replied, “Most ingenious Theuth, one
man has the ability to beget arts, but the ability to judge of their usefulness or
harmfulness to their users belongs to another; and now you, who are the father of
letters, have been led by your affection to ascribe to them a power the opposite of that
which they really possess. For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of
those who learn to use it, because they will not practise their memory. Their trust in
writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will
discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not
of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom,
not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore
seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant [563 ]and hard
to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise.”
PHAEDRUS. Socrates, you easily make up stories of Egypt or any country you please.
SOCRATES. They used to say, my friend, that the words of the oak in the holy place of
Zeus at Dodona were the first prophetic utterances. The people of that time, not
being so wise as you young folks, were content in their simplicity to hear an oak or a
rock, provided only it spoke the truth; but to you, perhaps, it makes a difference who
the speaker is and where he comes from, for you do not consider only whether his
words are true or not.
PHAEDRUS. Your rebuke is just; and I think the Theban is right in what he says about
letters.
SOCRATES. He who thinks, then, that he has left behind him any art in writing, and he
who receives it in the belief that anything in writing will be clear and certain, would
be an utterly simple person, and in truth ignorant of the prophecy of Ammon, if he
thinks written words are of any use except to remind him who knows the matter about
which they are written.
PHAEDRUS. Very true.
SOCRATES. Writing, Phaedrus, has this strange quality, and is very like painting; for
the creatures of painting stand like living beings, but if one asks them a question, they
45
preserve a solemn silence. And so it is with written words; you might think they spoke
as if they had intelligence, but if you question them, wishing to know about their
sayings, they always say only one and the same thing. And every word, when once it is
written, is bandied about, alike among those who understand and those who [565]
have no interest in it, and it knows not to whom to speak or not to speak; when ill-
treated or unjustly reviled it always needs its father to help it; for it has no power to
protect or help itself.
PHAEDRUS. You are quite right about that, too.
SOCRATES. Now tell me; is there not another kind of speech, or word, which shows
itself to be the legitimate brother of this bastard one, both in the manner of its
begetting and in its better and more powerful nature?
PHAEDRUS. What is this word and how is it begotten, as you say?
SOCRATES. The word which is written with intelligence in the mind of the learner,
which is able to defend itself and knows to whom it should speak, and before whom to
be silent.
PHAEDRUS. You mean the living and breathing word of him who knows, of which the
written word may justly be called the image.
SOCRATES. Exactly. Now tell me this. Would a sensible husbandman, who has seeds
which he cares for and which he wishes to bear fruit, plant them with serious purpose
in the heat of summer in some garden of Adonis, and delight in seeing them appear in
beauty in eight days, or would he do that sort of thing, when he did it at all, only in
play and for amusement? Would he not, when he was in earnest, follow the rules of
husbandry, plant his seeds in fitting ground, and be pleased when those which he had
sowed reached their perfection in the eighth month?
PHAEDRUS. Yes, Socrates, he would, as you say, act in that way when in earnest and
in the other way only for amusement. [567]
SOCRATES. And shall we suppose that he who has knowledge of the just and the good
and beautiful has less sense about his seeds than the husbandman?
PHAEDRUS. By no means.
SOCRATES. Then he will not, when in earnest, write them in ink, sowing them
through a pen with words which cannot defend themselves by argument and cannot
teach the truth effectually.
PHAEDRUS. No, at least, probably not.
SOCRATES. No. The gardens of letters he will, it seems, plant for amusement, and will
write, when he writes, to treasure up reminders for himself, when he comes to the
forgetfulness of old age, and for others who follow the same path, and he will be
pleased when he sees them putting forth tender leaves. When others engage in other
amusements, refreshing themselves with banquets and kindred entertainments, he will
pass the time in such pleasures as I have suggested.
PHAEDRUS. A noble pastime, Socrates, and a contrast to those base pleasures, the
pastime of the man who can find amusement in discourse, telling stories about justice,
and the other subjects of which you speak.
46
SOCRATES. Yes, Phaedrus, so it is; but, in my opinion, serious discourse about them is
far nobler, when one employs the dialectic method and plants and sows in a fitting
soul intelligent words which are able to help themselves and him who planted them,
which are not fruitless, but yield seed from which there spring up in other minds other
words capable [569] of continuing the process for ever, and which make their
possessor happy, to the farthest possible limit of human happiness.
PHAEDRUS. Yes, that is far nobler. 571
#origin stories #asynchronicity #type 2
1920–1929
Flores, Pedro S. 1925. Local Magic Tales in Dumaguete,
Oriental Negros. In H. Otley Beyer (ed). Bisaya Paper no.
211. Ethnography of the Bisaya peoples. Vol 9. Surigao, Leyte,
Manila.
The Magic Booklet.
Once upon a time, Juan, a shepherd of a rich famer, while on his way to the field
found a booklet floating against the current of a brook. To his great surprise Juan
picked up the book and found blank pages except on one page. This happened to be
on Friday, and it was soon found out that for everyday (sic) of the week there was a
corresponding printed matter on a page. With the possession of the booklet Juan came
to possess magical power. Where before he could not read anything, he was now able
to read what is daily written on a page of the booklet.
Anything he wanted he could have. One day he went to a field to fish. Throwing his
line and muttering a few words a large fish was drawn in from the field. On another
occasion a sack of corn was placed on the ground. By muttering magical words every
grain of corn was extruded from the sack, and when the sack was empty, he muttered
another magical words (sic), and the grains of corn returned to the the sack. His co-
laborers were astonished of his powers. His master, however, became jealous of him
because of his powers. One day Juan told his companions that he could tell the exact
amount of money their master possessed. And to the great surprise and anger [1/357]
of the master Juan told exactly that their master had but fifty pesos in his trunk, which
was correct. This made the master angry, and he wanted to get hold of the booklet
from Juan. After a hard fight Juan became exhausted, and the book was taken from
him by his master. What magic powers Juan possessed then consisted only of what
could (sic) remember from the book. 2/358
#folk literacy #philippines
[PK: See informal repository of Philipine folklore in Endnote and in folder ‘Exploring
Philippine folklore with topic models]
Brown, J. Macmillan. 1927. Peoples and problems of the Pacific.

London: T. Fisher Unwin.
47
In every village [of Micronesia] we can see the round head, the broad nose, the thick
lips, the outstanding lower jaw, the fuzzy hair, and the small stature of what was
probably primordial man and what was certainly the first negroid man. There is no
actual pigmy tribe to be found in any of these islands, such as exists in the Andaman
Islands, and in the interior of the Philippines, and of New Guinea. But in some of the
larger islands like Ponape, there is a tradition of little folk who once made the forests
and mountains inland a terror to the coastal immigrants. 90
#little people #progressivism
Finally, in the Carolines the Peruvian method of recording by means of knots in
strings is to be noticed. How the American Indian and his poncho and quipu and face
could have reached so far west without leaving traces of maize or tobacco is difficult to
explain. A drift eastwards has fewer cruxes. 95
Of all the regions of the Pacific Micronesia is most distinctively a racial Alsatia. In
most of the others we have a mixture of two divisions of mankind, generally
Caucasian and Negroid, but not infrequently Caucasian and Mongoloid. But here we
have all three commingling, Caucasian, Negroid and Mongoloid. Undoubtedly the
negritto was the primeval element; over it came a Caucasian migration, probably
from the north, and later on a series of later Caucasian migrations, manifestly from
the east. In more recent prehistoric times, probably sandwiched between two
Caucasian strata, came the Mongoloid penetration, in the west from [96] Malaysia,
and in the centre and east from Japan. Nor is it by any means unlikely that the
negroid element was reinforced by a later infusion from Melanesia and the north
coasts of New Guinea. Micronesia was, in short, the meeting-place of all the primary
divisions of mankind from north, east, south, and west. It stood in the way of oceanic
conquerors, and was the natural refuge of defeated peoples from all quarters. 97
#progressivism #crackpots
(1) On the islet of Oleai I found a script that is as a syllabary far beyond that of the
Easter Island tablets and the Chinese hieroglyphs. (2) Most of its characters are
conventionalised and thus it is half-way on to an alphabet. (3) It is manifestly the relic
of a former archipelagic empire, which extended as far at least as Faraulep, a hundred
miles away. (4) There are other signs of archipelagic empires submerged; one of them
on Ponape in the south-east (5) Others are in the west of the Carolines. (6) There
seems no other explanation of a script on such a poor islet. (7) The people, a mixed
race, show a comparatively low stage of culture. 117
#progressivism #crackpots
There are fifty-one [characters], and evidently each represents a syllable, as will be
seen by the accompanying copy of the list (see p. 118). 117
They are but one [118] stage beyond the ideographic hieroglyphs on the one hand,
and serve the same purpose as the knots in the quipus of ancient Peru and of the Pelew
Islands. 118
This Oleai syllabic script is one stage further on in development towards an alphabet.
Most of the characters are highly conventionalised, but some retain a resemblance to
the thing to which their name or sound corresponds. 118
48
(4) Metalanim in the South-East of Ponape is Another Sign of Past
Imperialism. And in this archipelago there are other signs of such imperial
organisations in the pre-European past as could not well have existed in the present
condition of the specks of far-separated land. A thousand miles away to the south-east
I have just visited the ruins on the fringing reef of Ponape, and I cannot see how these
ruins can be explained without assuming within an easily navigable distance rich
islands that would carry at least twenty times the population that are now found
within a radius of a thousand miles. 119
(5) There are Other Signs of Imperialism in the Past in Yap and the
Pelews. So on the north-east coast of Yap there is an obscure village called Gatsepar,
whose chief has little or no influence in the island, yet every year canoes from the
islands away to the east—the nearest about 400 miles distant—come over these often
tempestuous seas with tribute to him. This is difficult to explain without assuming
some greater island area to the east over which Gatsepar and its ruler held sway. The
stone money of Yap, chiefly immense stone wheels, some many tons weight, brought
on rafts over 400 miles of ocean from Babelthuap, in the Pelews, seems to point to
more land in those seas and an intercourse between the islands that meant imperial
organisation. 120
(6) The Script is an Anomaly in so Small an Island. I have found it difficult to
explain the existence of this script in a tiny islet, whose population (600 all told) has a
struggle to live on a poor soil and in presence of the recurring havoc of cyclones,
without some such assumption, based on other indications in the archipelago. 120
(7) The Islanders Show in their Physique much Mixture. The accompanying
photographs (Plate F) give an idea of the appearance of the inhabitants of the island.
In one of them all or most of the women of the island are seen squatting, waiting for
Dr. Kersting, the Governor; some had fine Caucasian faces and hair, others were
quite negroid. 120
There are four or five times as many Polynesian roots in a as there are in e or i, or in o
or u. And so it is in Indo-European. It is the easiest sound, just as the vowels generally
are easier than the consonants. Amongst the animals it is the sounds that come from
the throat and the open mouth that are most frequent, if not universal. We may
conclude that, advanced though the Polynesians were amongst barbaric peoples, their
language is nearest to the primeval ; it has been preserved by complete isolation in the
Pacific Ocean, the only area on the face of the globe in which such isolation was
possible.
And yet in the largest archipelagic areas as Hawaii and New Zealand, it has evolved a
vocabulary that is as extensive as all but those of the great civilised peoples. It is more
than likely that the language came with the first migration into the Pacific Ocean. For
it is the family or domestic customs and arts that are most primitive, the men’s arts
being very advanced, especially navigation, warfare, fishing and house-and-canoe-
building. The making of fire is the most primitive in the world, and so is the cooking
in the [175] ground oven ; but most primitive of all is the complete absence of the art
of pottery; no sherd has been found in Polynesia; and it is accepted by all
anthropologists that whenever a stratum of human remains is found without pottery it
belongs to the Old Stone Age and the termination of that is at least twelve thousand
years ago. 176
49
#progressivism: language [PK: Note more discussion of this earlier on page 175]
On the whole I feel inclined to conclude that Polynesian represents the primeval form
of Indo-European. 179
#progressivism: language #crackpots
It is difficult to reject such an indication of the affinity of Polynesian and Indo-
European as that described in the fore-going chapter. And there are many more
words in Polynesian that have been set down as introduced by English sailors, but are
in reality ancient in the language and reveal that the language came from Europe. 183
#crackpots
(10) From Japan the Track of a Blond European-like Race is Apparent 200
(11) An lndo-European Vocabulary Came with Them, Apparent in the
First Five Numerals. 201
(12) In the Pacific meet Nordics Ancient and Modern Who Came by
Different Routes 201
#crackpots
Gardiner, Alan. [1927] 2001. Egyptian grammar. Oxford: Griffith

Institute Ashmolean Museum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Hieroglyphs_(Unicode_block)
� u1301A statue
� u13051 pregnant woman
u13076 ‘head in profile’

� [among
meanings is as
semantic
determiner for
personal name]
u13092 ‘breast’ […] Det.
� suckle
u130B ‘phallus’ Det.

� male
u130EF ‘hippopotamus’
�
50
u130F0 ‘elephant’
�
� u130F1 ‘giraffe’
u130F7 ‘monkey’
�
u1313D ‘excrement’
�
� u13166 ‘ostrich’
� u1316D ‘pintail duck’
u13170 ‘fatted duck’

�
u13179 ‘ducks heads
� protruding from
a pool’
u1318C ‘crocodile with
� inward curved
tail’
� u131A6 ‘fly’
u1321E ‘well full of

� water’ Det. well.
[…] As substitute
for the female
organ (c.f. O.K.
[symbol] in
[symbol] hmt
‘woman’, ‘wife’
[…]. Also as
female organ in
[symbol] […]
‘vulva’ […]
�� papyrus
up, tied and
rolled
sealed (from Dyn

XII on also
vertical)
51
� scribes outfit,
consisting of
palette, bag for
the powdered
pigments, and
reed-holder
To take but one example, the sign for’ statue’ � (A 22) is apt to change sex, head-gear,
dress and accoutrements according as the context or the scribe’s fancy may dictate.
This is the principal reason why the printing of hieroglyphic texts is so unsatisfactory.
No fount of type is sufficiently rich or sufficiently adaptable to do justice to the
Egyptian originals. 438
#iconicity
Who would have guessed that � (D 61) represents human toes? 439
#iconicity
Elsewhere, as in � when abbreviation for ḥtp ‘favour’ (§42, OBS.), or in �� sḏm

‘hear’ or �� iw ‘come’, the terms ideographic and phonetic seem almost equally
suitable. 440
Mason, William A. 1928. A history of the art of writing. New York:

The Macmillan Company.
But it will be the purpose of this book to prove by incontestible evidence that
practically all systems of writing can be traced back through successive stages of
development to a primitive age, long anterior to the invention of letters, when all
records were merely the pictures of the things or ideas expressed. We have only to
look about us in the world to discover that we have had quite up to the present
generation, in the records of the aborigines of our own land, in the writing of the
Chinese and of other nations, the contemporaneous use by different peoples the world
over, of almost every phase of this world-wide and age-long evolution of the wonderful
art of writing. For national development in the matter of writing has been most
unequal. Some nations for one cause or another — racial backwardness, isolation,
servitude or other unhappy causes contributing to it — never to this day have evolved
any system of written record; while other nations, some even contiguous through all
the centuries to these laggards in civilization, invented and practiced the art of writing
and enjoyed its beneficent results many millenniums ago. The African tribes, as is well
known, though in contact with Egyptian civilization and its high culture over three
thousand years before Christ, have failed up to the present day to develop any
52
indigenous system of writing; while the history of Babylonian writing runs back to the
fifth pre-Christian [3] millenium. 4
And the descendants of these same Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries, coming
in contact with the aborigines of this Western Continent, discovered them like
children studying the primer of writing and drawing the pictures of the things and
ideas that they desired to remember or to impart to others. 4
We shall endeavor to show throughout this book how pictorial characters and their
lineal descendants, written symbols, have constantly undergone simplification from
the original pictures through less and less complex forms until the final, simplest,
abstract stage has been reached. 5
#evolution of writing
This may seem rather fanciful, but abundant examples of written characters made up
in this figurative manner may be found in the archaic symbols of ancient languages
and in phonetic characters in-the-making, like the Chinese, long since arrested in the
development of its written characters at an early stage. Indeed, the figurative is the
next stage of development after the employment of purely representative or
ideographic signs. 13
It will require no special appeal to the reader’s imagination to foreshadow to him that
this story of the evolution of writing deals with one of the most momentous agencies in
the intellectual advancement of man. No other influence that man ever exerted has
reacted so powerfully upon the development of his mental and spiritual nature as the
invention of writing. Without the art of writing man would still be a savage as
benighted as the unlettered heathen who still inhabit Darkest Africa. Without writing
to conserve current ideas and ideals and transmit them to posterity, all advance in
intellectual attainments, [16] all uplift in spiritual thought that was not transmitted
through the uncertain and errant instrumentality of memory would be lost. The
acquisition of the art of writing above everything else distinguishes the civilized
nations from the barbaric tribes; and whenever paleographic evidences are first met
with in the life-history of any nation, we may confidently assert that the people
practicing the art of writing, however crude the signs employed, were well advanced
in the scale of civilization. It is this fact that makes any inquiry into the origin of
writing a peculiarly interesting study, and the person who approaches the subject
sympathetically will amply be rewarded, for he will see at every stage the noble
struggle, pathetic at times, of man’s emergence from his primitive barbarism and
awakening to a conscious sense of his obligations to others, and of his ultimate high
destiny. 17
Primitive men living in small, segregated communities, separated by mountain or
water barriers from alien tribes for whom they entertained only feelings of hostile
suspicion, had little need of the art of writing. Their lives were uneventful, and their
annals, such as they had, were transmitted orally from father to son. 18
53
In the more primitive life, as man advanced in the scale of civilization and tribal life
became more complex, and as tribes came into mutual contact with each other,
enlarging their horizon of life and action, verbal speech proved inadequate as a means
of communication. 20
We do not find in the world to-day a high state of civilization where there is illiteracy;
rather do we find barbarism and savagery. Letters, or a knowledge of them, always
throughout the ages have been the magic charm that ever has dispelled the gloom of
ignorance and superstition; the lodestar that has guided men upward to the higher
intellectual and spiritual life. For by writing, the thoughts of the foremost men of the
times have been widely disseminated among reading men, making intellectual growth
in the community vastly more rapid. 39
The development of writing has been an age-long evolution arising in the necessities
of tribal and inter-tribal life, and demanded by the increasing complexities of society
as savage man has advanced from his primitive state toward civilization and felt the
need of recording his traditions and conserving his knowledge in some permanent and
legible form. The first step in the direction of writing was taken when man early began
to exhibit his in-born propensity for graphic expression, manifested in his attempts to
imitate the shapes of the natural objects about him. Few races indeed in the history of
the world have failed to exhibit evidences of this distinctly human talent. Many
African and Polynesian races to-day seem to have developed nothing in the line of
graphics beyond a rudimentary form of geometric decoration. Writing never has
developed in this direction. Abstract and geometric though the alphabetic characters
seem to be in their present form — no letters could be more so than the Roman
capitals — yet if we are unable to convince the reader that each was the outgrowth of
a specific, antecedent, pictorial form, we shall at least have proven to him that as far
as history reaches, in every direction, the beginnings of writing seem to have been laid
in pictorial art. It is the natural mode of graphic expression of the primitive races of
mankind. 40
#progressivism: writing #evolution of writing
These drawings of primitive races while undoubtedly made for the purpose of record,
the only kind known to these savages in their backward stage of progress toward
civilization, are many removes from true writing. They illustrate in point of fact the
very first step. 48
The history and development of the art of writing the entire world over, among
peoples of all races, whether occupying contiguous portions of the same continent
separated from one another only by mountain barriers or developing their civilization
in antipodal countries in far distant continents, seem to have progressed along lines of
growth practically identical with each other. 49
54
This lack of uniformity in racial development, as has been pointed out, has been so
great that it is probable that since the time when the ancient Egyptians or the
Sumerian Babylonians first appeared upon the pages or history in the fifth millennium
before Christ to the present time, all stages of the art of writing, from the rudest
pictographs of the most savage Indian or benighted African to the true alphabetic
writing practiced by the ancient Egyptians in their earliest known dynasty, have
constantly been contemporaneous.
These successive stages in the evolution of writing can briefly be stated as follows: —
I. Pictographic or iconographic writing.
a) Mnemonic devices antecedent to pictography.
b) Disconnected and fragmentary pictures.
c) Connected stories, songs or epics.
II. Ideographic or hieroglyphic picture-writing.
III. Phonetic writing.
a) Syllabic symbols or signs.
b) Alphabetic characters.
50
The next and most important step in the development of writing was easily the most
signal, intellectual achievement ever attained by man, and justifies Plato’s remark that
writing is “the divine art.” It was an advance in culture pregnant with the profoundest
benefit to posterity in all the countless ages to come. The substitution of ideographic
pictures that represented natural objects in [54] their visual forms and recalled them
to the mind’s eye, and, as culture increased, that pictured mental conceptions of their
attributes and qualities by characters that represented only the phonetic values of their
names, though it may appear to us of this age a very simple process, nevertheless must
have been arrived at only after ages of primitive culture. But when the change was
once fully effected, each nation or race as it evolved this significant transformation in
the art of writing must rapidly have strode to the front rank of civilization of its day;
for it had discovered the readiest and surest means of preserving and disseminating
knowledge and experience. To put it more tersely, the change was one from a picture
or symbol representing a thing to the symbol representing the name of the thing; in
other words, the picture of a sound. 54
It is evident that as a spoken language became rich in inflections, conjugations, and all
the varied parts of speech of a living language, there would be legions of words in
tenses, moods, cases and other grammatical forms, which could not be pictured in any
way and which would tax to its furthest bounds any signary to supply characters for
the ever increasing number and complexity of such words. These words, too,
undoubtedly would be polysyllabic, making the task of finding suitable characters for
them all the more difficult. All this complexity of procedure was remedied in the
course of time — and it took time, ages — by the final simplification of the entire
system; that of selecting a few symbols, conventionalized and reduced to their lowest
terms, out of the thousands of hieroglyphs that lumbered the signary of the language,
55
to represent the comparatively few fundamental, phonetic sounds in the spoken
language, and with which all possible phonetic combinations could be made. This was
alphabetic writing. When this final transformation was accomplished, all that
preceded it forever was abandoned as so many rungs in the ladder of ascent, the
summit having been attained. 57
This process of growth in written characters is ac-[58]ccording to the well-known
principle of acrology, that is believed to have been the method of development and
transformation of syllabic into alphabetic characters. 59
Here [Easter Island] lived at one time a superior race of people in an advanced state
of civilization. 146
#progressivism: denial of indigenous sophistication
Many other evidences of the comparatively high state of civilization of the former
inhabitants of the island seem to indicate a culture not indigenous to the island, but
coming from without. 147
This seems quite incompatible with the fact that they were in possession of a system of
hieroglyphic writing mnemonics, that appears to have been well understood among
the initiated. 147
In the island of Oleai, or Uleai, one of the most westerly of the Caroline Islands, there
has recently been discovered a new native script which has been most interest-
[152]ingly described by J. Macmillan Brown.[fn: “A New Pacific Ocean Scrit”] The
script is unlike any other known script. It is partly ideographic, partly geometric, and
throughout is highly conventionalized and simplified. The syllabary consists of fifty-
one characters, which in their entirety seem to make a very consistent series, evidently
acquired through many generations of native culture. Mr. Brown reproduces in his
article the entire syllabary, as written down for him by the chief, Egilimar, who signs
the document, spelling out his name in the native characters, with the English spelling
in parallel beside them.
Mr. Brown says: “This Oleai script is manifestly the product of long ages, for the use
of the organizers of a highly-organized community of considerable size. In other
words, it must have belonged to the ruling class of an empire of some extent, that
needed constant record of the facts of intercourse and organization.” According to
Mr. Brown’s account, there are many signs in this archipelago of a former civilization
of considerable antiquity and extent. In the fringing reef of Ponape, there are vast
ruins of great houses with walls six to fifteen feet thick, consisting of enormous basalt
columns brought from twenty miles away. The buildings and quays cover eleven
miles.
These two hieroglyphic scripts, coming unexpectedly out of the Pacific Ocean, give us
an altogether new conception of the inhabitants of the islands of the South Sea. The
Caroline Islands are hundreds of miles east of the Philippine Islands, visited only
56
infrequently by sailing or steam ships; while Easter Island is thousands of miles further
seaward, and is rarely visited by any packet ship [152] throughout the entire year. We
may well inquire how these totally different systems of writing developed in these
remote islands, and what their origin was. Scholars are studying the question and we
may hope that before long we may be able to trace the sources of origin and the lines
of development of these two mysterious systems of writing. 153
#caroline islands script #progressivism: denial of indigenous sophistication
1930–1939
Klingenheben, A. 1933. “The Vai script.” Journal of the
International African Institute 6 (2):158-171.
#vai
The question immediately arose how these natives, hitherto hardly known even by
name to the civilized world, and pursuing an unobtrusive existence in the seclusion of
the primeval forest far from the course of the world’s traffic, came to possess a cultural
treasure of so high a quality, one usually met with only among peoples of ancient and
rich culture. 158
Delafosse believed that he could recognize Greek or, alternatively, Latin characters,
such as [PK: Greek letters] and [PK: Greek letter], in some of the Vai signs, and
European numerals such as 5, 6, 8, and 11, in others; even though the phonetic values
of the corresponding Vai syllable signs (the corresponding sequence being gba, kpa,
to—and similarly [PK: series continues] have no connexion with the sound value and
the significance of these signs in European scripts. Steinthal, who was the first to
attempt a scientific treatment of Koelle’s work in his book Die Mande-Neger-Sprache in,
1867, had already been struck by the resemblance of many of the Vai signs to
European letters and numbers. Thus he maintains,[fn] ‘It could hardly be due to
chance that the syllable be is like the Latin P, and gba like B. But on the other hand
N=po, H=re, E=to, 8 = so, 5 = fa, K = mbe. ... The majority of the signs consist of
arbitrary figures, rectangles, circles, crosses, with dots which have been copied from
the diacritical points of other scripts, but, for the most part, do not affect the meaning
of the characters. Still more superfluous are the zigzag lines with which many of the
signs commence, which have been copied from our cursive modes of writing’.
Delafosse, reasoning along similar lines to Steinthal, without, however, being familiar
with the latter’s book,[fn] argues from the resemblance of certain of the Vai signs to
European characters and numerals, that the Vai script possibly orginated in the
following manner. Some of the natives, concluding that writing was a cause of the
white man’s superiority, sought to secure the advantages associated with writing for
their own countrymen. Hence they selected a number of characters at random from
European—Latin and Greek—printed works and manuscripts;[fn] and being
ignorant of their phonetic significance, indeed even of the very nature of European
alphabetical script, gave them entirely arbitrary syllabic values.[fn]
Migeod attributes a similar origin to the Vai script, in his article ‘The Syllabic Writing
of the Vai People’ in the Journal of the African Society, ix, 1909-10, where he says (p. 50):
‘Evidently Doalu recalled a few printed letters, for they are incorporated in the
57
syllabary,without [160] however in the least possessing any relation to their true
value.’ Sir Harry Johnston’s opinion, expressed in the second volume of his
comprehensive work Liberia, London, 1906, p. 1114, is to the same effect. He says: ‘ A
close inspection of these characters will reveal the fact that many of them are clumsy
adaptations of Roman letters or of conventional signs employed by Europeans; only
two or three bear any resemblance to Arabic characters.’ Delafosse had not been able
to detect such an influence from the side of the Arabic script, which Johnston would
here seem to consider as not wholly precluded. He does, however, draw attention to
resemblances between Vai signs and those of the Tuareg script, but describes these as
accidental.[fn] It is necessary to add that Delafosse had not entirely dismissed the
possibility that the analogies between the European and the Vai script pointed out by
him might be merely a matter of chance. 161
#progressivism: denial of indigenous sophistication #cherokee
Hence[Delafosse] concludes: ‘L’alphabet vaï a dû être inventé au début du xvie siècle,
au moment où la découverte de l’Amerique provoquait les premières expéditions des
marchands d’esclaves à la côte d’Afrique.’ [fn] Acute as these deductions of Delafosse
about the origin and age of the Vai script are, his hypothesis—quite apart from the
fact that it cannot be reconciled with Momolu Duwalu Bukele’s statements—cannot
be accepted. For, as what follows will show, his premise of the derivation of the Vai
signs from European models is totally erroneous. 161
As a matter of fact, we have information of other scripts of this latter kind from West
Africa. Danzel quotes the Nsibidi script from West Africa, as well as a picture writing
found in Dahomey, as examples of this.[fn]
According to an account given me by Consul-General Massaquoi, the manner and
circumstances in which such messages were represented in the picture script, must be
conceived somewhat as follows: Suppose a town were unexpectedly besieged by an
enemy and it was desired to warn absent inhabitants lest on their return they
unwittingly fell into the hands of the besieging forces. The figure of a man sitting
down would then be carved on the bark of trees which those returning to the town
would be bound to pass on their way. In order to indicate that it was not merely a
single man, but a large number, several dots were placed beside this figure, each of
which stood for a repetition of the figure, and thus, to some extent, signified an
abbreviation. Any one conversant with this sort of picture-writing then ‘read ‘ that a
large number of people, presumably enemies, was ‘sitting down’ farther along the
path, and could take precautions accordingly. If, on the other hand, it was desired to
communicate that the enemy had been defeated and driven off, the figure of a man
running was cut into the bark, perhaps with his hands stretched above his head in a
forward direction, to signify hasty flight, and a number of dots to [163] indicate
plurality. This principle of indicating plurality not by repeating the object itself but by
means of dots, is also found in the later syllabic script of the Vais. If, however, the Vais
picture-script, as it is depicted by Massaquoi, exhibited such conventional ‘writing’
habits—subsequently adopted into the syllabic script—this permits one to attribute
some age to the picture writing. 164
To be sure, the break with the past was not at once radically accomplished. Even to-
day signs are occasionally found in Vai manuscripts which embody not a phonetic
sound-sequence but a definite concept. The picture longest retained as a pure
idiogram in the script is, perhaps, that of a withered tree with drooping branches—
58
stereotyped, of course, in accordance with the graphic character of the script—used to
represent the concept ‘death, to die, to kill’, expressed in Vai by the disyllabic word
faa, see Appendix, fig. I. Koelle also cites a number of signs standing for words and no
syllables. But apart from relics of this sort which may perhaps still occur now and
then, the Vai script is now a purely phonetic syllabic script. Thus the concept ‘ to die’,
etc., would to-day as a rule be conveyed by means of a phonetically written disyllable,
and not by employing the ancient sign for the word. 165
#logography #ideography
The system of the complete Vai syllabary reveals that it has in quite recent times been
extended to its present scope by the addition of such diacritical marks to single signs,
and even to whole series of signs. According to what Massaquoi told me, they went so
far as to summon conferences of men learned in the Vai script for this purpose. 166
In establishing this, it must, at the outset, be noted that the position or direction of the
signs now frequently deviates from that of the primary picture; for instance, it appears
to be turned through an angle of 90° and such like. To-day it conforms not to that of
the old, forgotten picture, but to graphical and aesthetic points of view. With many
signs, besides, the direction is not yet absolutely fixed, but varies according to the
custom of the writer.
The following signs, inter alia, are based upon representations of people:[fn] mgo,
‘person’, developed from the picture of a person with head, trunk, and limbs; the
trunk and the limbs can unquestionably be detected in the present stereotyped
character, cf. fig. 4. ba, ‘mother’ —a square for the body and the head also indicated.
The dot in the square is conclusive for the interpretation of the drawing as ‘mother ‘,
since it represents the unborn creature existing in the body of the mother, cf. fig. 5.
The direction of the figure has been rotated through an angle of 90°. nó is the first
syllable of nómo, ‘brother’. The sign represents two people united by the bond of
kinship, so to speak, and is not, as Delafosse imagined, to be traced to the European
number 2, cf. fig. 6. a is the first syllable of the pronoun of the third person plural anu,
‘they’. A person is depicted surrounded by dots, which, according to the ancient
picture writing, are supposed to indicate the plural of the person, cf. fig. 7. The signs
for the syllables mu and wo, which as words of one syllable signify the plural pronouns
‘we’ and ‘you’, must be regarded each as a combination of three persons, cf. figs. 8
(mu),and 9 (wo). It is worthy of note that here the triple reproduction of the object
appears as the device for expressing the plural, as in the Egyptian hieroglyphs; which,
of course, is not to be taken as asserting a causal connexion. 167
[PK: what follows are multiple logograms and rebuses]
#rebus
Thus a rolled-up string, the sign for the syllable ki, symbolizes the concept kili, ‘to
bind’, cf. fig. 28.
Nor does the task of conveying non-concrete, abstract concepts daunt the Vai script. Thus it
has graphically represented the expression me, ‘this is’, by a picture of four
outstretched fingers, which are pointed towards an object, cf. fig. 29. And the concept
of identity inherent in the conjunction pele, ‘also’, has been expressed by using a
duplicated angle in order to represent the syllable pe, cf. fig. 30. This sign is, therefore,
not the Greek ε, as Delafosse maintained. 169
59
The Vai script is not an ignorant imitation of one or several foreign scripts, but is the
organic evolution of an autochthonous, older picture writing. 169
In the first place, the phenomenon of the Vai script undoubtedly has great significance
for the comparative study of scripts. There are not many places in the world where
indigenous systems of writing, independent of others, have sprung up; and where this
has occurred, not all of them have evolved into a pure phonetic script. 170
But the Vai script is also of extreme importance, especially for linguistics. Any one
concerned with the phonetic representation of African languages by Europeans, will
often recognize how seldom they do real justice to the true phonetic conditions of a
language. In the Vai script, on the contrary, we possess a system of writing so ideally
adapted to the phonetic conditions of this language, that from a study of it no doubt
can be left as to the number and the phonetic nature of the phonemes of the language.
The Vai script recognizes seven distinct vowel nuances, which are indispensable to a
right understanding of the language. In the same way it differentiates unequivocally
between the two kinds of b, the two d’s, the various labio-velars appearing in the
language, the nasalized vowels, etc. These are explicit facts; but in spite of their
fundamental importance for Vai, it was impossible to gain a clear idea about them
from the various records of the language hitherto made by Europeans in European
scripts. The Vai script also, as follows from its character as a syllabic script, throws
light upon the syllabic structure of the language, a matter often, unfortunately,
neglected in African studies. In the Vai script a means has even been devised for the
supplementary indication of tone-levels, although, being as a rule superfluous for the
Vai reader, it is seldom employed in practice. Finally the Vai script is unique in this
respect, also, that being accurately adapted to the structure of the language for which
it was created, it has for once really enabled an African people to show spontaneously
and without being influenced or misled by systems of writing unsuited for its
requirements, how it interprets its language phonetically. And in carrying out this task
the Vais have acquitted themselves by no means badly as phoneticians. 170
#hypothesis: predisposition to phonography
Lovecraft, H. P. [1936]. At the mountains of madness.

Often, however, a series of smooth cartouches containing oddly patterned groups of
dots would be sunk along one of the arabesque bands.
The technique, we soon saw, was mature, accomplished, and aesthetically evolved to
the highest degree of civilised mastery; though utterly alien in every detail to any
known art tradition of the human race. In delicacy of execution no sculpture I have
ever seen could approach it. The minutest details of elaborate vegetation, or of animal
life, were rendered with astonishing vividness despite the bold scale of the carvings;
whilst the conventional designs were marvels of skilful intricacy. The arabesques
displayed a profound use of mathematical principles, and were made up of obscurely
symmetrical curves and angles based on the quantity of five. The pictorial bands
followed a highly formalised tradition, and involved a peculiar treatment of
perspective; but had an artistic force that moved us profoundly notwithstanding the
intervening gulf of vast geologic periods. Their method of design hinged on a singular
juxtaposition of the cross-section with the two-dimensional silhouette, and embodied
an analytical psychology beyond that of any known race of antiquity. It is useless to
try to compare this art with any represented in our museums. Those who see our
60
photographs will probably find its closest analogue in certain grotesque conceptions of
the most daring futurists.
The arabesque tracery consisted altogether of depressed lines whose depth on
unweathered walls varied from one to two inches. When cartouches with dot-groups
appeared—evidently as inscriptions in some unknown and primordial language and
alphabet—the depression of the smooth surface was perhaps an inch and a half, and
of the dots perhaps a half-inch more. The pictorial bands were in counter-sunk low
relief, their background being depressed about two inches from the original wall
surface. In some specimens marks of a former colouration could be detected, though
for the most part the untold aeons had disintegrated and banished any pigments
which may have been applied. The more one studied the marvellous technique the
more one admired the things. Beneath their strict conventionalisation one could grasp
the minute and accurate observation and graphic skill of the artists; and indeed, the
very conventions themselves served to symbolise and accentuate the real essence or
vital differentiation of every object delineated. We felt, too, that besides these
recognisable excellences there were others lurking beyond the reach of our
perceptions. Certain touches here and there gave vague hints of latent symbols and
stimuli which another mental and emotional background, and a fuller or different
sensory equipment, might have made of profound and poignant significance to us.
The subject-matter of the sculptures obviously came from the life of the vanished
epoch of their creation, and contained a large proportion of evident history. It is this
abnormal historic-mindedness of the primal race—a chance circumstance operating,
through coincidence, miraculously in our favour—which made the carvings so
awesomely informative to us, and which caused us to place their photography and
transcription above all other considerations. In certain rooms the dominant
arrangement was varied by the presence of maps, astronomical charts, and other
scientific designs on an enlarged scale—these things giving a naive and terrible
corroboration to what we gathered from the pictorial friezes and dadoes. In hinting at
what the whole revealed, I can only hope that my account will not arouse a curiosity
greater than sane caution on the part of those who believe me at all. It would be tragic
if any were to be allured to that realm of death and horror by the very warning meant
to discourage them. […]
The moment we came upon a perfect section of carving, where no ambiguity of
interpretation could exist, it took only a brief study to give us the hideous truth—a
truth which it would be naive to claim Danforth and I had not independently
suspected before, though we had carefully refrained from even hinting it to each
other. There could now be no further merciful doubt about the nature of the beings
which had built and inhabited this monstrous dead city millions of years ago, when
man’s ancestors were primitive archaic mammals, and vast dinosaurs roamed the
tropical steppes of Europe and Asia. n.p.
#decipherment #iconicity #ideography #type 4
Verzosa, Paul Rodriguez. 1939. Pangbansang titik nang Pilipinas.

Manila: Institute of National Language.
In 1921 when I returned from the United States to give public lectures on Tagalog
philology, calligraphy, and linguistics I introduced the word ALIBATA, which found
its way into newsprings and often mentioned by many authors in their writings. I
61
coined this word in 1914 in the New York Public Library Manuscript Research
Division, basing it on the three MAGUINDANAO (Moro) arrangement of letters of
the alphabet after the Arabic: ALIF, BA, TA (Alibata) “F” having been eliminated for
euphony sake. 12
Four thousand years ago when India was mistress of humanity’s culture and
civilization and China was her closest rival, the Sanskrit handwriting formed the basis
of the alphabets, so to speak, of all nations that were religiously and culturally
subservient to theteachings of the Indian philosophers, priests, and buccaneers who
roamed around Asia and the Malayo-Polynesian islands and countries. Java, Siam,
Celebes, Molukas and Sumatra and other countries of Asia adopted thevarious
simplified and poularized Sanskrit alphabet and handwriting, of which the Tagalog
handwriting is its distant but direct descendant. 17
There is no doubt that the Filipino alphabet is a very old invention and passess the
1000 year mark judging from its present state of perfection that should cause national
pride to anyone who calls himself a Filipino. It resembles also the Aramaic, the writing
of the present day Ethiopians, the far-flung scions of the Mosaic Egyptians of Bilbical
days. 17
#lost tribes of Israel
Many historians and researchers maintain that the various ethnic groups of the
Philippines had different and distinct alphabets of their own that were exclusively
employed in distinct and isolated regions of this country before and after the arrival of
the Spaniards. They even go to the extent of graphically printing variants and
deformed alphabets purporteing to be of Pampangos, Ilocanos, Panggasinans,
Visayos, Zambals, Tagalogs, Mangyans, and Tagbanawas. This contentiond does not
hold water for we cannot deny the fact that Spain, Italy, France, and England use
only the Roman alphabet in their writing despite the fact that each of this country is
possessing its nationalized and adapted handwriting with pronounced variations but
not fundamentally different from each other.
But we have the authorities, undisputed in character, of Padre Marcilla, the late Dr.
Pardo de Tavera, Dr Jose Rizal, Justice Ignacio Villamor, Justice Norberto
Romualdez, author of the Tagbanwa calligraphy, the outstanding Filipino
antiquarian, Dr. Jose P. Bantug, and Hon. Jaime C. de Veyra, president of the
Institute of National Language, to the effect that there has been andthere is only one
Filipino original alphabet and that is the Tagalog. 19
The alphabets recorded by Padre Pavón in 1543, Padre Chirino in 1604, Padre San
Buenaventura in 1613, and other manuscripts do not differ radically from the
popularized alphabet of Padre Lopez in 1621. The variations in sytle were due to
personal caprice of the writers and consequently were not fundamental so as to
support the theory that the Filipinos possessed different alphabets.
I quote here the authoritative conclusion of the foremost Filipino scholar, Don
Gignacio Villamore: “As far as our present knowledge goes, we may draw the
conclusion with sufficient ground, that niether the Visayans nor the Ilocanos had any
alphabets other than of the Tagalog and that the Tagalog alphabet was the one most
generally used in the Islands, according to Father Lopez, and was probably the only
one used by all the Filipinos with slight changes, of course, due to the ability and style
of each individual writer.” (La Escritura Angitua Filipina, Manila, 1922). 20
62
Actually it is the simplest alphabet extant in the world and the average normal person
can learn the whole system in two days with satisfaction; whereas, the Roman, the
Arabic, the Chinese, and the Japanese systems require an average of fifteen years for
any one to master the intricate and hazardous execution of their letters or ideographs.
And for this reason it was commonly observed by the first Spanish missionaries that
illiteracy was not known in this country due to the comparative ease offered by the
Filipino handwriting and its alphabet. 21
Writing in typical Filipino letters and speaking in a truly Filipino tongue, although of
belated nationalization completes that national glamour that is inborn in the heart of
the average Filipino. there is much truth in the statement of Dr. Erwin Mayenburg,
professor of Literature at the University of Berlin, Germany, when he visited Manila
overa decade ago. The Filipino people can have a place in the world of literature
someday if they use their own native language. A native language is the best
expression of one’s feeling and peculiarities. The English language is good only as a
means of international communication, but not for personal expression.”
The Nazi professor has said a mouthful! 22
The ancient Filipino writing comes to the timely rescue and it seems that those faded
documents written in our fore-fathers’ calligraphy will serve as the nerve stimulant to
our jaded inferiority complex, which has been rendered blunt in the course of rubbing
elbows with superior civilization and cultures from abroad. 23
Previous to the minor but significant diacritical improvement introduced by Padre
Lopez in 1621 concerning the use of a tiny cross for mute consonants, the syllabic
system of writing involves too much patience on the part of the reader and writer – a
thing which cannot be efficient in this age of speedy thinking, of television, of swing
music, and of nervous machine age. 24
#funny
La escritura es la ampliación de la palabra; es la palabra misma triunfando del espacio
y de tiempo. Con la Escritura no hay distancias.” BALMES. 25
#writing as technology
1940–1949
Kroeber, A. L. 1940. “Stimulus diffusion.” American
Anthropologist 42 (1):1-20.
#stimulus diffusion
The type of diffusion which I am now about to examine is in some ways of an
opposite kind. It occurs in situations where a system or pattern as such encounters no
resistance to its spread, but there are difficulties in regard to the transmission of the
concrete content of the system. In this case it is the idea of the complex or system
which is accepted, but it remains for the receiving culture to develop a new content.
This somewhat special process might therefore be called “idea-diffusion” or “stimulus-
diffusion.” 1
63
Fortunately, however, we possess a few cases that are at least near-contemporary and
supported by a fair degree of factual evidence.
1. One of these instances concerns the invention of porcelain in Europe in the early
eighteenth century. […] 2
A goal or objective was set by something previously existing in another culture; the
originality was limited to achieving the mechanisms by which this goal could be
attained.
[…]
2. Another historic example is furnished by the invention of the so-called alphabet,
really a syllabary, for the Cherokee language by Sequoya, or John Gist or Guest or
Guess, about 1821. [PK: More on this follows] […] 3
#cherokee
It is therefore possible that Sequoya’s choice of a syllabic system, which involved a
change from his model, rests upon a pyschological fact, namely that non-literate
peoples have again and again been found able to syllabify their words on request, that
is to break them up without difficulty into their constituent syllables, but are in general
unable to break up the syllables farther into the constituent elemental sounds or
phonemes. They can of course be taught to do the latter, but rarely if ever make the
analysis spontaneously.
Sequoya’s choice also constitutes rather strong internal evidence that, while he had
picked up some facts about the system of English letters—he is said to have had a
spelling book in his house—his knowledge remained so deficient that he had not
grasped the alphabetic principle. If he had, he would almost certainly have applied
this principle with such minor modifications as seemed to him desirable to make it fit
the sounds of Cherokee. At any rate the degree to which culture conditions the
individual makes it possible if not probable that this is what would have happened if
Sequoya had started with adequate control of English writing. He would in that case
have been no more than an adapter or applier—a sort of supplementary inventor.
That he altered the basic principle of writing stamps him as a person of originality
capable of a primary invention.
However, it is clear that if it had not been for the presence of writing in the Caucasian
civilization with which he was in contact, Sequoya would certainly never have had the
objective or goal of a system of writing arise in his mind. In this sense his original
invention was dependent upon culture contact, and is an example of diffusion as well
as of invention. It seems that this case exemplifies very well the appropriateness of the
terms stimulus-diffusion and idea-diffusion. 3
#hypothesis: primacy of the syllable #cherokee
3. It is an interesting fact that there is a fairly close parallel to Sequoya’s diffusion-
invention in Africa, only a little later, before 1849, among the Vei or Vai of the
Liberian coast. 4
#vai #africa: west
Particularly is this true when we find writing appearing on the cultural scene at more
or less the same time in countries so close together as Egypt and Mesopotamia. The
64
time-space relation is such as inevitably to suggest a connection. On the other hand,
the Egyptian and Mesopotamian characters, their sound values where they represent
sounds, and in part the principles employed are so different that all attempts to derive
cuneiform from hieroglyphic or vice versa have been rejected as insufficient and
forced. It is, however, entirely possible that after writing had developed in one of the
two areas, knowledge of the possibility and advantages of writing was carried to the
other area; and that because of this stimulus someone in the second area devised a
system to fit his native language, customary thought processes, and available
technological materials; with the result that the specific system evolved was totally or
preponderantly diverse from the one which had stimulated its invention. As between
Mesopotamia and China, the geographical gap is considerably greater, and the lapse
of time between first [5] appearances is probably also greater. However, the system of
strokes composing the characters is undeniably somewhat alike. That Terrien de
Lacouperie’s old attempt to show a connection through specific similarities of form
and meaning of characters is a failure, may be unhesitatingly accepted along with the
majority of scholars. Nevertheless, there does remain the possibility of a real
connection through the transmission of the idea of writing and of this acting as a
stimulus toward an original but induced local invention, presumably in China. 6
It is the awakening of the idea or method, its revivification, one might almost say its
reinvention, that furnish a partial parallel to the preceding cases. 11
I am fully aware that the principle of stimulus or idea diffusion can be abused. It could
easily be invoked for wildly speculative leaps of historic fantasy. However, this cannot
be helped. Those who will speculate on minimal evidence will no doubt continue to
do so whether they use the principle of stimulus diffusion or some other principle as a
pole with which to vault. If stimulus diffusion does take place, it is a process which it is
necessary to recognize. Some focusing of attention on it as a principle will no doubt
help to delimit its nature and its scope. Any over-estimations of the principle may be
expected to show themselves as such, and ultimately to help in the delimiting. After
all, in the last analysis it is a matter in each case of how much evidence there is, and
whether the evidence is construed with ordinary reasonableness.
It is also well to remember that while diffusion in space, like transmission in time, is an
exceedingly common process, it is not something that operates automatically. There
are selective factors making for and against diffusion, of which we are beginning to
have some comprehension. There are also a number of mechanisms involved in the
process; and these it is obviously desirable to distinguish, as far as possible. Idea
diffusion is only one [19] of these mechanisms, and probably a rather special one. 20
Analogically, ordinary diffusion is like adoption, stimulus diffusion like procreation,
with the influencing culture in the role of the father; though by strict rules of historical
evidence paternity is sometimes clouded. In essence, stimulus diffusion might be
defined as new pattern growth initiated by precedent in a foreign culture. 20
Bodmer, Frederick. [1943] 1949. The loom of language: A guide

to foreign languages for the home student. London: George
Allen & Unwin.
A language is an implement quite as much as an implement of stone or steel; its use
involves social consequences; it does things to you just as a metal or a machine does things
to you. it makes new precision and also new errors possible.
65
—H. G. Wells, In Search of Hot Water
n.p.
The use of picture or logographic scripts, like early syllable writing, has always been
the prerogative of a privilged caste of priests or scholars. The invention of the
alphabet made it possible to democratize the art of calculation. 48
We may hope for greater progress in our knowledge of the evolution of languages
when there are fewere scholars who cherish their trade-mark gentlemanly uselessness,
and more real humanists who, like Sweet, Jespersen, Ogden, or Sapir, modestly accept
their responsibility as citizens, co-operating in the task of making language an
instrument for peaceful collaboration between nations. A civilization which produces
poison gas and thermite has no need for humanists who are merely grammarians.
What we now need is the grammarian who is truly a humanist. 78
A bird’s-eye view of visual language, in contradistinction to that of the ear, would be
distorted if it took in nothing but the evolution of signs used in ancient stone
inscriptions, manuscripts or modern books, and newspapers. Visual communication
may be of two kinds, transient or persistent. The first includes gesture which reinforces
daily speech, and the several types of gestural language respectively used for
communication between deaf and dumb people, or in military and naval signalling.
Signalling may be of two types. Like deaf and dumb gesture language, it may depend
on human movements which recall symbols used in alphabetic writing. Signalling by
flag-displays based on codes is like logographic writing. The signs used by bookies or
hotel porters are a logographic gesture-script. 85
To organize prosperity on a world-wide scale, we need to supplement the languages of
local speech-communities with an international medium of discourse. Whether such a
world-wide language will eventually displace all others, we cannot say. What is certain
is that such a change will not happen till many centuries have elapsed. In the
meantime, the most we can aim at is to make every citizen of the Age of Plenty
bilingual, that is to say, equally fluent in a home language, and in the common
language of world citizenship, or of some unit larger than the soveriegn states of the
present day. Hardly less importantis another need. Few but experts realize the Babel
of scripts in the modern world. Many of them are ill-suited for their purpose,
laborious to learn and space-consuming. Non-exploitative collaboratin between East
and West requires international adoption of the Roman alphabet, supplemented
where necessary by additional symbols. Lenin said this to comrade Agamaly-Ogly,
president of the Central pan-Soviet Committee of National Alphabets: Romanization,
there lies the great revolution of the East.
Regularization of script on a world-wide scale is alike prerequisite to liquidation of
illiteracy in the Orient and worth-while spelling reform in the West. 88
Adams, R. F. G. 1947. “Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ: A new African language

and script.” Africa: Journal of the International Africa Institute 17
(1):24-34.
#medefaidrin #africa: west
In 1936 certain followers were discovered to have opened a school where a strange
language and script were being used. The local head of the movement and his chief
66
assistant, who acted as teacher in this school, were fined for offences against the
Education Code. During the hearing of the case the former said that the spirit
inspired him and that he passed on what he learnt to the assistant who wrote it down
in a ‘hydrographical’ script which appeared to him in dreams and was recorded the
following day. He further stated that there were at the time some hundreds of
adherents and that, at the school, children were learning to write, read, and calculate
in the script. Samples of the script were sent to the International African Institute for
investigation. The Chairman of the Institute at that time expressed great interest, as a
result of which I was instructed to prosecute research into the script. 24
Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ was the name given by Sɛminant, the ‘holy spirit’, to the sect which a
few people in the village of Ikpa near Iyere in the Itu Division of Calabar Province
founded about the year 1928. The language was also called by the same name.
Sɛminant apparently began inspiring people linguistically about the year 1931, when,
[25] according to one informant, he was trying to make his purpose clear by causing
people to write in sand, on leaves, on trees in the bush, and on the paper; the said
writing not being clear to the eyes of the flesh. The story went on that many persons
had prophesied that Gizn, God, would make the writing clear to the members of the
sect if they did but continue in prayer. From a vague vocabulary and a series of loops,
crosses, and other signs the vocabulary and orthography reached quite an advanced
stage of development.
There appear to be thirty-two main symbols, most of them taking very strange forms,
while diacritic marks are found as well as special letters. In some instances the symbols
represent two sounds such as ks, sk, and pt, and what appears to be a combination of s
or ʃ and w as in s(ʃ)wai, ‘why?’ or ‘what is it?’. Many of the combinations of sounds
are not found in the languages usually spoken in south-eastern Nigeria. All the thirty-
two symbols have both small and capital forms. The only symbol used as in English
seems to be the comma, called aepin, even the full stop being different, consisting as it
does of two small parallel lines. 26
A language which has only had a precarious existence among a select few for ten years
or less deserves little serious consideration as a means of communication, especially as
the investigator was only able to spend a few hours on it. 32
#validity
The symbols bear no resemblance to any form of writing known to the writer of this
article. Two suggestions have been put forward. The first of these is that the symbols
are related to the old nsibidi writing which was once in use among the people of
Arockuku where the biggest ‘juju’ in this part of the world exerted its foul sway until
the expedition of 1901. These Aro people used to paint signs on the bodies of people
and send such persons off as living messages. The second suggestion is that the
symbols are mirror writing whose secret would be revealed if one put them before a
mirror. But neither of these suggestions has any validity.
From the point of view of phonetics it is interesting to note the introduction of speech
sounds which are not present in Ibibio, the native dialect of the users of Obɛri
Ɔkaimɛ. Among these are z, f, sk, pt, ks, rarely c, and the English u sound sometimes
recorded by me as ju, sometimes as yu, even on rare occasions iu. The pronunciation
of these sounds was not regular nor could it be expected to be so considering how
short had been the life of the language when I was investigating it: […]32
67
Sometimes there is considerable variation as in the word used for ‘now’, variously
recorded by me as genud, genut, and kenod. The almost complete absence of the kp sound
so common in Tbibio-Efik may be noted. 32
Syntactically Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ shows considerable introductions. While the Ibibio-Efik
language distinguishes singular and plural by the use of the prefix mme- to show the
plural, or, more rarely, by a change in the initial vowel of a noun or in the form of the
verb, this language has introduced the English s or z: thus, bina, ‘man’; binas, ‘men’;
[…] 32
Pronouns are inflected to show case in Ibibio-Efik and this practice continues in Obɛri
Ɔkaimɛ, but here the English s is added to show the possessive in certain cases such as
rik, ‘he’; riks, ‘his’; […] 33
Semantically there is little resemblance between the ‘spirit’ meaning of a word and
that given to it in Ibibio-Efik or English. ‘Cat’ in Efik is aŋwa, but ita in Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ,
while this word in Efik means ‘three’. 33 [PK: acoustic-semantic complementarity]
Interesting formations are ita, ‘cat’, itakɛl, ‘leopard’, alɔks, ‘forwards’, aliks,
‘backwards’, alɔkiksli, ‘forwards and backwards’. But there are a large number of
portmanteau words in the language. As the chart shows, there is a separate word, and
a separate character, for each numeral from 1 to 20. 33
One of the books seen at Ikpa had samples of what was said to be the original spirit
writing. I took a copy of the first line: recognizable symbols are x, h, c, z, u, an inverted
u, this inverted u with two small dashes beneath it, variations of the figure 6, the sign
commonly used by phoneticians to show the neutral vowel, and variations of c and ɔ.
A few of the readers of this article may be interested to know that the sect had a Code
called ‘The Medefidrin’s Code’ and that I was sent a copy of it written in Obɛri
Ɔkaimɛ script together with what purported to be an English translation. This gives
details in very dubious English of the school which the sect was hoping to start. 34
This Code showed that Medefidrin’s year is divided into 16 months which are,
according to the writer of the English translation of the Code, Mmeghr, Uell, Scopin,
Ɛkeseo, Knazamin, Honikeld, Keebild, Eblisfed, Riblin, Amidalezm, Eplonzy,
Windrakina, Giomida, Saphis, Oopital, Eduazm. These names have no meaning at
all in Ibibio-Efik, nor in Ibo or Ekoi for that matter. The Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ version of the
Code is considerably longer than its alleged English translation, there being more
paragraphs, and more matte rin most of the paragraphs.
In conclusion it can, I think, be definitely stated that this form of speech and writing
must be recognized as a method of expression invented by a few almost uneducated,
ordinary country people, who honestly believed at the time that they were inspired by
Gis(z)n, God, working through Sɛminant, His Interpreter, to do so, and who believed
that when they were assembled in their church this Sɛminant was actively influencing
each and every member of the congregation. 34
Diringer, David. [1948] 1968. The alphabet: A key to the history of

mankind. London: Hutchinson of London.
[PK: search Diringer for phrase “alphabet follows religion”]
#alphabet follows religion
68
[Sir Ellis Minns:]
If it is speech that marks man off from the beast, and the great discoveries of the use of
tools, the use of fire, taming animals, tilling the ground, working metals are long strides in
his progress, the invention of writing and its improvement into a practical system may
fairly be taken as the step leading directly to full civilization. xv
[Sir Ellis Minns:]
By its very nature writing keeps a record of its own development. xv
#methodology: documentation
[Sir Ellis Minns:]
Then he [Diringer] clears the syllabaries out of the way, poor half and half things derived
from more complicated scripts without reaching true simplicity. xvi
[…] but it is reasonable to assume that general readers are indifferent to what experts
know, while experts do not always agree as to the precise spelling. xix
#orthography
[…] it is not an exaggeration to say that writing is the main currency of man’s
civilization. Wherever there has been civilization there have been writing and reading,
in the remote past as in the present day. Written language has become the vehicle of
civilization, and so of learning and education. Writing is thus one of the main aspects
of culture which clearly distinguish mankind from the animal world.
The first all and perhaps the most obvious consideration is that writing gives
permanence to man’s knowledge. Without letters, there can be no knowledge of much
importance. 1
No wonder that in the past writing was held in much esteem. The ancient Egyptians
attributed its creation either to Thoth, the god who invented nearly all the cultural
elements, or to Isis. The Babylonian god of writing, Nebo, Marduk’s son, was also the
god of man’s destiny. An ancient Jewish tradition considered Moses as the inventor of
script. Greek myths attributed writing to Hermes or to other gods. The ancient
Chinese, Indians and many other peoples also believed in the divine origin of script.
Writing had always an enormous importance in learning and a magic power over the
unlearned, in such a way that even today ‘illiterate’ is almost synonymous with
‘ignorant.’ 1
#origin stories #ideologies: writing
In fact, the subject demands a new type of historian, a historian who is alike
anthropologist, ethnologist, psychologist, philologist, classical scholar, archaeologist,
palaeographer, orientalist, egyptologist, americanist, etc. 2
#methodology
69
In man’s spiritual advance—or more generally, the growth of civilization—the origin
and the development of writing hold a place of supreme importance, second only to
that of the beginnings of speech, as an essential means of communication within
human society. Writing, an art peculiar to man, even more than speech, pre-supposes
language, of which it is in some sense a refinement. From the point of view of
invention, the importance of writing is paramount even in comparison with language,
which is not a creation of man, as writing is, but a natural distinction of mankind.
Mankind lived for an enormous period without writing, and there is no doubt that
writing was preceded by articulate speech. 3
#progressivism
Other, less important methods are, for instance, the different gesture-languages such
as those of the deaf-mutes, and those used at sea or in the mountains. 4
[PK: Note that Diringer considers sign language to be a form of writing and not language]
#sign language
The alphabet is the basis of modern civilized writing, but it has not always been so
and the purpose of this book is to trace how alphabets came into being and attained
their position as a fundamental in the communication of ideas and the dissemination
of knowledge. 4
The best fitted resists and survives, although [4] sometimes the surrounding
circumstances may bear a greater influence on the survival of a script than its merits
as a system of writing. 5
#vitality
It is a fact that the crudest forms of writing, both ancient and modern, are non-
alphabetical, but these non-alphabetic systems are not always earlier in time than
alphabetic scripts. It would appear that various kinds of writing sometimes develop
contemporaneously in different or even in the same parts of the world. Some of the
crudest forms of writing are in use to this day and indeed have come into use long
after alphabets were firmly established and widely used. The distinction of these
various stages of writing is not always clear or certain. 5
Interesting are the Papuan pictograms published in the Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute o f Great Britain and Ireland, 1936. 6
#ottomaung
In the Solomon Islands, in the Carolines, in the Pelew (Spanish, Palao; native Bälau)
and the Marquesan islands, strings with knots and loops are still used for the exchange
of news. ‘The Marquesan bards (ono-ono) used to associate their liturgical poems with
... little bags of plaited coconut fibre from which hung knotted cords. The exact
significance of these bags is not clear, but the knots are said . . . to have been aids to
the memories of the reciters of genealogies’ (Metraux). 7
Pictography or picture-writing
70
This is the most primitive stage of true writing. A picture or sketch represents or
symbolizes the thing shown; a circle might represent the sun, a sketch of an animal
would represent the animal shown, a sketch of a man would indicate a man and a
cross would symbolize Jesus’s death. Straight narrative can be thus recorded in a
sequence of pictures, drawings or symbols, which yield their meaning to later
decipherers with a fair degree of clarity, and can be, by the reader, expressed in
speech in every language. It is possible to read, but intrinsic phonetism (the term
derives from Greek phonê ‘voice’) is still absent, that is to say, the symbols do not
represent speech-sounds. In short, pictography is a semantic representation
(‘semantic,’ from Greek séma, ‘sign’), and not a phonetic one. 10
#definition: pictography
Ideographic writing
This is a highly developed picture-writing, being a pictorial representation of ideas to
be conveyed from one person to another. In this system, the pictographs represent not
so much the things they show as the underlying idea associated with those things.
Thus, a circle might represent not only the sun, but also heat or light or a god
associated with the sun, or the word ‘day.’ Similarly, an animal might be depicted not
only by a picture of the animal, but also by a sketch of an animal’s head, and the idea
‘to go’ by two lines representing legs. The symbols employed in ideographic writings
are called ideographs, that is symbols representing ideas. 11
#definition: ideography
Phonetic writing
In the picture-writings and the pure ideographic scripts, there is no connection
between the depicted symbol and the spoken name for it; the symbols can be ‘read’ in
any language. Phonetic writing is a great step forward. Writing has become the
graphic counterpart of speech. Each element in this system of writing corresponds to a
specific element, that is sound, in the language to be represented. 12
#progressivism
Syllabaries or syllabic writing
A syllabary or syllabic system of writing is a set of phonetic symbols, the single symbols
representing syllables, also vowels when these constitute syllables; so that a
combination of signs representing a group of syllables would convey a spoken word.
The syllabic system, indeed, developed more easily and appeared as a creation more
often than did an alphabet. […]
Artificial modern syllabaries exist or existed in western Africa and in North America.
[…]
In the case of a language that for reasons of phonetic decay or otherwise, has
multiplied the consonants in a single syllable, the syllabary becomes a cumbrous mode
of writing, especially because it generally contains only open syllables, that is syllables
in which the vowel is final, not ‘closed’ by a consonant. Thus, for instance, while it
would be easy to represent by a syllabary a word like fa-mi-ly, the word ‘strength’
would have to be written se-te-re-ne-ge-the or the like, and such a representation of
sounds would be far from satisfactory. Indeed, it has been rightly pointed out that ‘a
complete syllabic script would contain the number of consonants multiplied by the
71
number of vowels,’ and would require a much greater number of symbols than
alphabetic writing. 12
#definition: syllabary #artificiality
The alphabet
The alphabet is the last, the most highly developed, the most convenient and the most
easily adaptable system of writing. Alphabetic writing is now universally employed by
civilized peoples; its use is acquired in childhood with ease. There is an enormous
advantage, obviously, in the use of letters which represent single sounds rather than
ideas or syllables. No sinologist knows all the 80,000 or so Chinese symbols, but it is
also far from easy to master the 9,000 or so symbols actually employed by Chinese
scholars. How far simpler it is to use 22 or 24 or 26 signs only! […]
Thanks to the simplicity of the alphabet, writing has become very common; it is no
longer a more or less exclusive domain of the priestly or other privileged classes, as it
was in Egypt, or Mesopotamia, or China. Education has become largely a matter of
reading and writing, and is possible for all. The fact that alphabetic writing has
survived with relatively little change for three and a half millennia, notwithstanding
the introduction of printing and the typewriter, and the extensive use of shorthand-
writing, is the best evidence for its suitability to serve the needs of the modern world.
It is this simplicity, adaptability and suitability which have secured the triumph of the
modern alphabet over the other systems of writing. 13
#progressivism #restriction vs. accessibility
At first he [Sequoyah] created an ideographic script, but soon realized how
cumbersome it was and invented the syllabary.128
#cherokee
Nowadays, however, the [Cherokee] script has fallen into disuse. 128
#cherokee
On the whole, the [Cherokee] system is characterized by a superabundance of
consonants and consonant-clusters, combined with a great variability of vowels. It is,
however, scientifically sound and proved very easy to learn. 129
#cherokee
The origin of this syllabary is one of the best historic examples of the creation of a
system of writing. Some scholars suggest that Sequoya’s knowledge of the English
alphabet was deficient, and consider this to be the reason why the phonetic values of
his signs differ from those of the Roman letters. This explanation, however, seems at
fault. The fact that there is no single case of a Cherokee symbol retaining the original
phonetic value, i.e., that of the Latin letters, is in my opinion the clearest proof that
Sequoya’s intention was to create a script quite different from the English alphabet.
[…]
It is difficult to explain why Sequoya replaced the Roman alphabetic system of writing
with a syllabary. It has been suggested, perhaps rightly, that he did not grasp the
principle of alphabetic writing, and was satisfied with breaking up the words into their
constituent syllables. There is, however, also the possibility that Sequoya preferred the
use of a syllabic system, which in itself is suitable to the Cherokee speech, though not
72
so easily suitable for a language like English, which contains many accumulations of
consonants (such as e.g., ‘stretch’). 129
#artificiality #cherokee
The other system [PK: for Cherokee?] was much more ingenious: it was invented by
William Eubanks, a Cherokee half-breed, of Tahlequah, Indian Territory, and was a
kind of shorthand, well adapted to rapid manuscript writing. ‘By means of dots
variously placed, fifteen basic characters, each made with a single stroke, either
straight or curved, represent correctly every sound in the language’ (Mooney). 130
#cherokee
The whole [Vai] script is in continuous evolution. 131
#vai #africa: west
The solution of the problem [of the competing accounts of Vai’s origins] seems to be a
compromise between the various suggestions; that is, it seems that the writing had
been in existence for some time, but it was ideographic and was finally reduced to a
syllabic writing by Momolu Duwalu Bukele. 131 [PK: Note twisting of evidence to fit
Diringer’s progressivism]
#vai #africa: west #progressivism
Caroline Islands: Woleai syllabary
[…]
According to Brown, however, ‘some retain a resemblance to the thing to which their
name or sound corresponds.’ For instance, the sign pu ‘ has manifestly originated’ in a
representation of a ‘fish’ or pu in the native language; similarly also shrü, a ‘fishbone,’
lo, a ‘bottle’, ngä, ‘bamboo’, warr ‘canoe,’ etc. If this suggestion be right, the script
would be rather a kind of rebus-writing than a pure syllabary. 135
#caroline islands script #rebus
On the other hand, I should not assert categorically that ‘if invented by them since
Europeans arrived, it would have taken the form either of the European alphabet or
of the thing bought or sold ...’; the Cherokee syllabary, the Bamun writing, and other
scripts prove that Macmillan Brown’s statement is not exact. Indeed there are a few
Woleai signs which do resemble Latin letters, although they generally do not agree
phonetically; mä resembles the M, ngä the N, shä is a kind of cursive S, na and voa look
like an X, goo has the shape of a T, ma resembles a cursive C, so does gä, moa looks like
an F, etc.
However, Brown’s opinion—accepted also by Mason—is probably right. ‘This Oleai
script is manifestly the product of long ages for the use of the organizers of a [136]
highly organized community of considerable size. In other words, it must have
belonged to the ruling class of an empire of some extent, that needed constant record
of the facts of intercourse and organization.’
In this case, the origin of the Woleai script is perhaps in some way connected with the
Further Indian branch of scripts, although this connection does not appear evident
either from the graphic or from the phonetic points of view. There is, however, the
possibility of the mixed process of invention and borrowing, called ‘idea diffusion’—to
73
which reference has been made many times in the present book—the stimulus to
invention afforded by the knowledge that a problem has been solved.
Whatever the solution of the problem may be, it is not easy to find a suitable place for
this script in the history of writing. 136
The pan-Germanists (Wartenberg, Wilke, Wilser, von Lichtenberg), and especially the
Nazis (Schuchhardt, Günther) were sure, naturally, that the inventors of the alphabet
belonged to the pure Aryan, nordic (fair and blue-eyed) race. 147
The Korean alphabet is the only native alphabet of the Far East. 353
[PK: Diringer prob means that this is the only alphabet invented in situ]
Various peoples and tribes on every continent have developed systems of writing,
many independently. A few systems have reached a high level, others have been
arrested at a lower stage, some are still nascent.
Syllabism seems to have been the highest stage of writing which was reached
independently by some peoples. The alphabet has been invented only once. C’est la une
invention qu’on ne peut faire deux fois (Dunand). It is essentially the same script which we
use now. 435
While, however, it would be unhistorical to admit the possibility of the alphabet
having been invented in another continent or in another period or for a language
belonging to a different group, there seems at least a probability that it could have
been completed without the intervention of the Greeks. 436
Ratcliff, Lucetta K. 1949. Filipino folklore. The Journal of

American Folklore 62 (245):259-289.
‘The Naiad of Botocan Fall [sic]’, Unisimo Solisa
In the province of La Luguna [sic], there is a town named Majayjay, which has a
small river on the east, known as the Botocan, with a beautiful fall. […] In front of this
fall just at the edge of the precipice is a big tree covered from top to bottom with
inscriptions in an unknown language. At the bottom behind this fall is a spacious cave
inhabited by a wonderful naiad. This naid is a golden princess dressed in a garment
adorned with the most precious jewels and gold. In her habitation, she had a servant
and also a golden cow, [265] a golden centipede, and many other golden things; for
whatsoever the naiad uses is made of gold. […]
About the time of the American occupation, a poor little girl living in a barrio of
Majayjay was passing near the fall with her mother one twilight when she stopped to
wash her feet in a stream near by. […] The naiad gave this poor girl a great sum of
money including bracelets, necklaces, rings and earrings, saying that she must not tell
where these valuables came from. […] When she reached home, her mother asked
her where that money came from; but she said that she must not ask, for it was a
secret. Finally the mother asked her so persistently that she could not keep quiet any
74
longer, so she had to tell the forbidden secret; but after so doing, she found no money
in the chest where she had hidden her treasure. […]
During the guerrilla warfare between the Americans and Filipinos, an American
captain who was stationed at Majayjay once went to Botocan to take a bath. When he
reached the river, he decided first to go to the bottom of the fall; he did so and when
he arrived there, he saw the golden centipede. So he dived suddenly to catch him and
as the golden centipede was so big that he could not move quickly, the captain caught
one of his legs. He made this one leg into two big rings. When the Americans heard
about this treasure, many of them went there, and they have continued to visit the
falls until the present time; but whenever an American or any foreigner goes then,
even if it be Mr. William H. Taft, it rains heavily although the sun shines brightly. 266
#folk literacy #article: literature
‘Juan the Lazy’, Maximo A. Madridejos
In a little village in the mountains there once lived a poor old farmer, who had only
one son named Juan Zafiro. Little Juan’s father loved him very much and tought him
how to read and write when he was seven years of age; but unfortunately when he was
about eight years old, his father died, so he and his mother lived alone in their little
cottage. His mother worked very hard on the farm; but Juan, though he ought to have
worked to help her, stayed in the cottage and did not like to work. The people called
him Juan the Lazy. When he was very hungrly he just called his mother to give him
food and water.
One day he called his mother, for he wished to take a bath in the river; so his mother
called for aid from her neighbors to carry Juan to the river. Having arrived at the
river, the nieghbors told her that she should not take such care of Juan; they advised
her to leave him by the bank and he would go home himself when he was very
hungry, so she abandoned him. Juan stayed there like a statue on the bank of the river
crying and calling his mother. Many people who saw him said, “Move, Juan. Go
home, you lazy boy.”
Until it was about two o’clock in the afternoon Juan stood there and at that time no
people were passing by, for all were taking their siesta. It happened then that Juan saw
a package of papers floating on the stream. He immediately reached out for it; he
opened it at once and found a book of seven pages. The book contained nothing
except the word “Fibicoy,”written on each page. When he pronounced the word
“Fibicoy,” the little book answered, “What, sir, have you anything to command? I am
ready to do it.” Juan was very gladn when he heard these words, and he said eagerly,
“Fibicoy, carry me home.” After saying this Juan found himself in his cottage, and the
book lying on his bosom. His mother was not at home at that time, so he [267]called
Fibicoy again to bring him the best kind of food, for he was very hungry. After that he
gave the book many commands, and the book obyed him every time. His mother
wondered at the change in her son because she was not called upon to take any more
care of him.
Not far from Juan’s cottage there was a town famous for its beautiful buildings, but
Juan had never been there. Ashe was anxious to visit this town, he ordered Fibicoy to
carry him there. I thappened that when Juan was at the gate of the twon he heard the
sound of the bells; as he had never heard so many church bells ringing before, he
immediately rushed away in terror and ran very fast through the groves toward his
75
village. He did not know here he was and had forgotten all that he had seen on his
way. But the next morning, when he found that Fibicoy was not on his bosom, he
went again toward the town to find the precious book. He cried very loudly “Fibicoy,
Fibicoy”; but as no one answered, he still traveled on. Upon reaching the gate again,
he found his little book lying on the road. This time he visited the town, and after he
had seen all the pretty houses he ordered Fibicoy again to carry him to his cottage.
Not long afterwards his mother and his nieghbors discovered his secret. Then many
people went to Juan to ask all about his book, for they believed that the book was
given him by a magician who was a friend of his father; many others said that the
book had beenthe property of his ancestor many years ago. It is said that Juan and his
neighbors received benefit from the book in all their difficulties. 268
#folk literacy
Pajo, Maria Caseñas. 1954. Bohol folklore. MA, Faculty of the

Graduate School, University of San Carlos, Cebu City.
The carabao knocked down by a man. A picture was being shown to the people in which the
artist had painted a carabao knocked to the ground by a lone man. The onlookers felt
great strength and glory seeing like this. But a carabao passed by and put an end to
their cackling chatter [123].
“I see the man is given victory in this picture,” mowed the carabao, “but the artist had
deceived you. The artist could paint it as he liked; but if carabaos could paint, the
man would have been knocked down in the picture and it would have been more true
to life!” 124
#folk literacy #postcolonialism
1950–1959
Imbelloni, José. 1951. “Las ‘tabletas parlantes’ de Pascua:
Monumentos de un sistema gráfico indo-oceánico.” Runa:
Archivo para las Ciencias del Hombre 4 (1-2):89-177.
Fig 25. – La escritura de Uleai a la primera mirada no despierta gran interés, porque
se la engloba en el lote de las muchas desviaciones del sistema silábico difuso desde la
India y los paises malayos, siempre sobre la pauta de los silabarios semíticos. Una
observación más cuidadosa revela, sin embargo, algunos caracteres dignos de nota.
En primer lugar sus elementos gráficos son más abundantes numéricamente, lo que
revela la pérsistencia de restos de una antigua escritura más rica que la actual. Luego,
en el respecto morfológico del trazo, esa deducción es confirmada por la presencia de
signos que revelan orígenes muy lejanos de los prototípos semíticos. El silabario de
Uleai comprende bien 51 signos; entre ellos hemos elegido una veintena de formas
inquietantes [PK: see figure]. Véase en particular las sílabas moâ, ra, schru etc., y
principalmente bo y pu (esta última reaparece con su dibujo inconfudible en el Indo, en
la China antigua y en Pascua). 164
#caroline islands script #progressivism: denial of indigenous sophistication
76
Me abstengo en este trabajo de tomar en consideración las demás afinidades
señaladas en Australia [Fn: Kenyon, A.S. en la brevísima nota (1939) págs. 165-6,
fechada en Melbourne, afirma haber encontrado en los álbumes que reproducen las
rupestres de Australia notable similaridad con los signos de Harappa. Es deseable que
una correlación tan importante sea establecida con mayor riqueza y atendibilidad de
datos: en la nota no hay indicación alguna sobre yacimientos, tamaños, formas, etc.
(PK: note that this text is not listed in Imbelloni’s bibliography)] y en otros continentes
del Viejo Mundo, sin previo análisis riguroso caso por caso. 165
#australia
Quedaría la tarea de determinar si se trata realmente de una ‘grafía’ o aparato
orgánicamente constituído con el fin de registrar el pensamiento y reevocarlo por
medios ‘necesarios y suficientes’ para tal efecto, o en cambio de un simple ‘grafismo’,
de los muchos que surgen de modo espontáneo y más aún en los pueblos que han
experimentado el impulso irresistible [Fn: Kroeber 1940] de adoptar, imitar y crear
signos gráficos, por haber llegado en su contacto otros pueblos o sectas, provistos de
un silabario o alfabeto […] 167
#stimulus diffusion #rongorongo
Acabamos de averiguar en este ensayo que el aparato de Pascua pertenece a un
sistema gráfico que geográficamente cubre desde la India occidental hasta el extremo
oriental de la Polinesia. Hemos dado a este conjunto el nombre de ‘sistema indo-
pacífico’, renunciando por el momento a perseguir sus vinculaciones por el lado del
Poniente así como del Levante. La primera dirección nos obligaría a englobar la
escritura sumeria de Ur y Lagash y la segunda nos llevaría hacia América. 169
#progressivism: denial of indigenous sophistication #rongorongo
Del archipiélago de las Carolinas parte un llamado que recuerda condiciones
peculiares del área continental del sistema, confirmándonos en la homogeneidad del
todo, mas desaconsejándonos toda presunción de acciones sincrónicas. Por último, el
grupo de las Marquesas nos brinda un claro residuo del grafismo pascuano, y anuncia
nuestro arribo a Rapa-nui, conservadora de la tradición gráfica más completa. 170
#progressivism: denial of indigenous sophistication #rongorongo #caroline islands
script
No me propongo ahora la tarea de indagar si de a Rapa-nui esta convención plástica
fué llevada por una escueta minoría de inmigrantes civilizadores, más que por un
grueso contingente de poblamiento, o repoblamiento, que procediera, a guisa de
marejada, a cubrir todo lo ancho del Océano. Decidir entre ambas posibilidades es
cosa de responsabilidad. 173
#progressivism: denial of indigenous sophistication #rongorongo
77
Gelb, I.J. [1952] 1963. A study of writing. 2 ed. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Annick Payne: Hittites have cuneiform but then innovate Anatolian hieroglyphics at the
same time. Gelb is an Anatolian scholar and was aware of this, but glosses over the fact
that it invalidates the progressivist hypothesis. Also Anatolian hieroglyphics is
boustrophedon which would not be predicted by Gelb’s model. #progressivism: writing
To be sure, almost all sign systems can be transferred into some linguistic form, simply
because speech is the fullest and the most developed of all our systems of signs,[fn] but
to draw on that basis the conclusion that speech forms the background of all human
intercommunication seems a fallacy. Nobody would say that everything in the world is
money because everything in the world can (theoretically) be transferred into money.
10
The symbolism of visual images in the earliest stages of writing, like that of gesture
signs, can express meaning without the necessity of a linguistic garment and both can
profitably be investigated by a non-linguist. It is only after the development of writing
into a full phonetic system, reproducing elements of [10] speech, that we can speak of
the practical identity of writing and speech and of epigraphy or paleography as being
sub-divisions of linguistics. 11
#definition: writing
In our investigation we must not neglect the artificial writings created by natives
under the influence of white men, usually missionaries. The history of these writings—
the most interesting of which are the systems of the Alaska Eskimos, of the African
Bamum, and of the Cherokee Indians—shows us the various stages through which
they passed before they reached the final form. The sequence of these stages greatly
resembles the history of writing in its natural development.
Another fruitful approach results from the study of child psychology. It has often been
observed that the mental attitudes of infants and children sometimes resemble those of
societies on the most primitive basis. One of the most important points of similarity is
the tendency toward concrete specification. [fn] Just as a child will draw a vertical line
and explain it as the tree which grows in front of the house, so primitive men will
frequently associate their drawings with concrete things and events in the surrounding
world. This tendency in writing and drawing is an outgrowth of the character of their
language which seeks expression in concrete and specific terminology. The
observations made upon those primitive languages which do not use the word ‘arm’ or
‘eye’, but ‘my arm’ or ‘right eye’, according to the occasion, and which do not have a
general word for ‘tree’, but individual words for ‘oak, elm’, etc., can be duplicated to a
great extent by the study of children just emerging from the initial stage of language-
learning. Another interesting point of contact can be established from the study of the
direction and orientation of signs in children’s drawings and primitive writings. It has
been noted that children will draw individual pictures in undue proportion to each
other and without any apparent sense of order or direction. Even a child learning how
to write, will frequently draw signs from left to right or from [21] right to left without
ever being aware of any difference in the two directions. Similar phenomena
78
pertaining to the direction and orientation of signs can frequently be observed in
almost all the primitive writings.
The tendency toward concrete specification noted among children and primitives has
been observed recently in grown-up people afflicted by mental infirmities of the type
called amnesic aphasia. [fn] It was noted empirically that these persons will normally
avoid general terms such as ‘knife’ and will use specific expressions such as ‘bread
knife, paring knife’, or ‘pencil sharpener’. The road taken by these persons in
relearning the language is similar to the course of the natural linguistic development of
children. Thus, a detailed study of the amnesic aphasiacs may yet furnish another
fertile field for the study of the origins of language and writing. 22
#progressivism: writing #progressivism: language
As there is no general epigraphy or paleography, so there is no general science of
writing. This statement may sound preposterous to anyone who remembers the
dozens of various books which treat of writing in general. What should be noted,
however, is that all these books are characterized by a common historical-descriptive
treatment. 23
#typology
Naturally there was a time when man did not know how to write. If we define full
writing as a device for expressing linguistic elements by means of conventional visible
marks (see p. 12), then writing, in this sense, is no more than five thousand years old.
But already in the earliest times, tens of thousands of years ago, man felt the urge to
draw or paint pictures on the walls of his primitive dwelling or on the rocks in his
surroundings. Primitive man is similar in this respect to a child, who no sooner learns
to crawl than he begins to scribble on the wallpaper or to draw crude pictures in the
sand. 24
A primitive logographic writing can develop into a full system only if it succeeds in
attaching to a sign a phonetic value [193] independent of the meaning which this sign
has as a word. This is phonetization, the most important single step in the history of
writing. In modern usage this device is called ‘rebus writing’, exemplified in the
drawing of an eye and of a saw to express the phrase ‘I saw’, or in that of a man and a
date to express the word ‘mandate’. With the introduction of phonetization and its
subsequent systematization complete systems of writing developed which made
possible the expression of any linguistic form by means of symbols with conventional
syllabic values. 194
#evolution of writing #rebus
There is nothing unusual in arguing in favour of a unidirectional development, as a
similar line of evolution can be attested in many other aspects of our culture, such as
language, art, religion, and economic theory. 201
What this principle means in the history of writing is that in reaching its ultimate
development writing, whatever its forerunners may be, must pass through the stages of
logography, syllabography, and alphabetography in this, and no other, order.
Therefore, no writing can start with a syllabic or alphabetic stage unless it is
79
borrowed, directly or indirectly, from a system which has gone through all the
previous stages. A system of writing can naturally stop at one stage without developing
farther. Thus, a number of writings stopped at the logographic or syllabic stage. The
saying ‘natura non facit saltus’ can be applied to the history of writing in the sense that
no stage of development can be skipped. Therefore, if it is accepted that logography
develops first into syllabography, then the so-called Egyptian ‘alphabet’, which
developed from logography, cannot be an alphabet but must be a syllabary. There is
no reverse development: an alphabet cannot develop into a syllabary, just as a
syllabary cannot lead to the creation of logography. 201
The retrograde evolution of individual writings was frequently facilitated whenever
they fell under the control of a priestly or political caste. In such cases the systems
gradually became so overburdened with various artificial and baroque deflections that
they grew too difficult for large masses of people to master. The final result of such
degenerated writing was frequently its total rejection by the people and its
replacement by an entirely new system introduced from abroad (see also pp. 165 and
196). 202
#unintelligibility
The history of our writing in the course of thousands of years is closely paralleled by
the history of some modern writings created under the stimulus of white men among
primitive societies, for example, the Cherokee Indian and the African Bamum
writings, which will be discussed more fully on pages 206 f. and 208 f. Both of these
writings, starting with an unsystematic semasiography, first developed logographic
systems in which individual signs expressed individual words of the language. Due to
the inadequacy of pure logography both writings were soon forced to evolve syllabic
systems, but while the Bamum writing in its ultimate development seems to show
certain tendencies toward alphabetization, the Cherokee writing, like many other
comparable writings used by primitives, stopped at the syllabic stage. This sequence of
the stages of writing reflects the stages of primitive psychology. Naturally, as all
primitives can grasp parts of speech, such as utterances and phrases, it is frequently
with some difficulty that they can recognize individual words. The ability to divide a
word into its component syllables is a great step in their understanding of speech and
it frequently must be learned through outside influence. The division of syllables into
single sounds usually lies beyond their capacity. That this sequence in analysing
speech is the most natural one is supported by the fact that almost all the writings
introduced in modern times among primitive societies stopped at the syllabic stage.
The effectiveness of syllabaries and the extraordinary ease with which the ability to
write and read syllabic writings can be acquired by native students—in contrast to
alphabetic writings—have been pointed out repeatedly by Western observers.[fn] 203
#bamum #africa: west #cherokee #progressivism: writing #hypothesis: primacy of
the syllable #writing system is folk analysis of language
Turning now to Africa, the first writing to appear there was that of the Vai Negroes in
the region of Sierra Leone and Liberia. According to one source, some years before
1848 a native Negro named Bukele developed from a primitive semasiographic system
(see pp. 48 ff.) a picture word writing and then a syllabic system. Some syllabic signs
were derived from the corresponding word signs, others were formed arbitrarily. In
the course of years the pictures gradually lost their pictographic character, while the
80
number of word signs was so reduced that in its final stage the Vai writing consists of
some 226 syllabic signs plus a very few word signs.[fn] 208
#vai #africa: west
Much more recent than the Vai writing is the equally important writing of the
Bamum in the Cameroons, invented about 1895-96 by a native chieftain Njoya under
the influence of Europeans or Hausa merchants.[fn] The Bamum writing, like Vai,
started first as a picture word writing composed of some 510 signs. Gradually the signs
lost their original pictographic character and, at the same time, the number of signs
was gradually reduced from about 510 to 437 to 381 to 295 to 205. In its ultimate
development a Bamum syllabary of some 70 [208] signs appears, showing certain
tendencies toward alphabetization—a phenomenon entirely unique among writings of
modern African societies.[fn] The origin of this new type of writing is due to most
unusual circumstances. It seems that the King Njoya became jealous of his royal
colleagues in the neighbouring countries who possessed a royal language of their own
apart from the common language of their subjects, and decided to create a language
for the use of his royal court. The new language, composed with the help of a
European woman missionary, represents a concoction of French, German, and
English words, all pronounced in the native fashion but with meanings arbitrarily
assigned. Because of the inadequacy of the existing syllabic system to express foreign
words, a device was introduced to add vowel signs to open syllables in the form known
as plene writing in the many systems of the Near East (see pp. 166 ff.). Thus, the word
fete ‘stuff’ (from English ‘fate’) is written as f(e)-e-t(e)-e9 just as atol ‘that’s it’ (from English
‘at all’) is written as a-t(e)-o-l(i). But the device is not used systematically and a full
alphabet has never been achieved among the Bamum. Although the alphabetic
spelling of the above words asf-e-t-e and a-t-o-l, used by some scholars, does not seem
to be fully justified, the Bamum development is of greatest importance for the theory
of writing, proving, as it does, that an alphabet can originate not only from a syllabary
of the Semitic type, consisting of signs in which vowels are not indicated, but also from
a syllabary like Bamum, which consists of signs with a full indication of vowels [fn] (see
pp. 175 f. and i84f.).
The only sure example of an alphabetic writing developed in modern times among
African natives is the Somali alphabet. The creator of the writing, a native by name of
Isman Yusuf, was not an illiterate person since he was well acquainted with Arabic
and, to some extent, with Italian. On the basis of his knowledge of these systems,
Isman Yusuf evolved an alphabet of his own, composed of nineteen consonants and
ten vowels. The order of the consonants is that of the Arabic alphabet. The forms of
the signs were borrowed neither from Arabic nor Italian but seem to be freely
invented, perhaps partially under the influence of the ductus of the Ethiopic writing.
A unique system invented in modern times in Asia is that of the Chukchi shepherd,
named Tenevil, in Siberia. The writing consists of several hundred signs,
conventionally drawn, each of [209] which stands for a certain word. As the phonetic-
syllabic stage was never reached, the writing was difficult to learn and its use was,
therefore, confined to Tenevil’s family and acquaintances. [fn] 210
#africa: west #vai #bamum #evolution of writing #article: eskaya and medefaidrin
Even this short resume clearly shows how difficult it is even to list all the writings
which have been created in recent times for use among primitive societies. […]This is
a fertile ground for investigation, heretofore badly neglected in works on writing. 210
81
#decra
The study of these writings leads to conclusions which are of primary importance for
the general history of writing. Here are some pertinent points:—
(i) All the writings which have gone through an extended process of evolution, like the
Cherokee and Alaska systems in North America or Vai and Bamum systems in Africa,
have evolved from primitive semasiography and have passed successively through the
stages of logography and syllabography, showing at times in the final stages certain
tendencies toward alphabetization. Thus, the sequence of stages in writings
introduced among primitives fully parallels the history of writing in its natural
evolution, as discussed above, pp. 190 ff.
(2) The writings developed among primitives under the [210] influence of white men
have passed within the span of one or two generations through a process of evolution
which had taken thousands of years for writing in general to pass. Thus, we can
observe the process of evolution speeded up immensely under the impact of foreign
stimulus (see also pp. 219 f.).
(3) The case of the original Cherokee word writing, invented by Sequoyah and then
given up by him, the limited use of the Alaska and Chukchi word writings prove the
contention espoused on p. 193 about the infeasibility of word writing in general as a
system of communication.
(4) Judging by the great majority of writings, discussed in this chapter, the syllabic
stage is best suited for use among primitive societies. This is in line with the view
expressed above, p. 203.
(5) Certain tendencies of such syllabic writings as Bamum and Alaskan to develop in
the direction of an alphabet belie the statement of K. Sethe,[fn] that the syllabic
writing is a blind alley (Sackgasse) which could never lead to an alphabetic writing. The
view defended in this study is that an alphabet could not develop from anything else
but a syllabary (see p. 205). 211
#evolution of writing #stimulus diffusion #hypothesis: primacy of the syllable
James H. Breasted, the famous Chicago historian and Orientalist, once said: ‘The
invention of writing and of a convenient system of records on paper has had a greater
influence in uplifting the human race than any other intellectual achievement in the
career of man.’[fn] To this statement might be added the opinions of many other
great men—among them Carlyle, Kant, Mirabeau, and Renan— who believed that
the invention of writing formed the real beginning of civilization. These opinions are
well supported by the statement so frequently quoted in anthropology: As language
distinguishes man from animal, so writing distinguishes civilized man from barbarian.
221
#writing and civilization #progressivism: writing
There is no need, however, to urge that the introduction of writing was the factor
which was responsible for the birth of original civilizations. It seems rather that all the
factors—geographic, social, economic—leading towards a full civilization
simultaneously created a complex of conditions which could not function properly
without writing. Or, to put [221] it in other words: Writing exists only in a civilization and
a civilization cannot exist without writing. 222
82
#writing and civilisation #evolution of writing
Horror vacui, ‘fear of the empty space,’ is of great influence in the arrangement of signs.
230
#morphology
The concept of the divine origin and character of writing is found everywhere, in both
ancient and modern times, among civilized as well as among primitive peoples. In the
main it is due to a widespread belief in the magic powers of writing.[fn] [230]
Everywhere, in the East as well as in the West, the origin of writing is ascribed to a
divinity. Among the Babylonians it was the god Nabu, patron of the sciences and
scribe of the gods, who invented writing, occupying thus a position which in the
earlier Mesopotamian tradition was assigned partly to the goddess Nisaba. The
Egyptians believed that the god Thoth was the inventor of writing, and they called
x x x xx x
their writing m d w -n t r , ‘the speech of gods.’ In the Chinese legends the inventor of
writing was either Fohi, the founder of commerce, or the wise Ts’ang Chien with the
face of a four-eyed dragon. The Hebrews had their older ‘divine’ writing (Ex. xxxi: 18)
besides the later ‘human’ writing (Isa. viii: i). In Islamic tradition God himself created
the writing. According to the Hindus it was Brahma who was supposed to have given
the knowledge of letters to men. The Northern Saga attributes the invention of the
runes to Odin; and in the Irish legend Ogmios is known as the inventor of writing.
These cases could be easily multiplied.[fn]
A very interesting case of the ‘invention’ of a writing under divine inspiration was
recently described in connection with the introduction of a new writing by the Toma
10
in French Guinea and Liberia. Wido, the native discoverer of the writing, had a
vision:—
‘God takes he no pity on the Tomas? Other races know writing. Only the Tomas remain
in their ignorance.[fn] God answered him: ‘I fear that when you are able to express
yourselves you shall have no more respect for the beliefs and customs of your race.’ ‘Not at
all,’ answered Wido, ‘we shall still keep living as in past days. I promise it.’ ‘If such is the
case,’ said God, ‘I am willing to grant you the knowledge, but take care never to show
anything of it to a woman.’
231
#origin stories #loma #africa: west
Belief in the sacred character of writing is strong in countries in which knowledge of
writing is restricted to a special class or caste of priests. The ancient Near East, where
normally only the priest-scribes could write, is full of mystic reconstructions about
writing. On the other hand, Greece—where writing was [231] not restricted to priests
but formed a popular patrimony of all the citizens—almost entirely lacks myths of this
kind.[fn] The educated Greeks knew that their writing, like so many other practical
achievements, came from the East and felt no need for speculating about its divine
origin. 232
#motivation: secrecy #alphabet follows religion
Among primitives writing and books are the subject of astonishment and
speculation.[fn] To them books are instruments of divination. A book can predict the
future and reveal what is hidden; it is a guide and a counsellor and, in general, a
83
mystic power. To learn to read and write is to the primitive a formal initiation into a
new religious practice, a baptism into a new religion. A book is considered a living
being which can ‘speak’. The primitive fears the magic power of its ‘words’. According
to one story, a native messenger refused to transport a written message because he was
afraid that the letter would speak to him while he was carrying it. In another case a
messenger refused to carry a letter until he had pierced it with his lance, so that it
could not talk to him during the voyage. A written message is a mysterious being
which has the power to see things. We know the story about an Indian who was sent
by a missionary to a colleague with four loaves of bread and a letter stating their
number. The Indian ate one of the loaves and was, of course, found out. Later he was
sent on a similar errand and repeated the theft, but took the precaution, while he was
eating the bread, to hide the letter under a stone so that it might not see him.[fn] A
similar story is reported from Australia. A native who had stolen some tobacco from a
package with an accompanying letter was astonished that the white man was able to
find him out in spite of the fact that he had hidden the letter in the trunk of a tree. He
vented his wrath upon the letter by beating it furiously.[fn] 232
#folklore #article: supernatural literacy
The mystic power of writing—sometimes entirely incomprehensible, as in the case of
the Hittite hieroglyphic inscriptions just referred to—is paralleled by the magic effect
of the spoken word. There is a ‘widespread custom, in magic ceremonies and even in
ritual and religious ceremonies, of using songs and formulas which are unintelligible to
those who hear them, and sometimes even to those who utter them.’[fn] 235
#unintelligibility
Writing and speech are the outward symbols of a nation. It is for that reason that a
conqueror’s first aim in destroying a nation is to destroy its written treasures. We thus
understand why Cortez, having conquered Mexico in 1520, ordered the burning of all
the Aztec books which might remind the native population of their glorious past; why
the Spanish Inquisition [234]in sending the Jews to the pyre, burned with them their
Talmud; why the modern Nazis, anxious to destroy ideologies adverse to their own,
burned the books of their opponents, and why the victorious Allies after the second
world war ordered the destruction of all Nazi-tainted literature. 23
#nationalism
How are we to judge the enthusiastic statement about the syllabic writing which
spread like wildfire among the Cherokees because they could accomplish the feat of
learning the new system within the span of a single day, as contrasted with four years
required by the Cherokees to master the English writing?[fn]237
Looking at writing from the broadest point of view I should say without hesitation that
the alphabetic systems serve the aim of human intercommunication better than the
syllabic ones, just as the latter systems serve it better than the logographic or logo-
syllabic systems. Still, there is nothing to brag about. The inconsistencies of English
orthography as compared with the pretty nearly phonemic Greek and Latin systems,
and the abnormal development of sign forms in some of the writings in modern India
as compared with the simple forms of older Indic writings, show that in specific cases
writing does not necessarily proceed along the line of improvement. The hampering
conventions imposed by tradition, religion, and nationalism frequently stand in the
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path of progress, thus preventing or delaying reforms which normally would have
taken place in the sound evolution of writing. 239
#evolution of writing #peacock’s tail
What is needed now is one system of writing in which signs have identical or almost
identical phonetic correspondences all over the world. That need is fulfilled in the IPA
alphabet. 241
#script utopianism
An entirely different approach to symbolizing sounds is found in Bell’s ‘Visible
Speech’[fn] and Jespersen’s ‘Analphabetic Notation’. 242
#script utopianism
The device known as ‘Visible Speech’ was first worked out by Melville Bell, the father
of the inventor of the telephone, and subsequently became popular as the reformed
system called ‘Organic’ by Henry Sweet. 242
#script utopianism
Even more complicated is the analphabetic system devised by Kenneth L. Pike.[fn]
243
#script utopianism
Ever since the Middle Ages various systems [PK: of auxiliary scripts] have been
proposed, but none has been generally accepted.[fn] 243
#script utopianism
Another pasigraphic system is that known as Isotype: International System Of
TYpographic Picture Education. 244
#script utopianism
What we should look for is a system of writing combining the exactness of the IPA
alphabet with the formal simplicity of a shorthand system. 246
#script utopianism
I am not much affected by the traditionalistic outbursts against the reformers. Were it
not for the reformers, the traditionalists, dressed in skins and feathers, would still be
living in caves and would have nary a chance to talk or write about the ‘pestilent
heresy of reform’. 247
#script utopianism #progressivism: writing
Foster, Charles I. 1953. “The colonization of free negroes, in

Liberia, 1816-1835.” The Journal of Negro History 38 (1):41-66.
To its projected blessings for the natives of Africa and kindness to American Negroes
in taking them there, the Colonization Society added the prospect of eliminating
slavery: it would carry to Africa manumitted slaves and thus encourage emancipation
in states which legally forbade it without provision for removal. This would comfort
85
abolitionists both North and South who were as ready to tremble for the remedy as
for the affliction of a great evil. 46
Endorsement of this course could mean little while slave-runners operated without
interference, but the society presently noted with pleasure that stiffened legislation and
executive action promised a good number of recaptured slaves before long.22 They
were badly needed as the free Negroes showed no enthusiasm whatever for their part
of the program. In January, 1817, as soon as they heard of the scheme, three
thousand Philadelphia Negroes met to denounce the Colonization Society and
proclaim that they [49] did not want to go anywhere. 50
Most helpful ammunition in the battle for Northern support was Ashmun’s claim that
he had broken up the slave trade for 140 miles between Cape Mount and Trade
Town. That laid the foundation for a new missionary-abolitionist argument. Only
Christianity and civilization could make retribution to Africa for the wrongs America
had done her, but progress toward that goal was impossible while the notorious trade
carried nearly 100,000 slaves each year from her shore. Colonies of American
Negroes so spaced as to ring the entire west coast would block the points of
embarkation and stop the trade. With the confidence of the natives, missionary
progress would be rapid, Africa would become civilized, the Negroes would no longer
be despised, the slaveholders in America would see them as equals and set them
free.[fn] 55
Métraux, Alfred. 1957. Easter Island: A Stone Age civilization of the

Pacific. Translated by Michael Bullock. London: Andre
Deutsch.
Wooden sculpture, the glory of Easter art, still thrives, but its products are heart-
breakingly vulgar. They are bazaar ‘curios’, horrors typical of their kind. 57
#mama
These tablets are extremely valuable by virtue of their rarity, their artistic quality, and
the mystery that surrounds them. Like everything else on Easter Island, they have
acquired an excessive market price. The present-day natives have long sought to
imitate them. A comparison between these fakes and the originals reveals the full
mastery of the ancient engravers, for modern imitators have striven in vain to
reproduce the regularity and elegance of their antique models. The imperfection of
their handiwork has not, however, prevented them from doing profitable business
with it. During the last few years the forgers have considerably improved their
technique, and if they had not hit on the tiresome idea of engraving their signs on
stones they might easily have duped the most wide-awake and experienced observers.
On leaving France we commissioned to try, by all the means in our power, to obtain
at least one tablet. We had no great hope of success, but nevertheless we offered a
reward of 1,000 pesos to anyone who reported the existence of a genuine specimen; we
could not foretell the price we might have to pay for the object itself. This promise
caused a great stir amongst the native population. Numerous individuals began to
dream of caverns and tablets.
86
Every day some came to tell us that the hiding-place of one or more of these articles
had been supernaturally revealed to him during the mght. The treasures generally lay
in inaccessible grottoes where no one, however great his cupidity would risk going to
look for them. 185
#mama #origin stories [Eg, compare Eskaya and mormon cave stories]
If these symbols were really the characters of a script, the Easter Islanders would have
crossed the frontier which, in many people’s opinion, divides the primitive world from
the civilized. 188
This sanctity did not extend to an inferior type of called ta’u. The nature of ta’u is hard
to discern from the scanty information we possess. Like Routledge, I was told that
these tablets contained a list of exploits accomplished by an individual whose memory
was celebrated by his son in solemn feast. But apart from this, I was unable to obtain
any definite facts on the subject, and it is better to admit our ignorance than repeat
idle chatter. 189
#ta’u
[…]the syllabary used on Woleai—an island in the Caroline Archipelago—whose
origins are obscure and which may very well be merely a script invented on the spot
under the influence of Malay, Indian, or even European writing. 199
The Marquesan bards (ono’ono) used to associate their liturgical poems with objects
which, although very different to look at, were of the same order as the rest: these
were little bags of plaited coconut fibre from which hung knotted cords. The exact
significance of the bags is not clear, but the knots are said to have fulfilled the same
function as the notches on the Maori staves and to have been aids to the memories of
the reciters of genealogies. 205
#caroline islands script #mama [PK: semiotic context]
The custom of chanting a poem while looking at a figure has not entirely disappeared
from Easter Island. After producing a cat’s-cradle, the player recites a poem that is
often interpolated in a story. The solution to the problem is possibly suggested by the
remark of one informant: ‘Our ancestors recited poems for tablets covered with
images; we, in our ignorance, recite them for the string-figures.’ 206
#caroline islands script #mama [PK: semiotic context]
Thomas, Lawrence L. 1957. The linguistic theories of N. Ja. Marr.

Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
[PK: More notes in !Notes on theory and method]
Marr was not so explicit regarding the practical measures to be taken to achieve one
world language. He did not regard artificial languages such as Ido and Esperanto as
solutions to the problem, although he cited them in evidence that a world language
could be constructed.[fn] Mankind has, according to Marr, long since begun the labor
of creating an international language when we consider the fact that all the languages
of the world have the same words for the numerals. But for Marr the greatest step in
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the direction of a truly international language would be the introduction of a uniform
writing system. Marr did not mean that the peoples of the world should be supplied
with phonemic alphabets based on a single alphabetical system; but that they should
be provided with a single, etymologically oriented alphabet which would show their
relationship (it must not be forgotten that, for Marr, all the languages of the world
were related—in the four elements).
“The formal element in language cannot be treated apart from the ideology, which
connects it with production by way of society. And it is precisely on concrete material of
this sort, even when one is treating of individual letters, that the value of the historical
approach [italics mine, L. T.] appears most clearly—and it is not necessary to be troubled
by the antiquity of the most distant epochs in the life of mankind.”
As an example of how his historical approach can explain the treatment of even
individual letters, Marr cites “one, by no means accidental, purely formal detail ... [to
the effect that] all nouns, even common nouns, are marked off with capital letters in
German orthography because those nouns were [once] totems.” 111
#deliberate language change #language planning
Cohen, Marcel. 1958. La grande invention de l’écriture et son

évolution. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale Librerie C. Klincksiek.
Les hommes qui ont inventé et perfectionné l’écriture ont été de grands linguistes et ce
sont eux qui ont créé la linguistique.
—A. Meillet (Bulletin de la Société de linguistique, t. XVIII, 1912-1913. p.cxiv) ix
#writing system is folk analysis of language
L’écriture est une des grandes inventions de l’humanité. Elle ne consiste pas dans
l’application de forces physico-chimiques de la nature à des objets matériels (comme la
poterie, la roue, etc.) pour la satisfaction de besoins élémentaires et généraux, en gros
pour l’entretien de la vie. Elle s’applique à une production de l’esprit humain, le
langage, qui peut lui-même être considéré sous l’angle d’une invention et qui est un
instrument correspondant au besoin de communication et de combinaison des actions
dans le groupe social. On peut dire que l’histoire de l’écriture s’insère dans celle du
langage, et d’autre part s’insère dans l’histoire des signalisations et transmissions.
L’écriture consiste en une représentation visuelle et durable du langage, qui le rend
transportable et conservable. Cette rallonge à un instrument qui consiste en bruits ou
en gestes sans durée est réalisée au moyen de techniques à supports matériels solides.
L’invention a été réalisée indépendamment en plusieurs foyers de civilisation assez
développée, où s’est manifesté le besoin de communication étendue entre des groupes
assez nombreux. Elle est restée à un stade rudimentaire dans des groupes lâches (les
débuts de ce stade ne peuvent être datés). Elle ne s’est réalisée pleinement que dans
des sociétés concentrées, nombreuses sur un espace restreint, essentiellement au stade
qui est à la fois celui des villes et des états organisés, pour les besoins de
l’administration de telles sociétés; des écritures assez perfectionnées peuvent être
datées grossièrement à environ six mille ans de nous. Le perfectionnement définitif, lié
à un avancement plus poussé de la civilisation sous son aspect intellectuel, s’est produit
au plus tôt deux mille ans plus tard, donc au cours du second millénaire av. J.–C., de
manière à donner l’écriture alphabétique dont nous nous servons encore.
88
L’usage de l’écriture s’est étendu en surface et en profondeur, à mesure que les [1]
civilisations développées s’étendaient et poussaient leurs tentacules parmi les peuples
plus arriérés, à mesure que la cultivée augmentait parmi les populations avancées;
mais son emploi est encore loin d’être généralisé. 2
#language as technology #definition: writing #evolution of writing #progressivism:
writing
Un besoin d’ornementation avec des figurations d’objets, dont on ne peut pas dater
l’origine, mais qui est de loin antérieur a l’écriture, s’est tôt manifesté, inégalement
suivant les populations, dans les ornements du corps et des objets et dans les arts
plastiques proprement dits : gravure, dessin, peinture, sculpture. Ceci plus ou moins
en relation avec des «représentations» mystiques. On voit par l’histoire que l’écriture
s’est développée presque entièrement à partir du trait dessiné ou gravé.
Une faculté distincte de celles qui s’expriment par le langage, mais qui répond dans
l’ensemble aux mêmes besoins d’action réfléchie et concertée, est celle qu’on peut
appeler en gros le calcul. Elle a eu a encore toutes sortes d’instruments; l’un de ceux-ci
a dû être très tôt la marque durable. Celle-ci intervient sans doute pour une petite part
dans constitution de l écriture, à côte de la représentation figurée; elle y est presque
toujours plus ou moins mélangée. D’autre part l’écriture supplée plus ou moins à son
usage. On ne peut pas séparer entièrement les histoires de ces deux ordres de faits. 2
Pour sastisfaireà une partie des besoins qu’il ressent, l’homme s’efforce d’agir par es
moyens intellectuels là où l’industrie n’atteint pas. A ses tentatives pour l’action, en
relation avec les conceptions qu’il se fait de l’ensemble de la nature et de la place qu’ il
y occupe; ce qu’on appelle en gros la magie, la religion, la philosophie, les sciences. La
magie est sans doute mêlée à une partie au moins de l’art primitif et ne peut pas être
négligée dans certains détails de la naissance et de l’usage [2] de l’écriture. Les
religions se sont tôt servies de l’écriture; elles ont beaucoup contribué à l’extension de
son usage, et l’expansion de certaines écritures a dépendu de celles de certaines
religions. 3
L’écriture suppose un matériel : l’instrument pour écrire, l’encre lorsqu’il ne s’agit pas
de gravure, et surtout la chose sur quoi écrire. Elle se trouve ainsi liée à toutes sortes
de techniques industrielles. Son développement est parallèle à celui de l’emploi
d’objets fabriqués, de manière de plus en plus complexe, au lieu d’objets trouvés et
plus ou moins accommodés.
Aux débuts de la grande civilisation industrielle européenne est liée l’imprimerie. Les
derniers progrès de cette civilisation ont pour résultat de remplacer une partie des
emplois de l’écriture par divers instruments.
L’histoire de l’écriture est donc liée, naturellement, à celle de l’ensemble de l’industrie.
3
#writing as technology
On peut reconstituer le processus de la constitution de l’écriture à l’aide de l’étude
interne des documents et de la méthode comparative. Il va de la représentation
globale à l’analyse, du concret à l’abstrait. Pour le fond, on passe de la figuration du
89
tableau d’une situation à la représentation symbolique des sons qui composent les
mots; pour la forme, on part du dessin figuré ou du tracé schématique, pour aboutir
au signe convenu; en même temps le nombre des signes, d’abord en quantité quasi
illimitée, se réduit à un très petit nombre.
Au début, il n’apparaît aucune volonté de représenter le langage. Les procédés
primitifs sont en effet de deux sortes bien distinctes dont ni l’une ni l’autre ne figure les
détails de la parole.
D’abord un signe, qui peut être un objet, une marque ou un dessin peut être destiné
servir, de repère ou d’aide-mémoire à un récitant ou à un messager; c’est une
provocation fixée, servant à retardement et à nombre non limité de reprises, pour
déclencher l’énonciation d’un texte établi, préalablement confié à une mémoire : c’est
l’objet ou le dessin qui fait parler.
D’autre part un dessin ou une suite de dessins représentant des choses et des actions
de manière suffisamment claire, au moins dans le cadre d’une civilisation donnée: un
ensemble de faits pour ceux qui les regardent à!’emplacement ou ils sont laisses ou les
reçoivent sur un support transportable : c’est un récit ou un message, pour donner des
renseignements utiles. Il peut être «lu» dans une langue quelconque, et dans cette
langue avec des mots quelconques; il peut être compris et faire son effet sans passer en
mots. C’est si l’on veut le dessin qui parle; mais on dira plus justement, suivant l’usage
encore actuel parmi nous, une histoire sans paroles. C’est la pictographie, dont nous
parlerons comme d’une protoécriture.
L’écriture véritable répond à des besoins plus complexes : on éprouve le besoin de
fixer réellement un texte déterminé. Ceci correspond à l’analyse décisive de la phrase
en mots, ce qui suppose précisément une certaine conscience du mot molécule de
signification entrant dans des combinaisons diverses. C’est d’une générale le stade de
l’idéographie.
Théoriquement on pourrait concevoir pour la réalisation un type picto-idéogra-[4]
phique pur, chaque dessin représentant une idée-mot, avec autant de dessins différents
que de sens distincts; un pareil système devrait pouvoir être lu dans n’importe quelle
langue. 5
#definition: pictography #definition: writing #evolution of writing
Dans un stade suivant, par un progrès décisif, tous les mots sont découpés en petites
parties, correspondant à ce que nous appelons les syllabes et souvent en syllabes
simples dont le type ordinaire est une consonne suivie d’une voyelle (ainsi ta), sans
qu’aucune corresponde à un mot entier, sauf par hasard. C’est un stade purement
phonographique, c’est-à-dire que le son est représenté, sans qu’il soit tenu compte
d’une signification. Les signes sont alors purement conventionnels, même lorsqu’il
arrive qu’ils consistent en représentations d’objets plus ou moins reconnaissables. Ces
signes sont en nombre réduit, environ de 60 à 100.
Il semble que ce n’est pas une analyse consciente qui a fait aboutir en certains points à
une analyse en sons individuels, consonnes et voyelles détachées. Cette analyse ultime
est résultée secondairement de l’habitude prise pour certaines langues de ne
représenter expressément que les consonnes, le squelette consonantique suffisant à la
reconnaissance des mots, qui se complètent dans la conscience du lecteur. Ce système
est donc moins rigoureusement phonographique que le système syllabique; mais il a
mené indirectement à l’établissement du système phonographique parfait, lorsqu’on a
90
complété l’alphabet consonantique par des signes représentant les voyelles. D’où le
système alphabétique complet qui est le nôtre. Les signes sont purement
conventionnels et ne rappellent plus du tout les dessins originels. Ils sont en nombre
très réduit, de 25 à 30.
Le schéma qui précède fait ressortir les démarches successives qui correspondent à des
progrès de l’esprit humain tant dans les vues théoriques que dans l’adaptation
pratique d’un instrument. 6
L’histoire montre aussi qu’un système complexe constitué en un certain lieu et une
certaine époque ne parcourt pas tous les stades. La normale est que, embarrassé de
lui-même, il aboutit à une impasse. Le progrès se fait souvent, sinon le plus souvent,
sur un autre terrain, où on peut avoir eu connaissance des stades antérieurs et de leurs
inconvénients. Il y a donc des discontinuités, avec dépassements. Le résultat est
fréquemment une substitution d’écriture dans un même domaine linguistique.7
Le texte magique de l’amulette, normalement, n’est pas lu par le porteur. 8
#antinganting
Le xxº siècle avançant voit les nouvelles inventions concurrencer l’écriture sur son plus
ancien et son plus récent terrains. Le téléphone épargne quantités de lettres, et la
radiodiffusion et la télévision commencent à faire pièce au journal, sans parler du
reste. On ne peut pas mesurer encore les conséquences de cette nouvelle révolution. 9
#decra
Dans certaines civilisations attardées, le caractère trace inclut toujours quelque chose
d’une force magique. Chez nous-mêmes, l’écrit n’est pas sans impressionner souvent
par son existence même. 9
Les peuples en possession d’une écriture en ont généralement attribué l’origine à
quelque dieu mineur ou à quelque héros civilisateur, dont ce n’est pas la seule activité
notable : l’écriture est légendairement liée à d’autres faits de civilisation. 13
#origin stories
Il est évident que l’écriture est un fait de civilisations développées, que dans toutes
celles qui existent et ont existé la place de l’’ecriture est grande, celle des autres
représentations sensiblement réduite. Mais il serait abusif de conclure de l’absence de
l’écriture dans certaines civilisations à un dénuement total de moyens de répondre à
certains des besoins que satisfait l’ecriture. [PK: see previous paras discussing various
activities done with/without the aid of writing] 23
#progressivism: writing [PK: although this is conceivably contra progressivism in
spirit]
La communication de faits présents, passés ou futurs (projets) d’une part, le
déclenchement de souvenirs de textes d’autre part peuvent se faire au moyen de
dessins d’une ou plusieurs couleurs. C’est ce qu’on appelle pictographie, pictogrammes
91
(racine latine «peindre» et racine grecque «écrire»), en allemand «Bilderschrift»
(écriture d’images) et «Ideenschrift» (écriture d’idées).
La représentation du langage au stade pictographique ne constitue pas une véritable
écriture, n’étant pas une figuration détaillée du discours parlé et ne dépendant pas
d’une langue déterminée*. 27
#definition: pictography
Pour que l’écriture véritable succède à la pictographie, il fallait non que celle-ci arrive
au tracé le plus fin et le mieux disposé, mais qu’elle évolue vers une autre sorte
d’analyse, et par suite une autre expression des manifestations parlées. Cette évolution
semble ne s’être produite de manière autonome dans aucune des civilisations de type
social relativement inférieur où a paru et a persisté jusqu’à nos jours l’usage des
pictogrammes (signes ou signaux). 33
Une évolution commencée pour une langue peut se poursuivre pour une autre ou
plusieurs autres langues empruntant le système par contagion de civilisation (a), ou se
substituant à la langue pour laquelle le système a été créé (b). 442
#diffusion: writing
La propagation d’un système d’écriture se fait habituellement au des centres
intellectuellement et techniquement les plus développés, atteignant des domaines sans
écriture ou à système inférieur d’écriture. 442
#diffusion: writing #progressivism: writing
Le prestige politique et intellectuel et le prosélytisme religieux peuvent véhiculer un
système d’écriture qui n’est pas le mieux élaboré ni le plus commode. 443
La connaissance imparfaite d’un système peut provoquer l’invention d’un système
inférieur chez des populations attardées à un stade intellectuel moins élevé.
Exemple: systèmes récents chez des Peaux-Rouges et chez des Africains. 443
#stimulus diffusion #progressivism: writing
Si un système évolue à l’usage de la langue pour laquelle il a été inventé, en passant
par des stades de perfectionnement, il se produit des réadaptations successives par
bonds.
Exemple: substitution de syllabo-phonogrammes à des signes-mols (égéen (?),
bamoun). 444
#africa: west #bamum #progressivism: writing
L’invention est plus libre dans le transport d’une aire de civilisation (grande ou petite)
à une autre.
Exemple: écriture indienne en dehors de l’Inde, slave par rapport au grec. 446
#progressivism: writing #stimulus diffusion
92
Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1959. Course in General Linguistics, C
Bally and A Sechehaye with A. Reidlinger, trans W. Baskin
(original notes of 1907-11) 23-4. Cited in Mesthrie et al.
People attach even more importance to the written image of a vocal sign than to the
sign itself. 23-24
#writing systems: theory #primacy of writing #language ideology
1960–1969
Riesenberg, Saul H., and Shigeru Kaneshiro. 1960. “A Caroline
Islands script.” In Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 173,
269-333. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution.
There are some scattered references to Brown’s discovery, but few writers have
commented on it even briefly. Mason (1920, p. 152) accepts Brown’s opinion, quoted
above, uncritically. Diringer (1948, p. 448), agreeing in part with Brown, states that
the origin of the Woleai script is perhaps in some way connected with the Further Indian
branch of scripts, although this connection does not appear evident, either from the
graphic or from the phonetic points of view. There is, however, the possibility of the mixed
process of invention and borrowing, called “idea diffusion.”
And Imbelloni (1951, p. 164 and fig. 25), in an attempt to link the script to Easter
Island writing and other scripts of his “Indo-Pacific” graphic system, refers to it as
being based on Semitic syllabaries and having diffused to the Carolines via India and
Malaya; he too regards it as the remains of a formerly more developed system. A
more sober judgment is that of Metraux (1957, p. 199), who says that the script may
very well have been “invented on the spot under the influence of Malay, Indian, or
even European writing.” 275
It is evident, therefore, that the characters found by Brown in 1913 at Woleai were
known there and elsewhere in the Central Carolines in 1909; and further, that Brown
did not collect the complete set.[fn]
In the Japanese literature on Micronesia available to us we have found only one
reference to the writing, in spite of the long period of Japanese occupation, 1914 to
1945. This is by Someki (1936, p. 178, fig. 5; 1945, pp. 405, 476-477, and figs. 189,
230) who illustrates 38 characters of the same type (27 of them occurring among
Brown’s 51, 7 others which appear on lists furnished by our informants, and 4 which
only Someki gives). 276
Someki states that the characters, which he apparently collected at Faraulep in 1934,
occur only at Ifaluk, Elato, and Faraulep, and he illustrates a wooden bowl from Elato
which bears a few of the characters. He derives some of the symbols, which he
identifies as of Roman alphabetical origin, from an early European influence, and,
like Imbelloni, speculates that the others are linked to Easter Island writing. 276
93
From Ifaluk, Damm (1938, fig. 180) gives a list of 18 characters belonging to this
second type and shows their phonetic values. Damm and Sarfert (1935, fig. 278) give
almost the identical script from Satawal; it contains 19 characters of the same graphic
form with nearly the same values as the Ifaluk characters, in slightly different
sequence. These two lists are presented by the German anthropologists without
comment or analysis, except that Damm attributes the introduction of this writing at
Ifaluk to a castaway missionary from Truk. The symbols are reproduced here in
columns B and C of figure 26, and are of the type of writing which the present authors
will call Type 2. Not only are the symbols and their values different from Type 1
writing; they are clearly derived, as is evident upon simple inspection, from Roman
characters, while the symbols of Type 1 in nearly all cases show no resemblence to
Roman alphabetical characters. 277
We have, then, evidence that in 1909 both types of symbols were known at Woleai,
Faraulep, Puluwat, and probably Satawal, if not elsewhere, and that at least Type 2
characters were known at Ifaluk and Lamotrek. In 1934, the date of Someki’s visit,
both systems were known at Ifaluk and Elato. 277
We were able, in 1954 to 1957, to obtain lists of symbols of one or both types from
various living informants of Woleai, Faraulep, Lamotrek, Ifaluk, and Eauripik. These
symbols are included in figures 25 [see page 274] and 26 [see page 277] under
informants’ names [PK: I have counted eight individuals identified only by the first
letter of their names]. In addition we have samples of the writing, though not lists of
characters, from several other persons of all these atolls; and additional persons were
able to read or at least to identify many of the characters. We also have samples from
tattooing and from canoe-house beams (pis. 42-44). 279
It would appear, then, that the writing has or once had a geographical distribution
from Eauripik in the west to Puluwat, 300 miles to the east, and was known on all the
inhabited islands between. (See map 1.) Specific inquiry elsewhere in the Carolines
established that it had not existed beyond these limits,[fn] but it was often recognized
for what it was; people on Pulusuk, for example, have heard of it as “writing of
Faraulep.” Within the area where it exists, not many persons seem ever to have
known it, and knowledge of it is declining. While formerly there was some interest
among younger people in learning the writing, many today use an adaptation of
Japanese katakana writing instead, and the children are being taught to write in the
English alphabet in Government schools. All of our informants were past their youth.
Previously, when more people knew the system, it was used for writing letters to one
another, often to request supplies of native and European commodities, but
nowadays, with travel made easier and with stores available, this function of writing
has lapsed. The few people who know the script today use it primarily to record
chants and magical and medicinal formulae. One man says he learned the writing
specifically in order to be able to record songs, medicines, and magic, which he keeps
in a notebook. A recent convert to Catholicism keeps a notebook of catechism lessons
in the writing. An Ifaluk man who, in late Japanese times, became lost at sea, states
that during his misadventure he kept an account in the native writing which included
the birds he saw “and their meaning.” Lt. Kevin Carroll (tragically killed in Iran in
94
1957), who was an administrator in the military government at Yap in 1946, told us
that he sometimes transmitted orders to the Central Carolines, through an Ifaluk
amanuensis, in the native script. 280
#
From all the sources previously mentioned and from the lists of characters and
samples of writing we ourselves have collected, we have a total of at least 78
characters of Type 1, to most of which we can assign phonetic values, and 19 of Type
2. We also know that there is a definite sequence. 282
It is evident, then, that we have here a system of writing which was well-defined some
time before 1909. 282
What is the origin of the Carolinian writing? We may disregard the speculations of
Brown, Diringer, Imbelloni, and Someki, since there is no evidence to support them
and they border on the fantastic. 282
In other words, the natives from whom the lists were obtained themselves consider the
symbols to be of two types; we have not sorted them out on any logical grounds. Also,
some of our informants gave us the two types in two separate sets. Other informants
gave us mixed lists, but nevertheless distinguish the characters as belonging to two
types of writing. 283
When we first examined the symbols it was immediately apparent that those of Type
2 were taken without great alteration from Roman alphabetical symbols ; they all
appear to be modified forms of our own upper-case letters; whereas most of those of
Type 1 bore little resemblance to the alphabet or, it seems evident from examination
of the exhaustive compilation of other forms of writing illustrated by Diringer, to any
other known system of writing. It therefore suggested itself to us that Type 2 was first
introduced into these islands from some European source, and that, perhaps because
it fitted poorly into the native phonetic patterns, another system, Type 1, was then
devised in order to fill a need for more adequate representation. 283
It was apparent also that neither type of symbol was used alphabetically, except for
symbols representing vowel sounds alone. The three words that Brown gives us
indicate that both types were being used in 1913 to represent syllables, not single
phones. The words and phrases we later obtained from our own informants verified
our guess that this was in fact a syllabary, and suggested what the process of
development had been. All the symbols, of both types, have names which are also
their attributed phonetic values (although, as we shall see, in actual writing values are
often only approximate). Except for characters representing vowels alone, nearly all of
which belong to Type 2, they represent open syllables composed of an initial
consonant or semivowel followed by a vowel. Further, every symbol of Type 2,
excluding those representing vowels alone, has an attributed value whose vowel
portion is a long i, while all symbols of Type 1, with two exceptions (Nos. 7 and 67)
have as their vowel portions attributed values other than i. Writing is accomplished by
a mixed alphabet-syllabary system; when a syllable consists of a vowel alone, the
character for that vowel is used, as in alphabetical writing; when it is formed by a
consonant-plus-vowel or semivowel-plus-vowel combination, the appropriate syllabic
character, of either type, is used. (See table 2.) 283
95
Type 2 history reconstructed
This evidence caused us to guess that a European alphabet or a modified form thereof
had been introduced to these islands, but with names attached to the letters different
from those we know them by; that the names for the consonantal letters consisted of
the phonetic value of the consonant followed by an i suffix; that the natives did not
understand the acrophonic principle upon which the names were based, hence did
not attempt to write alphabetically but took these names as having syllabic value and
tried to write their language with them;[fn] and that they devised the other system of
writing, Type 1 when they found the first system of syllabic representation, Type 2,
inadequate to reproduce all the sounds of their language. This reconstruction of
history seemed consistent with the consistently open form of the syllable in this
language, syllable-final consonants commonly occurring only at the ends of words.
Binary geminate sequences occur, but dissimilar consonants are almost always
separated by at least an excrescent vowel. 284
When a spoken word has a terminal consonant, only the consonantal portion of the
final character used in writing the word retains phonetic value, and the vowel portion
which follows it becomes valueless. [sic] 284
Kittlitz (1858) encountered Caroline natives in 1827, e. g., at Faraulep, who already
spoke fluent Spanish, an ability no doubt acquired on visits to Guam. 285
There was also contact with the Spanish in the Philippines. The Spaniards at Guam
employed Caroline crews to take them as far as the Philippines. The journal of the
Salem ship Clay, Capt. W. R. Driver, reports finding in the Fijis in 1827 two natives
of the Carolines left there by a Manila brig 5 years before; these men signed on the
Clay as crew members and returned to Manila. Traditions of sea-farers cast away in
the Philippines and successfully returned home are known as far east as Puluwat. The
first knowledge of the Woleais comes from Spanish accounts of 30 canoeloads of
people from these [285] islands driven ashore at Mindanao and elsewhere in 1664,
and the literature contains many more such reports in later years, including the most
recent case in 1954. Many of these castaways made their way home, either by
themselves or aboard foreign vessels. 286
We have only one report of writing from this area before the German expedition’s
visit in 1909: Arago (1822, p. 35) reproduces a letter from a Satawal chief written in
response to the order of a trader at Rota in the Marianas; the writing used in this
letter is purely pictographic, the chief having made drawings of the objects he desired
in return for the shells which he had for barter, and there is not the slightest
resemblance to the system of writing we are here concerned with. Nor is this system
reported by Chamisso, Choris, Dumont d’Urville, Freycinet, Kittlitz, Kotzebue,
Lesson, or Liitke, all astute observers, in the early 19th century, and it is not likely that
it would have escaped the attention of Christian, Finsch, or Kubary in the latter part
of that century if it had existed then.
96
It seemed to us therefore that the writing must be of more recent origin. Also it
appeared that the most likely place to look for its source was in the islands to the east
of the area concerned. To the west and north are Palau and the Marianas, whose
inhabitants speak Indonesian languages, and Yap, whose language, although it is
usually classified as Micronesian, is very different from the languages of the Central
Carolines. The borrowing of Roman characters from these islands, even though some
of the natives of the Woleais speak Yapese, would for these reasons have been difficult.
But more important, alphabetical writing was introducted to the Marianas, Palau, and
Yap by the Spanish, and the letters of the alphabet, as [286] given orally by the
natives of those islands today, all have modified Spanish names, very different from
the names in the Central Carolines of the Type 2 characters which we have
considered to be of alphabetical derivation. 287
The Woleais, together with Puluwat, constitute the area where the writing is known.
The languages of these four subdivisions are mutually intelligible, differing only in
some phonemic shifts and in some minor vocabulary changes. 287
The Trukese today […] In oral recitation, the [Trukese] vowels have approximately
Spanish values, and the consonants which follow are given as though suffixed by i,
thus: fi, si, ki, li, mi, ni, ngi, pi, ri, chi, ti. That is, the names of the Trukese consonants
are the same as the names and phonetic values of the Type 2 syllabic characters of the
Woleais.[fn] There are only five vowels as against the eight in the Type 2 lists, and the
sequence of characters is slightly different—we will shortly attempt to explain these
differences—but the relationship would seem to be obvious. The Truk area would
seem, then, to be the source of the Type 2 writing of the Central Carolines. Moreover,
inasmuch as Logan began his work in 1878, Type 2 writing must have come into use
since that date. 288
One of our informants, a man of Eauripik, confirmed the foregoing in the following
words: “An American Protestant missionary from Truk got lost on a boat during
German times (1900-1914), stayed there (Eauripik) and taught the people (how to
write) .... His name was Misinining. He was there only for three or four months and
left for Falalap (in Woleai) where he soon died.” Another Eauripik man refers to this
missionary as Misililing and remembers that he and the Trukese all gave instruction in
writing.
All of these accounts, of course, must refer to the writing we have called Type 2, since
the castaway party from Truk must have used for instruction the alphabet known to
them, and we have seen that the alphabet is the inspiration of Type 2 writing. 289
It would therefore seem that at least two slightly different sequences in Type 1 writing
already existed in 1913 (the date of Brown’s visit), and that this difference has
persisted until today. This is probably what R. has in mind when he states that there
are two different systems, one which developed at Faraulep Island, the other at Pigue
Island (both in Faraulep atoll), and that further changes have occurred in the course of
teaching the writing to other people. Though we have no specific information as to
97
inventors of new characters, it seems obvious that there have been many since the first
invention was made; the variability in the different lists after the first 50 characters (see
fig. 25) attests to such development. 293
Type 1 history
We have already stated our conclusions that the Type 2 writing comprises, apart from
its eight vowels, a syllabary consisting of symbols which are all of consonant-plus-i
phonetic value, that these values are the same as the names of the alphabetical
characters taught by a castaway Trukese party in 1905, those characters having
become converted into a syllabary as the result of their names being taken as having
syllabic value. The Type 1 writing was developed through stimulus diffusion after a
period of trial with Type 2 alone, when the inadequacy of the latter was recognized (a
Woleai woman makes this statement in virtually the same words); it consists, with a
very few exceptions, of characters whose values are all consonants suffixed by vowels
other than i. 294
Informants from all the islands agree that Type 1 writing was invented at Faraulep,
and the script is generally called ishilh Foeshavlap (writing of Faraulep). Even people
who cannot read the writing, as far east as Puluwat, at once identify it by this name.
Three informants (two Ifaluk, one Lamotrek) state that they learned Type 1 writing at
Ifaluk from Faraulep visitors; another Ifaluk man says he learned it at Ifaluk from a
man of Woleai origin who had long been a resident of Faraulep. Several Woleai
people also give Faraulep as the place from which Woleai got its writing; three Woleai
women learned the system at Faraulep, two of them shortly after the 1907 typhoon.
Three Puluwat people, none of whom can read the script, say that Puluwat obtained it
from a canoeload of Ifaluk voyagers. At Satawal a Faraulep man is said to have taught
the Type 1 writing, which no one at this atoll now can read. There also appears to
have been some instruction among various Central Carolinians when they worked
together during Japanese times at the phosphate mines at Angaur, in the Palau group.
We have several statements to the effect that the system was learned through
exchange of letters between various of the islands. [fn:19] We have no other clues as
to dispersal of the Type 1 writing.!
Several informants give the names of the inventors, all of whom were residents of
Faraulep.[fn:20] Though the lists of names differ, there is considerable agreement
among them. The claim by Faraulep natives [295] that the Type 1 writing was
invented at Faraulep, the support for this claim by natives of other islands who state
that they learned the writing at Faraulep or from Faraulep visitors, and the universal
appellation of the writing, even among people who cannot read it, as ishilh Foeshavlap,
leave us satisfied that the invention was made at Faraulep and was largely, if not
entirely, the work of a group of Faraulep natives. 296
[Footnote 19: These letters were originally written on wooden boards or on coconut-
leaf midribs. Nowadays, letters written on paper are exchanged.] 295
98
[Footnote 20: Lists of inventors, as given by different informants, follow. We attempt
to equate names of inventors in the different lists by preceding them with numbers.
[List one] [List two] [List three] [List four] [List five] [List six]
Hafelaliyal 1. Lügetal 4. Tairu Mathiyolong 5. Yairong
Sagiyelimar
1. Taiyor Fafilelimar Pierong Tarop
Sagiyelimar
Hfiliyalo 2. Seghuuri Yatelagh 3. Igemor 2.
Saigouwe
Marotiuw 2. Seghui Iletuobul 4. Tairuiwe
3. Igemor Soghorub
4. Tairui
Willmar
5. Yairong
Rafiteg
Uchilimar
Ghilibwe
Wolibwe
All of these allged inventors are now dead, except the person whose name is last on
the fifth list; she is a Woleai woman who has lived at Faraulep since before the
invention, but she herself does not claim to be one of the inventors. The Lamotrek
man referred to above states he learned the Type 1 script from a Faraulep man
named Sagawi who came to Ifaluk when he was there; this is probably the person
identified by No. 2. One of the Ifaluk men learned the script from the two men in the
second list, who come to Ifaluk from Faraulep. And a Woleai woman who learend to
write at Fafaulep had as her teachers the four men in the sixth list.] 295
Foreign influence
We are less satisfied about the possibility of alien influence. The Südsee Expedition
reports state that at various times between 1900 and 1910 there was a copra station at
Faraulep to which several Japanese seem to have been attached. One informant from
Eauripik states that the Type 1 script was made at Faraulep by a Japanese named
Soshaki or Soshiki, and that a Filipino named Serifino or Serbino may have helped. A
Faraulep man states that the Faraulep people themselves invented the writing but
were later helped by a Japanese and a Filipino. At Woleai a woman of that atoll, who
learned the writing at Faraulep and who gives the names of four Faraulepese as the
inventors, states that the Japanese helped by contributing two characters, Nos. XVI of
Type 2 and 61 of Type 1, from Japanese katakana; these two characters do actually
99
nearly coincide with two Japanese characters in both graphic form and phonetic
value. A Woleai man living at Faraulep since shortly after the invention insists that the
Japanese Soshiki definitely did not help, and a Woleai woman who has lived at
Faraulep since before the invention (and who is named by others as one of the
inventors) denies that the Filipino was involved. All other informants state simply that
the Faraulep people whose names they give were the inventors. We examined the
possibility of Filipino influence, remote though it might be; but none of the symbols of
any of the Filipino scripts can be related to the Woleai symbols (see Gardner, 1943;
Diringer, 1948; Conklin, 1953). We also point out that two characters in addition to
Nos. XVI and 61 are similar in appearance to Japanese characters; these are No. 26,
which resembles the Japanese kanji form for “sun,” and No. 34, which is like the
Japanese kanji form for “wood” or “tree”; together, with the addition of one stroke to
character 34, they would stand for “Nippon,” and undoubtedly Japanese goods
labeled thus were available to or seen by these islanders. However, in neither case is
the phonetic value of the symbol similar to the Japanese value, so no more than the
graphic form could have been borrowed. Also, in the case of character 26, informants
have identified it as a representation of a canoe outrigger platform, as will be seen.
The evidence for Japanese influence goes no further, although [296] it is possible that
the facts that katakana is a syllabary and that Soshiki may have been consulted by the
inventors may have reinforced the idea of creating a syllabary, first stimulated through
the names of letters of the Trukese alphabet having been taken as being their phonetic
values. 297
Date of invention
As for the date of the invention of Type 1 writing, native informants state that it
occurred “after the big typhoon,” when the German administration had to evacuate
many distressed people to islands in the same area less hard hit, as well as to Yap,
Palau, and Saipan. This typhoon can be no other than the one that struck these
islands March 27-30, 1907; other typhoons of which there is record are either too
early or too late. Now the Südsee Expedition ethnologists worked in all the islands we
are concerned with during November and December of 1909, and found the writing
as far east of Faraulep as Puluwat. The invention must therefore have occurred
between these dates, and would probably have been closer to 1907 than to 1909 to
have had time to spread so far by 1909. 297
Derivation of characters
The form of the characters and their values suggest several possibilities concerning
their derivation, apart from the four which may be linked with Japanese characters.
Some of the Type 1 symbols appear to be modified forms of the alphabetical signs of
Type 2. Thus character 3 is apparently an altered T, with the value changed from ti to
ta. Using the same criteria of resemblance in form and value, character 8 would be
derived from R, 11 from M, 12 from N, 33 from L, 40 from S, 48 from N, and 66
from F.
Other characters, as their graphic forms show, are attempts to represent natural or
artificial objects, and the values of these characters are also the same as or close to the
names of such objects. These constitute a kind of rebus writing. Among such
characters we may list the following identifications made by informants:
100
[PK: Representations of plants: 5. Sprouting coconut, 16. Forked branch used for
hand net and flying-fish net, 32. Midrib of coconut palm leaf (showing leaflets to
either side), 36. Coconut palm tree!, 45. Leaf, 53. Leaf of Hibiscus tiliaceus, 64. A
plant bearing this name [PK: pictograph]; representations of animals: 9. Bird’s wing!,
19. Portion of bonito!, 28. Fish backbone!, 29. Trigger fish!, 41. Porpoise, 38. Cock’s tail
feather!; representations of technologies and ornaments: 14. Canoe (represented under
sail)!, 26. Canoe outrigger platform!, 30. Perfume bottle!, 35. Saw!, 43. Lure of bonito
hook!, 56. Fishhook (modern type), 60. Canoe seat!, 2. Tattooing-rake handle!, 10.
Composite bonito hook!, 15. Mast, 42. Ear ornament consisting of two interlocking
rings!; representations of body parts: 13. Ulcer, boil!, 31. Woman’s breast, 44.
Fingernail]
5. Sprouting coconut [PK: CHO=16B84]
9. Bird’s wing! [PK: MA=16B88]
13. Ulcer, boil!
14. Canoe (represented under sail)! [PK: WA=16B8D]
16. Forked branch used for hand net and flying-fish net
19. Portion of bonito!
26. Canoe outrigger platform!
28. Fish backbone! [PK: CHIU 16B9B]
29. Trigger fish! [PK: BU=16B9C]
30. Perfume bottle! [PK: LEO=16B9D; note different sound value to Riesenberg
chart]
31. Woman’s breast [297] [PK: SHO=16B89; note different sound value to
Riesenberg chart]
32. Midrib of coconut palm leaf (showing leaflets to either side)
35. Saw! [PK: RE=16BA2]
36. Coconut palm tree! [PK: LIU=16BA3]
41. Porpoise [PK: GIU=16BA8]
43. Lure of bonito hook!
45. Leaf
!53. Leaf of Hibiscus tiliaceus [PK: NGOA=16BB4]
56. Fishhook (modern type) [PK: GEO=16BB7]
60. Canoe seat!

64. A plant bearing this name [PK: NGE=16BBF]
Nos. 29 and 41 have the same graphic form and the same names as conventionalized
tattooing elements, and may have been taken directly from tattoo design rather than
from the animals they represent. No. 24 also may be a tattooing design.
101
Some other proposed identifications, made not by informants but by the authors,
using the same criteria of similarity in form and name, are:
2. Tattooing-rake handle!
10. Composite bonito hook!
15. Mast!
38. Cock’s tail feather!
42. Ear ornament consisting of two interlocking rings
44. Fingernail
Brown also suggests that No. 12 is “bamboo” and No. 37 is “knife,” but the
resemblances in these cases strike us as elusive.
The fact that the characters are so frequently of rebus type may indicate that the
inventors became preoccupied for a time with this principle of representation during
their development of the system, and that some of the gaps in our identifications
might be filled by further research in the vocabulary of material culture. It is of
interest also that the phonetic value of the Type 2 character N (No. IX) is also the
native word for “tooth,” which the form of the character resembles, especially in the
variant form given by C. Perhaps it was this coincidence which first suggested the
rebus principle.
Of the other characters, some may well have been borrowed from decorative design
elements, but we have not recognized any except those already described. Most of the
others are very likely the product of pure imagination. Indeed, this must needs be the
case, for Carolinian dialects in these islands are extremely deficient in words consisting
of open monosyllables, upon which the syllabary is based, and even more so in such
words which can be concretely represented. 298
(pictography)
According to Smith (1951) the Woleai language has 50 phonemes. 299
For example, 18 words terminating in -g are listed in that table, some of them written
several times and by as many as three natives; for the –g the informants have without
exception used character VIII in four words, in four other words they agree on
character 2, in another five words they all use character 41, and they invariably write
character 50 in five more. How are we to explain such consistencies in usage, sporadic
though theyare? In some Malayo-Polynesian languages there occurs a final vowel that
is so weakly pronounced as to seem inaudible. While this phenomenon does not
appear to be a feature of Woleai speech today, it may well have been so in the past;
and if we may credit the inventors of the Type 1 script with ability to reconstruct the
ancient pu from modern pup and tuu from tuut, as previously described, it is possible
that in these instances the character chosen to represent -g is the one whose full
syllabic value includes the vowel sound which was formerly terminal. 305
Summary
102
In 1905 an American missionary from Truk, Alfred Snelling, and a party of Trukese
were cast ashore at Eauripik. Here they gave instruction in writing with the alphabet
which had been developed in the Nomoi Islands. The natives of Eauripik took the
names of the letters as being their syllabic values and converted the alphabet into a
syllabary. These letters constitute the symbols we have called [309] Type 2. The
syllabary diffused to Faraulep where the deficiencies of the writing became apparent,
all consonant signs of the original alphabet now having syllabic values consisting only
of consonants-plus-i. The Faraulepese, between 1907 and 1909, invented a whole new
set of symbols, Type 1, taking some of the signs from their environment and their
material culture and giving them as their values the names of these objects; other signs
were made by altering the form of Type 2 symbols; a few may be of Japanese
derivation; and some are the products of imagination. By 1909 the writing, of both
types, had spread to eight atolls of the Central Carolines and it is still known on five of
them today. [310] Previous authors have speculated that the writing represented the
remains of a formerly more developed system, that it was related to scripts of the
Asiatic mainland, that it was linked to Easter Island writing, etc. But it has been
demonstrated that the Woleai syllabary represents a case of recent stimulus diffusion,
like the Vai and Cherokee syllabaries.
The writing, which is still being added to by new inventors from time to time,
represents only crudely the language it is used for. A symbol may be used for more
than one syllable, and a syllable may be represented by more than one symbol. In
time, more exact correspondence might develop. However, the writing will probably
die out before this occurs. 311
Hau, K. 1961. “Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ script, texts, and counting

system.” Bulletin de l’I.F.A.N. 23 (1-2):291-308.
[Mr. O. A.] Akpayun met with the leaders of the religious group, which still numbers
several hundred individuals, and wrote in 1954 a brief Report on an Investigation into
Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ Language and Script. My study is based on that of Akpayun and a
correspondence of several years duration with the African who, according to Adams
and Akpayun, first recorded the strange language of Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ. To him, Akpan
Akpan Udɔfia, I am also indebted. 292
(Ibibio-Efik is a tonal language or dialect ; Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ is not.) Moreover, states
Adams, there are speech sounds in the religious language of these inhabitants of
south-eastern Nigeria which are foregin not only to their vernacular but to those of
neighboring tribes. 293
Chief Akpan Udɔfia Umɔh (Udɔfia’s father), Udɔfia himself, and two other Chiefs
who have communicated with me through a Negro writer, all agree with Adams’
statement that they are « ... almost uneducated, ordinary country people ...». « We are
in the remote area. Nothing is heard of us. We have no trained person », write the
Chiefs. « You will understand that none among us was well educated man » adds
Udɔfia. He states further, that even though a [293] few in religious group attended a
Protestant school, « ... they were not up to high standard at all in that school ». In
spite of their relatively poor education, at least these Negroes referred to as «
103
originators » of the script and language were literate in English, according to Akpayun
in his Report. Unfortunately, I am unable, except for Udɔfia, to find out anything
further about the personal lives of those who are leaders in the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ
church—only that they are all natives of the district in which they now live.
Udɔfia is the oldest son of Chief Akpan Udɔfia Umɔh of Usuk Aka Idided and was
born in 1911. He attended a Roman Catholic Mission School for some months about
1924 and the Ididep Central School for a few years. Since leaving the Catholic school,
Udɔfia has had no contact with any church, either Catholic or Protestant. He is
reported by Mr. John M. Lewars of the Church of Scotland Mission, who helped to
persuade him to write to me to be « ... certainly intelligent and interesting... ». I can
confirm this because of my knowledge of him through his letters, and add that he is a
completely forthright, sensitive, and compassionate Negro, most anxious that his
people be led from the spiritual and material « darkness » in which he considers they
live.
From all that I can learn by reading Akpayun’s Report, the immediate circumstances
which influenced the production of the strange symbols and language of Obɛri
Ɔkaimɛ are as follows :
A need was felt by some of the natives in the area to «...create an indigenous religion
on modern Christian lines». This faith was intended to synthesize aspects of both the
native traditional and the intrusive Christian religions. Consequently, a people
habituated to fetish worship, soothsaying, and oracle consultation, where a medium is
used to interpret the mysterious utterances of a doctor or priest, easily adopted beliefs
in prophesying, dreams and visions and the need for « speaking with tongues », as
referred to in the Bible.
Insofar as Udɔfia is concerned in the appearance of the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ sect, his letters
disclose the following personal history. As a boy of fifteen he had an experience which
led him to believe, ultimately, that he was intended to be a teacher for Sɛminant, the
Spirit of God. He had a series of dreams in which a strange man led him into a very
thick wood and instructed him in an unknown language. He remembers that a beam
of dazzling light which shone down in the forest was called muzil by the man who
accompanied him, and seankrbiu was the word the native taught him for baptism by
immersion. Although Udɔfia questioned his schoolmates concerning the words he was
taught in his dreams, none of them had ever heard such peculiar language.
The following year, as Udɔfia was sitting at his desk in the Ididep Central School, the
religious disturbances of which Adams writes took place in the vicinity. A band of
fanatically religious Africans, primarily women, appeared in the school yard singing,
praising God, and sometimes speaking in an unknown tongue. One of the women in
the group at the school convinced Udɔfia that she had been sent by God to tell him
that he would never attend his school again. « After the school I went away, at my
home I was overwhelmed by this mighty Hand of God. I then became one among
them... From then I never visit the school, writes Udɔfia. When Udɔfia’s father and
schoolmaster tried to persuade him to return to his studies, two other members of the
religious band came to talk with Udɔfia. They warned him that God forbade him to
go back to school and « disturb » his mind. If he did so, they told him, he would suffer
punishment ; if he obeyed the command of the Lord, he would be blessed and become
His « writer ». [294]
104
At the religious meetings which Udɔfia attended with these Negroes, whose leader by
1928 was a man named Michael Ukpɔn, he had visions and verbal persuasions which
made him believe that, through drinking water (or some other liquid) from a cup, he
would receive knowledge washed from a great book written in different colored inks
and thus receive the words of God « ...speak with tongues and interpret languages ».
Thus, because of his psychological and religious experiences, Udɔfia permitted
himself, together with some of the other men in the meetings, to be taken into
seclusion by Ukpɔn some distance from Ididep. Here for 8 years the group was
completely isolated from their families, occupations, and the outside world. These
men lived like « monks », as Udɔfia expresses it—continently in prayer, and with fasts
of a few or sometimes more than sixteen days. As I understand it, the men who had
appeared on the schoolground with Ukpɔn had been through a similar experience.
They were instructed, according to Udɔfia, by Sɛminant or the « Secret Teacher ».
For twenty years, from the time he left school until 1948, Udɔfia was forbidden by his
« Secret Teacher » to study the Efik Bible, any history book, or to read, write, or
speak English. When I asked Udɔfia whether this teacher was a man or a spirit, he
indicated that his experiences with his « Secret Teacher » must have been those of a
man in relation to God, since he remembers them as being similar to his dreams of
learning a strange language when a boy.
At some time during the long period of seclusion, the script, language, and texts made
their appearance. Some religious knowledge had been received by others during their
period of isolation, but knowledge of the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ symbols, tongue, and « Holy
Books » appeared only to Udɔfia and the leader, Michael Ukpɔn. This enlightenment
came slowly over the years. Adams mentions that by 1931 some of the script and
language had made its appearance, but according to Akpayun, it was not until 1936
that Udɔfia’s education was fairly complete : then the « ...language and script came to
Messrs. Michael Ukpɔn and Akpan Akpan respectively and concurrently. For a
whole month they were driven by the spirit to a life of seclusion and purity; while their
fellow members helped them on with songs and prayer. As Michael spoke, Akpan
recorded. The Spirit (Sɛminant) urged them to name their mode of worship Obɛri
Ɔkaimɛ ». 298
#ingesting writing
There are 32 symbols in the script. One of them appears to be an ideogram or word
symbol with two forms.
This word symbol stands for the pronoun « I » or « ami » in the vernacular ; it is
called « atu » in Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ. One form of this symbol is used to indicate that « big
men, people of high rank » are speaking, and another is used to indicate that «
children, young lads, and women » speak. 298
Footnote 1: […]Moreover, I should like to point out here that English is not the only
tongue, apart from the local vernaculars, which is known to some of the natives of
southeastern Nigeria. As Professor Lilias Homburger of Paris has written me : « Secret
languages are... current [in West Africa]. » In the very area under consideration there
are such instances. The Egbo secret society of the Ibo, Ekoi, Ibibio, and Efik peoples
was once very powerful in the Kingdom of Benin. A young Bini friend of mine, a
university graduate whose grandfather was an advisor to a Chief of Oje of a former
Oba or King Benin, has heard the language of this society and says it is like no other
105
language he has ever heard. The Ekoi have an order of priestesses who speak a «
special » language, which is handed down from generation to generation. Cf. P.A.
Talbot, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria... London, Oxford University Press, 1926, v. 2, p.
132. The languages of these societies—not so secret today as they once were—may
contain words which reflect early cultural intrusions, just as the Iwebo society of Benin
has a non-vernacular tongue said to possess many Portuguese words. Cf. Hans
Melzian, A Concise Dictionary of the Bini Language of Southern Nigeria, London, K. Paul,
Trench, Trubner, and Co., 1937, p. 79.
As it should not be lightly assumed that English is the only non-vernacular language
known to some of the natives in this section of Nigeria, likewise we should hesitate to
assume that the Portuguese were the first to introduce writing into southern Nigeria or
the Arabs to do this in the north. There is a tradition that the pre-Mohammedan
Kingdom of Nupe (on the Niger, a little west of its conflux with the Benue), many of
[299] whose inhabitants fled to Yorubaland to escape the Moslem invasion, had a
script. Cf. Leo Frobenius, The Voice of Africa... tr. by Hudolf Blind, London,
Hutchinson and Co., 1913: v. 2, p. 619-620. I have another tradition : that the Bini
once wrote. (The present Bini dynasty is descended from the royal Yoruba line.) Also,
a leading Yoruba historian has written : « Prior to the advent of Europeans only
Moslem Africa possessed a highly developed system of writing. The rest of West Africa
was a non-literate society with only one or two exceptions where the art of writing was
the jealously guarded monopoly of a few priests. » Cf. S. O. Biobaku, « The Use and
Interpretation of Myths: 1. Myths and Oral History » Odù, Journal of Yoruba and Related
Studies, No. 1, Jan. 1955, p. 12. I have not been able to discover just which part of
West Africa Biobaku refers to, but what was culturally possible in one section of this
area may have been culturally possible in another! 300
Akpayun and Adams both note that there are Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ characters for the
principal marks of punctuation; however, my texts only contain the single short
diagonal line for a comma and the similar double line (\\) signifying a period. 300
Akpayun noted that the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ language « ...makes use of sounds and
combinations of sounds not found in Efik but used in spoken English : g, 1, z, dg, bs,
and sn ». He further adds : «There is no retracted closed-front vowel (i) of English and
Efik ; rather its full closed phoneme. This varies in length without being systematic. »
300
The titles and significance of the « Holy Books » were sent to me by Udɔfia and are as
follows:
1. Dge Gibreant Kaiunend (or Kaiyunend) « Kaiyunend means Catechism ».
2. Dge Gibreant Tökkizan: « A Holy Book which contains the Words of God that reveals
something to us about God and all human beings. » « This work includes the holy
words of prophecy known as Asasalemn... »
3. Pogident Giophinens Gizin arien Pogident Gireh Seccuna (The Sabbath of Jehovah God and
the Sabbath of Jesus Christ) : already mentioned.
4. Mridea Kaiyunend : « a book to test the congregation in the catechism » « Mridea
means Test Book ».
106
5. Nōbrēāndo Tökkizan: « A book that causes Life in the hearts of the congregation,
which enables and encourages them to worship Goel without fear. Nōbrēāndo means
‘The Restoration Book’. »
6. Kisany Obary Abitexrinity Veyeriniöm Affendo : this is the Church Law and consists of
eighteen rules for the attainment of a good life. Translated literally the title means «
Eighteen Church Concisely Remembrance Law ».
My knowledge of the content of the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ religious texts and beliefs is
limited, but I can enlarge upon Adams general statement that the members of this sect
feel that they are inspired by the Spirit of the Lord, or Sɛminant.
I shall describe their concept of God—important if we are to understand the possible
influence or cultural intrusions in this faith which is different from both Christian and
local African religions. Besides the booklet containing excerpts from the Bible, I
possess the text of Dge Gibreant Tökkizan together with a brief passage from Asalemn,
Kisany Obary Abitexrinity Veyeriniöm Affendo, or the Church Law, a short prayer, a song,
and several letters from Udɔfia in which he discusses his « Holy Books » and religion.
None of the texts covers more than 2 or 3 pages.
While the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ religion appears intensely monotheistic and not comparable
to the contemporary pagan religions in this part of Nigeria, its concept of God
certainly has two aspects. Upon one hand God is regarded as Jehovah and upon the
other as a Lord who, protected by tongues of fire, wages an eternal struggle for
goodness and enlightenment against the powers of evil. Insofar as the first concept is
concerned, it is apparent after reading Pogident Giophinens Gizin arien Pogident Gireh
Seccuna... that although this pamphlet is composed from Biblical excerpts and although
some of the members of the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ sect have been Christians, according to
Akpayun, Christ does not appear to be important in their doctrines. The Biblical
verses are primarily from the Old Testament: the story of Creation, Ten
Commandments (also summarized in the Church Law), the need to teach the love of
one God, and the founding by the Lord of a Holy Nation composed of those who
obey Him. Moreover, Udɔfia has pointed out to me that when he was again permitted
to read the Bible, in 1948, he discovered that his « Holy Books » were composed very
largely of the words of the Prophets, taught by the « ...only true God, Creator of all
Mankind ». Consequently, members of the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ sect believe that they have
the same source of inspiration as the Prophets had, namely, the Lord, manifesting
Himself in their case through Sɛminant, the Holy Spirit—He whom Udɔfia
sometimes refers to as his « Secret Teacher ». 301
[PK: Note lots of Medefaidrin vocab on pages 306 and 307. These are just curious
excerpts here:]
jeruffina angel
[…]
creenc Children of God (the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ people)
[…]
kerikūdom prayer
[…]
trazido handwriting 306
107
[PK: Portuguese influence in these examples?]
prum from [PK: English?] 307
For instance, I note that while Adams states that Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ has introduced the
English s (or z sound) to form the plural—unlike the native vernacular which either
uses the prefix mme-, or changes the initial vowel of the noun, or changes the form of
the verb—I have instances where the plural is formed in other ways. The word for «
year » in Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ is ebled, but « years » is sebled. Keadiöm, monsgba, and bisanet are
the equivalents of « father », « mother » and « brother » but their plurals are formed
by the addition of the prefix tu-.
Adams, in his article, mentions a document, of which he possesses a copy and
translation, called the «Medefidrin’s Code ». I asked Udɔfia to explain to me the
substance of this document and he replied : « The meaning of Medefidrin Code
mentioned in Mr. Adam’s Article is as follows : A. Medefidrin Code is a Book of
regulations treating of a moral and Spiritual conduct, of our Church. B. The
Language and Script of our Church. C. Direction for the teaching of our Church
Doctrines and the language and script. D. Educational moral and Spiritual
qualifications of the teachers who are to be employed to conduct our Church Classes.
But [the word] Code is not the of [307] our Church. We have the word ‘Giffa’
Meaning A body of Law. Therefore we say Medefidrin Giffa instead of Medefidrin
Code. Our Medefidrin Giffa is revisable from time to time. » 308
Are the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ symbols and language pure invention, as Adams suggests ? Or
are they, along with the religion of the sect, an attempt to synthesize the traditional
African religion with English, Christian influence, as Akpayun believes? Or is there
still another answer : that in the language, symbols, and faith of the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ
people are elements of: 1, the African ; 2, intrusions of non-African culture in pre-
Portuguese Limes; 3, English, Christian influence; 4, the purely invented? It is only to
the linguists and paleographers that we can turn to answer these questions
scientifically. 308
Orendain, JC. 1963. Ten datus of Madiaas. Manila: Mabuhay

Press.
[PK: This book includes second-migration hypothesis and also the Code of Kalintiaw. It is
purportedly based on the writings of Father Tomas Santaren (1853) and the Maragtas
said to have been copied out by Pedro A Monteclaro (see below) in 1901.]
[Preface to “Maragtas” by Pedro A. Monteclaro]:
In order that the reader of this Maragtas would not think that this narrative is the
creation of my imagination, I am presenting here two writings which I have been able
to find:
The first was given to me by an old man over eighty years of age who said that the
written nar-[xix]rative was given to him by his father, who received it from his father,
who at that time was the teacher of this town. Because of the length of time and the
years that this document had existed, it was almost impossible to handle the paper it
was written on without it disintegrating into shreds. The paper was very old and this
was worsened by the fact that the ink used had been made of black dye mixed with a
strong sap of wood that burned the paper.
108
The other I found in a bamboo tube kept by my grandfather wherein he put his
important papers. This document could hardly be read and if handled carelessly, the
paper would crumble to pieces. xx
#written language #ideology: antiquity
Dalby, David. 1967. “A survey of the indigenous scripts of

Liberia and Sierra Leone: Vai, Mende, Loma, Kpelle and
Bassa.” In African Language Studies VIII, edited by Malcolm
Guthrie, 1-51. London: School of Oriental and African
Studies.
#africa: west
Does the development of syllabic forms of writing among no less than seven [fn] West
African tribes reflect the fact that an alphabet—despite its economy of form—is
perhaps less [1] suitable than a syllabary for the transcription and analysis of African
languages?[fn] !Is it coincidence that the four syllabaries of Liberia and Sierra Leone
should have been devised for related Mande languages (in an area which is
linguistically mixed), or has their development been encouraged by some traditional
element in the cultures of the Mande-speaking peoples, such as the use of pictograms
and ideograms?[fn] What factors in the modern development of West Africa
stimulated the invention of five of the nine indigenous scripts within a span of about
fourteen years, between the two world-wars?[fn] An attempt will be made, in this and
the following paper, to throw some light on these questions, although it must be
emphasized that further field-research is urgently needed. 2
#hypothesis: primacy of the syllable #decra #pictography
[fn: The more recent syllabary devised in 1956 for Bete, a Kru language spoken in the
Ivory Coast some 250 miles further east, may be considered as forming an extension
of this area. The account of the invention of this pictographically based syllabary and
of the characters involved has been recorded by the African inventor himself, Frédéric
Bruly-Bouabré, and published by T. Monod, ‘Un nouvel alphabet ouest-africain : le
bété (Cóte d’Ivoire)’, Bull. de I’LF.A.N., T. XX, sér. B, nos 1-2, 1958, pp. 432-553.] 1
[PK: Monod text is now in Endnote]
#bete #pictography
[fn: Cf. the similar clustering of indigenous graphic systems in Eastern Nigeria and
Cameroun : the Nsibidi contextual (non-linguistic) system of graphic symbols, used by
the Igbo, Ibibio-Efik and Ekoi, the pictographic/ideographic and subsequent syllabic
scripts of the Bamum, the syllabary of the Bagam (Eghap), and the ‘Christian’ Oberi
Ɔkaime alphabet of the Ibibio-Efik. For Nsibidi see J. K. Macgregor, ‘Some notes on
Nsibidi’, J. roy. anthrop. Inst., 39, 1909, pp. 209-219; E. Dayrell, ‘Some Nsibidi signs’,
Man, X/67, 1910; E. Dayrell, ‘Further notes on Nsibidi signs’, J. roy. anthrop. Inst., 41,
1911, pp. 521-540; P. A. Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush, London, 1912, pp. 305-309
and 447-461 ; cf. also A. Mansfeld, Urwald-Dokumente, Berlin, 1908, Tafel IV/V and p.
67. For the Bamum scripts see the monumental work by A. Schmitt, Die Bamum-Schrift,
Wiesbaden, 1963 (3 vols.); also I. Dugast and M, D. W. Jeffreys, L’écriture des Bamum,
Mém. de I’I.F.A.N. (Cameroun), 1950. For the Bagam syllabary see L. W. G.
Malcolm, ‘Short notes on the syllabic writing of the Eghapu Central Cameroons’, J.
109
Afr. Soc., XX, 1920-21, pp. 127-129. For Oberi Dkaime see R. F. G. Adams, ‘Oberi
Okaime : a new African language and script ‘, Africa, 17, 1947, pp. 24-34.] 1
In addition to their interest for Africanists, the West African scripts have a wider
palaeographic interest, since they provide us with modern examples of the
development of writing, spanning the whole range of graphic symbols from
pictograms to alphabetic characters and diacritics.[fn] In considering the development
of writing in a continent which has been largely illiterate, however, it is particularly
important that emotional judgements should be avoided. Such judgements have,
unfortunately, entered into some of the earlier discussion of modern West African
scripts, negrophobes tending to dismiss them as imitations of established scripts, and
negrophiles tending to exaggerate their historical and cultural implications. 2
#evolution of writing #decra
[fn: The question [PK: primacy of the syllable hypothesis] has pedagogic as well as
linguistic implications. Would the progress of vernacular literacy in Africa be
encouraged if the roman script were presented as a syllabary (by pairing consonants
and vowels) rather than as an alphabet? In the case of Vai, the particular suitability of
a syllabary was asserted fifty years ago by F. W. H. Migeod, The Languages of West
Africa, II, London, 1913, p. 274: ‘Further, yet another and no mean factor in its favour
[i.e. of the Vai script], is the facility with which a hitherto uneducated native will learn
to read and write it. It will take only a fraction of the time that it takes to learn to read
with an alphabet, for each sound as uttered has a complete sign or character, whereas
with an alphabet it has not .... ‘ The possibility that a syllabary might prove superior
to an alphabet for the transcription of African languages had in fact been voiced over
a century ago, by the British linguist Norris (although his formulation of the problem
now seems rather quaint) ; see F. E. Forbes and E. Norris, Despatch concerning the
Discovery of a Native Written Character... with Notes on the Vei Language .... London
[1849/50], p. 24: ‘We may, therefore, suppose that a syllabic alphabet is more suited
to the ability, or, it may be, caprice of a negro, than our analytic alphabets.., it may
admit of a question whether a syllabarium may not be better suited than our
alphabets, to a language of so simple a syllabic structure as the Vei...’ (Norris, p. 25,
goes on to suggest that the Vai syllabary might be equally suitable for the closely
related Bambara, Mandinka and Susu languages, with speakers numbering several
millions.)][fn] 2
[fn: Cf. the use of pictograms and ideograms in the contextual graphic systems of the
Bambara and Bozo (speakers of Mande languages, closely related to Vai) and of the
Dogon (speakers of an isolated language, traditionally classified as ‘Gur’). See M.
Griaule and G. Dieterlen, Signes graphiques soudanais, Paris, 1951 ; D. Zahan,
‘Pictographic writing in the Western Sudan ‘, Man, L/219, 1950.!] 2
#pictography
There is no provision for tonal distinctions in the Vai, Mende and Loma syllabaries,
and only partial provision in the Kpelle syllabary—even though all four languages are
tonal. The Bassa alphabet does include a full system of tonal diacritics, however.
The accompanying tables are of course provisional. They represent the first
comprehensive tabulation of the five scripts, on a systematic phonological basis, but
this very systematization is to some extent in conflict with the spirit of the original
110
syllabaries,[fn] which were never completely systematized by their own inventors, and
which appear to have owed their invention at least partly to intuitive talent. It is
probable that none of the syllabaries achieved a perfectly consistent form in the hands
of its inventor, and many further inconsistencies and fluctuations must have arisen in
the course of usage. 4
#creativity #writing system as folk analysis of language
The Vai occupy the coastal area north-westwards from Monrovia, extending into
Sierra Leone, and speak a Northern Mande language closely related to Mandinka and
Bambara. The Mende occupy a large part of southern Sierra Leone, the Loma
occupy land on both sides of the border between Liberia and Guinea, and the Kpelle
are situated south of the Loma in Liberia and also in Guinea; these three tribes speak
closely related South-western Mande languages. The Bassa occupy the coastal area
south-eastwards from Monrovia, and speak a Kru language. 4
#vai #loma #bassa
The Vai syllabary was devised in about 1833[fn] by Mɔmɔlu Duwalu Bukɛlɛ (died
1850); he appears to have been assisted in this task by a number of friends. 6
#vai
[Koelle 1849:]
Doalu Bukara [amended to Bukere in the 1854 ed.], now about forty years old, and living
in Bandakoro, is the proper inventor of it, assisted by five of his friends. The first impulse
to attempt it, he received in a dream, which he narrated to me in the following way. He
said: About fifteen years ago, I had a dream, in which a tall, venerable looking white man
[fn] [in a long coat [fn]] appeared to me, saying: “I am sent to you by other white men ....
I bring you a book “. Doalu said: “This is very good; but tell me now, what is the nature of
this book ?” The white messenger answered: “I am sent to bring this book to you, in order
that you should take it to the rest of the people. But I must tell you, that neither you, nor
any one who will become acquainted with the book, are allowed to eat the flesh of dogs
and monkeys, nor of any thing found dead, whose throat was not cut ; and to touch the
book on those days on which you have touched the fruit of the To-tree (a kind of very
sharp pepper)”. The messenger then showed Doalu his book, and taught him, to write any
Vei words in the same way, in which the book was written .... “Look, this sign (writing the
sign with his finger on the ground) Doalu, means i (English e)”. Then he wrote close to it
another sign, saying, “and this means na. Now, Doalu, read both together !” Doalu did so,
and was quite delighted, to have learnt to read the word ina, i.e. “come here!” [fn] In the
same way the messenger showed him how a great number of other words could be written.
At last Doalu asked his instructor concerning the contents of the book he had brought. But
the answer was : “Wait a little ; I shall tell you by and by”. After this, Doalu awoke, but, as
he told me in a sorrowful tone, was never afterwards informed of what was written in the
book. In the morning he called his friends together, in order to tell them his dream, viz. his
brother Dshara Barakora, and his cousins, Dshara Kali, Kali Bara, [7] Fa Gbasi, and So
Tabaku,[fn] all of whom are still alive, with the exception of So Tabaku who died about
three years ago. They were all exceedingly pleased with the dream, and quite sure that it
was a divine revelation. A few days after, Kali Bara, as he himself told me, had a dream
the reality of which, however, I doubt very much, in which a white man told him that the
book had come from God, and that they must mind it well ....
Though Doalu had been well instructed in his dream, yet, as he told me, in the morning
he could not remember all the signs which had been shown him by night. Therefore—
these are his own words[fn]—he and his friends put their heads together, in order to make
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new ones. And on this ground we are fully justified in speaking of a real invention of the
Vei mode of writing.
But all these six men were then still young, being all from twenty to thirty years of age.
They were therefore afraid, people might not pay them proper attention. So they agreed to
take 100 salt sticks, i.e. 100 parcels of salt.., and to bring them to king Fa Toro, or Goturu,
in Tianimani, in order to make him favourably disposed to their object. Their present had
the desired effect. The king declared himself exceedingly pleased with their discovery,
which, as he said, would soon raise his people upon a level with the Poros[fn] and
Mandingos,[fn] who hitherto had been the only book-people. He expressed the curious
opinion, that this was most likely the book, of which the Mandingos (who are
Muhammadans) say, that it is with God in heaven, and will one day be sent down upon
earth.
8
#vai #origin stories
[fn: […] The ‘ Book of Rora’ (see p. 9, f.n. 3 below for details of this source) mentions
also a certain ‘Father’ Doalu Worogbe, who appears to have stimulated work on the
script by taunting Bukɛlɛ and his friends about the superiority of Europeans, and their
own inability to communicate with each other by letter. […]] 8
#vai #origin stories #motivation
Whether or not Duwalu Bukɛlɛ was actually inspired by a dream[fn] can of course
never be resolved, and it is quite possible that the story of the dream may have been
invented or elaborated in order to encourage the Vai people to adopt the new form of
writing (just as the king was bribed with salt, to obtain his support for the teaching of
the script). Koelle, on the other hand, offers a psychological explanation for the
dream,[fn] which provides us with a valuable insight into Bukɛlɛ’s previous experience
and education. Koelle recounts that Bukɛlɛ had begun to learn the roman script as a
small boy, when he had worked for a white missionary for about three months. In
working subsequently for various traders, he was much impressed by the way in which
they were able to communicate by letter over long distances, and he became
consumed with the idea that the Vai people should have their own form of writing. It
seems almost certain that the main impetus behind the devising and popularizing of
the Vai script was the desire to acquire the power and advantages which were seen to
belong to the literate Europeans, Afro-American settlers and Mandingo Muslims with
whom the Vai came in contact. Writing had reached the area from two different
directions, and in two different forms. In both cases it was associated with revealed
religion, with political and economic power, and with superior material civilization; in
both cases, it enabled verbal messages to be transmitted—apparently by supernatural
power—on scraps of paper.
Further evidence that Bukɛlɛ and his associates were inspired by contact with the
roman script in particular is provided by the ‘Book of Rora’[fn] a short
autobiographical and aphoristic work compiled in the Vai script by one of Bukɛlɛ’s
cousins, Kali Bara, whose ‘book-name’ was Rora (or Rorɛ). At the very end of his text,
the author recounts how work on the new script began after contact with [9] a
European named ‘John ‘, then living at Dschondu, had made them realize the need
for a script of their own.[fn] The ‘Book of Rora’ also provides evidence of the way in
which the Vai script was regarded as a revelation rather than an invention, even by
the men who devised it. The author maintains strongly that it was God who made the
112
book he was writing, and his aphorisms begin regularly with the set phrase gboru ye
ro [in Koelle’s transcription], i.e. ‘the book says’.
The fact that Bukɛlɛ and his friends were stimulated by contact with the roman and
arabic scripts does not detract from their remarkable achievement. They did not
produce a mere alphabetic imitation of the foreign scripts, but hit upon the idea of a
syllabary,[fn] cumbrous in form but well suited to a language with a predominantly
CV structure. The use of diacritics may have been suggested by the arabic script, and
a few characters may have been copied from roman capitals and arabic numerals
(although used in the syllabary with quite different values).[fn] The vast majority of
the Vai characters appear to be original, however, and it is important that the
imagination, intellect and enterprise of the inventor of the Vai script should not be
underestimated. Bukɛlɛ’s achievement was all the greater for having taken place
against the background of a previously illiterate society, still torn by inter-tribal wars.
Koelle and Bukɛlɛ were both men of genius, and they developed a close friendship
during Koelle’s short stay in Vai country in 1849. 10
#vai #origin stories #motivation
[fn: Cf. Migeod, 1909, p. 49 ‘That the Vai people originated a system of writing as
their own points to the fact that the nation at that time was going through a phase of
mental activity, and acquiring a considerable amount of wealth. This might be
accounted for by their being [10] the middle-men.., in the slave-trade .... With
raiding and trading the necessary mental stimulus was given to the nation to enable it
to produce such a man as Doalu, and what is more to the point, for it to have
acquired sufficient intelligence to recognize a good thing, and to keep it.] 11
#motivation #vai
At this point, it is necessary to touch briefly upon the question of whether the
inspiration for the syllabary arose not only from contact with foreign scripts, but also
from possible traditional usage of isolated pictograms and ideograms. There is
insufficient evidence to indicate that this was definitely so, but there is circumstantial
evidence to suggest that such an influence may have played a part in the inspiration
and formulation of the Vai syllabary. This question will be dealt with in the second of
these two papers, devoted to the comparative discussion of the scripts. 11
#motivation #pictography #vai
[fn: The reference to ‘male’ adults reflects the fact that writing—not surprisingly—was
considered to be an exercise for men rather than women. J. Büttikofer, loc. cit., states
that the Vai script was taught to boys but not to girls.!] 11
#gender #vai
We have seen already from Koelle’s account that initiation into the script was
associated from the very beginning with specific tabus, inspired no doubt by the
traditional tabus attendant on initiation into ‘secret’ societies, and perhaps also by the
religious ‘tabus’ associated with Islam and Christianity (and hence with the arabic and
roman scripts). The new ‘book-names’, adopted by the early writers in the Vai script,
may likewise be compared to the adoption of post-initiation ‘society’ names, or of new
Christian or Muslim names on conversion to one or other religion. A further tradition
on the ritual use of the script is recounted by Massaquoi:[fn] ‘Tradition says that, in
sending Dualu Bukelle to reveal this writing to the Vais, the Spirit distinctly forbade
113
that anyone should accept money for teaching these characters and that the only fee
for tuition should be one bottle of palm wine, a portion of which must be poured on
the ground in the name of the Spirits of the book party. Upon the completion of the
study a single fowl of white plumage should be given to the teacher—”Freely ye have
received, freely give”[fn]—in order that the teaching of the Spirit might go on.’
Massaquoi states that a Vai may charge a large sum for writing the script or for doing
other literary work, but that he will charge nothing for actually teaching the script:
‘The present writer has taught more pupils in Vai than any other living man in his
country, and he has not yet received a penny for tuition. Many Europeans, with
plenty of money at their disposal, have passed through his hands in Vai studies, but
who first will violate the law of the great Spirit teacher?’
The script was first established in the Tɔmbɛ section of Vai country, from which it
received the name of the ‘Tɔmbɛ book’ or ‘Tɔmbɛ characters’.[fn] Among early
manuscripts compiled in the script were autobiographical and aphoristic texts,
traditional tales, and translations from the Koran and the Bible.[fn] There appears to
have been a subsequent dearth of original writing, however, with the exception of
private correspondence.[fn] Letter-writing seems to have been the major application
of the script throughout its history, as appears to be the case also with the other
indigenous scripts of the area.
Tuition in the Vai script[fn] is based traditionally either on the memorizing of [12]
isolated words or passages, written in the script, or on the recitation of the entire
syllabary in a set order (cf. the similar procedure used for the Mende and Bassa
scripts). This set order does not appear to have been recorded, at least in print, but the
first four characters in the sequence are known from the title A-ja,-ma-na, used as
an alternative name for the Vai script.[fn]
By 1899, the West African agent of the B.F.B.S. was able to report that ‘most of the
Vai can read their own characters’ and that Momolu Massaquoi was already engaged
in translating the Gospel of St. John; Massaquoi, then teaching at the St. John’s
Mission in Robertsport (Cape Mount), had already introduced the study of the script
into the school curriculum.[fn] He attempted to stabilize and simplify the conventions
of the Vai script by publishing a phonetic chart of the syllabary, published in
1900,[fn] and this Massaquoi version forms the basis of the modern ‘Standard Vai
Script’[fn]. Minor modifications, including provision for sounds foreign to Vai, were
introduced in 1926 by Massaquoi and Dr. (afterwards Professor) Klingenheben,
whom Massaquoi had first met while he was in Hamburg; in 1954 by Klingenheben
and Zuke Kandakai ; and finally in 1961 by Klingenheben and ‘a group of Liberian
scholars’.[fn] In recent years the University of Liberia has taken an interest in the
standardization of the Vai script, under the direction of Professor F. Fahnbulleh-
Massaquoi, Director of the African Studies Program and daughter of Momolu
Massaquoi.
The script continues to be used widely among the Vai of Liberia, mainly in
correspondence, as well as surviving to a lesser extent among the Vai of Sierra
Leone.[fn] Vai scribes appear to have been employed also by the Kpelle and other
neighbouring tribes in Liberia, although it is not clear whether they wrote in Vai [13]
or in the relevant tribal language.[fn] 14
#vai
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There are no special characters in the Vai syllabary for numerals, these being
represented by the full syllabic spelling or by arabic numerals.[fn] 17
#numerals #vai
The pictographic element in the four syllabaries (arising from traditional pictograms
or from the inventors’ imagination?) will be discussed in the second of these two
papers, but the following may be quoted here as examples of syllabic characters in the
Vai script with a possible pictographic/ideographic origin:[fn] [PK: see examples of
potential pictography]
‘blossom, flower’
‘to blow’
‘horse
‘water’
‘eye’
‘person
‘cow’
‘same, like’
17
#pictography #vai
[fn]: The investigation of possible pictograms and ideograms is a hazardous operation,
the imagination of the investigator not necessarily being in line with that of the
original inventor. 17
#iconicity #pictography #vai
The Mende syllabary was devised in 1921 [fn] by Kisimi Kamara (died 1962): he
appears to have been assisted in part of this task by two or three friends. 19
#kikakui
He [Kisimi Kamara] had apparently visited Vai country, and it seems certain that he
was acquainted with the Vai script. 19
#kikakui #vai #diffusion
It is perhaps not surprising that a supernatural element should be included in the
tradition of the Mende script, and Kisimi Kamara is said to have been inspired in his
undertaking by a dream or vision. I could not obtain any clear account of this
‘revelation’, which may be compared nevertheless with the accounts of dreams
associated with the invention of the Vai, Loma, Kpelle and Barmum scripts.[fn]
Kisimi appears to have had a widespread reputation for ‘second-sight ‘, and Milburn
[fn] has remarked that ‘Kisimi Kamara... was particularly anxious to hear from me
what assistance science was giving in solving the problem of spirits and their
interference with human affairs’. 20
#origin stories #kikakui
115
The Mende syllabary is known by the name of Ki-ka-ku, based on the first three
characters in the set order of the script.[fn]
[fn: It should be noted that the first two characters in the script correspond to the
initial syllables of Kisimi Kamara’s name.] 20
#kikakui
Kisimi’s system of teaching [20] involved the recitation of almost 200 characters by
rote, in a more or less fixed sequence, so that the syllabic value of each character
could be learned by ear while its graphic form was learned by eye. He and his pupils
employed reed-pens and ink prepared from leaves, as used also in Koranic schools
and by the early users of the Vai script.
Kisimi gave instruction in the script to both adults and children at Potoru, where he
enjoyed the patronage of the local paramount-chief. As a result of his teaching the
syllabary appears to have achieved a limited degree of popularity among the Mende
during the 1920’s and 1930’s, being used especially in personal correspondence. Its
usage declined rapidly from about 1940 onwards, however, with the advent of the
Second World War and with the introduction of the Protectorate Literacy Bureau’s
Mass Literacy Campaign, employing the roman! ‘Africa’ script for the writing of
Mende.[fn]
Milburn recounts that Kisimi’s two small sons had been taught at school to write
Mende in the ‘Africa’ script, in the early 1940’s, but that they were unable to write the
Mende script invented by their father. On the other hand, Milburn noticed that the
names of several prominent men in Potoru had been engraved over their doors, using
characters from the syllabary, and he also came across one or two weavers and
carpenters, in the Sierra Leone Protectorate, who were using what appeared to be
Kisimi’s script for recording patterns and measurements. In 1965, I found that
Milburn’s visit to Kisimi, over twenty years before, was still well remembered in
Potoru. Kisimi’s disillusionment at the decline of interest in his syllabary must have
been intensified when Milburn (then Director of Education for Sierra Leone)
reminded him of the inability of his own two sons to write his script, and of the
superiority of the roman alphabet over his syllabic characters.[fn] This situation in the
1940’s contrasts strongly with the relative flourishing of Kisimi’s script, and his
consequent pride and ambition, less than ten years before.[fn]
The Mende syllabary has continued to be used by a few individuals, such as the clerk
whom Dr. Innes met at Segbwema in 1952, but is by now probably close to extinction
as an actively used script.[fn] This was brought home to me [21]forcibly in 1965,
when I was unable to find a single person in Kisimi Kamara’s own village who could
remember the whole syllabary. Even the older men who were proclaimed as ‘ experts’
on the script, including Ansumana Sanoh, one of Kisimi’s original collaborators, were
unable to identify all the characters. 22
#kikakui
The Mende syllabary has a total of up to 195 characters, and is written from right to
left.[fn] 22
#kikakui
116
Numerals are represented in the Mende syllabary by the characters of their initial
syllables, with additional diacritics where necessary.[fn] 25
#kikakui
The following may be quoted here as examples of syllabic characters in the Mende
script with a possible pictographic/ideographic origin:
‘to dig’
‘knife’
‘all night’
‘to reach, pass through’
‘to stand’
‘child’
‘to hold’
‘person’
25
#pictography
The Loma syllabary was devised in the 1930’s by Widɔ Zoɓo: he appears to have
been assisted in this task by a weaver,[fn] and perhaps also by a woman. 25
#loma
[fn: ‘ Toma’ is an alternative name for Loma, employed especially in Guinea]
[fn: Cf. the invention of the Mende syllabary by a tailor, assisted by two other tailors
and a weaver” see p. 19 above.] 25
#loma
As he was sleeping the following night, Widɔ dreamed that he was in the presence of
God, whom he accused of leaving the Loma in ignorance. God replied that he was
afraid to give them the power of writing, lest they should cease to respect the beliefs
and customs of their tribe and become over-proud. Widɔ swore that the Loma would
continue to live as in the past, and that they would respect the ‘secret of initiation’.
God accepted these conditions, and agreed to ‘give writing’ to Widɔ if he would
promise never to teach it to a woman.[fn] He instructed him to make ink the next day
by pounding and boiling the leaves of a certain type of creeper. Widɔ did this, and
then undertook the devising of the Loma characters in conjunction with Moriba, the
weaver.
The tradition that the Loma script was inspired by a dream is reminiscent not only of
the traditions concerning the Vai, Mende and Kpelle scripts,[fn] but also of the
Cameroun tradition that King Njoya was inspired by a dream to start work on the
Bamum script.[fn] Schmitt (apparently unaware of the Mende and Loma scripts)
considers that the inventors of the Vai and Bamum scripts were encouraged !in their
efforts by actual dreams, resulting from their previous reflections on the subject. It
seems perhaps more likely, however, that the inventors in question were shrewd
117
enough to appreciate the attitude of their own peoples, and that they therefore
preceded the introduction of their scripts with stories of revelation and accompanying
tabus. They are likely to have appreciated the much greater respect which would
attach to their discovery, and to themselves, if the creation of their scripts were
presented as spiritual revelation rather than as intellectual invention.[fn] Compare the
traditional ‘revelation’ of the Oberi Ɔkaime secret [26] language and script by
‘Sɛminant’ (i.e. the Holy Spirit), in Eastern Nigeria; [fn] compare also the air of
mystery which the inventors of the Mende and Kpelle scripts appear to have achieved
by their almost ritual seclusion at the time they were devising their characters. 27
#origin stories #gender #vai #africa: west #bamum #loma
[fn: Although a variant tradition omits the tabu relating to women, and tells of a
woman, named Köita, who assisted in the subsequent devising of the syllabary. The
two traditions are not necessarily in conflict, however, since an individual woman
often plays a prominent rôle—at least in this part of West Africa—in rituals or
societies which are tabu to women in general. The references to a respect for ‘beliefs
and customs’ and for the ‘secret of initiation’ would seem to reflect a general attitude
among the Loma and neighbouring tribes, who (as Mr. T. Mercer has kindly pointed
out) have a widely felt fear that writing may be used to record the oral secrets of the
Poro and other traditional societies.] 26
#gender #loma
According to Joffre, the syllabary soon became established among the Loma in
Liberia, and to a lesser extent among their kinsmen in Guinea. It was used for
personal correspondence, and was also used by Loma foremen on the Firestone
plantation to record the names of their workers. An important factor in the
propagation of the Loma syllabary appears to have been the requirement that
everyone learning the script should swear to his teacher that he would afterwards
teach the script to whoever wished to learn it. 27
#loma
In 1965 […] few men [at Zawodamai] have retained any interest in the script. 27
The Loma syllabary has a total of (at least) 185 characters, and is written from left to
right. 27
#loma
The following may be quoted as examples of syllabic characters in the Loma script
with a possible pictographic/ideographic origin:
‘all’
‘no’
‘to place’/ ‘place’
‘to go in, put in’
‘female’
‘elephat’
‘horse’
118
‘arm, hand’
‘seed’
28
#pictography #loma
The Kpelle syllabary appears to have been devised in the 1930’s by Gbili, then
paramount-chief of Sanoyea,[fn] Liberia. Lassort was told that Gbili had died in
about 1940, but this was denied by his two other informants. Professor Welmers, who
recently met (ex-chief) Gbili, has confirmed that he was still alive in 1966.
Gbili is reputed (in Lassort’s account) to have fallen victim to an unknown illness,
which remained with him for seven years: some people thought that he had been
poisoned, others that he had been bewitched. At the end of seven years he is said to
have emerged from his confinement in the Bong Hills with his completed system of
writing: ‘Ce n’était pas une maladie qu’il avait, c’était l’écriture... ‘. Gbili had
reputedly been working on the script during this long period, and had produced his
set of characters unaided. In conflict with this tale is the simpler version given to
Professor Welmers by Gbili himself—that the script had been revealed to him in a
dream one night, by an angel.
Lassort places the date of Gbili’s invention (or its completion) at not more than five or
six years before the date of his own paper, compiled probably in 1944. Friedrich’s
scholarly reference to the script in 1937, however, must put the date of its invention
back to 1935 or earlier. 29
#kpelle #origin stories
Gbili is said—by Lassort—to have given up his position as paramount-chief after his
sickness, in order to devote himself to the propagation of his script.[fn] (Professor
Welmers informs me that Gbili was actually deposed.) The script appears to have
gained some measure of popularity in the Kakata-Sanoyea area of Liberia, and had
reached the Kpelle-speaking parts of Guinea by 1942. Nevertheless, it does not seem
to have been mastered by more than a very small minority among the Kpelle, either
in Liberia or in Guinea, and Lassort found that the form of the individual characters
varied considerably from one area to another. Professor Welmers confirms that the
script is now very rarely used.[fn] 30
#kpelle
The Kpelle syllabary, as recorded by Lassort, has a total of 88 characters. The
direction of writing is apparently from left to right. 30
#kpelle
The alternative forms for ɓo/mo, kpe/gbe and kɛ/gɛ, in Version B, look
suspicious, as though they may have been based on cursive roman or arabic writing,
the informant perhaps having forgotten the exact form of the original character. 31
#kpelle
The following may be quoted as examples of syllabic characters in the Kpelle script
with a possible pictographic/ideographic origin (such characters being less common,
or at least less obvious, than in the other syllabaries):
119
‘to kill’
‘cut’
‘horse’
‘leg, foot’
‘eye’
#kpelle #pictography
The Bassa alphabet dates probably from the 1920’s, and appears to have been
invented by Dr. Thomas Flo Lewis, a Bassa, who began teaching the script on his
return to Liberia from medical training in the United States. The accurate tone-
marking system employed in this alphabet contrasts with the absence of any tonal
elements in three of the four syllabaries, and strongly suggests that the script had been
devised by someone with a Western analytical training. Modern Bassa tradition, as
recorded by Mr. Karnga, suggests that the modern alphabet may have been derived
from a more complicated, pre-alphabetic script, with a longer history. There does not
appear to be any documentary evidence of the prior existence of such a script among
the Bassa, and it is possible that the tradition is a camouflage for the derivation of
their alphabet from the Vai syllabary.[fn] 32
#bassa
The Bassa alphabet is known by the Bassa themselves as the ‘Vah’ script, and it may
be that this title is related to the name ‘Vai’. [fn] 33
#bassa
[Mr. Abba G. Karnga of Radio Station ELWA, Liberia:]
Dr. Lewis had begun an institution in Bassa country for teaching the VAH in its advanced
stage. He asked assistance from Chiefs Gleeder, Kpawredyu, Gblozio, Dyuntakpuah,
David, Duah, Boojin, Bruah and Swi. The chiefs refused, believing that their wives would
be attracted to love affairs once they knew the writing. Bassa men, however, from all over
Bassa County came and learned it from Dr. Lewis. He taught hundreds of people the
VAH script, and translated into Bassa many valuable literary selections, including several
chapters of the Bible .... For this invaluable contribution, Dr. Lewis will never be forgotten
by the people. […] About 25 per cent of the letters which we receive in the Bassa
Language Department of Radio Station ELWA are in the VAH script.
35
From these various brief reports (as well as from the, references to the script by
Graham Greene),[fn] it seems that the Bassa alphabet was devised—or at least
introduced—by Dr. Flo Lewis soon after the end of the First World War, probably
during the 1920’s.
Although no tradition of spiritual revelation is recorded for the Bassa script (unlike the
four syllabaries), there is nevertheless a suggestion by the Bassa Vah Association that
the alphabet was divinely inspired:[Fn: pamphlet on Vah script] ‘To the Bassa man’s
knowledge, God gave many gifts to the human race but the greatest.., is the ability to
read and write. Hence the Bassas supplicated God for equal knowledge to
comprehend and utilize the blessing. And God honored their prayers by raising up
Dr. Thomas F. D. G. Lewis who arranged and modernized the “VAH”...’ 36
120
#bassa
The Bassa alphabet has a total of twenty-three consonantal characters, seven vocalic
characters, and five tonal diacritics, and is written from left to right. From a purely
practical point of view, it is markedly superior to the syllabaries, being phonetically
more sophisticated and simpler in form. As an invention, however, it involves less
imagination and ingenuity than the other four scripts. 37
#bassa
An alternative name for the ‘Vah’ script is Nni-ka-se-fa, based on the names of the
first four consonantal characters, a feature which may be compared to the use of A-
ja-ma-na, Ki-ka-ku and A-ka-u-ku as names for the Vai and Mende syllabaries
and the 1910 version of the Bamum syllabary, respectively (cf. also ‘ alphabet’ and
‘ABC ‘). 39
#bassa
The overall comparison of the scripts of Liberia and Sierra Leone will be dealt with in
the second of these two papers, within the framework of the whole group !of West
African scripts. One general point should be made here, however, concerning the
inter-relationship of the Vai, Mende, Loma, Kpelle and Bassa scripts.
Although each of these five scripts is largely original in the form of its characters, it is
nevertheless clear that the prior existence of the Vai syllabary must have been a
decisive factor in the development of the other four scripts. The Vai script had been in
existence for ninety years before the devising of the first of the neighbouring scripts,
and the stimulus to other tribes would seem to have commenced not with the original
invention of the Vai script in the 1830’s, but with the standardization and propagation
of the ‘modern’ Vai script by Momolu Massaquoi during the early decades of the
twentieth century. The inventor of the Mende script is known to have been inspired
by the Vai script; the invention of the Loma script followed a visit to Monrovia by the
inventor, where he probably came into contact with the Vai script; the inventor of the
Kpelle script was a chief, and it is known that Vai scribes had previously been
employed by Kpelle chiefs; the Bassa alphabet would seem to have been evolved from
a pre-existing syllabary, most probably the Vai script. The inventors of these
twentieth-century scripts will have been conscious of the cultural and economic
superiority of the Vai over their own tribes, and will have associated this—at least in
part—with the existence of the Vai script (which has in fact played an important role
in enhancing the status and reputation of the Vai). The period from 1920 to 1940 was
ideal for the development of further indigenous scripts: the Sierra Leonean and (to a
lesser extent) the Liberian hinterlands had been pacified, and the need for a form of
writing, especially in correspondence, had made itself felt before there was adequate
provision for vernacular literacy teaching in the roman script. The Vai syllabary
suggested a more appropriate form of orthography for West African languages than
the mere adaptation of the roman alphabet, and it also provided a form of writing
which was unintelligible to the non-Vai authorities in Liberia and Sierra Leone, or to
members of other tribes. This advantage of secrecy, together with feelings of tribal
pride, no doubt led to the devising of totally different characters in each of the
subsequent scripts; even where the exact form of a Vai character appears to have been
copied in a later script, its phonetic value is normally unrelated to its original value in
Vai.
121
There are few areas in the world in which so many individual scripts have been
invented and put into use, within such a short period of time, as have been devised
either in West Africa as a whole, or in Liberia and Sierra Leone in particular. The
conception and elaboration of these scripts, and the practical use to which they have
been put, remain one of the cultural achievements of Africa.[fn] 51
#kikakui #loma #kpelle #bassa #motivation
Dalby, David. 1968. “The indigenous scripts of West Africa and

Surinam: Their inspiration and design.” African Language
Studies 9:156-197.
#africa: west
The Vai syllabary (with a total of up to 212 characters in its modern form) was
invented in about 1833 by Mɔmɔlu Duwalu Bukɛlɛ of Jondu (near Cape Mount,
Liberia), reputedly inspired by a dream and assisted in the design by a number of
friends. The syllabary was standardized in about 1900, and its usage subsequently
encouraged, by Momolu Massaquoi. It has been employed for the writing of
correspondence, records, original texts and translations from: the Bible and the
Koran. 158
#vai
The Mende syllabary (with a total of up to 195 characters) was invented in 1921 by
Kisimi Kamara of Potoru (Sierra Leone), a Muslim tailor of Mandinka origin,
reputedly inspired by a dream or vision and assisted in the design by two other tailors
and a weaver. The syllabary has been employed mainly for correspondence and
record-keeping. 158
#kikakui
The Loma syllabary (with a total of at least 185 characters) was invented in the 1930’s
by Widɔ Zoɓo, reputedly inspired by a dream and assisted in the actual design by
Moriba, a local weaver and tailor. It has been employed for correspondence and
record-keeping. 158
#loma
The Kpelle syllabary (with a total of at least 88 characters) was invented in the 1930’s
by Chief Gbili of Sanoyea (Liberia), reputedly inspired by a dream. It has been little
used, except perhaps for correspondence. 158
#kpelle
The Bassa ‘Vah’ alphabet (with a total of 30 characters and 5 tonal diacritics) was
invented probably in the 1920’s by Dr. Thomas Flo Lewis of Hodoahzon [157]
(Liberia), a native Bassa who had received medical training in the United States.
According to local tradition, Lewis is reputed to have based his alphabet on a pre-
existing (but undocumented) ideographic ‘code’. The alphabet has been used for
correspondence and translations from the Bible. 158
#bassa
122
The Bamum[fn] syllabary (with 510 characters in its original, ideographic-pictographic
form) was invented in about 1903 by Chief Nʒoya of Fumban (German Kamerun),
reputedly inspired by a dream and assisted in the design by two companions, one of
them a Fula; pictograms provided by Nʒoya’s people also contributed to the design.
Nʒoya progressively simplified and rationalized his script, until it had a final total of
only 80 stylized characters. He prepared a large quantity of manuscripts in the script,
not only in the Bamum language but also in a secret ‘court-language’ which he
invented himself. 158
#bamum
The Bagam or Eghap[fn] syllabary (with ‘several hundred’ characters) was invented in
Cameroun before 1917, reputedly based on the Bamum script, although no details of
its invention or the form of its characters have been recorded. 158
#bagam
The Ibibio-Efik ‘Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ’ [fn] alphabet (with 34 characters, plus numerals) was
reputedly revealed in about 1930 to Michael Ukpon and Akpan Udofia of Itu Division
(Eastern Nigeria) by Sɛminant, i.e. the ‘Holy Spirit’. The script has been used by
members of the local ‘Christian’ Spirit Movement (Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ) for religious
writing in their own ‘revealed’ language, but has not been used for the transcription of
lbibio-Efik itself. 158
#medefaidrin
The Bete[fn]syllabary (with 401 characters) was invented in 1956 by Frederic Bruly-
Bouabre, a native Bete from Daloa (Ivory Coast), inspired by the ‘mysterious’ shapes
of certain mineral crystals and by a traditional children’s game (in which a nonsense-
language is ‘read’ from lines of stones or palm-nuts). 158
#bete
[fn: See L. W. G. Malcolm, ‘Short notes on the syllabic writing of the Eghap-Central
Cameroons’, J. Afr. Soc., XX, 1920-21, 127-129. Malcolm had supplied the editor of
this journal, H. H. Johnston, with a list of the characters used in this script, but
Johnston—displaying some contempt of this ‘arbitrary syllabic writing’ in his editorial
note—saw fit to suppress this part of Malcolm’s contribution, the manuscript of
which has since been lost (cf. Dugast and Jeffreys, op. cit., 9).] 158
#bagam #validity
The Djuka[fn] syllabary (with a total of 58 characters) was invented in 1910 by Afaka
Atumisi, a Djuka ‘ Bush Negro ‘ from the Drie Tabbetje district (Eastern Surinam),
reputedly inspired by a dream. Afaka, an unbaptized Christian, composed religious
texts in his script, which was used also subsequently by a Dutch priest for the
transcription of the Catechism and other Catholic texts.
A further example of ‘revealed writing ‘ in Surinam was noted in the late 1920’s[fn]
consisting of undeciphered ‘writing’ revealed to a Paramaribo negro while in a state of
spirit-possession (by a winti or ‘familiar spirit’, reputed to have come from West
Africa with the man’s ancestors). 159
#djuka
123
The use of linear, language-bound scripts is on a much higher plane, however, and
the original invention of writing, by which the complexities of a spoken language can
be conveyed visually, ranks perhaps as the greatest invention of mankind. 159
#decra
Since there is also no record of any indigenous script in West Africa prior to the
invention of the Vai script in about 1833, it is reasonable to assume that the inventors
of the indigenous scripts had been made aware of the concept of linear writing by the
established presence of the Roman and Arabic scripts in West Africa, and of the
Roman script in Surinam. At least five of the inventors[fn] are known to have been
literate, or partly literate, in one (or both) of these scripts, and all the inventors must
certainly have come into previous contact with literate individuals. 160
#stimulus diffusion
[fn: The Vai, Mende, Bassa, Ibibio-Efik and Bete inventors having been acquainted
with the Roman script, and the Mende inventor with the Arabic script.] 160
[fn: K. Hau, ‘The ancient writing of Southern Nigeria’, Bull. de l’I.F.A.N., XXIX, 1-2,
1967, 150-191. (PK: additional Medefaidrin resource in which she suggests a
derivation from Linear A)] 160
#medefaidrin
It is significant that not one of the inventors has himself attempted to claim any
antiquity for his script, and that no less than seven of the nine recorded [161] accounts
of invention make reference to an inspirational dream.[fn] It is therefore necessary for
us to consider the probable psychological and religious stimuli behind each invention,
as well as the practical stimuli from non-indigenous scripts and from indigenous
graphic symbols. 162
#motivations
[fn: The only exceptions are the two scripts designed by individuals with an advanced
Western education: the Bassa alphabet, invented by a native who had received
medical training in the United States, and the Bete syllabary, invented by a native
who was fully literate in French. It is significant that local tradition has subsequently
ascribed a ‘divine’ origin even to the Bassa script: see Dalby, ‘A survey of the
indigenous scripts of Liberia and Sierra Leone’, 36.] 162
#motivations #bassa #bete
v) Chief Nʒoya, inventor of the Bamum script, had a dream in which he was instructed
to draw a hand on a wooden tablet, and then to wash it clean and drink the water.
Next day he did this, and was inspired to start his work on the script (and subsequently
on his secret ‘court-language’). 163
#bamum
(vi) Akpan Udɔfia, one of the inventors of the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ script, had a series of
dreams in which he was instructed in a secret language and informed that he was to
be a teacher for Seminant (the ‘ Holy Spirit’). He subsequently had visions informing
him that by drinking a certain potion he would receive knowledge washed from a
great book written in coloured inks. He went into eight years’ seclusion with Michael
124
Ukpɔn, his co-inventor, and other members of their religious sect, and during this
period the script, secret language and religious texts were ‘revealed’ to them. 163
#medefaidrin
(vii) Afaka Atumisi, inventor of the Djuka script, had a dream shortly before the
appearance of Halley’s Comet in 1910, in which a spirit sent by God appeared before
him in the form of a white man. The spirit gave him a blank sheet of paper and
informed him that a script would be revealed to him: Afaka subsequently devised his
individual symbols at intervals of two or three days.[fn] 163
#djuka
[fn: A religious motivation seems especially likely in the case of the Djuka inventor,
who—in his writings in the script (ed. Gonggrijp and Dubelaar, op. cit.)—links the
‘revelation’ of his script not only with the Halley’s Comet of 1910 but also with the
subsequent World War and the approach of Judgement Day (pp. 224-5 and 232-3). It
is perhaps significant that he complains to God of pains in his head (p. 218-9). A
comparable insight into the mentality and religious introspection of the Vai inventor is
provided by S. W. Koelle, Narrative ofan Expedition into the Vy Country, London, 1849, p.
26: ‘His [Duwalu Bukɛlɛ’s] mind appears to be frequently enraged with high and
divine emotion, words like these : Ever-lasting! God Almighty! Jesus Christ!
Alakabaru! . . . In a conversation I had with him, he once said to me: “My heart seeks
after God. Once I thought to find God in our book-palaver, but it was not so.
Afterwards, I believed that I could find God in Muhammadanism, and have now
been praying after the Mandingo fashion these seven years; but my heart has again
not found God.”] 163
#vai #djuka
[fn: The claim to revelation would also have provided them with a convenient
‘explanation’ for the inclusion of any pre-existing symbols—whether indigenous or
foreign—into the actual design of their scripts. Cf. discussion on’ Design of the
Scripts’ below.] 163
#origin stories
It is, of course, impossible to determine whether or not these accounts of dreams are
‘true’, but the important fact about them is that the claim to supernatural inspiration
has been such a regular feature. In some cases, the inventors were no doubt genuinely
convinced that they had been ‘chosen’ to bring the divine gift of writing to their
people—perhaps as a paranoid symptom after much brooding on the subject[fn]—
and in other cases they may have fabricated an account of revelation in order to have
a better chance of gaining interest and support for their invention. In many ways, the
situation of each of the inventors was similar. It goes without saying that all of them
were men of considerable intellect and imagination, well aware of the gulf between
literate and illiterate societies. With the exception of the inventor of the Bassa script,
they all appear to have been young men, with an average age of about 25 at the time
of their inventions. They all lived in areas where Christian missions had been active,
and they were aware not only of the practical advantages of the Roman script but also
of its regular association (especially in the West African context) with a revealed
religion and with a ‘holy book’. In the case of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cameroun,
the inventors were also acquainted with the even greater religious implications of the
125
Arabic script, associated not only with orthodox Islamic teaching but also with the
preparation of magical charms and talismans, and with the use of magico-cryptic
alphabets.[fn] God was seen to have revealed himself and to have given the power of
writing to two alien races, who had—as a result—been [163] in the position either to
exploit or to patronize the less fortunate peoples of Africa. A passive attitude to
writing, attributing its possession and resulting advantages to revelation rather than
invention, is not uncommon in pre-literate or semi-literate societies, and Africans had
come to see their lack of a literate culture as a mark of their less privileged status. It is
not possible here to devote consideration to the wider, and very relevant question of
the psychological pressures engendered by feelings—or fears—of a supposed racial or
cultural inferiority, although it is certain that these factors played some part in
stimulating several of the inventors of the scripts.[fn] 164
#motivations #intro
The ‘supernatural’ inspiration of the scripts is not the only mystical or magical
element associated with their invention. Magic potions were required before the
Bamum or Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ scripts could be invented or ‘revealed’, and the form of the
Bamum potion would seem to reflect pagan—as well as Islamic [fn]—belief in the
revelation and magical power of graphic symbols. The taboos associated with the
revelation of the Vai and Loma scripts are reminiscent not only of the taboos of Islam,
but also of the taboos associated with initiation into the traditional secret societies of
West Africa—just as the adoption of personal ‘book-names’ by the inventor of the Vai
script and his colleagues, and by the inventor of the Djuka script, may be compared to
the adoption of post-initiation ‘society’ names in West Africa, or of new Muslim or
Christian names on conversion to one or other religion. There is also no clear
dividing-line between ‘God’ and the traditional ‘ spirit-world ‘, both of which appear
to lie behind the revelation of the scripts. Massaquoi, for example, who was
responsible for standardizing the Vai script, and who was engaged in translating parts
of the New Testament into the script, was able to write as follows : ‘Tradition says that
... the Spirit distinctly forbade that anyone should accept money for teaching these
characters and that the only fee for tuition should be one bottle of palm-wine, a
portion of [164] which must be poured on the ground in the name of the Spirits of the
book party ...’ [fn]. 165
#intro
[fn: The Vai inventor is known to have been stimulated by a taunt from a fellow-
countryman that the Vai were unable to emulate white men in their ability to write (S.
W. Koelle, Outlines of a Grammar of the Vei Language ... , London, 1854, 237). The
Bamum inventor was grieved when strangers from two different directions (the Hausa
and the Germans) began to use the Arabic and Roman scripts in his chiefdom, while
he and his people remained illiterate (Schmitt, Die Bamum-Schrift, I, 14-15). The Loma
inventor was bitter that his people should have been left in ignorance by God (Dalby,
‘A survey of the indigenous scripts of Liberia and Sierra Leone’, 26, citing J. Joffre).
The Djuka inventor was preoccupied in his writings with the benefits of revealed
religion and worldly knowledge which God was seen to have bestowed on white men
(ed. Gonggrijp and Dubelaar, ‘De geschriften van Afaka in zijn Djoeka-schrift’, esp.
pp. 224-5, 248-9, 252-3). The Bete inventor expressed the purpose of his own script as
follows : ‘Ce but etait de realiser une methode tout facile pouvant aider la masse
ignorante de la communaute betee a apprendre a lire . . . Le plus grand mal etait pour
nous que la plus grande masse humaine ne savait point lire et de ce fait, les tenebres
126
etaient grandes sur terre’ (Th. Monod, ‘Un nouvel alphabet ouest-africain: le
bCte’,Bull. de l’I.F.A.N., XX, 1958, fig. 38).] 164
#motivations
In the case of the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ and Djuka scripts, the links with traditional religion
are particularly evident, and it is significant that these are the only two ‘revealed’
scripts in areas uninfluenced by Islam. Although the Islamic traditions of revelation
were absent, it is known that the inventors of both these scripts were influenced by
Catholicism, and Catholic attitudes to personal revelations (in the age of Lourdes and
Fatima) may well have played a part in stimulating the ‘revelation’ of one or both of
the scripts. The search for some reconciliation between Christianity and traditional
beliefs was certainly a major factor in both Southern Nigeria and Surinam, and in this
context the two scripts form only part of the complex development of ‘native’
churches in both areas. We are fortunate in possessing some of the religious writings
of the inventors of both these scripts, and they help to reveal the degree to which there
had been fusion between traditional and Christian beliefs. Prophesy, revelation,
‘speaking in tongues’ and the use of ‘secret’ languages are elements in the fetish-cults
of both areas, and these elements have certainly helped to determine the ‘religious’
motivation of the two scripts. In both cases, the ‘Holy Spirit’ (the Obɛri
Ɔkaimɛ Sɛminant and the Djuka Santa Yeye) plays a much more important role
than Christ, and is to some extent portrayed as the messenger or representative of
God on earth, responsible in each case for the revelation of the script. He is associated
with the bu yeye (‘good spirits’) of the Djuka, and is able to deliver them from the
power of the ogi yeye (‘bad spirits’)—just as the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ people had been
delivered from the power of the yakwet (‘dragon’). The spiritual significance of the
Djuka script itself is further reflected in its title of Juka win(i)ti (‘Djuka wind/spirit/
magic’). 165
The form and value of certain characters in several of the scripts appear to reflect a
pre-existing corpus of graphic symbols […] 165
Although the prior existence of the Vai script undoubtedly played an important part
in stimulating the other four scripts of that area, and in demonstrating the feasibility of
such an invention, it is clear that it also gave rise to competitive feelings among
neighbouring tribes, and to a desire for their own tribal scripts, distinct from any other
forms of writing. At the other end of West Africa, the invention of the Bamum script
may itself have been stimulated by news of the Vai script, but again—as in the case of
the other scripts—there is no evidence of any straightforward imitation of the Vai
characters. 166
#intro #stimulus diffusion
[fn: In 1960 a Somali Language Committee was set up in Mogadiscio to recommend
an official script for the Somali language. In the event, a form of the Roman script
was selected, but the publicity involved led to the devising of seven new indigenous
scripts in 1960 and 1961. All the modern Somali scripts are reproduced in The Report
ofthe Somali Language Committee, Mogadiscio, 1961 (duplicated).] 166
Since this period, however, the Bete syllabary of 1956 has been the only documented
invention in West Africa, although no less than eight more Somali alphabets were
devised in the early 1950’s and early 1960’s (largely as a result of artificial
stimulus).[fn] The burst of [166] activity in Liberia and Sierra Leone can be attributed
127
in large measure to the increased fame of the Vai syllabary from the beginning of this
century; the inventor of the Bagam syllabary—and perhaps the inventors of the Obɛri
Ɔkaimɛ alphabet—can likewise be assumed to have been encouraged by the success of
the Bamum script. It is difficult, however, to conceive of any means by which the
inventors could have been aware of each other’s contemporary activities in the
different areas, unless Mecca provided a meeting-point where news of the successive
inventions might have passed between West Africans and Somalis or between pilgrims
from different parts of West Africa. But even this possibility can scarcely explain the
contemporary invention of one of the scripts in the interior of Surinam. 167
#stimulus diffusion #intro

The most striking characteristic of the indigenous scripts is that all but two of them are
syllabic. A syllabary is a more straightforward invention than an analytical alphabet,
and is especially appropriate for languages with a relatively simple syllabic
structure.[fn] It is significant that the only two alphabets among the ten scripts should
be the Bassa script, whose inventor had received an advanced Western education, and
the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ script, devised to represent an artificial language with a ‘European’
phonological structure (i.e. with numerous closed syllables and consonant clusters).[fn]
The question of how the inventors arrived at the concept of a syllabary arises primarily
in the case of the Vai and Djuka scripts. We know that the Bamum and Bete inventors
worked systematically from the rebus application of ideograms and pictograms to the
concept of a pure syllabary, and that the Mende, Loma and Kpelle inventors had the
example of the Vai syllabary to guide them. There is no record, however, of any
experimentation by the Vai inventor himself, and it is conceivable that a model for his
syllabic script may have been provided indirectly by the Cherokee syllabary, invented
only twelve years earlier by a half-caste Cherokee. 167
#hypothesis: primacy of the syllable #rebus
[fn: As practised, for example, among the Mende, Mandinka and Yoruba. Note also
the ‘rebus’ application of physical symbols among the Yoruba, whereby a
monosyllabic word may be suggested by an object or objects, the name (or number) of
which contains the same syllable; cf. D. O. Fagunwa, Àdííitú Olódùmarè, London, 1961,
p. 63 : A girl is annoyed to have received from her suitor a variety of gifts, all in sixes,
and writes to ask him: ‘why did you send all these things in sixes [mefa] as if you were
intimating in code (lit. ‘in proverbs’) to me that you wanted to draw [fa] me to you?’
A gift of salt [iyo] has been similarly used among the Yoruba as a traditional sign of
congratulations or rejoicing [yo ‘rejoice’] (Mr. E. C. Rowlands, personal
communication). An awareness of syllabicity also lies behind African ‘drum-languages
‘ in which each syllabic tone may be represented by a corresponding drum-beat.] 168
#pictography #rebus
It is also possible—and perhaps more likely—that the concept of the syllable, and
hence of a syllabary, arose from indigenous elements in West African culture, such as
the use of monosyllabic pictograms and ideograms, [fn] and the widespread
traditional use of spoken ‘codes’, in which meaningless syllables are inserted not only
between words but also between the constituent syllables of polysyllabic words.[fn] An
indigenous source for the ‘syllabic’ concept would explain not only the apparent lack
128
of any experimentation by the Vai and Djuka inventors, but also the rapidity with
which the Bamum and Bete inventors succeeded in their own separate experiments.
The nine documented scripts have been written primarily from left to right, with the
sole exception of the Mende script (from right to left). It has been reported that the
Vai script was originally written also from right to left and from top to bottom, and
the Bamum script from top to bottom, but all extant texts in the two scripts are
written from left to right. There is a tradition that Chief Nʒoya specifically forbade the
leftward writing of the Bamum script, in order that it [168] should not resemble the
leftward writing of the Arabic script, as introduced into Bamum country by the
Hausa.
There is considerable variation, on the other hand, in the direction in which
individual characters may be written in most of the scripts. Characters are not
infrequently upturned, turned on to their sides, or reversed, and it is possible that this
feature represents an inheritance from the traditional use of non-linear graphic
symbols, in which shape—rather than direction—is significant. In the actual form of
their characters, most of the scripts are remarkably free from any close imitation of
either the Roman or the Arabic script, and as such they stand in contrast to the much
less original forms of the Cherokee and modem Somali scripts.
A few characters in the pre-1850 form of the Vai script may have been copied from
Roman letters or ‘Arabic’ numerals, but these amount to less than 5% of the total
number of characters (and are not employed with their conventional values) : 2 [bɛ],
K [mɓɛ], B [gba], T [gbe], E [tɔ], 8 [zo], H [ho]. 169
#intro
A large proportion of the [Medefaidrin] characters, especially the capitals, are
adorned with elaborate flourishes and cross-strokes, and this appears to have been
done to conceal the fact that the underlying forms of most of the alphabetic characters
have been based on Roman letters, and the forms of several of the numerical
characters on ‘Arabic’ numerals—although with arbitrarily changed values. Interest is
aroused by the presence of a solitary disyllabic ‘ideogram’ in the middle of this
alphabet [atu], used to represent the first person sing. (subject) pronoun—until even
this shows itself to have been based on English, by its capitalized use whenever a ‘big
man ‘ is speaking (‘ I ...’)! The Djuka script has used Roman letters for four of its five
vocalic characters (Ɑ [a], M [e], P [i], 0 [o]), but the 54 full syllabic (CV) characters
show no resemblance to the Roman script. This would seem to imply that the
addition of vocalic characters constituted a separate and less ‘inspired’ stage of the
invention. 169
#medefaidrin #djuka
The Mende script was designed in two stages,[fn] and the first stage of the syllabary—
accounting for a little less than 25% of the total number of characters—was clearly
influenced by conventions of the Arabic script, as reflected also in the direction of its
writing from right to left, and in the fact that its inventor and his [170] colleagues are
known to have been Muslims. The 42 characters included in this first stage are semi-
alphabetic, representing fourteen sets of three characters, each set based on a single
consonant. 170
#kikakui #article: writing system
129
As already discussed, the Mende syllabary is known to have been influenced by Arabic
conventions—especially in the series Ci, Ca, Cu. That its design should also have
been influenced by one of the sub-Arabic scripts is not therefore surprising,
particularly since its inventor (of Mandinka—not Mende—origin) belonged to a
largely Islamized ethnic group, which has expanded southwards [172] from the sub-
Saharan savannah in comparatively recent times. 173
#stimulus diffusion
It is at this point that an examination of the modern Liberian and Sierra Leonean
scripts proves of value. If any extensive correspondence can be established between
these scripts and the pre-Arabic scripts of the Maghrib and Andalusia, then two
important suppositions will be confirmed: firstly, that elements from the pre-Arabic
scripts were able to survive within a sub-Arabic corpus of scripts and symbols after the
introduction of Islam and the Arabic script; [fn] and secondly, that the modern
Liberian and Sierra Leonean scripts have been influenced by the same sub-Arabic
corpus.[fn] 173
#stimulus diffusion
[fn: Cf. J.-A. Decourdemanche, Grammaire du tchingané ou langue des bohemiens errants,
Paris, 1908, 377-380. I am deeply indebted to Mr. Ian F. Hancock, a research-student
at the School of Oriental and African Studies and himself of Romani-extraction, for
kindly drawing my attention to the existence of this Romani script, as described by
Decourdemanche. The script is not well known, and Mr. Hancock and I are not
aware of any documentation or evidence on the script other than that provided by
Decourdemanche, who gives no indication of his own source or of the group of
Romanies by whom the script is or was used ; we should be most grateful to receive
any further data on the script. According to Decourdemanche, the Romani alphabet
exists in three related forms : ‘l’alphabet des enfants’ (the original form), ‘l’alphabet
des vieux/des morts’ (the lapidary form), and ‘l’alphabet des hommes’ (the arboreal
form). The first two forms are written from left to right (sometimes from right to left),
and the last form from top to bottom. J.-P. Clebert (The Gypsies, Harmondsworth,
1961, 240; transl. from Les Tziganes, 1961) finds a resemblance between
Decourdemanche’s script and the Hungarian and Turkish runic alphabets : there
would seem to be a much closer resemblance, however, with the pre-Arabic Maghribi
and Andalusian scripts with which we are here concerned. From the form of the
Romani characters—and assuming that the script is not an elaborate scholarly
hoax—one would be led to suspect a North African or Andalusian origin (i.e. among
the Gitanos Romanies). If so, then the script will become of considerable importance
in our present enquiries: the presumed arrival of the Gitanos in the Maghrib and
Andalusia (from the East) during the Islamic period would imply that their script had its
origin in the same sub-Arabic corpus which we are considering. The association of the
Gitanos with divination and with metal-working (cf. p. 181 below) would have placed
them in an ideal position for the acquisition of an ‘ occult ‘ form of writing.] 176
#crackpots #article: gypsy alphabet
[fn: The main function of the scripts being documentary, especially epistolary
(although names have sometimes been inscribed, in the Vai and Mende scripts, on
lintels and furniture).] 178
130
#vai #africa: west #kikakui
Although there is no evidence of the existence of any indigenous West African script
prior to the invention of the Vai syllabary, it is nevertheless clear that indigenous
graphic symbols have figured prominently in the traditional cultures of many West
African peoples. The use of such symbols—mainly ritual and/or decorative—has
been noted among such widely scattered tribes as the Bambara, Dogon, Bozo, Fula,
Mossi, Mandinka, Koranko, Yalunka, Mende, Loma, Temne, Baoule, Ashanti, Ewe-
Fon, Yoruba, Bini, Igbo, Ibibio-Efik and Ekoi [179] (and among the Djuka in
Surinam), and it seems probable that most West African peoples have made some use
of isolated or associated graphic symbols. Against such a background, we need not be
over-sceptical at the suggestion by native speakers that some of the characters in the
Vai and Bassa scripts were derived from ‘Vai hieroglyphs’ [fn] and from ‘special signs
of communication cherished for generations by the Bassa people’. [fn]
Among the many recorded usages of indigenous graphic symbols in West Africa, the
most extensive and elaborate are the Bambara graphic systems of Mali and the Nsibidi
graphic system of the Cross River tribes in Eastern Nigeria. It is probably not a
coincidence that the traditional Nsibidi system should belong to the same general area
as the modern indigenous scripts of Cameroun and Eastern Nigeria, and that the
Bambara of Mali should be linguistically closely related to the Vai of Liberia and
Sierra Leone (and—less closely—to the Mende, Loma and Kpelle). These
circumstantial links—between the two major non-linear graphic systems of West
Africa and the two major groups of indigenous scripts—are clearly of great
importance in our investigations. 179
#stimulus diffusion #intro #semiotic context
Linked with several, if not all, of these graphic systems are the widespread rupestrine
inscriptions of the southern Sahara and adjacent savannah, the numerous property-
marks and brands of the desert-tribes, the symbols used in local forms of geomancy,
and the rich decorative traditions of all the ethnic groups in the area.[fn] 179
#semiotic context
Another aspect of the Bambara graphic systems which is relevant to our present
inquiry is their particular association with blacksmiths and other craftsmen. As
mentioned below, the Nsibidi system of Nigeria is likewise associated with blacksmiths,
but of greater interest at this point is the association of two of the modern scripts with
another craft, namely, weaving and tailoring. The Mende script was invented by a
tailor, who first discussed his ambition to devise a script with two other tailors and a
weaver, and the inventor of the Loma script was likewise assisted by a weaver-tailor in
the devising of his syllabic characters. The use by weavers and other craftsmen of the
Mende script (or of some other graphic system?) was noted subsequently by Milburn :
[fn] ‘ As I travelled across what was then the Protectorate [of Sierra Leone], I came
across one or two craftsmen who were using what appeared to be Kisimi Kamara’s
[Mende] script in their personal notebooks, e.g. to record patterns for weaving or
measurements for carpentry or tailoring’. A photograph of a Temne weaver at his
loom, taken during the 1930’s by Eberl-Elber,[fn] shows a non-linear group of stylized
graphic symbols on the wall of the weaver’s house; although the Temne are not
Mande-speaking, they are known to have acquired the art of weaving from their
Mande neighbours. All these links with weavers and tailors remain no more than
circumstantial, but they are sufficiently numerous to be suggestive, and it is, of course,
131
natural that workers in cloth-like workers in metal, wood, leather and clay-should
concern themselves with the use of graphic symbols.[fn] 181
#semiotic context
The stylized nature of most of the characters makes it difficult to avoid subjective
judgements on their possible derivation, and one is forced to ask whether the
apparently deliberate combination of a particular shape with a particular ‘meaning’
reflects traditional symbolism, the imagination of the individual inventor of a script,
or-worst of all-the speculative imagination of the investigator. 183
#crackpots #methodology
TABLE I V : POSSIBLE PICTOGRAMS AND IDEOGRAMS IN THE SCRIPTS
OF LIBERIA AND SIERRA LEONE 185 [PK: See table]
#pictography
The use of Nsibidi does not appear to have extended far over the border into
Cameroun, but appears to have reached to within at least 100 miles of Foumban,
where Chief Nʒoya devised his Bamum script. After the ‘stimulus’ of his dream and of
the magic potion which he afterwards drank, Nʒoya commanded his subjects to draw
simple pictures and symbols, and to name them, so that he could employ them in
devising his ‘book’. After making a collection of symbols in this way, and after much
experimentation and discouragement, Nʒoya eventually designed the first, largely
pictographic and ideographic stage of his script : it was by progressively simplifying
and reducing their number, that he subsequently arrived at the final, highly
sophisticated form of his syllabary. Since the initial design of the Bamum characters
thus appears to have been a collective enterprise, it would be surprising indeed if it did
not reflect local culture and tradition, and if it did not contain at least an echo of the
neighbouring graphic system of Nsibidi. 190
#bamum #semiotic context #pictography
TABLE V: COMPARISONS BETWEEN NSIBlDI AND THE BAMUM SCRIPT
190 [PK: see table]
#semiotic context #bamum
If all record of its characters had not been lost, a study of the Bagam (Eghap) script
might have thrown some light on the possible relationship between Nsibidi and the
Bamum script. The fact that it included ‘several hundred’ symbols indicates that it was
not a pure syllabary, and that it was presumably based on a collection of pictographic
and ideographic characters. Malcolm,when he collected his material on the Bagam
script in 1917, was told (by a ‘retainer’ of the chief) that it had been based on the
Bamum script [fn]—although the Bamum script had by 1911 already been reduced to
only 80 characters. It is perhaps also relevant that the Bagam-speaking area is even
closer to the country where Nsibidi is used than is the Bamum-speaking area. 191
#bagam
The Roman script probably served as an exemplar for the use of writing as a form of
secular communication,[fn] although the Roman and Arabic alphabets have had
relatively little influence on the design of the characters employed. Of much greater
importance is the apparent influence from traditional pictographic and ideographic
132
symbols, and—in Liberia and Sierra Leone—from the sub-Arabic[fn] [194] scripts
and symbols associated with Islamic talismanry and magical practice. 195
#semiotic context
The most important area for such research will be the nature and usage of indigenous
and sub-Arabic symbols in West Africa, although secrecy—an essential element in
preserving the ‘ power ‘ of graphic symbols—will no doubt hamper any investigation.
The tragedy of such secrecy, as in other traditional fields, is that the knowledge will
often die with the older generation, the traditional lines of transmission having been
broken by social change. 196
#crackpots #semiotic context
During the last century, however, there has been a decline in the use of traditional
graphic symbols in West Africa,[fn] and the modern indigenous scripts may be
regarded in one sense as the final ‘ flowering’ of an African tradition.196
#intro #semiotic context #stimulus diffusion
It is sad, however, that so much effort on the part of the inventors should have been in
vain, and that all but two of their scripts [fn] should have failed to take root : their
outstanding achievement would seem to mark not the beginning of indigenous
graphic symbolism in West Africa and Surinam, but the end.[fn] 197
#intro
Dalby, David. 1969. “Further indigenous scripts of West Africa:

Manding, Wolof, and Fula alphabets and Yoruba holy-
writing.” African Language Studies 10:161-191.
#africa: west
[fn: at Bamako in 1966 to the UNESCO Conference on the Unification of National
Alphabets.] 161
#script utopianism
The Manding alphabet appears to have been invented in the late 1940’s or early
1950’s. The inventor, Souleymane Kantè of Kankan, was born probably in the 1920’s
and has travelled widely in West Africa as a trader. He is a Muslim, and is literate in
both French and Arabic. M. Sanoh, who was taught by Kantè to write his alphabet in
1957, understands that Kantè had made a previous, unsuccessful attempt at designing
a script before completing the alphabet in its present form.
In his Methode Pratique, Kantè is at pains to demonstrate the ‘independence’ of his
alphabet, as reflected in the fact that it is written from right to left like the Arabic
script and has both consonantal and vocalic characters like the Roman script ... ‘il
n’est ni occidental ni oriental, donc il se base sur une neutralité positive’. In addition
to this conscious desire for an independent form of writing, Kantè’s invention appears
to have been linked with his desire to establish a unified written language for the
various Manding dialects (‘dialectes mandengues’). He cites in particular the dialects
of ‘malinke’ (Upper Guinea and Southern Mali), ‘bambara’ (Eastern Mali),
‘mandengo’ (Western Mali to Casamance and the Gambia), ‘dioula’ (Northern Ivory
Coast and Upper Volta) and ‘wankara’ (North-western Ghana): for this cluster of
133
inter-intelligible dialects and for his own alphabet Kantè has proposed the name
N’ko,[fn] from the common form denoting ‘I say’ in all the Manding dialects. 162
#nko #script utopianism #motivations
Kantè has had some success in teaching his alphabet in the Kankan area of Guinea,
and his pupils—including other traders—have carried news of (if not actually
knowledge of) the script to other parts of the Manding area, including Mali and the
Ivory Coast. As a result, Kantè has achieved a measure of fame among the Manding.
According to M. Sanoh, Kantè has written a large number of texts in the N’ko script,
which have been circulated among his friends in manuscript form: these are said to
include histories, fables and stories (both traditional and original), poems and treatises
on calculation. In his Methode Pratique, Kantè describes the work as his ‘premier livre
N’KO’ and refers to its ‘différentes éditions’; he then announces his second book in
the following terms: ‘C’est le deuxième livre qui enseigne les règles de la langue et des
ponctuati[o]ns, il enseigne également presque tout[es] les nuances qui se trouvent
entre les differentes dialectes de la langue N’KO. Il dévoile et corrige les fautes
publiques qu’on a habitude de commettre dans les conversations’. He concludes by
citing his address at Kankan (B.P. No. 128), to which readers are advised to write for
information or for ‘commande de livre classiques’.[fn] 163
#nko
The N’ko alphabet has a total of eighteen consonantal characters, seven vocalic
characters, and eight diacritics (one to indicate nasalisation and the remainder to
indicate variations of vocalic length and tone): in this form, it is an efficient alphabet
for the Maninka dialect of Manding. A few additional diacritics are also used to form
‘foreign’ letters wherever these are required for the transcription of words or names
from other languages (European, Arabic or African). The direction of writing is from
right to left, and characters within each word are written continuously. Associated
with the script is a series of ten numeral characters, employed in a decimal system and
written with the lowest place of numeral on the left (in contrast to Arabic numerals). A
special symbol [symbol of three circles arranged in a triangle] occurs at the beginning
of Méthode Practique (twice on the cover), on pp. 2 and 13 (at the end of sub-sections of
the book), and at the conclusion of the text on p. 20 : it is preceded in the last case by
the words ‘louange à dieu le maître de l’univers’ and is probably a mystico-religious
seal. 163
#nko
It will be noted that the ordering of the consonants [163] is the same as in the Arabic
alphabet, with the exception of those letters which occur in one language but not in
the other. 164
#nko
The N’ko diacritics include a series of superscript accents, designed to indicate
variations of vocalic length and tone. In this feature, as in many others, Kantè shows
great sophistication and linguistic awareness. He recognizes the fact that the tonal
contrasts of Manding relate to the word, rather than the syllable, and establishes a
dichotomy between ‘mots celestes’ (sankuma) and ‘mots terrestres’ (duumakuma), i.e.
between words commencing on a high tone and words commencing on a low tone.
165
134
#nko
The script [PK: Wolof alphabet] was invented by Assane Faye less than ten years ago.
The Tereb Nitku Nyul gives lst January 1961 as the precise date of the invention, but it
would not be unreasonable to assume that the inventor had been working on the
elaboration of a Wolof script prior to this date. He was born at Dakar in 1932 and is a
Muslim, being literate in both French and Arabic.! The style of the script, including
the direction of writing, is strongly reminiscent of Arabic, although the second
correspondent in Jeune Afrique explains that the direction of the script is from right to
left ‘pour la bonne raison que la tradition africaine attache une grande importance à
sa droite’. 166
#wolof
The script has become linked with an organization known as ‘le Mouvement des
Enseignants de Langues Africaines’, and Assane Faye has himself adopted the title of
‘professeur de langues africaines’. The letter from Ibrahim Sene includes the following
statement on the objectives of this organization and of Faye himself :
‘...Un des grands soucis des gouvernements africains est de freiner l’exode rural vers la
ville, alors que l’enseignement à l’école primaire favorise cet exode puisque, dès le certificat
d’études primaires de français, l’enfant ne veut pas se tourner vers la terre, parce qu’il sait
lire, ecrire et parler français.
Cependant, si l’enseignement à l’école primaire se faisait dans la langue africaine, l’enfant
n’aurait pas...de scrupules pour apprendre le métier de cultivateur, pêcheur ou éleveur, ce
qu’il ferait certainement mieux que ses parents illettrés. Mais le plus ahurissant, c’est de
voir l’Afrique perdre a chaque génération tant de poètes, de savants, de génies faute de
langue écrite. C’est fort de cette idée et inquiet de l’avenir de l’Afrique que M. Assane Faye
a créé un alphabet de dix-neuf consonnes et cinq voyelles qui reproduisent tous les sons de
toutes les langues. Son enseignement progresse; des conférences sont organisées dans des
centres sénégalais; un syllabaire tiré en un millier d’éxemplaires est vendu. Aussi la
diversité des langues n’y fait pas obstacle; en effet le Sérère, le Oulof, le Toucouleur, etc.,
l’apprennent et y trouvent satisfaction.’
167
#motivations #wolof
The view that Faye’s alphabet may reproduce all sounds in all languages is a
considerable exaggeration, however, and it is difficult to understand how it could be
used for the Serer and Toucouleur (Fula) languages without some modification (as
would be necessary, for example, in order to distinguish the implosive consonants
which occur in both those languages but not in Wolof). 167
#wolof
An initial flourish is added to characters at the beginning of sentences or names, and
in handwriting words are underlined with a flourish extending from the last character.
There is a series of decimal numerals, written (as in Arabic) with the lowest place of
numeral on the right, but the Tēreb Nitku Nyūl also allocates numerical values to the
primary consonantal characters of the script in the traditional Arabic manner (digits,
tens and one hundred being equated with the characters in their set order). The set
order and numerical value of the consonantal characters are recorded in Table II.[fn]
135
Apart from its cumbersome system of vowel marking, the Wolof script appears to be
an efficient form of transcription for Wolof.[fn] 168
#wolof #numerals
This alphabet [PK: Dita] was developed between 1958 and 1966 by Oumar Dembélé
[Dambele], who was born at Bamako in 1939: he was brought up mainly in the
Ivory Coast and travelled widely from the age of 14. He attended Koranic school for a
short while at Nioro du Sabel (Mali), but is otherwise self-taught. He has taught
himself to speak and write French with some fluency, and also has a slight knowledge
of Arabic. He now lives at Bamako, where he works as a joiner.
Dembélé’s interest in writing stems in part from his family background: he told me
that his Fula grandfather once had a large collection of manuscripts in [168] Arabic
and in ‘secret’ Arabic writing, but that his uncle destroyed them all after the old man’s
death ‘because he could not understand them’. The grandfather lived at Nioro du
Sahel, on the southern fringes of an area which is known to be a centre of ‘sub-
Arabic’[fn] alphabets. When I asked to know the name of Dembélé’s grandfather,
however, I was told that he is not known or recognized by his own people at home
and therefore should not be known or recognized abroad—Dembélé then added the
remark: ‘un peul [sic]— meme quand il sait quelque chose — il se cache ‘.
On his travels Dembélé has made records of many indigenous graphic symbols which
he has come across, and he showed me notebooks filled with symbols which he said he
had collected in different parts of Mali,[fn] especially in the Kaarta region around
Nioro: he made special reference to the towns of Lakhamane (60 miles south-west of
Nioro) and ‘Simbin’. He allowed me to take a photographic copy of three sheets of
symbols from among his papers, but would not clarify his remark that they contained
a mixture of symbols he had collected and symbols he had invented. From the
sequence of symbols on the sheets it does appear that he had been experimenting with
different forms, tallying with his own assertion that he had arrived at the form of
characters for his script after much experimentation. He apparently decided that an
alphabet would be the most efficient form after unsuccessful attempts with ‘thousands’
of ideographic symbols. His alphabet has itself undergone substantial change since its
original elaboration in 1958, the current form having been perfected in 1966.
Dembélé, very conscious of the cultural heritage of his tribe, recounted a ‘tradition’
that the Fula had had their own form of writing before the Arabs arrived, and that it
had since been lost. There is no evidence either to support or to refute such a
tradition, but it does help to throw light on Dembélé’s own way of thinking and on his
keen desire to decipher the numerous indigenous graphic symbols which he has
collected in the Mali area. 169
#dita #motivations #
Dembélé has given the invented name of Dita to his script, this being one of a number
of invented words which he uses in the script (another being kɔb, written on all his
manuscript notebooks ‘to indicate the front’). He maintains that Africans want their
own African form of writing, and he believes that his own [169] script can meet this
need: he claims that it can be used to transcribe any African language and, although
this is clearly an exaggeration, his large inventory of characters would permit the
transcription of many local languages, including Bambara.
136
There is no evidence of Dembélé’s script having been used by anyone except himself,
and it was made clear to me in Mali that his script is viewed unfavourably by officials
connected with the present programme of vernacular literacy in the Roman script: an
attempt was actually made to persuade Dembélé to stop giving me information on his
script. Dembélé has himself taken some interest in the programme for Roman
literacy, and his attendance at the 1966 Bamako Conference on the Unification of
National Alphabets (held under UNESCO auspices) doubtless assisted him in the
phonemic perfection of his script in that year.[fn] He was apparently told to abandon
his script in 1965, but has chosen to interpret this as referring only to the form of the
script as it existed then. He now uses the pre-1966 form as a ‘secret’ script, and was
only prepared to give me full details of the subsequent 1966 version. He has a
collection of manuscript notebooks written in the script, many apparently in the pre-
1966 version, and he was unwilling to let me examine them. He told me that he had
written in Fula and ‘other languages’, including Bambara, and that his Fula texts
included his own poems. He refused to let me have any of these, since they were in the
‘secret’ form of the script, but he did let me have a copy of the following short poem in
the 1966 version (transliterated here into the Roman script): [poem] 170
#script utoptianism #dita
Dembélé did allow me to examine a ‘dictionary’ which he is at present compiling in
the 1966 version of his script. It is not a dictionary in the conventional sense, but
consists of a straight list of every phonologically feasible combination of characters in
his script, regardless of whether or not the combinations actually occur (in Fula or any
other language). No glosses are provided. Dembélé has already written out, in a very
neat hand, every possible 2-letter, 3-letter and 4-letter shape, and is now engaged on
5-letter shapes. He has already filled several large notebooks, and has estimated that
there will be a final total of 42 volumes. 171
#dita
The first version of Dembélé’s alphabet, completed in 1958 when he was only 19, had
a total of 55 characters, but this number was reduced to 40 in 1961 and to a final total
of 39 in 1966: the forms of the characters were also changed substantially between the
different versions, so that they are to all intents and purposes different scripts. In its
latest form, which is efficient for the transcription of Fula, [fn] the script contains a
total of thirty-one consonantal characters, seven vocalic characters and a nasalization
sign.[fn] There is an associated set of decimal numerals, and the direction of writing
for the script is from left to right. 171
#dita
He maintained [171] that some of his present alphabetic characters have an
ideographic or pictographic origin, but the only example he would provide was the
character [symbol] from damal ‘door’ (representing d in the 1961 version). 172
#dita #pictography
Dembélé’s characters are notable for the rarity of curved lines, and it is perhaps
significant that he is himself a woodworker. 172
#dita
137
He was interested to see charts of the five indigenous scripts of Liberia and Sierra
Leone,[fn] of which he [172] had not previously heard, and judged the Vai script to
be the most ‘original’ of the five from the point of view of being based primarily on the
shapes of ‘African’ graphic symbols. He spotted at once the Arabic influence on the
Mende script, and considered the Kpelle script to be the most ‘corrupt’ of the five.
These judgements are of value in assessing Dembélé’s own attitude to graphic
symbolism, and it seems clear that he has been consciously striving to preserve the
‘African’ style of his own characters. 173
#dita
The date of invention of this script [the Fula alphabet of Adama Ba] is not at present
known, but it was in existence before 1964. The Fula inventor, Adama Ba, was born in
Mali around the early 1920’s, his grandparents (or great-grandparents?) having come
to that area from Mauritania with El Hadj Omar in the middle of the nineteenth
century. He is a Muslim. 173
#fula
Like Dembélé’s script, this alphabet appears to be a purely personal form of writing,
having been used by Adama Ba for the recording of poetry and stories (‘contes’). He
has also apparently used it for correspondence, an indication that at least some of his
friends have mastered it. The study of his manuscript volumes will no doubt throw
more light on his literary usage of the script. As also in the case of Dembélé, Adama
Ba’s efforts have been regarded unfavourably by Malian educational authorities,
doubtless in the fear that the popularization of either script would interfere with the
present vernacular literacy programme in the Roman script. 173
#fula
The cursive and continuous style of this script is reminiscent of Roman hand-writing,
and is in notable contrast to the style of the three alphabets considered [173] above,
especially to that of the other Fula alphabet. Unlike these other alphabets, there is also
an influence from the Roman script on the forms of some of the characters. 174
#fula
The so-called ‘holy’ writing [Yoruba Holy Writing] of Josiah Olunowo Oshitelu!
(Ositelu) was elaborated by him between 1926 and 1928, following a dream on 4th
April 1926 in which he had seen ‘an open book, written in strange arabic language’.
Oshitelu was born in 1902 at the village of Ogere, 23 miles west of Ijebu-Ode (W.
Nigeria). He had an elementary education, becoming literate in Yoruba and English,
and subsequently worked as an Anglican teacher-catechist. As a child he had been
reputed to have powers of prophecy and of detecting witches and to have had
revelatory dreams: these dreams or ‘visions’ returned to him in his early twenties and
he became convinced that he had been called by God as a prophet (being dismissed as
a result from his teaching post in February 1926). He began keeping his detailed
journals from 1925 (continuing until 1934), and established the Church of the Lord at
Ogere in 1930. During his open-air preaching, Oshitelu sometimes spoke in tongues,
with his colleague Ajayi serving as an interpreter. He died in 1966. 175
138
[fn: e.g. ABUBDAD (Journal, 4.5.27), AMUMLALBOBKAK (16.5.27),
OGAGJJGAJJGOGRARATOTTAT (19.5.27), CLERLKK OFF GOGRAR
(4.1.28), KAKTOTLOLMMWUW (13.2.28). It should be noted, however, that if
repeated consonants are deleted, certain of Oshitelu’s ‘holy’ words acquire a more
typically West African structure, e.g. ABUDA, AMULABOKA, KATOLOMWU.
Although these forms are not immediately recognizable as Yoruba, it is possible that
Oshitelu’s ‘holy’ words may in some cases be encoded forms of Yoruba (the insertion
of dummy consonants being then comparable to the traditional insertion of dummy
syllables in West African-including Yoruba-spoken codes: cf. Dalby, ‘The indigenous
scripts of West Africa and Surinam’, 168). In this respect, Oshitelu’s ‘revealed’
language differs in structure from the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ ‘revealed ‘ language, in which
phonological shapes are generally more reminiscent of European than of West
African languages (see Dalby, op. cit., 167).] 175
Oshitelu’s journals provide evidence of experimentation with his ‘holy’ writing during
1926 and 1927, leading to a more stabilized form from the beginning of 1928. The
script appears frequently in the journal alongside words in a ‘revealed’ language,
spelled out in Roman letters. No key to Oshitelu’s script was provided by him,
however, and the individual characters are still undeciphered. The script appears
from its form to be alphabetic (rather than syllabic or ideographic) and is written from
right to left. From the sequence and occurrence of individual characters the script (at
least in the examples available) does not reflect the syllabic structure of Yoruba, but
does correspond to the structure of many words in Oshitelu’s ‘revealed’ language, in
which consonants are often repeated on either side of a vowel.[fn] It seems
reasonable, therefore, to presume [175] that the script was used like the lbibio-Efik
Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ alphabet 25 to transcribe only the ‘revealed’ language of an indigenous
Christian church, and not the local indigenous language. The fact that the Obɛri
Ɔkaimɛ alphabet was not ‘revealed’ until 1930 indicates that the inventors of that
script may have been partially influenced by news of Oshitelu’s ‘holy’ writing.[fn] 176
#yoruba holy writing #medefaidrin
[fn:Although Dr. Turner (personal communication) feels it is very unlikely that there
was any influence between Oshitelu and the inventors of Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ, in view of the
private nature of his journals and of the fact that his church did not engage in any
activity across the Niger until much later.] 176
#yoruba holy writing #medefaidrin
Oshitelu’s journals contain also many mystical seals, often linked with citations in the
script (for his personal symbol and the seal of his Church see Table V). Dr. Turner
has suggested that these may show an influence from Masonic symbols and from
occult signs in the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses,[fn] both of which are known in
Nigeria. 177
In the second of the previous papers on the indigenous West African scripts, [fn] two
areas were singled out as probable sources of inspiration for many of the characters
used in those scripts: these were the sub-Arabic scripts and symbols associated with
Islamic talismanry and cryptography, and the indigenous pictograms and ideograms
139
associated with many West African cultures (especially in the general areas of Mali
and Southern Nigeria/Cameroun). The information presented here on five additional
scripts from West Africa does not conflict with this hypothesis, and the background of
Dembélé’s Fula script adds support to it.
In considering the other scripts of West Africa, it was possible to consider the five
scripts of Liberia and Sierra Leone as a distinct geographical and historical group, all
but one of them being syllabic and all but one of them having been [177] invented
between the two World Wars. [31] The four scripts of Guinea, Mali and Senegal can
be regarded similarly as a group, all of them being alphabetic and all of them having
been invented since the Second World War. Ostensibly, therefore, this ‘savannah’
group of scripts would seem to be less original than and perhaps imitative of the older
‘forest’ group of scripts to the south. It seems probable, for instance, that the inventor
of the Manding script, himself a well-travelled Guinean, will have heard of the Loma
and Kpelle scripts at least, since these were used on both sides of the Liberia-Upper
Guinea border. The later development of indigenous scripts in the savannah area may
also reflect the later impact there of Western education, this having clearly provided
an important cultural and intellectual stimulus in the development of indigenous
forms of writing. On the other hand, the two Fula alphabets are the personal scripts of
their inventors, and there is no reason to suppose that this is an entirely new
development in Fula culture, or that there have not been other ‘personal’ Fula scripts
in the past. The fact that the family traditions of both Fula inventors lead back to the
fringes of Mauritania, where there is ample evidence for the use of sub-Arabic
alphabets, may not be coincidence. Since the Fula are probably more widely literate
in the Arabic script than any other West African tribe, and since their language has
certainly been written in the Arabic script more than any other language in the area,
it does not seem improbable that sub-Arabic scripts may have been used on different
occasions for the writing of Fula. It is in fact possible that one or more of the
indigenous alphabets described in this paper may have originated as or have been
based on a sub-Arabic script, i.e. a magico-cryptic alphabet originally designed for the
writing of Arabic. Any investigation of this possibility must clearly await a more
detailed study of the sub-Arabic scripts of West Africa and Mauritania, but it may be
recalled that Dembélé has claimed that his grandfather’s manuscripts included ‘secret’
Arabic writing.[fn] On the role of the Fula in the devising of indigenous scripts, it is
worth noting that the oldest script at the opposite end of West Africa (the Bamum
script of Cameroun, invented in about 1903) was designed with the assistance of a
Fula.[fn] 178
Oshitelu’s as yet undeciphered script falls into a quite different category from the
preceding alphabets. It provides us with a further example of the spate of scripts
which were designed in West Africa during the 1920’s and 1930’s, and yields yet
another account of a script being revealed or inspired by a dream or vision (cf. the
accounts of the Vai, Mende, Loma, Kpelle, Barnum, Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ and Djuka scripts).
Like the other two recorded scripts of eastern West Africa, Bamum and Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ,
Oshitelu’s script is associated with an artificial (invented or ‘revealed’) language, and,
like the Obɛri Ɔkaimɛ and Djuka scripts, with an indigenous Christian ‘prophet’.[fn]
Oshitelu’s ‘revealed’ words can, of course, be compared also to Dembélé’s invented
words, and—as in the case of the four ‘savannah’ alphabets—an Islamic influence can
be detected in his use of ‘holy’ symbols and ‘holy’ writing. This is of course scarcely
surprising in an area of Nigeria which has been a meeting-point of Islam and
Christianity. Whereas one may suspect an influence from sub-Arabic cryptic symbols
140
or letters in the case of the ‘savannah’ alphabets, however, it seems more likely that
Oshitelu was influenced by sub-Arabic magical and mystical symbols.
The five additional scripts considered in this paper help to throw further light on the
actual motivation of the modern West African indigenous scripts. They confirm the
impression that many—if not all—of the inventors were impelled by the desire to
demonstrate the ability of Africans to create their own forms of writing, independent
of either the European or Arabic systems. In this respect, the scripts have a motivation
comparable to that of the indigenous African churches. This search for African
‘independence’ is reflected in the way that Kantè maintains the independence of his
script from either occidental or oriental influence, by the way in which the African
qualities of the Wolof script are emphasized, and by the claim that both the Wolof
and Dembélé’s Fula script are suitable for all African languages. It is clear that one of
the principal aims of the indigenous West African scripts has been to fulfil an
important cultural need, and it is sad that the very proliferation of African languages
has caused the proliferation of African scripts. In this situation, few of them are likely
to prove viable in the face of increasing vernacular literacy in the Roman script. 180
#motivations
[fn: In Dalby, ‘The indigenous scripts of West Africa and Surinam’, 165, it was
suggested that Catholicism may have played a role in stimulating the Oberi :Jkaime
revelation. Both Mr. F. D. D. Winston and Dr. Turner (personal communications)
have since pointed out that Protestant missions are more likely to have provided this
stimulus in the Ibibio-Efils [sic] area.]
After the present paper had gone to press, Mr. William Siegman of Indiana University
gave me information on a fifteenth indigenous West African script, used in Liberia for
writing Gola. Mr. Siegman had seen a young Gola student at [180] Cuttington
College (Liberia) writing a letter in this script in 1968, but although the student
allowed him to take a copy of the letter he declined to provide Mr. Siegman with a
key. The student is known to be an official (or zo) of the Gola Poro Society, and
maintains that the script is known only to such officials and is normally written by
them with charcoal on the bark of trees: he told Mr. Siegman that he had been taught
the script by his grandfather (also a zo). An examination of the letter reveals that the
script is an alphabet, with about 30 characters, and is written from left to right. It has
no close resemblance to any other of the known indigenous scripts. One must view the
student’s attribution of the script to the Poro Society with scepticism, however, since if
this had been the case he would scarcely have communicated the information to a
non-member, let alone a European. It is reasonable to assume that the Gola script was
invented under stimulus from surrounding tribes, almost all of whom possess
indigenous scripts (i.e. Vai, Mende, Loma, Kpelle and Bassa), and the writer would be
indebted for further information on its use and for any evidence of its existence prior
to 1968. 181
#gola
Friedrich, Johannes. 1969. Die Schrift in Vergangenheit und

Gegenwart, 3. Aufl., Berlin: VEB Deutscher Verlag.!
It will become obvious in our treatment of the various syllabaries that […] a pure
syllabary is in fact tied to a particular syllable structure of a given language. There
141
must not be too many distinct syllables, and consonant clusters should not occur or
almost not occur. If the syllable structure is more complex, and if there are more
consonant clusters occuring, then the precondition for the last step is met, which we
encounter in the development of writing: that of ‘single sound writing’
(Einzellautschrift), or ‘letter writing’ (Buchstabenschrift). 45 [PK: Translated by
Wolfgang Behr in slide for talk on Warring States Chinese]
#syllabary #rebus
1970–1979
Akpan, M. B. 1973. “Black imperialism: Americo-Liberian rule
over the African peoples of Liberia, 1841-1964.” Canadian
Journal of African Studies 7 (2):217-236.
By 1900, about 15000 Negro immigrants from America 3 and over 300 from the West
Indies[fn] had thus settled in Liberia forming about a score of settlements on the
Atlantic coast […] 218
The settlers on whom the Government of Liberia thus devolved as from 1841 were
essentially American rather than African in outlook and orientation. They retained a
strong sentimental attachment to America, which they regarded as their “native
land.”’ They wore the Western mode of dress to which they had been accustomed in
America however unsuitable this dress was to Liberia’s tropical weather: a black, silk
topper and a long, black frock coat for men, and a “Victorian” silk gown for women.’
They built themselves frame, stone or brick-porticoed houses—of one and a half or
two storeys similar to those of the plantation owners of the Southern States of
America.” And they preferred American food like flour, corn-meal, butter, lard,
pickled beef, bacon, and American-grown rice, large quantities of which they
imported annually, to African foodstuff like cassava, plantain, yams, palm-oil, sweet
potatoes, and “country rice” grown by Africans in the Liberian hinterland.’2 They
were Christians, spoke English as their “mother tongue,” and practised monogamy.
They held land individually in contrast with the communal ownership of the African
population. 219
To forestall the British and the French, Governor Roberts made a lengthy trip along
the Atlantic coast early in 1842, and an extensive journey up the Saint Paul’s River
and through the Queah, Dey, and Golah countries the following year inducing
African chiefs to sign treaties of amity and commerce with the Liberian Government,
by which they placed their territories under Liberia’s jurisdiction.[fn] 220
These, and similar annexations by President Roberts including the Gallinas district
adjacent to the British colony of Sierra Leone gave Liberia by December 1850, the
entire 600 miles coastline from the Sherbro River on the west to the San Pedro River
on the east,[fn] embracing the territories of the Vai, Dey, Queah, Bassa, Kru, and
Grebo peoples. Thus while European Governments were yet largely apathetic to
territorial expansion in Africa,[fn] the Liberian Government had already acquired a
large expanse of African territory.
142
Moreover, the methods by which the expansion was effected were hardly different
from those later employed by European, colonial powers to acquire territory in Africa,
namely, by “purchase” with European trade-goods, often of doubtful worth and
quality; [fn] by voluntary cession of territory by the smaller and weaker tribes like the
Deys and Queahs, anxious to secure Liberia’s protection against powerful, slave-
raiding chiefs further inland like the Golahs and Condos; [fn] by formal treaties of
cession with some African chiefs, like Bob Gray of Little Bassa, who hoped to profit
from trade with the Liberian settlers and to have schools established in their territories
by the Liberian Government; [fn] and by forceful acquisition, especially after military
victory over the African peoples gained mostly through the aid of American naval
officers and men-of-war.[fn] 221
On the basis of the Liberian explorations and various acquisitions of land from the
African chiefs—and even before European powers had commenced the Scramble for
Africa—the Liberian Government claimed jurisdiction over the territory extending
about 600 miles along the Atlantic littoral from the Sherbro to the San Pedro River,
and between 150 and 250 miles inland, and even unto the River Niger.[fn] 223
[…]he Scramble (1880-1890) […] 223
As defined by the Boundary Agreements of 1885 and 1892, Liberia’s territory
embraced besides the Liberian settlements some sixteen ethnic groups including the
Vai and Kru along the coast, and the Kpelle, Golah, Loma, Mano, Gio, and Kissi
further inland. These Africans were very different culturally from the settlers; they
were Animists or Muslims; they spoke their own languages, not English; they lived
mostly in huts in village communities, governed by chiefs and village elders; and they
held land communally. Besides, they had age-group organisations and secret societies,
the most prominent of which were the poro (for men) and the sande (for women), [224]
which had important economic, political, and social functions. In view of the
differences in culture between the settlers and the Africans, it might be asked what
relationship subsisted between both peoples. 225
[…]: in 1836, the Acting-Colonial Governor, Reverend B. R. Skinner, reported that
“the marriage of a colonist with any one of the neighbouring tribes was considered
exceedingly disreputable, and subjected the individual to the contempt of his fellow
citizens […] 225
All this, however, is not to imply that the Africans themselves were not culturally
prejudiced against the settlers; they too disapproved of, and despised many aspects of
the settlers’ way of life. In particular, many of them sneered at the slave antecedents of
the settlers, whom they regarded as socially inferior to themselves, just as in African
society slaves were inferior to free men. Thus an American visitor to Liberia observed
in March 1844 that on the one hand the colonists “would never recognize the natives
otherwise than as heathens,” while on the other hand “many of the natives look with
contempt on the colonists and do not hesitate to tell them that they are merely
liberated slaves.” [fn] 225
Yet Liberian leaders correctly blamed the exacerbation of the cleavage between both
peoples largely on the dogged superiority complex of the settlers who, as a minority
group, hoped to perpetuate their privileged position in Liberia by emphasizing the
cultural differences between themselves and the African population. 226
143
The African peoples of Liberia, who out-numbered the settlers in a ratio of almost 100
to one, had not been assigned any political privileges or citizenship rights by Liberia’s
Independence Constitution of July, 1847. Subsequently, they were largely denied
political privileges by the settler-controlled Government such as the franchise [227]
and employment in the Government service, and were de facto subjects of the
Americo-Liberians. Of the educated Africans (who in Maryland county of Liberia in
particular outnumbered the settlers four times over), only a very small number was
given political privileges; in the late 1910s and early 1920s, they included Dr. B. W.
Payne, a Bassa man educated in medicine in America, who was for many years
between 1912 and 1930 secretary of Public Instruction; Momolu Massaquoi, a Vai
man, who was acting secretary of Interior, and subsequently Liberian consul in
Germany; and Henry Too Wesley, a Grebo man, who was vice-president of Liberia
from 1922-1927.68 Such highly-placed Africans were, however, the exception rather
than the rule; the vast, illiterate or semi-literate African majority were not granted the
franchise; rather, each group like the Kru or Bassa or Vai was as from the late 1870s
represented in the Liberian legislature by one or two chiefs designated “delegates” by
the Liberian Government after paying to the Government “delegate fee” of $100 per
“delegate.” As most of these “delegates” were illiterate, were called upon to “speak”
through an interpreter at the closing sessions of the legislature solely on matters that
concerned their people, and could not vote, their ability to influence Government
policy towards securing economic and social improvement for their people like the
establishment of schools was slight.[fn] 228
In view of what foreign explorers and Liberian administrators observed was Liberia’s
cultural influence in the hinterland in the first decade of the twentienth century, it
might be concluded that by the turn of the nineteenth century, only the coastal
peoples: the Vai, Dey, Bassa, Kru, and Grebo—who made up about one tenth of
Liberia’s African population—had really been in contact with the settler civilization
and had their traditional values influenced by it to any extent. 229
In view of all this, one would hardly disagree with the conclusion reached in May
1918 by T. C. Mitchell, an American employed in the interior service since 1916 as
“Commissioner-General to the Interior,” after an extensive tour of the Liberian
hinterland, that ninety percent of the unrest among the African peoples was caused by
[232] incompetent Liberian officials, by whom the Africans had been “grossly
mistreated and in many instances have been subjected to most inhuman treatment.”
[fn] These officials, he added, “devoted no time to the development of the country;”
rather, they carried out so much extortion and graft that the hinterland was
“practically [being] bled to death.” Hence he suggested that “competent” officials be
appointed “at the earliest opportunity” to replace them otherwise there would be “an
open rebellion of the entire hinterland.” [fn]
Such rebellions did indeed break out. During the 1910s and early 1920s, they
occurred among the Grebos (1910), the Krus (1915), the Golahs (1918, as mentioned
earlier) and the Joquelle Kpelles (1920). Invariably, however, they were crushed, after
bitter fighting and much bloodshed, by the Liberian Government using superior arms
sold, and sometimes resources and men-of-war supplied by America, which on
account of historical ties, was generally regarded as “Liberia’s best friend.” [fn] 233
Moreover, in 1922, the Liberian Government commenced a programme of
elementary education for African youths by which public schools were established for
the first time in Liberia’s history in remote places in the Liberian hinterland like
144
Vonjama and Sanoquelle.’o5 On the other hand, the reports of foreign visitors and
personnel in Liberia, and investigations of a League of Nations Commission to the
Republic in 1930 into allegations that slavery and forced labour existed in the
Republic showed conclusively that during President King’s administration, the
African peoples of Liberia were subjected by the Liberian Government in general,
and certain of the Americo-Liberians in particular, to the worst possible forms of
exploitation. 234
Because of these harsh conditions, many of them were daily deserting Liberia for
neighbouring Sierra Leone, Guinea, and the Ivory Coast!. [fn] 235
Beyer, Otley H. 1979. The Philippines before Magellan. In

Garcia, Mauro (ed.). Readings in Philippine prehistory. Manila:
Filipiniana Book Guild.
Spanish colonization in both the Americas and the Philippines was characterized by
one feature calculated to drive the historian to despair. The fanatic zeal of the
Spaniards for the Christian faith and corresponding hatred for all other forms of belief
led them to regard the native writings and arts as works of the devil — to be destroyed
wherever found. In Mexico and Peru many old records were preserved in more or less
modified form in the writings of early native Christians and Spanish half-castes, but in
the Philippines the destruction was more ruthlessly thorough and only a few fragments
have survived. It cannot be said that such writings did not exist, since the early
filipinos were even more literate than the Mexicans; they used syllabaries of Indian
origin. One Spanish priest in southern Luzon bosted of having destroyed more than
three hundred scrolls written in the native character. How valuable these old records
might have been had they come down to us, we hoave no of course no means of
knowing. But the result is that for the great part of [8] Philippine pre-Spanish history
we have no trustworthy native material and the past can be recovered only by
painstaking research in the records of neighboring countries. 9
The people [in this ancient manuscript; PK: Povedano? See context] possessed a form
of syllabic writing, a well-developed code of laws, weights and measures, and other
appurtenances of civilization, including metal-working and numerous industrial arts.
14
#chapter 3 #philippines
At the time of the Spanish discovery, not only were the more civilized Filipinos using
the Indian syllabaries for writing, but their native mythology, folklore and written
literature all had a distinct Indian cast. The same was true of their codes of laws and
their names for all sorts of political positions and procedure. The more cultured
Philippine languages contain many Sanskrit words, and the native art a noticeable
sprinkling of Indian design. 20
#chapter 3 #chapter 10 #philippines
145
Fox, Robert B. 1979. The Philippines in prehistoric times. In
Garcia, Mauro (ed.). Readings in Philippine prehistory. Manila:
Filipiniana Book Guild.
The languages of the Philippines, as noted, do have final consonants; and if the
syllabary was introduced by the Javanese or another group in Indonesia who write
final consonants, why did not the ancient Filipinos employ a similar feature? It would
appear that the actual mediators of the type of syllabary found in the Philippines were
the Buginese traders, and that the syllabary was introduced relatively late, probably
not more than seven or eight hundred years ago. 61
#philippines
Francisco, Juan R. 1973. Philippine palaeography. Quezon City:

Linguistic Society of the Philippines.
De los Reyes wrote:
...me ha mostrado una curiosa caña de tres o cuatro metros de largo, en cuva (sic)
superficie estan grabados los caracteres de las Tagbanuas de la Paragua, que son
enteramente iguales a los ilocanos y tagalogs, lo cual corrobora mi opinion sobre la
unidad de alfabetos en Filipinas.
A la vista de dicha caña, parece resolverse la cuestion referente a la direccion: segun la
comodidad exige y la disposicion de las letras, es indudable que dichas caracteres se
han escrito de izquierda a derecha horizontalmente; pero despues colocan la caña
vertical u oblicuamente apoyada en la pared y en esta posicion leen lo escrito, esto es:
las letras colocadas de abajo hacia arriba. [Tavera, Annales de l’extrem Orient, VII,
p.233.] 17
#chapter 5 #philippines [PK: compare Miller’s comments on writing direction]
In spite of these three pieces of evidence, with the proofs provided not only by the
living scripts in the Palawan and Mindoro regions but also by the documents we have
here referred to like the Povedano manuscript and the Romualdez report on the three
documents from Western Negros island, it stands to reason that the direction of the
Tagalog writing as well as the others was from bottom to top, left to right. 19
#chapter 5 #writing systems [PK: Note that Miller disputes this point]
The impression that one gets from a survey of the illustrations tabulating the various
Philippine “systems” of writing, each labeled Iloko “alphabet,” Tagalog syllabary, or
anything else, is that a number of “alphabets” or systems of writing were used in the
ancient Philippines. This, it seems, was an unconscious error, if not indeed a
deliberate scheme, among earlier writers in their effort to create multiple cultural
complexes in the Philippines.
But upon examination of all these systems, there appears to be a singular affinity
among them. If there was evidence of variety, this can only be understood as a result
of the idiosyncrasies of the individual writers. Note, for instance, what T.H. Pardo de
Tavera, one of the pioneers in the study of the subject, wrote: “Al momento se ve que
la diferencia que hay entre estos alfabetos no es fundamental: se puede decir que son
uno mismo, consistiendo sus diferencias en la manera de trazarlos ...”. [Footnote: Cf.
146
Ignacio Villamor, La Antiqua Escritura Filipina, pp. 24-25. In this work while Villamore
mentioned Tavera to have seen the “singularity” of the Philippine scripts, he
(Villamore) referred further back to Fray Cipriano Marcilla y Martin (Estudio de los
Antiquos Alfabetos Filipinos, pp 41, 44-45) and W. Retana (Los Antiquos Alfabetos de
Filipinos, p. 3) who “hold that there is only but one Philippine alphabet,
notwithstanding the slight differences noticeable in the tracing of the letters of the
alphabets published by the different authors ...”] 21
Apart from the Tagbanuwa tradition on the origin of scripts, there is a very interesting
reference to the origins of the Tagalog writing by two writers – Pedro Paterno [Pedro
A Paterno, La Antiqua Civilizacion Tagalog (Madrid: Tipografia de Manuel G.
Hernandez, 1887, pp35-52, 357-359), and Guillermo A Tolentino. This reference
may be considered legendary. Paterno’s view is not altogether hopeless in the sense
that [28] while he attributed the name of god to be formed from the symbols b ba, h
ha, and / (l abbreviated to [/]) la (ba b imitation of the external feminine organ, ha h
the symbol for the ray of light or spirit and / corresponds to the external masculine
organ), he becomes more scientific in his view toward the end of his discourses on the
Tagalog letters. 29
[PK: in footnote on p5 of La Antigua civilizacion, paterno write (regarding bathala symbols
“Consultase nuestra obra Arco Iris, Camino del paraiso Tagalo, cap II—Origenes de la
escritura]
[PK: also note Paterno’s backwards and forwards reading of ‘Bathala’ like Tirol’s reading of
cave inscriptions]
#chapter 4 #chapter 5 #philippines
Guillermo A. Tolentino, Ang Wika at Baybaying Tagalog (Manila: The Author, 1937), pp
70-95:
The N is the whole creation (liNalang) under heaven thus the form which pictures the
sound (tunog) of this is one wide area that is covered by the heavens. (That is the
reason) the earth where we live (pinakikipamayanan) is known by the universe
(sansinukuban). The line (guhit) that rises in wavy form to the heaven(s) is none other
than man’s thought (or spirit) which soars (pinaiilanlang) into the world other than
this, so that it may attain (what it needs to attain) through faith. 29
Footnote 1: An Augustinian Friar, Tomas Santaren, brought out the supposed
document [the Maragtas] in a Spanish translation in 1858. This translation has been
translated into English by Enriqueta Fox with the title Bisayan Accounts of Early Bornean
Settlements in the Philippines Recorded by Father Santaren (Transcript No. 4, Philippine
Studies Program, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, 1954). See
Mauro Garcia, “The Sources and Provenience of the Maragtas, in Maragtas Symposium
Proceedings (UNESCO Philippine National Commission, 1967). 121
Footnote 2: [circumstances of Maragtas coming to light first mentioned in] Fray Angel
Perez, “Igorrotes: Estudios Geografico y Etnological sobre Algunos Distritos del Norte
de Luzon,” El Mercantil (Manila, 1902) 121
147
Sturtevant, David R. 1976. Popular Uprisings in the Philippines,
1840–1940. New York: Cornell University Press.
With all its imperfections, the experiment [the American education policy] produced
benefits. For one thing, literacy rates rose sharply. By 1939 at least 7,000,000 Filipinos
were able to read and write – a figure equal to the total population at the turn of the
century. For another, increasing reliance on the English language helped break down
regional linguistic barriers. 45
#literacy #language policy
1980–1989
Richards, Anthony. 1981. An Iban-English dictionary. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Dunging. A man of Nanga Ulai (Bayor, Rimbas) who became known about 1950 for
his invention of a syllabary of 77 characters, with 31 simplified forms. He taught some
people of his house to use it. He also experimented with making coins, building estate
roads, and using water power. 75
#iban
Scribner, Sylvia, and Michael Cole. 1981. The psychology of

literacy. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
#vai
VAI LITERACY PROJECT, 1973-1978. ix
Vai is a tonal language, tonal marking has been omitted except in instances where it is
essential to analysis. xiii
Writing, we can be certain, is the exclusive possession of the human animal. Its origins
are to be found in cultural history rather than in biological evolution. 3
An anecdote of a Wesleyan missionary in the Fiji Islands is characteristic:
As I had come to work one morning without my carpenter’s square, I took up a chip and
with a piece of charcoal wrote upon it a request that my wife should send me that article.
[The chip was given to a Fijian chief to deliver] but the Chief was scornful of the errand
and asked, “What must I say?” ... You have nothing to say, I replied. The chip will say all I
wish. With a look of astonishment and contempt, he held up the piece of wood and said,
“How can this speak? Has this a mouth?” {When the errand had been successfully
performed] the chief tied a string to the chip, hung it around his neck and wore it for some
time. During several following days, we frequently saw him surrounded by a crowd who
were listening with intense interest while he narrated the wonders which this chip had
performed. (Clammer, 1976, p. 67) 3
[PK: Compare Pigafetta 1903]
European scholars have also expressed awe at the “stupefying leap of the
imagination” involved in the invention of writing (Diringer, 1962, p. 19). 4
148
Literacy, it is said, separates prehistory from history (Goody and Watt, 1968),
primitive societies from civilized societies (Levi-Strauss, in Charbonnier, 1973),
modern societies from traditional societies (Lerner, 1958). 4
Subsequently Goody (1968) and other scholars drew on evidence from a wide range of
sources to demonstrate the hypothesized links among literacy, logic, and classificatory
schemes in other societies and historical periods. This later work emphasized that
what had previously been termed the consequences of literacy ought really to be
considered literacy’s implications, implications that might, or might not, come to
fruition in any cultural/historical circumstances. 7
“The illiterate man’s thought ... remains concrete. He thinks in images and not in
concepts. His thought is, in fact, a series of images, juxtaposed or in sequence, and
hence it rarely proceeds by induction or deduction. The result is that knowledge
acquired in a given situation is hardly ever transferred to a different situation to which
it could be applied” (UNESCO Regional Report on Literacy, 1972; sec also statements in
other UNESCO publications by Maheu, 1965; Rafe-uz-Zaman, 1978.) 14
In this context, the experience o fthe Vai people has to be considered remarkable.
Although the Vai are a relatively small part of the population of Liberia and have few
government or missionary schools in their area, they play a prominent role in the
commercial life of the country. This might be considered no more than a local
anomaly explainable on any number of grounds, except for one fact: the Vai boast a
writing system of their own invention that they use in their commercial and personal
affairs. [14]
From a theoretical point of view, the existence of the Vai script (which we were told
was not taught in school, but rather in the home) offered an occasion to resolve some
of the scholarly disputes about the consequences of literacy. We could separate
schooling from literacy. We could look at the acquisition of literacy in a social context
radically different from any that had provided the basis for speculations about
literacy’s effects.
But Vai society also offered a chance to explore a very practical set of issues.
Assuming that a significant proportion of Vai people knew their script and used it (a
safe assumption, as later research revealed), the Vai represent a case of a rural African
people spontaneously engaging in activities that governments have made massive
efforts to initiate. What kept them literate? Was there anything in the Vai experience
that could be used to improve the effectiveness of educational programs in other parts
of Liberia or other parts of the world? These and other very practical questions of the
social and economic conditions that promote literate activity also loomed large in our
thinking as we began our work. We saw in Vai country an unusual, if not unique,
laboratory for the study of many important questions about the nature of human
society and individual intellectual activity. 15
We were trying to test causal hypotheses about particular cultural influences on
intellectual skills […]17
The Vai on the Liberian side of the border occupy perhaps seven thousand square
miles of land crisscrossed by rivers and streams. Many of the rivers empty into Lake
Piso, which is separated from the Atlantic Ocean only by a long spit of sand. Along
the coast the earth is sandy and swampy; except for palm trees and some patches of
149
grassland, little grows there. Further inland, the lateritic soil (its rust color signaling the
presence of iron ore, one of Liberia’s major sources of national income) supports a
lush undergrowth, secondary growth of trees, and occasional groves of large trees—
reminders of the high forest that once dominated this region of the world. 23
According to the most recent census (Republic of Liberia, 1974), the Vai living in their
home area of Liberia (Cape Mount County) number about twelve thousand. 23
There are also Vai enclaves in concessions and towns in distant parts of the country,
where the Vai are prominent as tailors, carpenters, cookshop proprietors, and small
businessmen.
The people one encounters in Vai country are almost all engaged in [23] farming.
Although other economic activities supplement this central activity, most features of
Vai life that initially impress a visitor are organized around the need to grow enough
food to get through the year. 24
Many of the houses have carefully crafted wooden window frames and shutters; these
are rare in other parts of Liberia and are a source of the reputation the Vai have
gained for their carpentry skills. 26
The first sign of writing one encounters in Gohn is likely to be seen on the lintels of
doorways, where inscriptions in Arabic (most often, the opening line of the Qur’an)
may be written in chalk or ink. Just inside the door Arabic is again encountered, this
time in the form of a talisman bound in a tight package hanging from the rafter above
the door. 26
The Vai are considered outstanding for their ability to fashion wood and cloth. At the
turn of the century, Vai culinary tools made of wood were a standard item of trade,
along with their looms. At present, the Vai are known throughout Liberia as
carpenters, weavers, and tailors. In years gone by, items like pots, cutlasses and knives
were fashioned by the village blacksmith, one of Vai culture’s traditional specialists.
Most villages retain a blacksmith as well as a weaver who fashions cloth. Handmade
goods from these craftspeople are still highly valued, but in many instances imported
substitutes have taken their place. 28
With the exceptions to be noted below, the institutionalization of learning among the
Vai, as among many of their neighbors, traditionally resided in the bush school,
conducted by men for boys as part of the activities of the Poro society and by women
for girls as part of the activities of the Sande society. Much has been written, but little
information transmitted, about the content and form of education represented by the
bush school.[fn] In years gone by, children (alternately boys and girls) would be
removed from their homes for a period of four to five years during which they were
presumably taught important subsistence skills, the lore of the group, other knowledge
necessary for them to assume adult roles upon returning to their village. 29
While the level of English education that the average village child receives may only
be sufficient to decipher a brief letter, higher levels of English literacy are made use of
in the countryside. At least one person in any town can be expected to be able to read
and write more complicated texts; to him will fall the task of reading directives to the
town chief from government officials and of writing replies. 30
Starting at age five or six and continuing for a number of years, most Vai boys and a
few Vai girls gather under the guidance of the village imam to learn to read chapters
150
from the Qur’an. Unless they are living in a town with an especially advanced teacher
(Gohn is one such town), they are unlikely to learn Arabic sufficiently to read or write
with comprehension. 30
Any visitor to Vai country will be proudly told, as we were: “There are three books in
this world—the European book, the Arabic book, and the Vai book; God gave us, the
Vai people, the Vai book because we have sense.” 31
#origin story
In the Vai script, graphic symbols represent syllables in spoken Vai, and on this score
alone the script qualifies as a major historical achievement. 32
For one thing, the arrival of a taxi often brings letters written in Vai from relatives and
business associates in other areas ofVai country and other parts of Liberia. Funerals
are a ubiquitous feature of life in a Vai village, where the infant mortality rate [33]
exceeds 50 percent and life expectancy is low; these events attract relatives and
acquaintances from many parts of the country, each of whom is obligated to bring
gifts that must be reciprocated. Consequently, recording the names of donors and
their gifts at funerals, as well as a variety of other administrative activities such as
listing political contributions, are features of Vai life in which literacy plays a central
and visible role. Some religious and fraternal organizations maintain records in Vai
script, and we have documented at least one case in which a Muslim association was
governed by a constitution and bylaws written in Vai script (Goody, Cole, and
Scribner, 1977). Farmers and craftsmen use the script for business ledgers and
technical plans. A few who might qualify as Vai scholars write family and clan
histories, keep diaries, and record maxims and traditional tales in copybooks. 34
Table 6.1 Estimated percentages of literates in Cape Mount County survey towns
Percent of total population Percent of total adult male
(including children) population
Vai script 6.6 20.3
Arabic 5.0 15.7
English 11.6 6.2
Total literacy 19.1 28.4
Because of considerable overlap of Vai !of all literate individuals is less than the sum of
the three scripts.
63
Becoming literate in Vai script is not child’s play; it is an activity generally reserved for
young men in their late teens and twenties. Some respondents reported that they had
begun to learn Vai script at fourteen or fifteen years of age (for many, beginning age
represents an estimate); 20 percent were thirty years old or older when they began.
As one might expect of people·who become literate as adults, learning to read and
write Vai script is almost always a voluntary activity, although many say they were
encouraged to study it by friends or male relatives. Momokai Paasewe, one of several
people whom we asked to recount their life stories, described his motivation for
learning Vai script, and many accounts we heard were quite similiar:
151
As for the Vai script, I knew it through many things, especially when we were young men
and we used to invite friends from other towns to come and have big feasts and dances.
We became very friendly with the people from Mavema, and Mr. Kromah was the leader
who helped us get together. I had a friend then named Swary; he lives in Sierra Leone
now. He was the one who knew the Vai script in our dance group. He taught me and I
learned it. We used it to arrange our dances. If he was interested in a girl, he wrote to
someone in Mavema to make sure she would come. Also, he was a friend of my father’s
and they used to write to each other in the script. I used to see the letters and see them
talking and I became interested in learning too.
Mr. Paasewe learned Vai script in order to meet young women in a manner that was
not public knowledge; letters were his vehicle. Another informant reports that he
began to learn the script at the urging of his family because his father, who was losing
his eyesight, could no longer read. The father had to ask someone outside the family
to read letters he received, and his mother became upset because personal matters
could not be kept within the family under such circumstances. As it happened, this
informant was working with a carpenter who was literate in the script, so he asked his
boss to teach him. Other people tell of working alongside someone who received a
letter at his farm, and starting to learn out of curiosity or because they were away
from their home village and received, or wanted to send, a letter whose contents they
preferred to keep to themselves.
It is striking how trasmission of the Vai script occurred in such a way as not to
transform the social relationships among individuals into a formal teacher-learner
relationship. A definite accent lies on teacher and pupil living and working together.
One informant reported, for example, that he began to learn when he went to work at
a sawmill in the high forest of the [65] Vai Koneh district, where a fellow sawyer was
able to read and write Vai script: “All of us were living together ... Every time he
received letters he read and answered them, so I too got encouraged and decided to
ask him to teach me.” Over several months, as they worked together, they would have
a session, “sometimes five minutes when we met, because we never used to stay too
long talking about it.” Very few of our informants reported that they learned the script
entirely on their own or that they learned it in an organized school setting. Almost
everyone learned it from an individual; a few informants reported that they had two
teachers but always at different times. As a rule, the student met with his teacher from
three to five times a week in lessons that could be as short as ten or fifteen minutes and
as long as one or two hours, with an average lesson time of about forty-five minutes.
Learning Vai script also seems to be a personal affair—it is learned by the student
acting as an individual. Very few of our informants had lessons with more than one
other student present; only four said they studied with as many as seven or eight
others. 66
Very early in our pilot work we discovered that several methods were used to teach
reading and writing in Vai. In some cases an individual was given a letter by a friend
who explained in detail exactly what the letter [66] said to the point where the learner
knew the letter by heart and could identify each character in it. After a few such letters
had been mastered, the student attempted a letter of his own. 67
Letter writing. O f the 107 respondents literate in Vai script (and for whom we have
complete interviews), 94 percent reported that they wrote letters. Among those who
wrote, only 21 percent reported having written to strangers; 79 percent reported that
152
they wrote exclusively to friends and relatives. As one informant put it: “How can you
write to someone you don’t know? 71
Records, more or less systematic, are commonly used for trade and business purposes.
Some farmers report keeping records of amounts of seed planted and harvested, so
they can compare crop yield over the years; those who participate regularly in
commodity markets for products such as coffee, cocoa, and rubber may keep track of
sales and prices received; craftsmen will occasionally list goods and supplies they have
on order and maintain lists of customer purchases. In addition to records that have
some permanency, script literates report diverse notational uses of the script,
especially for occupational purposes: tailors use it to record relevant measurements
and masons planning trips to Monrovia make up shopping lists of materials they need.
Recording town business is a prominent use of the script. This record keeping is in the
spirit of individual accounts, except that it is a public process designed to reduce
disputes among neighbors, who, given the kin structure of Vai towns, are also
relatives. 76
Our next category of script use involves technical plans and diagrams, a literacy
function reported by 38 percent of Vai script literates. The nature of these schematic
plans varies considerably from one individual to another and their use is concentrated
among craftsmen. Weavers use a matrix plan to diagram the black and white patches
needed to complete different blanket or tunic designs; masons lay out the number of
bricks needed for houses; and carpenters sketch rough plans on which they note
dimensions of the structures they are building. One carpenter’s plan is shown in
Figure 6.1, in which the script is used to label the rooms (for example, “sleeping
room”) of the projected dwelling-a grand edifice by usual standards. 77
Figure 6.1. A carpenter’s plan 78 [PK: Plan includes number notation and Vai script]
Most of these books, like the “Book of Ndole,” are not continuous texts on a particular
subject; rather, they are large (and sometimes expensively bound) volumes with blank
pages on which the owner, or one of his forebears, has made entries. As with diaries,
events of major importance to the writer are recorded. Entries might include
marriages, births, and deaths of family members, as well as local, national, or even
international events. Within a single volume one can also find family genealogies,
historical accounts of the founding of a clan or a town, parables, proverbs and stories
we thought of as fables. 79
Vai script literates often combine farming with the practice of a craft, and 40 percent
report that at some time they served an apprenticeship to a master artisan. Principal
crafts in Vai country are, in order of frequency, carpentry, masonry, and tailoring;
carpentry and tailoring are sometimes practiced by the same individual, concurrently
or sequentially. Arabic monoliterates, in contrast, are an identifiable cluster in what
we have called “traditional professions”—Muslim doctor, Muslim teacher, town chief.
90
It seems plausible that men with some script knowledge should be attracted to engage
in market activities or to enter the crafts; it is equally plausible, however, that those
already in such pursuits might decide to learn how to read or write to maximize their
gains. We have no evidence allowing us to make inferences about the direction of
influence, but simply as a pairing of facts, the association between occupational
diversity and Vai script literacy has general implications. 90
153
Cultural heritage is transmitted orally in a way that does not depend upon texts (we
have in mind here secular Vai script texts); technical knowledge such as that required
by a tailor or carpenter is transmitted without the aid of written materials in a manner
not obviously different from knowledge transmission among neighboring people who
possess no writing system. We do not know if the script is ever used in bush schools or
secret society activities, since we do not have access to information about how these
institutions conduct their affairs. But we do know that their affairs are not conducted
through writing and reading. In fact, we can think of no educational activity that is
mediated by standardized written materials in Vai script. This negative generalization
even applies, as we have seen, to teaching of the script itself, which proceeds in most
cases with no written aids other than those provided on an ad hoc basis by teacher or
student (except for those rare occasions when a syllabary chart is at hand). 238
Although the Vai invented an original writing system and a social mech-[238]anism
for transmitting it, Vai society has not gone beyond the kind of restricted literacy
described for northern Ghana by Goody (1968) or “craft literacy” discussed by
Havelock (1976). Vai script literacy does not fulfill the expectations of those social
scientists who consider literacy a prime mover in social change. It has not set off a
dramatic modernizing sequence; it has not been accompanied by rapid developments
in technology, art, and science; it has not led to the growth of new intellectual
disciplines. 239
Our results are in direct conflict with persistent claims that “deep psychological
differences” divide literate and nonliterate populations (see Maheu, 1965). On no task-
logic, abstraction, memory, communication—did we find all nonliterates performing
at lower levels than all literates. Even on tasks closely related to script activities, such
as reading or writing with pictures, some nonliterates did as well as those with school
or literacy experiences. We can and do claim that literacy promotes skills among the
Vai, but we cannot and do not claim that literacy is a necessary and sufficient
condition for any of the skills we assessed.! Another way to approach the matter is to
question whether we secured any evidence for general deficiencies among
nonliterates. To support a deficiency position, we would need a pattern of results in
which all literacies contributed an increment to performance vis-a-vis nonliteracy. We
have identified only three such tasks and have noted that they all call on encoding
skills. It is hardly surprising that people with absolutely no experience in using graphic
symbols to represent language find it more difficult than literates to undertake such
activities; it is more surprising that nonliteracy per se failed to confer a general
disadvantage on other tasks. 251
English-educated Vai scholars today substantially accept Koelle’s account (see
Johnson, 1975; and publications of the Liberian Ministry of Information, Culture and
Tourism), but in the towns and villages some elders recount different stories about the
invention and early development of the script. These stories and related oral histories
suggest that the Koelle account portrays only one set of important events in the
script’s history. Other evidence indicates that the script may have undergone a
number of partially independent developments at different times and places in Vai
country. But there is little controversy about the fact that a small group (or groups) of
Vai men, in the early part of the nineteenth century, elaborated a graphic system
exemplifying consistent phonetic rules. Nor does it detract from this accomplishment
to point out that Vai society had witnessed the use of writing systems for a number of
centuries previously. Portuguese traders are known to have reached Cape Mount in
the mid-fifteenth century, establishing extensive and lasting trade relations with the
154
Vai who had migrated to the coastal areas (Holsoe, 1967). According to their own
[264] historical accounts, the Vai owe their origin to migrations from Mande areas
along the upper and middle Niger to the coastal areas—events currently thought to
date from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The Vai and other Manding
peoples maintain close linguistic and cultural ties to this day—a relationship
important to our current topic because of the known role Manding scholars played in
spreading Islam throughout the region. Thus, books and writing, and the instruments
producing them were known to some Vai from both African and European contacts
for at least three centuries before the Vai script’s reported invention. 265
These English-speaking colonists, some of whom were literate and were also Christian
ministers, made contact with Vai leaders at Cape Mount. Simultaneously, Christian
missionaries began to move into Liberia from Freetown, Sierra Leone, and in some
country towns set up schools that provided the rudiments of an English education.
During this same period, European traders dealing mainly in slaves became especially
active on the Vai coast. Thus, at the time of systematic development of the script, the
Vai were in intensive contact with four literate groups, two alphabets, and three
domains of literacy practices: the Americo-Liberian colonists using the Roman
alphabet for governance and military purposes; European coastal traders using the
Roman alphabet and inland Muslim traders the Arabic alphabet for commercial
purposes; Christian missionaries with their Bible and Muslim scholar-missionaries
with the Qur’an practicing literacy for primarily religious purposes. 265
The Vai script, however, cannot simply be dismissed as a borrowed innovation. Since
the foreign scripts in use were alphabets and the Vai script is a syllabary, we know that
whatever external influences were active in creating pressure for an indigenous writing
system, the form and articulation of that system represented an original production.
According to Massaquoi (1911) and other scholars (see Olderogge, 1966; Dalby, 1968,
1970), script inventors were building on a preexisting system of graphic signs long in
use among the Vai and some of their neighbors. Massaquoi, a member of a leading
Vai family, made this claim directly, basing it on an analysis of the resemblance of
certain script characters to pictograms used for communicative purposes for many
generations (see Figure A3.1). 265
The Bambara of Mali are famous for two such systems. One, consisting of over 259
ideographic symbols, was used primarily for ritual and magical and was available only
to those at high levels of initiation in secret societies. Alongside this system existed
another that was extended to some secular uses and was associated particularly with
blacksmiths and other artisans.
In addition to this evidence that visual symbols making up the script had indigenous
roots, a claim has been made that the concept of using syllables as the basic unit of
language analysis was an attribute of West African language communities from
earliest times. Traditional language games, still widespread among the Vai and other
local cultures, play off the syllabic structure: in one such game, for example, nonsense
syllables are inserted between constituent syllables composing words. It has even been
speculated that awareness of syllables lies behind African drum-language !that different
drum beats correspond to different syllabic tones (Olderogge, 1966).!
These strands of cultural history suggest a long period of evolution for the Vai script
during which pictograms gradually acquired a phonetic character. Some evidence for
this transformational process is found in early Vai script manuscripts in which certain
155
characters stand for words and concepts rather than sounds directly. Stewart (1972)
has identified sixteen of these logograms in the “Book of Ndole,” written sometime
before 1850, [266] one of the earliest script specimens available to Western scholars.
While many of these logograms have disappeared in the modern script, replaced by
their phonetic equivalents, some are in use; for example, a logographic symbol is
commonly used for “death” and is displayed on tombstones. In the “Book of Ndole,”
a few logograms were used in a purely phonetic way. For example, the character for
“be finished,” ban, was used as the initial character in the word for “sky,” banda
(Stewart, 1972, p. 12). The existence of these logograms and their subsequent
elaboration by sound extension lends credence, if not direct support, to the view that
the Vai script had a developmental history which carried it from a pictographic to a
phonographic system.
Whether or not these historical reconstructions receive further confirmation, it seems
clear that pictographic symbol systems in older days served a variety of social
functions, and that cultural activities involving symbols provided numerous settings
which might have encouraged the organization of a systematic writing system. The
close connection of these symbols with animistic ritual and magical practices makes it
seem unlikely that all indigenous sources of the script will be completely uncovered.
Even today, its ties with older uses of symbols do not appear entirely severed. While
modern ethnographers do not find Vai women wearing silver ornaments around their
necks in which proverbs are engraved in script characters (reported in Creswick,
1868), the script today is still used for inscriptional purposes (door lintels, personal
possessions) suggesting a historical continuity with some of its earliest functions. 267
#masaba
All reports agree that the Vai people seized on the new invention with enthusiasm.
Koelle, on the spot some fifteen years after the reported invention, the impression that
a majority of men in the towns he visited could write the script. In later decades,
others reported that most of the men, and some women, could read script characters
(Creswick, 1868; Massaquoi, 1899; Johnston, 1906). If these impressions and reports
were correct, there may have been a greater spread of popular literacy in Cape
Mount County in the nineteenth century than in many areas in Europe and the
United States during that period. On the other hand, some scholars have questioned
whether the script spread as rapidly or as extensively as others have suggested
(Delafosse, 1899).
It is a fascinating historical fact that when we visited Vai country in the 1970s, in an
era of modernization and spread of schooling, Vai script was taught tutorially and
with no formal institutionalization. But Koelle reported that 150 years previously the
Vai had functioning schools whose purpose was to spread the script among the
population. According to this account, a school had once been established in the town
of Jondu (a slave-[267] trading center); it was equipped with benches and wooden
tablets on which script characters were drawn with reed pens and juice from an ink
plant. In warfare with the Gola people, the town was captured and the schoolhouse
and manuscripts destroyed by fire. Vai “bookmen” subsequently gathered together to
build the town of as new site for a Vai script school, but this town, too, was destroyed
by intertribal warfare. After a third attempt, the Vai abandoned efforts to establish
these schools, but other informal and formal modes of transmission were used to
maintain literacy in the script.
156
The rapid spread of the script and the repeated organized efforts to disseminate it
indicate that it served important societal needs. Our comments here take on an even
more speculative character, but what is known about the history and activities of the
Vai people in the nineteenth century fits well with observations social scientists have
made about the economic and social conditions accompanying the spread of literacy
in other societies (see, for example, Goody and Watt, 1963, and Gelb, 1963). 268
For a variety of reasons, the period from 1807 to 1850, after the trade was declared
illegal, records a sharp increase in the number of slaves exported from this region
(Holsoe, 1977, gives estimates of annual shipments ranging from three to fifteen
thousand—p. 295.) Organizational activities required for the procurement,
containment, and exchange of large numbers of slaves under circumstances in which
such activities were ostensibly “unlawful” (and the British Royal Navy was patrolling
the coast to suppress the trade) would clearly have been facilitated by a writing system
available for record keeping and transmission of messages. We do not mean to suggest
here that there is anything special about trading in slaves that promotes literacy, but
rather that the large-scale nature of trading enterprises in which the Vai engaged,
including but not confined to slaves, and their expansion at this time, created a
pressure for the utilization of written technology. It may well be, however, that
because some trading activities concerned slaves, and the Vai people were engaged in
recurrent intertribal warfare and hostilities with the Liberian [268] government over
these activities, a powerful stimulus existed for the adoption of a writing system that
no one else but the Vai knew. These were the years, too, when the Americo-Liberian
colonists were buying land in Vai country and seeking to establish hegemony over the
indigenous peoples living in the territory. More than one observer has been struck by
the dual functions served by the Vai script: it met practical record keeping and
communication needs while at the same time keeping Vai business “secret” and
protecting the from outside forces (Hair, 1963; Johnston, 1906). 269!
Smith (forthcoming) convincingly argues that the script’s enthusiastic adoption by the
Vai was due to the complexity of the economic and social transactions the people
engaged in, and the dispersal of kin groups, friends, and trading partners across
Liberia and Sierra Leone. By the 1820s to 1830s, he maintains, these affairs
demanded the organization of such diversified groups of people separated by
sufficiently great distances in all directions that oral communication was under great
strain. 269
Ileto, Reynaldo C. 1982. Rizal and the underside of Philippine

history. In Moral order and the question of change: Essays on
Southeast Asian thought, edited by D. K. Wyatt and A.
Woodside. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia
Studies.
The story goes that on one occasion when Rizal had to leave his clinic to attend to a
very sick man, he instructed his servant Isidro [Antazo] to attend to other patients
who might come in. Knowing neither medicine nor the dialect of Dapitan, Isidro
protested, upon which Rizal got a notebook and wrote things in it which the servant
could not even read. This would take care of any problems, according to Rizal. True
enough, when some patients came in and “consulted” Isidro, he turned to the
notebook:
157
It moved slightly, then the writings of Dr. Rizal on it became his image, and it spoke to
him clearly. At first, it frightened him with wonder, but its eyes restored his confidence and
he followed carefully what it dictated for him to do. The patients submitted themselves
obediently for treatment, though they too were surprised almost to the brink of fear, but
their faith in the voice and image of Dr. Rizal on the notebook held them steady. After all
the patients had been treated, the image and the voice became writings again ... [Fn: “The
Notebook of Dr. Rizal,” in Santos, Rizal miracle tales, pp. 80-82] 311
#chapter 10 #unintelligibility #folk literacy
In the story of Isidro and the notebook, the distinction between author and work,
writing and curing, collapses. Rizal’s writing does not refer to some knowledge
external to it. What Rizal knows cannot be “learned” by Isidro because it is
unintelligible and proper only to a person of Rizal’s stature. This knowledge is power
itself and the writing on the notebook is, like the Ego sum in the Pasyon and the
inscriptions of anting-anting, an illustration of that power, equivalent to Rizal’s presence
and convertible to image and sound. [Fn: For stories of the appearance,
disappearance, and survival in fires of the writings of Bonifacio and Jacinto, see Nepe
(pseud.), “The Thirteen Miraculous Escapes of the Bonifacio Document,” clippings in
Pedro Cortes, Mga kasulatan Ukol sa Himagsikan [Documents on the Revolution],
1927, compilation in the Philippine National Library. Analogies with anting-anting
stories, such as the following, are obvious: “A certain Cabesang Juan Vicente used a
triangular book which he used to take care and light every Holy Thursday and Good
Friday. By doing so, this book would have letters on the printless pages and that was
just for a short time. The spell about any desired thing was taken from this book with
reference to an old text, the ‘Libro Primera Tomo’ ... Many an old man possessed
such talisman, inherited from father to son and son on” (Historical Data Papers, Paete,
Laguna Province). 312
#folk literacy #antinganting

Scott, James C. 1985. Weapons of the weak: Everyday forms of

peasant resistance. New Haven and London: Yale University
Press.
One may claim that the exploited group, because of a hegemonic religious or social
ideology, actually accepts its situation as a normal, even justifiable part of the social
order. This explanation of passivity assumes at least a fatalistic acceptance of that
social order and perhaps even an active complicity-both of which Marxists might call
“mystification” or “false-consciousness.”24 It typically rests on the assumption that
elites dominate not only the physical means ofproduction but the symbolic means of
production as well[fn]– and that this symbolic hegemony allows them to control the
very standards by which their rule is evaluated. 26 As Gramsci argued, elites control
the “ideological sectors” of society-culture, religion, education, and media-and can
thereby engineer consent fur their rule. By creating and disseminating a universe of
discourse and the concepts to go with it, by defining the standards of what is true,
beautiful, moral, fair, and legitimate, they build a symbolic climate that prevents
subordinate classes from thinking their way free. In fact, fur Gramsci, the proletariat is
more enslaved at the level of ideas than at the level of behavior. The historic task of
“the party” is therefore less to lead a revolution than to break the symbolic miasma
that blocks revolutionary thought. 39
158
#elites
The argument fur false-consciousness, after all, depends on the symbolic alignment of
elite and subordinate class values-that is, on the assumption that the peasantry
(proletariat) actually accepts most of the elite vision of the social order. 40
#elites
Galtier, Gérard. 1987. “Un exemple d’écriture traditionnelle

mandingue: le «Masaba» des Bambara-Masasi du Mali.”
Journal des africanistes 57 (1-2):255-266.
#masaba #africa: west
[…] l’écriture syllabique! «Masaba» des Bambara-Masasi du Kaarta (Mali) inventée en
1930. 257
Cependant, il est intéressant de noter d’une part que les plus anciens systèmes
d’écriture connus en Afrique noire sont syllabiques (et non alphabétiques), d’autre
part que ces écritures syllabiques se retrouvent justement dans les zones où la tradition
pictographique est importante, notamment le monde mandingue et le golfe de Biafra
(domaine du nsibidi). 259
#hypothesis: primacy of the syllable #pictography
C’est en février 1978 lors d’une mission de la Dnafla[fn] en pays soninké et au Kaarta
que nous entendîmes pour la première fois parler du Masaba. Nous étions quatre:
trois chercheurs, Makan Dantioko, Gérard Galtier et Kéba Daffé ainsi que le
chauffeur Mori Bagayoko. Le chef d’arrondissement de Dioumara (entre Nioro et
Kolokano), M. Moussa Camara, nous informa que dans l’arrondissement de Sandaré
(entre Nioro et Kayes) où il avait été en poste auparavant, les Bambara-Masasi
utilisent une écriture particulière, le Masaba. Il nous montra un cahier où figuraient
une liste de signes et un petit texte. Il s’agissait d’une écriture syllabique.
En septembre 1978, une nouvelle mission partit à la découverte du Masaba. Cette
mission comprenait trois personnes: Adama Samassékou, conseiller technique au
ministère de la Culture, ainsi que Gérard Galtier et Djéli Makan Diabaté, linguistes à
la Dnafla. En suivant les conseils de M. Moussa Camara, nous nous rendîmes à
Assatiémala, village masasi de l’arrondissement de Sandaré, qui est le centre actuel
d’utilisation du Masaba. Là, nous eûmes de longs entretiens avec les utilisateurs de
Masaba et notamment avec Woyo Couloubayi, l’inventeur du système, et Tapa
Couloubayi, personnalité influente qui a actuellement la fonction de professeur de
Masaba.
Le Masaba a été conçu en 1930 par Woyo Couloubayi (né vers 1910 et mort
récemment, vers 1982). Il était à l’époque illettré en français et en arabe, bien qu’il ait
appris ces deux langues plus tard. D’après ce qu’il nous dit, la révélation du système
lui serait venue pendant une nuit de réflexion. Il n’aurait jamais eu connaissance de
systèmes analogues, ni autrefois, ni plus récemment; l’écriture vaï et le nko, par
exemple, lui étaient inconnus. Le nom « Masaba » n’est pas dérivé du mot « Masasi »;
mais il représente les trois premières syllabes qui sont étudiées tout au début ; c’est un
peu l’équivalent de a-b-c. Après que Woyo Couloubayi eût élaboré le Masaba, il fut
aidé pour perfectionner le système par Lamine Konaté, maintenant décédé. Tapa
159
Coul oubayi, le maître actuel du Masaba, est l’élève de Lamine Konaté et non de
Woyo Couloubayi.
La région où le Masaba est utilisé n’est pas très vaste ; elle comprend les villages
bambara-masasi de Assatiémala, Dyabé, Ségala, Sérédji et Koronka [260] et les zones
avoisinantes. Le Masaba n’est pas lié à une société d’initiation (du type Komo) ou à
une classe sociale particulière. Il est ouvert à tous les âges et aux hommes comme aux
femmes. L’apprentissage du Masaba se fait dans le cadre du masaba-tɔn (association du
Masaba) qui possède son règlement intérieur comme tout tɔn qui se respecte.! Les
cours ont lieu généralement le soir. On assiste aujourd’hui à un certain délaissement
du Masaba qui est lié à la complexité du système, à la présence d’une école dans le
chef-lieu voisin de Sandaré, à l’introduction de l’alphabétisation[fn] dans le village et à
l’exode rural. Il est difficile de dire combien de gens ont complètement maîtrisé le
système du Masaba, cependant il est utilisé dans un certain nombre de cas: relevés
d’impôts, reconnaissances de dettes, correspondance avec les jeunes partis à l’étranger
(notamment en France) et prières musulmanes (arabe transcrit en Masaba). D’autre
part, le chef d’arrondissement de Sandaré nous apprit qu’il avait récemment fait his
ser une banderole bilingue français-Masaba, lors d’une fête de l’indépendance.
Le Masaba s’apprend dans un ordre arbitraire comme une litanie dela manière
suivante : [symbols] 261
Il n’y a pas de signes spéciaux pour les chiffres. Si besoin est, on les écrit en toutes
lettres. 261
#numerals
Le Masaba s’écrit de gauche à droite. La ponctuation est exprimée par le signe ),
équivalent au point ou à la virgule. Dans sa forme la plus courante, le ton, la nasalité
et la longueur ne sont pas notés. Ainsi des syllabes telles que ta, nta, taa et tan seront
transcrites d’une manière identique : [symbol] 263
Woyo Couloubayi, l’inventeur du Masaba, était conscient que son système était
imparfait et qu’il aurait été nécessaire de le perfectionner pour noter des éléments tels
que la nasalité, la tonalité ou la longueur, mais il se heurtait à l’opposition de Tapa
Couloubayi qui estimait qu’il ne fallait pas compliquer plus encore le système et que
celui-ci était bien tel qu’il était.
Voici les améliorations récentes que Woyo Couloubayi avait apportées au Masaba :
[list] 263
Il est intéressant de constater que l’élaboration du Masaba s’est faite en 1930, à une
époque où l’on assiste à une floraison de nouveaux alphabets africains: ainsi le
syllabaire mendé (1921), l’alphabet basa du Libéria (années 1920), trois alphabets
somali (1922, 1928 et 1930), le « saint » alphabet yorouba (1927), l’alphabet oberi
okaime des Ibibio-Efik du Nigeria (1930) et les syllabaires loma et kpellé du Libéria
(années 1930). Cependant, le maître d’œuvre du Masaba, Woyo Couloubayi,
déclarait ne connaître aucun autre alphabet ou syllabaire similaire au sien.
Il semble que la création de cette graphie chez les Masasi soit liée à leur grand désir
d’indépendance. De même que les Kagoro qui vivent aussi au Kaarta, ils représentent
une des populations les plus traditionnelles du Mali. L’on ne sera pas étonné
d’apprendre que les associations de culte aux génies (jine-ton) de Bamako et du Mali
occidental placent leur origine au Kaarta. En fait les Bambara-Masasi d’Assatiémala
160
sont musulmans, mais ils sont membres de la confrérie hamalliste, d’inspiration soufie,
connue autrefois pour ses prises de position anticolonialistes.
En comparant le Masaba avec les autres écritures africaines connues, on s’aperçoit
que le système qui en semble le plus proche est le syllabaire vaï. 264
Remarquons toutefois qu’il faut être prudent dans ce genre d’analyse car les
«caractères à lunettes» (se terminant par des boucles) sont très fréquents à la fois dans
le Masaba et les alphabets cryptographiques du Hodh. 266
Abasiattai, Monday B. 1989. “The Oberi Okaime Christian

mission: Towards a history of an Ibibio Independent Church.”
Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 59 (4):496-
516.
Side by side with deep spiritual experience went visioning, prophecy, dreaming and
speaking in tongues. The latter practice eventually gave the movement a language and
an alphabet also called Oberi Okaime. 504
As a corollary, the movement’s year comprises 512 days, or 64 weeks (8 days in a
week), and 16 months, which is the traditional Ibibio calendar.29 Similarly, the Oberi
Okaime numerical system is based, as we shall see, largely on the Ibibio counting
system.
Another fundamental development in the movement by 1933 was the rise of the
Oberi Okaime language and writing. As outlined above, the movement’s emphasis on
the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues implied that strange utterances and eventually
words occurred early in the experiences of the spirit men during ‘spirit seizure’, or
visions. Quite early too, some spirit men reputedly wrote these words down in strange
characters on sheets of paper, leaves or bark of trees without comprehending their
meanings. Only later—probably from 1931 onwards—did Seminant begin to ‘reveal’
to [504] several of the leaders the meanings of the words and scripts. Eventually,
probably in early 1933, two spirit men—Michael Ukpong and Akpan Akpan
Udofia—at the bidding of Seminant went into seclusion at Ikpa, Ibiono, for four years
and four months in order to perfect the ‘spirit language’ and writing. Both were
completely cut off from women or unnecessary visitors: Ukpong ‘received’ the
language from Seminant while Udofia wrote it down.[fn] Apparently both men also
formulated some of the movement’s doctrines, liturgy and hymns while in this
seclusion.
As early as March 1933, the Divisional Officer for Enyong, R. K. Floyer, saw some
Oberi Okaime writing stuck up on the wall of Ikot Andem Itam’s Spirit Movement
Church and described it unflatteringly as ‘gibberish’.[fn] Similarly, some of the earlier
hymns in the old manuscript copy of the Oberi Okaime Hymn Book bear dates in
November 1934. Seminant also directed both men to rename the Spirit Movement
Church Oberi Okaime (or Ono Ke Mfon), meaning ‘Free Healing Church’.
The Oberi Okaime language and writing have been described in the following
superlative terms:
161
But for a small community with little formal education to invent an alphabet, a language,
and a numerical system, and to use them consistently is an enterprise of such staggering
intellectual difficulty that one is tempted to look for a longer historical provenance. At the
moment it is a mystery which demands further research.
As far as I have ascertained, only a few persons have researched the Oberi Okaime
language and writing. They include R. F. G. Adams, a British colonial inspector of
education in Calabar Province, in the 1930s; K. Hau, an American lady who
corresponded with Akpan Akpan Udofia and several Oberi Okaime leaders, in the
late 1950s; and O. A. Akpanyung, an indigene of Ididep trained in linguistics in
Britain, in the mid 1950s. As I lack any deep knowledge of Oberi Okaime, my few
comments on the language and writing will draw from what Adams, Hau and
Akpanyung have said.
First, Oberi Okaime’s intonation bears no resemblance to that of Efik-Ibibio which is
the native tongue of the Oberi Okaime Church members. Rather the intonation in
Efik-Ibibio ‘is replaced by stress, which is often very marked’. Adams, himself a
Briton, noted that Akpan Akpan Udofia ‘in telling ... two stories, sounded very like a
person reading English from a lectern with forceful emphasis’.[fn]
The Oberi Okaime writing is also unique, bearing hardly any semblance to any
existing writing or script such as the nsibidi writing which had been (and is still)
practised in some parts of Ibibioland and of neighbouring Igboland and Ekoiland.
There are thirty-two main symbols or letters in the alphabet all of which have both
small and capital forms. 505
Having perfected Oberi Okaime language and writing, Ukpong and Udofia
proceeded to establish a ‘school’ at Ikpa in 1936 to teach the language to the youths of
the church. But they were prosecuted the same year by the colonial government’s
education department for running an ‘illegal’ school and were fined £7 10s.
Subsequent petitions by the church applying to re-open the school did not succeed.
However, as a functional language used in the everyday business of the church, Oberi
Okaime language and writing have survived. Significantly, on 7 February 1986—fifty
years after the closure of the language school at Ikpa—formal Sunday School classes
were begun at Ididep (largely at the inspiration of the present author) to revitalise the
language, under the first teacher of the 1936 school, Akpan Akpan Udofia, now an
old man. 506
If now God bestowed the Spirit on black people and white people wanted to prevent
them from likewise benefiting from it, then black people ‘do not want to be under
control by anyone again’. Such a simplistic approach to natural resource development
betrayed the low level of education of the spirit men but also their determination to
improve their lot. More important perhaps, it portrayed their spirit of nationalism in
their determination to be free from white domination in the religious, cultural,
economic and, by implication, political spheres of life. 509
In the sphere of doctrine, Oberi Okaime continued to refine its doctrine after 1933. It
issued several pamphlets on doctrinal matters including the following:
1. Dge Gibreant Kaiunend (or Kaiyunend), meaning Catechism;
162
2. Dge Gibreant Tokkizan, meaning ‘A Holy Book which Contains the Words of God
that Reveals Something to Us about God and All Human Beings’ (this work includes
the holy words of prophecy known as Asasalemn);
3. Pogident Giophinens Gizin arien Pogident Gireh Seccuna, meaning ‘The Sabbath of Jehovah
God and the Sabbath of Jesus Christ’;
4. Mridea Kaiyunend: a book to test the congregation in the catechism (Mridea means
‘Test Book’);
5. Nobreando Tokkizan, meaning ‘A book that causes life in the hearts of the
congregation, which enables and encourages them to worship God without fear’
(Nobreando means ‘The Restoration Book’);
6. Kisany Obary Abiterrinity Veyeriniom Affendo.This is the Church Law and consists of
eighteen rules for the attainment of a good life (translated literally the title means
‘Eighteen Church Concisely Remembrance Law’).[fn]
Coulmas, F. 1989. ‘Language adaptation’ in idem (ed.), Language

Adaptation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp1-25,
excerpted from pp12-14. Cited in Mesthrie et al.
In linguistics it has become abundantly clear that writing is not just visible speech, but
rather a mode of verbal communication in its own right […] It changes the nature of
verbal communication as well as the speakers’ attitude to, and awareness of, their
language. Writing makes a society language-conscious […] Without writing modern
societies cannot function […] Generally writing enlarges the functional potential of
languages.
#writing systems: theory
DeFrancis, John. 1989. Visible speech: The diverse oneness of

writing systems. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
It is simply intolerable that Chinese writing continues to be misrepresented as
“pictographic,” a level of intellectual muddle-headedness on a par with discoursing
about astronomy in terms of astrology. It is also intolerable that the nature of writing –
of all writing – continues to be misunderstood in large part because of the
misrepresentation of Chinese. xi
This means in particular that we should not unthinkingly assume that there is a
relationship between partial writing and full writing, or that the former represents an
early stage of the latter. 5
One of the largest numbers of phonemes is found in the language spoken by a branch
of the Southeast Asian people variously known as Hmong or Miao or Meo. The
White Meo language has no fewer than 80 phonemes-57 consonants, 15 vowels, and 8
tones (Heimbach 1966, 1:8-17). 9
#hmong
163
In their view, Chinese characters constituted “the pictorial algebra of the sciences and
the arts” and as such convey ideas directly to the mind without the intermediary
agency of speech (Amiot 1776:282-285). 20
Thus the well-known anthropologist Margaret Mead has called on scholars to join in
creating “a written form of communication independent of any languages of the
world” and adapted to “high-level philosophical, political, and scientific
communication.” For such a system, she said, the Arabic numeral system provides a
partial model, and the Chinese system of writing “the most complete model” (Mead
and Modley 1968:62). 21
#type 4
Despite their common limited nature, there is an important difference between the
symbols presented above and those discussed in the following sections. The systems
treated so far were all created by literates as signs for concepts they had largely
managed to represent in their conventional orthographies. The symbols were by no
means entirely divorced from specific forms of speech. 22
#type 4
If the “letters” were sent anywhere, it was not by the girls to their boyfriends, but by
visiting Russians to the Museum for Anthropology and Ethnology of the Academy of
Sciences in St. Petersburg (now Leningrad), where, Jochelson notes, the only surviving
copies of the originals were to be found (Jochelson 1926:445).! 32
One would never know the truth about the “letter” from the way it has been
presented by most of those who have cited it. Not that they intentionally seek to
mislead readers. Rather, they themselves have !been led astray by their gullibility
regarding the power of pictographic writing. This leads them to forget that their
knowledge of the message was not worked out through prior knowledge of the
symbols and the working of the system. The process follows these steps:
1. They see some pictographic “writing.”!
2. They are told, or read, the meaning of the written message and perhaps of the
individual symbols.!
3. They forget that they have not worked out the meaning themselves and that they
should check on how the message was first conveyed.
!4. Forgetting the stages by which they came to understand the message enables them
to claim in all sincerity that pictographic writing indicates ideas directly, without
dependence on spoken language. 34
The two most extensive studies of Amerindian picture writing, those contained in the
six-volume work by Schoolcraft (1851-1857) and the 822-page classic by Mallery
(1893), illustrate thousands of pictographs which convey no more information than do
the isolated graffiti drawn on countless American walls. At most, isolated Indian
pictographs communicate only as much as such limited symbolizations as heraldic
insignia placed on coats of arms, the male-female seen restroom and “No Left Turn”
or “Steep Incline” warnings pictured on highway signs. 35
It can hardly be doubted that what enabled the recipients of the messages to decipher
them is what Mallery calls the “preconcerted” nature of the communications. That is
164
to say, in these cases, as was probably true of all notificational pictography, there was
prior agreement between closely connected persons as to the significance of the specific
signs included in the messages sent by one to another. 40
#message sticks
The belief that pictographs can be expanded in this way stems largely from the
exaggerated idea of the power of pictures, as represented by the cliche that a picture is
worth a thousand words. Actually, pictures are often ambiguous, especially without
context, and they are not inherently self-evident. Far from being worth a thousand
words, a picture often requires a thousand words to explain it. 44
The forthright answer to how pictographs work as a system is that they don’t.
Pictographic writing is not a system. It is at best exceedingly limited in what it can
express and who is able to understand it. It is not protowriting nor a forerunner of full
writing. And it should not be called writing without the clearly expressed reservation
that it refers to a very restricted type of communication. 47
“There are no pure systems of writing !just as there are no pure races in anthropology
and no pure languages in linguistics” [Gelb 1963:199]. 47
The pervasive tendency to exaggerate the nonphonetic aspect of writing leads to
several related errors that can culminate in a belief in the existence of full systems of
writing based on pictographs. One error is to think that pictographic symbols
necessarily have a pictographic function, that is that pictographic symbols are always
used to [49] to convey whatever ideas the pictographs as pictographs may evoke. This
error can be described in other words as the failure to distinguish between form and
function. Because of this failure many people are blind to the significance of the
epoch-making invention that marked the birth of true writing. That invention was the
rebus principle, whereby a pictographic symbol was used not for its original meaning
value but specifically to represent the sound evoked by the name of the symbol. 50
Pictographs used as pictographs lead nowhere. Pictographs used as phonetic symbols
lead to full writing. All inventions of full writing originated from pictographs. Not all
pictographs lead to writing. The history of writing is as full of dead ends as is the
history of human evolution. 50
Among actually existing orthographies, Finnish ranks very high because of its close
correspondence between sounds and symbols. It decreases somewhat for systems such
as German, Spanish, and Russian. It drops further for French, still further for English,
and even further for Chinese. An eminent Chinese linguist has suggested that English
is 75 percent phonetic, Chinese only 25 percent (Chao 1976:92). Many people
mistakenly think that the figure is actually zero for Chinese. This ranking,
impressionistic though it doubtless is, nevertheless comprises a suggestive ranking of
writing systems on the basis of their phoneticity.
Amplifying on the “Duality Principle” enunciated earlier, we can say that the poorer a
writing system is in phonetic representation, the more it compensates, either by design
or by historical accident, by greater use of nonphonetic devices. Some of these
essentially mnemonic devices have been noted: visual puns and numerical expressions.
Other devices include capitalization, grammatical hints such as punctuation, and
165
semantic clues such as those of Chinese notoriety. Still others are the outright
pictographic symbols used in Egyptian writing. 51
The concept “operational unit that enables a script to function” is essential to counter
the imprecise phraseology used by most students of writing, who say that such-and-
such element in writing “represents” this or that element in speech. Thus it is often
said of the Korean writing system, which has letter-symbols and combines these into
groups corresponding to syllables and words, that it “represents” [53] phonemes,
syllables, and words (Taylor 1980). This is true, but it is only true in the same sense
that English orthography “represents” both phonemes and words. 54
#writing system is folk analysis of language
In contrast, Chinese frames invariably contain only one grapheme and are so written
as to occupy exactly the same amount of space as an independent grapheme (e.g., the
characters for ‘horse’ and ‘mother’ cited above). These obvious but secondary
similarities between the two units contribute to the general failure to make a clear
distinction between grapheme and frame in Chinese, which in turn leads to the
common mistake of concentrating attention on the frame as the more conspicuous
and ubiquitous unit. [54]
In all writing systems the grapheme is by far the most important of the two units.
What happens beyond the grapheme is of quite secondary importance, as
demonstrated by the fact that English would be able to function, though with different
degrees of efficiency, whether it separated words or ran them together. The same is
true of Chinese and of all other writing systems. 55
English functions fairly well with its imperfect system of graphemes of the phonemic
or alphabetic type. It could function also with a system of graphemes of the syllabic
type, but with much greater difficulty, because its inventory of spoken syllables, over
8,000 in number, is too large to be represented simply in this way. Chinese functions,
though not easily, with graphemes of the syllabic type. Its inventory of spoken
syllables—only 1,277 counting tones and 398 not counting them—is small enough to
be represented in this way and still allow for the cumbersome addition of semantic
elements to compensate for the imperfections of the phonetic base. 55
Neither English nor Chinese writing, nor the writing of any other language, can
function with graphemes based on any of the semantic levels—discourse, words, or
even morphemes. For the number of the equivalent spoken items at the command of
the average speaker of any language is so enormous that the human mind has shown
no evidence [55] of being able to represent them with graphemes of this sort, despite
its ability to manipulate them by mouth and by ear.
In the light of all this it should be clear that the key question to ask about writing
systems is not the ambiguous one of what they “represent” but the more precise query
as to what are the basic units—the graphemes—that make the system work. 56
#writing = model of language
No script with a zero phonetic component can function as a full system of writing.
One with only a small percentage can. The phonetic operational unit, that is the
grapheme, is the heart of the system. In the total weight of the human body, the heart
counts for little. In the functions that sustain life, it counts for everything. No heart, no
166
life. No phonetics, no writing. Weak hearts can be doctored in various ways. And so,
as will be shown below, can weak phonetic systems. 56
#type 4 #type 3
In approaching the classification the dichotomy between partial and full should be
kept firmly in mind. In particular, it should be noted that all forms of partial writing,
other than the specifically speech-related examples represented by numerical notation,
do not properly belong in a discussion of writing at all. They are as out of place as, in
a book on the history of automobiles, would be a profusely illustrated introductory
section on “Oxcarts of the World.” Oxcarts can never evolve into automobiles, or
pictographs into real writing, unless they change the principles on which they are
based. While it may be legitimate to discuss pictography in a comprehensive study of
human communication, to include them in works devoted to writing only obscures the
issue unless they are clearly and categorically dismissed as limited, dead-end means of
communication. 57
From the use of the rebus principle came first of all the creation of syllabic systems. 57
He urges shunning the [60] word ideographic, as well as pictographic and picture-writing, as
blurring distinctions which students of writing need to keep apart (Sampson 1985:35).
The solid line leading from “logographic” to “morphemic” indicates Sampson’s view
that such writing cannot practically represent anything more than a morpheme, the
smallest unit of meaning in spoken utterances. The dotted line indicates “a
hypothetical rather than an actual possibility” of a writing system with a separate
symbol for every word regardless of the number of morphemes of which it is
composed (Sampson 1985:39). 61
One reason for the almost universal misunderstanding stems from the predisposition
to overvalue the power of pictures and the semantic value of nonphonetic symbols. 63
#type 4
But when Chinese is discussed, this emphasis on the smallest phonological unit is
suddenly abandoned, and one presumes as the basic unit a word or a morpheme.
Instead of taking the grapheme, as was done for other writing systems, discussion
focuses on the frame, or lexeme, as the basis for classification. Chinese characters are
recognized as also representing sounds, but they are generally said to do so as a single
whole, not through the use of component phonetic elements. And while it is
recognized that such phonetic elements exist and enter into the composition of some
Chinese characters (most of them, actually), this fact is generally dismissed because, as
Sampson puts it, “there is nothing regular about this” (Sampson 1985:146) – a line of
reasoning that has led a number of scholars to classify English as also “logographic” or
“ideographic” because of its many discrepancies in spelling (Kono 1968:85;
Zachrisson 1931:5). 64
When the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus propounded the thesis in the first century
B.c. that the Egyptian hieroglyphs functioned as symbols of meaning rather than of
167
sound, he became the first whose name we know of countless purveyors of
misconceptions about the nature of writing. 211
#type 4
In assessing what writers say about writing in general and about individual systems, it
helps to approach the task in terms of a three-tiered analysis based on three
overarching aspects of writing which are often confused but should be clearly
distinguished. These aspects are:
1. graphic principle!
2. representational level
3. graphic symbols
The first aspect involves a choice between two principles of graphic representation,
one depicting or otherwise symbolizing physical objects and thoughts, the other
representing the sounds of spoken utterances. The second aspect involves a choice
among several putative representational levels that are universally acknowledged as
including alphabets and syllabaries. The third aspect involves the choice of a set of
graphic symbols from among the virtually unlimited number of such symbols that can
be created for whatever representational level is selected.
The three aspects are ranked in order of importance. The first is crucial: Only by
choosing to represent sounds, and not merely relying on pictures themselves, do we
get full writing, real writing. The second [211] is less crucial but still important: We
usually get a simpler and more flexible system with phonemic representation, though
syllabic systems can also serve quite well. The third aspect is least important, one is
tempted to say completely insignificant, except insofar as it has to do with matters of
aesthetics and efficiency. 212
This is a pity, for in raising a new factor that might be related to the origin of writing,
Harris skirts but does not pursue one of the major unsolved mysteries in this area.
That mystery is, to what factor or factors must we ascribe the emergence of writing
from primitive pictographs in the cases where this did happen, as against the countless
other cases where it did not? 214
Was there something special about Sumerian society, such as its complex
bureaucracy, which required the use of writing and therefore led to its invention? The
implication in this question that necessity is the mother of invention is rejected by the
author of Ancient Mesopotamia. “It should be kept in mind,” he asserts, “that the use of
writing is not absolutely necessary for recording and controlling complex bureaucratic
transactions” (Oppenheim 1977:230). This view is supported by the highly complex
bureaucratic structure developed by the Incas without benefit of writing. 214
It is perhaps misleading to speak, as is frequently done, of the “invention” of writing.
215
My impression of the earliest stage of writing, not only among the Sumerians but also
among the Chinese and Maya, is that it looks more like an accidental discovery than a
conscious invention.
168
Hence to my mind the term invention is misused when a Chinese author relates
neolithic pottery marks to Shang writing and claims that “the invention and
development of writing in China was a continuous process covering a period of no less
than 6000 years” (Chang 1982:22, quoted in Boltz 1986:432). This view of
“invention” as a long-drawn-out process is simply wrongheaded, whether it is applied
to Sumerian or to Chinese. As Boltz aptly remarks,
Writing systems do not evolve in that way. If a potential for writing arises in the form of
graphs or marks standing for names or words, no matter of what kind or how limited, that
potential must either fulfill [215] itself apace, culminating in a viable full-fledged system, or
wither and die. A ‘half-way’ writing system is no system at all, and there is no way it could
remain in a kind of ‘limbo’ or ‘suspended animation’ for such a long time. If it did not
develop into a real writing system reasonably expeditiously, there would be no reason for
people to preserve its embryonic bits and pieces. As a practical matter a writing system is
something that is achieved either relatively quickly, or not at all.... Writing is an invention,
not the end product of evolutionary development. ... The invention itself was a kind of
realization, and must have been a punctual event [Boltz 1986:432].
But discovery can also be a punctual event, that is, one happening at a moment in
time. I believe that this term accounts better for what appears to be the slow pace at
which writing evolved. If the process of conceiving the idea of writing were part of the
mental process of invention, one would expect a quicker and more thorough
elaboration of the idea. Instead, the development of the rebus principle from its
inception to its refinement into a full system of writing seems to have required several
hundred years in the case of Sumerian. 216
Particularly astonishing is the failure of linguists to insist that writing—real writing,
full writing—first and foremost represents speech, however well or badly it may do its
job, even if its role is acknowledged as not being limited to representing speech.
The basis for my insistence is no mere assumption of the primacy of speech. The
historical reality is that all full systems of writing have been based on speech, and that
no set of non-phonetic symbols has ever shown itself capable of conveying anything
more than an extremely limited range of thought. 217
Only Sumerian, Chinese, and Mayan pictographs can be considered as forerunners of
writing, since only they incorporated the con-[219] ceptually new technique of sound
representation that made it possible to go beyond expressing a few limited ideas to
conveying any and all thought. 220
If it is an error to call Chinese writing “pictographic” because it neither currently
consists of recognizable pictures nor differs from other full systems in ultimately
tracing its ancestry back to pictographic symbols, what then of the frequent use of the
term ideographic? This term refers to the representation of ideas by symbols that are not
necessarily pictographic but may be symbolic in some other way, as in the case of
placing a dot above a horizontal line to convey the idea “above.” Quite ironically, the
term was coined in 1822 by Jean François Champollion when he announced his
decipherment of the Egyptian script. The irony lies in the fact that while many of the
hieroglyphic symbols are recognizable pictures whose original meaning might be
guessed at, Champollion achieved success precisely because he discovered that the
pictures also functioned as phonetic symbols, and that this was their primary function.
169
Yet the term has stuck as an overall designation for the kinds of writing represented by
Egyptian, Sumerian, and Chinese. 221
Still another group includes many people who use the term ideographic because it is the
most popular designation for the characters, just as sweetbread is used as the common
designation for an item of food that is neither sweet nor bread. 222
It is not surprising, therefore, that many people seem unaware of the fact that the
overwhelming majority of graphs are of the SP type made up by combining a
semantic element with a phonetic element. Hence they often look upon Chinese
characters as unitary symbols. That seems to be the case in Logan’s previously
mentioned references to Chinese characters as nonphonetic symbols that depict an
entire word with one sign. Other writers appear to be aware that Chinese characters
contain phonetic as well as semantic components, but they tend to minimize the
former and overemphasize the latter. 223
Traditional Chinese scholars, an elitist group seeming actually to revel in the
complexities of their esoteric script, cannot be expected to have sought anything so
banal as simplifying their writing system by creating a nice regular syllabary. It is a
serious error to equate unsystematic syllabic representation with absence of syllabic
writing. 228
Together with the discussion in earlier chapters they are also enough, I hope, to drive
home the point that there never has been a system of writing that represents language
on the pictographic, ideographic, logographic, morphemic, or featural levels. The
only writing systems that have ever been created, and the only ones that I believe ever
can be created, are those that represent language on the syllabic or phonemic levels.
This does not mean that a writing system is necessarily either purely syllabic or purely
phonemic. For purposes of classification these broad categories will do. But because
there are no pure systems of writing, there is sure to be some mixing of levels. 229
#writing is a model of language
One of the main sources of error about graphic symbols is the failure to distinguish
between form and function. The outward appearance of symbols is, of course, the first
thing that strikes the eye when we look at a sample of writing. Egyptian hieroglyphs
consist of pictures and are therefore (naturally, at first) thought to comprise a symbolic
system of writing; Chinese characters are complex symbols that can be traced back to
pictorial origins and are therefore thought to comprise a pictographic system of
writing.
We forget that the English letter A originated from the picture of an ox head, D from
that of a triangular tent-flap, and F, according to Bloomfield (1933:284), from the
depiction of some sort of horned creature (the horns are more apparent if the letter is
rotated thus: μ., ). In fact, proportionately speaking, English is perhaps more
“pictographic” than Chinese. We recognize that A, D, and F now represent sounds
and that the origin of our letters, if known at all, is irrelevant.
170
But we fail to acknowledge that in Chinese and other “pictographic” systems we also
have to distinguish between form and function and place our main emphasis squarely
on function. 230
On learning that whites were able to convey messages by symbols written on paper,
Sequoya conceived the idea of using the technique for his own language. First he tried
to make a character for each word. He pursued this approach for about a year but,
not surprisingly, abandoned it when he had put down several thousand characters. He
then hit upon the idea of dividing the words into parts or syllables. Not being
confident of his own ability to discriminate sounds, he called on [234] the help of the
more acute ears of his wife and children and finally arrived at what he thought were
all the sounds of his language.
After making an inventory of the sounds, Sequoya set about the task of devising
symbols for them. From an English spelling book in his possession he took over a
number of letters, which he adapted to represent syllabic sounds, as in the case of the
letter H for the sound mi. At one point he had about 200 symbols in his syllabary, but
later, as noted in the earlier discussion of Sequoya’s work in chapter 3, he reduced the
number of symbols to 85. 235
Another case in which we need to look more closely at the form and function of
graphic symbols involves the Naxi or Moso, one of the minority peoples in
southwestern China. The Naxi are said to have two separate traditions of “writing,”
one primarily pictographic, the other syllabic (Ramsey 1987:264-270; Li 1957; Li,
Zhang, and He 1953; Fu 1986a, 1986b). Thousands of manuscripts of the first have
been found, but under a dozen of the second. Many of the symbols in the syllabic
script were borrowed from Chinese and Yi writing. The pictographic symbols have
served chiefly as mnemonic devices to remind shamans of the details of stories they
already know by heart. In this respect the symbols are reminiscent of the pictographs
used as memory aids by American Indians in chanting their songs. They are,
however, much more aesthetically appealing, as they comprise daintily drawn
pictographs that, like Egyptian hieroglyphic symbols, depict clearly recognizable
objects.
An intriguing aspect of the Naxi pictographs that has been widely noted is the fact
that they sometimes represent sounds. For example, a drawing of a pair of eyes is
sometimes used for the idea fate, because the Naxi words for “eye” and “fate” are
pronounced alike. Yet the [235] Naxi have made little use of such rebus symbols.
Does this mean we are confronted here with another invention of writing, one which,
uniquely among writing systems, started on the road to full writing but never got
there? 236
#bound writing #rebus
Their use of pictographs as phonetic symbols came after their creation of a purely
syllabic script, and therefore differs fundamentally from the Sumerian, Chinese,
Mayan, and Egyptian use of the rebus principle to create phonetic systems. 237
#rebus
Even more exceptional than the article just cited is a fascinating study which presents
the first fully documented case in the history of writing of an illiterate’s creating an
alphabetic script of amazing sophistication. It tells the story of the enigmatic Shong
Lue Yong, a messianic Hmong figure described by his biographers as “apparently a
171
genius, with extraordinary insight and ability to analyze, a man with a sharp linguistic
sense” and revered by his followers as “Savior of the People, Mother of Writing”
(Smalley, Chia, and Gnia, forthcoming). This account of the remarkable
achievements of an illiterate mountaineer stands in welcome contrast to the lack of
understanding shown by many scholars. 237
To begin with, Logan misrepresents Chinese as “pictographic.” Moreover, while “not
suggesting a direct causal connection between the alphabet and the other
innovations” which he mentions as emerging exclusively in the West, such as “codified
law, monotheism, abstract theoretical science, formal logic, and individualism,” his
whole book does make such a connection in his only superficially altered claim that
“the phonetic alphabet played a particularly dynamic role within this constellation of
events and provided the ground or framework for the mutual development of these
innovations.” All this came about because “Eastern and Western thought patterns are
as polarized as their respective writing systems.” 246
The earliest stages of writing appear always to comprise a mixture of pictographs used
for their semantic value and pictographs used for their phonetic value. In subsequent
stages the symbols become stylized to the point where all connection with the earlier
pictographic forms is lost, but the use of symbols in the two indicated values continues.
In current systems the use of nonphonetic symbols is illustrated by the examples of
numerals and a few other symbols such as the ampersand and asterisk. 255!
All of these techniques, together with the various nonphonetic devices noted earlier,
comprise an aspect of the writing universal, which I have labeled the duality principle,
whereby writing systems convey meaning by nonphonetic as well as phonetic means.
261
#writing as a model of langauge
But whether these jerry-built structures work well or badly is generally a secondary
matter. Efficiency is the concern only of the few who can conceive of tinkering with a
script with this consideration in mind. Simplicity is the concern primarily of those who
consider it essential to extending literacy and raising the cultural level of the masses.
Most people do not think to question systems that have been handed down to them.
262
The most extreme example of rigor mortis in the area of writing is the continued use
of entire writing systems (e.g., Latin and classical Chinese) for centuries and even
millennia after the demise of the spoken languages on which they were originally
based. 263
It is high time to acknowledge that all writing is a graphic extension of the uniquely
human attribute of speech. 269
#writing as a model of language
172
1990–1999
Smalley, William A., Chia Koua Vang, and Gnia Yee Yang. 1990.
Mother of writing : the origin and development of a Hmong
messianic script. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
#hmong
There come times in the history of a people when they long for a change in the
intolerable situation they have been experiencing. Literature con-[10] tains many
outstanding expressions of such longing, from the ancient Jews captive in Bablyon, in
the spirituals sung by black slaves in the United States. Such feelings are also
expressed in the tirades of Hitler and the fulminations of the Ku Klux Klan.
This longing may bring concerted effort to construct a more satisfying culture, an
effort sometimes known as a “revitalization movement.” Such movements may be
“adoptive,” in that they take over major elements from another culture; they may be
“syncretistic,” in mingling the new with the old; or they may be “nativistic,” seeking to
change life back to how it used to be, or to change it in ways that seem more in
keeping with traditional cultural values [fn]. The movements of Pa Chai and Shong
Lue were nativistic movements in that sense.
Such movements have arisen all over the world where cultures clash or where the
physical or economic situation becomes intolerable, or where values are threatened by
changes taking place in part of the culture, or where people feel that they are losing
their roots and can no longer cope. The Plains Indian Sun Dance cult and Melanesian
cargo cults are famous examples. 11
#motivations
Messages from a deity are frequent elements in nativistic movements. Sometimes the
messenger is merely human, a “prophet” who hears from the deity and who transmits
the message to the people. 11
Nativistic movements are not unusual responses to cultural stress. 11
Unlike many nativistic movements, which are either “revivalistic” (seeking to bring
back the imagined and glorified past), or “perpetuative” (seeking to preserve existing
culture), there was a strongly “corrective” note in Shong Lue’s message. It was rooted
in traditional values, but he saw the present intolerable situation as being due, in part,
to flaws within Hmong culture, particularly disunity and lack of cooperation. 12
But the system [source version] is not considered obsolete by those who carry on the
traditions established by Shong Lue Yang. It is still the “source” in more than a
historical sense. As subsequent systems were developed, Shong Lue himself saw all of
them as latent within the Source Version. 68
[PK: Hmong script went through three significant versions, each more efficient, elegant
and simplified.]
#chapter 10
173
[PK: One advantage of Hmong over Eskayan in terms of efficiency is the fact that it
represented an existing language]
[Table 20. Number of symbols in each system of Pahawh Hmong = 13 vowels, 8
tones (7 diacritics) and 20 x 3 consonants for the Final version. Third Stage version
has 26 vowels, 8 tones (4 diacritics) and 20x3 consonants.] 74
Unlike the few Pahawh Hmong consonant and vowel symbols which have the
appearance of letters from other alphabets, but which do not have the same values
they have in other alphabets, the punctuation marks match both the form and
function of other systems. 77
Like the Greek and Roman numeral systems of earlier civilizations, the Source
Version does not have a zero. 79
In Stage Two Reduced Version of the Pahawh Hmong, the essential zero (called zauv
[symbol]) was added, and a modern arithmetic system adopted. 80
-Hmong has symbols for arithmetic functions
[Table 25. Note that Hmong ‘1’ looks like Hindu-Arabic 4, ‘2’ looks like Hindu-
Arabic 3. Not commented on by Smalley et al] 80
It is not possible to do conventional arithmetic with the earlier system. 81
[PK: Unlike Pahawh, Eskayan has no symbols for periods of time, eg year, day, month,
season. ]
[The H’mong contributors to this book who believe in the literal truth of the
supernatural origins of the Hmong script] are puzzled, for example, by why Pahawh
Hmong punctuation is much like that of other languages, although very little else in
the system has any significant resemblance to other ways of writing. And a
supernatural explanation for the writing system does not detract from their wonder at
Shong Lue’s genius or at the scope of what he did. 86
[PK: Like Eskayan, there are multiple theories and interpretations on the origins of the
script.] 86
This lack of any ability to write on the part of the great majority of the Hmong did not in
the least show any lack of interest. On the contrary, no doubt struck with the importance
placed on written documents by the Chinese administration, the Hmong dreamed of a
writing system to fall from heaven as their very own. This theme recurred constantly
through the different messianic movements...
According to the messianic myth, a king would be born, or already had been born to unite
the Hmong and deliver them from subjection to other peoples. The king or his prohet did
not fail to announce that writing had been revealed to him. That in itself was the sign of
the heavenly commission. (Lemoine 1972a) 88
The fact that consonants follow vowels in writing although they precede them in
speech may indicate that he perceived the syllable as a unit, and the consonant as
modifying the vowel core of the syllable. 93
#chapter 5
So it seems likely that although Shong Lue’s Source Version was inspired by writing of
various kinds around him, ones which he could not read, it was not modeled after
them. Rather, in a process anthropologists call “stimulus diffusion,” Shong Lue was
stimulated to perceive the possibility of writing Hmong as he saw other languages
174
being written around him. But he invented his system of writing independently of
those existing sytems. The Pahawh Hmong was based on Shong Lue’s folk linguistics,
his perception of the Hmong language. 93
Chia Koua Vang once asked Shong Lue about the shapes of the char-[94]acters in
Pahawh Hmong. Shong Lue replied that if you examined all of the languages of the
world you would duplicate somewhere every character of the Pahawh Hmong, that all
possible shapes are to be found somewhere. He was implying that there is a limited
number of possible configurations for a letter, and that it was not surprising that some
symbols in a different system would look alike [fn]. 95
For a theory of influence to be convincing, the similarities must in some way be
consistently patterned, or must require some other explanation than coincidence. An
example of such a case would be one in which both the forms and their use or
pronunciation values were the same as in another writing system. There is no
consistent pattern to indicate that the Pahawh Hmong symbols were taken from other
languages, except for some of the punctuation. Even where there is a resemblance in a
few letters, the resemblance does not seem greater than chance. In very few cases does
the resemblance in form correspond to a resemblance in pronunciation. 95
Shong Lue shared the view that writing systems for different languages should be
different. He said God (Vaj [symbol]) had a different writing system for each
language, but some people had not received their writing system from God, and so
they borrowed a writing system from another people. In his view, the world was
divided into two parts. In Asia, many (but not all) peoples were given their own
writing systems; but in the other part of the world, in Europe, most people did not
receive their own writing system, but took systems from each other instead.
The value of the Pahawh Hmong, to many of its advocates, is partly in that
uniqueness, whether they believe in its supernatural origin or not. To them the
Romanized writing of Hmong is useful for some people and some purposes, but it is
not Hmong. 95
#chapter 5
A different kind of evidence that Shong Lue was not following an existing model when
he developed his writing system comes from the numerals in the Source Version. It
seems likely that a literate person, or anyone following the model of another language,
would feed the need [95] for a zero. The Source Version numerals, as we have seen,
are not arithmetic symbols but logographs representing existing words for numbers in
Hmong. 96
Syllabic writing is easier for the non-literate to invent than alphabetic writing because
it does not require analytical separation of spoken vowels from spoken consonants, or
perception of some kind of structure within the syllable. […] If Shong Lue was
working on the writing of Khmu’ and Hmong at the same time, the differences
between the two languages may have helped him make the analytical separation
because Khmu’ has two relevant structural difference from Hmong. Khmu’, in
contrast to Hmong, does not have a tone system, and Hmong, in contrast to Khmu’,
does not have syllable-final consonants. 96
The Hmong have a tradition of pseudowriting practiced by certain people who
foretell the future and who are considered to have supernatural knowledge. […] The
phenomenon is reminiscent of glossolalia, or “speaking in tongues,” which occurs in
175
some forms of Christianity. [fn] Glossolalia, of course, is typically oral rather than
written. The glossolalist produces fluent, speech-like utterances which sound like a
foreign language. There are people who claim to interpret the message of the
glossolalist, but nobody can break it down into words, or explain what the different
parts mean. It gives the illusion of language, but is not. 97
[PK: Unlike Eskayan there is no essentialist mythology in Hmong script, it is recognised as
artificial to a large extent]
[PK: Third stage was used to record knowledge on anatomy, traditional Hmong medicine,
healing practices, a poem about Hmong history. ]109
All of these texts, written in notebooks in the Pahawh Hmong Third Stage Reduced
Version, reflected a strong desire to preserve Hmong cultural traditions in the
deteriorating situation. 109
But what has kept the Pahawh Hmong alive is not its usefulness for recording things
Hmong and for correspondence. The greatest importance of the Pahawh Hmong to
many of those who use it is its symbolism. In the minds of people sympathetic to it, the
Pahawh Hmong represents a unique Hmong identity and equality with the other
languages around them in Asia, most of which possess their own individual scripts.
For users of the Pahawh Hmong, it also represents their doing something for
themselves instead of foreigners’ adapting other people’s writing systems to their
language. 134
Anderson, Benedict. [1991] 2003. Imagined communities:

reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism. Pasig City:
Anvil Publishing.
But Christendom, the Isalmic Ummah, and even the Middle Kingdom – which,
though we think of it today as Chinese, imagined itself not as Chinese, but as [12]
central – were imagineable largely through the medium of a sacred language and
written script. 13
#imagined communities #writing systems: theory
Yet if the sacred silent languages were the media through which the great global
communities of the past were imagined, the reality of such apparitions depended on
an idea largely foreign to the contemporary Western mind: the non-arbitrariness of
the sign. The ideograms of Chinese, Latin, or Arabic were emanations of reality not
randomly fabricated representations of it. […] There is no idea here of a world so
separated from language that all languages are equidistant (and thus interchangeable)
signs for it. In effect, ontological reality is apprehensible only through a single,
privileged system of re-presentation: the truth-language of Church Latin, Qur’anic
Arabic, or Examination Chinese. 14
#imagined communities #primacy of writing
Today, the Thai government actively discourages attempts by foreign missionaries to
provide its hill-tribe minorities with their own transcription-systems and to develop
publications in their own languages: the same government is largely indifferent to
what these minorities speak. 45
#primacy of writing
176
Daniels, Peter T. 1992. “The syllabic origin of writing and the
segmental origin of the alphabet.” In The linguistics of literacy,
edited by Pamela Downing, Susan D Lima and Michael
Noonan. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
It is no coincidence that the two oldest writing systems, Sumerian and Chinese, are
both logosyllabic and both recorded languages of basically monosyllabic structure —
that is, in both languages morphemes generally comprise a single syllable.[fn] 83
To briefly summarize the hypothesis, writing systems were independently devised for
syllabically organized languages because only in such languages is notating a word the
same as notating a syllable: the most salient unit of language coincides with [83] the
most salient unit of speech, facilitating the recognition of the rebus principle. 84
Writing is a system of more or less permanent marks representing an utterance in such
a way that it can be recovered more or less exactly without the intervention of the
utterer.
Grammatogeny is the devising of a writing system.
A script may be adapted: Examples include Sumerian cuneiform used in modified form
throughout the ancient Near East, as for Akkadian (Semitic), Human (unaffiliated),
and Hittite (Indo-European), among others (Edzard 1980, Rosenkranz 1978); Chinese
characters used in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam (Yamagiwa 1969, Nguyen 1960); and
the alphabet of Greek used throughout Europe in slightly differing versions after
turning into those of Etruscan and Latin.
An adaptation can be a loan, where a script is created for another language based on
the grammatogenist’s own script; an example is the (legendary?) creation by Mesrop
of scripts for Armenian and Georgian, using the Greek (and Syriac) model. The
International Phonetic Alphabet is a loan from the roman alphabet incorporating
existing variants and a minority of newly coined characters.
An adaptation can be a borrowing, where a script is adapted for the grammatogenist’s
own language based on a perhaps imperfect understanding of the script. The Caroline
Islands script is an important example. [84]
A script may be created, when symbols are invented in the imagination of the
grammatogenist (or imitated from some source without regard for their existing
values). Among created scripts this results in an important distinction, characterized
and exemplified below.
A script creation is unsophisticated when the inventor is illiterate — unfamiliar with the
nature of any existing script — and unaware of the findings of phonetic science.
A script creation is sophisticated when the inventor can read.
A logographic script assigns a morpheme (usually a word) to each symbol in the writing
system.
A logosyllabic script, which serves a language with predominantly monosyllabic
morphemes, uses logograms for their syllabic values as well as their semantic values.
177
A syllabary assigns a syllable possible in the language to each symbol. An abjad[fn]
assigns a consonant to each symbol.! An alphabet assigns a segment (consonant or
vowel) to each symbol. A neosyllabary[fn] assigns a consonant plus a to each basic
symbol[fn] and modifies the symbol in a (fairly) systematic fashion to denote the other
vowels or absence of vowel. 85
Well over a dozen recent inventions of writing systems have been described. [fn]
While it has been customary to consider them as a group, this procedure obscures the
fundamental distinction into two types of grammatogeny; it is more revealing to divide
them by the criterion of “sophistication”. Recognizing the distinction between
unsophisticated and sophisticated scripts leads to the identification of the two kinds of
script creation. They must be kept apart in investigating the origin of writing.
Unsophisticated grammatogeny is characterized by absence of correlation
between phonetic facts and graphic shape; by arbitrary or nonexistent standard order
of signs (“alphabetical” order); and by absence of a phonetically organized
arrangement to facilitate teaching the script. 85
[PK: All of these attributes apply equally to any kind of writing! I.e, there is no correlation
between phonetics and shape (except perhaps in Hangul); the order of the alphabets is
arbitrary in all cases I’m aware of (standardised order is imposed and retrospective) and
pedagogical systems pop up on a need-to-teach basis]
Our third example is the Alaska script devised by Uyaqoq, between 1899 and 1905,
and he too began by trying to invent a symbol for every word of his native Central
Yupik (Eskimo; Krauss 1973: 823); but, given the well-known polysynthetic nature of
Eskimo languages, this was not possible. Uyaqoq again arrived at a syllabary, but in
this case not by inventing it sign by sign; instead his syllables evolved out of the
unsuccessful word signs (in a recapitulation of the Gelb-style (1963: 201) “progress”
from logogram to syllabogram). This time there are CV syllables with diacritics for the
small number of possible finals. Schmitt is able to describe the successive stages of the
development in considerable detail. 86
The Cree syllabary, ancestral to various Native orthographies of Canada for which it
has been adapted, is always attributed to a missionary, James Evans, but was actually
designed by Henry B. Steinhauer, a Cree in his employ, for his congregation (R.
Wright, pers. comm.). 87
The most recent grammatogeny on record is the neosyllabary devised by Shaykh
Bakri Sapalō for the principal language of Ethiopia, Oromo (Cushitic). The symbols
are new; the organizing principle is that of the Ethiopian neosyllabary, with a basic
shape (not used at all in writing) to which are added marks for the five short vowels,
the five long vowels, vowellessness, and consonant length (Hayward and Hassan
1981). Provision for vowel and consonant length and for vowellessness are taken from
the Arabic abjad, but are not (as there) optional. In addition, extra characters are
provided for sounds absent from Oromo but found in Amharic, Arabic, or English.
The Hmong grammatogeny described by Smalley et al. (1990) is quite exceptional.
It is clear that it is important to distinguish sophisticated from unsophisticated
grammatogenies. Only in this way does it become apparent that several characteristics
of writing systems that seem normal — natural — to us are not to be expected from
ancient scripts. Syllabaries, not logographies or alphabets, are the norm, even though
in each of the well over a dozen known cases the stimulus happened to be an
alphabet, roman or arabic. Phonotypy, under which may be included the
178
neosyllabaries that write particular consonants and vowels consistently, is not found.
When a fixed order of characters is established (and this is by no means always the
case), it is based on neither shape nor phonetics but is arbitrary (O’Connor 1991).
Furthermore, these new scripts serve languages with fairly simple canonic structures to
their syllables — neither Caucasian languages nor English has hosted a new script —
and they represent CV syllables only, usually with a limited number of syllable-closing
“diacritics”, which are not graphically similar to the symbols for what we recognize as
the corresponding syllable-initial consonants. 88
But first we can ask whether there are reasons for the exclusive dominance (for
modern grammatogeny) of strictly phonetic writing over logographic writing, and of
syllabic writing over alphabetic writing, the allegedly superior type. The former is
easily explained; the languages for which logography was tried, notably Cherokee and
Yupik, are fairly to notoriously agglutinative, and there proved to be simply too many
different words for practicality.
It is the preference for syllabic over alphabetic writing that seems puzzling. From our
vantage in an alphabetic culture, it is clear that for the languages — most of them —
that do not have the simple phonology of Japanese, the alphabet is superior to the
syllabary. A syllabary would not work for English; Linear B certainly didn’t fit Minoan
Greek very well (Sampson 1985: 73). But for Japanese, Chinese, Sumerian, Mayan, it
is quite adequate. And it is quite natural. 89
There is thus a naturalness to the syllable-sized stretch of the stream of speech. While
the syllable in the abstract has not yet been satisfactorily characterized, [fn], yet
syllables can be recognized and identified; the syllable proves to be the most salient
unit of the stream of speech. There is, similarly, a most-salient unit of the stream of
language: the word. Just as the syllable, and not the segment, is what the lay person
produces when asked for a small bit of speech, so is the word, and not the morpheme,
what the lay person produces in appropriate situations: a self-correction, a request for
repetition. 89
The very fact of the dominance of syllabaries in grammatogeny is evidence for the
primacy of the syllable at some stage of linguistic behavior. 91
It seems unlikely that Chinese writing, which apparently began in the mid-second
millennium B.C., was instigated by any knowledge of the writing of Mesopotamia.[fn]
For Chinese script begins with pictograms and remains logographic, and by 1500
B.C. cuneiform had lost all reference to the original pictures, and perhaps the
representational origins of the characters had already been forgotten.[fn]. If an
intelligent, illiterate Chinese had known of Mesopotamian writing, why would s/he,
like Sequoyah, not have begun by [94] directly imitating phonographic writing and
producing a set of syllabograms? 95
I agree with Gelb [1963: 141-43] that acrophony is not a very good explanation for
the sounds of the alphabet [Daniels 1991a], and this is confirmed by the explanation
of the ease of learning to write Sequoyah’s syllables. Saying the word gives you the
name, the essence, of what you have to write; but to spell a word you need first to
segment it, a fairly unnatural task [pace Bundgard 1965: 32-43], and then identify the
segments as found — perhaps allophonically quite different from those at the
beginning of a word — with the initial segments of twenty to thirty letter names. 97
179
One Classical scholar with his disciples has gone so far as to suggest that true literacy,
and hence civilization, did not exist before the “literate revolution” of ancient Greece
(Havelock 1982, 1986; cf. Robb 1978).
But why do we feel that phonemes, or segments, are the best thing for a script to
record? R. Harris (1980: 6-18; 1986) asserts that the reason segment-sized units are
favored by Western linguists is that we write with an alphabet, and not vice versa —
as was believed by orthodox phonemicists […] 98
In fact, linguistics has been telling us for many years that phonemes are not a very
good representation of the organization of speech. I have in mind not just Halle’s
(1962) discrediting of the taxonomic phoneme, but rather the systematic description of
phonetic features (e.g. Jakobson, Fant and Halle 1952) that underlies it. 98
Linguists tend to express surprise when the carefully worked out, perfectly efficient,
strictly phonemic alphabets they present to the unlettered are rejected by the
ungrateful. 99
Speakers of minority languages are behaving most reasonably when they want their
new script to be compatible with the orthography of the prestige language (Nida 1954;
Smalley 1959); or when they want their script to be utterly different from that of the
dominant language (e.g. Burnaby and Anthony 1979). Annamalai and Dahal (1986)
consider many of the problems involved in literacy planning; in general, linguists
ought to consider the practical, experience-based advice of Smalley (1963b).!The much
maligned orthography of English itself is usually recognized by linguists to be a pretty
good system, not in need of reform, precisely because it is not phonemic, but
morphophonemic. Actually, though, for the basic vocabulary, the several hundred or
so of the most common words, it is best to regard English spelling as primarily
logographic: regardless of how many spelling-to-sound regular correspondences there
are, and how much information about derivational morphology and etymology is
packed into the spelling of a word, the spellings must be memorized. The
pronunciations of cove, love, move cannot be predicted, no matter how justified the
different realizations of -ove are by either history or underlying form. 100
A genuinely syllable-based phonology might prove fruitful, along the lines suggested
by Haugen (1956). What if there were no place for segment notation in linguistic
descriptions at all: what if morphemes were composed of syllable-sized units — they
would be notated in something like kana — that were articulated into features that
wouldn’t have to be coterminous? What sort of processes would go on at their
interfaces? What about subsyllabic morphemes, like the English plural marker?
Remembering always that brains can’t be assumed to work like computers, would this,
perhaps not maximally efficient, scheme come a little closer to the workings of the
mind than the compulsively neat formulation now in vogue? 100
More practically, might a syllable-oriented approach to adult illiteracy eradication
prove more efficacious than the doubtless myriad systems already tried? It should not
use alien characters (as in Gleitman and Rozin’s (1973) experiments), but syllables,
starting with CV syllables, presented as units in standard orthography. This would
eliminate the problem of “blending” (where buh-a-tuh is supposed to be fused, by
saying it fast, into bat) decried by reading specialists (e.g. I. Liberman et al. 1974: 211)
and would avoid the introduction of outlandish nonce digraphs as in the Initial
Teaching Alphabet (Downing 1965) that may be effective but merely need to be
180
unlearned. It is rewarding to consider that an investigation of primeval literacy might
lead to advances in a single individual’s achieving literacy. 101
Downing, Pamela, and Susan D Lima. 1992. “Introduction.” In

The linguistics of literacy, edited by Pamela Downing, Susan D
Lima and Michael Noonan. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
In other cases, however, we can see profound and regular linguistic differences in both
the sentence-level structure and the devices that effect the overall coherence of texts of
the two types. As Chafe (“Information flow in speaking and writing”) points out,
though, many of these differences will be apparent only in natural texts, invisible in
the isolated, artificial sentences often elicited by linguists as a basis for grammatical
description. Those of us who have badgered informants to give us the equivalents, in
their language, of sentences like “The farmer kills the duckling” have failed to
appreciate that sentences of this sort are in fact rarely used in speech. Yet, in order to
refine our understanding of the differences between written and spoken language, we
must pay careful attention to details of precisely this sort. It is not enough to
concentrate simply on what it is possible to say, as opposed to what it is possible to write.
Rather, it is of supreme importance to study what people actually say and write, for it is
in these tendencies of “performance” that we will begin to be able to discern the
essential differences between written and spoken language, and to link these
differences to their social and psychological sources. x
Written language, by contrast, is typically produced under less time pressure than is
speech, and readers are typically free to set their own pace in assimilating the text. For
this reason, written texts differ from spoken texts in not only such features as
vocabulary choice and syntactic complexity, but also in their failure to conform to
principles such as the “one new idea” and the “light subject” constraints. The
differences between written and spoken language, in other words, are not arbitrary
but derive, at least in part, from the different circumstances under which they are
produced and received. xi
Although the syllable may be difficult for the linguist to define, it is easy for the listener
to recognize and identify; in this regard it clearly differs from the phoneme.
Development of a syllabary is especially likely when the language to be represented
(such as Sumerian, Chinese, or Mayan) is one in which most words are monosyllabic.
In such cases, Daniels argues, the most salient unit of language (the word) coincides
with the most salient unit of [xiii] the speech stream (the syllable), facilitating
recognition of the rebus principle, which can be used to develop symbols for words
denoting non-picturable concepts.
Faber’s thesis stands in close agreement with those of Aronoff and Daniels. In her
chapter (“Phonemic segmentation as epiphenomenon: Evidence from the history of
alphabetic writing”), she uses historical analysis to argue that phonemic segmentation
is epiphenomenal. Faber considers and rejects the claim that the phoneme is a valid
unit of linguistic analysis. Like Aronoff, she notes that a major argument for the
linguistic validity of the phoneme is the existence of alphabetic orthographies, the
standard assumption being that such orthographies would not have arisen if humans
were unable to segment the speech stream into phoneme-sized units. Faber calls this
argument into question, concluding that the development of the alphabet was more
an historical accident than evidence of the linguistic primacy of phonemes. xiv
181
Faber concludes that unlike the syllable, the phoneme is best categorized as a
metalinguistic rather than a linguistic unit. She ends with an admonishment that the
mere fact that it is possible to describe phonological systems in terms of phonemic
segments should not compel linguists to describe phonological systems in this way. xiv
Several chapters in this section present evidence that literacy has profound effects on
the cognitive processes involved in producing and comprehending speech, effects that
have been largely ignored in linguistic theorizing. Other chapters focus on how the
nature of one’s orthography affects representation in the mental lexicon and the
processing strategies used in reading. xvi
McArthur, Douglas. 1992. “Motivation in the forms of signs.”

Sign Language Studies 77:339-344.
[…]a sign form must be distinctive; there must be a satisfactory compromise between
reduction of effort and distinctiveness. 341
#iconity #conventionalisation and compression
Note too that window dressing is comparable: objects that individually have no
memorable qualities may be selected and arranged to have an overall effect. 342
#conventionalisation and compression #combinatoriality
Scott, William Henry. 1992. Looking for the prehispanic Filipino :

and other essays in Philippine history. Quezon City: New Day
Publishers.
It was Chirino who first stated that it was a rare Filipino or Filipina who could not
read and write, an opinion repeated by his Jesuit brothers Francisco Colín and
Franciso Alcina in the next century. That this is a fond exaggeration is inidcated by a
number of Spanish documents containing notarial statements that the litigants did not
sign because they did not know how to. 104
#literacy
Literacy came late to the Visayans. Both Colín and Alcina thought in the 1660’s that
it had been received from the Tagalogs only a few years before the arrival of the
Spaniards. Actually, it seems to have come a little later. Antonio Pigafetta said that
Rajah Kolambu of Limawasa was amazed to see writing for the first time in 1521;
Miguel Loarca said the “Pintados” had no writing at all in 1582; and when Legazpi’s
royal notary took the sworn testimony of a number of Visayans and Borneans in
Bohol in 1565 – including the famous Si Katuna – none of them were able to sign
their names. As it happens, the only known specimens of Visaya penmanship today
are the signatures of Bernadino Dimabasa and Maria Mutia of Bantay Island which
appear in their 1647 divorce proceedings. In Alcina’s day it was assumed that
Philippine literacy was ultimately derived from non-Filipino Muslims because the first
literature Filipinos the Spaniards encountered were the Muslim rulers of Manila.
Thus the Visayans referred to the Philippine script as “Moro writing,” perhaps with a
smug sense of Christian satisfaction.
But Visayan oral literature was well-developed, sophisticated, and ubiquitous
in Visayan life, and it was created and presented by artists rewarded for their skill.
182
This is amply shown by dicitonaries and descriptions from the early 17th century […]
105
#literacy #philippines #visayan literature
The Bisayan alphabet by Pavón (but dated 1543 and credited to 17th-century
Francisco Daza, SJ) is erroneously presented [in the Code of Kalantiaw] as a phonetic
alphabet rather than a genuine Philippine syllabary, and contains a blatant
hispanization – “The modulated ‘N’ they supplied by their combined letter ‘NG’ and
the guttural sign,” the guttural sign being nothing other than a large tilde. 163
#philippines
Tsing, Anna. 1993. In the realm of the diamond queen: Marginality

in an out-of-the-way place. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press.
The descendants of the older brother, Si Ayuh (or Sandayuhan), are the Meratus,
whereas the Banjar are descendants of the younger brother, Bambang Basiwara. […]
Both brothers, for example, had animals: Bambang Basiwara kept control over his—
the domestic animals; Si Ayuh’s animals all escaped into the forest and became wild
game. Thus, Meratus hunt for their meat. God gave both brothers Holy Books, but Si
Ayuh ate his. Thus Meratus look for spiritual inspiration within the body, without the
guid-[56]ance of the written word. 57
#folk literacy
Ma Salam worked hard to achieve a regional cultural literacy. He spent hours
perfecting his signature—to make it appropriately unreadable—so he could sign
letters without embarrassment. 59
#folk literacy #unintelligibility
Diaz, Marius V. 1994. Aklat sanayan ng Abakadang Rizaleo.

Manila: Katipunan Gatrizal.
Tungkol say May-akda About the author

Si Marius V. Diaz ay pangkalahatang Marius V. Diaz was general president of
pangulo ng Katipunang Gratizal na kung Katipunang Gratizal from whence his
saan ay Araw Gatdagat ang kanyang Araw Gatdagat title. His appointment to
pamagat. Ang kanyang pagkakahirang s this position was confirmed by Vice
akatungkulang ito ay pinagtibay ng President Joseph E. Estrada on the 24th
Pangalawang Pangulong Joseph E. of March, 1993, in Manila.
Estrada noong ika-24 ng Marso, 1993, sa
Maynila. He was born in Calapan, Or. Mindoro in
1942, child and heir to Valino Diaz
Isinilang siya sa Calapan, Or. Mindoro Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. Married to
noong 1942, supling ng angkang Valino Cynthia Alberto Navotas, Metro Manila,
at Diaz ng Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. they have two children, Jasmine and Laya
183
Kasal kay Cynthia Alberto ng Navotas, Mahar Khali.
Metro Manila, sila ay may dalawang
anak na sina Laya Hasmin at Mahar
Khali. After pursuing a Masters in philosophy at
Matapos ang kursong pang-maestro ng the seminary in Tagaytay SVD, in 1966
pilosopia sa seminario ng SVD sa he matriculated from a Masters degree in
Tagaytay, nagmatrikula siya noong 1966 communication with the Ateneo de
sa kursong pang-maestro ng Sining Pang- Manila University under the direction of
komunikasyon sa pamantasan ng Ateneo Dr. Josefina Patron.
de Manila sa pamamahala ni Dr Josefina During the years 1970-1972 he was an
Patron. independent scholar in Israel, Greece,
Noong mga taong 1970-1972 ay natungo Italy, France and England which he
siya sa mga bansang Israel, Grecia, Italia, studied on its own research and made a
Francia at Inglaterra na kung saan ay study of the Roman Catholic Church
pinag-aralan niya sa sariling pananaliksik during the period of the Inquisition and
ang mga ginawa at ginawi ng Simbahang the Crusades against Muslims.
Katoliko Romano partikular s apanahon He continued his research at the history
ng Inkisisyon at ng mga krusada laban sa of the Church in his country, until he
mga Muslim. finished his book and writings on the
Ipinagpatuloy niya ang kanyang “namumwesto” of Mount Banahaw. This
pagsasaliksik sa kasysayan ng Simbahang research led to the formation of the
natukoy sa sariling bansa, hanggang sa affiliation concept he dubbed
humantong siya sa mga aklat at sulat ni “Pamamathala” and “Pamathalaan”
“namumwesto” sa Bundok Banahaw. which he also discussed with Dr.
Nagbunga ang pananaliksik niyang ito sa Consolacion Alaras at the time of his
pagbubuo ng magka-akibat na doctorate dissertation on the philosophy
konseptong binansagan niyang at the University of the Philippines, and
“Pamamathala” at “Pamathalaan” na published the book in 1988.
siya namang tinalakay ni Dr. Consolacion One outcome of his research is the
Alaras sa kanyang disertasyon sa establishment of Rizaleo, also in 1988, as
doktorado ng pilosopia sa Unibersidad ng a school, institute and university of
Pilipinas, at inilathala sa knyang aklat indigenous knowledge and indigenous
noong 1988. civilization outlined in thought and ideals
Isa pasa ibinunga ng kanyang of Rizal. The alphabet introduces a little
pananaliksik ay ang pagtatatag ng book project Rizaleo under Katipunang
Rizaleo, noon ding taong 1988, bilang Gatrizal. n.p.
isang paaralan, surian at pamantasan nga
mga taal na kaalaman at katutubong
kabihasnan na nakabalangkas sa diwa’t
adhikain ni Rizal. Ang abakadang
ipinakikilala ng munting aklat na ito ay
proyekto ng Rizaleo sa ilalim ng
Katipunang Gatrizal. n.p.
National Historical Institute, Pagbati at Pa-alaala
184
Sa kanyang Filipinas Dentro de Cien Años (Ang Pilipinas sa Loob ng Sandaang Taon),
binigyan pansin ni Dir. Jose Rizal ang mga tanging alaala ng sambayanang Pilipino sa
lumipas na unti-unting nawawala. Ito ay ang mga katutubong sinulat, mga awit, mga
tula at mga alituntunin. Natutuhan ng mga Pilipinong ikayhiya ang sadya’t taal na
kanila, at purihi’t bigyang halaga ang mga bagay na banyaga.
Sa ika-30 ng Disyembre, 1996, ay ipagdiriwang ng sambayanang Pilipino ang
ikasandaang taon ng pagka-martir ni Dr. Rizal. Kung kaya’t napapanahon na at
naangkop ant isang pagbabalik aral sa mga pamanang iniwan ng ating bayani. Isa na
rito ay ang pag-aaral at pagpapalimbag ng Abakadang Rizaleo sa masiglang
pagtataguyod nt Katipunang Gatrizal.
Ang Pambansang Suriang Pangkasaysayan (National Historical Institute) ay malugod
na bumabati sa Katipunang Gatrizal sa pagsisimula ng isang natatanging gawaing
nauuukol sapagpapayaman ng pamanang historko-kultural.
Inaasahan ng Surian na ang kasalukuyang alinlahi ng maga Pilipino ay matutong
magpahalaga sa nakaraan at pagtangkilik dito, upang sa loob ng isang dantaon ay
hindi ganap na mabigo ang diwa’t kaisipan ni Rizal.
— Dr. Serafin D. Quiason
n.p.
Paliwang at Paanyaya Explanation and Invitation

Ang pagbubuo at pagsasa-computer ng The development and integration of
abakadang ito ay proyekto ng Rizaleo computer-alphabet is a project of the
bilang ambag ng Katipunang Gatrizal Rizaleo being a contribution of
tungo sa pagpapayaman ng ating taal at Katipunang Gatrizal to the enrichment of
katutubong kabihasnan. our aboriginal and indigenous
civilization.
Ibinatay po ang abakadang ito sa
sinuanang pagsulat ng ating mga ninuno, I based the alphabet on the ancient
at minarapat po naming lakipan ito ng writing of our ancestors, and I decided to
ilang pagbabago upang ito’y maging make a few changes so it may be an
ganap na kasangkapan sa ating indispensable tool in our current needs
kasalukuyang pangangailangan sa assessment and analysis, not only of
pagsusuri at pag-aaral, hindi lang ng literature but also of technical knowledge
panitikan, kundi na rin ng mga teknikal in the field of science and economics.
na kaalaman sa larangan ng agham at
pangkabuhayan. Thank you for your concern for our
native culture, and I hope you enjoy
Salamat po sa inyong pagkalinga sa ating learning the Abakadang Rizaleo. May we
katutubong kalinangan, at sana’y also stand proud in the knowledge that
masiyahan po kayo sa pagsasanay sa we have actually own texts of literature,
abakadang Rizaleo. nwa’y makasanayan like other great civilizations.
din ninyong ipagmalaki na tayo’y may
tunay na sariling panitik ng panitikan, The project was a small beginning of a
tulad ng ibang dakilang kabihasnan. vast creation which we invite you to
cooperate towards the dignity and honor
Ang proyektong ito’y isang maliit na of our race and culture.
simula lamang ng isang napakalawak na
185
likhain na kung saan ay inaanyayahan po -Marius V. Diaz
namin kayong maki-isa tungo sa dangal
at puri ng ating lahi at kultura. December 30, 1993, Manila. 1
—Marius V. Diaz
30 Disyembre 1993, Maynila. 1
Ferguson, Charles A. 1995. “Review of Smalley et al.” Word 46

(1):75-88.
#hmong #intro
1. Introduction. During the period May to September 1959, Shua Yang, an
illiterate swidden rice farmer in the mountains of northwestern Vietnam, produced a
writing system for representing the sounds of Hmong, the language of the minority
ethnic group of which he was a member. He claimed a supernatural origin for the
script, maintaining it was revealed to him by two emissaries from God, his heavenly
Father, who had sent him to be born on earth as a human being to teach the Hmong
their ancient writing system that had been lost and to teach also the writing system of
the Khmu’, the minority ethnic group to which his wife belonged. He assumed the
name of Shong Lue Yang, by which he has since been known, took the title of Savior
of the Common People, and has often been referred to as the Mother (= source) of
Writing.
The story of the origin and development of Shong Lue Yang’s Hmong script is told in
detail in this unique and important book, including a comprehensive analysis of the
relation between the symbols of the script and the phonology of the two chief dialects
of Hmong, as well as the nature of the successive improvements in the script as further
revelations produced three subsequent revised versions, held to be the ‘fruit’ that came
after the original ‘flower’ ver-[75]sion. The story of Shong Lue’s life, from his birth in
1929 to his assassination in 1971 is told in a companion volume (Vang, Yang, and
Smalley 1990). The volume under review is devoted primarily to the events connected
with the creation of the writing system and various interpretations of these events. It is
co-authored by William Smalley, an American linguist specializing in the writing
systems of Southeast Asia (cf. Smalley 1976), and Chia Koua Vang and Gnia Yee
Yang, believers in Shong Lue as Savior and in the supernatural origin of the script; it
includes also a chapter on “other views” which reports the opinions of several Hmong
nonbelievers. Chia Koua Vang was apparently entrusted by Shong Lue with passing
on the history of the movement and the teaching of the script. Gnia Yee Yang became
associated with the movement as a young man; he had received schooling in Lao and
graduated from a technical school in Vientiane, and he was the first person of
education to become heavily involved in the new script.
A brief synopsis of Shong Lue’s life is necessary here to give a context for the events of
the writing system. For about four years after September 1959 Shong Lue taught in
his own village, at home and in the fields where people were working, responding to
people who had come to him to learn. As knowledge of his story spread, people came
from farther and farther away to learn from him the new script and to listen to his
186
preaching about the need for cooperation and harmony among the Hmong people.
Many of those who came became believers. As people in authority became suspicious
of Shong Lue’s activities, they attempted to arrest him, and he fled to a village across
the border in Laos. Here he built a large round house for his followers to worship in,
named twelve Hmong clan leaders to help in worship and teaching. In addition, he
built a school to teach the script and selected individuals who would only be teachers.
From that time on, his life was one of hiding in the jungle, teaching interested people,
and choosing apostles to spread his message. He had to avoid first the Communist
authorities, who suspected him of American, specifically CIA, connections, and later
the royal Laotian authorities, who suspected him of Chinese or Russian Communist
connections (even as the source of some of his symbols). In 1967 he was arrested and
jailed; he remained in prison about three years during which time he made another
revision of the script (what Smalley calls the Third Stage Reduced Version). In
November 1970 friends rescued him from the jail and took him to a secret hideout,
where he issued the final version of the script. Increasingly he began to talk of his
returning to God, of the coming victory of Communist forces, and the necessity of his
assistant Chia Koua Vang taking [76] care of his papers and notes and getting his
family to safety. In February 1971 he was killed, apparently by soldiers of the anti-
Communist forces. The next four years followers of Shong Lue kept spreading the
story of his life and teaching the script. As long as Shong Lue lived, his intent seems to
have been that the script should be learned by whoever wanted to learn it, with the
hope that eventually all speakers of Hmong would master it. Learning the script did
not compel learners to adopt the full set of beliefs and practices of the new faith, but
script and religion were closely tied together, and for many learners the script was a
crucial part of the prophet’s teaching. 77
#hmong #alphabet follows religion
It is rare enough to learn of a new case of the creation of a writing system by what has
been called “stimulus diffusion,” in which the producer of the new writing system is
himself illiterate (or presumably ‘herself’ but a woman alphabet-maker of this kind has
not yet been attested). The creator of the script becomes aware of the possibility of
writing and reading a message as a substitute or alternate version of a spoken message
and somehow succeeds in inventing a system that works for his own unwritten
language. Several famous linguists are supposed to have said that the learning of the
ambient language of a person’s speech community is the most impressive intellectual
feat of many people’s lives. It may well be an astonishing intellectual feat, but is a feat
performed by every normal member of our species, whereas the invention of a writing
system from scratch is a rare accomplishment indeed, and the documented cases of an
illiterate’s creation of a new writing system by stimulus diffusion are no more than ten
in the history of the world. Having detailed case studies of such events promises
contributions to at least three bodies of theory about human behavior, and Mother of
Writing (hereafter MW) is clearly the best and most reliable of the stimulus diffusion
accounts extant.
One body of relevant theory ts that of linguistic structure, most especially
phonological theory, since the writing system is based partly or wholly on the
phonology of the language being represented. What are the basic elements out of
which the sound systems of human languages are constructed and what are the basic
principles by which such sound systems operate? How do sound systems vary under
different social conditions and change over time? Moreover, the development of
literacy speaks to a central question of linguistic theorizing: how do linguistic systems
187
retain their socially conventionalized communicative nature even though no two
members of a speech community speak exactly the same way and the shared structure
itself is constantly changing? More specifically here: what is the nature of the [77] ‘fit’
between writing systems and phonologies and how may this fit change over time? MW
probably makes its most impressive contributions to theory in this linguistic realm.
Another body of relevant theory is that of the study of the effects of introducing
literacy to a previously nonliterate community, a topic that has become the focus of
much recent scholarly attention (cf. works by Goody, Graff, Ong, Scribner and Cole,
and Street). What societal changes typically take place when various forms of literacy
arise in a given community?
A third body of relevant theory is the role of religion in the creation of writing systems.
What aspects of the invention of writing systems are likely to be attributed to
supernatural causes and under what conditions? What societal changes are likely to
occur when a new religious configuration in a society comes about that takes a large
part of its validation from the creation of a new writing system for a nonliterate
community? MW is unparalleled in its sensitivity to the differing beliefs and values of
the various players in the story of the new religion and the new script. Smalley, for
example, presents his own views both candidly and with full respect for the views of
others. Smalley was one of the three Christian missionaries who devised a Roman
alphabet orthography for Hmong in 1953, which is probably used today by more
Hmong than any other writing system. (The reader of MW who wants a deeper
undertanding of Smalley’s own Christian commitment and his attitude of humane
tolerance can turn to his moving autobiographical sketch (Smalley 1991)).
2. Linguistic theory.#
2.1 Unit hierarchies. The history of writing systems and the creation of new ones
offer evidence on the hierarchies of linguistic units. In both cases the order in which
new kinds of representation come into the system and the details of the internal
structure of the symbols themselves give evidence of hierarchies of such units as words,
syllables, phonemic segments, prosodies, and distinctive features. From a traditional
Western perspective it is often assumed that a writing system normally originates as
word- or morpheme-based (logographic), gradually proceeds to being syllable-based (a
syllabary), and eventually progresses to being phoneme-based (alphabetic); see, for
example, Gelb 1963 and MW Chapter 10. The appearance of signs representing
distinctive features, which should presumably be the next step in the progression, is
usually regarded as odd or anomalous. This somewhat ethnocentric view must at least
be corrected in detail, but if the stim-[78]ulus diffusion cases of literacy introduction
are considered then the whole hierarchy must be rejected. The evidence from the
Hmong script suggests a hierarchy of salience in human phonological processing:
syllable > phoneme > prosodic feature > segmental feature. Each character or
combination of two characters represents a syllable, the segmental components of a
syllable are represented by major elements of the character(s), tonal features are
indicated by diacritics on the vowel signs, and segmental distinctive features of the
consonants are not represented at all. Thus in [1]1 po (with low tone) ‘to see’ [2]
represents /o/, which with the diacritic [12] has low tone, and [3] represents /p/. 79
#hypothesis: primacy of the syllable #writing = model of language
2.2 Linear order. In most writing systems most of the characters are placed in an
order corresponding to the spoken order, no matter whether the written order is left to
188
right, right to left, or top to bottom. In some writing systems there are a few
exceptions. For example, in the Bengali script, which runs from left to right, the vowel
signs normally follow or are placed beneath the consonant sign after which they are
pronounced; thus, [4] a follows [5] b if it follows it in pronunciation: [6] ba; but several
vowel signs come before the consonant sign after which they are pronounced, e.g. [7] i
precedes what it follows in pronunciation: [5] b + [7] i = [8] bi. The Hmong script
goes left to right, but the syllable-initial consonant sign is regularly written after the
vowel it precedes in pronunciation, as in the /po/ example given above. In this
respect the Hmong script is highly unusual; it is apparently the only writing system in
the world where consonant signs are regularly written after the signs for the vowels
before which they are pronounced. This is an original feature of the Hmong writing
system, which reflects the phonology of the language to the extent that syllables in
Hmong never have a final consonant, so that the initial consonant of a syllable can be
analyzed as a kind of satellite and can be unambiguously expressed in writing on
either side of its vowel.
2.3 Zeroing out. It is generally recognized that if any one of a finite set of n symbols
may occur in a given place in a sequence with a distinctive value, the representational
value is retained if one member of the set is completely omitted and only n-1 different
symbols are employed. A number of writing systems apply this principle by ‘zeroing
out’ one of their vowel signs, notably the Ethiopian syllabary and most of the
indigenous writing systems of South Asia. Thus Bengali [79] [5] b represents /b/ if it
is written without a vowel sign (i.e. not [6] ba, [8] bi, [9] bu, etc.); since /b/ also occurs
without a following vowel, the without a vowel sign can sometimes be ambiguous.
The Hmong script is unusual, perhaps unique, in zeroing out a consonant sign. A
vowel sign without an accompanying consonant sign is assumed to include an initial
/k/. Thus, [2] without a following consonant sign represents /ko/ with low tone;
compare the representation of /po/ given above. If there is no syllable-initial
consonant the sign [10] after the vowel sign is used to mean no preceding consonant.
The Hmong script makes one more use of the zeroing out principle: if the vowel of a
syllable is /au/ with high mid tone, just the consonant is written, as in [11] /tau/ with
high-mid tone. This is not as complete an example as the nonwriting of /k/, because
there are vowel+ tone signs for /au/ that must be used if the preceding character is a
vowel sign. Since the Hmong script is unique in these zeroing out patterns, it is highly
probable that they were purely the result of Shong Lue’s analytic skills and creativity.
2.4 Vowel signs as syllable nucleus. Most phonological theorists regard the
syllable as consisting of two parts, the ‘onset’ and the ‘rime’ (e.g. Halle and Keyser
1980), and the ‘psychological reality’ of this division is supported by certain facts of
poetic structure in various languages and by phenomena of phonological development
and learning to read (Bradley 1992). In many writing systems in which the syllable
plays an important role it is represented by a consonantal onset and a rime consisting
of a vowel + a consonantal ‘coda’. Often the nuclear element of the written syllable is
the onset portion and the rime is added as a satellite or diacritic. In the Hmong script,
however, it is the vocalic rime that is the nucleus and the consonantal onset that is the
satellite. Once again, it seems clear that the Shong Lue system was influenced little or
not at all by the other writing systems of the region in spite of the doubts that have
been expressed by critics. 80
189
2.5 Feature representation. Many phonological theorists today would hold that
representation of distinctive features as opposed to whole phonemic segments is a
more abstract, more revealing representation of phonological structure, although
Western alphabetic orthographies are almost completely lacking in featural
representation, as are in fact most writing systems in the world. In spite of the
recognition of sound classes or distinctive features in many grammatical traditions,
[80] including those of Sanskrit, Greek, and Arabic, writing systems have generally
not been devised to take them into account explicitly, the best known exception being
the hangul of Korean, said to have been instituted by King Sejong in 1446. Thus, the
extent to which Shong Lue’s system included featural representation marks it again as
unusually creative. To be sure, the featural analysis in the Hmong script affects only
the vowel+tone ‘rime’ characters, not the consonant signs, which are all arbitrarily
different (like English p t k b d g, which give no indication of their featural
composition). The first or ‘flower’ version of the script dealt with the vowel/tone
characters in the same featureless way. It had 91 arbitrarily different characters, each
representing a different vowel-tone combination. In presenting these characters Shong
Lue arranged them in rows and columns representing vowel qualities and tones
respectively, so it is clear that he had correctly analyzed the phonological elements
involved even though there was no indication of the analysis in the signs themselves.
In what Smalley calls the Third Stage Reduced Version, the number of vowel+ tone
signs is reduced to 26 vowel signs plus 4 diacritics. This reduction is accomplished by
having two sets of vowels (there are 13 phonologically distinct vowel segments in
Hmong) and 4 diacritics ([12, 13, 14, 15]) to distinguish the various tones. In a final
version, the ‘bone’ version, issued about a month before Shong Lue’s assassination,
the vowel signs were reduced to 13 and the vowel diacritics were increased to 7 (there
are 7 phonologically distinct tones in Hmong). Thus in the ‘bone’ version each vowel
quality and each tone was consistently rendered. Vowel qualities are not represented
in feature terms, but if the distinctive tones are regarded as vowel features, they are
completely analyzed and consistently represented.
The Hmong ‘bone’ version is conceptually identical with the official Pinyin
romanization of Chinese, which indicates consonants and vowels with separate letters
and indicates tones by diacritics. The sophistication of the Hmong system is much
greater than that of the Chinese system, however, because Hmong phonology is much
more complicated: 20 simple consonants, 36 complex consonants (fricative offglide,
aspiration, prenasalization), 13 vowels, 7 tones. Thus, in some respects Shong Lue’s
achievement is greater than that of the creators of most other writing systems, even
though he had to work without knowing any other writing system or any principles of
phonological analysis. Smalley is particularly impressed because every revision
reduced the number of characters and increased the abstractness of the analysis. [81]
3. Literacy theory. A thoroughgoing social theory of literacy introduction does not
exist, although much has been done on the effects of literacy. Graff, for example, takes
a critical stance on claims for literacy effects and investigates historical cases
empirically. Street takes a neo-Marxist position that explores the relationship between
literacy spread and control over the means of production. Huebner 1968, posit an
array of possible causal factors that may lead to relative success in the spreading of
literacy. Any general theory would have to take into account the very different
patterns of literacy in different societies and at different times.
Patterns of ‘restricted literacy’, in which only special groups (e.g. power elites,
specialized ‘scribes’) make use of literacy for certain limited purposes, differ widely in
190
detail. Such patterns, of course, were the norm in a large part of the world until late
19th and early 20th centuries. Patterns of ‘universal literacy’ in which every member
of the society is expected to be able to use literacy for a wide range of purposes,
patterns that in many nations have recently come close to reality or are accepted as a
goal, likewise differ widely in detail. MW provides much detail of the spread of literacy
in its case, both in the historical sections of the book and in Chapter 9 ‘‘Contemporary
uses of the alphabet.”
In this review I will comment only on the four general causal factors identified in
Ferguson 1990 as of probable importance in the construction of a general theory of
literacy spread: (1) the linguistic choices made, (2) the source of the literacy initiative,
(3) the scope of literacy within the society, (4) institutional support and means of
transmission.
3.1 Linguistic choices. Which language and which variety of that language is
chosen as the language to be written? In this case, the choice is for vernacular literacy,
the mother tongue of the target group, as opposed to alternative literacies in Lao,
Thai, Vietnamese, French, or English, all of which are available in areas where
Hmong is spoken and are in fact acquired and used by some Hmong speakers. The
writing system is carefully adapted for use by speakers of either of the two main
dialects, Hmong Daw (usually called in English White Hmong) and Hmong Leng
(Blue or Green Hmong), which differ considerably in phonology but are mutually
intelligible. The writing system employed is ‘‘phonemic’’ in that every phonological
distinction made in either dialect of Hmong is represented unambiguously, and the
script is unique to Hmong, not resembling any of the other literacies [82] available. At
least 14 serious attempts at producing a written form of Hmong have been made in
the past hundred years, of which at least six systems are in current use somewhere by
some Hmong speakers. It is easy to document cases where the spread of literacy is
slowed or stopped because of linguistic choices, but it must be admitted that, on the
whole, the linguistic choices, fascinating though they may be to the professional
linguist, are less important than the other three factors in accelerating the spread of
literacy or in strengthening its use.
#hmong
3.2 Source of initiative. Scholars interested in literacy have sometimes speculated
about the relative merits of different sources of initiative. Other things being equal, a
source from inside the group has sometimes been claimed to be more effective than
one from outside the group, but things are never equal, and there are no convincing
data to support this appealing view. In any case, Shong Lue Yang was emphatically
an inside source, and he was a figure respected and admired by most who came in
contact with him. He was, however, introducing both a new writing system and a new
version of traditional Hmong religious beliefs; it is difficult at this distance in space
and time and cultural values to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of this
particular source. 83
#alphabet follows religion #grassroots literacy
3.3 Scope of literacy. Literacy may be said to have ‘caught on’ in a society when
members of certain social groups regularly use it to exchange certain kinds of
messages, and it is no longer felt to be a feature of an outside culture impinging on the
society, with no function intelligible to the local culture or worth the effort of
acquiring it. One of the important factors accounting for the speed of ‘catching on’ is
191
the nature of the first documents produced and the communicative functions
performed by early literacy activities. In the Hmong script case three communicative
functions have been there since the beginning and are persisting in present uses of the
system. The first is the symbolic function of serving as a marker of Hmong cultural
pride: the very existence of the script shows that the Hmong are not inferior to other
minority groups, they have a distinctive writing system of their own. In some
documented cases, this symbolic function may be the most important function of
literacy in a community and the literacy may even fail to spread beyond it (cf. Blood
1988). 83
#indexicality #grassroots literacy
A second function in the Hmong case is to serve as the vehicle of writings about
Hmong language and culture. This has been emphasized as a goal since Shong Lue
announced the script, but relatively little has [83] been done except for the production
of literacy primers for teaching purposes. Part of the problem of course was to achieve
some form of mass production, and MW Chapter 8 ‘‘From handwriting to word
processing” tells the long-drawn-out saga of first making hand carved wood blocks of
the separate characters, through construction of various makeshift typewriters to a
final method using computer graphics and sophisticated software. This last has made
it it possible to print several versions of Shong Lue’s script, a romanized transcription,
and English all on the same page, even the same line, as was done in the production of
MW. It remains to be seen whether the output of mass produced books and pamphlets
on Hmong language and culture will increase in the coming years.
Finally, the Hmong script was used fairly early to transmit personal messages by letter
among Hmong people familiar with the script. At the present time it is estimated that
out of the approximately 7000 Hmong who have been exposed to the script about
2000 have competence to use it and are doing so to varying degrees. MW reports that
the script is known to be in use in five locations: a mountainous hideout area of Laos,
a large refugee camp in Thailand, the military camp of the Ethnics Liberation
Organization of Laos, and clusters of Hmong in California and the upper Midwest
(Minnesota/Wisconsin). An analysis of patterns of Hmong literacy in the camp in
Thailand is given in Long 1991; Long 1993 is an ethnographic study of the camp itself
and several families in it. In all five locations letters are exchanged, sometimes
smuggled across borders; it is this function of letter writing that seems to hold the
greatest promise for continued spread of literacy in the script.
Two communicative functions of literacy which often have an accelerating effect early
on, but do not seem to have arisen in the use of the Hmong script, are public
exchange of current news by newsletter or newspaper and personal use of lists and
memos to oneself. In the relatively successful Aleut literacy, for example, these got
their start in a bulletin board outside the Russian church and by hunters and trappers
keeping inventories of furs as they acquired them (Ransom 1945).
3.4 Institutional support and transmission. Any aspect of culture, by
definition, must have some means of being transmitted from one generation to the
next, and the acquisition of literacy skills by appropriate practitioners of the culture is
no exception. Many instances of the attempted introduction of literacy can be shown
to have failed, i.e. the literacy has not ‘caught on’, because of the failure to ensure a
means of transmission. Literacy transmission may take place as a [84] regular part of
language socialization in the family, by father-to-son tutoring at the onset of puberty,
192
or any of a number of other means. The means most often mentioned in discussions
of literacy is the institution of the school, i.e. a place where young children at a
conventional age are taught in groups by an occupational specialist, the teacher. This
solution to the transmission problem goes back at least as far as the third millenium
BC in Mesopotamia, and has persisted to the present day, presumably because it has
been adequately successful under many different conditions. Of course, there is no
guarantee that school will work, and when literacy is introduced to a nonliterate
society from outside, it is often the case that the value of schooling is not immediately
apparent to the members of the society and the provision of schools and teachers runs
into many cultural obstacles. In the case of the Hmong script, Shong Lue at first
agreed to teach anyone who had heard of the script and wanted to learn it. Soon he
also established regular schools and teachers to the extent that this could be done
under jungle conditions and where the authorities were often suspicious and hostile.
#hmong
4. Religion and Literacy. Some things are well known about the relation between
religion and the spread of literacy. For example, it has long been noted that the
distribution of writing systems throughout the world correlates much more closely
with the religious affiliation of the respective populations than with relations between
the languages of those populations. There has been relatively little exploration,
however, of the relation between the creation of new writing systems and religious
beliefs and practices. Two topics are of special interest here: the nature of the
supernatural revelation that is claimed or attributed in connection with script
creation, and the role of sacred texts in literacy spread.
4.1 Revelation. The production of a new writing system for a language, even if it is
just a slightly modified version of another writing system, is usually felt to be a great
achievement, and two trends on supernatural origin are to be noted. First, if there is
no new religious revelation claimed, the attribution of miraculous events tends to
increase over time. That is, the originator of the new script and his biographers or
historians may emphasize at first the cleverness or wisdom of the originator and only
later develop stories of angelic intervention or sacred visions that reveal the shapes of
the characters and the conventions of the system. Thus, for example, the early
biography of Mesrop Mashtots, who invented the Armenian alphabet at [85] the
beginning of the 5th century, emphasizes his trial-and-error efforts and his testing with
various groups; it is only a later biographer who praises the work of the Holy Spirit
and portrays an immediate revelation of the whole system in instant perfection.
On the other hand, if the production of the new script is tied to a new religious
movement, then usually the invention of the writing system is attributed to
supernatural intervention, and when this is a case of invention by stimulus diffusion,
miracle stories arise at the beginning, and the characteristics of the writing system
tend to be of particular linguistic interest. One of the nearest parallels to the Shong
Lue story is that of Silas John, who invented a writing system for the Western Apache
along with claims of a new religious movement. His script does not compare in
analytic sophistication with Shong Lue’s script, but has special interest because Silas
John included in his system representation of phenomena other than speech sounds,
such as body orientation and physical movements. The primary purpose of his system
was to provide reminders for himself and his assistants of the exact words and ‘body
language’ of the prayers of the new religion, and since he had no one to pass on to
him the cultural wisdom that writing systems should be limited exclusively to
193
representing features of spoken language, he naturally included some unusual
material.
4.2 Sacred texts. When vernacular literacy is introduced to a non-literate
community in connection with the spread of a religion, the innovators frequently
provide a written text that has a special status in the new ideology. Thus the Christian
Bible or sections of liturgy or catechism may be introduced, or appropriate selections
from Marx and Lenin, or the opening surah of the Holy Qur’an, or a set of prayers or
statement of beliefs of the new religion. To the extent that such texts are publicly read
or recited from memory and are provided with an aura of holiness, they may be an
extremely effective device for accelerating the spread of literacy. Shong Lue aparently
did not provide such a text, and the lack of a sacred text embodying his exhortations
to unity and harmony among the Hmong and other aspects of his messianic message
is probably a negative factor for those who are attracted either to his religious message
or his writing system. 86
5. Final Comment. My purpose in writing this review is to encourage scholars that
are interested in linguistic theory (particularly phonological theory), in the societal
effects of the introduction of literacy, or in the relation between religion and literacy to
study historical cases [86] of the introduction of literacy into previously nonliterate
societies for possible contributions to their understanding of these concerns.
Specifically I hope to persuade people to read the Mother of Writing as a fascinating
account of a little piece of history that is full of information and implications. The
readers of the review can probably tell that the book attracted my interest strongly
and made me want it to attract the interest of others equally strongly. I hope it has
succeeded at least to some extent, and that others will not only read it but find a whole
new field opening up for serious research and pleasurable reading. 87
Loprieno, Antonio. 1995. Ancient Egyptian: A linguistic

introduction. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University
Press.
The phonological value of the phonograms is derived from the name of the
represented entity by means of the rebus principle, i.e. by applying the same
phonological sequence to other entities semantically unrelated to them. For example,
from the representation of water [grapheme] *maw is derived the phonological value
of this sign as /m-w/. 12
In later times, the consonantal principle was expanded by the so-called acrophonic
principle, i.e. by the derivation of a phonological value from the first consonantal sound
of the represented entity. 12
#acrophony
The sequence of phonograms is usually followed by a semagram, called in the
Egyptological custom “determinative,” which classifies a word according to its
semantic sphere: […] 13
While some words of common use (pronouns, prepositions, a few nouns and verbs
such as rn “name” or dd “to say”) are written only phonologically, i.e. only with a
combination of consonantal signs <r> + <n>, <d> + <d> indicating the sequences
194
/r-n/ and /d-d/ respectively, many items of the basic vocabulary of Egyptian are
expressed by semagrams which indicate their own semantic meaning. They do this
iconically (by reproducing the object itself), through rebus (by portraying an entity whose
name displays a similar phonological structure), or symbolically (by depicting an item
metaphorically or metonymically associated with the object). These signs are called
logograms (also labeled ideograms by Egyptologists) […] 13
#logography
Egyptian writing also displays a set of twenty-four “alphabetic,” i.e. monoconsonantal
signs (table 2.1). Although these cover almost completely the inventory of consonantal
and semiconsonantal phonemes of the language […] hieroglyphs never developed
into a genuine alphabet, but always maintained the original combination of word-
signs (logograms) and sound-signs (phonograms). Also, unlike most other systems of
pictographic origin, such as Mesopotamian cuneiform or Chinese ideograms,
Egyptian hieroglyphs kept their original iconicity throughout their entire history
without developing stylized forms. 13
#progressivism: writing [contra] #iconicity
This shows that, historically, the development of alphabetic writing is not, as often
assumed, the predictable outcome of a non-alphabetic system,[fn] but the result of an
underlying difference in the “philosophy of writing”:[fn] with the breakthrough of the
Hellenistic cultural koine and, eventually, with the final victory of Christianity in Egypt
during the second and third century, when a changed cultural and religious setting
favored the adoption of an alphabetic system, hieroglyphs were completely superseded
by the Coptic alphabet, which was written from left to right and consisted of the
Greek letters and of six (in some dialects seven) Demotic signs for the indication of
phonemes absent from Greek. 14
#progressivism: writing [contra] #writing = model of language [Loprieno’s
‘philosophy of language’]
(a) The archaic period. The historical event with which the emergence of writing in Egypt
is traditionally associated is the gradual development of a centralized system of
government covering the entire country, or at least a large portion thereof: this is the
so-called “unification” of Egypt and the parallel emergence of an Egyptian state.
Although the details are by no means clear,[fn] this historical phase runs
simultaneously with the development of a writing system from the last kings of the
predynastic period at Abydos (Scorpion, Iri-hor, Ka, Narmer) at the end of the fourth
millennium to the establishment of a rather complete set of mono- and biconsonantal
phonograms by the end of Dyn. III (about 2700 BCE) . In these early inscriptions on
seals, seal impressions, palettes, short funerary stelae and other monuments pertaining
to the royal or administrative sphere,[fn] phonological and semantic principles are
already intertwined, with a high number of signs functioning as logograms. 20
#logography #state societies
Tuchsherer, Konrad. 1995. African script and scripture: The

history of the Kikakui (Mende) writing system for Bible
translations. African Languages and Cultures 8 (2):169-188.
#kikakui #africa: west
195
In the early 1920’s, the Kikakui script was introduced in the Barri Chiefdom, a
Mende chiefdom which is situated in southern Sierra Leone, close to the Liberian
border. 170
#history
Any number, other than zero, can be written in the system. 172
#system
In undertaking this work, Kikakui practitioners ‘brokered’ their scribal expertise to
missionaries in the same way they did for others at that time. This ‘brokerage’ usually
consisted of contracting out their services to record financial transactions associated
with important events such as births, funerals and marriages, or creating
legal/historical documents associated with ancestry or land tenure claims. 175
#practice
Figure 2. Extract from ‘Ki-ka-ku script, Matthew 5, 1-16 (BFBSA, 1929).
Figure 3. Extract from ‘Ki-ka-ku Mende script’ (BFBSA,1929). [Figures 2-3 are
computer-enhanced tracings, reproduced by permission from originals in the Bible
Society’s Library at Cambridge University Library.
177
#diagram
Innes (1962: 1) wrote that Kikakui ‘contains a large number of very complicated letters
which make it difficult to learn.’ Milbur, who met Kisimi Kamarain 1942 or 1943,
undiplomatically suggested to him that there would no longer be a need for his own
sons to learn Kikakui, as the Westermann script ‘was so much simpler and, being an
alphabet and not a syllabary, was more efficient’ (Milbur 1964: 23). The analyses of
these scholars conflict with the findings of the present writer. Many of the characters
in Kikakui are indeed ornate, as are the characters of many writing systems, but this is
an aesthetic attribute of the script which script practitioners are proud of and often
claim lured them to learning the script in the first place. 182
#script #system #script: complexity #system: hierarchy #acquisition
While it is true that an alphabet, as compared to a syllabary, may be more ‘efficient’
(according to Milbur’s above statement) in terms of its refined transcription of
language and smaller inventory of symbols, it is certainly not more ‘efficient’ in terms
of economical representation: the Westermann script uses at least two (e.g. bo), and
sometimes three (e.g. mbo) or four (e.g. mboo) letters to represent a single syllable in
Mende, whereas Kikakui often uses just one (as in the above cases). Furthermore, in
regards to the communicability of an alphabet as compared to a syllabary for Mende,
an alphabet takes just as long (if the right approach, discussed below, is used), and in
most cases, longer, to learn than Kikakui. The explanation for this claim rests with the
suitability of the predominantly ‘open syllable’ or consonant-vowel (CV) structure of
Kikakui to write the Mende language, phonologically also of CV structure. Each of the
voiced syllabic characters in Kikakui not only occur in Mende, but in the [182]
majority of cases actually correspond with one or more meaningful utterances in the
language. The isolated consonants of the Westermann alphabet (or any alphabet), on
the other hand, have no corresponding voiced equivalencies in Mende (or any
196
language). The principles of an alphabet, therefore, must first be understood at a
theoretical level before they can be utilized at a practical one. The result of this is that
learning Kikakui often takes only a fraction of the time (sometimes less than a week)
which it takes to learn the Westermann script, especially in instances where the
student has no prior experience learning a writing system (the much smaller group of
Mende learners who were already literate in English would be a different case, as they
would be able to apply the principles of the Roman alphabet in their learning).
Migeod (1913: 274; cf. Dalby 1967: 2) made a similar argument regarding the
superiorityof the Vai (CV) syllabary for writing the Vai language, also of CV
structure, as compared to an alphabet.
Evidence to support the claim for the advantages of a syllabary as opposed to an
alphabet for writing Mende can be drawn from the experiences of missionaries who
attempted to introduce the Westermann script in Mendeland during literacy
campaigns in the 1940’s. It was found that the alphabet could be most easily learned
when it was presented in sets of CV combinations, mirroring the structure of a
syllabary (for a full account, see Young 1946: 22-24). In the Education Department’s
‘Report on Mende Literacy in Sierra Leone’ (1943: 4), it was found that there was a
tendency among Mende learners to memorize, rather than learn, lessons which they
were being taught, and teachers attempted to ‘use this tendency in the first stage and
avoid it in the later stages.’ 183
#system #system: hierarchy #acquisition #hypothesis: primacy of the syllable
In the final analysis, it would appear that missionaries who devised the method for
imparting literacy in the Westermann script by trial and error could have reached a
similar end by first investigating the linguistic principles of Kikakui and its tradition of
pedagogy. Furthermore, as no evidence existed to support the negative assessments of
observers (especially Milbur above) regarding the use of a syllabary for writing Mende,
it may have been the case that such judgements were grounded instead in a
Eurocentric perception of a hierarchy of scripts, which naturally designated Western
alphabetic writing (and thus Western culture) at the culminating point of
advancement (see Kubik 1986: 82). Possibly the African inventors of syllabaries had
insights into their languages which European linguists did not, as Dalby’s (1967: 2)
question illustrates: ‘Does the development of syllabic forms of writing among no less
than seven [Vai, Mende, Loma, Kpelle, Bete, Bamum, Bagam] West African tribes
reflect the fact that an alphabet—despite its economy of form—is perhaps less suitable
than a syllabary for the transcription and analysis of African languages?’ 184
#acquisition #system: hierarchy #hypothesis: primacy of the syllable #literacy
Another important factor leading to the failure of Kikakui as a medium for Bible
translation was the script’s rejection within a Christian religious context by Mende
Christians (Kane, interview 22.12.92). Kikakui was perceived as ‘secret’ as a result of
the script’s restricted nature, and Mende Christians felt that this opposed the
‘openness’ which they attached to Christianity and Ngewɔ ngolɔ (‘God’s book’). Also,
literacy in pumɔ ngɔle or ‘white men’s writing’ (the Roman script or the Westermann
script), in contrast to literacy in Kikakui, was seen as not only a medium to provide
access to the Bible, but as a means to gaining access to other desired ends, such as
Western education and employment in the civil service. 185
#motivation: secrecy #motivation: universality #motivation: prestige
197
[…] Kikakui continues to be used today in the Segbwema [185] area as well as other
parts of Mendeland […] 186
#history
Daniels, Peter T. 1996. Part I: Grammatology. In Daniels, Peter

T, and William Bright, eds. The world’s writing systems. New
York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Humankind is defined by language; but civilization is defined by writing. Writing
made historical records possible, and writing was the basis for the urban societies of
the Old World. All humans speak; only humans in civilizations write, so speech is
primary, and writing is secondary. Nonetheless, written rather than spoken language
has received attention from scholars since antiquity: standards were codified and rules
were formulated. An educated minority attempted to speak as they wrote, and they
assumed special prestige with command of these artificial rules and standards. All the
while, the majority who spoke as they had learned from the cradle maintained their
native tongues in their evolving vitality and vibrancy. Language changes continually,
but writing cannot keep up, both because of social conservatism and because
permanent documents remain as a continual reminder of the past standards. 1
#writing and civilisation #primacy of speech #writing and language change
But writing systems per se, the marks that record the languages of the documents
produced by the civilizations, have absorbed the attention of only a very few linguists.
No name for this field of study has even become widely accepted; “grammatology,”
proposed in the mid twentieth century, is better than most. 1
Since many writing systems of the past have survived, this process can enter greater
time depth with more security than is possible for the linguistics that studies spoken,
necessarily contemporary, languages. Nonetheless, of course, the historical record is
far from complete, so interrelationships among contemporary scripts and those known
from earlier times need to be puzzled out, just as with languages. 1
#phylogeny
Language continually develops and changes without the conscious interference of its
speakers, but writing can be petrified or reformed or adapted or adopted at will. It is
thus in the theoretical realm that grammatology differs most from the rest of
linguistics—the theory of writing must be very different from the theory of language.
It is not to be expected that patterns or principles that describe language should apply
to writing, but little attention has yet been paid to that fact.
Languages, perpetually changing and accompanying their speakers through
population expansions, migrations, and conquests, have one past; scripts, perpetuated
by civilizations and intellectuals with a penchant for going among “savages” to bestow
the “blessings of civilization” upon them, have a different history. While all human
languages probably own a common ancestor (albeit so long ago that there is no hope
of determining its substance), there seem to have been at least three—and possibly as
many as seven—distinct, independent origins of writing in the ancient world. Earliest
was probably the cuneiform writing devised for Sumerian (or even some other
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language, of which all trace has been lost), which seems to have been the inspiration
for Egyptian Hieroglyphic. The second of the three was Chinese, which came to be
adopted in Japan and Korea, and imitated in other areas under China’s influence.
The third took place in Mesoamerica, culminating in the Maya script that has begun
to be understood by modern scholars. 2
#phylogeny #origin of writing
No fewer than six different ways of relating the signs of a script to the sounds of a
language have arisen, through human ingenuity. Such variety, not reducible to any
underlying unity, is further evidence that writing cannot be treated in the same way as
language. 2
#phylogeny
Daniels, Peter T. 1996. The study of writing systems. In Daniels,

Peter T, and William Bright, eds. The world’s writing systems.
New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rather, writing is defined as a system of more or less permanent marks used to represent an
utterance in such a way that it can be recovered more or less exactly without the intervention of the
utterer. 3
Pictography is not writing, because languages include many things that cannot be
represented by pictures: not only obvious things like abstract notions and many verbs,
but also grammatical inflections and particles, and names. Even if the drawing skill of
communicators in a language were such that identifiable portraits of individual people
(and animals and places and so on) could be created whenever the individuals were
mentioned, the significance of such drawings would soon be lost. It is thus necessary
for a writing system to represent the sounds of a language. 3
#definition: pictography #phonography
In a logosyllabary, the characters of a script denote individual words (or morphemes) as
well as particular syllables. In a syllabary, the characters denote particular syllables, and
there is no systematic graphic similarity between the characters for phonetically
similar syllables. In a consonantary, here called an abjad as a parallel to “alphabet”
(the word is formed from the first letters of the most widespread example, the Arabic
script, in their historic order; cf. Section 68), the characters denote consonants (only).
In an alphabet, the characters denote consonants and vowels. In an abugida, each
character denotes a consonant accompanied by a specific vowel, and the other vowels
are denoted by a consistent modification of the consonant symbols, as in Indic scripts.
(The word is Ethiopic, from the first four consonants and the first four vowels of the
traditional order of the script, cf. Section 68; the type has been called neosyllabary
[Fevrier], pseudo-alphabet [Householder], and semisyllabary [Diringer].* But these
terms misleadingly suggest that the abugida is a subtype, or hybrid, of alphabet or
syllabary—a notion that has led to unfortunate historical/evolutionary notions about
the history of writing.) In a featural system, like Korean or “phonotypic” shorthand, the
shapes of the characters correlate with distinctive features of the segments of the
language.
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Note that purely logographic writing is not possible: for a script to adequately represent
a language, it must not only represent its words, but also must be able to represent
names and foreign words—even if it were possible to have a character for every word
in a language, it would still be necessary to be able to represent its sounds so that such
items from outside the system could be communicated. It is also noteworthy that
virtually every extant syllabary represents syllables comprising (besides a vowel alone)
a consonant (C) followed by a vowel (V), rather than VC or CVC syllables. 4
#logography #definition: syllabary #definition: alphabet #definition: alphasyllabary
It is often supposed that writing was devised for the purpose of communicating at a
distance—in order to send messages that did not rely upon the memory of the
messenger. But this seems to be a case of overlooking the obvious: the sending of
messages, and the writing of books for posterity, are happily accidental byproducts.
The earliest uses of writing seems to be to communicate things that really don’t have
oral equivalents (Cooper 1989: 323f., 329f.). In Mesopotamia, the earliest documents
are business records: quantities of livestock, lists of workers and their rations and tasks.
In China, the oldest writing is found in oracles addressing queries to the gods (though
it has been inferred that commercial applications that have not survived appeared a
little earlier and underlie the oracles; Keightley 1989). In Mesoamerica, astronomical,
life cycle, and other calendrical information is the primary topic of the many texts that
can be interpreted. 5
#asynchronicity #typology
It seems to be Taylor who first laid out (vol. 1, p. 6) the tripartite typology of writing
systems—logographic, syllabic, alphabetic—that has dominated grammatology for
more than a century, though it has been attributed to Edward Burnett Tylor, “father
of anthropology” (1865). This may be a simple confusion of the more familiar name
with the more obscure, for Tylor seems not to have made any finer distinction than
picture-writing vs. phonetic writing (e.g., 1881, chap. 7). 6
Gelb was also a great systematizer: he was never happier than when finding patterns
in disparate phenomena, and this mindset on occasion led him to oversystematize, as
happened in his evolutionary explanation of the tripartite typology of writing. Gelb
claimed that syllabaries could only develop from logographies, and that alphabets
could only develop from syllabaries, and that these steps could be neither skipped nor
reversed. He called this sequence the “principle of unidirectional development,” and
this principle has become the accepted view. The difficulties arising from it are
described in the next subsection. 7
There are two sources for the awkwardness of this nomenclature. One is the
unquestioning acceptance of the tripartite typology: the problem disappears when
scripts need no longer be assigned to only three classes. (Justeson and Stephens 1993
believe they have refuted Gelb’s theory by adducing an impressive collection of
examples of “syllabaries” derived from “alphabets”; but the refinement of the
typology renders the exercise unnecessary.) It must simply be recognized (Daniels
1990) that abjads are not (any longer) syllabaries and not (yet) alphabets, and that
abugidas—though they denote syllables—are not like syllabaries, since vowels receive
identification equivalent to that for consonants.
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The other source of difficulty is the notion of applying the concept of evolution to
products of the human mind. As normally understood, evolution is the result of
natural selection operating on random variation. So, while evolution can be
understood as the source of human linguistic ability, and a metaphorical extension of
the term applies to the diversification of human languages, it cannot be taken as
appropriate to the history of writing. Changes in scripts are successive improvements (or
at least attempts at improvement), rather than evolutions. Only the change in the
shapes of characters with successive generations might be seen as evolution, but they
are always held in check by the authority of the teacher and by the need to be able to
read older documents. 8
Istrin’s “ideograms” do not in fact record “ideas” (Gelb rightly banished the term
from our science, preferring logogram) but rather individual words or their significant
parts. 9
Istrin mentions a further possible classification of scripts, grouping them into families
of common origin; moreover, such a scheme has been worked out, using synchronic
characteristics as well as awareness of their history, for a wide range of scripts, in
Herrick 1974.
A. A. Hill (1967) classifies scripts according to their relation to the units of the different
“levels” at which language is studied in descriptive linguistics: discourse systems,
morphemic systems, and phonemic systems. Since all systems omit some of the
linguistic structure from the record (morphemic systems omit phonemic information;
phonemic systems omit stress and usually pitch), it’s not odd to say that discourse
systems—what are here called pictographic—omit all the linguistic structure!
“Discourse systems are unique only in that they do not demand that the reader know
the language of the recorded utterance, and rely instead to a very heavy extent on
knowledge of the non-linguistic background” (p. 94)-even though “the purpose of
writing can be said to be unique identification of an utterance” (p. 93). 9
#phylogeny #writing = model of language #message sticks #bound writing
The fortunes of writing in modern linguistics have fallen and risen. When the focus of
linguistics shifted from historical philology, which investigated the development of
(primarily) the Indo-European languages on the basis of ancient records and of
comparison of attested tongues, to the description of new-met languages that had
never been written—a shift largely occasioned by the American encounter with
exotic, and dying, indigenous populations—writing itself was concomitantly devalued:
if unfamiliar languages could, as it turned out, be fully described without the
intermediary of historic records, did that not show that writing was secondary, and all
languages should be described in purely oral mode? 10
#primacy of speech
His disciple John Justeson (1976) came up with a series of statements reagarding
writing systems, such as “[1] All writing systems distinguishing any phonemes contain
signs distinguishing some consonantal phonemes,” “[7] Alphabets are more likely to
represent loan-word phonemes separately than are syllabaries,” and “[32] If/1/ is not
represented in a script, neither is /r/.” These are empirical findings, and they would
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repay study to discover whether they are accidental or bear on the nature of the
relations between script and language. 11
#implicational universals
On the other, and most importantly for writing systems, Harris reminds us (1986) that
phonetics has shown the stream of speech not to be segmentable into units
corresponding to letters—that is, into phonemes; syllables are the smallest linguistic
units with physical existence (cf. Section 52). For Harris, the phenomenon of
phonemes is an artifact of alphabetic writing. One need not accept his deconstruction
of the field of linguistics, but his proposal deserves serious consideration. 12
As with some topics noted earlier, for general historians it seems that the written word
is too close at hand to be noticed at all. The very documents that make history
possible have been studied for their content, but not for themselves. 13
#philology
Daniels, Peter T. 1996. Part II. Ancient Near Eastern writing

systems. In Daniels, Peter T, and William Bright, eds. The
world’s writing systems. New York & Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Prehistory isn’t like a “veil” or a “curtain” that “lifts” to reveal the pre-set “stage” of
history. Rather, prehistory is an absence of something: an absence of writing. So a
better image of the “dawn of history” might be an AM radio in the pre-dawn hours:
you recognize wisps of words or music across the dial, interblending, and noise
obscures even the few clear-channel stations. With the coming of the daylight, the
static fades away, and signals emerge. The first ones we find, when we switch on the
radio of history about 3200 B.C.E., come from Mesopotamia, and those from Egypt
soon emerge. Eventually the neighboring lands produce records, with the effect that
the ancient Near East is probably the best documented civilization before the
invention of printing.!The earliest scribes we know about wrote on shaped lumps of
clay-the durability of which is the reason we know about them-indenting wedge-
shaped marks with a square corner of a reed stylus. They wrote in Sumerian, a
language related to no other of which traces have survived. 19
Daniels, Peter T. 1996. The first civilizations. In Daniels, Peter

T, and William Bright, eds. The world’s writing systems. New
York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jack Goody’s recent musings on the written and the oral end thus (1987: 300):
“Cognitively as well as sociologically, writing underpins ‘civilization’, the culture of
cities.” 21
Moreover, no claim seems to have been put forward that any recurring sequences of
signs have been identified, and the first step in any linguistic analysis is the
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identification of strings that are the same or partly the same. It seems, then, most
improbable that the marks represent a language, either logographically or
phonetically. Thus on the current evidence it is not possible to recognize a Vinca
writing system. A sober study of these and related materials, e.g. the “Tartaria
tablets,” by a scholar of the Aegean scripts-not cited by Gimbutas—is Masson 1984.
22
If Chinese writing was stimulated by, or imitated from, Mesopotamian cuneiform,
then it should have emerged as a syllabary or a logosyllabary, rather than as a nearly
pure logography with pervasive phonetic complementation. Recently, there have been
proposals of direct influence from the Semitic abjad on the 22 Chinese calendrical
signs (Mair 1992, Gordon 1994: 37-45; for a sober account of the data, see
Pulleyblank 1991). 24
#stimulus diffusion: Chinese
What needs to be recognized is the intellectual achievement in passing from a
syllabary, the most perspicuous form of phonetic writing (see Section 52), to a
consonantary. 25
Religion plays a part, too, in the latest examples of cross-civilizational script influence.
In Korea (Section 17), hankul emerged from King Seycong’s desire to turn his country
from Confucian to Buddhist ideals. While the presence or degree of influence from
the Tibetan-based ‘Phags pa script on Korean is disputed, it is clear that Seycong or
his linguistic consultants could use as a model the alphabetic or abugidic scripts of
India and Inner Asia in which Buddhist scriptures were preserved. 26
#hangul #alphabet follows religion
As outlined in Section 1, for more than a century the accepted view of script typology
has admitted logography, syllabary, and alphabet. The descriptive adequacy of this
scheme has already been dealt with; here my concern is with its implications. The
sequence has usually been taken as not merely one of historical development, but also
as representing “progress”—as if the alphabet is the best possible kind of writing
system, ostensibly because it (ideally) provides one symbol of the script for each
phoneme of the language. In fact, it is probably because the alphabet is “our” kind of
writing: the vehicle of the “best” culture (or of “civilization” in the judgmental sense).
This attitude may have reflected unthinking, nearly harmless chauvinism, and it can
be refuted fairly simply: each type of script entails about the same amount of effort to
record the same amount of information. 26
#writing = model of language #evolution of writing
Moreover, language changes continually but writing is generally fixed. So, however
perfectly phonemic an alphabet was when it was first applied to a language, every
phonological system changes over time (sometimes over a very short time; witness the
Great English Vowel Shift, which overtook standard English just as English spelling
was being codified with the introduction of printing to England). Then the original
writing system comes to reflect an earlier historical stage of the language, and in effect
becomes morphophonemic rather than phonemic. Only when spelling has very
recently been introduced or ruthlessly reformed is an alphabet likely to be phonemic.
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Additionally, there are languages for which an alphabet is not an ideal writing system.
The Semitic abjads really do fit the structure of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic very
well, and the abugida really is more appropriate to Ethiopic languages than an
alphabet would be, since the spelling ensures that each root looks the same through its
plethora of inflections and derivations. The supplemental vowel markings on the
abjads serve to remove ambiguity among words with the same consonants which
cannot be resolved from the context. And it is not only Semitic languages for which an
abjad is appropriate (Daniels 1995). 27
#writing = model of language #evolution of writing
The Mesopotamians and Hebrews were preliterate, Havelock asserts, because they
did not use an alphabet; to this deficiency in their writing system is to be attributed the
defects of their written remains—in 1979 he even added the “Hindu Vedic literature
[sic]” to the preliterate corpus (1982: 9). 28
F. G. Gordon (1931), with considerable ingenuity, uncovered a very nice (at least in
the English translation) Basque poem in a Linear B tablet. 29
#funny
Michalowski, Piotr. 1996. Mesopotamian cuneiform. In Daniels,

What is probably the first known writing system in the world, conventionally called
proto-cuneiform, was used in Mesopotamia at the end of the fourth millennium B.C.E.,
in the latter part of what is known as the Uruk Period. It is still a matter of debate
whether the first Egyptian writings were contemporary, slightly later, or perhaps even
earlier than the Uruk tablets. In southern Mesopotamia this was a time of rapid
urbanization, population growth, and dramatic increase in the division of labor and
political development. The first writing is part of this sudden expansion of
Mesopotamian civilization; it cannot be ascribed to any single cause, but must be
viewed as an element in a rapidly diversifying human environment. There can be little
doubt that the primary context for the first writing was administrative necessity, but
an invention of this magnitude, which required a realignment of all communicative
systems within a small but important segment of society, also had complex symbolic
and psychological roots. The script can be “understood” in some sense, but it cannot
be fully read; although there has been some doubt concerning the language that was
the basis for this written expression, there is clear evidence that it was Sumerian. 33
#hypothesis: needs based origin #origin of writing
The first written texts derive from excavations in the southern Mesopotamian city of
Uruk, from the period of roughly 3200-3000 B.C. Almost 5000 tablets and fragments
inscribed with proto-cuneiform have been found there. 33
#origin of writing
Although we are at the mercy of chance discoveries and there is no way of establishing
the earlier history of the system, there are reasons to believe that the period IV tablets
from Uruk are not far removed from the invention of the script. 34
204
#origin of writing
Unlike in early Chinese and Egyptian writing, there is only sporadic evidence for
phonetic complementation, which was used more frequently in later phases of the
writing system. Nevertheless, there are a few cases of phonetic complementation
already in the earliest stages of cuneiform, and these, as Krispijn (1991-92), Krebernik
(1994), and Steinkeller (In Press) have recently observed, leave little doubt that the
underlying language of the earliest texts was indeed Sumerian. Thus the sign AMA,
which was the Sumerian word for ‘mother’, was rendered with a sign we transliterate
as PISAN (‘box’) inscribed with AM., which indicates the range of pronunciation. 35
[PK: OCR is imperfect, check against original]
Although the majority of individual symbols represented whole words—because
Sumerian was predominantly monosyllabic—these same words could function as
syllables in other contexts (BA ‘ration’= /ba/). The syllabic spellings were needed for
the expression of personal names and later for the writing of grammatical elements.
Homophony was used to produce syllabic writings, but rarely for creating other word
signs through the rebus principle. There were also a series of preposed and postposed
classifiers that delimited semantic classes, such as GIS [PK: with haček] ‘wood’. The
visual layout of tablets also had semantic value. The arrangement of cases and
columns enclosing signs was different for different types of transactions and for
different parts of the text, such as for the final total of goods. This variety of
arrangements disappeared later on as the system became more flexible and more
linked to natural language. On the early tablets, signs were arranged in random order
within cases that were ordered vertically, from our point of view. There are
indications that the tablets were held at a different angle than in later times. The
random order of signs within the cases continued down to Early Dynastic times when
the first literary texts are attested; in this period, duplicate passages of the same
composition could be written with signs in completely different order (see Figure 2). 35
#rebus #orientation
The structure and logic of the system indicate that it was invented as a whole and did
not develop gradually. Individual elements were borrowed from existing
communicative devices: the number signs may have been adapted from small clay
counters that were used independently, or impressed on tablets. Certain cult symbols,
as well [35] as other signs were probably used earlier in cylinder seal designs, but the
system as such was designed in one fell swoop. Those who favor an evolutionary
model of the development of writing cite certain “antecedents” to proto-cuneiform:
rough clay containers (“bullae”) that enclosed simple counters and were impressed
with the shape of the counters, and sealed; as well as the so-called numerical tablets;
that is, clay tablets with the impressions of counters. It has been proposed that the
hollow bullae were flattened, and this produced the first tablets. These, in turn, were
impressed with the shape of the clay counters (Schmandt-Besserat 1992). The inventor
or inventors of proto-cuneiform drew on a variety of such ideas, but the quantum leap
to the conceptualization of the earliest writing system was without precedent.
The only other contemporary writing system was the hitherto undeciphered Proto-
Elamite script used over a wide area of southwest and central Iran. The first tablets in
Proto-Elamite are slightly later than proto-cuneiform—conventionally they are
regarded as contemporary with Uruk III-and the relation between the two systems is
unclear. Both use the same numerical notation, and they share at least one sign; but
205
other than that, there is little that one can say about the differences and similarities
between the two (see Section 10). 36
#evolution of writing: intervention hypothesis #stimulus diffusion [Proto-Elamite]
[PK: OCR is imperfect, check against original]
The majority of Uruk archaic texts are administrative documents. These comprise
texts dealing with such matters as animal husbandry, grain distribution, land, animal
and personnel management, and the processing of fruits and cereals. Approximately
15% are not economic: these are lists of words arranged by semantic class and by sign
design, commonly known as lexical lists (Englund and Nissen 1993). There are lists of
wooden objects, professional names, fish, plants, and other subjects. These differ from
the accounts in a number of respects: they are preserved in multiple copies (as many
as 163 for the professions list), some duplicates were found outside Uruk, and they
were copied by later scribes for hundreds of years. These lexical texts have been
interpreted in a variety of ways, but most scholars agree that they were manuals for
the teaching of writing. This demonstrates that from the beginning there was a
concern for the structured transmission o f the system from generation to generation,
and that the method of instruction was passed on along with the practical knowledge
of the script. 36
#institutional literacy transmission
Cooper, Jerald S. 1996. Sumerian and Akkadian. In Daniels,

Cuneiform script was used to represent the Sumerian language (Thomsen 1984) in
southern Mesopotamia from ca. 3200 B.C.E., and was adapted to write Semitic
dialects in Mesopotamia and Syria by 2500. Although Sumerian had become extinct
as a spoken language by the early second millennium, it continued to be used for
religious and legal purposes, and was studied and written until the beginning of the
current era. Cuneiform texts in the Semitic dialect family we call Akkadian (Reiner
1966) appear in southern Mesopotamia beginning around 2350 (the dialect is called
Old Akkadian); and after 2000, texts are written in two dialects, the Babylonian,
originating in southern Mesopotamia, and Assyrian, originating in northern
Mesopotamia. These are chronologically distinguished as Old Babylonian/Assyrian,
Middle Babylonian/Assyrian, and Neo-Babylonian/-Assyrian, representing the
dialects of, roughly, the first half of the second millennium, the second half of the
second millennium, and the first half of the first millennium respectively. 37
#origin of writing
Sumerian and Akkadian are not only dead languages, but unlike Sanskrit, Biblical
Hebrew, ancient Greek, or Latin, they are languages without a continuous tradition of
study. Akkadian is a Semitic language, but Sumerian is a language isolate of a very
different type, and with a very different phonemic inventory. The values we give to
cuneiform signs in Sumerian texts are based on Akkadian values and on ancient
glosses. Since most of these glosses date from periods when Sumerian was no longer
spoken, i.e. from a milieu speaking Akkadian or other Semitic languages, it is said that
we view Sumerian phonology through Akkadian glasses. However, since the signs
used to write Akkadian had been adapted from an originally Sumerian system of
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cuneiform writing, we might also say that our Akkadian glasses were made by a
Sumerian optician. 37
In a Sumerian epic text that includes an etiology of !writing (Vanstiphout 1989), the
purported first recipient of a cuneiform message exclaims, “It’s wedge-like!” 38
#origin stories
The major trends in the evolution of cuneiform signs, as can be seen from Table 3.1,
are the straightening of curved lines the broadening of the head of each stroke, the
diminution in the number of strokes per sign, the restriction of the possible orientation
of the strokes, the replacement of angled strokes by horizontals, and, in Assyria, the
resolution of certain groups of angular wedges into groups of parallel horizontals. As a
result, almost all pictorial content disappears after the archaic stage. The number of
signs diminished by about one half: in the earliest repertoire, there were around 1200
signs, counting compounds and significant variants; the number drops to 800 or less
by the middle of the third millennium, and in the second and first millennia there
were about 600 signs. 40
#conventionalisation and compression
Table 3. 1 reveals the pictographic basis of cuneiform, which in C. S. Peirce’s
terminology was both iconic (a head used to write the word “head” [3. 1. 1]) and
indexical (a bull’s head to write “bull” [3. 1.8], a foot used to write “to go” and “to
stand” [3. 1 .5]; the latter type of index is also called semantic association herein). But
there were also a number of purely symbolic signs, such as the cross in a circle for
“sheep,” and other related signs for gendered and age-graded categories of sheep and
goats (3. 1.6-7). Possibly because drawing or impressing the stylus on clay did not lend
itself to detailed representation without sacrificing the rapidity necessary for the
writing system to be a useful administrative tool, the vast majority of signs are quite
schematic even in their earliest versions, and the specific basis of many that are clearly
intended to be representations of something remains obscure. 41
The sign for ‘woman’, a pubic triangle, is joined to the sign for ‘mountains, foreign
lands’ to form a compound for Sum. geme, ‘female slave’ (3. 1 .9) because slaves were
obtained in raids on foreign lands in the mountainous northeast. 41
#body part iconism
Rebus writing, too, made it possible to represent a large number of lexemes with a
relatively small number of signs, and was a way of representing lexemes that could not
be easily indicated by iconic or indexical signs. Sumerian has a large number of
homonyms and near homonyms—so many, in fact, that scholars have assumed that
Sumerian must have been a tone language. It was thus particularly well suited for
rebus substitution. Curiously, the principle of rebus writing was understood in the
archaic period but hardly used. Examples include [symbol] BA, probably a pictogram
of a tool called ba in Sumerian, used to mean ‘to distribute’, also ba, and [symbol] GI
(Table 3.1.10), a pictogram of a reed (Sum. gi), used to represent gi ‘to render’ and in
the archaic period probably also used for sigi ‘yellow’. Massive exploitation of rebus
writing quickly developed in subsequent periods. A very few examples (giving the
Sumerian word, the meaning represented originally by the sign, and the homonym
represented by rebus extension): [symbol] su ‘body’ and ‘to replace’, [symbol] si ‘horn’
207
and ‘to fill’, [symbol] e ‘dike’ and ‘to speak’, [symbol] sar ‘plant’ and ‘to write’ (3.1.11).
Rebus phoneticism—that is, the use of a sign to represent not a homonym of the word
represented by the sign, but only the sound of that word in order to write
phonetically—also seems to have been understood in the archaic period, but again is
very rare. Consider archaic [symbol] NE+RU erim, ‘evil’, and later [symbol] ha-la
‘share’ or [symbol] ba-al ‘to dig’. NE.RU is probably an attempt to render the sound
[erim]; in each case, the semantic values of the individual signs have nothing to do
with the meanings of the words. 42
#rebus
The transformation of a writing system that used language strictly as an administrative
tool into one that could adequately express natural language in a broad range of
contexts—letters, commemorative inscriptions, legal documents, literary texts,
technical literature—was effected by the increasing use of rebus phoneticism to write
grammatical affixes. Sumerian is an agglutinative language in which nouns take
suffixes and verbs both prefixes and suffixes. Virtually no trace of these affixes can be
found in the early archaic texts, but they begin appearing after 2900 B.C.E.
Curiously, they are used in what can only be described as a skeletal way for centuries;
and only in the early second millennium, when Sumerian was probably extinct and
spoken only in the schools, are the affixes fully expressed. The example in Figure 3
comes from a collection of sayings preserved in manuscripts from ca. 2500 and ca.
1800 (Alster 1974). The cuneiform signs added by the later version to express the
affixes are here shown in smaller type. 43
#writing = model of language [Note here that the unit of salience is the word
root/lemma]
Macri, Martha J. 1996. Maya and other Mesoamerican scripts. In

Daniels, Peter T, and William Bright, eds. The world’s writing
systems. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Just as writing in ancient Mesopotamia developed within the context of commerce,
writing in Mesoamerica is inextricably connected with an intricate calendar and seems
to have developed partially in response to the desire to record astronomical
observations. 172
#hypothesis: needs based origin
True writing is first attested in Oaxaca, the Gulf Coast region, and the Guatemalan
Pacific Piedmont and Highlands between 500 B.C.E. and 150 C.E. (Justesen et al.
1985; Marcus 1976). The development of writing from an intricate iconography into a
script with increasingly larger logographic and phonetic components remains a
favored hypothesis of the origin of Mesoamerican scripts. However, the relationships
between the scripts is not well understood, and there is lack of agreement about which
is the earliest. 172
#origin of writing #stimulus diffusion
Three logographic/syllabic traditions existed in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica: the
Zapotec, the Epi-Olmec, and the Maya. Writing first appears at the Zapotec site of
Monte Alban on Stelas 12 and 13 about 500-400 B.C.E. (Marcus 1976: 45-47).
Although the study of Zapotec writing is in its infancy (Marcus 1992: 72), the
208
arrangement of signs and the abstract form of many of them suggest the script is
analogous to the logographic/syllabic Epi-Olmec and Maya scripts. Texts from
Monte Alban I and II (500 B.C.E. – 100 C.E.) have signs of regular width closely
stacked in columns. Numbers are placed beneath calendrical signs with dots above
bars. Later texts from Monte Albán III (after 100 C.E.), such as Stela I (Marcus 1992,
fig. 10.11) and the Lápida de Bazán (Marcus 1983B, fig. 6.7), have less regularly
shaped signs placed farther apart and have numbers beneath calendrical signs with
bars above the dots. This may reflect influence from Central Mexico. 174
#origin of writing
FIGURE I8. Symbols in the Maya script based on hands; beneath each one appears
the grapheme conde and the Thompson catalog number (drawing by Judy Alexander
after Thompson 1962). 178
#body part iconism
By the time of the European invasion in the sixteenth century, the Aztecs of
Tenochtitlan, the Mixtecs of southern Puebla and northern Oaxaca (Byland 1993:
xiii-xv; Jansen 1990; Smith 1983), and the Zapotecs of Oaxaca (Marcus 1992: 69-75)
had hundreds of paper manuscripts which recorded both history and mythic
traditions. However, these manuscripts, containing more logographic than phonetic
signs, relied heavily on context—on learned cultural conventions—for resolving
ambiguities; this limits the ability of modern scholars to reconstruct precise word-for-
word transcriptions. Thus we speak of the interpretation of these texts rather than of
their decipherment. Glass (1975A, 1975B) offers a survey of both pre- and post-colonial
pictorial manuscripts, along with detailed ethnohistoric and bibliographic sources. 180
#bound writing #logography
Macri, Martha J. 1996. Rongorongo of Easter Island. In Daniels,

#rongorongo
FIGURE 19. Petroglyph motifs with corresponding Rongorongo symbols (marked with
‘), drawings by Judy Alexander after Lee 1992: (a) Anthropomorphic figure (fig. 3.s;2),
(b) Bird man (fig. 3.7:2), (c) Turtle (fig. 3.9:9), (d) Plant (fig. 3. I s:2), (e) Two-headed
frigate bird (fig. 3.8-4, rotated slightly and Hipped on vertical axis), (f) Tern (fig. 3.8:2),
(g) Frigate bird (fig. 3.8-4). (h) Fish (fig. 3.9.1), (i) Eye mask (fig. 3.6:4), (j)Vulva (fig.
3.6:8), (k) Lunate (fig. 3.14:10), (l) Rei miro, a crescent-shaped wooden pectoral (fig.
3.11: 1, rotated 90°), (m) Fishhook (fig. 3. 13: 1). (bottom) Partial list of other symbols.
184
#body part iconism
I propose a sign analysis which is both rigorous and systematic (Macri In preparation).
It begins with an examination of the art of the island (Lee 1992), observing similarities
between the written symbols and those found carved on stone or wood. 185
Invoking these principles, the texts can be accounted for with fewer than 70
symbols—a number consistent only with a syllabary. Rapanui has 10 consonants (p t k
ʔ m n ŋ h r v] and 5 vowels [i e a o u], so only 55 signs are required to represent all
209
syllables composed of a single vowel or of a consonant + vowel. In addition to the 55
signs required by a syllabary, some signs, such as the lunar crescent and the lizard
were probably used logographically. 185
Daniels, Peter T. 1996. Part IX: Scripts invented in modern

times. In Daniels, Peter T, and William Bright, eds. The world’s
writing systems. New York & Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Why does someone invent a script? What is the purpose of writing? The great
majority of human societies have thrived without written records. What led some
beyond memory alone?
There seem to be three different answers underlying the three most ancient writing
systems we can interpret. In Mesopotamia, whether or not archaic counting devices
are implicated, and whether or not the locus is sacral—what comes to be seen as
“temple economies”—the primary impulse seems to be commerce: relations between
cities, as well as administration of incipient or developed bureaucracy, of small groups
or even legions of workers with a purpose other than individualistic enterprise.
In China, the earliest writings preserve the outcomes of oracular consultations with
supernatural beings: if the gods must be consulted at every turn, there needs to be
some certain way to preserve their responses.
In Mesoamerica, what is clearest about the interpretable remains is the astronomical
information. Cycles spanning decades and centuries could perhaps be suspected, but
only with records reaching beyond one observer’s lifetime can the details be worked
out.
What do these three cases have in common? Only, perhaps, the amount of
information and its lack of certainty or predictability (astronomical patterns can only
be discovered after much information has been determined). While it has perhaps not
been forgotten by unlettered peoples, it was (re)discovered by the West close to a
century ago that writing is not required to preserve literature and tradition. Homer
and Moses did not need to write their stories down in order for them to be cherished
from generation to generation. The poetic language and formulas of the one, the
numinous power of the other, made them live forever. Written literature piggybacked
on the mundane accountant’s, or acolyte’s, or observer’s purely practical recording
devices.
And their adaptation to recording ordinary, and then heightened, language had
happened so recently in history (by definition, remember) that Plato could have
Socrates decry the use of writing as detrimental to the power of memory. He was
right. 577
#origin of writing #hypothesis: needs based origin
It is in this sense that something happens to “civilization” when it takes up writing. It
is not then that literature is invented; but it is then that it takes a new form. Only prose
is added to the repertoire of the culture; is the science of Aristotle or of Galen more
“advanced” than the ethnoscience that even today harvests efficacious medicines from
the natural world? A good case can be made—taken up at the very end of this book—
that only with printing, and the dissemination of identical, reliable copies of expository
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prose, did the existence of writing have a material, beneficial effect on human
existence.
There is, of course, one exception, and it was adumbrated at the very beginning: the
sphere of religion. The religions of the West, and some of those of the East, rely on
Scripture. The dissemination of writing often serves the dissemination of scriptures.
From earliest times, adherents have been called to both study and proselytize. The
former activity produces new writings; the latter produces new scripts (but usually
developed out of others).
But a motif found over and over in the stories of script inventors—grammatogenists—
is divine inspiration, often in a dream, sometimes in retreat from the world. In almost
every case, the script inventor wishes to benefit his people with a gift from heaven. In
almost every remaining case, the inventor seeks to bring to his people the material
benefits seen to be possessed by others who are able to talk to each other across
distances that are beyond earshot, or across barriers that sound cannot penetrate.
Their stories often refer to “leaves that can speak”; they were enmeshed in a world of
communication by audition—and were freed by a sudden insight: a vision that
revealed the potential of vision. 578
#hypothesis: use based origin #alphabet follows religion #origin stories
Daniels, Peter T. 1996. The invention of writing. In Daniels,

#stimulus diffusion
The normal way for a society to acquire its own script is by evolving, adapting, or
adopting an existing writing system. Once in a while, though, some visionary, aware
simply of the existence of writing among nearby peoples (often missionaries), sets out to
devise his own system that will set his people apart from all others. The earliest such
system we know of is the Old Persian cuneiform (Section 8); the earliest documented
one is the Korean (Section 17); the most celebrated, and the earliest that was observed
by interested outsiders, is the Cherokee. The scripts devised for Lepcha (Section 40),
and the scripts of Cherokee, Cree, Vai, Munda languages, and Hmong, described
below, are still in use, but they represent far from a complete list of modern
“grammatogenies.” The principal scholar of such things is Alfred Schmitt, whose
comprehensive treatment was published posthumously in 1980.
Observable script inventions have much to teach about the possible scenarios of the
three ancient grammatogenies (Sumerian, Chinese, Maya)—but only if we observe
one distinction. There are grammatogenies by people already literate in some
language, who possess at least some knowledge of phonetics—if only as much as is
encoded in an existing script—a type I call sophisticated; and grammatogenies by people
who cannot read in any language and who know nothing of phonetics—unsophisticated
grammatogeny. It is the study of unsophisticated modern grammatogeny that may
illuminate the ancient origins of writing.
Sophisticated grammatogenies
As with Korean and Cree, it is often the missionary impulse that leads someone to
create a script for a culture. Its external characteristics may be determined by the
211
availability of printing equipment (or even typewriters, in the minimal case of the
adaptation of the English/French/Spanish etc. alphabet to local languages), or the
inventor may feel free to design an entirely new set of characters. Either way, the
resulting [579] script is liable to betray some degree of phonetic sophistication—all
and only the distinctive segments of the language will be provided for, and similarity
in phonetic features may be reflected in similarity in shapes. Three examples may
serve, two that achieved some importance in southern China, and one comprising
invented scripts in contemporary imaginative literature. Mention should also be made
of two scripts for Cushitic languages of the Horn of Africa: an Ethiopic-based abugida
for Oromo, devised by Shaykh Bakri Sapalo (Hayward and Hassan 1981 ), and an
alphabet for Somali, called Osmanya from the name of the inventor, ‘Isman Yusuf,
son and brother of the last two sultans of Olbia (Jensen 1969: 226f.). The former has
been replaced by a modified Ethiopic, the latter by Roman orthography. 580
#origin of writing [Curious that Daniels assumes ‘sophisticated’ grammatogeny to
“betray some degree of sophistication” with the implication that unsophisticated
systems will be crude. Not true of Cherokee, Hmong and others]
Unsophisticated grammatogenies
Clearly, it is from the other kind of script invention that insights into the process may
be gained. Rather unexpectedly, it turns out that virtually all unsophisticated
grammatogenies share certain features: The resulting script is a syllabary. It includes
only signs for CV syllables. The conventional order of the signs (when one exists) is
random, and signs are not grouped together by phonetic similarity. Signs for
phonetically similar syllables share no deliberate graphic similarity. Cherokee is the
earliest documented script invention of this kind, and the Cherokee script exhibits all
these characteristics.
Apparently some centuries older is a script used by ladies of the Chinese court, which
is called “women’s writing.” It is said to be a syllabary, graphically similar to Chinese
characters; whether the phonetic signs are based on appropriate Chinese logograms is
unclear, as descriptions in Western languages are limited to newspaper accounts, and
Chinese-language sources have proved unavailable in the U.S. 583
[PK: Note also that also in Roman script conventional order is random and signs are not
grouped by phonetic/graphic similarity]
#gender
The Bamum script

Early in the twentieth century, King Njoya [nʒɯǝja] of the Bamum tribe of central
Cameroon became aware of the writing of the missionaries, and resolved to provide
his own people with a script (Schmitt 1967B). lt came to him in a dream that the way
to proceed was by inventing a picture for each object or action. He asked his subjects
to provide drawings of all sorts of things, from which he would choose an inventory
[583] to write with. This proved impossible (we are not told why), despite some five
attempts. Next, Njoya tried rebus writing: words could be written with the pictures
that represented similar-sounding words. It happens that most Bamum words are
monosyllables of the form CV(C), and the closing consonant can only be [p t m n ŋ];
many words thus share a shape, with differentiation by tones, so that a quite limited
inventory of (logo)syllabic signs sufficed to write the language. 584
212
#bamum
The Alaska script

The script created by Uyaqoq (also known by the translation of his name as Neck)
between 1901 and 1905, at a Moravian mission in southwest Alaska (Schmitt 1967a),
is unusual in being devised for an agglutinative language rather than a monosyllabic
one—words in Inuit can reach seemingly unlimited lengths. The obvious strategy of
assigning a symbol to each word immediately proved impossible, and Uyaqoq quickly
settled on truncating a word to use its pictograph for just its initial CV portion. He
also added a series of symbols for consonants that could close syllables. And in a
practice reminiscent of Pahlavi writing (Section 48), he notated a few syllables with
marks based on the cursive writing of English words, so that a squiggle resembling
<[symbol]> represents the syllable [kut]. 584
#alaska
The Ndjuka script

Afaka, a “Bush Negro” of Dutch Guiana (modern Suriname), was also told in a dream
to create a script (Gonggryp 1960). Before 1916, at the rate of a sign every two or
three days, he came up with 56 characters with which to write. They are signs for CV
syllables (including a few nasalized vowels). The Ndjuka language is an English-based
creole (an English colony in Surinam was taken over by the Dutch in 1667, but the
slaves and their descendants maintained their language; Holm 1989: 432-44), with the
attendant phonological simplification (Huttar 1986), and the script was used only by a
small fraction of the Christian minority. 584
#djuka
The Caroline Islands script

Two distinct scripts were used to write the Woleaian language in the Caroline Islands,
Micronesia, in the early twentieth century. Type 2 includes 19 characters, all of them
clearly based on letters of the Roman alphabet, and Type 1, “at least 78” (Riesenberg
and Kaneshiro 1960). All the characters in both scripts represent CV syllables. The
values of the Type 2 characters (except for the plain vowels) are all of the form [Ci],
representing the names of the letters of the Trukese alphabet, which had been brought
to that neighboring island in 1878 by an English missionary and thence, imperfectly
understood, to Woleiai in 1905. Within a couple of years, Type I was devised at
Faraulep Island to remedy the perceived lack of means of expressing syllables con-
[584]taining vowels other than [i]. Some of its characters are pictographic, a few
resemble appropriate katakana (Section 16), and some seem to be pure invention. The
inventory could be increased as need was perceived for new characters. 585
The origin of writing

Accounts of unsophisticated grammatogeny reveal the characteristics of an
independently invented script. Most striking is that the result of the process is always a
syllabary emerging from logography, never an alphabet (valuable collections on early
writing systems are Oates 1986 and Senner 1989 and, on a smaller scale, Joachim
Jungius-Gesellschaft 1969). This phenomenon seems to originate in the way people
213
use and process speech: various psycholinguistic and phonetic observations and
experiments indicate that it is syllables and not any shorter stretches of speech (i.e.
“segments,” the result of phonological analysis and roughly equivalent to letters of the
alphabet) that people can consciously hear—unless they have learned to read in an
alphabetic script.
It is thus not surprising that the three known cases of independent script invention—
for Sumerian (Section 3), for Chinese (Section 14), and for Mayan (Section 12)—
resulted in logosyllabaries. But why did writing emerge only for these three
civilizations? After all, the Incas of Peru enjoyed a highly developed civilization, yet
could record only quantities, not language, with their knotted-cord quipus (Ascher
and Ascher 1981). Moreover, many—perhaps all—preliterate cultures employ
pictographic records as mnemonic devices (these are often, though misleadingly, listed
as forerunners of writing).
The answer seems to me (Daniels 1988) to lie in the syllable. In Sumerian, Chinese,
and Mayan, most morphemes and in particular independent words comprise single
syllables. A word is the shortest stretch of speech that can be uttered by someone
without linguistic training (an Inuit-speaker who makes a mistake can’t break off in the
middle of a word and correct part of it, but after breaking off must begin to say it at
the beginning). Thus in “syllabically organized” languages like the three where writing
was born, speakers can speak single syllables. So pictograms represent things with
monosyllabic names. This in turn offers a means of representing those syllables that
are not words for picturable objects—and that sort of representation is the defining
characteristic of writing (Section l ). Using a picture of some object to represent the
sound of a homophonous word is known as rebus writing. While rebuses today are party
games, at the dawn of history they were the foundation of writing. 585
#origin of writing #evolution of writing #hypothesis: primacy of the syllable #rebus
Scancarelli, Janine. 1996. Cherokee writing. In Daniels, Peter T,

and William Bright, eds. The world’s writing systems. New York
& Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cherokee is written with a syllabary invented by Sequoyah (ca. 1770-1843), a
monolingual Cherokee speaker. Also known by the English name George Guess (or
Gist or Guyst), he was illiterate until he invented his syllabary. He noticed that marks
on paper could be used to represent English, and from that observation he went on to
invent a writing system for Cherokee (see Foreman 1938). In their present form many
of the syllabary characters resemble Roman, Cyrillic, or Greek letters or Arabic
numerals, but there is no apparent relationship between their sounds in other
languages and in Cherokee. Sequoyah gave a public demonstration of the syllabary in
l82l, and by 1824 knowledge of his invention had spread widely among the
Cherokees. (On the early history of the syllabary see Walker and Sarbaugh 1993.)
Materials written in the syllabary are sometimes said to be written “in Sequoyan.” 587
Each character can represent syllables with long or short vowels pronounced on any
of several different pitches. 590
Most characters can represent syllables that begin with plain consonants or clusters of
plain consonants with [h]. Sequences of stop or affricate plus [h], pronounced as
214
aspirates, are distinguished from their unaspirated counterparts in just five cases: Ꭶ ga
= [ka], Ꭷ = [ka], Ꮣ da =[ta], Ꮤ ta= [ta]; Ꮥ de= [te], Ꮦ te = [te]; Ꮧ di= [ti],Ꮨl ti=[thi];,
fudla=[t1a], Ꮬ dla=[t1a].Thus the syllabary distinguishes the first two syllables in ᎧᎦ
Ꮅ Ka-ga-li [insert IPA] ‘February’; but a single spelling, ᎪᎳ go-la, represents both
[ko:la] ‘winter’ and [k’’o:la] ‘bone’. 590
Since 1828 the syllabary has been used in legal, political, religious, and informational
publications. Manuscript materials include letters, diaries and other records, and
notebooks of medical formulas. In the late twentieth century, Cherokee is more often
read than written. The ability to read Cherokee plays an important role in traditional
Cherokee medicine and in Cherokee Christian church services. Two publications in
the syllabary are widely owned and read, the Cherokee New Testament and a
hymnal. Both are facsimiles of nineteenth-century editions prepared by Worcester
with Cherokee collaborators. These books are familiar even to non-Christians. For
some Cherokees, the spellings and grammatical constructions that appear in these
texts define a standard for formal language. One sometimes hears spelling
pronunciations in which a word is pronounced in accordance with Worcester’s
transliteration regardless of ordinary usage. 591
#register #writing is language
Singer, John Victor. 1996. Scripts of West Africa. In Daniels,

#vai
The recency of several of the systems described by Dalby indicates that the creation of
writing systems is a continuing occurrence in modern West Africa. 593
Indeed, a continuous occurance for 180 years, suggesting script invention is ontological.
Evidently Bukele was aware of the existence of the Arabic and Roman writing
systems, and possibly Cherokee as well (Dalby 1968, Holsoe 1971). 594
The script’s primary use is for correspondence and record-keeping. Since knowledge
of the script is acquired informally rather than formally, there has been no mechanism
for the imposition of the standardized version. Items are occasionally published that
use the script—e.g. a 1989 translation of the Gospel of Mark in Vai with the Roman
alphabet on the left and the script on the right—but the basis for the enduring
popularity of Vai has been its personal uses rather than more public ones. 594
The Vai writing system is a left-to-right system. While it has always been described as
syllable-based, the basic unit of the system is more accurately the mora. The weight of
the syllable determines the number of characters that will be used to represent it. The
only closed syllables are those ending with a velar nasal. If a syllable ends with a velar
nasal consonant, the nasal is written with a separate character [symbol], e.g. [symbol]
ke-ni [kéŋ] ‘house’. The velar nasal can itself be syllabic, e.g. [symbol] [ŋ] ‘first person
singular’. (The velar nasal is subject to assimilation processes and is not always
pronounced as a velar; but however it is pronounced, it is always written as [symbol].)
Apart from these cases involving a nasal consonant, every syllable ends with a vowel.
When an open syllable contains only a short vowel, the syllable is written with a single
215
character, e.g. [symbol[ jí ‘water’. When it contains a long vowel or a diphthong, it is
written with two characters. 594
#writing = model of language #hypothesis: primacy of the syllable
In the script chart devised at the 1962 conference, a distinction is made between the
characters for wV syllables and for V syllables. However, except for wa versus a, this is
largely an artificial distinction and is not strictly observed. 594
As suggested above, Vai has a strict (C)V(N) syllable pattern. The final nasal is
expressed by a separate character, and vowel length also involves distinct characters.
Because of the restriction of possible syllable shape and the conventions regarding the
final nasal and vowel length, the number of possible “syllables” to be represented by
the Vai script is comparatively small, slightly more than 200.! 596
Nichols, John D. 1996. The Cree syllabary. In Daniels, Peter T,

and William Bright, eds. The world’s writing systems. New York
& Oxford: Oxford University Press.
#cree
It has been given an indigenous origin in Cree legend (Dusenberry 1962: 267-69),
although some have seen its sources in quill and bead work designs. 601
#origin stories
There is no standardized spelling for any dialect of Cree or Ojibwe; however, fitting
the shorthand origins of the system, writers may use plain syllabics, indicating only the
bare outline of syllable structure, or pointed syllabics, adding diacritics all the way up to
phonemic transcription, the full realization of which is rare. Many writers put spaces
or dots between words or prefixes; others write all the characters equally far apart
with no word division. 602
Zide, Norman. 1996. Scripts for Munda languages. In Daniels,

Central India of the first half of the twentieth century was a place where many new
scripts were devised by members of “tribal” language communities (i.e. minority
groups outside mainstream Hindu society). Apparently it was felt by the newly
conscious speakers of these languages that a full-fledged language in the Indian
context needed a script of its own, clearly different from those of its neighbors. More
than a dozen were made for less than half that many languages; for some, e.g. Ho,
more than four scripts were devised. Most of these scripts are no longer used, or even
remembered. Several of the tribal communities were, sooner or later, satisfied to use a
regional or international script (on factors in script choice in India, see Section 65),
and speakers of these languages saw—and were pressured to see—the advantages of
learning, and in some cases replacing their native languages with, the dominant
regional languages: Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Telugu, Marathi. 612
216
The three scripts discussed here, Sorang Sompeng for Sora, Ol Cemet’ for Santali,
and Varang Kshiti for Ho (all languages of the Munda family, which with
MonKhmer makes up Austro-Asiatic), were devised by charismatic community
leaders as parts of a comprehensive cultural program, and each was offered as an
improvement over scripts used by Christian missionary linguists and their “tribal”
associates. All the devisers of these scripts were familiar with one or more scripts used
in their provinces. 612
#messianism #alphabet follows religion
Mahapatra describes controversy between the promoters of Oriya and those of
Telugu for the predominant influence on the Sora people living between the Oriya-
and Telugu-speaking populations in what later became the Orissa-Andhra border
area. Some “self-conscious tribal leaders,” Mahapatra writes, “instead of choosing a
side to merge themselves, endeavoured to maintain their identity by inventing a new
script for themselves.” Malia Gomango, an influential leader of the non-Christian
Sora, led the movement for a separate script, and “inspired his son-in-law, Mangei
Gomango,” to devise a proper script for Sora. Mangei, “an educated person ...
conversant in Oriya, Telugu and English,” retreated to the hills, where on June 18,
1936, he received in a vision the 24 letters of Sorang Sompeng. He founded a
religious order dedicated to Akshara Brahma. The script was widely taught, though it
is unclear to what extent it is used; all the publications listed by Mahapatra are by
Mangei, though the press has also issued many ephemera. 613
#sorang sompeng
According to Pinnow, Lako Bodra’s claim was that the [Varang Kshiti] script was
“invented in the 13th Century by a certain Dhawan Turi and rediscovered in a
shamanistic vision and modernized by Bodra himself.” My own conversations with
followers of Lako Bodra in the late 1970s brought out further assertions of an even
greater antiquity of the script, and the claim that the Ho script was the most ancient in
the subcontinent and the (only?) survivor of an ancient flood. 616
#origin stories #varang kshiti
The similarities between Varang Kshiti and other Indian scripts are the result of
[616] borrowing from, not by, Ho, according to Bodra’s followers and probably Lako
Bodra himself; but according to outside observers, the script is his in that he invented
it, not rediscovered it. 617
#varang kshiti
Lako Bodra has created certain extra characters—there is no call in Ho for ṣ distinct
from s—apparently because he wants an archaic, Sanskrit-like cast to Varang Kshiti.
617
#indexicality #writing = model of language
There is a special symbol for the mystical syllable om. 617
217
Ratliff, Martha. 1996. The Pahawh Hmong script. In Daniels,
#hmong
Pahawh Hmong is unique among the writing systems invented in modern times,
because it is a system based upon subsyllabic phonological units and it exhaustively
represents every such unit in the language. 619
Many Hmong believe that, throughout time, God has given them power and
validation through the gift of writing. The loss of writing is understood as divine
retribution. 619
#origin stories
He also developed a writing system for the Khmu language (Mon-Khmer family), but
this script has not been preserved. 619
Hmong, like other languages of the area including Chinese, is an isolating language
with monosyllabic morphemes. It has eight tones, a rich system of initial consonants,
and only one syllable-final consonant: [ŋ]. The most widely used Third Stage
Reduced Version of Pahawh Hmong ([symbols] ‘kernel Pahawh, stage three’)
represents demisyllables: the onset (consonant or consonant cluster) and the rime
(vowel, final [ŋ], and tone [619]combination). In this version, illustrated here, the rime
symbols are developing unique associations with vowel qualities, while the rime
diacritics are developing unique associations with tonal values. This line of
development is fully realized in the last version of Pahawh Hmong which Shong Lue
Yang created shortly before his death: in this Final Version ([symbols] ‘core Pahawh’),
each vowel quality is associated with one symbol, and each tone with one diacritic.
However, the Final Version is not used by supporters of the Pahawh; although more
linguistically advanced, it is not as important culturally, and is reserved for note-
taking.
The onset and rime elements of each syllable are written in reverse order from the
way they are pronounced, that is, rime-onset, although the monosyllabic morphemes
themselves are written from left to right across the page. Spaces are used to separate
morphemes, which are thus typically represented by pairs of symbols. [620]
The fit between Pahawh Hmong and the spoken language is perfect; all distinctive
sounds are symbolized, including the opposition between the “hard” glottal stop onset
[symbol] and the “soft” onset for vowels [symbol], which is here the distinctive
absence of sound. Other features of the system include the following.
The rime-onset order of the symbols in a writing system that is otherwise left-to-right
indicates that Shong Lue Yang perceived vowels and associated tones [symbols] to be
primary and consonants [symbols] to be secondary.
The final [ŋ] is not symbolized separately with the available onset symbol for [ŋ]
[symbol] rather, it is perceived as a feature of the rime (see Table 57. 1). 621
218
Hmong Daw ‘White Hmong’ is the dialect used for exemplification here. However,
the other major Hmong dialect of Southeast Asia, Hmong Leng or Hmong Njua
‘Green Hmong’, has regular correspondences with Hmong Daw and is equally well
represented by Pahawh Hmong, since Shong Lue Yang invented two special symbols
for the Hmong Leng clusters [ndl] and [ndhl] ([symbol] and [symbol]), which do not
have counterparts in Hmong Daw. 621
Shong Lue Yang and his associates also developed logographic symbols for numerals
(Table 57.3) and certain common words, as well as punctuation marks modeled on
Western writ-[621] ing conventions. Two symbols created to reflect important aspects
of Hmong style are [symbol], used following a word to indicate reduplication, and
[symbol], used at the end of a line of writing to indicate that the line be chanted rather
than read (see Smalley et al. 1990, chapter 6, for details). 623
Sample of Hmong Daw. 623
Olson, David R. 1996. “Towards a psychology of literacy: On

the relations between speech and writing.” Cognition 60:83-
104.
#mpi
The history of writing then can be, indeed has been, seen as a series of failed attempts
at or faltering steps towards the representation of those phonological elements. Recent
critics dub this the “Romantic view” (DeFrancis, 1989; Harris, 1986) taking, as it
does, what could well be an arbitrary solution to the problem as the logical outcome
of a series of progressive discoveries. 84
Indeed, if writing is transciption of the already known it is difficult to imagine it
having major cognitive or cultural effects. However, if writing does not merely
transcribe but rather brings structural properties of speech into consciousness, its
implications may be significant indeed. 84
Such accounts suffer from what I take to be a critical flaw. They assume what they
need to explain. Specifically, they assume that the inventors of writing systems already
knew about language and its structure—sentences, words, and phonemes, and the like
and that progress came from finding unambiguous ways to graphically represent those
structures. As Harris (1986) has pointed out, such descriptions are misleading in that
they take a characterization of the current state of knowledge as if it were the goal
toward which writing systems were evolving, that is, as if all attempts at writing,
always and everywhere were crude attempts at the transcription of the already known
properties of speech. The more fundamental question is how did knowledge of these
properties arise? 85
It may be argued, as Gaur (1984/1987) and Harris (1986) have done, that writing
systems be viewed not as attempts to transcribe speech but as attempts at
unambiguous representations of meaning. The relation to speech arises from the
attempt at unambiguous “readings.” In this way, writing systems, rather than
transcribing a known, provide concepts and categories for thinking about the structure
of spoken language. The development of a functional way of communicating with
visible marks was, simultaneously, a discovery of the representable structures of
speech. 86
219
Our thesis, recall, is that writing, far from being the progressive invention of devices
for transcribing the known properties of speech, was rather the means for their
discovery. 86
How, then, did the tokens and emblems which from ancient times represented things
and events ever turn into signs which represent linguistic entities such as words or
phonemes? 87
A system which represents three sheep by three symbols for three sheep (i.e., sheep,
sheep, sheep) the ancient Sumerian representation, is categorically different from one
which represents the same three sheep by two tokens, one representing sheep, the
other the number three, a shift Schmandt-Besserat notes occurred when a stilus was
used to inscribe the shapes earlier impressed by the tokens themselves. These two
signs are now related syntactically. Just as syntax is what makes a language a
language, it is the syntax which makes a graphic system “generative” for it permits the
combination and recombination of symbols to express a broader range of meanings.
Examples of such syntactic scripts first appeared around 3000 BC, and are found in
abundance in the ancient Near East. Thus this elementary script has a syntax and
could be taken as a model for, that is, as a way of representing, the lexical and
syntactical properties of a reading of that tablet. Note that on this view, writing did
not presuppose an explicit knowledge of words and syntax. Economies of writing led
to the scriptal changes which in turn, when read, could be seen as a tokening of the
lexical and syntactic properties of that reading. 88
The ancient Sumerian script remained primarily logographic and rarely [88] resorted
to phonographic, that is, sound-based, signs. However, when adopted by the
Akkadians, speakers of a Semitic language, structurally very different from Sumerian,
in the third millennium BC, the phonographic properties of the script were greatly
expanded giving rise to the Babylonian and Canaanite cuneiform, the best known of
such scripts (Larsen, 1989, p. 131.)2 These are the first scripts to give a clear
indication of the linguistic knowledge of the writer (Nissen, 1986). 89
Through such borrowing logographic signs have become syllabic signs. The old script
is fitted to the new language as a model is fitted to data; the data are then seen in
terms of that model. In this case, the model is that of audible constituents represented
by the visual signs and the flow of speech produced in reading is heard, perhaps for
the first time, as a string of separable, itemizable,[fn] syllables. 89
At best a script provides the model, a set of distinctive but related concepts and
categories however distorted and fragmentary, in terms of which one can analyze and
so become aware of certain basic properties of one’s speech. 89
Indeed, Harris (1986, p. 86) points out that the Greeks, the inventors of the alphabet,
never developed an adequate theory of phonology. The sound patterns they described
were a direct reflection of their alphabet, leading them to ignore phonemic differences
not so reflected. The conclusion we are left with is that the invention of writing was, at
the same time, the discovery of the structures of speech, that is, of language as an
object of thought. That discovery, as we have seen, was always fragmentary and
incomplete, constrained by function not by theoretical adequacy. 91
Learning to read an alphabetic script may be seen in part as a matter of retracing the
major steps involved in the invention of the alphabet. The learner has to rediscover,
220
for himself or herself, the major constituents of language including sentences, words,
and phonemes, none of which are known in the required sense by non-readers. 91
The traditional view of learning to read, still echoed in some “phonics” programs, is
that reading is a matter of sounding out graphic signs by knowing the sounds
produced by individual letters.[fn] Lacking is an acknowl-[91]edgment that children
may not recognize those letter sounds as corresponding to the constituents of their
own speech. Since learners were already speakers, that knowledge was taken for
granted. 92
We have already seen how the transcription assumption gave rise to an inappropriate
history of writing; the point, now, is to see how it may give rise to an incorrect analysis
of learning to read. 93
Read et al. (1986) found that Chinese readers of traditional character scripts could not
detect phonemic segments whereas those who could read Pinyin, an alphabetic script
representing the same language, could do so. Mann (1986) found that Japanese first
graders, learning to read a syllabary, were less able to manipulate phonemes than
were American children learning to read an alphabet. 93
[…]to learn to read any script is, at base, to find or detect aspects of one’s own
implicit linguistic structure that can map onto or be represented by elements of that
script. Consequently, once they are readers, people tend to hear their speech in terms
of the model provided by print (Ehri, 1985). 93
Read (1971) reported that the following invented spellings were characteristic of most
of the children he studied: [93]
English Invented spelling
day DA
lady LADE
feel FEL
Read rightly interpreted these findings as indications of children’s implicit

phonological knowledge, the sounds they heard in their own speech. But knowledge of
the script appears to play a critical role in the particular sounds children heard.
Specifically, it seems to be the case that the children are coming to hear their speech
in terms of the phonemic categories offered primarily by the names of the letters of the
alphabet. 94
Note that such awareness is not just implicit linguistic knowledge brought to
consciousness but rather a matter of sorting sounds into the categories provided by the
script. The theory, the alphabet, “creates” the observables at the same time that it
represents them (Ferreiro, 1985, p. 217; Piaget, 1954). 95
In our laboratory we have observed that when some pre-reading children are shown
the text, Three little pigs, which is then read to them while the words are pointed out,
they take each of the written words as standing in a one-to-one relation to the things
represented. Consequently, if the final word is erased and children are asked, “Now
what does it say?” they may reply, “Two little pigs.” Alternatively, if each of the three
words is pointed to in turn and the child is asked what each says, some subjects reply,
221
“One little pig, another little pig, and another little pig.” That is, written signs are seen
as representing objects rather than as representing words (Olson, Torrance, & Lee, in
preparation; Serra, 1992). It is a confusion that applies equally to spoken words
(Berthoud-Papandropoulou, 1978). 95
Indeed, children first think a word is something you read rather than something you
speak. 95
While generalization across cultures is always risky, some differences are quite well
established: Members of traditional cultures tend to accept such statements as “Corn
is deer” or “Twins are birds” at face value whereas members of Western literate ones
either judge them as false or claim they are metaphorical. As we have seen, word-
based scripts provide a model for speech which allows a new consciousness of
linguistic form. Could this new consciousness of language play a part in distinguishing
these forms of meaning and these ways of thinking?
First, a new consciousness of language may help spell the death of “word,” or more
precisely, “name” magic. Whereas the spoken word may be thought of as a name with
an intrinsic, metonymic relation to the object named, the written word comes to be
seen as merely a piece of language; when writing brings words into consciousness,
word magic tends to lose its power. An action on the name, as in a hex, does not affect
the named because the word, unlike the name, is not a part of the thing; it is, as we
say, just a word. Harris (1986, p. 132) notes that the failure to distinguish words from
names produces a form of emblematic symbolism which is bound up with word magic
and magical name-giving. He adds: “It reflects, fundamentally, a mentality for which
reality is still not clearly divisible into language and non-language, any more than it is
divisible into the physical and the metaphysical, or into the moral and the practical.”
Of course, a tittle of that symbolic word magic exists in all of us; if not a crime it is at
least a sin to desecrate a prayer book or the flag (Tambiah, 1990). 98
It must be acknowledged that just as writing may have certain conceptual advantages,
it also creates certain blind spots. Aspects of meaning not captured by a script tend to
be “occulted” from consciousness, a fact that may contribute to a kind of literalism of
much interest to recent literary theorists (Reiss, 1982). Hence the claim must be not
that writing only improves thought but rather that it tends to promote a certain bias.
99
First, writing is not the transcription of speech but rather provides a conceptual model
for that speech. 99
Second, the history of scripts is not the history of failed attempts and partial successes
towards the invention of the alphabet, but rather the by-product of a series of attempts
to adapt a script to a language for which it is ill suited. Third, the model of language
provided by a script is both what is acquired in the process of learning to read and
write and what is employed in thinking about language; writing is in principle
metalinguistics. 100
Writing systems create the categories in terms of which we become conscious of
speech. To paraphrase Whorf’s famous aphorism (1956), we introspect our language
along lines laid down by our scripts. 100
222
Fischer, Steven Roger. 1997. Rongorongo: the Easter Island script:
history, traditions, texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
#mpi
[PK: Note that I have only skimmed this text. Need to read thoroughly and mark-up]
The subtitle of this monograph is “The Easter Island Script”, though it also includes
the two further graphic elaborations of the Rapanui which have often been mistakenly
identified as genuine “scripts” from the island: the ta’u, a rongorongo derivative from the
1880s; and the mama or va’eva’e, an early twentieth-century geometric invention. Their
crude execution, limited usage, and late date identify both “scripts” as inferior
epigones. ix
Yet still on the island was Ure Va’e Iko, an acknowledged rongorongo aficionado (see
pp. 87-103). At the beginning of the twentieth century the elders Vaka Tuku Onge ‘a
Teatea (Tomenika), Kekepu, and Tataki were sometimes alleged to have known
something of rongorongo; they apparently had tried to teach the young men to read the
inscriptions, but in vain (Knorozov, 1965: 392). However, their actual knowledge of
rongorongo is more than doubtful; their “inscriptions” consisted exclusively of copies of
Bishop Jaussen’s published rongorongo signs (1893a, b) or of modern inventions, the ta’u
signs. 10
Notwithstanding, what knowledge of script type and function was preserved after this
in the I870s and 1880S constituted a minimal bequest which the next generation
wasted through loss, contamination, and invention. Indeed, a derivative replacement
for rongorongo—the ta’u “script”—was evidently elaborated at this time in order to
fill the cultural vacuum—in Western pen and ink. 10
Rongorongo is a standardised form of logographic and semasiographic communication
that was incised exclusively in wood on premissionary Rapanui, the statemental
capacity of whose limited glyphic inventory could be significantly expanded through
regular glyphic combinations. 552
In this way, rongorongo is a mixed script, consisting of both logographic (whole words
and phonetic signs) and semasiographic glyphs. It is a very primitive form of writing
that basically suffices only to record a limited number of familiar genres and rhetorical
structures. However, as Sir Hercules Read (in Routledge, 1917= 341) wrote at the
beginning of the twentieth century, “the Easter Island writing has got some way from
the pictograph”. 556
Rongorongo evidently flourished from the 177os or 1780s up to 1865, one year after the
first temporary lay missionary landed and one year before the first permanent
missionaries descended. Its use probably spanned no more than three full generations.
557
The Rapanui reinterpreted writing in their own fashion, and the unique way they did
this invites wonder and admiration. 558
Oyler, Dianne White. 1997. The N’ko alphabet as a vehicle of

indigenist historiography. History in Africa 24:239-256.
The N’ko alphabet made its first appearance in Bingerville, Côte d’Ivoire, on 14 April
1949 [fn], the invention of Souleymane Kanté of Kankan, Republic of Guinea, this
223
alphabet constituted an attempt to provide a truly indigenous written form for Mande
languages. Since its invention, a grassroots movement promoting literacy in the N’ko
alphabet has spread across West Africa from the Gambia to Nigeria. 239
#history: n’ko
According to members of the N’ko literate community,[fn], Souleymane Kanté
accepted the racial and cultural challenge posed by the Lebanese journalist Kamal
Marwa in this 1944 publication, Nahnu fi Afrikiya (We Are in Africa).[fn] After
conducting research on African culture in British and French colonies, Marwa
concluded that Africans were inferior because they had no written form of
communication. [fn] His position reflected the prevailing racism of colonial
Europeans. African “voices,” he alleged, were like those of the birds, impossible to
transcribe. 242
#history: n’ko #motivation: prestige
As remembered by family and friends, Souleymane Kanté enunciated several reasons
for the creation of the N’ko alphabet. They ranged from his immediate
confrontational reaction to Kamal Marwa’s words to the preservation of the Mande
healing arts that were being lost through the death of the healers. Informants
expressed their own personal opinions, which focus on what they view as Kanté’s
religious, cultural, and intellectual superiority. Generally, informants recalled Kanté
as saying that he invented N’ko to campaign against ignorance and illiteracy in his
country and on his continent. The symbol of N’ko, a lighted lantern, represents N’ko
as a light in the darkness leading people out of ignorance.[fn] He expressed the idea
that Africans needed to learn in their own maternal languages, thereby promoting a
quick and easy acquisition of knowledge.[fn] The potential for indigenous literacy
would enable illiterates to read and write, even though they did not go to school.[fn]
Souleymane Kantè is also remembered as saying that he wanted everyone to possess
the power to write down their ideas and to keep their own memories.[fn] He
emphasized the importance of the community knowing itself. Kanté related to
informants that one impetus to create the alphabet was Kamal Marwa’s challenge.[fn]
He wanted to demonstrate to the world that Africans could produce a writing
system.[fn] One informant remembered Kanté as saying that he wanted Europeans to
view Africans as within the domain of progress and humanity and that he wanted the
world to recognize African intellectual capabilities.[fn] 244
#motivation: prestige #motivation: literacy #motivation: cultural documentation
#practice: n’ko
After developing the alphabet, he called together children and adult illiterates and
asked them to draw a line in the dirt; seven out of the ten drew the line from right-to-
left.[fn] In his efforts to make the alphabet easy to learn and easy to use, he chose a
right to left orientation when writing in the alphabet. Finally, Souleymane Kanté gave
his invention a culturally significant name, N’ko. Informants cited the cultural
significance of his choice. First, in all Mande languages the pronoun N represents the
pronoun “I” and the Mande verb ko represents the verb “to say.” By choosing the
name N’ko, “I say” in all Mande languages, Kanté united all speakers of Mande
languages with just one phrase. 246
#cognition #motivation: universality
224
Finally, he chose other students from among the mass of illiterates who had been
rejected by the colonial educational process.These students were responsible for
publicizing N’ko beyond the notice of colonial governments. 246
#motivation: universality #motivation: literacy
Kanté’s literacy movement possessed no infrastructure, no financial assistance, and no
texts except the ones Kanté translated and transcribed, e.g., the Qur’an and/or wrote,
such as a 4000-year history of the Mande world. 246
#practice: n’ko #motivation: cultural documentation
Students copied copies of manuscripts that Souleymane Kanté had produced in an
attempt to secure a personal or family copy of the document. 247
#practice #corpus planning
Under Kantè’s direction, his disciples established the ICRA-N’KO Association in
1986, which was officially sanctioned by the Guinean government in 1991 as a non-
government organization for the promotion of N’ko.[fn] This small group took on the
responsibility for conducting a formal literacy campaign. ICRA-N’KO has
systematically organized its efforts at the village level in Guinea, and it has created
satellite associations in the other West African countries with substantial numbers of
speakers of Mande languages. [Footnote 41: Guiné’ss ICRA-NK’O executive branch
president reports that there are branches in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, the Gambia,
Ghana, Mali, Senegal, and Togo, as well as in Cairo and Mecca. 255] 248
#history
Souleymane Kanté also selected other texts to be translated/transcribed from
disciplines that he felt were valuable to speakers of Mande languages; for instance,
works in the exact and experimental sciences. He also completed works of history,
sociology, linguistics, literature, and philosophy. 248
He also wrote local histories such as that of the Kaba family of Kankan, a history of
the rise to power of Alamami Samori Tourd, a history of Arabs in the Sudan, and a
history of Bamako.[fn] Kanté is remembered as constantly advising individual families
to record their histories by interviewing elders to acquire the knowledge that they
possessed. By writing down the knowledge of the elders, personal, family, and royal
histories could be traced back into the nineteenth century. N’ko accommodated the
individual stories of any family member regardlessof his or her status. 249
#corpus planning #practice
Kantè wrote texts on the essential Mande patrimony, the rules of marriage, and social
organization and peaceful coexistence, preserving in writing Mande social norms
related to him by the elders. Guarding and preserving these rules of conduct
counteracted the loss of Mande culture to the onslaught of foreign customs. Kanté
wrote primers for teaching the N’ko writing system and prepared an N’ko
dictionary.While Kanté recorded Mande poems, songs, stories, and proverbs in N’ko,
he also wrote his own poems and stories.[fn] 249
#motivation: cultural conservatism #corpus planning
[PK: Histoir(sic) des Mandingues pendant 4000 ans diagram] 250ff
225
#diagram
By possessing a transcription of oral traditions and histories and a translation of
foreign histories of the region, those literate in N’ko no longer have to depend on the
vagaries of oral tradition and oral history or on the word of foreign historians. 252
#motivation: cultural conservatism #corpus planning
Souleymane Kantè’s widespread collection of Mande healing arts is important
because it provides a comprehensive compendium of healing practices used by
Mande-speaking healers, and it preserves knowledge that might otherwise be lost
through the passing of healers. The collection of healing traditions written in N’ko,
however, poses a problem for those who practice healing arts. Until their
transcription, these arts had been knowledge restricted to the use of a certain cadre
within the community. Making this knowledge available to anyone who reads and
writes N’ko raises the question about encroaching on the position and status of healers
in the community. Healers who cannot read N’ko are restricted to knowledge directly
passed down to them,whereas people who would not ordinarily have that information
have access to the knowledge of all the healers. The fact that many of Kantè’s relatives
have become proficient in the healing arts based on this written document begs the
question as to who can become a pharmacopoeia. 253
#practice #corpus planning #universality #secrecy
Souleymane Kanté invented the N’ko alphabet as an act of defiance to the intellectual
and cultural denigration of Africans under European colonial domination. While he
acknowledged the necessity of knowing the official [253] languages and alphabets of
governments and religions, Kanté promoted local languages written in an indigenous
alphabet as a means of gaining access to a clearer understanding of that knowledge
written in foreign languages and alphabets. It also provided a mechanism by which
local language and culture could be preserved. 254
#motivation: prestige #motivation: literacy #motivation: cultural documentation
Palaima, Thomas G, and Elizabeth Sikkenga. 1999. “Linear A>

Linear B.” PP BETANCOURT & V.
Kirk:
In many respects [the] strange Greek backwardness over writing [PK: referring to Linear
B (presumably due in part to Minoan influence) and the insistence on clinging to the worst
available system – and then dropping even that without immediate replacement – must
have been disadvantageous.
599
The kinds of ambiguities which cause modern alphabet-using scholars to concentrate
on the supposed shortcomings of the Linear B syllabary would not have troubled the
many Mycnaean writers (30+ scribes at Pylos, ca. 100 scribes at Knossos) and readers
of Linear B. In fact for those who used the script 1400-1200 B.C., the two most
commonly cited problems (sign multivalency and the principles of spelling) would
226
have posed as little impediment to understanding what was written as determining the
phonetic value of the sequence –ough in occcurrences such as bought, bough, tough, though,
through poses to native English speakers, readers and/or writers. The fault, we claim, is
not in the script, but in ourselves for not being able to adjust from an alphabetic
mindset. 599
Those who created and used Linear B tolerated a structural imbalance in representing
voiced and unvoiced stops because it would have been less efficient for them to
expand the sign repertory in order to denote a little-attested distinction.[fn] 601
Smalley, William A, and Nina Wimmuttikol. 1998. “Another

Hmong Messianic script and its texts.” Language and Literacy 1
(1):103-128.
#sayaboury
For centuries, moreover, the Hmong without writing have been subject to more
powerful peoples who possess writing, primarily in China but later also in Southeast
Asia. For many Hmong, therefore, inability to read and write their language became
symbolic of their powerlessness, and of the subordinate political status against which
groups of them revolted repeatedly over the centuries.[fn] So messianic mythology
developed, according to which the Supreme Ruler, the Lord of Heaven, the
God/King would some day provide writing for the Hmong as one element in
transforming them into an independent people in their own right, on a par with
peoples who already had writing (Lemoine 1972:174-75; Smalley et al. 1990:8-13, 16-
39, 182; Yang et al. 1990:13-37). 105
#motivations
Similarly Shang Lue Yang, mentioned above, claimed in 1959 to be one of the twelve
sons of God. Unlike many other self-designated Hmong messiahs who gathered a
following at different times and places, Shong Lue taught two writing systems that he
had himself devised, one for his Hmong language and the other for the Khmu’
language of his mother. 106
For an illiterate person to create an alphabet, as opposed to a syllabary, is apparently
unprecedented in the world; so Shang Lue’s feat of devising one for each of two
languages is astounding from any standpoint (Smalley 1994b). 106
Messianism is one of the crops which grow in the soil of desperation when people
cannot cope with their socio-cultural situation. The period since the end of World
War II has been a traumatic one for the Hmong in Laos, coming to a disastrous
climax for many of them when the communist Lao and Vietnamese took complete
control of the country in 1975. Many Hmong fled their homeland over the ensuing
months and years.
From the Hmong viewpoint, the tragedy consisted not only of persecution, bitter
suffering, heavy war casualties, radical economic and personal disruption of life, and
loss of home and country. It also included their many internal divisions as a people –
divisions rooted often in Hmong social structures, including clan rivalries. These
227
divisions were epitomized in a chasm between two great Hmong factions which arose
out of clan leader [106] rivalries dating from the 1930s. During the Indochina War,
one of these factions was allied to the North Vietnamese and the communist Lao
insurgents; the other, to the Royal Lao government and its supporters, first French,
then American (McCoy 1972:268-93; Dassé 1976:121-26; Mottin 1980:47-50;
Chagnon & Rumpf 1983). Hmong in Laos therefore fought bitterly against Hmong,
and the pain of their division is part of what is expressed both in Shong Lue Yang’s
movement and in events described below. It seemed that only a cultural re-ordering of
the Hmong people, directed by God or under a divine king, could heal them of their
multiple tragedies and provide a basis for a new life. 106
[Footnote 9: We know that he devised writing systems for two languages, but we have
not had examples of the Khmu’ system to analyze, and so do not know for sure that it
was alphabetical.] 106
The manuscript documents entrusted to Wimuttikosol by Ga Va consist of eight
remarkable books written on paper, approximately 22 x 36cm, folded into four pages
per sheet, and bound together in volumes ranging from 1 to 3 cm thick. A ninth
volume made on large poster paper and consisting of maps, pictures and drawings was
also presented to her but later withdrawn.
Volume I is an alphabet book, a teaching aid for people learning the writing system.
The remaining books are striking at first glance, partly because of the unfamiliar script
but more especially because of numerous vivid drawings in bold colors throughout. In
content they are something between a bible, a history, and a set of rules for future
administration.[fn] Volumes 2-8 contain repetitive philosophical and social
commentary, interspersed with instructions for future government and education. For
example, Volume 3 has text and illustrations describing future Hmong flags, currency
to be used, types of government buildings to be constructed, and animal symbols to be
used for each ministry. Maps of different countries in the world are also included, as
are descriptions of kinds of education. The book also deals with the importance of
religious training, emphasizing values such as honesty, Hmong unity, the need for fair
and just laws to ensure security: for the people, and the qualities of a good leader.
Volume 4 concentrates on the history of the world and of the Hmong [107] people. It
predicts the future state of the world, including technological advances to be made in
transportation, science, and medicine. A brief explanation of the origin of twelve
Hmong clans is incorporated, along with an expression of the need for more unity
among them, and a warning that conflict can only keep the Hmong subservient to
others and in poverty. The importance of nature and of living in harmony with the
environment is also discussed.[fn]
!The illustrations and subjects included in the books show Western influence, as well as
influence from Lao culture and Buddhism. However, Ga Va insisted that modern
influence is not present, although he knew little about how the books came to be
written. He and his group believed that the contents of the books were revealed by the
god Ia Bi Mi Nu (Ias Npis Mis Nus), that the books were sacred, and that origins in a
more technical sense were therefore unimportant.
Ga Va said that he was first shown the books by his father, Jue Yeh Her,[fn] in a
ceremony on February 19, 1965, when he was eight years old. His father made a
statue of Ia Bi Mi Nu and put it on a table along with religious objects. Behind this, he
placed the nine books on another table, and had Ga Va sit on a table behind that. Jue
228
Yeh then lit a candle and prayed to Ia Bi Mi Nu and to God who created the earth
and people, asking God to enable Ga Va to fulfill his responsibility. After that he put
the nine books in Ga Va’s hands and told Ga Va not to forget the creator or Ia Bi Mi
Nu, who brought writing to the Hmong.[fn]
From then on the books were brought out three times a year for secret ceremonies on
the sixth day of the moon in June, the ninth day of the moon in September, and the
twelfth day of the moon in December. They were finally entrusted to Ga Va’s care in
1972 at Ban (village) Phou Kong, Tasseng (district) Sang Nakam, Muang (town)
Phiang, Sayaboury Province, Laos, a few months before his father’s death. However,
since Ga Va was only fifteen [108] when his father died, his knowledge of their origins
and his understanding of their implications was limited.
Ga Va’s father was a somewhat influential person, deputy headman of the village of
Ban Phou Longwa in Sayaboury Province, Laos, from 1962 to 1969, and then
headman of a new village at Ban Phou Kong from 1970 until his death on June 30,
1972. He regarded possession ofthese books as a sacred trust, and he kept them from
the view even of close friends and family members, although some of these people
knew that the books existed. Only Ga Va was allowed to see them and was taught to
read them, while the oldest son, Yang Sang Her (Vaj Xaj Hawj), was sent to school in
the city of Luang Prabang.[fn]
Jue Yeh told Ga Va that the books were 726 years old on the day he presented them
to him, and that he had received them from Tong Lue Her (Tooj Lwm Hawj), who
had written them down and had drawn the illustrations at the instruction of the god Ia
Bi Mi Nu.[fn] He told Ga Va that the books were to be kept for 700 years or twelve
human lifetimes, and that he should guard them with his life until the time when they
could be revealed. The books themselves state that they will be of fundamental
importance when the Hmong have their own land to govern; at that time, a complete
and clear understanding of their meaning will become evident.
Ia Bi Mi Nu is described in the books as a god born on the twelfth level of the
heavens. His mother (no father is mentioned) sent him to study on different levels of
the heavens for a total of 2,800 years; so the books are sometimes considered to be
3,526 years old, including the time while Ia Bi Mi Nu was learning. After his
graduation and marriage, Ia Bi Mi Nu became aware of the Hmong on earth, and of
their need for guidance and a religion. He asked for permission from the supreme
God to take his knowledge down to the human plane, and permission was granted.
After his father died, Ga Va tried to preserve the texts in secret; but when he was
forced into a precarious refugee life, he became greatly concerned about protecting
them. He and the people from Ban Phou Kong fled [109] across the border into
Thailand with other refugees in May 1975 after the communist faction took control of
Laos and the Hmong leadership in the Royal Lao army flew out of the country. 110
Shur Yang Her (Sawm Vaj Hawj), a leader among some of these Hmong – including
the group of which Ga Va was a part – had been a good friend of Ga Va’s father, but
he had never seen the texts while in Laos, even though he had known of their
existence. He convinced Ga Va to teach the writing to a few people in Sop Tuang
Camp; and at the time when Wimuttikosol was in contact with them, Ga Va’s group
of about fifty people, even those who were not literate, used the books as the focus of
certain ceremonies. 110
229
Once located in Chiang Kham Camp, however, the group told Wimuttikosol that
they had not taken her advice; they had insisted on total freedom from Lao rule,
because of faith in Ia Bi Mi Nu’s prophecy. They believed that they would eventually
have their own land, and that no harm would come to them if they observed the god’s
instructions. They had constructed small temples and schools and a large meeting hall
in the village as directed in the books. 111
Up to the present, however, Wimuttikosol has not been able to do more than ensure
that the copies of the books which she received are safe. They are now deposited in
archives established by the Indochina Studies Committee of the Committee on
Southeast Asia, located in the Record and Sound Division, Library of Congress,
Washington, DC. This disposition was made possible because Smalley included them
with archives resulting from his research on Shong Lue Yang and his writing system,
partly funded by the Indochina Studies Committee. 112
The script used to write these manuscripts is unique, invented by an unknown Hmong
person. Ga Va and the community which uses it call it Ntawv [112] Puaj Txwm
‘original, primeval writing’. We call it the Sayaboury writing system or Sayaboury
script because Ga Va and his associates are from Sayaboury Province in Laos. 113
Spoken Hmong syllables consist of a consonant initial,[fn] followed by a vowel final,
accompanied by tone. 113
[Footnote:] Actually, the inventory of initials also includes zero consonant (absence of
any consonant sound). 113
No syllable-final consonants occur phonemically. 113
The dialect recorded by the Sayaboury writing system is Hmong Daw (Hmoob Dawb
‘White Hmong’), one of the two major Hmong dialects spoken in Laos and Thailand,
and the writing system fits that dialect rather well. Missing from it, however, is a
symbol for the rare Hmong phoneme [113] /[engma]/ represented by g in some
versions of the RPA, as is a symbol for zero initial of a syllable, /’/ in those same
versions. In fact, /[engma]/ and /’/ were not found when the RPA was first being
developed in 1951-53, and so ways of writing them were not generally taught to
Hmong people who learned it in Laos. 114 [PK: this goes to the question of dating the
script]
Tones are written after the vowel symbols, as in the RPA. All phonemic distinctions in
vowels and tones are included in the system, plus a final column of symbols for an
extra-linguistic sound used in shamans’ rituals, according to the correspondence from
Ga Va. 118
Like the consonant symbols, each vowel symbol is made up of two parts, but unlike
the consonants the parts are not necessarily identical, and when identical the
repetition is not redundant. Instead, the individual characters in a vowel pair have no
meaning in themselves, but each combination represents a Hmong vowel, whether
simple, nasalized or glided; see Figure 4. The Sayaboury system is thus unusually
economical in the number of different [120] vowel characters required, although its
doubled consonants are unusually redundant. 121
The rarest situation in which a writing system can be developed is by stimulus
diffusion. This involves a person who cannot read or write any language, but
who has observed people doing so (or heard about it being [122] done), and
230
who then invents a writing system for a language from scratch. The inventor
does not create the idea of writing, but rather a way of doing it, including the
rules and usually the characters. Sequoyah’s invention of Cherokee writing is
the best-known example (Scancarelli 1996, Smalley et al. 1990:142-43).
In every documented case of an illiterate person producing a writing system

under such circumstances, except for the writing systems developed by Shong
Lue Yang, the characters have represented syllables, rather than the
phonemes out of which syllables are formed. They have thus been syllabaries
rather than alphabets. No more than a dozen syllabaries, furthermore, are
known to have been devised under such conditions (Smalley et al. 1990:136-
48, 1994b). Shang Lue Yang’s invention of alphabets for at least one language,
and probably two, was a more complex and abstract task.
The original invention of writing, of course, whether it occurred once or as

many as three times – by the Sumerians, the Chinese, and the Olmec of
Central America – came about under none of these circumstances – since,
obviously, nobody involved had ever heard of writing before it was first
invented. Such a situation can hardly be duplicated in today’s world, however,
because the existence of writing is too widely known, even to illiterate people.
We have no sure way of determining whether or not the person who designed
the Sayaboury system was literate in another language before doing so.
Certainly the Sayaboury writing system is not a slavish adaptation of any other
system: In addition to the fact that the shapes of the characters are new, the
consistent use of initial double consonants to lend authority to the material is
unique, so far as we know.[fn] What is more significantly innovative, the
pattern of arbitraty combinations of vowel symbols is also likely unique.
Unique features do not prove that the inventor was not adapting another
system, however, as some features can be calculated departures from known
systems. Many of the peoples of South and Southeast Asia, where each written
language tends to look different, seem to be prefer a degree of uniqueness in
their writing systems.
However, the Sayaboury writing system shows some structural resemblance to

the RPA, as already noted. Tone is represented by a symbol at the end of [123]
the syllable. Symbols missing from the RPA as it was commonly taught and
used in Laos are also missing from the Sayaboury system, and no others
needed for representing Hmong Daw pronunciation are missing. Hence the
Sayaboury writing system is perhaps most easily explained, from a Western
perspective, as having been made by someone who adapted new characters to
the RPA system so as to symbolize Hmong in a unique way. Certainly no
internal evidence supports the contention that the system is ancient.
In fact, in spite of its unique elements, the Sayaboury system is in most ways
quite typical, by comparison with Shong Lue’s system. For example, whereas
the Hmong syllable is pronounced with the consonant before the vowel (CV),
the syllable is written VC in Shong Lue’s system, even though the syllables
themselves are read from left to right. This and other evidence indicates that
the vowel symbol is the nucleus of the written syllable, and the consonant
231
symbol is a satellite, in distinction to all other alphabetic writing systems. In
other systems vowels and consonants are either co-equal, as in the Roman
system; or else the consonant is the nucleus, as in languages of lndia, in Thai
and Lao, in Arabic and Hebrew, and in the Pollard Script.
Again, when Shong Lue first invented his system, he provided no symbol for
zero. He had symbols for other numbers, and combined these in written
sequence according to the syntax of speech; but in his first system, modern
arithmetic was impossible, as it is with Roman numerals for the same reason.
If Shong Lue had any background of literacy, he probably would have known
about zero, and would not have left it out of his original writing system. He
did add it later, presumably under the influence of other people who were
learning his system, and provided symbols for a decimal system to go along
with the one he had first invented. By contrast, the Sayaboury script has a
conventional decimal arithmetic system, complete with zero, which points to
some education on the part of its inventor.
One of the eight Hmong tones, the one represented by -d in the RPA, is anomalous in
various ways on which we cannot elaborate here. It occurs frequently, but only in a
few words, usually as a variant of the -m tone under certain grammatical conditions
(Ratliff 1992:112-25). Shong Lue Yang did not include it in the original stage of his
writing system; but when someone who knew the RPA, in which it is written, called
this tone to his attention, he added it to the first revision of his system. Even then he
symbolized it in a different way from the way he symbolized the other tones (Smalley
et al. 1990:69-70). The Sayaboury writing system, however, does have a symbol for
[124] this tone, and it is symbolized in the same manner as every other tone – again as
in the RPA. Thus, from many standpoints, it is easier to see the Sayaboury script as
an adaptation of the RPA than to see Shong Lue’s work as an adaptation of any
existing model.
Leaving aside questions concerning the previous literacy of the person who
developed the Sayaboury system, another type of important difference in the
ways those two systems developed lies in the attitude of the users toward the
respective scripts and the texts written in them. Shong Lue invented a writing
system which validated his messianic message because it fit myth-generated
expectations; but he left no texts except a few letters, no sacred books. The few
texts which have been written in his system by other people, although some
have implications for the future of the Hmong, are not considered sacred in
the same way as the Sayaboury texts. It is Shong Lue’s writing system itself
which is sacred, particularly in its original form (before it was simplified),
although nobody uses that original form any more. By contrast, in the
Sayaboury system, the texts seem more sacred than the script to the people
who use them.
However, the conditions and motives for developing the two systems were
probably much the same. We know that Shong Lue Yang began teaching for
the first time in 1959. We assume that the Sayaboury texts and writing system
also came out of the chaos which prevailed in Laos after the 1940s. Both
systems were thus likely created during the same period of deep trouble, when
the Hmong people were unable to control their destinies, were sharply
divided, and were killing each other off in a terrible war. In terms of the
232
Hmong myth, the time was ripe for God to send a messiah to unite the
Hmong, to bring them peace, to lead them to a better way of life, to supply
writing, and thus to enhance their stature among the languages of the world.
In that respect the Sayaboury group shares at least one strong theme with the
Shong Lue group in their response to the Hmong situation. Both harp on the
lack of Hmong unity, on the need for cooperation for the common good.
Shong Lue Yang was widely known as “Mother of Writing” (Niam Ntawv) a
title sometimes given to the one whom people thought would bring writing
from God. The title of the first book in the Sayaboury texts also includes the
words “Mother of Writing” (Niam Ntawv) – another bit of evidence for the
ideological affinity of the two movements – even though they were apparently
unconnected, and the writing systems differ markedly in structure.
But if writing is associated with messianism by many Hmong, why did

[125]not the RPA also give rise to a messianic movement? It was developed in
the early 1950s, and spread slowly until it was used by a small but influential
minority of Hmong in Laos during the final war years leading up to the end in
1975. Its growth has continued since then, but perhaps primarily in the
diaspora. The RPA, furthermore, was identified in the minds of some Hmong
with modernization, change and progress, and betterment of the Hmong
situation; it was seen a a vehicle for education, a part of their hope for the
future – often the soil in which messianism grows.
But the RP A did not become the center of any messianic movement. Its
missionary origin may have inhibited people from seeing it as something
genuinely Hmong, although the Pollard Script which was at the center of the
earlier A-Hmao messianic movement in China was also a missionary produce.
For some Hmong who did use and advocate the RPA, part of its strength was
in its identification with the West; in distinction to Laos; thus that it was
linked in some minds to Western education and power. In general the
perceived value of this writing system, the most widely used by Hmong
people, is utilitarian more than religious or ideological. [fn] 126
Ga Va, as the primary guardian of the texts, cannot defend the antiquity
claimed by his father in any scientific way; but that does not make him a
fraud, or mean that he has been deceived. 126
Boltz, William G. 1999. “Language and writing.” In History of

Ancient China: From the origins of civilization to 221 B.C., edited
by Michael Lowe and Edward L Shaughnessy, 74-123.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
History is in fact conventionally defined as beginning with the first appearance of
writing, because the availability of written evidence makes a dramatic difference in
what we can know about the past. This applies with special force when what interests
us about the past is language itself. 74
#writing is language #writing and civilisation
233
Linguists usually describe Chinese as a “monosyllabic” and “isolating” language, by
which they mean that its words are all of only one syllable and that they take the same
invariable form irrespective of such features of usage as person, tense, number, and
grammatical function. Whatever validity this claim may or may not have for modern
Chinese, it appears at least superficially to be true for Classical Chinese. Classical
Chinese words are typically thought of as isolated, that is, as being untouched and
unaffected by affixes of any kind, or by vowel or consonant changes to any part of the
word correlated with any change of meaning—in brief, the kinds of thing that are
usually subsumed under the, term “morphology.” 91
The absence of any evidence of morphology may be as much a consequence of the
camouflaging effect of the Chinese script, and of the unnoticed biases that the script
imposes on our perspective, as it is an indication of the true nature of the Chinese
language. 91
#writing and language change
As we scrutinize the language with a heightened awareness of the biases that its script
imposes, we find accumulating evidence to suggest that the language may not have
been as typologically isolating as it appears. It may well have had numerous
productive morphological processes, vestiges of which still survive into later stages of
the language […] 92
It remains an unanswered question whether texts at this early period were also written
on other materials that were less durable than scapulas, shells, and bronzes. Are the
texts we have from this period, exclusively ceremonial and religious as they appear to
be, the only kind of written documents that there were, or were there other kinds of
texts, perhaps more quotidian, which did not happen to survive because they were
written on perishable materials such as bamboo or wooden strips, as in later periods?
Phrased another way, and approached culturally rather than archaeologically, we can
ask whether writing in the earliest period was used exclusively for religious and
ceremonial purposes or whether it also had a more utilitarian use not documented in
the archaeological record because the material on which those more utilitarian texts
were written was perishable.[fn] 107
#hypothesis: use based origin #alphabet follows religion
Neolithic pottery fragments, some dating to the fifth millennium B.C., occasionally
bear incised or painted marks of one kind or another that suggest, in an abstract sense,
written characters. This has prompted the claim that Chinese writing has an origin
much earlier than the middle or late Shang.[fn] None of these marks can be
successfully identified with the characters of the Shang inscriptions or in any other
way as Chinese writing. Apart from the virtual impossibility of deciphering a few
scattered graphs occurring outside of a known linguistic context, the sheer extent of
time, anywhere from 1,000 to as much as 3,500 years in some cases, precludes the
possibility that these marks could be direct forerunners of Shang characters.[fn]
Whether they are a form of writing at all must remain an open question; we can say
with confidence that they are not related in any historical way to the Chinese writing
system we know from the late Shang on. 108
234
#oracle bone script
In spite of the very different appearance that Chinese writing now has from Western
alphabetic scripts, all indications are that in origin the Chinese script was invented
and developed according to the same pattern that characterized the appearance and
early development of all other writing of antiquity, namely, Egyptian hieroglyphic and
Mesopotamian cuneiform writing, the former ultimately giving rise to all of the
familiar (and unfamiliar) alphabets and syllabaries of the modern world, save those of
East Asia. The same developmental pattern also characterizes Mayan hieroglyphic
writing in Mesoamerica. In all four cases the pattern consists at the outset of three
developmental stages: (1) the zodiographic,(2) the multivalent, and (3) the determinative. We
must acknowledge that to describe the invention of a writing system as having these
three developmental stages is an artificial way of identifying the principles on which
the writing system was built. Except at the earliest moments when the possibility of
using graphs phonetically was first realized, it is not likely that the actual operation of
the principles entailed in these three stages was anything other than simultaneous. 109
The Zodiographic Stage
It is widely and correctly assumed that writing arose first largely through a process of
realistically depicting actual things or easily portrayable actions or relations.[fn] This
seems to have been as true in China as it was wherever else writing was invented ex
nihilo. But to draw a picture of a thing is not the same as to write the word for that
thing, in China or anywhere else. Pictures of things, irrespective of how depictively
realistic or conventionalized and stylized they may be, are just pictures of things, and
not writing. To be writing, the picture must be conventionally and regularly
associated with the name of the thing depicted, that is, with the word for the thing in
question. Only then can the picture be considered writing. In other words, for a
picture [109] to be writing it must be associated with a sound or, in the case of whole
words, a sequence of sounds. This constraint on what kind of pictures can constitute
writing is implicit in the general definition of writing: writing is the graphic
representation of speech. 74
#evolution of writing #pictography
When a graph is primarily a depictive representation of a thing, it is a pictograph and is
not writing. When the same graph, or a modified version of it, represents primarily
the name of the thing, that is, the word for the thing, and stands for the thing itself
only as information conveyed by the word, we call it a zodiograph and define it as
writing. The difference between a pictograph and a zodiograph lies not in the graph
itself, but in whether in its usage it carries a conventional phonetic association (a
pronunciation) or not. The process of shifting from a pictograph to a zodiograph is the
process of acquiring a pronunciation. This process we call “phoneticization,” and it is
at this point that pictographs, or any other kind of graphs, turn into writing. Whether
the graphs, once they have become phoneticized, remain depictively realistic or not is
largely irrelevant to their function as writing.
Zodiographs uniformly consist of a single constituent element and cannot !be divided
into smaller graphic components (except individual strokes, of! course). These are the
graphs that we presume to have had an origin principally in the phoneticization of
earlier pictographs. Once writing had been! invented and the concept of graphs
235
standing for words was established, many! zodiographs may have been created
consciously standing for words, not! things, in the first place, on the model of those that
had arisen originally !through the phoneticization of pictographs. Even though a graph
may have !been created with an associated pronunciation at the outset, its invention!
may still have been, and in many cases likely was, based on an appeal to pictographic
representation. 110
#evolution of writing #logography
Both at the earliest stage and at later stages in their evolution, Chinese characters are
logographs that is, they are graphs that stand for words. Those that consist of a single
constituent element, and that are often recognized as having pictographic origins, we
have called “zodiographs” for the purpose of identifying them as characteristic of the
earliest stage in the development of the script. Zodiographs are one type of logograph;
they are not pictographs, nor are they ideographs, a term often seen used in this
connection. Just as a pictograph ought to mean a graph that is a realistic picture, so an
ideograph ought to mean a graph that writes an idea. But such a graph, whatever it
may be, cannot be a kind of writing, Chinese or otherwise, since writing by definition
must represent speech at some level, and an idea becomes speech only via the word.
We now have a good explanation for why so many, perhaps all, of the Shang graphs
that we might have expected to function pictographically do not. Once a pictograph
has become a logograph, standing for a word, not a thing, and conveying its meaning
by virtue of the word it represents, not by a visually identifiable representation of the
thing it depicts, it need not main-[112]tain its depictive realism any longer. This is
indisputably a great advantage to the establishment and implementation of a workable
writing system; the effort to render a graph depictively realistic must have been in
many cases a formidable challenge. When that was no longer necessary, graphs could
become stylized in ways that made them easy to write. A scribe then need not have
been an artist as well; in fact for any true writing system, a scribe must not need also
to be an artist. 113
#evolution of writing #pictography #iconicity #logography
The Multivalent Stage
As crucial as phoneticization was in marking the turning point between non-writing
and writing, the resulting body of zodiographs, no matter how large, could never
become rich enough or versatile enough to write all of the things that a language can
say, but that do not lend themselves to direct depiction. Overcoming this limitation
was the next step in the process of developing a writing system, and the way in which
it was done was the same in China as it was in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, and amongst
the Mayas. It consisted in the [114] recognition that a zodiograph standing for a
particular word could be used to stand for a homophonous or nearly homophonous,
but otherwise entirely distinct, second word the direct depiction of which would have
been difficult or impossible. This is commonly called the “rebus” use of graphs, less
commonly, the “paronomastic” use. Examples of this usage for Chinese graphs are
given in Table 2. 5. 115
In the same way that the inventors of the script realized that graphs could be used
paronomastically, they also realized that they could be used polyphonically, that is,
standing for a semantically congruent but phonetically distinct second word. The
polyphonic use of characters cannot be readily illustrated with actually occurring
236
examples, but must for the most part be inferred from the evidence of compound
characters produced at the third stage of the script. 117
#evolution of writing #logography
The word ming “call out”, for example, was written with the graph [character] in
origin presumably depicting an opening of some kind and standing for the word kŏu
“mouth”. The pronunciation of the two words míng “call out” and kŏu “mouth” are
clearly unrelated, but just as clearly the words are linked semantically, namely, as the
noun “mouth” and the related verb “what one does with the mouth”. 117
#rebus [polyphonic]
Because a word by definition has both a pronunciation and a meaning, the
paronomastic and the polyphonic uses of characters are simply the complementary
pair of multivalent uses whereby one either holds the pronunciation associated with
the words written by that character constant and allows the meaning to vary
(paronomasia), or holds the meaning constant and allows the pronunciation to vary
(polyphony).[fn] The realization that characters [117] could be used in such a
versatile way was an intrinsic and essential step in the early development of all writing
systems of antiquity, allowing the script to escape the limitation of being able to write
only that which could be directly depicted. 118
#evolution of writing #rebus #logography
The more recourse was had to the multivalent capacity of the early script, the more
ambiguity was introduced into what was written. While context alone could be relied
on to resolve many instances of ambiguity, as it does even now for some of those
characters given in Table 2.5 that are still used paronomastically, it could not be
counted on to resolve the growing impact of ambiguous usages in the majority of
cases. To do that the Chinese took the same step in modifying the early writing system
that the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians, and the Mayans took. They resorted to
appending secondary graphs, drawn largely from the inventory of already existing
zodiographs, to the ambiguous primary graph to specify either the intended
pronunciation or the intended meaning, according to which aspect of the character
was ambiguous. When a graph was used paronomastically, the meaning—not the
pronunciation—was the source of any potential ambiguity, and so the secondary
graph that was appended was chosen to determine meaning. Conversely, graphs used
polyphonically were ambiguous principally as to pronunciation, so the appended
graph was chosen to specify pronunciation. Secondary graphs that are appended to
ambiguous primary graphs are typically called “determinatives” because they
determine which [118] one of two or more possible words is intended. Those that
determine meaning are semantic determinatives; those that determine pronunciation are
phonetic determinatives. 119
#rebus
The versatility that compound characters brought to the script invested the Chinese
writing system with a capacity that allowed for full expression of the language while
remaining in its fundamentally logographic guise. In a given written context, any
character—compound or unit—stood for a single syllable, and as far as we know at
the formative stages of the script, that syllable regularly corresponded to a word.
There may have been a few words that were of more than one syllable, but there was
no syllable that was not also a word (technically, at least a morpheme). All syllables,
237
therefore, had meaning. This was the crucial feature as far as the writing system was
concerned. If there was no syllable that did not have a meaning, then there was no
possibility of writing a character (which per force had to stand for a syllable) that did
not stand for a meaningful phonetic entity, in simple terms, for a word. For this reason
the “one syllable–one word–one character” rule was orthographically inviolable.
Some characters always stood for the same word; others, thanks to the multivalent
feature of the script, could stand for one of several different words depending on
context. No character ever stood for an “idea’’ independently of a word. Chinese
characters stood, and continue to stand, either singly or in combination, for words,
and only via that phonetic medium for the ideas that those words convey.! 122
The use of semantic determinatives, by contrast, came to be not only an easily
recognized feature of the script, but one deemed aesthetically so central that the
semantic determinatives themselves were welded, so to speak, permanently to their
host graph, such that the resultant compound character was felt intuitively to be a
single unit in spite of its obviously analyzable and componential structure.
The practice in Egypt and Mesopotamia was significantly different from that for
Chinese; in those cases, determinatives remained largely separable and removable. It
is this feature, as much as anything else, that is responsible for the different
evolutionary trajectories taken from this point on by the Near Eastern scripts on the
one hand and the Chinese on the other. Mesopotamian cuneiform writing gradually
became obsolete and has left no modern descendants. Egyptian, by contrast,
ultimately gave rise to all historically known scripts of the modern world, save those of
East Asia. The medieval and modern scripts of East Asia all owe their origin and
development, one way or another, to Chinese.[fn] 123
#evolution of writing #phylogeny #combinatoriality
Tuchsherer, Konrad. 1999. The lost script of the Bagam. African

Affairs 98 (390):55-77.
#bagam #africa: west
This article presents new and important information on the Bagam script, an
autochthonous writing system from Cameroon which has now fallen into extinction.
55
#typology
New evidence uncovered by archeologists in Egypt, however, has revealed that
Africans employed their advanced hieroglyphic system, which was capable of
expressing complex ideas and abstract concepts (and notably place names), at least
150 years earlier than the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, around 3250 BC. The less
developed system of notation, employed in Mesopotamia for purposes of accounting,
consisted of pictographs for commodities and numerals.
The evidence supporting this important new information was uncovered by Günter
Dreyer of the German Archaeological Institute, at Abydos, in a palace tomb known as
U-j. Dreyer and his expedition found 150 labels written in hieroglyphs and carved
into ivory or bone, possibly at one time [55] attached to bolts of linen and containers
238
of grain. These ancient labels written in hieroglyphic signs are at present the world’s
earliest examples of phonetic writing. 56
#history
Although Malcolm submitted reproductions of the Bagam script characters to the
Journal of the African Society, the journal’s editor, Sir Harry H. Johnston, chose not to
publish them. Adding a prefatory note to Malcolm’s article, Johnston cited financial
constraints for suppressing the publication of the Bagam characters. It would appear,
however,that his reasons were quite different. Johnston called the Bagam characters
‘arbitrary’, adding that ‘It is quite sufficient to say that they are, most of them,
imitations or perversions of Roman capitals or else of the trademarks stencilled on the
goods of European traders ... [they are] copied from the white man’s ‘symbols’.[fn]
These were not Johnston’s first perverse statements on African invented scripts. In
1906 he had called the Vai script characters ‘clumsy adaptationsof Roman letters or
of [57] conventional signs employed by Europeans’, adding that the Vai syllabary had
‘little logic’, and he even called on the Liberian government of the period to ‘combat
this movement’.[fn] Later, Johnston would again show his contempt for the Bagam
script in print:’The characters are distorted or fantastic adaptations of Roman capital
letters’.[fn] It is unfortunate that Johnston was unable to recognize the originality of
the Bagam script and attach value to the documentation of the characters in the
journal. Perhaps the editor assumed that Africans lacked the intelligence and
creativity necessary to devise their own systems of writing, with all of the logic and
ingenuity that such undertakings entail. 58
#progressivism: denial of indigenous ingenuity
The characters are, as Malcolm called them, syllabic, i.e. they are syllabograms. The
basic unit for the syllabograms appears to be the CV syllable, and signs also exist for
independent syllabic vowels. Malcolm shows that the characters not only represent
syllables, but when characters are in isolated form, they can represent words. That
some Bagam characters may be logo-syllabic should not seem strange,as many African
syllabaries have logo-syllabic characters. 63
#system
Figure 2. The Bagam Script. Louis William Gordon Malcolm, ‘The Eghap: An
ehtnographical and somatological study’, Volume III (M.Sc. thesis, Cambridge
University, 1922), pp. 204-14. Reproduced from originals by permission of the
Haddon Library at Cambridge University.
64 -74
#diagram
Diachronic assessment of the Bamum script shows, however, that the script evolved
under the direction of Sultan Njoya from ideographic/pictographic beginnings into a
syllabic script. 75
#bamum #history #system
Some points can also be made on the organization of the Bagam script. The direction
in which the characters are written is from left to right,in a linear fashion.
Psychological units such as set phrases or ‘word boundaries’ are not apparently
separated by spaces in text. 75
239
#system
In his thesis, Malcolm wrote: ‘My informant said that the art originated in Bamum,
but that of the Eghap was “we own country fashion”’.[fn] 77
#motivation: ethnic identity
Also, it is important to explore traditions of graphic imagery employed by the Eghap
from their elaborate scarification symbols and pottery designs to royal regalia which
may have contributed to the development of the signs for the script. 77
#script #inspiration #grassroots literacy
2000–2009
Boone, Elizabeth Hill. 2000. Stories in red and black: Pictorial
histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs. Austin, Texas: University of
Texas Press.
#bound writing
The Aztecs and Mixtecs never doubted that their books contained writing. 28
The painted characters and figures that held memory and other forms of knowledge
were relatively permanent (enduring long after the events they record and long after
silence replaced spoken words), and they could be read and interpreted by readers
other than their creators. These two features—permanency and readability—which
are the features of any writing system, mean that the paintings functioned to establish
ideas and to document facts. The painted images in the books gave accountability. As
records, they were memory that could be inspected by others. 28
Tovar’s answer must have persuaded, because Acosta ultimately included Aztec
pictography (and Inka knot records) in his hierarchy of writings systems, although a
few notches down on his scale. Acosta naturally gave first place to the alphabetic
systems of western Europe; he gave second place to the ideograms of China; and in
third place he put the pictograms of the Aztecs. His hierarchy served his purpose to
distinguish those cultures that had alphabetic writing and history (and, therefore,
civilization) from those cultures that did not, even though the latter were able to
record the past (in painted books and khipus).! 29
Everyone who has studied the subject recognizes that language writing or phonetic
writing is distinct from those systems that do not record language. 29
As an Aztec specialist I argue for a broader, more encompassing definition of writing,
one that embraces nonverbal systems (Boone 1994b). 29
Writing is not merely a type of notational system but an entire cultural category. It has
been used to distinguish literate people from preliterates, people with history from
those without, and even civilized people from barbarians or primitives. Writing, as a
“cornerstone of the human heritage,” to quote Schoville and Senner (in Senner 1989:
vii), is seen as a basic element of civilized society. Gelb (1963:12) represents this
240
prevalent position when he states, “Writing exists only in a civilization and a
civilization cannot exist without writing.” Given these meanings, how can we deny
that the Aztecs and Mixtecs had writing? They clearly had a notational system that
allowed them to record the facts of the present and the past and to look toward the
future. They were literate, historical, and civilized. Moreover, the broader definition
of writing aligns with their own cultural category of writing. By recognizing their
pictography as writing, we can begin to understand it more fully as a system with its
own vocabulary and grammar, its own signifiers and structures. 29
The broad definition of writing embraces both ver-[30]bal and non-verbal systems. It
thus encompasses musical notation, choreographic notation, diagramming in
chemistry and engineering, and such nonverbal scripts that record mathematical
equations and the laws of physics. These notational systems all encode knowledge
conventionally and permanently, and they are greatly superior to word writing for
preserving certain kinds of information; the mathematical and scientific systems, in
particular, are crucial to our understanding of the universe. Of the scholars who have
put forward definitions of writing that encompass all these varied systems, Sampson
(1985: 29-·30) brings us closest, I think, to a good working definition.[fn] Recognizing
the limitations of seeing writing as “a phenomenon essentially parasitic on spoken
language,” Sampson wanted as broad a definition as possible but one that still
distinguishes writing from art. Two of his definitions combined allow us to recognize
writing as the communication of relatively specific ideas in a conventional manner by means of
permanent, visible marks.This definition focuses on communication, on the use of
conventions within an overall strucrure, and on a degree of permanency.
“All writing is information storage,” as Gaur (1992: 14-) has put it; “the information is
stored mechanically, on an independent object, and can be retrieved and used at any
time, in any place (in the case of moveable objects such as books, etc.), by all those
who are able to consult and decode it.” Permanency means that what is written at one
time can be read days, years, or centuries later. Memory is a factor only in the sense
that the reader must have learned and must remember the rules of a particular writing
system to be able to retrieve the information it stores.
The visible marks, whether they be letters, hieroglyphs, or figural representations,
operate and carry meaning according to their association with other marks within a
structured system of relatedness. This structured system of relatedness is basically the
grammar of the system; it tells us how to read a mark or an image—what meaning to
give it—according to its association with other marks or images. As Sampson (1985:
12) argues, writing is like language in being able to communicate meaning by
“structures of symbols defined by their interconnections.” He continues, “What gives
any particular element of a language its role in the language is not its superficial
physical properties but, rather, the relationships it enters into with the other elements
of the language.” Thus the meaning of a sound (in language) or a letter, mark, or
image (in writing) is established by the system that relates all the sounds, letters, marks,
or images together. Once a potential reader has mastered the grammar of the
strucrure and has learned the vocabulary of letters, marks, or images that this
grammar establishes, she or he should be able to read and interpret what is written.
Within this broad definition of writing systems, two basic kinds can be distinguished.
One kind embraces what writing specialists have differentially called glottographic,
phonographic, phonetic, and syllabic systems, which are systems that represent
speech.[fn] These are the notational systems that fill the narrow definition of writing.
241
The other kind, which is of particular interest to us here, is what Gelb and Sampson
after him call semasiographic systems, and what Hill calls discourse systems.[fn]
Semasiographic (based on the Greek word semasia, which means “meaning”) refers to
those systems that communicate information directly to the reader within the
structure of their own system; these are systems of writing that do not detour through
speech to be understood. They function independently of language, although they
operate on the same logical level as spoken language and can parallel it. These are the
systems that the broader definition of writing embraces.
Some discourse or semasiographic systems are composed of symbols or marks that are
arbitrarily codified, where the marks have no intrinsic association to their meaning.
Mathematical notation, for example, combines numerals, letters, and a variety of
specialized signs that are conventionally understood to represent numbers, things, and
actions. Marks having the configuration “13 × 4 = 52” represent the action of
multiplying an amount of thirteen unnamed things four times to reach fifty-two
things; we know this because we have learned the conventional meaning of each
numeral and its relative placement, the meaning of each sign, and how to relate them
to each other. Few lay people, however, can read and interpret fully the formula in
Figure I, because we have forgotten or we never learned the complexities of the
notational system in which it operates. The marks do not themselves look like what
they mean, and their specific meaning also depends on their relative size and
placement and on the overall spa[30]tial arrangement of the component parts.
Musical notation (Fig. 32) and some choreographic notations (such as Labanotation,
Fig. 33) are other systems that rely on arbitrarily codified marks, which have no
intrinsic association with their meaning outside of the grammar in which they operate
(see Chapter 4). None of these systems can be penetrated even slightly unless one
learns their specific conventions and grammar. Hill (1967: 94) has called these
conventional systems.
Other semasiographic systems involve marks that bear some visual likeness to their
meaning. Hill (1967: 94) has called these iconic systems to reflect the natural
relationship between the mark and its referent. The mark is a stylized image of what it
symbolizes. These systems are largely pictorial, and because they are pictorial, people
who share the same visual culture find it easier to recognize and remember the
meanings of the individual images than with conventional systems.
Such pictorial writing systems are on the ascendancy at the opening of the millennium
as Western culrure becomes increasingly visual and increasingly multinational. Iconic
writing systems ar efound in the growing body of pictographic signs for travelers in
airports and other public places, in the corpus of international road signs, and even in
the diminutive instructions for cleaning that appear on our garments.
The icon-rich software systems developed for the Macintosh computer and then for
IBM systems were championed as more user-friendly than the MS-DOS-based IBM
systems precisely because they were more pictorial. All these pictographic systems
instruct us and guide us without necessarily resorting to words.
Pictorial or iconic systems, like conventional ones, still must be learned, however. It is
only that the visual resemblance between the marks and known objects make them
easier to master for people who share the same visual culture. Context is also crucial
to meaning. 31
242
But like all pictorial systems, Aztec and Mixtec writing also contains abstractions and
other marks that were arbitrarily assigned certain meanings, meanings unrelated to
their likeness. In addition, Mexican pictography has a logographic or phonetic
component used in appellatives, where some images intentionally represent voiced
words or sounds. The pictorial writing of the Aztecs and Mixtecs is thus not purely
one kind of writing or another. Instead, abstract conventions and phonetic referents
join the fundamental pictography to form a composite system that could function
across linguistic boundaries. 32
In Mixtec codices and some Coixtlahuaca Valley pictorials, a path decorated by
chevrons represents warfare when a warrior stands upon it brandishing weapons;
without the warrior the path takes the general meaning of enemy (voiced as yecu in
Mixtec), especially when associated with place signs (Smith 1973a: 33; Fig. 3fg). 35
Phoneticism was relatively infrequent in pre-Columbian Mexican imagery but
increased after the Spanish invasion when the Mexicans were faced with the task of
representing Spanish names.
Before the conquest, most personal and place names were written pictographically or
ideographically rather than phonetically. The glyphic image either represented or
referred visually to the name and could be voiced in any language. For example, the
Mexica emperor Ahuitzotl (Water Beast) is pictorially identified by a rodentlike beast
with a characteristically long tail [35] that often has a water element attached (Fig. 6);
the name glyph will yield the meaning Water Beast in all languages. Many place signs,
too, can be voiced in both Nahuatl and Mixtec. An example is the Mixtec community
kingdom known as Yucu Dzaa (Hill of the Bird) in Mixtec and as Tumtepec (Bird
Hill) in Nahuatl; it is pictorially named in both Aztec and Mixtec codices as a hill
qualified by the image of a bird or bird’s head (Fig. 7; Smith 1973a: 37, 24-6). 36
Jansen (1988a: 97) gives the example of a banner to! point out the different meanings a
single image can hold. As a pictorial representation a banner is simply that, a banner,
perhaps one of a certain kind. On a more ideographic level, however, a banner may
refer to the monthly feast of Panquetzaliztli, or a banner held by an individual can
indicate that that person is destined to be sacrificed or already has been; the banner
becomes an ideograph that refers to the monthly feast or to the sacrificial act. On a
more abstractly ideographic level, a banner can mean “20 things,” because it is the
usual symbol for 20 in Aztec manuscripts. As a phonetic referent a banner (pan) can
also mean “on above,” as in the place name Tochpan or On the Rabbit (Fig. 10d). In
each case, the image of the banner is the same.
The difficulty with reading the Mexican manuscripts has always been, first, in
understanding the pictorial abstractions and conventions and then, second, in
knowing on what level to interpret them. It is a multivalent writing system, for its
elements carry meaning on many levels and can mean (or suggest) several things at
one time. The conventions of pictorial representation and the ideograms can be
learned, but the meaning a particular image will have at any time depends ultimately
on its pictorial context. Context—an image’s association with all the other images that
come before, after, and around it (plus the function of the manuscript)—guides the
reader to the meaning an image conveys. We thus cannot take an image or an
element out of its context and understand all of its meanings. 38
#ideography
243
Persons, whether human or supernatural were identified in the codices according to
different levels of specificity. Their character or nature was usually indicated through
their physical features, costume, or pose. The manuscript painters always identified
individuals as being male or female, and they additionally could characterize them as
having a particular rank, status, or occupation (elder, ruler, warrior, priest, etc) or a
particular ethnicity. Moreover, most of the individuals appearing in the historical
codices were named—with personal names or calendricalnames or sometimes both.
Gender. Males and females are distinguished by their hair and costume (Figs. 15,16). 44
#gender
Place Signs. Place signs are usually composed of a topographical element (what Smith
has called a “geographical substantive”) that serves as the foundation for one or more
qualifiers (Fig. 23). The most frequent foundation elements in both Mixtec and Aztec
codices are hills, platforms, fields or plains, and bodies of water (Smith 1973a: 38-41).
The hill element is by far the most common. 49
#message sticks
Most place signs can operate across language boundaries because they convey
meaning directly through the pictorial elements. A hill with a bird on it is Tututepec
(Bird Hill) in Nalhuatl and Yucu Dzaa (Bird Hill) in Mixtec,which are names for the
same location (Smith 1963: 277-279; 1973a: 37,67-68; Fig. 24a). Other place signs,
however, are tied to language because they involve homonyms to convey meanings
that cannot easily be represented pictorially. 51
Events and action may have posed the greatest challenge to the manuscript painters
who were recording the past. The painters could set dates and identify people and
places with relative ease simply by using glyphs—calendrical signs and numbers,
name glyphs, and place signs—but events were not so easily represented glyphically.
Instead, most events called for a pictorial presentation or visual description of the
happening. 55
#message sticks
The problem for the history painters was how to render the painted events as
concisely as possible. They often did this by condensing the event to one or two telling
referents and using those referents to stand for the whole. 55
Aggressors in the Mixtec codices usually stand on chevron bands, which have thus
been called warpaths, that carry them into battle.[fn] 59
It is clear in reviewing the presentation of events in the Mexican histories that some
pictorial representations have clear linguistic parallels. As Smith (1973a: 30-35; 1983b
[PK:refs]) has pointed out, idioms in the Mixtec language are reflected in some of the
pictorial representations of marriage, of warfare, and of conquest; there are surely
others, too. Research on the Aztec codices has not focused·on this aspect as much, but
we have the ready example of the ruler with a speech scroll before his mouth, which
recalls the Nahuatl word for ruler, tlatoani or “speaker.” This corre-[60]spondence
between the visual and verbal modes of communication points up the importance of
understanding the language spoken by the manuscript painters and readers, but it
does not mean that the imagery in the pictorial histories is replicating speech. Rather
it tell us that the ancient Mexicans thought idiomatically and that they expressed these
idioms both verbally and pictorially. 61
244
Empty space is more ambiguous in these histories. The appearance of a single
individual at two places on the map certainly means that the two appearances are
separated by time, since an individual cannot be at two places at once, but these two
appearances are often also at different locations. The space between the two places
therefore stands for all the land in between where the individual did not appear, and
where nothing happened. As Dana Leibsohn (1994: 173-175) has pointed out, the
empty spaces in cartographic histories are the empty moments arid empty places in a
story, times and places that do not figure in the history. 63
Bright, William. 2000. A matter of typology: alphasyllabaries and

abugidas. Studies in Linguistic Sciences (30)1:63-71
Two other features of Devanagari should be noted: First, the spoken vowel short a is
considered ‘inherent’ in each consonant symbol, as can be seen in Tables 1–2 from
the fact that the symbol for the consonant k also represents the sequence ka. Another
way to describe this is to say that, after a consonant, the symbol for a has a ‘zero’
alternant. 64
#article: writing system
The Indic writing system has, then, frequently been referred to as a syllabary.
However, it is clear that it has a different structure from that of well-known syllabaries
such as kana or the Cherokee writing system invented by Sequoyah. Combinations of
Indic k + vowel all have the graphic element k in common; but as seen in Table 3,
such combinations in kana or in Cherokee show no shared elements. This fact makes
the term ‘syllabary’ unsatisfactory for describing the Indic script. 65
A new term seems needed to describe this type of script. Since such systems have
something in common both with alphaets (independent writing of at least some
phonological segments) and with syllabaries (recognition of the CV unit), it has been
called a ‘neosyllabary’ (Février 1959), a ‘pseudo-alphabet’ (Householder 1959), a
‘semisyllabary’ (Diringer 1968), and a ‘syllabic alphabet’ (Coulmas 1996:229). Among
South Asian specialists, it is now often referred to as an ‘alphasyllabary’ (Salomon
1996:376, Bright 1996:384) not to suggest that is a type of syllabary, or some kind of
hybrid, but only that it shares some features of both alphabets and syllabaries. 65
How is ‘Phags-pa to be classified? By Daniels’s definitions, since there is an inherent
vowel a, and other vowels are written with consistent modifications of the consonant
symbols, this script should be an abugida. However, the overt vowel symbols have
become uniform linear symbols, and for this reason I would consider ‘Phags-pa an
alphabet—although an unusual one in that the vowel a is represented as zero. (Note
that there are no initial vowels in Tibetan script, but glottal stop is a common initial
consonant.) 67
#article: writing system [PK: this is like Eskayan pseudo-diacritics]
In fact, another Hmong script, also invented by a native speaker — called the
Sayaboury script after its place of origin — has very recently been reported by
Smalley and Wimuttikosol 1998. 69
245
There are rumors of other locally invented scripts in Southeast Asia (Gérard Diffloth,
p.c.) — an area with a strong tradition that every language should have its own
writing system. 69
But of course such classifications are not an end in themselves; they can only be
justified by whatever insights they may give us into more general questions, such as
these: What inventory of structural features—lexical or phonological, functional or
formal — is possible in human writing systems? How may such features be combined
with one another, as Korean han’gul combines alphabetic, syllabic, and featural
characteristics? What typical changes can be traced in the historic evolution of scripts,
and in their borrowing by one people from another? What are the psycholinguistic
implications of different types of scripts for acquiring literacy, and for reading or
writing efficiently, in languages with diverse types of morphological and phonological
structures? What can our understanding of different scripts contribute to the practical
problems of script design for preliterate communities? At this point, the theoretical
concerns of grammatology and the practical concerns of promoting literacy come
under a single roof. 70
Gray, Edward G. 2000. Missionary linguistics and the

description of ‘exotic’ languages. In Sylvain Auroux, E.F.K.
Koerner, Hans-Josef Niedefehe & Kees Versteegh (eds.)
History of the Language Sciences. Handbücher zur Sprach –und
Kommunkiations-wissenschaft. Band 18.1 Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter. 929-937
The most remarkable of the early Protestant missions to the Americas was that of the
New England minister, John Eliot (1604-1690) who spent the second half of the 17th
century pursuing the conversion of a small group of Algonquian-speaking Indians in
Eastern Massachusetts. Much like the Catholic missionaries in New Spain, Eliot had a
printing press at his disposal, but Eliot’s use of print differed profoundly from that of
these Catholic missionaries. If, for the latter, printed works in indigenous languages
were intended to serve the missionaries themselves, for Eliot they were intended to
serve the Indians. 934
#history: language documentation
#literacy
[…] Eliot was the first to apply to a non-European peoples the Protestant doctrine
that every Christian should have ready and immediate access to Scripture. 935
#history: language documentation
#literacy
246
Silverstein, Michael. 2000. Whorfianism and the linguistic
imagination of nationality. In Regimes of language: Ideology,
polities, identities, edited by P. V. Kroskrity. Santa Fe &
Oxford: School of American Research Press & James Currey.
This is, to be sure, the condition of a specific, modern cultural order of language in
which we and Anderson live (see Silverstein 1996c) and relative to which, as
Bloomfield long ago (1987b[1927]) pointed out, many speakers of languages in such
cultural orders cannot even conceive of any other kinds of linguistic phenomena, for
instance, unwritten “languages,” “languages” without standards, and so on. For [122]
such subjectivities from within cultures of standard, the very concept of “language”
rests upon finding the various institutional paraphernalia of standardization, for
example, literacy in relation to standard register, grammars and dicitonaries and
thesauruses, authoritative judgments of “correctness” enforceable in certain
institutional sites of power over discourse, and so forth. Within cultures of standard,
forms of language that lack these in some significant degree are relegated to some
classificatory category other than “language.” 122
#sociology of prescriptivism #chapter 1 #primacy of writing
Nöth, Winfried. 2001. “Semiotic foundations of iconicity in

language and literature.” In The motivated sign, edited by Olga
Fischer and Mäx Nanny. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John
Benjamins.
#iconicity
In contrast to the genuine icon, the hypoicon is only similar to its object, and it shares
only some of its features with its object. There is thus a scale of iconicity from
hypoiconicity to pure iconicity, ranging from hypoicons which share only few features
with their objects to genuine icons which are no longer different from their objects,
but at the end of this scale, the genuine icon is a mere abstraction. No actually
produced icon can be a genuine icon. This volume on iconicity in language is thus
actually a book on Hypoiconicity. 19
We now come to Peirce’s subdivision of iconic signs, whose relevance to language
studies was first discovered by Roman Jakobson (1965, 1977). Today, the three
subclasses of the icon are well known to specialists in linguistic iconicity. According to
the first, called ‘imaginal iconicity’, the sign evinces an immediately perceptible
similarity to its object of reference as for instance in the onomatopoeic words cuckoo or
ping-pong. In the second category, called ‘diagrammatic iconicity’, the similarity
between the sign and its object is only a structural or relational one, as in the case of a
narrative told according to the ordo naturalis of the events: the sequence of the
propositions of the narrative is the same as the sequence of the events represented in
this narrative. Finally, ‘metaphorical iconicity’, according to Peirce, is mediated
iconicity. The ideas conveyed bythe sign and the idea of its object are mediated by a
third idea, the tertium comparationis between the tenor and the vehicle of the metaphor.
21
[…] the definition of iconicity as “form miming meaning” […] 21
247
However, there are two basically distinct principles of miming in language: form
miming meaning and form miming form which occurs in verbal repetition or more
generally in symmetries in language and discourse, as we will see below. !I have called
the first principle exophoric and the second principle endophoric iconicity (Nöth
1990b). The term exophoric reminds us that the verbal sign relates to something
beyond language, while the term endophoric has to do with relations of reference
within language. 22
Let us now turn to endophoric iconicity in language and literature. There are two
directions in which a language sign can be iconically mapped within language. One is
along the syntagmatic, the other is along the paradigmatic axis of language.
Syntagmatic iconicity is iconicity within the linearity of text or discourse: repetition,
parallelism, alliteration, rhyme and meter are various modes of syntagmatic iconicity.
The most primitive instance of this type of iconicity can be found in the reduplicative
word formations mama and papa, where the second syllable repeats, and is thus an icon
of the first.
Paradigmatic iconicity is iconicity within the language system. It is mostly of the
diagrammatic kind. Paradigms of grammar and word formation are paradigmatically
iconic in this sense: the singular/plural opposition which we find in cat/cats is the
result of an iconic mapping of a form prescribed by a morphological rule to hundreds
of nouns like cat/cats, rat/rats or pet/pets. 23
Does this mean that the results of research in linguistic iconicity justify a rejection of
the Saussurean dogma and [24] require its substitution by a new dogma of iconicity in
language?
The answer is no: arbitrariness and iconicity are not a matter of either-or; one
principle does not exclude the other. Language is both iconic and arbitrary, and it is
our task to specify to which degree and in which respect language consists of iconic
and of symbolic signs. 25
Chiang, Ted. 2002. “Story of your life.” In Stories of your life.

New York: Small Beer Press.
In the next report I submitted, I suggested that the term “logogram” was a misnomer
because it implied that each graph represented a spoken word, when in fact the
graphs didn’t correspond to our notion of spoken words at all. I didn’t want to use the
term “ideogram” either because of how it had been used in the past; I suggested the
term “semagram” instead.
It appeared that a semagram corresponded roughly to a written word in human
languages: it was meaningful on its own, and in combination with other semagrams
[15] could form endless statements. We couldn’t define it precisely, but then no one
had ever satisfactorily defined “word” for human languages either. 16
#message sticks #definition: ideography
248
Tuchsherer, Konrad, and P.E.H. Hair. 2002. Cherokee and
West Africa: Examining the origins of the Vai script. History in
Africa 29:427-486.
[PK: I have not marked all the footnotes with [fn] because they are too numerous.
Consult original article]
#vai #africa: west
A cornerstone of the Western intellectual heritage is the fervent belief in the power of
the written word to transform man and society. In this tradition, the existence of
writing serves as a hallmark for civilization and a marker of separate history from
prehistory. While a great deal of scholarly work has dispelled many myths about
literacy, thus bridging “the great divide” between the written and the oral, our
intellectual and emotional attachment to writing persists. This appears to be especially
the case in reference ot the origins of writing systems, many of the latter being claimed
and reputed to have been “independently invented.” For those peoples most involved
historically in such develpments, the invention and use of original scripts are points of
pride, and hence claims for the “authenticity” of the scripts, that is, for their invention
and coming into use have been an entirely indigneous undertaking, are passionately
guarded.
Historians of writing, however, are cautious of claims for independent invention.
From ancient to modern times, the history of the development of writing has been
characterized by a balance between “independent invention” and “stimulus
diffusion.” While epigraphers and paleographers attempt to unravel the inevitably
obscure origins of certain ancient scripts possibly devised in environments free from
external influence, no script devised in the last two thousand years is likely to have
emerged totally independent of the stimulus of some diffused knowledge of the
previous history of scripts—at the very least, the mere idea of writing. Nonetheless, for
many modern observ-[428]ers, any suggestion of an outside stimulus on the
development of such scripts is considered virtual heresy, tantamount to an attack on
the intellectual ability of the peoples who claim to have single-handedly devised the
scripts. 428
#stimulus diffusion #authenticity #progressivism: denial of indigenous sophistication
On an individual basis, the Cherokee began using the script for personal diaries and
journals, recordkeeping, and the writing of medicinal formulas. 434
#cherokee #practice
by the early 1830s, when tension over removal was approaching its peak, the
missionaries were publicizing the Cherokee syllabary as an example of the great
advancement in knowledge and civilization made by the Cherokee.[fn] But the efforts
of these missionaries, and of the Cherokee themselves, were in vain. In 1838 federal
troops removed nearly 20,000 Cherokee from their homes and marched them off on
what later sympathetic historians have called their “Trail of Tears” to what is today
Oklahoma.
Missionaries as well as scholars were quick to advertise that the ease of learning the
Cherokee script, as proved by its rapid dissemination, was the result of it being, not an
alphabet, but a syllabary. 435
249
#progressivism #acquisition #system: hierarchy
Worcestor:
This circumstance of the alphabet being syllabic, and the number of syllables so small, is
the greatest reason why the task of learning to read the Cherokee language is so vastly
easier than that of learning to [435] ... but another very important advantage which this
alphabet has over the Roman, as applied to the writing of the English language, is that ...
each character is the invariable representative of the same sound ... The alphabet used by
Mr. Pickering in his Cherokee Grammar, and some other modifications of the Roman
alphabet as applied to languages till lately unwritten, possess the same advantage. Hence it
is, that a Sandwich Islander, though as I suppose, he cannot equal the Cherokee with his
syllabic alphabet, will yet, in the rapidity with which he acquires the art of reading, leave
every English scholar far behind. Another source of wonder in regard to the Cherokee
alphabet [i.e. syllabary] is, that so few syllabic characters are sufficient to write a language
... On this account the syllabic method of writing would be readily applicable to the
languages of the South Sea Islands ... [fn]
436
#acquisition #system: hierarchy
The first published report of the Vai script appeared in the June 1834 issue of the
Missionary Herald, the same ABCFM jounral that had printed articles on the Cherokee
script in 1827 and 1828. [fn] 437
Journal, 7 March 1834, Wynkoop writes from near Cape Mount [437]:
[…]
An old man dreamed that he must immediately begin to make characters for his language,
that his people might write letters as they did at Monrovia. he commuincated his dream
and plan to some others, and they began the work. The progress has satisfied them that it
can be accomplished. [fn]
438
#inspiration
The first two references point to the script being”commenced” (whatever that
precisely means) in early 1833, the third may indicate instead 1832. 438
#history
Various attempts to explain the shapes of the characters in terms of copying from
earlier systems or as largely pictograms have been unrewarding, some being extremely
far-fetched. (But perhaps less so than the claim that Cherokee borrowed fromVai,via a
pre-Columbus Mande invasion of America: Clyde Winters, “The Influence of the
Mande Scripts on American Writing Systems,” BIFAN 39B (1977), 405-31. 438
#funny #crackpots
Forbes began his report: “It has fallen to my lot to make a discovery of such
importance to the civilization of Africa that ...” The highly-charged tone of this report
by a layman resembles that of the missionaries who announced the Cherokee script,
as it also resembles that of Wilson, who in 1858 reminiscing about the Vai script,
described its invention as “one of the most remarkable achievements of this or any
age:” J. Leighton wilson, Western Africa: its History, condition, and Prospects (New York,
250
1856), 95. Similarly, in 1849 the preface written on behalf of the CMS (the writer
anonymous, but probably Henry Venn, the Secretary of CMS) in a printed pamphlet
containing Koelle’s report began in terms of the contemporary moral correctness with
the following remarks. “It has [440] been frequently asserted that no attempt has been
made by the Native Tribes of the Western Coast of Africa to reduce their languages to
writing ... This fact has been often alleged as a proof of the low intellectual qualities of
the natives ... But ... Mr. Koelle’s narrative affords such a proof of intellectual ability
and enterprize in the Natives, as well as of a certain degree of moral and religious
feeling—that it holds out bright hopes of the introduction of civilization and
Christianity ...” S.W. Koelle, narrative of an Expedition into the Vy Country of West Africa and
the Discovery of Syllabic Writing Recently Invented by the Natives of the Vy Tribe (London, 1849),
ii, iv. 441
#progressivism
Figure 2. “New invented native alphabet of Western Africa Recd. April 18, 1834 from
Mssrs Wilson and Wynkoop,” MS Vai 1, page 1. Reproduced by permission of the
hourghton Library, Harvard University, and the United church board for World
Ministries. This appears to be the earlierst extant manuscript in an indigenous script
from sub-Saharan Africa. 440
#diagram
Koelle visited Vai country in March 1849 and met Momolu Duwalu Bukele or more
precisley, Mɔmɔlu Duwale Bukɛlɛ), the inventor of the Vai script. At the town of
Bandakoro, in Gawula, near the destroyed town of Dsondu/Jondu, where the script
had been in-[441]vented, [fn] Koelle recorded an account of the invention from
Bukele himself. 442
#history
Koelle:
Having thus considered the nature of the Vie writing, let us now review its origin and its
history. Doalu Bukara, now about forty years old, and living in Bandakoro, is the proper
inventor of it; he was, however, assisted by five of his friends. The first impulse to attempt
it, he received in a dream, which he narrated to me in the following way. He said: About
fiteen years ago, I had a dream, in which a tall, venerable looking white man appeared to
me, saying: “I am sent to you by other white mean.” [444] Doalu asked: “What is the
object for which you are sent to me?” The white man replied: “I bring you a book.” Doalu
said: “This is very good; but tell me now, what is the nature of this book.” The white
messenger answered: “I am sent to bring this book to you, in order that you bring it to the
rest of the people. But I must tell you, that neither you, nor any one who will become
acquainted with the book are allowed to eat the flesh of dogs and monkeys, nor of any
thing found dead, whose throat was not cut; and to touch the book on those days on which
you have touched the fruit of the To-tree (a kind of very sharp pepper).” The messenger
then showed Doalu his book, and taught him, to write any Vei words in the same way, in
which the book was written. 445
#inspiration #folklore: lost book
In the 1828 Missionary Herald account of the invention of the Cherokee script,
Sequoyah’s young comrades similarly puzzle over how whites communicate at a
distance—an intriguing coincidence. In both cases this late puzzlement (after a long
period of contact and encounter) seems implausible and smacks of white
251
interpretation. It is conceivable that Koelle’s account of the invention of the Vai script
in this aspect was influenced by his having read, perhaps in an intermediate source,
the missionary account of the Cherokee script invention, but it does not seem very
likely. 447
#inspiration
Koelle:
Though Doalu had been well instructed in his dream, yet, as he told me, in the morning
he could not remember the signs which had been shown him by night. Therefore—these
are his own words—he and his friends had to put their heads together, in order to make
new ones. And on this ground we are fully justified in speaking of a real invention of the Vei
mode of writing. 448
#inspiration
The reference to divine revelation is not unique in the records of script invention: “A
motif found over and over in the stories of script inventors—grammatogenists—is
divine inspriation, often in a dream, sometimes in retreat from the world. In almost
every case, the script inventor wishes to benefit his people with a gift from heaven”
[Daniels/Bright, Writing Systems, 579] 451
#inspiration
Holsoe:
The Vai do not distinguish between skin colors when referring to people who are
“civilized,” that is, from Europe or America. Such people are called po moenu, “civilized
people”. Therefore, the black colonists in Monrovia were po moenu, as were the white
sailors in European ships ... When Koelle translates “white man” in his account of Bukele’s
dream, he almost certainly is referring ot the Vai po moenu, “civilized man” [fn]
452
We have no doubt that Doalu Bukele was, as Koelle said, the “proper inventor” of the
Vai script. 452
#history
The history of the emergence of the Vai script, like the emergence, earlier in time and
in another continent, of the Cherokee script, thus illustrates both “independent
invention” and “stimulus diffusion”. 453
#stimulus diffusion
The adult males of the Vai may well have resented this literacy of local children in an
exclusive script [Arabic as taught by Islamic teachers in Cape Mount for reading and
understanding the Koran], which may have helped to encourage them to produce a
script of their own. 455
#motivation: prestige #motivation: ethnic identity
The writing of letters—for instance, “as they do in Monrovia”—was according to
both Wynkoop and Koelle one of the aims of the inventors of the script. It is just
possible that growing suspicion of the intruding Afro-American colonists encouraged
the invention of a separate script which the latter could not read. 457
252
#motivation: literacy #motivation: secrecy
What has intrigued scholars, though, is that the Vai script was organized (as a
syllabary) in a way unlike either of the two scripts empolyed at the time in the region:
the Roman script (an alphabet) and the Arabic script (a consonantal alphabet). As
with the Cherokee script, two possibilities arise: the first, that the idea of a syllabary
was an original and independent thought of the inventor, or secondly, that he
borrowed the idea from elsewhere. Could Doalu Bukele have learned [458] the idea
of a syllabary? The available evidence suggests that the probabilyt that this occurred
cannot be ruled out. And if so, the most plausible possibilities are that this came
about, either as the result of the involvement of missionaries aware of the success of
the Cherokee script, or else as the result of the involvement of an actual Cherokee.
459
#stimulus diffusion #hypothesis: primacy of the syllable
[Footnote 90]: The idea of a syllabary certainly diffused across West Africa later. The
syllabic [458] scripts of the Mende, Loma, and Kpelle, all devised in the vicinity of
Vai country in the first half of the twentieth century, were stimulated in design by the
syllabic organization of the earlier Vai script. The Bassa alphabet, introduced in
Liberia in this same period, was constructed by a western-educated Bassa who was
familiar with the Vai script. Further down the coast, there is evidence suggesting that
the Bamum syllabary (and thus the later Bagam syllabary inspired by it) was influence
by the syllabic blueprint of the Vai script. A Bamana syllabary devised in the 1930s
has been recorded in Mali, and this script too may have been influenced in its creation
by the continuing success of the Vai script and the presence of Vai traders. A
noteworthy point is that in all instances, while the african inventors were stimulated
by knowledge of earlier syllabaries, they chose to fill out their own scripts with novel
characters. 459
#stimulus diffusion #hypothesis: primacy of the syllable
It is not improbable that printed reports of the success of the Cherokee script were
actually available and read in Liberia. Information on the Cherokee script was
covered widely in the American, and some of the European, newspaper press, as well
as in Anglophone missionary journals. 461
#stimulus diffusion
A legend latterly current among the Bassa to the effect that, before the arrival of
American settlers, a simple form of pictographic writing called “Vah” ahd been
invented by a Bassa man (Dalby, “Indigenous Scripts,” 33-34), might have its roots in
distant echoes of Crocker’s Bassa syllbary. In 1907 a Bassa alphabet was introduced in
Liberia by a Western-educated Bassa on returning fromt he United States, and has
continued in limited use. Its originator appears to ahve been inspred by the Vai
syllabary rather than from any knowledge of the earlier Bassa syllabary. 464
#folklore
It is worth noting, however, that an exaggerated claim of illiteracy may be advanced
in order to accentuate the miraculous or sensational aspect of subsequent proceedings,
as with the dictation of the Koran by Muhammad, and more relveantly, the invention
of the Cherokee syllbary by Sequoyah. 473
#motivation: prestige
253
“The Veys are superior to most native tribes. They have made some progress toward
civilisation, and are said to have a written language, of their own invention, by which
they communicate with each other, although they have no books” (Peck, “Missions,”
441). 476
#progressivism
On the central issue of whether the missions passed to the Vai the idea of a syllabary,
the jury is still out. 478
#stimulus diffusion #history
[Footnote 149:] The statement of Wilson in 1856 is not entirely free from ambiguity.
He insisted that “the characters used in this system are all new, and were invented by
the people themseves,” a point not in question. But his following assertion that the Vai
did not “it is believed, receive any assistance whatever from any one in
perf[478]ecting their wonderful system,” can be understood as less than a categorical
denial of external influence by the reservation of “it is believed” and by the use of
“perfecting” rather than “creating.” Even “from any one” sounds defensive, and
surely relates to an earlier moralizing claim that the invention was “enough to stifle
the cavils and sneers of thsoe who think so contemptuously of the intellectual
endowments of the African Race” (Wilson, Western Africa, 95) 479
There remains, however, a possible mission influence on the creation of a syllabary
which turns, not on individuals, but on one piece of school equipment, the spelling
book. Cary arranged for spelling [479] books to be sent to the school and both Revey
and Handt used them, as was normal educaitonal practice at the time. as even today,
the spelling books presented certain words borken up into syllables. We know that
Sequoyah, before he invented his syllabary, saw a spelling book (probably for English)
which a child relative borught home from school. It is likely that the Vai syllabary
inventors, learning English, were exposed to a spelling book, and just possible that for
them, as for Sequoyah, this gave them the idea of analyzing and representing
language in syllables. 480
#stimulus diffusion
Thus again, as with the claim of Revey, the claim that Curtis provided the stimulus
for the invention of the script remains conjectural because the evidence is only
circumstantial. 483
This paper has presented the evidence suggesting that the Cherokee syllabary may
have influenced the invention of the Vai syllbary, by means of certain, partly
alternative, intermediaries. We reiterate that no concluseive direct link between the
two scripts has yet come to light. 484
254
Bloch, Maurice. 2003. Literacy: A reply to John Postill. Social
Anthropology (11): 101-102.
In spite of what Postill would have us believe, I would still maintain that, outside the
science fiction of Frankenstein’s monsters, artefacts and techniques such as literacy do
not have agency. 101
Coulmas, Florian. 2003. Writing systems: An introduction to their

linguistic analysis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press.
It is quite possible that, today, more communication takes place in the written than in
the oral mode. 1
Recording the ephemeral, providing the fleeting word with a permanent form ready
to be inspected and reinspected is the first step of linguistic analysis […] 6
To distinguish the categories that are inherent in the object of observation from those
that are in the mind is a fundamental problem of linguistics, as of all empirical
sciences. Writing suggests fixed categories and stability: words, syllables, letters. This
would not be a problem if writing systems were the object of inquiry and analysed in
their own right in order to discover the structural relationships between their
constitutive elements. However, they are often studied for what they would reveal
about the nature of language as well as the mental processes underlying it. The very
existence of writing is taken as proof that language can be studied as if it were a stable
object consisting of fixed parts. Even though it is recognized as ‘only’ a representation
of speech, its categories are allowed to intrude into linguistic inquiry. In order to avoid
confusion, it is of great importance, therefore, clearly to distinguish that which writing
represents of language from what it imposes onto it. 7
“And the whole multitude of hieroglyphs were created by what was thought in the heart
and dictated by the tongue. And thus Ptah was content when he had created all things and
all hieroglyphs”. [from Gardiner, Alan. H. 1947. Ancient Egyptian Onomastica. I. Text.Oxford:
Oxfgord University Press. III] 8
#writing systems #chapter 10

‘All things and all hieroglyphs’, Egyptologiest Jan Assmann explains, means the forms
of nature and their rendition in writing. The ear envisages the forms, the tongue
voices them as words, which, by demiurgical powers, attain a physical existence as
things. Things are modelled as inner writing in the heart subsequently to be vocalized
by the tongue and transformed into perceptible entities of the phenomenal world.
‘There is a virtual congruency between the corpus of signs and the corpus of things’
(Assmann 1991: 91). According to this view the signs precede in the heart, which finds
expression in written signs first and then in speech. Externalized writing is thus more
properly viewed as a discovery than an invention. 8
#writing systems #chapter 10 #primacy of writing #revelation
As a matter of fact, linguists never study any language without recording speech and
writing it down. This alone is a compelling reason for studying writing instead of
assuming that writing, whose essential properties are so radically different from
speech, can be ignored in the research process. 11
255
#writing systems
[Frank Householder] speaks of a ‘proto-written’ variety underlying speech arguing
that in a literate speech community speakers ‘intuitively feel that speech is a rendition
of writing and not vice versa’ (Householder 1971: 253). In many cases this is
undeniable. An ever increasing part of the vocabulary of written languages come into
existence in writing. They can be given a phonetic interpretation, which, however, is
decidedly secondary. 12
#writing systems #primacy of writing #chapter 5
As Olson [1994] sees it, linguists are in this respect representative of literate society at
large where writing provides the model for speech, rather than the other way around.
We pronounce as we spell, we judge our utterances against the yardstick of written
sentences and qualify as ellipsis, anacolutha, reduction, false start and so on those
which do not conform to these patterns. The literal meaning of a sentence is basic.
Other meanings are taken to be derived from it. To a scholar who, like Olson, looks at
language as something to be learned, such a conception, perhaps, comes quite
naturally because it is the written form of language that is made the object of
instruction, memorization and testing. As an institution, the school instills to the
collective mind the primacy of writing. 14
#writing systems #primacy of writing #chapter 9 [or wherever I discuss ‘what is
language for Pinay’]
[…] writing follows its own logic which is not that of speech. 16
#writing systems #writing and language change
It is the systematic analysis of [classical] languages that has laid the groundwork of
grammar as a field of scientific inquiry. 229
[PK: thus dead, not spoken, unchanging]
The cleavage between Hindi and Urdu is experienced so strongly by many speakers
that they deny intercommunicability. 232
#writing systems #language ideology
Houston, Stephen, John Baines, and Jerrold Cooper. 2003.

“Last writing: Script obsolescence in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and
Mesoamerica.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 45
(3):430-479.
By any measure, the creation and development of writing was a cybernetic advance
with far-reaching consequences. It allowed writers to communicate with readers who
were distant in time and space, extended the storage capacity of human knowledge,
including information that ranged from mundane accounting to sacred narrative,
bridged visual and auditory worlds by linking icons with meaningful sound, and
offered an enduring means of displaying and manipulating assertions about a wide
variety of matters. 430
[fn]: Broader definitions of writing that embrace purely semantic devices
(semasiography, Sampson 1985:29) relate to ancient systems of communication,
especially “Mexican pictography” (Boone 2000:29), but depart from the linguistic
256
underpinnings that characterize the writing systems reviewed here. Semasiographic
definitions are not very helpful in understanding heavily phonic systems. Their limited
applicability to writing systems of the world identifies a typological weakness; even the
Mexican examples are inconclusive, since these texts bundle genuine lexical items
with supporting graphic devices. An alternative view is that the mixed Mexican
pictography contains writing, yet supplements it with effective pictorial clues. From
this comes a narrative that is translatable, with some controlled liberties, into
language. Equating this distinctive package of features with the preponderantly
phonic nature of Egyptian, cuneiform, or Mayan glyphs blurs dis-[430]tinctions. A
broad definition of writing does not elucidate these scripts, although it is useful for
understanding the relation of texts and accompanying images (Baines 1989; Taube
2000). 431
Writing is not language. It is a graphic conveyance of meaning and sound, and has a
communicative and existential role, being artifact as much as message. 432
[fn]: […]”Grapholect” parallels “dialect,” […]. 432
In pre-modern societies, script leans strongly to restricted use (primarily a matter of
literacy) and application [432] (a question of genre and context, e.g., Goody 1968;
Baines 1983; Harris 1989; Houston 1994a). 433
Today, some 6,000 or more languages exist (Dixon 1997:143), whereas not many
more than 100 scripts are attested (depending on how they are lumped and divided:
Gaur 1992:216-26; Campbell 1997:vii). 433
In theory, script requires but one reader. 433
[…]but the long-term viability of that script is doubtful, since shamanic scripts, such
as Nakhi (Naxi) in China, flutter into extinction along with the rites that motivated
them (Jackson 1979:74). 433
he system of valuations in which scripts are embedded is crucial-which are prestigious,
which are not, which serve general functions, which serve a more specialized purpose.
Such aspects of the setting may also explain why certain scripts hold on against
potent, disabling forces. 434
An unanswered question is how script obsolescence is ultimately comparable with
language loss in a deeper, structural sense. Do the simplifications (loss of complexity)
and reductions (defectiveness) documented in language death also occur in writing?
Do features from a dominant script slip into a subordinate one (Andersen 1982:95)?
Does the signary become impoverished in terminal or late script communities
(Andersen 1982:93)? Do scripts, like language, experience moments of equilibrium
followed by punctuation, divergence, and extinction (Dixon 1997:68-73)? 435
In the case studies we examine three possible explanations for script obsolescence: (1)
a sociolinguistic explanation, in the sense of a correlation between the decay and
disappearance of writing and a loss of prestige; (2) a “sphere of exchange” model (John
Monaghan, personal communication, 2002), in which writing, like money, can be
general purpose or restricted to certain kinds of transactions; and (3) a “demographic”
explanation, in which the smaller the number of writers and readers, the smaller the
chances of cross-generational transmission. 435
Literacy was taught through hieratic and/or cursive hieroglyphic, while hieroglyphic,
the monumental, pictorial form which is now seen as emblematic of Egypt, was used
257
essentially for display among the elite (including communication with the gods), even
if a few signs, such as the ubiquitous [symbol] ‘nh anx “life,” may have been very
widely known. 439
However, the integration of hieroglyphic writing into pictorial and monumental
forms, which is closely paralleled in Mesoamerica, imparted great cultural salience to
that script, even though it was not a utilitarian form and few seem to have been
competent in it. This combination of limited currency and prestige meant that
Egyptian writing was culturally significant even when it was not understood by those
who commissioned or inscribed it. As with many aspects of high cultures, transmitting
such a multilayered legacy involved a heavy investment. 440
Whereas hieratic can be transcribed into hieroglyphic, such a transposition is artificial
for demotic and would probably not have been done in antiquity, even though
hieroglyphic and hieratic sign forms continued to provide orthographic models for
some newly introduced words in demotic. This freeing of hieroglyphic from everyday
script opened the way to a proliferation in its sign repertory from a few hundred signs
to some thousands, and to the creation of many new sign values through inventive
application of the script’s principles. 440
The [hieroglyphic] inscriptions [in non-royal monuments such as temples during
Roman period] addressed the gods and the tiny peer group of their creators far more
than people in general. 440
Although Egypt’s Roman rulers accorded value to the traditional civilization and until
the second century a.d. were generous patrons of its principal symbols, the temples,
their policies eliminated the indigenous upper elite, leaving a learned body of priests
and other literate people who did not have the cultural or economic status of their
ancestors (Bagnall 1993). 443
In a negative sense, if writing’s cultural or practical functions lose their role and value,
or are superseded by other scripts or practices, any particular form of writing will
almost inevitably disappear. 444
Many sealings of the Early Dynastic period have hieroglyphic “inscriptions” that
cannot be read and form visual as much as textual compositions (e.g., Baines 2003).
444
A comparable process of decay in hieroglyphic has been analyzed by Heike
Sternberg-el Hotabi for magical stelae of the Late and Graeco-Roman periods (1994;
corpus: 1999). These were inscribed with standard texts that become progressively
more schematic and less intelligible (Fig. 2), presumably without unduly affecting their
efficacy. 445
In third- and fourth-century Egypt several religions competed both with one another
and with traditional religion and its civilizational basis. Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and
Christianity were the principal new arrivals. The last of these became dominant by
the end of the fourth century. The spread of these religions cannot explain the decline
of traditional Egyptian civilization, which began centuries earlier. Rather, the legal
and fiscal constraints and discriminations of Roman rule, in a context that was already
bicultural, together with the eclipse of the highest indigenous elite, were exacerbated
by the crises of the empire, depriving central symbols both of authority and of
economic support and thus opening the way to alternatives, one of which,
Christianity, came to enjoy imperial support. 449
258
The principal constant element in this narrative is the identification of writing with
language, religion, and civilization. 450
[Cuneiform is] [f]irst used to write the Sumerian language of the early inhabitants of
southern Babylonia […] 451
To understand that inventory it is useful to draw a distinction between “open” and
“closed” writing systems (Houston 1994b). Such terms evoke a polarity suggested by
Eric Wolf for types of peasant societies, “open” connoting constant interaction with
other societies, “closed” a condition of pronounced autonomy and isolation
(1955:462; compare Wolf 1986:326; Monaghan 1995:61). There is some advantage to
stressing properties that transcend [456] local conditions and those that accentuate
them. Thus, while an “open” writing system serves the needs of diverse cultures and
languages, a “closed” one implicates a particular culture or language.
In accommodating many different tongues, cuneiform tends toward an “open” system
(Civil 1984; Cooper 2000:64-70). Egyptian and Mayan glyphs are far more “closed,”
and, in the Maya case, exceptionally clumsy in recording other languages. 457
[…]unclear linguistic affiliation for the undeciphered Isthmian (cf. proposals by
Kaufman and Justeson 2001; see Houston 2000:130-31). 457
The eighth-century A.D. Mayan script communities began to break apart. Their texts
affect pronounced regionalisms: from A.D. 750 on, parts of Yucatan and Campeche
show a high degree of grapholectal idiosyncrasy. Terminal Classic inscriptions from
this area are also heterogeneous, with legible texts alongside those that veer close to
pseudo-glyphs, signs that vaguely resemble glyphs, or real glyphs ordered into
meaningless sequences.[fn] 458
As script communities fragment, and their terminal or final writers diminish in
number, the sum of glyphic knowledge, the mutual supervision that judges and
encourages standards, must also wither, dropping to a danger level below which the
script will disappear. In no instance of internal obsolescence-that is, from the pre-
Colonial period-is there any sign of stigmatization or diminished prestige of the Maya
script, or of dominant scripts attracting new attention. For reasons of general social
collapse, the script communities simply could not reproduce themselves. 461
Four codices represent the largest body of writing from the Postclassic, but these are of
controversial date and in two cases (the Madrid and Grolier) display a striking lapse of
textual clarity and scribal competence. The Grolier in particular is largely an “open”
document in which identity and action are communicated by iconography rather than
glyphs, probably as a result of forceful influence from Mexican pictography (Coe
1973: p1. 87). 461
[PK: note that this is contra teleological account of evolution of writing]
Some clerics, probably the vast majority, encouraged the burning of books; others felt
the calendars in particular were useful for agricultural reasons (Houston et al.
2001:40). The one person to observe more, far more, was Bishop Diego de Landa.
463
#chapter 1
Moreover, in Houston’s experience teaching in an American university, beginning
students tend to write glyphs in a linear fashion, each rendered separately, according
259
to a pattern directly influenced by alphabetic script. Until pressed, they avoid the
tightly clustered glyph blocks employed by the Maya. 463
With the Conquest, the religious contents of the codices made them inherently
obnoxious to the Spaniards, who destroyed most of the books perhaps within the third
quarter of the sixteenth century. 466
#chapter 1
This comparison of three important script traditions-Egyptian, cuneiform, and Mayan
in its Mesoamerican setting-highlights similarities and differences in their patterns of
obsolescence. All involved, to some extent, sociolinguistic, “spheres-of-exchange,” and
demographic assaults. All experienced a dramatic reduction in function and, perhaps,
content: the latest datable cuneiform text pertains to astronomy; Egyptian
hieroglyphic became “celebratory” and temple-oriented, demotic equally tethered to
the values of a civilization neglected and latterly under cultural assault; and Mayan
glyphs, wholly unlike the “open” pictography of Mexico, became highly restricted in
function and use, with a near-total attenuation of public functions. Mayan glyphs were
identified, at least in their non-calendrical portion, with a religious system that was
noxious to their conquerors; similarly, Egyptian writing was closely linked to
traditional religion that increasingly lost state sponsorship and, like cuneiform, a
native elite that would value its messages. In all cases scripts were tenacious until their
script communities became unable to sustain the investment involved in transmitting
such systems across generations or found it desirable to discontinue doing so. 467
All these scripts had as alternatives “target” writing systems, often connected to
dominant groups and languages--Aramaic and Greek in Mesopotamia, Greek in
Egypt, Spanish among the Maya-that did not have problematic connections to
languages and high cultures of diminished interest. In this sense, their obsolescence, in
a context of biliteracy or triliteracy, is utterly different from instances of script collapse
in which no target script was available: Indus [467]script did not find a local
replacement for over a millennium, and in Crete and mainland Greece the demise of
Linear B was followed by illiteracy for several centuries (Bennett 1991). It is telling
that their obsolescence was “radical.” Most examples of Linear B were only preserved
fortuitously by the burning of palace complexes with their archives (Chadwick
1976:18). By the time of their abandonment, Egyptian, cuneiform, and Mayan must
have accrued sufficient negative prestige and stigma to discourage further use. The
reduced, highly specialized functions made this disuse relatively painless for most
people or, to put this another way, made it quite painful for just a few committed
people-a “tip” or negative influence that might have amounted to little more than a
nudge. 468
#rongorongo
The tip into obsolescence varied in its social or cultural motivation. For Egypt,
Mesopotamia, and the Maya, indigenous elites were closely associated with weakening
scripts. 468
While Maya glyphs rarely show evidence of damnatio memoriae-the deliberate
erasure of names or text (Keppie 1991:22)-they do display mutilation of eyes and
noses, for which there are two possible explanations, neither mutually exclusive: (1)
the defacements neutralized or “killed” animated or vital images (Houston and Stuart
1998: 88); or (2) the mutilations reflected a time-the Maya Collapse-when faces could
260
be recognized and dishonored but not glyphic content, which had passed into
unintelligibility. Few Maya stelae have escaped this kind of damage. 469
Postill, John. 2003. Knowledge, literacy and media among the

Iban of Sarawak. A reply to Maurice Bloch. Social Anthropology
(11)1:79-99
[PK: This is a very good article and almost worth recopying the whole lot into this notes
file. Re-read it and especially follow up the works cited]
The purpose of Bloch’s story is to undermine Jack Goody’s (1968; 1977; 1986)
‘autonomous’ theory of literacy (Street 1993). Goody is usually seen as the chief
proponent of the ‘great divide’ model, based on the notion that orality and literacy are
radically different institutions in their social, institutional and cognitive effects.
Although Goody has modified his stance slightly in response to his critics (Goody
1986) he is still associated with the idea of literacy as an ‘autonomous’ institution.
Authors of this persuasion are said to ‘conceptualise literacy in technical terms,
treating it as independent of social context, an autonomous variable whose
consequences for society and cognition can be derived from its intrinsic character’
(Street 1993: 5). In essence, Goody argues that literacy is a fundamental institution in
the history of mankind. It allowed the ancient Greeks to build a democratic state and
the rudiments of a modern science. Pre-literate societies bury knowledge in a web of
social relations; what really matters in a statement is not its truth but who says it. For
instance, genealogical knowledge is ceaselessly reshaped to fit present interests. With
the advent of literacy, people were able to challenge the elders using historical
documents. The seed of critical thought had been sown. Over time, literacy allowed
the passage from small-scale to complex societies.
Against this thesis, which he deems eurocentric and deterministic, Bloch (1998: 153–4)
contends that we have to locate literacy within the wider cultural and historical
processes of a given society. In Madagascar, literacy did not alter in any fundamental
way the indigenous systems of knowledge. When nineteenth-century missionaries
translated the Bible into Imerina, local leaders reacted by producing their own ‘Bibles’
in which they sought to legitimise their own genealogies and myths of origin. They
saw the Bible as a threat, not because it brought to the country a new kind of
knowledge, but because a new technology was being harnessed to promote the same
kind of knowledge. For the Imerina Queen, the missionaries wanted ‘to make the
Malagasy worship the ancestors of the Europeans: Moses and Jesus Christ in order
that they stopped worshipping my ancestors: Andriananpoinimerina and Radama’.
The Malagasy, a highly pragmatic people, took this and other European technologies
and turned them to their own uses (1998: 159–60). As a result, they regard the written
or printed word as an extension of oratory. To Bloch, Besy is not a naïve indigene
stumbling upon a new medium. He is a knowledgeable elder working within a
century-old tradition of Malagasy literature that continues to flourish alongside oral
forms.
[smallquote] The Merina are certainly more literate than the English middle classes
yet most of their work is like that produced by Besy, though usually shorter. Literacy
has not transformed the nature of Merina knowledge – it has confirmed it. [end small
quote]
261
(Bloch 1998:161). 80
As I read about Arthur Besy, I was reminded of Benedict Sandin, the Iban folklorist
and ethnohistorian, widely regarded as ‘the foremost authority on the history and
culture of his people’ (Pringle 1970: xiii). As in Madagascar, new technologies and
practices, including literacy, were being mobilised to pursue local aims. Like the
Malagasy, the Iban distinguish between ordinary and formal language, or more
precisely between ‘shallow language’ (jako mabu) and ‘deep language’ (jako dalam).
Sandin learnt deep language from his father, a renowned orator and genealogist, and
he himself became a famous practitioner of both crafts after his retirement from the
government service.
[small quote] My father was one of the speakers who was always invited during Iban
weddings . . . Because he was so good at this, I started in the 1930s to learn from him
all of the difficult words, that is, the words that have a very, very deep meaning which
few people today understand. I wrote down many of his speeches in this deep
language . . . Having studied these things – it is for this reason that I can claim to be
one of the few Iban who understands the deep meaning of the Iban language. (Sather
1981: 116). [end small quote]
81
#crackpots #ethnohistory
He was appointed Curator of the Sarawak Museum and Government Ethnologist in
1966. Just before this appointment, he began a fruitful collaboration with Robert
Pringle, a Cornell historian. Their joint effort yielded two important works of Bornean
scholarship: Pringle’s Rajahs and rebels (1970) and Sandin’s The Sea Dayaks of
Borneo before White Rajah rule (1967) (Sather 1994: 74).
The originality of this last work can be best gauged by means of one notorious
reaction to it – that of Derek Freeman, the founding father of Iban anthropology.
Freeman (1981) was responding with characteristic vehemence to J. Rousseau’s (1980)
contention that the Iban are not an egalitarian society (thereby challenging Freeman’s
established thesis) but rather a society with hereditary strata, comparable to other
Bornean societies such as the Kayan. Rousseau was calling for ‘an historical
approach’ to Iban studies and supporting his case with evidence from Sandin. To
Freeman this was an unfortunate move, for Sandin was ‘in no sense a trained social
scientist’ but rather an ‘ahistorical collector of folklore’ (Freeman 1981: 12–13) – one
who had always placed ‘full credence in the major tenets of Iban belief’ (1981: 54).
Sandin’s writings are, in Freeman’s view, marred by ‘conceptual paradoxes’ such as
his usage of the term ‘hereditary’ to describe individuals who had been appointed to
office for the first time (1981: 12). They are also plagued by factual errors. In Sandin’s
Sea Dayaks (1967), says Freeman,
[small quote] we are treated to a genealogy (Mr Sandin’s own) which begins in ‘the
Holy Land in the Middle East’ (p. 97), to padi mortars that suddenly fly skywards (p.
51), to the slaying of stars in human form (p. 24), and to numerous other
transempirical acts, such as ancestors cutting down invisible spirits (p. 32) and turning
their adversaries into boulders (p. 11), in a continuous narrative that ends with the
descendants of these miracle-working ancestors becoming clerks in the Government of
Sarawak and the Borneo Company Limited (1981: 13). [end small quote]
262
This is not the place for a Sandinist retort (Postill 1995 was a wet attempt). For our
present purposes, suffice to remark that Sandin’s oeuvre is an outstanding example of
ethnohistory, in both acceptations of the term: (i) ‘the search for historical data on
ethnic groups’; and (ii) ‘the ethnic group’s own representation of their history’
(Seymour-Smith 1986: 99). As Sather (1994: 77) has cogently argued, Sandin’s
shortcomings must be set against his intimate knowledge of lore and history in the
Paku-Saribas region. Indeed his work supplements, and often confirms, that of Pringle
and other western scholars whose training, research methods and agendas are very
different from his own. 82
#ethnohistory #crackpots
Flaws in the ideological model of literacy
I will now turn briefly to the interdisciplinary field of literacy studies to better situate
my argument. Figure 1 provides a sample of works on, or related to, literacy organised
by topic (cf. Figure 2) to give some indication of the rich diversity of this problem area.
Its practitioners have addressed three main questions: Is literacy a uniform, unilinear
phenomenon? Can literacy be studied independently from its social and political
contexts? What are the cognitive effects, if any, of literacy? (Cole and Nicolopoulou
1992)
From the 1980s onwards, scholars in education, sociology, linguistics and other fields
began to favour ‘ethnographic’ and qualitative approaches to the study of literacy.
Gradually some scholars developed a perspective opposed to the autonomous model
known as ‘the ideological model’. In their view, literacy practices are hugely diverse
and always entangled with power relations. They reject any idea of a ‘great divide’
between orality and literacy and explore instead context-specific oral/literate ‘mixes’
in a range of societies, the stress being on how ideology guides literacy practices (Street
1993: 7–13).
The ideological approach enjoys today paradigmatic status within the anthropological
subdiscipline. Given this rarely disputed pre-eminence I will now point to three of its
flaws by way of a foundational study: Kulick and Stroud’s chapter, ‘Conceptions and
uses of literacy in a Papua New Guinean village’, in Street’s (1993) important volume
Cross-cultural approaches to literacy. This volume introduced the interdisciplinary field of
‘New literacy studies’, together with the ideological paradigm, to British social
anthropology. It was here that Bloch first addressed the problem of literacy through
his Malagasy data.
Kulick and Stroud question the notion, widespread amongst both missionaries and
their secular critics across the Pacific, that literacy ‘constitutes a kind of potent, active
force in itself, and that it acts as an ‘agent’ of ‘linguistic, religious and social change’
(1993: 31). To these anthropologists, such a notion resonates with the autonomous
scholars’ thesis that literacy transforms ‘cognitive processes, social institutions and
historical consciousness’. True to the ideological spirit, Kulick and Stroud, ‘rather
than stress how literacy affects people . . . want to take the opposite tack and examine
how people affect literacy’ (1993: 31). 86
Kulick and Stroud reach the conclusion that Gapun villagers have been ‘active and
creative in their encounter with literacy’, turning it to their own uses. They have ‘their
own ideas about reading and writing, generated from their own cultural concerns’
(1993: 55). This ‘ideological’ analysis – very close, of course, to Bloch’s – is marred on
263
three counts. The first flaw has to do with the authors’ notion of ‘creativity’. In this
connection, it is useful to outline Richard Rorty’s (1991: 94–5) theory of belief
acquisition. Rorty distinguishes between ‘paradigms of inference’ and ‘paradigms of
imagination’. Paradigms of inference occur when our logical space does not change,
that is ‘when no new candidates for belief are introduced’, e.g. when we add up a
column of figures or run down a flow-chart. Paradigms of imagination, by contrast,
[87] include giving new meanings to old words, inventing beliefs and collating
‘hitherto unrelated texts’. Gewertz and Errington’s (1991) PNG ethnography on the
Chambri offers us a good example of an imaginative indigenous collation of texts. In
the course of fieldwork, they came to know a young man who had set out to write the
first-ever Chambri Bible, an attempt at reconciling Catholic and Chambri truths (just
like the Imerina leaders had done in the nineteenth century). In an ethnographic twist
that echoes Borges’ (1995) classic tale, Pierre Menard, some passages from his Bible read
exactly like the Catholic original, while other passages were more imaginative. The
aspiring evangelist soon ran into difficulties, albeit not on account of his plagiarism.
The elders, who were otherwise proud to see their traditions preserved in writing,
would not relinquish the deeper levels of their knowledge to him. As they saw it,
having done so would have allowed the literate young man to subvert their egalitarian
system of knowledge (1991: 166). In terms of Rorty’s theory, the elders skilfully
managed to prevent the man from introducing ‘new candidates for belief’ into the
local pool of beliefs, thereby protecting their own claims to ancestral knowledge.
We are told of no equivalent manoeuvres in Gapun. As we can glean from Kulick and
Stroud’s (1993: 35) own description, the place has been caught up since at least the
Second World War in a long process of socio-economic and ideological ‘involution’
(cf. Geertz 1963), a half-century marked by recurrent outbreaks of millenarian activity
– in the 1940s, 1950s, 1965–6, and as recently as 1987. All along some Gapun
villagers have acquired literacy skills, yet they have turned them to cargo-related and
other local uses that offer them few insights into the political economy of PNG and
beyond. Unlike the Chambri evangelist, Gapun cargoists operate under a paradigm of
inference wherein imported materials and skills, including school literacy, leave the
local ideological space largely unchanged. In stark contrast, parents in other parts of
PNG do see schools as roads to the wider world. According to Sillitoe (2000: 210–11)
many are rejecting pilot school projects in local vernaculars (tokples) as second-rate and
demanding that their children be taught in English. Like parents in Sarawak
(Seymour 1974) and other developing countries, they see an English-language
education as their best chance for upward mobility. Meanwhile nouveaux riches in
Wewak and elsewhere are sending their children to ‘international’ schools originally
built to cater for colonial expatriates. Armed with the cosmopolitan literate knowledge
acquired at these schools, some have even won newspaper-run English poetry
competitions to celebrate Mother’s Day (Gewertz and Errington 1999: 71). Therefore
in marginal Gapun, with its ‘specialised mythology’ (Appadurai 1986: 48) we can only
speak of inferential creativity, tight ideological parameters, and political impotence.
Indeed, although Gapun residents suspect that the Catholic clergy and national
government are concealing the secret of the cargo from them, ‘all the villagers can
hope to do is read and reread the texts they possess . . . hoping that someday they may
stumble onto a clue that will reveal to them the ‘true’ meaning of the words contained
in their books’ (Kulick and Stroud 1993: 55).
The second flaw in the ideological ethnography under consideration derives from the
authors’ impoverished notion of agency. Recall that they reject the popular idea that
264
literacy can be an agent of change (1993: 31). To them, social agency is the sovereign
monopoly of humans. Here we can refer to a growing number of studies exploring the
agency of non-human entities, including institutions (Douglas 1986), art objects and
images (Gell 1998), biographical objects (Hoskins 1998), homes (Miller 2001),
television sets (Postill n.d.), broadcast discourse (Spitulnik 1996), religious [88] beliefs
(Boyer 2000), websites (Miller 2000) and even the agency arising from an ‘abeyance of
[human] agency’ during certain ritual stages (Miyazaki 2000). As these studies suggest,
we should pay much more attention than we have so far to ‘forms of agency that do
not necessarily privilege the autonomy of human agents’ (Miyazaki 2000: 31).
Ironically then, proponents of the ideological model reject the autonomy of literacy
only to exaggerate the autonomy of human agents.
The third flaw concerns geopolitics. Kulick and Stroud are all too eager to contrast
their micro-sociological rural data with broad assertions about literacy among ‘Euro-
Americans’:
[small quote] Meaning in Gapun is . . . the responsibility of the listener or the
recipient of speech. In this sense, village communicative expectations differ
importantly from those common to middle-class Euro-Americans, among whom the
burden of successful communication is seen to lie with the speaker, who is expected to
strain to ‘get across’ his or her viewpoints and thoughts to the listener
(1993: 54–5). [end small quote]
Contrasts of this type do not help us to understand the geopolitical dimensions of
Gapun literacy. In fact they cloud our vision by positing a sharp West-Rest dichotomy
rather than comparing the histories of literacy in commensurate regions, say, Western
Europe and Melanesia, as well as the distinctive national histories that are still
unfolding within those two culture areas. Moreover, we are offered a contrast between
a small Melanesian village and a vague socio-economic category (‘the middle class’)
spread across two continents. It is more fruitful in my view to compare and contrast
like with like. For instance, Lewis (1993) has written an insightful essay on the modern
history of literacy in the Horn of Africa by comparing Somalia and Ethiopia. In the
Gapun case, we would have benefited far more from a comparison with other
localities in PNG, both rural and urban. In the current post-colonial order, largely
built on North Atlantic principles, two central expectations are the universal provision
of school education and the eradication of illiteracy. Certain groups (e.g. Wewak
elites) embrace modernist forms of literacy, others negotiate them (e.g. the Chambri),
and still others, such as Gapun villagers, reject or are unaware of such forms. This all
makes for fertile comparative ground – as well as having urgent practical implications.
Literacy may not have greatly altered Gapun’s cultural traffic sub-system, but it is
undoubtedly central to the growing disparities in the distribution of cultural capital
through the PNG system. 89
A good example of a thick oral/media mix can be found in Georgina Born’s (1997)
ethnography of an artificial intelligence (AI) music research centre in Paris. This
organisation is constantly buffeted by the conflicting agencies of hierarchical
programming codes, intricate musical scores, obsolescent software and hardware,
powerful US multinationals, a demanding local management, and a team of post-
1968 libertarian programmers. Faced with baroque, poorly documented ‘ancestral’
program, the local AI researchers often have to fall back on two ancient human
achievements in order to decipher them: orality and sociality. In other words, they
265
have to find veteran colleagues who are willing and able to translate their half-
forgotten encoded knowledge into oral discourse. 90
#funny
Holm, David. 2004. Recalling lost souls: The Baeu Rodo scriptures,
Tai cosmogenic texts from Guangxi in Southern China. Bangkok:
White Lotus. [PDF in Endnote]
#writing systems #rebel literacies
Keane, Webb. 2004. Language and Religion. In A Companion to

Linguistic Anthropology ed. Alessandro Duranti, Blackwell, pp.
431-448.
For religions “of the book,” the very existence of a written scripture is often taken as
evidence for claims to an authority that transcends any particular context, and
provides semiotic grounds for their intuitive verification. But the same
decontextualizing objectivity may become the target of reformers and critics who seek
unmediated access to divinity (Bauman 1983; Keane 1997c). 439
#written language
Primus, Beatrice. 2004. “Introduction: From letter to sound:

New perspectives on writing systems” Written Language &
Literacy 7 (2):133-138.
A standard view on the nature of written language is congenially formulated and
defended by Peter Daniels as follows (1996: 2): “Writing differs from language,
though, in a very fundamental way. Language is a natural product of the human mind
– the properties of people that make it possible for everyone to learn any language,
provided they start at a young enough age – while writing is a deliberate product of
human intellect: no infant illiterate absorbs its script along with its language; writing
must be studied. Language continually develops and changes without the conscious
interference of its speakers, but writing can be petrified or reformed or adapted or
adopted at will. It is thus in the theoretical realm that grammatology [the study of
writing systems] differs most from the rest of linguistics – the theory of writing must be
very different from the theory of language. It is not expected that patterns or
principles that describe language should apply to writing.”
These are major arguments for a widely held assumption that “speech is primary, and
writing is secondary” (Daniels 1996: 1). They justify derivational accounts on writing
systems, Nunn (1998) and Sproat (2000) serving as more recent examples. In these
accounts, written representations are derived from spoken language representations,
phonological ones playing an important role. In short, this perspective concentrates
on mappings from sounds to letters. Constraints intrinsic to the graphematic level are
treated as surface phenomena and dealt with marginally. Mappings from letter to
sound, which are decisive in reading, are fully neglected.
The collection of papers in this volume calls the above-mentioned body of
assumptions into question and presents evidence for alternative views on writing
266
systems. Let us begin with the argument of naturalness. Contrary to Daniels’ claim
cited above, languages spoken in civilizations are not natural products. [133] Thus,
for instance, spoken Modern British English, or Standard German, is and has been
different from any spoken regional or social variety and is a product of deliberate
standardization processes in which written language has played an important role.
Taken from a different angle, both written and spoken languages can be created
deliberately (e.g. Esperanto and Korean Hankul). What !is crucial about the
naturalness argument is that mature writing systems belong to a coherent system of
signifying elements that have mostly been shaped gradually through changes
introduced inadvertently as part of their casual transmission from generation to
generation. In short, they have been shaped, in large degree, by processes comparable
to those which shape language itself (cf. Watt 1988: 199). As a consequence, mature
writing systems and alphabets, which have been used for a long time by large
communities for encoding a specific language, are as natural as any spoken language.
134
Whereas mature scripts and alphabets are well adapted to efficient reading, this does
not hold for invented scripts to the same extent. Invented script is a cover term for
novel scripts such as Cree, secret scripts, whose main purpose is to exclude readers, or
literary scripts such as Tolkieffs Anghertas. Since symmetric letter pairs negatively
affect readability, a claim explained by Wiebelt on the basis of object perception,
mature scripts avoid symmetry to a much larger extent than invented scripts. If
disfunctional symmetry leading to a confusion of letters emerges in mature scripts (e.g.
(b) and (d) in Latin scripts), it is modified by distinctive features such as serifs. 134
As to the acquisition argument of Daniels, the papers in this volume do not tackle this
issue, but previous research has shown that both written and spoken language can be
learned spontaneously, in principle, and that writing is learned intuitively to a large
degree also in practice. Spontaneous learning of writing and reading in preschool
children is discussed by Gibson & Levin (1975: 230f.). As discussed by Neef & Primus
(2002), school children’s performance [134] on deliberately taught phoneme-to-
grapheme conversions is extremely poor whereas inner-graphematic constraints that
cannot have been taught deliberately because they have not been formulated before
are almost never violated. 135
Given the uncontroversial assumption that any writing system is by definition
dependent on a spoken language system, i.e. that a spoken language does not need a
corresponding writing system in contrast to a writing system that presupposes a
corresponding spoken language, phonological representations are a necessary
condition for graphematic ones.! 137
Venezky, Richard L. 2004. “In search of the perfect

orthography.” Written Language & Literacy 7 (2):139-163.
Whatever the ideal orthography might be, the practical writing systems adopted upon
this earth reflect linguistic, psychological, and cultural considerations. Knowingly or
unknowingly, countries have adopted orthographies that favour either the early stages
of learning to read or the advanced stages, that is, the experienced reader. The more a
system tends towards a one-to-!one relationship between graphemes and phonemes,
the more it assists the!new reader and the non-speaker of the language while the more
it marks etymology and morphology, the more it favours the experienced reader.!The
study of psychological processing in reading demonstrates that human capacities for
267
processing print are so powerful that complex patterns and irregularities pose only a
small challenge. Orthographic regularity is extracted from lexical input and used to
recognise words during reading. To understand how such a system develops,
researchers should draw on the general mechanisms of perceptual learning. 139
Most philologists and linguists since the 15th century have held that an ideal
orthography has a one-to-one relationship between symbol and sound. By “one-to-
one” is generally meant a unique symbol for each distinctive sound and a unique,
distinctive sound for each symbol.1 Leonard Bloomfield, for example, working in the
USA in the first half of the 20th century, held this view, claiming that only ignorance
kept the English speaking world with such a terrible writing system (Bloomfield 1933).
According to the exponents of this perspective, which includes most spelling
reformers, the road to perdition is paved with irregular letter-sound correspondences.
141
In considering what impact different orthographic options have on the reader, one
needs to consider separately the learner and the more advanced reader. Similarly, one
should note the impacts separately on reading and on spelling. Orthographies that
tend toward the phonemic (i.e., one-to-one) style help the learner, both in reading and
spelling, while those that adhere to a constancy principle help the more advanced
reader with reading but not with spelling. The graphemic discrimination of
homophones, for example, makes spelling more difficult, but assists the faster reader
in retrieving semantic information. Spelling reformers for English have long decried
the difficulties of learning to read English with its deviations from a one-sound, one-
symbol ide-!al, yet in the last two international comparisons of reading performance,
USA children scored the second highest in the world at fourth-grade level (Elley 1992;
lEA 2003). If children’s reading ability is the main criterion for the choice!of an
orthography, these data suggest that most other nations should change to a more
complex and irregular spelling system. However, in fairness to those who work with
reading instruction, the extremely high variance in reading performance in the USA
indicates that not all is well with the current teaching of literacy and perhaps more
than the orthography should be considered in discussing national reading
performance.
One of the most important considerations in examining the consequences!of different
orthographic options is how readers and spellers actually process [150] grapheme-
phoneme and phoneme-grapheme correspondences and how they recognise and spell
words. If there are universal processing principles, then the choices made might not
have much impact on learning to read or spell or in the mature processing within
these two skill domains. If, on the other hand, processing is largely determined by the
orthographic principles employed, more caution should be advised. The literature on
reading and spelling processes is vast and still rife with controversy. Nevertheless,
there are some reasonable conclusions that could be drawn. I will not attempt a full
review here of the subject; instead I want to suggest some directions for formulating
the issue and for designing research programs. I especially want to emphasise visual
processing issues in reading because they appear to be ignored somewhat in the
current enthusiasm for phonemic awareness and other phonological components of
reading.! 151
Unitisation, as applied by Goldstone (1998), applies to the unit size used in
recognising a complex symbol. Children begin reading by fixating on each
letter in a word; a mature reader recognises about 1.1 words per fixation.
268
Somehow in the process of learning to read, the child learns to attend to or
recognise larger and larger units with the same effort previously applied to
smaller units. For Chinese characters, this principle leads to the prediction
that while the recognition time for the beginning reader for a character would
be a function of the number of strokes present, this relationship would not
hold for the more mature reader with frequently occurring characters. The
assumption here is that characters that occur frequently are recognised
through clusters or complexes of their features and not through an exhaustive
accounting of every stroke. This same principle may account for why letter-
sound regularity tends to account for some of the variance in recognising low
frequency English words but not high frequency ones. The higher frequency
words are recognised as units while the low frequency ones require attention
to sub-components. 157
Countries can debate ad infinitum the relative merits of spelling non-native words
differently from native words, of honouring or not honouring a constancy principle,
and other fine points of orthographic design. However, from the standpoint of human
information processing, the impact of these options, past the first few years of
schooling, is apparently not very large. The human organism is order seeking, finding
patterns in all sensory input. Whether these patterns are defined by scribal regularity
or by such proxies as single letter positional frequency, bigram or trigram frequency,
or letter-sound regularity, the reader extracts and utilises them in reading tasks. An
orthography as complex as English, with all of its irregularities, is still not a major
challenge to our processing systems. The average child, with average instruction,
acquires a mastery of the system, moving from letter-by-letter reading to word-by-
word reading to fluency in three to four years. Reading speed and fluency and
comprehension continue to develop for many more years but the basic processing
skills for most orthographies appear to be acquired relatively quickly. 157
Reading research has made significant progress in demonstrating that reading

is special. The time has now come to focus on how reading and spelling draw
upon general information processing mechanisms and develop through the
same perceptual learning phenomena observed in other domains. 159
Adelaar, Alexander. 2005. “The Austronesian languages of Asia

and Madagascar: A historical perspective.” In The Austronesian
languages of Asia and Madagascar, edited by Nikolaus P
Himmelmann and Alexander Adelaar, 110-181. London; New
York: Routledge.
There are also various indications that the Sorabe (or Volaŋ’Onjatsy) script reached
Madagascar from Indonesia and not from East Africa or the Arabian Peninsula
(Adelaar 1995a:332-339). For instance, the word soratra ‘writing’ is a Malay loanword
(Adelaar 1989, 1995a). Metaphors like reni soratri ‘mother of writing’ for main letters
and zana ‘tsoratri ‘child of writing’ (Dahl 1983: 71) for diacritics are also found in the
terminology for main letters and diacritics in Batak (cf. respectively ina ni surat and anak
ni surat) and Buginese (cf. respectively ina surəʔ and anaʔ surəʔ). The use of the same
269
metaphors here indicates that even if Malagasy did not have a Pallava-derived script ,
they seem to be an exponent of the writing traditions of the Malays and other
Austronesian peoples who throughout the centuries have adapted Pallava-, Arabic-
and European writing systems in a continuous tradition of literacy, sometimes
carrying over writing conventions from one system to the next. 5
Unseth, Peter. 2005. Sociolinguistic parallels between choosing

scripts and languages. Written Language & Literacy 8 (1):19-42.
Other results of this difference [between language and script] are that a script can be
invented more easily than a language, can be more easily replaced, and more easily
regulated. 20
#writing systems
In this paper, following Coulmas (1996:454) “script” will be used to mean whole sets
of symbols, such as Roman, Arabic, Cyrillic, Hangul (Korean), Ethiopic, [20]
Devanagari (India), Hiragana (Japanese), etc. Likewise, the term “writing system” will
be used to distinguish alphabets, syllabaries and logographic systems. 21
#writing systems
Inventing a script is an extreme way for a community to distance itself from all others
[fn]. This has been done in only a limited number of cases, but these examples are
more numerous than is commonly thought. One well-known example is the Cherokee
syllabary invented by Sequoyah. Though he could not read English, he was aware of
the visual forms of English, and he chose to develop a unique system for Cherokee.
Another original script created to preserve ethnic identity is the Sorang Sompeng
script of India. The Sora were caught between the larger Oriya and Telugu; “instead
of choosing a side to merge themselves, endeavored to maintain their identity by
inventing a script for themselves (Mahapatra, as quoted by Zide 1996:613). Similarly,
Lako Godra of India invented the Varang Kshiti script as a means of distinguishing
the Ho people; his symbols “are not — and this is no accident —similar to
Devanagari” (emphasis in original) (Zide 1996:616). In East Asia, “The Khitan,
Jurchen, and Tangut scripts, in particular, were created partly, as acts of linguistic
independence” (Tranter 2001:185). Other original scripts that have been invented for
specific languages include Duala Bukare’s Vai syllabary of Liberia, Afaka’s creole
syllabary of Suriname (Huttar 1987), and multiple original scripts for Hmong
(Smalley, Vang, and Yang 1990, Smalley and Wimuttikosol 1998). 25
#writing systems
The Deseret alphabet designed by Mormons in the 1850’s for writing English deserves
special mention. The script was designed for a language that already had a well
established script and a body of literature, but the new script was for use by a smaller,
separatist group to distance itself from the larger group: “cultural exclusivism [was]
and important consideration” (Bigler 1998:56). Mormon leaders hoped that by using
the script, they could keep “secrets from curious non-Mormons, controlled what
[Mormon ] children would be allowed to read” (Bigler 1998:56), but the script was
used for only a few years.
Even inventing of scripts is done with degrees of distanciation from their dominant
neighbors, in that some invented scripts have borrowed symbols (or at least styles)
270
from neighboring scripts, while others show no discernible visible relation to their
neighboring scripts. This can be illustrated with Bharati, Cherokee, and Vai. Seeking
a script that would be acceptable to language groups across India, Jebasingh created a
script with many shapes clearly cognate with Brahmi-derived scripts (Jebasingh 1990).
For Cherokee, Sequoyah borrowed certain letter shapes from English, though using
them to represent totally different sounds in Cherokee, e.g. the symbol W represents
the syllable la and the symbol K represents the syllable tsa. In Vai, by contrast, the
symbols of the syllabary bear no more than chance resemblance to either of the scripts
that its creator could be expected to be familiar with, i.e. Arabic or Roman. We see
then, that even in distancing themselves from a neighboring group by means of
inventing a script, script developers can exercise degrees of distanciation, Jebasing
showing less distance, Duala Buakre showing more distance, and Sequoyah
somewhere in the middle. Distanciation can also be shown in other ways, such as the
tradition among the Bamun that their script was deliberately written from left to right
to differ from Arabic script (Calby 1968:168, 169).
It is also possible to show degrees of distanciation by the type of writing system
created, whether an alphabet or a syllabary [fn]. For example, in 1956 Shaykh Bakri
Sapalo invented a script for the Oromo language of Ethiopia (Hayward and Hassan
1981). He was aware of and read the Ethiopic syllabary and the Roman and Arabic
alphabets, but he chose to create a syllabary, a type of writing system that maintains a
link with Ethiopia rather than making a break toward Europe or the Mideast. The
Shaykh’s syllabary is distinct from the Ethiopian one both in its unique glyphs but also
in that it does not follow the alphabetical order of the Ethiopian syllabary (nor of the
Roman or Arabic alphabets).
It is possible for a group to distance itself from others by means of a script, but it is not
practical with an entire language. This is a difference between choosing scripts and
choosing languages, in that scripts are small, finite systems, whereas languages are
infinite systems. 26
#writing systems
Linguistic factors in choosing a script are basically negative; these are most often used
to prevent a script from being chosen. […] Scripts that are especially likely candidates
for being rejected by this criterion are syllabaries, since they have a systemically
limited number of symbols. […] If a language has more vowels than a syllabary can
indicate, or if it has additional phonemic features such as length, tone, and
nasalization, or if it has a significant number of consonant clusters, then a syllabary is
likely to be removed from the list of possible scripts for linguistic reasons. 28
#writing systems
For instance, in the Philippines it is reported that 85% of the usage of the Indic-
derived script used for Hanuóo is for love songs and courtship (Kuipers and
McDermott 1996:481). Granted, this is a domain with a high degree of cultural
attachment, but it does not seem likely that a script with such a restricted use will
survive the encroachment of the Roman alphabet used to print materials in Hanuóo,
as well as in school languages. 30
#writing systems #chapter 1
“In the presence of literate neighbors, writing systems are borrowed or adapted rather
than created” (Ostler 2000:125). 33
271
#writing systems
But borrowings can be much large (sic) scale, producing the graphic equivalent of a
“mixed language.” This can be seen such in the way some old Uyghur manuscripts
used a mixed script, “nouns appear in Chinese characters, while the rest is in the
Uyghur alphabet. These logograms are to be read in Uyghur, as is clear from the
suffixes attached to them” (Kara 1996a:540). 34
#writing systems
In the spread of scripts, religion has often been a key factor, if not the key factor,
religion having long been recognized as crucial in language spread, summed up in the
phrase “Alphabet follows religion.” 35
#writing systems
Just as in some communities people speak more than one language, in some
communities people use more than one script. This has been labeled “digraphia,”
coined to follow Ferguson’s “diglossia”. (See Grivelet 2001b on the origin of
“digraphia”). 36
#writing systems
Womack, William Burgess. 2005. Literate networks and the

production of Sgaw and Pwo Karen Writing in Burma, c.1830-
1930. PhD diss., School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London, London
#leke
In fact, at least eleven different systems of writing the Pwo and Sgaw Karen languages
appeared in Burma during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some of
these were tied to the great literate traditions, being the product of Christian or
Theravada Buddhist missionaries or state bureaucrats. Other scripts came from
syncretistic Karen religious leaders on the fringes of Buddhist and Christian literate
practice. In each case, the patrons of Karen writing made use of pre-existing ideas
about the function of writing in Karen communities. The proliferation of Karen
scripts stands in stark contrast to the presumed integrative force of literacy on social
identity invoked by many historians to explain the phenomenon of nationalism. By
analysing the various cultures of writing, domains of literate practice, and networks of
people, places, and texts that gave rise to different Karen scripts, this thesis
reinterprets the relationship between Karen literacy and social identity. It concludes
that Karen literacies have contributed to social cohesion along the lines of specific
literate networks. These networks have not always coincided with the notions of pan-
Karen identity that appear in the discursive frameworks of nationalism and ethnicity.
On the contrary, Karen scripts have served as markers of difference—regional,
linguistic, sectarian, and political—between disparate, and sometimes antagonistic,
Karen groups. 3
#stimulus diffusion #literate networks
272
The Karen are probably the best-documented minority group in modern Burmese
history. However, very little attention is given to how and why Karen people have
documented themselves. 15
#autoethnography
he earliest missionary sources are rife with accounts of Karen desire [16] for literacy,
and stories of a ‘lost book’ or a forgotten system of Karen writing. 17
#folklore: lost book
The social transformations that most scholars hold to be important in that era have to
do with the introduction of literate institutions. However, scholars have habitually
framed the emergence of these institutions as a precursor to ‘ethnic consciousness’ or
ethno-nationalism. Schools, printing presses, publications, and to a lesser extent,
churches and mission societies are predicated on literacy. 18
#grassroots literacy
Keyes made the distinction that it was the cultural belief of linguistic difference, rather
than objective difference that was important for ethnic self-identification.54 Language,
then, appeared not to be merely an attribute of a uniform, ethnic essence, but one way
of creating and reinforcing social identities that were ‘structurally opposed’ to other
ones.
It can be argued that Karen language has become the most important symbolic
indicator of Karen identities in modern Burma.55 As other traditional signs of group
identity—economic specialisation, distinctive dress, ritual and oral tradition—have
declined in modern contexts, the value of language for maintaining social difference
has increased. 33
#deliberate change #motivation: ethnic identity
What the missionaries saw as the fruit of their own labours, Rajah describes as an
‘invention’.8 Wherein lies the difference? 40
[PK: Note Womack is discussing missionary creation of Karen systems as ‘fruit of labour’.
Ie, ‘their’ equals missionaries]
#authenticity
Histories of writing
A history of Karen writing raises general questions about the borders of literacy. Is it
possible to construct a usable pre-literate past from non-literate sources? Does the
apparent periodic division between a literate modernity and a pre-literate past reflect
anything more tangible than a shift in the technology of communication? Or, to put
the question another way, does a shift in the form of source material signal a
watershed in the history of those who produced it? In short, what is the historical
significance of literacy? A cursory look at the different narrative strategies employed in
histories of writing may be instructive.
The rise of literacy has been hailed by various thinkers as an epoch-making
development in the history of mankind. The practice of writing in the broadest sense,
the transmission of meaning through visible, man-made signs, is a nearly universal
practice.97 Less common is literate writing, which is the graphical representation of
language. Literate writing systems developed independently in antiquity in China, in
273
South America, and in the Mediterranean region.98 In each of these locations, they
rose and fell on the backs of religious and political institutions. In the Americas and in
Egypt, glyphic writing fell out of use when the empires that used it decayed. Chinese
ideograms were preserved in the imperial bureaucracy, and were adapted for use in
other languages in neighbouring states. Alphabetic writing [47] developed from
variants of the Egyptian demotic script in Mesopotamia. It then spread, undergoing
numerous transformations, into Asia and Europe, and riding the wave of the great
missionary religions, to Africa, the Americas and Australia. Thus the history of the
diffusion of alphabetic writing in itself has been seen by many as the grand narrative
of civilisation.
The grand narrative of alphabetic diffusion can lure text-hungry historians into a cul-
de-sac. Can we take literacy to be important because the only voices we hear are
literate ones? The history of writing is concerned with the literate. What of those who
do not read or write? Access to literacy is often tied to intra-group dimensions of social
identity such as class, gender, ethnicity, or religion. As such, the horizons of literacy
may lie not only beyond the political reach of the state, but within the fabric of society
itself. For example, Richard Hoggart’s 1957 study of working-class literate practice in
Britain highlighted the profound contrast between the functions of literacy in different
social classes.99 As new groups are drawn into the literate sphere, they may not
undergo the distinct phases of development—from literacy to manuscript to print—
that are seen in the grand narrative of literacy. We see that Karen literacy, in the case
of Baptist missionary scripts, moved from manuscript to print in just a few years.
Karen communities adapted the technologies and institutions of literate traditions that
were already fully developed.
Within this narrative, we see that the technology of writing produces social difference
both between literate and non-literate groups. The form of writing also produces
difference between literate traditions. Most general histories of writing have held both
technological and formal distinctions between literacy/illiteracy and [48]
alphabetic/non-alphabetic writing to be important. The first attempt to compile a
complete history of the alphabet in English was Isaac Taylor’s The Alphabet: An Account
of the Origin and Development of Letters, published in two volumes in 1883.100 Taylor
included chapters on picture-writing and Chinese characters, thus addressing
differences in orthographic form. However, most of the book is spent describing the
genealogy of alphabetic writing. This reflects a common view that alphabetic writing
was the most highly developed orthographic form. The first modern work in English
to outline the historical, theoretical, and linguistic concerns of writing more generally
was I. J. Gelb’s A Study of Writing in 1952.101 David Diringer’s more recent work
announces a similar view in its title, The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind.102
Beginning from the proposition that writing transformed the structure of thought and
society, historians have argued about which transformations in this grand narrative
were the most profound. Many have pointed to the development of popular literacy in
the Greek city-states of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. as a watershed in the
development of Western thought.103 For Ernest Gellner, writing made it possible to
divorce content from context, providing a means for political [49] organisation over
greater distances.104 Others claim that the shift from manuscript to print was most
significant, and that the printing press was the engine of the modern world—giving
rise to democracy, nationalism, mass culture, and capitalism.105 Harold Innis proposed
that media of writing—stone, clay, papyrus, parchment, and paper—acted as engines
of empires, citing the industrial linkages arising from the material demands of literate
274
society.106 The grand narrative of writing has many versions, but they all agree that
literate writing, in one form or another, is a watershed achievement in the history of
human societies.
Other writers have focussed on smaller narratives, showing how various forms of
writing reflect specific historical and cultural contexts. The technology of writing and
print culture was largely (though not totally) dependent on the spread of literacy. Only
those who learned the code—the initiates of each literate network— could participate
fully. So the writing spread through specific literate networks of schools, presses, texts,
periodicals, authors, readerships, and cultural associations. These developed within
discrete social structures along religious, political or social lines. Literate cultures, in
various forms and to different degrees, helped to shape and in turn were shaped by
networks such as nation states,107 empires,108 and social classes.109 [50]
Still other scholars have challenged the notion of a single, definable ‘literate culture’.
Some have questioned whether literacy’s impact is deeply transforming or as uniform
in different contexts. A seminal essay by Jack Goody and Ian Watt, ‘The
Consequences of Literacy’, further elaborated the assumed oral/literate dichotomy by
showing that while literacy transforms societies in meaningful ways, it does not fully
displace non-literate practices.110 Sylvia Scribner and Michael Cole’s groundbreaking
study of literacy in the Vai language of Sierra Leone also questioned assumptions
about the transformations brought about by literacy.111 Scribner and Cole observed
that Vai literacy was transmitted through a number of networks, both formal and
informal. These networks, which they termed ‘domains of literate practice’, each
defined a set of uses, practices and values associated with written communication.
Scribner and Cole determined that only those who learned to write through formal
schooling displayed the psycho-social characteristics expected to follow from the
acquisition of literacy. Others who studied informally did not show such signs of
literate thinking. These studies show that the cultural value and historical impact of
writing is variable, both within and between literate cultures. In this vein, Harvey
Graff suggests the possibility of research into the various contexts of reading and
writing, as ‘historical ethnographies of literacy’.112 [51]
This correlation between literate practice and discernable social units points the way
to the method employed in this thesis. Forms of writing, whether received in tradition
or retrieved from the archive, can reflect specific social identities linked to historical
literate networks. Genealogies of scripts reflect the histories of religious movements,
political expansions, colonisations, and corresponding educational networks. Each
literate network adapts writing for its own purposes. As some socio-linguists have
shown, newly literate communities often choose a writing system on the basis of
cultural or prestige value rather than linguistic utility.113 The question for the literate
elites is not, ‘Will this writing system accurately reflect the phonemic values of our
language?’ It is often rather, ‘Will this writing system reflect the social associations we
value?’ Thus we have instances like that of Serbo-Croatian. When written in Cyrillic
letters by Orthodox Christians it is called ‘Serbian’. The same language written in
Roman letters by Catholics is called ‘Croatian’. In this way, orthographic difference
reflects and reinforces social difference.
Writing and social difference in South East Asia
Jean-Marc Rastorfer has drawn attention to similar dynamics of orthographic choice
in Kayah (Karenni) identity. Rastorfer’s essay, Ethnicité et Écriture au Karenni, highlights
275
the potent political symbolism to be seen in the choice of writing systems.114 The key
inspiration for the essay seems to be a pamphlet published by a [52] Kayah political
party entitled, Is the New Kayah Alphabet a Popular Need?115 The pamphlet promotes a new
alphabet for Kayah with characters very different from both the Mon/Burmese script
and the Romanised system introduced by Christian missionaries. The author makes
clear that this is intentional, and a unique Kayah alphabet is needed to shed the
historical imprint of external influences. 53
#literacy vs. orality #progressivism #history #literate networks #vai #africa: west
In a similar vein, David Bradley has shown how Lisu and Lahu orthography have
served to solidify group identities across national boundaries, but also to reflect
religious, political, and linguistic differences.117 53
The impetus for the nineteenth century wave of Karen literacies was linked to the
spread of new industrial and social technologies into Burma. The most obvious of
these was printing, which the American Baptists used to great advantage. 59
#literate networks
Even before there was Karen writing, writing in other languages was very much part
of Karen experience. 62
#stimulus diffusion
Jonathon Wade, who first transcribed Sgaw and Pwo for the American Baptist
mission, was the first foreign missionary to visit the Karen villages near Moulmein in
the 1820s. Soon after his arrival, he wrote,
they came to me and demanded the Karen books. Teacher, said they, the Elders told us
that Qvq [PK: prob typo corruption of Greek] (i.e. Jehovah),17 in ancient time [67] gave
the Karens his word on leather, but they treated it with neglect, and soon lost it, since
which we have been an ignorant people, without books, without a king, without a
government of our own, subject to other kings and other governments, we have been a
nation of slaves, despised and kicked about, trodden under foot by everybody like dogs. All
this came upon us because we neglected and lost the book which God gave us. The Elders
said that at some future time the white foreigners would come and bring us the book of
God again (for they also had it) then prosperity would come to the Karens.18
Wade remembers this encounter as the event which motivated him to write down the
Karen language.19
A number of variations of this myth have been recorded. Ellen Mason, a Karen
missionary from the 1840s–1870s, recalls a version told by a Mopagha ‘highland
minstrel’. In it, the Karens, youngest of seven brothers, had a divine writing on skins.
Being careless, they left the skins at the foot of a plantain tree. The white brother
carried it off, and became God’s favourite son.20 Mrs. Mason also recalls a story
saying that the Karens once occupied the plains, but the Burmese were able to drive
them away and take their lands on account of their knowledge of books.21 A version
of this story from Bassein also has the book written on buffalo skin, but it was
destroyed by dogs. Without any hope of its return, they turned to Burmese monks as
teachers.22 68
276
#folklore: lost book
On the Saudi flag, writing conveys both a literal and a symbolic meaning. This is an
example of how writing carries significance that is not dependent on literacy. 75
#writing as symbol
Literacy signified power, not because of new media, technology, or institutions, but
because of the Karen interpretation of these innovations. Literate culture was an
attribute of personal authority, not colonial hegemony. The production of literacy in
this period appears more creative, competitive, and entrepreneurial than monolithic
and hegemonic, more generative than dialectical. 78
An official publication of the Leke sect claims that the chicken-scratch writing was
revealed to two men, Pu Nai Thayat and Pu Maung Tawdut in the year 1207 (AD
1844-45). At Upper Yetagun on Mount Zwegabin, ‘the Nat-prince Arimettaya,
Thagya Min, Brahma, Min and many nats’, appeared to the pair and gave them the
alphabet, called ‘chicken scratch’ because of its unusual appearance. Two others, Pu
Maw Yaing and Pu Ti Shwe Yauk, systematised the writing system and wrote a
primer for teaching it. Only after these developments were in place did the same
divine messengers (Arimettaya, Thagya Min, Brahma Min, and the nats) reappear and
reveal the holy book that is the basis of Leke religious practice. This second revelation,
received by Pi Mike Kali and Pu Ti Thaung Tawt at Hnitkya village in 1222 (AD
1860-61), is recognised as the founding event of the Leke sect.19 155
#history #inspiration
An aura of antiquity surrounds the Leke ‘chicken scratch’ alphabet. Today, although
only a relative few can actually read the Leke writing, it is well known by reputation to
Karen people in Burma and Thailand. Many who have never seen it will tell you that
it is an ancient Karen script kept alive by a few elders. 156
#folklore: antiquity
Theodore Stern has analyzed the Leke writing system in comparison with the Mon
and Burmese-based Pwo scripts.26 The basic structure of all three writing systems is
essentially the same: alphabetic, with vowels and medial consonants clustered around
a consonant head, and most tonal markers applied as additional [157] glyphs. In
form, however, the Leke has very few characters in common with the other two.27
158
#system
Peter Daniels divides script inventions (grammatogenies) into two types: sophisticated, in
which the inventor is literate in some language, and unsophisticated, in which the
inventor is illiterate (but may have encountered writing before) and has no knowledge
of phonetics.28 The earliest unsophisticated grammatogeny occurred in 1821, when a
monolingual Cherokee named Sequoyah, inspired by seeing English writing, invented
a syllabary for his language.29 A similar occurrence took place in West Africa in 1833
for the Vai [158] language. There the inventor, Momolu Duwalu Bukele, claimed to
be inspired by a dream. He also was aware of writing in Arabic and Roman script,
and possibly even heard the story of Sequoyah.30 Every example of unsophisticated
grammatogeny has produced a syllabary, a system representing complete syllables,
277
rather than an alphabet. It would be unlikely at best for the inventor of the Leke script
to have been illiterate, given the opportunities for education in Buddhist monasteries
and Christian schools nearby. However, the fact that the Leke system is alphabetic
settles the point beyond doubt. The inventor at least knew how Mon/Burmese writing
worked.
However, there are some close similarities between the Leke and other invented
scripts. There are a number of scripts around the world that came into being for a
religious or millenarian use, and are said to have been inspired or received in dreams.
Aside from the case of Vai, there were in the early twentiety century: Sultan Njoya of
Bamoun in central Cameroon,31 the Apache shaman Silas John Edwards,32 and the
Hmong visionary Shong Lue Yang.33 Quite often the inventor had some contact
with, or knowledge of, missionary literacy efforts. In many cases there is a perceived
cultural or political threat, and the script is associated with a millenarian response to
that threat. The Leke alphabet fits very neatly into this category of invented scripts.
[159] Sequoyah cast a long shadow. The suggestion that by 1833 his story had
reached West Africa may have been a misdiagnosis of stimulus diffusion. However,
there are demonstrable, if indirect, links between the Cherokee Syllabary and the
Leke ‘chicken scratch’ writing. The Leke inventor would have known about Rev.
Jonathon Wade’s original Pwo Karen script. This script, though loosely based on
Burmese, included other characters unfamiliar to anyone literate in Burmese or Mon.
Thus the idea of script invention was transmitted through Wade. Wade certainly
would have known about Sequoyah’s Cherokee script. As a Bible translator, he would
have been aware of other missionary translation projects, including Cherokee and
others inspired by it. Although the idea of Karen writing draws on practices that were
current locally, the idea of inventing it appears to have been a foreign influence. 160
#hypothesis: primacy of the syllable #system #alphabet follows religion #motivation:
ethnic identity #stimulus diffusion
So in the very early days of the Leke script, its promotion, if not its very invention, is a
response to the cultural encroachment of Christianity. 161
#motivation: cultural conservatism #alphabet follows religion
The ‘chicken-scratch’ of the Leke sect represents an innovation in Karen religion in its
approach to sacred text. Sacred text-objects and esoteric writing were commonly used
for ritual purposes in non-literate communities in the South East Asian region. Such
writing usually took non-literate forms such as cabbalistic symbols, picture-writing, or
imported writing that was illegible to the user.37 The following is a description by a
Catholic missionary of a Mo-so (Lahu) book of picture-writing used in divination and
similar rituals:
These hieroglyphics...are not, properly speaking, a writing, still less the current writing of
the tribe. The sorcerers or Tong-bas alone use it when invited by the people to recite these
so-called prayers, accompanied with ceremonies and sacrifices, and also to put some spells
on somebody, a specialty of their own. They alone know how to read them and
understand their meaning; they alone are acquainted with the value of these signs,
combined with the numbers of the dice and other implements of divination which they use
in their witchcraft. Therefore these hieroglyphics are nothing else than signs more or less
symbolical and arbitrary, known to a small number of initiated, who transmit their
knowledge to their eldest son and successor in their profession of sorcerer.38
278
Against this background of ritual practice, the Leke leaders, like the Baptists a few
years before, appealed to both tradition and desire for progress in their promotion of
literacy. Stories about a lost book of yesteryear and the desire for the new literate
knowledge were recurring themes in the missionary encounter with Karen leaders.
[162] Lost book myths proliferate in the South East Asian region as well, ranging at
least from the Kachin hills to the central highlands of Malaya, where there reportedly
exists a Semang version of the story.39 Karen desire to learn reading and writing is also
well documented at this time. The Leke combined the two in one package: the means
for literacy (a script), and the means for salvation (a book of scripture). Script and
scripture were precisely the goods that the Baptists were using to attract converts. In
essence, the Leke religion is a Karen Arimettaya sect, grounded in the tradition of
non-literate mystery writing, but uniquely repackaged with the technology of literacy.
163
#writing as symbol #folklore: lost book #unintelligibility
Non-literate traditions of ritual text-objects, Theravada institutional forms, and
Baptist-bourne ideas about grammatogeny combined in unique harmony to produce
the Leke script during the middle of the nineteenth century. Although the Leke
literate network is limited in size and scope, it serves as a disproportionately [163]
powerful symbol of Karen identity to many non-Leke Karen. By embodying the myth
of a lost writing recovered in the present era, the ‘chicken scratch’ alphabet captures
the imagination of many who will never use it to read or write. It expresses the
possibility, not only of a millennial future, but also of a present that keeps alive the
remembered traditions of a distant Karen past. 164
#history #folklore #writing as symbol
Mason goes on to outline some of her ideas in a rather haphazard and animated style.
(1st) I am convinced that the alphabet was known to Adam and Eve — that the 1st alphabet
is stereotyped in the heavens and from this all nations have learned to count and to reckon
time. It proves (2nd) that the solar system is our own Bible, and represents God, and the
history of man’s redemption. It proves, that God took upon himself the form of a world and
covered it with sacred letters, making every rock, mountain, sea, river, and country a word
or chapter. Then the world was made a Book lighted up with trees, flowers, grasses, birds,
fishes and animals, which were created expressly for letters to this world Bible.
Consequently Adam gave names to all, expressing or expressive of the Word. Did you ever
notice how like the first six [179] verses of Genesis and the first six of John? One telling is
of the natural, the world, and the other of the spiritual, the word’.45
Mrs. Mason read sacred meaning into the Burmese alphabet as well. She claimed that
the alphabet was not simply a set of phonetic symbols, but ‘hieroglyphics designed by
God to set forth the most sacred truths’.51 Taking the word kyì, [PK: symbol] meaning
large, she dissected it according to her own particular logic. The consonant root letter,
[PK: symbol] resembles a double arch. In Egypt and elsewhere, she explained, arches
were symbols of power, so the double arch of letter [PK: symbol] signifies great
power, therefore God the Father. 181
#morphological equivalence
Rev. Mason’s hyper-literate approach to his work clearly inspired and influenced his
wife’s ideas. The claim that Karens might be one of the lost tribes of Israel had [184]
originated with him, although he later renounced the idea. 185
279
Barbara Andaya has demonstrated that throughout South East Asia leaders typically
reinforce their status as ‘elder kinsmen’ by adopting the trappings, if not the
substance, of imported religions.69 The proliferation of Karen scripts and discrete
literate networks was an important manifestation of this practice. 189
#alphabet follows religion #literate networks
Within this context, Karen literacy took shape as a phenomenon that was neither fully
indigenous nor fully intrusive. It grew out of the interplay of ancient religious
traditions, global trends—in the spread of technology and the expansion of European
colonialism—and local uses and interpretations of literacy. 192
#stimulus diffusion #grassroots literacy
The Leke kyàungs continue to train followers in the traditions laid down in the
nineteenth century. 198
#history
Name/Description of Script: Li S’aw We/Laik San Wei — Pwo ‘Chicken Scratch’ of
the Leke Sect
Source of alphabet:
Unique. Claimed to be from old Mon
Inventor/sponosr:
Pu Maung Taw Dut/Nai Than Yat
Date:
c.1845
Location:
Mt. Zwegabin, UpperYetagun Monastery
236
#history
C.6. Leke alphabet as recorded by G. Marin (on top line) [G. Marin, ‘An Old Pwo-
Karen Alphabet’, Man 43, no. 5 (1943): 18.] 253
#diagram
C.7. Leke alphabet in U Bun Myint’s book [ref available in Burmese script] 254
#diagram
Branner, David Prager. 2006. “China: Writing system.” In

International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, edited by
E. K. Brown.
The great majority of authentic Shang bones come from an area near Anyang in
China’s Hénán Province [PK: chinese], the site of the later Shang capital; there are
280
also smaller finds from other parts of north China, as well as pieces dating from the
early Western Zhou. 333
#oracle bone script
Typically a week of review is all that is needed for someone literate in one character
set to master the other set. But many native speakers of Chinese still claim only to be
able to read one or the other set, a declaration that the neutral observer suspects is
really about political or regional allegiance rather than any intrinsic incompatibility
between the two. Software developers have quietly made it possible for the two sets to
be integrated in most computer applications. 336
#contrast scripts
Cannell, Fenella. 2006. Reading as gift and writing as theft. In

The Anthropology of Christianity, edited by F. Cannell. Durham
and London: Duke University Press.
According to the Franciscan chronicler Ribadeneira, the Bicolanos of the early
seventeenth century were enthusiastic to use writing to record the words of the
missionaries:
The desire which they have to hear the Word of God causes many to make thier own little
books, like Books of Hours, in which they write with their own characters or letters what
the Father preaches to them, in order not to forget it. They ordinarly ask the ministers to
tell and recount to them the lives of the saints, and particularly like to hear the life and
miracles of our [146] Lady and of women saints who were penitents. They are careful to
write it all down and they read it frequently with great delight for their souls, and try to do
works which are in conformity with the examples that they hear from the firars.
(Ribadeneira, quoted in Schumacher, ed. 1987:84) 147
#boholano-eskaya traditions #folk literacy #urasyun
Indigenous Filipino scripts (which are quite closely related to each other) are
mentioned by several other of the early chroniclers, many of whom learned the script
and who give examples written in it. As Scott (1984: 52-61) and other historians have
noted, the scripts were more ambiguous than those using the roman alphabet. In
Filipino script, there are characters for all the consonants of the language, but vowel
markers did not distingquish between e and i, or between o and u (a has a marker to
itself), while the endings of words were also ambiguous. Thus in a famous passage
Gasapar de San Augustin complains that a certain two letters of the syllabary “can be
read in eight ways, which are lili (side), lilim (shade), lilip (border), lilis (to raise), lilit (?),
lilim (the act of shading something), liclic (to deviate), liglig (to drop something), and
with all these they are understood” (San Agustin, Compendio, quoted in Rafael 1988:
45-47).
To read a Filipino script thus required both an initimate familiarity with the language
and a pleasure and skill in guessing, which in certain contexts such as in the writing of
love-verses was probably a deliberately cultivated art form akin to riddling, and which
was called in Tagalog baybayin (to coast). The apparent scene of religious dictation,
therefore, actually con-[147]tained at least two potential sources of ambiguity: there
was the question of what the Filipino listeners would have made of (or written down
of) the Latin liturgy rather than the Bicol exegesis when they heard it, and there was
the question of the possible ambiguities arising from the script. 148
281
[PK: Cannell exaggerates ambiguity here. o/u, i/e is not relevant in a three vowel system.
These letters are used interchangeably anyway. The ambiguity is greater on the part of
Spanish speaker/writer reading script than a literate Filipino.]
#philippines #ambiguity
While the captilization, and the painstaking formation of the letters in the original
[Retana’s urasyun document], are clearly reference both to the insistent (and to the
non-Spanish reader, mysterious) use of capitals and abbreviations in Spanish religious
books (letters standing for the religious orders, for titles, for statuses in the church,
Latin Scriptural tags such as I.N.R.I, etc.). They also seem to recall the arrangement
of letters in the alphabets of Filipino Spanish-period hornbooks (which were of course
always religious and always taught by the church’s officers or delegates). 154
#philippines #unintelligibility #pamilacan cross
Hofmeyr, Isabel. 2006. “Books in heaven: Dreams, texts and

conspicuous circulation.” Current Writing: Text and Reception
in Southern Africa 18 (2):136-149.
This phenomenon of miraculous literacy has been noted in other times and places,
most notably medieval Europe (Bynum 1991) and amongst North American slaves
(Cornelius 1991). There are of course numerous ways to analyse this phenomenon. In
some cases, the emphasis falls on understanding these revelations as emerging
amongst those who acquire literacy outside formal institutions. Often on the margins
of religious organisations, like women in medieval society or slaves in the New World,
they use revelations to authorise themselves and to gain spiritual authority. In his
analysis of mysticism, Michel de Certeau (1992:21-26) portrays the phenomenon as
emerging in response to the early modern professionalising and clericising of the
church in Europe. Those left behind in this process insist on the power of the
prophetic voice and vision as a form of religious authority.
Such analyses stress the role of dreams as a sign of powerlessness. In many parts of
Africa, however, dreams are less about powerlessness and more a routine technique of
religious life where they are generally considered to be oracular messages from
heaven, or from the ancestors, or both. In many churches, both African Initiated and
mainstream denominational, dreams are conscripted for different religious ends.
Some dreams authorize the founding of new churches while others ratify membership
of a particular sect. Dreams often feature as an important strategy in healing (Curley
1983; Kiernan 1985), or as a form of testimony in services, while call dreams summon
people to special roles of prophecy or healing (Charsley 1992). Dreams also play a
major role in Islam in Africa. With a long-standing presence in both Islam and
African ‘traditional’ religions, dreams, as Fisher (1979) has suggested, become a site
for experimenting with religious interaction, in turn often a prelude to conversion. 137
Numbered amongst such ‘enthusiastic’ practices were magical ideas of reading and
print in which religious books were at times used for forms of divination or in which
texts were seen to have their own agency. Much of the extensive industry of tract
production and distribution was based on ideas like these, namely that texts were
mini-missionaries which could travel by themselves and seize those they encountered
and transform them utterly. 141
282
For those involved in demotic forms of Christianity, by contrast, vertical circulation
was normal. For groups of African Christians, for spiritualists in Europe and the US,
for Mormons, texts routinely travel between heaven and earth. 144
What kind of public is being called into being by this particular mode of circulation?
Let me hazard some answers. The first would be that this particular way of imaging
texts retrospectively signs up the ancestors via the medium of print culture. Rather as
Mormons draw up family trees so as to sign up their dead ancestors for late entry to
heaven, so in this circulation of texts between heaven and earth, the dead can
retrospectively be included in modernity. A second answer is that the circulation of
texts between worlds opens up possibilities for imagining the self that speak to realms
other than the national, particularly in the situation of dealing with the colonial state.
146
It is a form of address [staged photo of African missionary Nekaka in a scene from
Pilgrim’s Progress] that is more than subnational or transnational, it is transworldly and
transglobal. 147
Daniels, Peter T. 2007. Littera ex Occidente: Toward a

functional history of writing. In Cynthia L. Miller (ed.). Studies
in Semitic and Afroasiatic linguistics presented to Gene B. Gragg.
Chicago & Illinois: The Oriental Institute of the University of
Chicago Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, No.60.
[PK: Daniels also has good refs for what he considers to be reliable histories of writing]
A functional history of writing, then, observes the changes in the relationship of the
units of a script to the units of a language. The initial impetus for looking at such
relationships was dissatisfaction with a consequence of I. J. Gelb’s “Principle of
Uniform Development,” which states that “in reaching its ultimate development
writing ... must pass through the stages of logography, syllabography, and
alphabetography in this, and no other, order” (1952: 201).7 In order to make the facts
fit this formula, Gelb had to assert that the West Semitic signary is not an “alphabet”
but a “syllabary,” and that the Ethiopic signary is not a “syllabary” but an
“alphabet.”8 These assignments of labels are counterintuitive, as the characters of the
former denote segments and the characters of the latter denote syllables,9 and the
justifications for them cannot stand (Daniels 2000c).
Once the two “extra” script types, abjad and abugida, had been identified — in
particular, once the distinction had been made between two completely different ways
of notating syllables — certain facts about the origins of writing became apparent.
First, every invention of a script in modern times (Schmitt 1980), where the inventor
was not literate in any language but only knew by observation that writing existed
(English and Arabic have most often been what is observed), is of a syllabary; I call the
invention of writing grammatogeny, and when it is done by this sort of illiterate,
unsophisticated grammatogeny.What unsophisticated grammatogeny shows (and what has
been confirmed by psycholinguistic investigation) is that it is syllables, and not
segments, that are the smallest [56] components of speech recognized by speakers who
283
have not been trained in phonological analysis — by, for example, being taught to
read an alphabet (Daniels 1992b). Second, the three independent inventions of a
script in ancient times that we know of (Sumerian, Chinese, and Mayan) are also of
syllabaries — logosyllabaries, in which each character denotes a morpheme and a
syllable. Moreover, these three languages are distinctive in a similar way: their
morphemes are, mostly, monosyllabic. Putting together these two observations, it
becomes clear that when the minimal unit of speech (the syllable) and the minimal
unit of language (the morpheme/word) coincide, the possibility of the foundation of
writing arises. 57
[Fn:] The frequent juxtaposition of the Cherokee syllabary and Cree syllabics as
examples of nineteenth-century Native American script inventions is misleading.
Cherokee writing, with its array of eighty-five characters bearing no systematic
relationship to each other or to the syllables they denote, was devised by the illiterate
Sequoyah (Foreman 1938). Cree writing, with nine geometric shapes corresponding to
consonants, presented in four rotations/reflections to denote the four vowels, was
devised by the educated missionary James Evans (Nichols 1996). They typify
unsophisticated and sophisticated grammatogeny respectively. 56
[Fn:] Salomon (1998: 15, n. 30) suggests “aks≥ara script” as more congenial for
Indologists’ use, but aks≥ara already means both “syllable” and “character of an Indic
script,” and adding a third sense in this semantic field could introduce confusion to a
discussion. Alongside the terms I rejected (neosyllabary [Février 1948], pseudo-
alphabet [Householder 1959], semisyllabary [Diringer 1948], and alphasyllabary
[Bright 1992]) because they imply exactly the notion I am trying to refute — that the
abugida is a kind of alphabet or a kind of syllabary — I have just come across
semialphabet in the Encyclopœdia Britannica Micropœdia (though what is intended
by the distinction “the syllabic KharoœøÏ (sic) and semialphabetic BrΩhmÏ” [s.v.
“Indic Writing Systems”] is unfathomable). W. Bright denies having devised the term
alphasyllabary, but it has not yet been found to occur earlier than his 1992
encyclopedia (in 1990: 136 he approved semisyllabary). Compare Daniels 1996b: 4 n.
* and Bright 2000 for the different conceptualizations of abugida and alphasyllabary:
functional vs. formal, as it happens. The words abjad and abugida are simply words in
Arabic and Ethiopic, respectively, for the ancient Northwest Semitic order of letters,
which is used in those languages in certain functions alongside the customary orders
(in Arabic reflecting rearrangement according to shape, and in Ethiopic reflecting an
entirely different letter-order tradition — both now attested in texts from Ugarit
[Bordreuil and Pardee 1995, Pardee this volume]). 56
Garrod, Simon, Nicolas Fay, John Lee, Jon Oberlander, and

Tracy MacLeod. 2007. “Foundations of representation: where
might graphical symbol systems come from?” Cognitive
Science 31 (6):961-987.
#mpi
[…] icons evolve into symbols as a consequence of the systematic shift in the locus of
information from the sign to the users’ memory of the sign’s usage supported by an
interactive grounding process. 961
284
Symbols grow. They come into being by development out of other signs, particularly
from icons, or from mixed signs partaking of the nature of icons and symbols. (Peirce,
1931–1958, Vol. 2, p. 302) 961
So, like Krampen (1983) and to a certain extent Peirce (1931–1958) himself we treat
the distinction between iconic and symbolic representations as graded. 964
If a sign for an object maps some of the structure of the object, then we can see that
the structure in the sign is carrying information. And, this sign is functioning
iconically. Other things being equal the more structured the sign, the more iconic the
sign is. On the other hand, when symbols are used complexity (or information) resides
in the users’ knowledge of previous use of the symbol. To this extent a symbol only
requires enough [964] structure to be recognizable as that symbol distinct from any
other. Hence, symbols can be graphically simpler than icons. 965
We consider two hypotheses: (a) simplification and refinement through repeated
production of the sign and (b) simplification and refinement through grounding. 966
However, for simplification-by-grounding, feedback of some kind is required.
According to this second hypothesis graphical simplification occurs because the
interpreter can indicate when the drawing is sufficiently clear to identify the object
and so ground that sign. Successful grounding then helps to fix the sign–object
interpretation in both the director’s and the matcher’s memories. 966
It is straightforward to explain how iconic graphical representations arise because
their interpretation is based on perceptual resemblance to their objects. It is not so
obvious how graphical symbols arise because their interpretation depends upon prior
understanding of the arbitrary relations between the sign and its object. However, if it
can be shown that graphical symbols systematically evolve from the repeated use of
iconic and indexical signs, then this would account for the problem. Although such an
evolution is suggested by the historical development of many symbolic writing
systems, which start out as iconic representations, it is not clear precisely what drives
the evolution. 983
Of course, we should make it clear that these experiments do not rule out the
possibility that symbolic graphical representations may also emerge out of extended
non-interactive and repeated use. However, what they do show is that the transition
from iconic to symbolic graphical signs occurs very rapidly in an interactive
communication setting and given the opposite pattern of results for the non-
interactive communication setting, it seems unlikely that the move from iconic to
symbolic graphical representations could evolve rapidly without this kind of
interaction. We can speculate that there may be an alternative grounding mechanism
that could operate with repeated and reciprocal use of graphical signs in a community
even when there is no direct interaction (e.g., as in the use of a writing system). This is
because recurrent and reciprocal usage of signs offers some feedback to ground the
signs (e.g., I have produced a sign that seems to work because it is the same as that
being used by others). [983]
However, crucially, this situation still requires evidence of grounding through indirect
feedback from other sign users.
So, in summary, our graphical communication studies offer an insight into the
evolution of graphical symbols from iconic and indexical signs. Also they are
consistent with the information theoretic account of the basic nature of signs. In this
285
account, iconic (and indexical) signs are inherently more complex than symbolic signs
because they need to reflect the structure of their objects in the structure of the sign
itself according to the structure mapping principle. Symbolic signs only require
enough structure to enable users to identify that sign from its competitors in the set.
984
Thus, a system of signs can contain complex signs whose meaning depends upon
subcomponents that also occur in other complex signs. We refer to this property as
systematicity. It seems plausible that naturally occurring sets of signs can mix
systematic with non-systematic signs: Systematic signs can contain both iconic and
symbolic subcomponents. 985
Carlson, Amanda. 2007. “Nsibidi: Old and new scripts.” In

Inscribing meaning: Writing and graphic systems in African art,
edited by Christine Mullen Kreamer, Mary Nooter Roberts,
Elizabeth Harney and Allyson Purpura. Washington DC:
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.
#nsibidi
Nsibidi, a secret ideographic script, has dramatically influenced the arts of the Cross
River region of eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon where writing, art, and ritual
are inextricably linked. 146
Unlike many other wr ting systems, the purpose of nsibidi is not to make information
accessible, but to guard valuable knowledge within elite groups. It has been used to
express ideas about love and social relationships, to tally goods, to document events
(such as court cases). to record religious information and ritual procedures, to convey
esoteric knowledge, and as decoration. Individuals may present nsibidi signs in a
variety of ways: drawn in the air (gestures) or on the ground, on the skin (tattoos), and
on art forms (dance costumes and masks, stone monoliths, cloth, funerary sculpture,
and jewelry to name a few). 146
However, it has been easily adopted by numerous ethnic groups in the Cross River
region because it does not correspond to a verbal language. Nsibidi is typically
associated with ritual associations such as Leopard Societies, secret male organizations
that historically acted as a traditional form of law enforcement. Leopard Societies
were the perfect partners for trade, offering debt control services and ensuring the
safety of traders, as well as creating alliances among otherwise distinct cultures
(Ottenberg and Knudsen 1985). 146
During the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, nsibidi and its related artistic traditions
flourished. 146
In the eighteenth century, as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, slaves from the
Cross River region carried knowledge of this ritual association with them to Cuba,
where it 1s known as Abakuá. These Cuban sacred scripts have been referred to as
firmas or anaforuana, among other names (Cabrera 1969, 1975, and Thompson 1984).
146
Knowledge of nsibidi is [146] highly restricted and learned through a progression of
ritual tests. whereby members move up through a system of grades. In certain cases. a
286
person will only know most of the signs when they have reached the highest grade.
which is usually obtained in old age. And, it is also unlikely that any one person will
hold a comprehenive knowledge of the entire system. By maintaining these secrets and
the relationships that it creates, the Leopard Society has been able to leverage its
influence in society.
While the Leopard Society has an extremely well-developed tradition of nsibidi-use
due to its institutionalized consolidation of knowledge, wealth and power, nsibidi is not
limited to that organization alone. Its use by multiple ethnic groups and numerous
ritual associations has produced a wide range of practices that often makes nsibtdi hard
to define, which is also what makes it so interesting. 147
Nsibidi has never been a singular or static system. The corpus of Ejagham art and
ritual, from which nsibidi probably derived, continues to include an abundance of
symbols. signs and designs that look like nsibidi, which has resulted in a haze of
confusion among scholars and even indigenous populations as to what qualifies as
nsibidi. In fact, the same sign may be considered nsibidi in one context but not another.
For example, twentieth-century cement funerary sculptures (fig. 12.3) include signs
that are recognized as nsibidi in other contexts but not here. Nsibidi clearly inspired its
three-dimensional shapes and the designs that decorate its surfaces. 147
[...] visual economy [...] 147
Nsibidi provides individuals with the ability to “play” with meaning and ultimately to
conceal knowledge.
Among the Bakor-Ejagham, nsibidi[fn] is commonly associated with spiritual
endeavors and diabolical acts used to govern, punish, and control individuals and
resources. For example, a traditional policing unit (the Ntim Society) uses nsibidi to
punish people. Its actions could disorient a person and make them get lost in the bush.
It uses actions such as nodding the head or drawing on the ground. Moreover, some
of these performed scripts are not always visible to human beings. They are notations,
communications, or injunctions in the spiritual realm. For example, nsibidi can be used
to command a spiritual manhunt, in which no physical action is directed at the target.
but he or she is hunted down and killed in the spiritual realm. This leads to the
person’s eventual death in the physical world. 148
In fact, the frequency with which the interconnecting semi-circles appears on art
forms, both old and new, may have contributed to the past belief that nsibidi was
mostly about male-female relationships. While signs are sometimes used to describe
interpersonal relations between men and women, their deeper meanings are really
linked to the concepts associated with male and female as categories that structure
both ritual and everyday life. 148
In Africa, indigenous writing systems are typically associated with controlling social
relationships, rather than simply recording information. 148
As with many other African symbolic systems, nsibidi is often associated with the body.
It commonly appears directly on the skin or on something the body wears (a cloth or
an ornament). Nsibidi patterns or designs resembling nsibidi are also found on
sculptural representations of the human body—skin-covered masks (fig. 12.5), stone
monoliths, terracotta figures, and cement sculptures. And while men design their
bodies (tattoos, identity marks, and initiation marks, for example), the female body is
more frequently written upon. The most repeated displays of body ornamentation
287
occur during rituals that mark important social transitions. Young women initiates, or
moninkim, undergo an elaborate ritual process that prepares them for marriage and
adulthood (fig. 12.6). In the past, moninkim would learn nsibidi during their lengthy
seclusion in the “fattening house.” While more recently this experience of seclusion
and training has greatly diminished, moninkim still bear nsibidi marks on their bodies
when they emerge from the seclusion where they underwent excision, also referred to
as “female circumcision.” 149
More importantly, nsibidi sustains many complex social functions that would not be
better served by an alphabetic system. This partly explains the continuing relevance
and enduring value of nsibidi, which is also appreciated for its beauty of line and the
strong graphic quality of this communicative script. 153
Pratten, David. 2007. “Mystics and missionaries: Narratives of

the spirit movement in Eastern Nigeria.” Social
Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale 15 (1):47-70.
[PK: note that in this article there is excellent detail on the history of the Spirit Movement
that directly preceded the Oberi Okaime church]
The pamphlet that Westgarth wrote, and which the colonial authorities blamed for
enflaming the situation, was in fact a plea for calm. [Fn: Utom Spirit, (J. W.
Westgarth), 1928, WUL: Jeffreys Papers File: 263. !] It betrayed his deep-seated
ambivalence to the Movement’s manifestations. In his Advice Given to the Spirit
People he linked faith healing, for example, directly to ‘things resembling the
attributes of Ibibio cult or juju culture’. His ambivalence was especially clear in his
comments on the practice of ‘Speaking in Tongues’. ‘We have learned’, he wrote,
‘that the strange tongue is the sign that has come from the Holy Spirit, but it is not
dignifying, because it is like the utterance of babies.’ Within this infantilising discourse,
Westgarth suggested that the Movement’s adherents were like children who did not
have the words to express the things on their minds. At the same time, he warned just
how easily these signs could be those of Satanic possession, and how it would be better
overall if these energies were channelled into literacy and Bible study. Westgarth
admitted that the physical manifestations of the Movement were difficult to
understand, and that ‘There have been cases undoubtedly where they have not been
of God.’ What he coyly described to the mission’s supporters at home as ‘unseemly’
acts led the colonial authorities to call in troops. 56
In contrast, the longer history of the Spirit Movement and the church that was
founded by its leaders, Oberi Okaime, captures an imperative of withdrawal from the
colonial order, and the mundane in total. This trajectory is best illustrated in the story
of one of the leaders of the Spirit Movement, Akpan Akpan Udofia, the author of the
Oberi Okaime script. In 1927, aged 15, Akpan Akpan Udofia had a series of dreams
which led him to believe that he was intended to be a teacher for Seminant, the Spirit
of God. Sitting at his desk in the Ididep Central School, he witnessed a band of
‘spirits’ enter his school yard. One of the women in the group convinced Udofia that
she had been sent by God to tell him that he would never attend his school again.
Others told him that if he obeyed the command of the Lord he would be blessed and
become His ‘writer’. Udofia joined the new movement and, despite the protests of his
schoolmaster and his father, he turned his back on the single most important avenue
288
by which young men of his generation might succeed in life, missionary education. At
[64] subsequent meetings Udofia had visions which made him believe that by
consuming water he would ‘receive knowledge washed from a great book written in
different colored inks and thus receive the words of God’ (Hau 1961: 298). As a result,
he was taken into seclusion at some distance from Ididep for a period of eight years,
during which he was completely isolated from his family and the outside world.
Udofia and several other men were reported to have lived ‘like monks’ in prayer, and
fasting of a few or sometimes more than sixteen days.
Within Ibibio and Annang customary practice, seclusion (akpe) marked a rejection of
the mundane and a means of protecting the self from the effects of one’s enemies. It
formed a central element of initiation practices that also comprised physical
transformations through fattening, tests of character in public ordeals and the
acquisition of new social roles. During his seclusion, Udofia was instructed by
Seminant or the Secret Teacher, and for twenty years from the time he left school
until 1948, Udofia was forbidden by his Secret Teacher to study the Efik Bible or any
history book, or to read, write or speak English. When K. Hau asked Udofia in
correspondence during the 1950s whether this teacher was a man or a spirit, he
indicated that his experiences with his ‘Secret Teacher’ must have been those of a
man in relation to God, since he remembers them as being similar to his dreams of
learning a strange language when a boy (Hau 1961: 298). During his seclusion,
knowledge of the Oberi Okaime symbols, language and Holy Books appeared only to
Udofia and the leader, Michael Udo Ukpong (Hau 1961). The resulting Oberi
Okaime language, which was taught briefly at its school at Ikpa in 1936, is based on a
31 symbol orthography, has a vigesimal counting system and bears no relation to
Ibibio or to the secret scripts associated with the initiation cults such as nsibidi (Dayrell
1910, 1911; Kalu 1978; MacGregor 1909). 65
The processes by which the marginalised enact and perform their marginality serves
as a social critique: ‘the existence, the exercise, of critique always implies some form of
perspectival externality and some perception of social disadvantage. The power of
critique arises from such disempowerment’ (Terdiman 2001: 415). It is precisely by
presenting the potentiality of social disadvantage in the inter-relation, not opposition,
of voice and exit that the marginalised are able to project an epistemological
advantage onto disadvantage itself (de Certeau 1986, 1997; Terdiman 2001). The
Spirit Movement subverted the scriptural economy of the mission and the colonial
state with an unknowable, invisible, decentring marginality. Its objects were buried in
the soil. Its texts were written in a new and unknown script. Its adherents spoke a
language of tongues. 66
The Spirit Movement, like other revival movements in colonial Africa, was concerned
with the reconfiguration of a symbolic landscape based in part on memory and
practice. 66
Baines, John 2008. “Writing and its multiple disappearances.” In

The disappearance of writing systems: Perspectives of literacy and
communications, edited by John Baines, John Bennet and
Stephen D Houston Houston. London: Equinox.
Probably the vast majority of the writing systems that have existed in the world have
fallen out of use and, if now known at all, either are no longer intelligible or have been
289
deciphered in the last couple of centuries. Yet the process of loss of writing systems has
hardly been studied, even though such systems constitute the most developed mode of
visual–verbal communication in material form that many societies have created, as
well as generally, but not always, having profound meaning for those societies. 347
#world philologies talk #phylogeny
Writing systems and comparable institutions are specialized modes of communication
in physical form. 348
Essentially they [PK: writing systems] bring together the two institutions that
distinguish human beings from other animals: an elaborate material culture; and
language. They are far more specific in reference and more extensive in potential or
actual coverage than almost all other material codes. Some of them may not have
been invented or developed in order to notate a particular language, or language in
general, but rather to store information through a system of signs (see the range of
examples discussed in Houston 2004). Nonetheless, they become closely identified
with language, and in analysing them scholars often find it difficult not to adopt a
linguistic perspective without first asking whether it is the right one. If writing systems
are viewed through the lens of language and linguistic theory, they appear to share its
salient characteristic of being able in principle to communicate content of an
indefinite range of types. 348
#definition: writing #intro #writing is language
Writing absorbs great cultural energy. Once it is set up as a working system, it must be
learned and transmitted. Institutions that can sustain it need to have redundancy built
into them. Most societies train more literate people than will use writing in adult life,
either professionally or, for a smaller group, as part of a high-cultural lifeway. Until
modern times, the physical materials used for writing in many or most traditions have
been costly in terms of resources or craftsmanship. 349
One widespread but not universal function of writing is in forms of elite display. These
may be more or less public. So far as they can, elites control what writing is used for
and how it is disseminated. Display accentuates the broader tendency of the visual
media and forms of writing to be strongly aesthetic, while vast resources can be
expended on creating display pieces, often without any strong expectation that the
result will be read. Much that is written belongs only in the domain of writing and has
no close counterpart, or no counterpart at all, in the spoken realm. 349
#elites
Writing systems are generally institutions of complex societies and civilizations. 349
The numerically small-scale society of Rapanui (Easter Island), which produced the
largely undeciphered Rongorongo tablets (see e.g. Fischer 1997: 552–60), was among
the world’s most unusual, earlier creating colossal statuary with a prodigality in
relation to its size that has few if any parallels. Rongorongo seems to have been
290
invented after contact with the Spanish, so that the script is an example of ‘stimulus
diffusion’ rather than fully independent invention. 349
#rongorongo
Most complex societies either are multilingual, or encompass speakers of dialects that
range into mutual incomprehensibility, or both. The main script of a society that uses
anything other than an alphabetic script typically writes one among the many
languages or dialects that are present. Moreover, the often unexamined modern
assumption, that a writing system can notate languages other than the one for which it
was devised, has seldom been widespread. In Italy, as Kathryn Lomas shows, the
Greek and Etruscan scripts, which were [349] ultimately variants of each other, were
adapted to form distinct scripts for local languages, although some of those languages
were written in more than one script. The Arabian peninsula and India are examples
of regions where each written language generally has a script of its own, even if it
differs only in minor ways from neighbouring scripts. Major exceptions to that pattern
are cuneiform, in Mesopotamia and adjacent regions, and some alphabetic scripts,
notably Latin, Greek, and Arabic. If a script is closely identified with a language, the
latter’s disappearance may condemn the former to the same fate. 350
Because most scripts that were not devised on the periphery of other script cultures
developed for centuries before they represented a language at all fully, the form of
language they record tends to be conservative, archaic, or obsolete. Another reason
for this preference is that writing is used for symbolically important purposes for
which the everyday language would be inappropriate in an analogous spoken context.
Often the written language is not the one that is normally spoken in the society; it may
even belong to a different language family.
All these features, which are found in varying patterns and probably in most societies
that use writing, contribute to making writing systems into specialized, value-laden
institutions, many of them closely identified with the core values of a society or
civilization. The range of uses of writing, the extent to which it is employed—that is,
its penetration through different sectors of society—and rates of literacy vary
enormously. Often writing is specialized for sacred, high-cultural, or economic
purposes. In the quite numerous societies that use more than one script, each of them
may occupy a different social register, as among the Vai in Liberia (Scribner and Cole
1981). Perhaps only in relation to the last couple of centuries can one think of usages
of writing in a single script as in any way not carrying a heavy cultural load (I mention
the partial exception of India below). Writing now tends to be seen as a self-evident
good, with universal literacy a goal to which the world as a whole should aspire; in the
West, such aspirations are unreflectingly linked to alphabetical writing and phonetic
representation of language. The small extent to which today’s discourse takes into
account the culturally and politically hegemonic character of such an assumption is
striking. 350
#indexicality
It is not common for a writing system to disappear without one or more other major
institutions being lost from the culture in question. 351
#institutional literacy transmission #state societies
291
Scripts can be replaced largely for reasons of politics and identity, with a greater or
lesser involvement of other cultural factors. Salient instances in the modern world are
the shift from Arabic to Latin script for writing Turkish, or the oscillation among
Cyrillic, Latin, and other scripts for many languages of eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union. 351
#indexicality
One script can be the ancestor of another (or of more than one), but the two can
mostly be distinguished, whereas one language can evolve almost seamlessly into
another. Nonetheless, scripts can survive for centuries in restricted usages that bear
little resemblance to their societal penetration when they were flourishing. 353
#phylogeny
In some cases scripts can be more strongly diagnostic than languages, because they
are major and deliberate creations of their originators, whereas languages are not
intentionally devised in the same way. 353
#phylogeny
Perhaps the lack of diversity in the script’s [PK: Linear B’s] role made it particularly
easily dispensable. 354
#world philologies talk
Those who see ease of learning and the associated goal of universal literacy— rather
than such purposes as extension of memory, communication, and cultural
enrichment—as an ultimate purpose of writing systems tend to focus on the alphabet
as the vehicle of this aspiration. Accordingly, many writers view the history of scripts
as one of progressive improvement toward an alphabet that will achieve a complete
and simple phonemic representation of a language; that was indeed the basic premise
of the classic work of I. J. Gelb (1963). 355
As noted, heavy and continuing investment is required to maintain a writing system
that is used for a range of functions. Even very limited systems absorb much of their
practitioners’ attention. 357
Among scripts studied in this book, those which disappeared quickly either were
limited in their range of use or belonged to cultures that valued oral forms over
written ones—notably Kharoṣṭhī (Richard Salomon)—or both—as is probably the
case with Aegean Linear A and B. Partly similar points apply to the revelatory scripts
studied by John Monaghan, but most of these were in any case sited in communities
undergoing rapid change and great stress from encroaching societies. 359
As central achievements and institutions of cultures and civilizations, writing systems
are both highly significant in themselves and indexes of wider societal change.
Analysis of their role needs to be detached to some extent from study of the still more
fundamental institution of language, because the two do not change at the same rate
and often not for the same reasons. 359
292
#indexicality #writing is language
Writing systems that have been lost are often better understood [359] than those for
which we try to establish their process of formation. Their loss may be just as
revealing as their first appearance. 360
Bender, Margaret. 2008. Indexicality, voice, and context in the

distribution of Cherokee scripts. The International Journal of
the Sociology of Language 192:91-103.
It is important to understand that indexicality in language is productive as well as
reflective of social categories (Silverstein 2003, 2004). This is significant in relation to
scripts because it allows us to understand that part of the social context in which a
script is used is generated by that use of script and the users’ concomitant applications of
language ideology. 92
#writing systems
Finally, it is worth noting that there is a temptation when exploring the sociolinguistics
of script use to emphasize writing (the conventional production of texts) to the
exclusion of other script-related practices. But just as hearing, listening to, and
evaluating speech are all aspects of the sociology of language of parallel importance to
speaking, so, too, reading and the mobilization of relevant language ideology are as
important here as is writing. 93
#writing systems
For many Cherokees, these syllabary signs express (and enact!) the community’s
recent cultural revitalization and index the physical spaces of the reservation as
authentically Indian spaces. 97
#writing systems
In the Bakhtinian paradigm (1981), print has the capacity to be one of the centripetal
forces of language unification, of standardization, and of centralization. But ironically
this is because its ideologically driven indexical force tends to go outwards,
characterizing potentially diverse and widespread recipients (readers) in a potentially
unifying way. This is the phenomenon being noted by Anderson (1983) in his
discussion of the relationship between print and nationalism.
The language ideology surrounding print in many of its contexts of use has involved
some particular erasures on the production side. To put it another way, print has
often been historically associated with a suppression of heteroglossia, even of voice
itself, and voice is that aspect of indexicality that reflects back on the producer and/or
that characterizes the sign itself, in our case the graphic product. These ideological
erasures at the level of voice are thus that underlie the link between print and scientific
rationality—the notion that if something is in “black and white,” it is factual.
Historically, print has often function in specific societies to characterize the graphic
artifacts produced (as literate, rational, factual, [97] etc.) and the recipients (as literate,
as members of a cultural and social “nation,” etc.), with the indexical force on the
producer being less overtly acknowledged. Thus, the directionality of the indexical
force of the syllabary falls in line with this widespread pattern.
293
Handwritten syllabary, on the other hand, semiotically foregrounds writing and
production. 98
#writing systems
In observations in the Cherokee Elementary School’s Cherokee language classroom in
1993 and 1994, I noticed that when the syllabary was used in class in lieu of the
Roman alphabet, it was nearly always in conjunction with culturally speciﬁc [99]
Cherokee content, such as identifying the colors associated in Cherokee cosmology
with the cardinal directions. Romanized writing of Cherokee thus remains the less
culturally speciﬁc system. 100
#writing systems
Boone, Elizabeth Hill. 2008. “The death of Mexican

pictography.” In The disappearance of writing systems:
Perspectives of literacy and communications, edited by John
Baines, John Bennet and Stephen D Houston Houston.
London: Equinox.
Pictography for the Aztecs and their neighbours fulfilled all the requirements of the
cultural category that is ‘writing’, and it fulfils these requirements for us today, with
the exception of a close and direct link to spoken language. If we take the description
of writing used by Houston et al. (2003: 430), but omit the requirement that writing
must ‘[bridge] visual and auditory worlds by linking icons with meaningful sound,’ we
see that pictography fits all the other characteristics: ‘It allowed writers to
communicate with readers who were distant in time and space, extended the storage
capacity of human knowledge, including information that ranged from mundane
accounting to sacred narrative, […] and offered an enduring means of displaying and
manipulating assertions about a wide variety of matters.’ Although the study of
pictography does not necessarily help us understand the link between icon and sound,
it can help us understand other phenomena of writings, such as how and why writing
systems come into being, how they function within a culture, and how they finally
expire. 253
#pictography #bound writing
Only rarely did pictography record meaningful sound. Based on the evidence we now
have, pure glottography seems only to have been employed when sound was required
to signal a correct meaning that could not otherwise be indicated symbolically: it
appears only in appellatives. 254
#phonography
Places are also named both glyphically and adjectivally.[fn] As glyphic compositions,
place signs are usually composed of a topographic element (often a hill) that is
qualified by another image (Smith 1973: 36–83; Boone 2000: 49–55). The sign for
Coatepec, or Serpent Hill, for example, is composed of a conventionalized hill glyph
and a serpent head (Fig. 11.1f); Tula or Tollan, Place of Reeds, is simply a short strip
of reeds (Fig. 11.1g). Although these signs yield words, they can be (and were) voiced
in many languages and thus do not operate phonically.
294
Phonography appears in appellatives when meaning can not easily be signified in
other ways. Culhuacan (Place of the Culhua or Place of Those with Ancestors) is
named by a hill sign that has a long peak that curves over on itself (Fig. 11.1h). The
curved peak yields the Nahuatl (Aztec) word coltic (‘curved’), which effectively delivers
the cul sound in Culhuacan. From the Mixtec realm, the place sign of Teozacoalco, or
Chiyo Ca’nu (Great Foundation) in Mixtec, is a human in the act of bending (canu) a
platform (chiyo) (Fig. 11.1i). Before the Spanish invasion, phoneticism or phonetic
transfer was clearly an acceptable if less common way of configuring appellatives. 255
#rebus #phonography
Most other names had to be phonetically referenced, however, requiring a rebus that
joined Spanish and Nahuatl sounds through an intermediary image (Arreola 1922;
Boornazian 1996; Dibble 1960; Galarza 1980). The name sign chosen for the judge
Alonso de Zorita, for example, was a quail (zollin) (Fig. 11.7b). Viceroy Antonio de
Mendoza’s name had many variants, but the most common was a maguey leaf (metl)
and a gopher (tozan), which, once these Nahuatl words lose their endings, combine to
yield me-toza (Fig. 11.7c). For the title of ‘Virrey’ (Viceroy) the colonial manuscript
painters consistently chose an eye (ixtli) and a bean (etl) which yield ix-e (pronounced as
‘ee-shay’) (Fig. 11.7d). Sometimes a painter would combine it with a speech-scroll (the
ideogram that characterizes a speaker [tlatoani] or ruler) to clarify that it is the
authority or person of the Viceroy that is being signified (Fig. 11.7e). A number of the
rebuses were quite long and complex. 267
#rebus
Houston, Stephen D. 2008. “The small deaths of Maya writing.”

In The disappearance of writing wystems: Perspectives of literacy
and communications, edited by John Baines, John Bennet and
Stephen D Houston Houston. London: Equinox.
We came to the conclusion that diminished functions of script, linkages to obsolete
knowledge with which a script had become identified, and the physical expiration of
script-users from the effects of war or disease led systematically to the obsolescence of
certain writing systems. Most defunct scripts were replaced by writing systems
regarded—at least at the time—as facilitators of a wider variety of uses. 231
Any one script is malleable in response to changing needs, with the logical
consequence that it must mutate, Lamarckian fashion, over the long term. A
biological metaphor, used here with some diffidence, would liken this process to the
continuance of ‘Life’ over generations in contrast to the abbreviated life of a single
human being. 232
A key concept in understanding the extinction of writing is that of the ‘script
community’. Some years ago Brian Stock (1996: 23, 150) developed a similar notion,
that of ‘textual communities’, which were ‘microsocieties organized around the
common understanding of a script’. For Stock (1996: 23), such communities might
include non-literates but required at least ‘one literate’, an interpretes who could analyse
texts and disseminate textual content to others. The texts created a sense of
295
community among those who read and listened, an impression of ‘solidarity’ within
and ‘separation’ outside (Stock 1996: 150). 232
The script community exists in relation to a writing system; it survives because the
system is used and transmitted across generations. The contents recorded by script are
undeniably important. Yet a sense of shared identity can also result from the use of a
writing system or witnessing that system in a less active capacity. The actual members
of the script community differ in skill. For the purposes of this essay, the common
distinction between literates and non-literates is insufficient. As a concept, ‘literacy’
consists of two distinct components, the ability to produce a text and the faculty of
responding to it. The first is ‘writing’, the second ‘reading’ (Houston 1994: 28–9).
These are not absolute skills that are merely there or not-there. In reality, they exist in
a fluid relationship that floats on a chart showing one axis as ‘production’ (‘writing’),
the other as ‘response’ (‘reading’, Fig. 10.1). Dictation represents a special case in such
a scheme: until recorded, the uttered and received statement remains in the domain of
oral transmission. 232
#indexicality #definition: literacy
‘Perfunctory literacy’, a condition of low-response and low-production, describes those
who can sign their names but little more than that. An educated person with poor
motor skills and illegible scrawl would fit into the category of high-response/low-
production. Illiterate or barely literate copyists, such as those in Roman Egypt, fit
within the sector of low-response/high-production, the Mandarin exegete and
calligrapher within high-response/high-production. No one is born to write or read.
In any one lifetime, as knowledge accumulates, a person’s abilities tend to shift
upwards, to higher levels of response. Practice and repetition improve ‘production’,
and the plain objective of pedagogy is to deliver a person efficiently from the lower left
of the chart to the upper right.[fn] [PK: see diagram] Where the scribe ends up
depends on other sociological matters, such as the desired professional niche or target:
few academics need to be calligraphers, and the intercession of technical aids, such as
computers, vaults production skills higher than they would ordinarily be. 233
#definition: literacy
In Stock’s formulation, literacy has a necessary relationship to orality. Non-literates
feel a sense of belonging to a script community by receiving meaningful statements
from a text. Since they have no direct access to sacred documents, communications
must be broadcast by speech or other forms of signalling, such as imagery and ritual.
What Stock does not say, although it results logically from his statements, is that a
‘text’ could just as well be an orally transmitted scripture like the Rig-Veda. The
medium of writing has no inherent role in his ‘text-community’, only a set of
organized and potently phrased narratives that present sacred propositions. In
contrast, the script community involves a more restricted focus on who used a writing
system, how the system was employed, and how the script was taught, learned, and
practised. At the same time response seldom occurred in silent or private acts, as
shown by numerous studies of ancient scripts that reveal the enduring role of oral
performance in reading (e.g. Civil 1972; King 1994; Monaghan 1990). As a result, it
becomes difficult to accept the claim that literacy and orality are mutually exclusive,
the former steadily usurping the latter […] 234
296
#definition: literacy
It is useful to recognize that ‘script obsolescence’ is not necessarily the extinction of
knowledge but its partial transfer to, or duplication by, organic storage within the
brain—note in this formulation that ‘memory’ is not the same as ‘orality’, as the first
relates to storage, the second to expression and modes of thought (e.g. Goody 1977;
Ong 1988). At Station IV, however, such knowledge does lose a means of self-
stabilization. As a result, gaps and reconfiguration of meaning begin to take place. 235
A second rupture can be detected between the Early and Late Classic periods, a time
of dynastic interruption or dynastic inception, if not quite a ‘collapse’. David Stuart
and I have observed a break between the two periods that is reflected in systematic
‘re-interpretation’ of signs: iconic referents of Early Classic glyphs have become
unclear and new forms, formally disconnected from the original source,
comprehensively replace them. In our judgment, ‘re-interpretation’ points to a partial
break in pedagogic transmission, although not so severe as that taking place between
the Preclassic and Classic periods. The essential detail is that the Maya script
community, as defined broadly, went through stresses and distortions, but it did not
go ‘extinct’. 241
#phylogeny #stimulus diffusion
At Seibal, the script community became attenuated in competence, shifted memory to
the brain of responders, yet probably suffered a firm and rapid truncation by about
AD 950. 244
#origin of writing
Keane, Webb. 2008. Modes of Objectification in Educational

Experience. In Linguistics and Education vol. 19, pp. 312-318.
Different views of objectification draw on different features of material things, as they
understand them. These may include the following: being durable, subject to
destruction, locatable in space, immobile, transportable, perceptible, bounded,
external to discourse, manipulable, separate from persons (at least in some respects,
insofar as persons are defined by subjective states, intentional actions, or particular
social positions). 314
#written language #literature
Kettunen, Harri, and Christophe Helmke. 2008. Introduction to

Maya hieroglyphs. Leiden: Wayeb and Leiden University.
The Maya writing system is described linguistically as a logosyllabic system, comprised
of signs representing whole words (logograms) and syllables (syllabic signs, which
can either work as syllables or phonetic signs). There are approximately 200 different
syllabic/phonetic signs in the Maya script, of which around 60 percent comprise of
homophonic signs. Thus, there are some 80 phonetic syllables in the Classic Maya
language and about 200 graphemic syllables in the script.[fn] Once contrasted to
other Mesoamerican writing systems, it is apparent that the ancient Maya used a
297
system of writing that had the potential to record linguistic structures as complex as
the syntax present in the oral manifestations of their languages. In practice, however,
the writing system is a graphemic abbreviation of highly complex syntactical
structures and thus many items omitted had to be provided by readers intimately
familiar with the language the script records. 6
#hypothesis: predisposition to phonography [contra]
The Maya were not the first or last to develop writing systems in Mesoamerica. Before
the emergence of the first known Maya hieroglyphs (in the first century BC) writing
systems already existed in at least three cultural areas in the region: in the so-called
Olmec heartland in the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, in the Oaxaca Valley,
and in the highland valleys of Alta Verapaz in Southern Guatemala.
Writing in Mesoamerica developed during the late Olmec times, around 700–500 BC
and probably originated from Olmec iconography that preceded it, and was later
abstracted to a writing system. This writing system was later separated into two
traditions in two different areas: the highlands of Mexico, and the highlands of
Guatemala and Chiapas with an adjacent area in the Guatemalan Pacific coast. 11
Logograms are signs representing meanings and sounds of complete words. 16
A semantic determinative is a sign that provides the reader with the correct meaning
of graphically identical glyphs, which have more than one possible meaning. Semantic
determinatives, however, are without phonetic value (cf. Zender 1999: 14). The most
oft-cited example of a semantic determinative in the Maya script are the cartouches
and pedestals that frame so-called ‘day signs.’ 17
Yet another problem is that of what we mean by saying that the meaning of a
particular hieroglyph is known. The meaning of a single hieroglyph or a set of
hieroglyphs in a sentence might be known[fn] but the profound contextual
significance and implications of the word and sentences need to be checked against all
other possible sources, such as ethnology, archaeology, iconography, and present day
manifestations of the Maya culture(s). In a word, Maya epigraphy at its best is a multi-
and interdisciplinary branch of learning heavily based on linguistics but taking into
account all possible sources and academic disciplines. !On the whole, in all its
complexity, the Maya hieroglyphic system is merely one way to make a spoken
language visible, and to quote the late Yuri Knorozov: “I believe that anything
invented by humans can be deciphered by humans” (Kettunen 1998a). !18
#decipherment
Monaghan, John. 2008. “Revelatory scripts, ‘the unlettered

genius’, and the appearance and disappearance of writing.” In
The disappearance of writing systems: Perspectives of literacy and
communications, edited by John Baines, John Bennet and
Stephen D Houston. London: Equinox.
This chapter builds on the work of those who have linked writing and revelation and
consider these scripts as a class of writing systems that develops with some frequency
among peoples who are being colonized by expanding nations and empires. It
suggests that scripts this sort are not uncommon, and that although they sometimes
298
enter into conventional usage, it is more likely they disappear without leaving much of
a trace. 323
#world philologies talk #intro
Typologies of scripts tend to be of two sorts. They are historical, in the sense that they
are based on script traditions, such as the East Asian line of writing systems, or they
classify scripts based on their connection to language and the properties of its signs,
such as being logosyllabic, syllabic, and so on. Classification, of course, is essential for
making sense of things, but the result is an analytical creation that in the process of
illuminating some aspects of a phenomenon—historical connections, sign
relationships—can obscure other aspects. For example, historical classifications tell us
little about how a script tradition is transmitted from one generation to the next, and
the stress on language leaves certain script-like codes off to one side. 324
#phylogeny #typology
Basso and Anderson observed that in Silas John’s script, there are two kinds of signs—
those that ‘tell what to say’ and those that ‘tell what to do’, in other words, the code
conveys non-linguistic as well as linguistic information (Basso and Anderson 1975: 27).
Some purists might say that Silas John’s script is not really writing, and I agree there is
good reason to distinguish between writing and other sorts of symbolic codes. But the
point is there are other ways to consider a phenomenon such as Silas John’s script
without getting stuck over what is and what is not writing. 324
#western apache
How does calling such scripts ‘revelatory’, as opposed to characterizing them in terms
of their genetic connections to other scripts or the ways in which they reflect language
(both valid exercises), improve our understanding of them? It draws our attention to
the broader religious phenomena of which they are a part, and the context in which
these movements develop. 324
#typology #alphabet follows religion
Anthropological attention has been drawn to such movements because they can be
found among peoples whose lives have been profoundly altered by colonial conquest
and domination. Although this is not the only context in which millennial movements
might develop—with 6000 cases there are bound to be exceptions to nearly every
generalization—they frequently are found among groups whose lives have been
profoundly altered by recent events, and most students of the phenomenon view them
as one kind of response to an unsatisfactory or unjust state of affairs.
Returning to the authors of revelatory scripts, we can see that many of them were
already religious leaders or connected to religious organizations before receiving their
visions. Thus, Albert Edward Tritt was a former Kutchin shaman before leading a
millennial movement around 1910, preaching the Christian gospel and making a
central part of the cult an orthography developed by Robert McDonald, an Anglican
Archdeacon (Walker 1996: 176). Uyaquq was the son of an Alaskan Yupik shaman
and became a preacher and missionary before receiving his revealed script (Walker
1996: 182; Henkelman and Vitt 1985). Silas John had an association with Lutheran
missionaries on the Fort Apache reservation, and after his visions declared himself a
messiah and began to preach (Basso and Anderson 1975: 7, 9). The author of Yoruba
holy writing, Josiah Olunowo Oshitelu, had visions as a child, and was known as
299
someone who could identify witches. After he received the script from god he believed
he had been called as a prophet, and established the Church of our Lord in 1930
(Dalby 1969: 175). 325
#alaska #yoruba holy writing #western apache #alphabet follows religion
In 1968 David Dalby wrote a paper that specifically addressed the question of
revealed scripts in West Africa. Despite this relatively early consideration, the
literature surprisingly does not view revelation as important for understanding script
origins or their nature. Dalby, for example, suggests the revelatory idiom in which the
invention of these new scripts is announced serves to legitimize the new script and
promote its acceptance (Dalby 1968). Another sympathetic observer of a revealed
script, the missionary linguist William Smalley, seems to want to view revelation as an
expression of the psychological processes of human creativity (Smalley et al. 1990:
176–9; see Wallace 1956). In both cases revelation is a proxy for something else: the
legitimization of a new practice, or the local idiom for cognitive processes. While not
incorrect, it is important to realize when considering something as complex as a
religious movement interpretations such as these are only partial explanations. Taken
to an extreme, the argument that prophets claim writing was revealed to them in
order to get people to accept the script confuses cause and consequence and makes no
attempt to understand religious phenomena in terms of themselves—that is, as creed,
doctrines, and theologies. And perhaps the most distorting element of all this is that it
assumes that underneath all the fluff of rituals, prayers and stated beliefs there is
nothing more than a material and instrumental rationality at work. 325
#alphabet follows religion #origin stories
However if we begin by viewing these scripts as serious expressions of faith, perhaps
even as a kind of devotional exercise with intended spiritual effects, then certain
patterns begin to emerge. This is perhaps best illustrated in the theology of Shong
Lue’s religious movement, where the practice of writing is key to practitioners’
religious development and well-being. According to the revelation of Shong Lue he
was told that the group that accepts the Hmong writing system will be blessed, while
those who do not accept it will remain poor, ‘the servant to other nations for the next
nine generations’ (Smalley et al. 1990: 24). In other words, learning the script and
using it are key to salvation. We should not be surprised then if the uses and
distribution of these scripts fail to conform to the kind of logic one expects in
linguistically derived communication. Indeed, it is hard to see anything other than
concern with one’s spiritual well-being and sincere religious devotion behind the
tremendous efforts Shong Lue’s followers made to preserve the script while fleeing
persecution, first into the wilds of Laos, then to refugee camps in Thailand, and then
to the United States, where several of them used their earnings to develop a
mechanical type for Hmong characters. 326
#hmong #alphabet follows religion #postcolonialism
The millennial origins of such scripts can be seen in the kinds of restrictions placed on
their use. The distribution of some of these scripts may be confined to a circle of
adepts, who have attained the highest levels of spiritual training. It appears that Silas
John’s script was limited to the twelve ‘assistants’ he initiated in 1920 and their
replacements. This was intentional since Silas John felt that, if the writing was known
widely, people might not respect it or they might try to change it. It should be noted
that in Native American religions there is a unity of things in time, so that what is
300
sacred is unchanging and to speak of the eternal is also to speak of the holy. Thus for
Silas John it was important that the writing be exactly, in the words of one Apache
man, ‘the way it was when it came to this earth from God’ (Basso and Anderson 1975:
10). The script itself was used only to record the sixty-two prayers that were revealed
to Silas John by God. In this sense it is similar to Na-khi script of Southern China. Of
the 10,000 or so Na-khi books extant, ninety percent are duplicates. They are
exclusively ritual guides, produced by and for religious specialists known as dto-mbas.
Because dto-mbas never numbered more than about 100, literacy in this script was
highly restricted (Jackson 1979: 62). The kind of information encoded in the script
may also be highly restricted. In the Apache case, Silas John’s writing was never used
to record anything but the prayers sent by God. As long as this theology controlled the
writing it would also not be subject to the kind of tinkering one sees in some other
writing systems, where users reduce the number of signs and alter it in other ways so it
may more accurately reflect phonology and syntax. 326
#elites #western apache #conventionalisation and compression
As noted, the leaders of millennial movements often articulate a doctrine of salvation,
particularly those that arise where colonial policy promotes missionization by ethical
religions such as Christianity. As such the prophet [326] diagnoses a ‘fallen’ condition
to his or her people’s situation and much of the movement’s activities are directed
toward redemption. This extends to writing. James Mooney reproduced an account
from an elderly Cherokee from the mid-eighteenth century: ‘God gave the red man a
book and a paper and told him to write, but he merely made marks on the paper, and
as he could not read or write, the Lord gave him a bow and arrows, and gave the
book to the white man’ (cited in Bender 2002: 27). Although the accounts of
Sequoyah’s invention of writing are second hand, this widespread account suggests
that the Cherokee would have seen writing as divinely inspired. Sequoyah, in the
course of working on the script, was suspected of being involved with the occult, and it
is even today closely associated with religious texts and curing (Bender 2002). Indeed,
certain types of knowledge or enlightenment, especially concerned with curing and
conjuring, are only accessible through the syllabary, and one must feel called to read
and write it (Bender 2002: 97, 100–101). The Kachin of Burma hold that each tribe
was given a book by the civilizing deity. However, the Kachin, who did not
understand what they were given, ate the book and have been without a script as a
consequence. The Hmong, where writing in the visions of Shong Lue was directly
linked to salvation, also had a tradition of having lost writing, and its recovery was a
consistent theme in millennial moments in general among them, not just with Shong
Lue (Smalley et al. 1990: 87–8; Lemoine 1986). In West Africa, the human author of
the Loma script, Wide, was frustrated that they had been left in ignorance by God,
and when God appeared to him in a dream in 1930, demanded that God give them
the benefits of writing. God feared the Loma would leave their traditions and become
arrogant. After Wide promised to remain faithful, and never to teach it to a woman,
God revealed the script to him (Dalby 1967: 26). 327
#origin stories #ingesting writing
But what is missing in these observations is a sense of the degree to which people
experience writing as an immediate manifestation of colonial power. For example, the
Cree word ‘to write’ comes from a root that means ‘to go into debt’ because they first
encountered writing through the accounts of traders such as those associated with the
Hudson Bay Company (Laughlin 1988: 133). 328
301
#postcolonialism
It is obvious from the account of Bukele that the spirit messengers who revealed the
book look like nineteenth-century Europeans. This can also be seen in the account of
Afaka Atumisi, the human author of the Djuka script, who had the writing system
revealed to him by a spirit, in the form of a white man, who was sent by God (Dalby
1968: 163). A variation can be seen in the visions of Shong Lue: although his visions
do not identify the holy messengers by ethnicity, they are identified as bureaucrats. In
one of Shong Lue’s visions, which occurred after he was instructed by the spirits to
smoke opium and they were teaching him the Pahawh Hmong, a group of people in
the uniforms of officials arrived, and called the spirits the saviours of the people. They
then told Shong Lue that they had money for them and showed him where to dig.
After doing so he found a jar of silver bars. He then realized that those people dressed
in the clothes of officials had come from heaven (Smalley et al. 1990: 21–2). 328
#postcolonialism #origin stories
As we all know, colonized people find themselves enmeshed in relationships where
they are subordinated politically, economically, socially, and culturally to a dominant
group. The source of the power of the colonizers is thus a matter of acute interest to
the colonized. Millennial movements, as pointed out earlier, are often found among
groups that have only recently experienced colonial subjugation. One of the things
that we see generally as a consequence of this situation in millennial movements is that
the prophet, in providing an explanation for the present state of affairs, goes on in
creeds, rituals, symbols, and practices to fetishize elements of the colonizer’s culture
and society. In other words, things take the place of relationships, so that objects alone
are viewed as the reason the colonizers are able to dominate others. It then becomes
the work of the prophet to provide a formula through which these things can either be
overcome, or come under the dominated group’s control. 329
#postcolonialism
Another example is provided by the cargo cults that appeared in the Pacific during
the first half of the twentieth century. Followers of these cults cut landing strips into
the forest and made wooden replicas of airplanes, thinking that these things would
attract the wealth they observed delivered to colonists or soldiers stationed on their
islands during World War II. Other rituals had participants sitting at desks and
speaking into telephones made out of bamboo connected by vines stretched among
the trees.
The evidence suggests that, in the case of revealed scripts, writing is identified—like
landing strips, the telephone, or the bullet—as one of the key sources, if not the key
source of colonial power. It is given to the prophet by divine beings who themselves
have some of the characteristics of the powerful—white skin, European dress, the
badges of officials. This helps us to understand, without detracting from the
intellectual achievement of the author of a new script, that writing, in these instances,
is an idea whose time has come. Indeed, it is remarkable how often it is the case that
there are several scripts that come into existence about the same time. Among the
Central Alaskan Yupik, three different individuals developed scripts around 1900, and
at least two of the authors believed them to be sudden gifts from God (Walker 1996:
181). There were at least two cases of revealed Hmong writing about the same time
(Smalley et al. 1990). Dalby also remarked that the appearance of so many revealed
West African scripts around 1900 cannot be a coincidence, although he does not
302
explore the historical context of these revelations in any great detail, preferring to
focus on [329] the possible genetic connections these scripts have with other traditions
(Dalby 1968). It also helps us to understand why many of the authors of these revealed
scripts are illiterates: ‘the unlettered genius’, Smalley’s phrase to describe Shong Lue.
Although Shong Lue had been exposed to writing, he himself was an illiterate until he
developed the Pahawh Hmong. The author of the revealed Yupik script, Uyaquq, was
also illiterate, although it should also be pointed out there are many examples of
revelatory writers who were literate in other scripts. But given the way writing can be
fetishized in millennial movements, it is perhaps not surprising that those prophets
who observe colonial regimes from the most marginalized positions, and who are the
least familiar with the techniques of writing, can have writing as such a central part of
their revelatory visions. 330
#postcolonialism #intro
Given the vast number of human groups that have found themselves enmeshed in
colonial relations, and the smaller, but still very large subset that have responded to
conquest and colonization with millennial movements, why have just a handful of
groups made revealed writing a central aspect of a religious cult? There are several
answers to this. First, colonized people over time revise their understandings of the
technologies and practices of colonialism. Thus, as people in the Pacific were drawn
into more sustained contact with Europeans, the ritualistic mimicking of European
practices ceased, and the cargo cults began to disappear, or were transformed into
established churches and political parties. One could argue then that ignorance of
writing—not the general principle of representing ideas or language by means of
graphs, but a technical understanding of how scripts work—would promote its
fetishization. Conversely, in areas where local writing systems were widely used before
colonization, we would not tend to see writing as part of the revealed knowledge
central to a millennial cult. 330
#alphabet follows religion #postcolonialism
Second, the historical record is biased toward the success stories. I would even suggest
that on the margins of colonialism the work of the ‘unlettered genius’ might not have
been as rare as it seems. In the Yupik and Hmong case we know that multiple scripts
were revealed about the same time, but some did not catch on. Likewise Dalby
records examples of fully developed scripts that do not seem to extend beyond a small
group or even the individual prophet himself. These scripts are recorded on wood and
paper, and Dalby could find few extant traces of some of them just a few decades after
they fell into disuse (Dalby 1968; 1969). Given the limited extent of these scripts and
the perishable materials on which they are written, it is probably the case that a large
number of revealed scripts are simply not recorded. It has already been noted that the
Apache writing of Silas John was largely unknown despite the fact that the Apache
had been put on reservations and been the subject of countless ethnographic studies.
More-[330] over, since colonial powers are suspicious of millennial movements for
their nationalistic aspirations, the prophet and his or her followers often come under
attack. Shong Lue is good example. He was persecuted by the Royal Lao government,
who saw him as a communist sympathizer, and by the communists, who suspected
him of being a supporter of the Royal Lao government. Both sides tried to eliminate
him, and he spent three years in prison after being arrested by the Lao government.
After his release in 1970, he was murdered by solders of an anti-communist opium
warlord. His followers scattered, and anyone using the writing system came under
303
suspicion. In suppressing a millennial movement, the revelatory script associated with
a prophet might also be suppressed.
The implication here it that the creation of writing alone is not an exceedingly rare or
singular event, nor the disappearance of a script in these contexts surprising.
Following Houston, Baines, and Cooper, who urge us to view origins and collapse in
terms of one another (Houston et al. 2003: 431), the critical issue for a revelatory script
is its entry into conventional usage as a means of communication. The literature on
writing identifies a number of factors that bear upon this: how scripts can become
nationalist symbols, how people recognize writing as a technological advance in
communication, and so on. One variable in the success and persistence of a millennial
movement that might be extended to writing in this context is the ability of the
prophet to build a cadre of utterly committed followers, who become responsible for
spreading the prophet’s message. These followers are the ones who take over the
leadership of the movement after the prophet’s death and may substantially extend or
revise the prophet’s teachings. In the revealed scripts that tend to persist, such a cadre
was formed by the prophet, and initiation into the writing system was vital for
initiation into the prophet’s inner circle. In other words the success or demise of a
revelatory writing system hinged on the success of the movement within which it
developed, so that the presence or absence of things that tend to give a millennial
movement a lasting historical presence (such its connections to ethnic or nationalist
political agendas, the development of a committed circle of followers around the
prophet, who take over the movement) are the same factors that can lead to a
revelatory writing system entering into sustained usage or dying off with its creator.
331
#world philologies talk #western apache #institutional literacy transmission
Finally, and to go back to a point made earlier, I think the number of revealed scripts
can be expanded if we consider as examples of ‘revealed writing’ phenomena that
might not pass muster as writing in other contexts. For example, adherents of Pacific
cargo cults not only built airstrips and strung vines in trees like telephone wires, but
some of them also began writing. The marks they produced were not readable, but
the motivation for their writing was substantially similar to the motivations of those
who developed recognizable scripts in other millennial movements. Some transitional
cases are perhaps provided by ‘the holy writing’ of the Yoruba man Josiah Olunowo
Oshitelu, which was inspired [331] by a dream he had in 1926, in which he saw in the
dream ‘an open book, written in strange Arabic language’ (Dalby 1969: 175), and the
Oberi Okaime script, written down by two men of Nigeria, who began a religious
movement after the script was revealed to them (Dalby 1968: 162). These are
certainly much more complex than the writing produced in the cargo cults, but in
both cases the revealed scripts were used for a revealed language (Dalby 1968: 158;
1969: 175) so it is difficult to see just how they could enter into conventional usage. To
go even further, I think the experience of revealed knowledge through the medium of
writing or the book can be quite widespread among people at the margins of modern
nations. Maria Sabina, one of the best-known Mesoamerican curers, or ‘people of
knowledge’ in her native Mazatec, often referred to herself as ‘a book woman’ (Munn
1983: 476). This is related to a vision she had under the influence of hallucinogenic
mushrooms she ate to cure a patient. I quote from two separate interviews with her
concerning the revealed source of her knowledge:
304
Some people appeared who inspired me with respect. I knew they were the Principal Ones
of whom my ancestors spoke. They were seated behind a table on which there were many
written papers […]. I knew this was a revelation! that the saint children were giving me
[…]. On the Principal Ones’ table a book appeared, an open book that went on growing
until it was the size of a person. In its pages there were letters. It was a white book, so white
it was resplendent. One of the Principal Ones spoke to me and said ‘Maria Sabina, this is
the book of Wisdom. It is the Book of Language. Everything that is written in it is for you.’
(Estrada 1981: 47)
I thumbed through the leaves of the Book, many and many written pages, and alas I
thought, I did not know how to read […]. And suddenly I realized I was reading, and
understanding all that was written on the Book, and it was as though I had become richer,
wiser and in a moment I learned millions of things, I learned and learned.
(Wasson et al. 1974: xxviii)
This is not an isolated phenomenon, since curers throughout Mesoamerica say they
learn how to cure and divine from a book that divine beings showed them in a dream
(Boege 1988: 178; Dow 1986: 51; Lipp 1991: 151; Tedlock 1985). Parenthetically, the
person claiming to read is sometimes identified as illiterate (e.g. Dow 1986: 51), as was
Maria Sabina. Leaving aside questions of just how reading is constructed in these
traditions (Monaghan and Hamann 1999), this shows that the symbol of the book,
and the idiom of reading and writing, are used throughout the world by people on the
margins of colonial and neo-colonial states to conceive of and understand revelation,
even if they are illiterate. Moreover, people have books and scripts revealed to them,
without necessary going so far as to develop a writing system that we would recognize
as such, or even jotting the script down. 332
#postcolonialism #definition: literacy
What these phenomena suggest is that revealed scripts form a kind of continuum. On
the one end are those like Shong Lue’s script, which are complete writing systems. At
the other end are scripts that may never have been set down, and are not used in
conventional communication, but nonetheless have an important place in the religious
movement that gave birth to them. It has only been the ones that can be considered
complete writing systems that catch our attention. But there is good reason for
connecting visions where knowledge is revealed through the medium of writing to the
so-called pseudo-writing as found in cargo cults and to the full-blown writing systems
like those revealed in West Africa, since they are all parts of similar religious
phenomena, and begin in areas where writing is widely fetishized. It may even be that
they co-occur. Smalley and his colleagues speculate that the Hmong tradition of
diviners who go into trance, make marks on paper, and then read the writing, giving a
prediction, may have influenced Shong Lue to develop the Pahawh Hmong (Smalley
et al. 1990: 97–9). So it seems that the revealed writing system might be the tip of the
iceberg, so to speak, of widespread revelations and divinely inspired writing practices,
that not only co-occur, but form the vital context out of which such systems can
emerge and disappear. 333
#intro #definition: literacy
305
Sidwell, Paul. 2008. The Khom script of the Kommodam
rebellion. International Journal of the Sociology of Language
192:15-25.
Many older Loven people I have interviewed proudly recall that the Kommadam
gave them a script for their language, like a “real” nation. 19
#writing systems #language ideology #khom
Unseth, Peter. 2008. Missiology and orthography: The unique

contribution of Christian missionaries in devising new scripts.
Missiology: An International Review 36 (3):357-371.
Many who have invented scripts for their own languages credit a vision or some sort
of supernatural event (Cooper 1991, Daniels 1996a, 578). Examples of such reported
visions include Momolu Duwalu Bukele (spelled various ways) who invented the Vai
script in Liberia (Dalby 1967:7, 10) and Afaka who devised a script for Ndjuka of
Suriname (Dubelaar and Gonggryp 1968:244,245). In some cases, the reports of
supernatural intervention may have been invented to give the script authority. 366
#inspiration
I am not suggesting that missionaries today should begin creating new scripts to
interest people in reading. Rather, missionaries today should follow the example of
these script devisers and strongly identify with communities, embracing their
uniqueness rather than working to assimilate them. When groups are marginalized,
missionaries can make a strong affirmation of their worth by working with them to
foster a positive sense of identity and value in ways that may be highly symbolic and
emotive. 368
#motivation: ethnic identity
Unseth, Peter. 2008. The sociolinguistics of script choice.

International Journal of the Sociology of Language 192:1-4.
Fishman (1997:339), in the Handbook of Sociolinguistics, wrote “Scripts are not merely
tools for written communication; they are treasured, deeply entrenched ethnocultural
and ethnoreligious symbols and enactments”. 2
#writing systems
Wyrod, Christopher. 2008. A social orthography of identity:

The N’ko literacy movement in West Africa. International
Journal of the Sociology of Language 192:27-44.
The N’ko script has unique punctuation marks denoting commas and exclamation
points, but also utilizes punctuation commonly used in European language
orthography. 30
#writing systems
306
Central to N’ko’s development was the debate between exoglossic (foreign) and
endoglossic (indigenous) language policies. 31
#writing systems
In March 1944 during his stay in Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire, Kanté read an Arabic
newspaper article by a Lebanese journalist that denigrated African languages as
inferior since they lacked an indigenous system of transcription (B. Kanté 1996; Oyler
2001). The author reiterated French colonial precepts of cultural superiority, and
advocated European-language literacy education in Africa, arguing that African
languages, like the songs of birds, are impossible to transcribe.
Kanté resolved to prove that African languages were not primitive and inscrutable by
developing a system of notation for his native Maninka that could also be applied to
other African languages. Experimenting with adapted Latin and Arabic scripts, which
were already in limited use among Mande-language speakers, Kanté concluded that
they were ill-suited to tonal subtleties of his native language. According to oral
tradition and accounts transcribed by N’ko historians, Souleymane Kanté awoke from
a dream and wrote the characters of the N’ko alphabet on 14 April 1949 (Kaba 1992;
B. Kanté 1996; Oyler 2002). He reportedly chose the right-to-left direction of the
script after surveying [32] preferences among villagers “untouched by Islam’s Arabic
influence or by colonialism’s European influence” (Vydrine 2001: 35) and not as a
result of his Quranic education. Conrad (2001: 149) summarizes Kanté’s
determination, describing him as a “man with a very serious mission ... to promote
Mande self-awareness and esteem through the recording of local history in a script
that originated in their homeland, rather than being borrowed from Europe or the
Middle East.” 33
#writing systems
Written works in N’ko record indigenous knowledge in four subject areas: history,
linguistics, traditional practices (including pharmacopoeia), and literature. N’ko works
on famous Manding leaders like Almamy Samoury Touré, West African empires, and
heroic African figures such as Alpha Yaya Diallo and Patrice Lumumba valorize
African history. Works on phonetics and syntax provide unprecedented linguistic
analysis of Maninka pronunciation, grammar, etymology, and lexicon. Through these
works, Kanté and subsequent authors stress correct pronunciation of the Mande kan
gbè or ‘clear language’ and try to purify the language by offering traditional and
invented Maninka words as substitutes to foreign loan words (Vydrine 2001: 122). 36
#writing systems
Traditional literary works in N’ko include Mande proverbs, poetry, riddles, moralistic
fables, and legends of mythic Mande personages. This literature uses indigenous
settings and culturally relevant themes to reflect Mande society, drawing on local
knowledge and pride in Mande history and culture. by transcribing indigenous
knowledge on history, linguistics, traditional practices, and literature in N’ko, Kanté
and his followers preserved Mande cultural heritage in a form easily accessible to
Mande communities. As a result, N’ko literacy movement leaders demonstrate a
depth of knowledge on subjects not taught in formal schools but considered culturally
relevant by Mande people, adding to their social standing. 37
#writing systems
307
Behr, Wolfgang. 2009. “Steinthal.” Paper presented in Poznan.
The classification of languages, presented as the development of the idea of language” [(Die
Classification der Sprachen, dargestellt als Entwicklung der Sprachi- dee, Berlin 1850, p. 85]
[SLIDE 14]
„The round dance [of language development] is opened up by the trans-Indian languages,
the most underdevelopped, most formless of all languages. They correspond to zoophytes
in zoology. Like these, they represent the transition from the kingdom of plants to the
kingdom of animals, such that these languages form the boundaries of what constitutes
human language, and they approach the muteness of signed language. In reality they
should be called acritae (belonging to a subgenus of beetles), because all grammatical
differentiations are not yet implemented. These languages have no structural constitution
whatsoever, just as the said animals have no structured skeleton. They consist merely of
monosyllabic roots, and thus correspond to funghi and algae among the plants. Their
sentence construction is an image of the lowest of all mechanical processes: the fall. One
word falls upon another, and it is only in this sense that we can speak of case in this
context.”
9
#progressivism: language
The main question driving the last booklet is what has triggered the process of
phoneticization in the Chinese writing system, how that essential step towards a rebus
or phonetic loan usage of characters was achieved, by which everything, including
personal names, loans and abstract concepts could all of a sudden be written, through
which the representation shifted from the semantic to the phonetic side. Never
questioning the assumption, increasingly criticized today, that writing was a subsidiary
semiotic system which was invented to represent language, often called the
surrogationalist stance in linguistic apporaches to the theory of writing, he identifies
personal names and loanwords as one starting point for the development towards [11]
phoneticization, but also the increasing conventionalisation of signs, through which
the pictorial connection with the extralinguistic referent, the depicted object, got
increasingly lost over time. Thus, not only the linguistic sign is arbitrary, but, to a
certain degree, also the written. To put it with Steinthal:
„By the process through which they, [the demotic Egyptian and the Chinese script] are in
fact restructuring the image as a mere figure, something similar happens to what takes
place when in language an etymology of a word is forgotten in the course of time, and the
sound in itself becomes a meaningless sign for the imagination. For our consciousness a
sound is no more a child as the chinese figure is for a Chinese; only the organ of
perception is different.”
This shift towards the abstract figure is facilitated or made possible, according to
Steinthal, through the phonotactic structure of the language represented, and it this
insight into a close relationship with the underlying linguistic properties, which saved
Steinthal—like very few other scholars of his time except Du Ponceau—from
classifying the Chinese script as ideography. Chinese writing, according to him is
NOT a script of ideas, but a phonetically based script of the subtype logography (190),
in which language is always involved in the representation of thought, and where
there is no direct way to access semantics, although he argues in a different passage
that it is also Vorstellungsschrift, or writing of imagination (225). He says, in his
comlicated German prose, already criticized during his lifetime [SLIDE 17]
308
„We will now have to explicate the transition from a writing of imagination
(Vorstellungsschrift, ideography) to the writing of sounds (Lautschrift): This transition was
promoted by the following peculiarity [12] of the language, which, in a way, called for it.
In a language like Chinese, which is so poor in entities of sound, that it only has some 450
monosyllabic words, it cannot be avoided that one phonetic form, one word, has several,
even many meanings. How the state of affairs might earlier have been in reality,
this is not the occasion to discuss.But, to put it more properly, we might say that the
Chinese ear never distinguished between a thousand words, such that the fact remains that
for the ear of the Chinese at all times, many meanings met in one sound.But also in the
(morpholoigcally) rich Sanskrit we find this homonymic phenomenon, just to a much
smaller extent. But three or four meanings are found with quite a few identical sounding
roots, and, this might indeed be true of any linguistic family.
And he continues [SLIDE 18]
Now, it might be easy to say, in hindsight, that this state of affairs led to transforming a
picture into a mere sign of a wholly dissimilar object, the name of or word for which
sounded the same as the object depicted by the picture, neglecting what it actually depicts.
That is to say, to use a picture as an abstract sign devoid of content, neglecting the
manifold meanings of the sound thus noted. And it is in this process, that the extraordinary
leap from a script of meaning to a script of sound is grounded, a leap which presupposes
such a strong power of abstraction, such a routine of dissociating sound from meaning
(...) that one cannot understand just how those peoples should have all of a sudden come
up with it, despite the fact that they originally always just had the concept, not the word in
their mind. (...) The gap between these two major classes [13] of writing is simply too big to
be understood just like that. We request a bridge, a mediator, and that seems to be
provided in those cases, where the similarity of sound of two words falls together with an
etymological relatedness of their meanings.”
In other words, the homonymic principle would have applied first in those cases,
where metaphoric or metonymic extension of cognate terms took place, in cases, that
is to say, where what used to be etymology diachronically, was understood as mere
paronomasia synchronically for the speaker. And this transition, he goes on to argue,
was enabled by the underlying monosyllabic root structure of Egyptian and Chinese
at the time when it was first put into writing.
The very same idea has been propagated independently in recent work by Peter
Daniels and Bill Boltz, although they refer to Sumerian and Maya rather than to
Egyptian and are both unaware of their Central European Jewish predecessor. It is
the paucity of sound and the density of homophony which Steinthal consequently
identifies as a necessary, if not the ultimate reason for the failure of the Chinese
writing system to develop into a syllabary or an alphasyllabary in Daniels’ typology.
14
#rebus #hypothesis: predisposition to phonography
Or, in the same essay,
„The languages with a simple, especially an always monotonous syllable structure, the
languages, whose syllables all have consonantal onsets and vocalic offsets, are very prone to
be represented as syllabaries, but they never stimulate alphabetic wiritng.”(240).
[“Die Sprachen mit einfachem, besonders immer gleichförmigen Sylbenbau, die Sprachen, deren Sylben alle
mit Consonanten anlauten und auf Vocale auslauten, sind sehr geeignet zur Sylbenschrift, regen aber nie zur
Buchstabenschrift an.” (240). ] [PK: this is on page 106 of Steinthal 1852]
309
From today’s perspective, the idea that „habitualization and determination were
polarised forces” of the development of non-alphabetic writing in the case of Chinese
is problematic in so far, that current models of Old Chinese reconstruction assume
that the language did indeed differentiate some 1200 syllables and that it was possibly
not strictly mono- but sesquisyllabic. It also fails to do justice to the idea of a rich
derivational morphology of Old Chinese (or, incidentally, of Early Sumerian), but that
was an insight hardly to be expected from someone working with the sources and
reference tools of the mid-19th century. There is a hint, however, that he was aware
of this dimension in the introductory sentence saying How the state of affairs might earlier
have been in reality, this is not the occasion to discuss. 15
Bulloch, Hannah. 2009. In pursuit of progress: Narratives of

transformation on a Philippine island. Canberra: The
Australian National University PhD thesis.
Fn: Johnson (1997: 47, 55) suggests that in Sulu, in the Southern Philippines,
‘America’ is seen as more than just a place to which people aspire to go for
employment, but as a source of “knowledge-power or potency (ilum’)” (ibid: 47)
associated with education, while the Arab world is associated with the knowledge
power of Islam. After the birth of a child, the placenta is placed in a coconut shell
along with a piece of English language newspaper and a piece of paper with scripture
from the Qur’an written upon it in Arabic, in order that each form of knowledge-
power will be instilled in the child. 168
#folk literacy
Cook, Vivian, Jyotsna Vaid, and Benedetta Bassetti. 2009.

Writing Systems Research: A new journal for a developing
field. Writing Systems Research 1 (1):1-3.
Our experience has also shown us that it is also necessary to stress that a language is
not a writing system; a language typically has a writing system. 2
#writing systems
Coulmas, Florian. 2009. Evaluating merit—the evolution of

writing reconsidered. Writing Systems Research 1 (1):5-17.
[Gelb] speaks of the necessary steps of a ‘unidirectional’ development, declaring that
‘writing must pass through the stages of logography, syllabography, and
alphabetography in this, and no other, order’ (Gelb, 1963, p. 201). 5
#writing systems
Goody (1968, p. 19) speaks of the ‘technological restrictions imposed by non-phonetic
systems of writing, where the sheer difficulties of learning the skill mean that it can be
available only to a limited number of people’. 6
#writing systems
310
There can be no denying that Indian numerals, which are often called Arabic, are
highly efficient and thus superior to both Roman and Chinese numerals. They are
more efficient for writing and for reading as they take up less space, and are most
importantly better for making calculations. This is due to two structural innovations:
(1) the invention of the zero and (2) the place value system according to which each
number sign changes its meaning (Value) depending on its place in a sequence of
number signs. The first 1 in 11 means ten, while the second one means one. 6
#writing systems
With regard to writing, it is useful to make a threefold distinction between ‘writing
system’, ‘script’, and ‘orthography’. 7
#writing systems
Anthropologist Goody (1968), too, supported the idea of a non-arbitrary link between
the complexity of writing systems, literacy levels, and the social systems their users
established. 8
#writing systems
Recent studies of script choice (e.g.. Eira, 1998; Grivelet, 2001; Unseth, 2005, 2008)
suggest that socio-linguistic factors weigh heavier than systemic factors in determining
how communities choose their writing systems, scripts, and orthographies. 9
#writing systems
Bassetti (2006, p. 96) has argued and presented convincing empirical evidence to the
effect ‘that different types of writing systems (alphabetic, consonantal, etc.) provide
different models for the analysis of language, segmenting language in different units
and making these units apparent to their readers’. 12
#writing systems
It is certainly true, to borrow Bassetti’s words, that ‘different types of writing systems
provide different models for the analysis of language’; but what is the nature of the
relationship between model and that to which it corresponds? Does the model
reproduce or impose structure? My understanding is that the medial difference
between audible speech and visible writing implies necessarily that both are the case.
12
#writing systems
In the sense that a writing system is a model of a language, it constitutes a kind of
explanation of it. An explanation that makes do with fewer elementary units can be
said to be better than one with more elementary units. […] However, when it comes
to mastering the system, the number of basic signs is only one of the factors that have
a bearing on simplicity. There are at least two aspects to the simplicity of a writing
system, ease of learning and ease of use. The former depends partly, but not entirely,
on the parsimony of the sign inventory. Simply memorizing the ABC is a long way
from becoming literate in English or French, for example. Conversely, Chinese
characters are structured. Learning 1,000 or 2,000 characters does not mean
committing to memory that many unique signs. The building blocks from which
Chinese characters are composed are much fewer in number. There are just eleven
basic strokes, from which a certain historically contingent number of ‘radicals’ are
311
composed in modern times, 214 radicals are conventionally used for arranging
characters in dictionaries. These are used for building all characters and ordering
them lexicographically. On the other hand, fluent readers of English need to know
several hundred phoneme-grapheme combinations. According to one analysis, the
forty phonemes of English correspond to in excess of 1,700 graphemes and grapheme
combinations (Nyikos, 1988). 13
#writing systems
No writing system excels in all categories. The reason is that [14] every writing system
is a historical accomplishment, which means that it is subject to change on one hand,
and to cultural attachment on the other. 15
#writing systems
Evolutionism forces us to believe that writing developed in the direction of something
it helped to produce; that is, linguistic analysis. Instrumental utilitarianism forces us to
believe that maximizing utility is the major force in the development of writing.
However, as is true of many technologies, its applications became apparent only after
it had been invented, and thus cannot sensibly be conceived as the end to which the
invention or development had occurred. Moreover, once a writing system, an
orthography and a script have received official blessing and are subject to institutional
support, functional criteria are often overruled by inertia and an interest in stability
which may block the road towards future improvement for a long time, if not
permanently. Writing systems are not just technologies, but also emblems of identity,
and as such interfere with the rationality of utility. If the diffusion of writing systems
can be analysed in terms of technological innovation, as has been suggested in this
article, these systems should therefore be conceived not as objects of individual choice,
but rather as public goods that are subject to cultural attachments and political
decisions. 15
#writing systems
Lee, Sang-Oak. 2009. “Writing systems and linguistic

structure.” Written Language & Literacy 12 (2): 159-160.
Modern linguistics has been afflicted by scriptism, defined as ‘the tendency of linguists
to base their analyses on writing-induced concepts such as phoneme, word, and
sentence,’ [PK: no citation] while subscribing to the intricate relationship between
written and spoken language.
An interesting example of a successful combination of different needs, the creators of
Han’gŭl wanted this script to be easy to learn and easy to read. These requirements
are met by keeping the number of basic graphs very low to meet the requirements of
the learner and writer, while creating enough graphic complexity — in the syllable
blocks — to meet the reader’s requirements for contrast and discernability. 159
#theory
In this workshop, however, we shall focus on the question of what constraints, if any,
exist between writing and the linguistic information it encodes. Substantive questions
include:
312
What kinds of formal constraints constrain the mapping between language and
writing?
What effects do properties of writing systems have on conscious (or unconscious)
knowledge of language among literate speakers?
Are properties of scripts and writing systems — e.g. such overt properties as script
directionality — related to what kind of information is encoded?
160
#theory
Given that writing is not yet well known even within the linguistic world […] 160
#theory
Sebba, Mark. 2009. Sociolinguistic approaches to writing

systems research. Writing Systems Research 1 (1):35-49.
Indeed, only one volume exists which takes a strictly social perspective on writing
systems: Fishman’s edited collection Advances in the Creation and Revision of Writing Systems
(1977). 35
#writing systems
Writing systems are potent symbols of the languages they encode, to the extent that, in
the public mind, a language and its writing are often the same thing. 39
#writing systems
In the last century or two, the development of new, truly indigenous scripts has
become rare. 41
#writing systems
Severi, Carlo. 2009. “L’univers des arts de la mémoire.”

Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 64 (2):463-497.
#mpi
Il faut qu’il existe dans la nature des hommes une langue mentale, commune à toutes les
nations […]c’est là le principe des hiéroglyphes, avec lesquels toutes les nations ont parlé
au temps de leur première barbarie[fn].
—Giambattista Vico, La Scienza Nuova
Nous devons supposer, écrit-il, que la première mémoire de l’humanité a été confiée
aux emblèmes et aux figures symboliques, puisque l’image constitue la «langue
mentale» qui fonde, pour toutes les nations, le «principe de tous les hiéroglyphes». Ce
mythe d’une langue figurée composée d’icônes, qui de Paolo Rossi à Francis Yates
traverse toute l’histoire des arts de la mémoire, a profondément influencé les historiens
de l’écriture qui ont longtemps distingué entre une «écriture des choses», à la fois
iconique, incertaine et primitive, et une «écriture de mots» plus tardive et évoluée.
Encore aujourd’hui, bien que sous forme implicite ou fragmentaire, on peut en
percevoir les effets dans la pratique de l’anthropologie sociale. L’étude des techniques
non-occidentales de la mémorisation fait en effet émerger des objets non seulement
313
peu étudiés, mais aussi difficilement [463] conceptualisables. Nos catégories
habituelles (dessin, symbole, idéographie, pictographie, sémasiographie 2, écriture,
etc.) s’adaptent mal à ces graphismes, généralement classés sous le label un peu vague
de «supports mnémoniques», et il est souvent difficile d’en saisir la nature logique. 464
La question de savoir quelle unité conceptuelle peut sous-tendre ces usages
mnémoniques si différents (et par conséquent la question de la nature logique des khipus:
écriture, symbole mathématique ou simple aide-mémoire?) reste aujourd’hui sans
réponse pour les défenseurs comme pour les adversaires de toutes ces hypothèses.
Nous ne doutons pas que l’examen des documents existants permettra bientôt aux
spécialistes de ces questions de sortir de cette impasse. 466
L’auteur du fameux Study ofwritingest formel: ou bien on pratique le simple exercice de
la mémoire orale et l’on obtient des traditions fragiles et incertaines, ou bien on
invente de véritables techniques de transcription du langage et l’on ouvre la voie à
l’écriture. En fait, la réalité de bien des cultures amérindiennes échappe à cette
opposition: l’exercice de la mémoire et l’usage de signes graphiques ne sont pas
dissociés au sein de ces traditions, qui ont inventé, précisément, des arts [466] de la
mémoire qui ne coïncident ni avec des écritures ni avec des mnémotechnies
individuelles. 467
On pensera avant tout aux pratiques pictographiques, où l’on voit se réaliser, du point
de vue des sémiotiques occidentales, une « rencontre impossible » du dessin et du
signe. À propos de ces systèmes, qu’il s’agisse du Nord, du Centre ou du Sud des
Amériques, les historiens de l’écriture ont longtemps hésité, en multipliant définitions
contradictoires et dénégations. 467
Nous nous demanderons plutôt si khipus et pictographies, en tant qu’ensembles
graphiques organisés à usage mnémonique, possèdent – même si l’on choisit de partir
de cas apparemment éloignés – des traits formels en commun (et donc impliquent des
opérations mentales comparables) et si l’on peut établir des différences pertinentes
entre ces deux techniques de mémorisation. On cherchera donc à déterminer si ces
deux systèmes de codage mnémonique sont comparables indépendamment de toute
référence à l’écriture. En étudiant les opérations mentales qu’ils impliquent, nous
chercherons ainsi à établir s’ils appartiennent à un même univers conceptuel, à une
langue mentale—pour reprendre l’idée de Vico—qui caractériserait les arts amérindiens
de la mémoire. On verra que, si l’on suit cette voie, les khipus et les pictographies
cessent de nous sembler hybrides ou imprécis et que nous pourrons mieux en
comprendre la nature et les fonctions en tant qu’artefacts mentaux. Ces analyses, qu’il
faudra mener sur quelques cas ethnographiques nécessairement [467] décrits à grands
traits, nous conduiront ensuite à esquisser les éléments logiques qui définissent, en
premier lieu dans l’aire amérindienne, l’univers de ces arts de la mémoire. Dans ce
contexte, où il s’agira d’esquisser un horizon de recherche (et non d’enfermer dans un
schéma réducteur l’immense diversité des cultures amérindiennes), le mot univers ne
s’appliquera donc pas seulement au sens géographique, mais aussi au sens logique en
tant qu’«ensemble d’éléments et d’opérations mentales » impliqués par l’usage de ces
techniques de la mémorisation. 468
Nous avons déjà remarqué que nos catégories sémiotiques traditionnelles (dessin,
pictographie, idéographie...) s’appliquent mal aux techniques non occidentales de la
mémorisation. Ces notions ne permettent guère de décrire de manière cohérente les
modes de fonctionnement de ces graphismes. Au lieu de chercher à catégoriser a priori
314
des ensembles graphiques mal connus, il vaut donc mieux commencer par l’étude
empirique de traditions iconographiques utilisées à des fins mnémoniques, pour
analyser ensuite les opérations mentales qu’elles mobilisent. 468
D’autre parc, ce processus de métamorphose incessante (où l’idée du bien résulte
nécessairement d’un processus de domestication du mal) peut conduire à investir une
même créature d’une ambiguïté conscicucive, qui en fait simultanément une instance
positive et négative. Or, l’iconographie yekwana permet de traduire en termes visuels,
avec économie de moyens et précision, ces deux principes d’organisation du monde
mythique. 472
En fait, comme l’a bien vu D. Guss, le vrai sujet des graphismes yekwana n’est pas tel
ou tel personnage, mais « la relation dynamique en forme de transformation latente
entre les deux images» de l’un dans l’autre.[fn] 473
Cette tradition montre bien quel peut être le rôle d’une iconographie au sein d’une
tradition dite« orale». En fait, entre les deux pôles opposés de l’usage exclusif de l’oral
et de l’écrit, il existe un grand nombre de situations où ni l’usage exclusif de la parole
énoncée, ni celui du signe écrit ne dominent. 473
Bref, en tant que graphisme, le pictogramme suppose une iconographie cohérente et
un savoir défini. Loin de se réduire à un élément graphique tour à tour « inventé » par
un individu, un pictogramme est à concevoir comme la marque d’une relation entre un
ensemble de connaissances (les opérations mentales que cet ensemble suppose) et une
trace graphique orientée par une tradition iconographique. 474
Bref, au-delà des variations qui peuvent caractériser telle ou telle tradition locale, un
certain nombre de principes orientent toujours l’exercice de la pictographie dans les
cultures amérindiennes. Un thème narratif(voyage, dialogue entre esprits, expédition
de guerre ou compte rendu de chasse...) s’exprime dans un genre de la tradition orale
(chant ou récit), tout d’abord à travers l’imposition d’un ordre des mots qui suit
pratiquement toujours la structure parallèle. Cet ordre transforme une séquence
narrative en une alternance de formules constantes répétées et de variations alignées
les unes après les autres, bien souvent sous forme de listes de noms propres. À
l’intérieur de ce bloc de mots organisés sous une forme mnémonique, l’image
pictographique a pour fonction d’attribuer de la saillance mnémonique aux variations
d’un texte ainsi organisé. De cette manière, suivant un procédé que nous avons appelé
principe de transcription de la variation en image, le pictogramme rend possible la
mémorisation efficace de textes longs et élaborés. La mémoire sociale de bien des
traditions amérindiennes n’est donc fondée ni sur une pratique analogue à l’écriture
alphabétique, ni sur une tradition vaguement définie comme «orale». Cette pratique
se fonde plutôt sur une mnémotechnique figurée, dont l’essentiel est à identifier dans
la relation qui s’établit entre une iconographie relativement stable et un usage
rigoureusement structuré de la parole rituelle. La pictographie amérindienne n’est
donc pas une forme annonciatrice et inaccomplie de l’écriture alphabétique. Elle
implique, au contraire, un art de la mémoire particulièrement souple et sophistiqué,
doué d’un style graphique cohérent et socialisé. 476
Un premier constat s’impose: aucune de ces techniques de la mémorisation ne semble
être «arbitraire» (G. Urton) ou «fondée sur le seul usage individuel de la mémoire» (T.
Cummins). En Amérique comme ailleurs 23, tout art de la mémoire est fondé sur
l’imposition d’un ordre à un ensemble de connaissances partagées (ensemble que nous
proposons d’appeler tradition) et sur un effet de saillance qui permet de distinguer toute
315
connaissance individuelle d’une autre. Ces deux opérations rendent possibles ce que
nous avons appelé ailleurs des relations mnémoniques. À la différence des relations
sémiotiques, celles-ci ne s’établissent nullement entre un signe et son référent dans le
monde, comme dans une écriture. Il s’agit plutôt d’un ensemble d’inférences visuelles,
fondées sur le déchiffrement d’images complexes, qui établissent une relation entre
une mémoire des images et une mémoire des mots. L’efficacité des pratiques liées à la
mémorisation des traditions iconographiques n’est donc pas due à la tentative plus ou
moins réussie d’imiter la voie de la référence propre à l’écriture, mais à la relation
qu’elles établissent entre différents niveaux d’élaboration mnémonique. Nous pouvons
donc tirer une première conclusion: toute technique graphique de mémorisation
suppose une organisation modulaire des connaissances à représenter. 477
Considérons deux propriétés logiques qui permettent de caractériser n’importe quel
ensemble de symboles: la puissance et l’expressivité. La puissance d’un système est
définie par sa capacité d’attribuer des prédicats, éventuellement très simples, à un
nombre élevé d’objets. L’expressivité, elle, permet au système de décrire un nombre
limité d’objets en leur attribuant un grand nombre de prédicats. En ce sens, on dira
que la description très détaillée d’une personne fournie par une seule image, par
exemple un portrait, est très expressive et peu puissante. L’énoncé «tous les hommes
sont mortels» est au contraire doué d’une grande puissance logique, tout en étant très
peu expressif. Une fois ces prémisses posées, on remarquera que dans toute écriture
transcrivant les sons d’une langue, par exemple l’écriture alphabétique que nous
utilisons couramment, l’expressivité et la puissance de la langue coïncident avec celle
de l’écriture. C’est à ces conditions que, selon la formule de Ferdinand de Saussure,
«l’écriture disparaît dans la langue». Or, un art de la mémoire est un système de
symboles qui, tout en étant [477] très éloigné de l’arbitre individuel, est caractérisé par le
fait que son expressivité et sa puissance logique ne coïncident jamais avec celles de la
langue. La structure d’un art de la mémoire, en tant qu’artefact mental, est donc
constituée par l’établissement d’une relation entre les instruments de la saillance (qui
confèrent au système son expressivité) et les modalités de l’établissement d’un ordre
(qui confèrent au système sa puissance logique). On remarquera aussi que ces deux
principes ont avant tout une fonction mentale: l’ordre qu’organisent les dessins (et
leurs relations) en séquence possède une fonction évidente pour la codification
mnémonique. La saillance conférée aux images, elle, joue un rôle irremplaçable dans
les processus liés à l’évocation. Tout art de la mémoire est donc défini par trois ordres
de relations: de type mnémonique (codification/évocation), iconographique
(ordre/saillance) et logique (puissance/expressivité). 478
La vision négative de la pictographie véhiculée par les historiens de l’écriture se fonde
essentiellement sur l’argumentation que les ensembles pictographiques sont des
symbolismes stériles, incapables de se développer parce que constitués d’innombrables
tentatives individuelles et non abouties de transmettre de l’information. Dans cette
perspective, l’écriture n’apparaît pas comme un développement de la pictographie
mais plutôt comme son dépassement à partir de principes tout autres et, en
particulier, du principe de la représentation des sons du langage. Bien des recherches
indiquent, au contraire, la possibilité que le pictogramme ait suivi, en Amérique, une
évolution cohérente et autonome pendant plusieurs siècles. Mais ce qu’il importe de
souligner ici est que l’évolution des arts de la mémoire n’est pas seulement à concevoir
dans la longue durée. Elle est aussi modulaire et multinéaire, ce qui signifie que le
développement ou l’extension d’un de ses aspects constitutifs n’implique pas
l’évolution parallèle d’un autre. Une tradition locale peut mettre l’accent sur
316
l’organisation des connaissances et atteindre une grande complexité dans la mise en
place d’un ordre des savoirs à mémoriser, sans développer une iconographie
raffinée.[fn] 479
L’ensemble de ces analyses, qui nous a fait traverser un certain nombre de cas
apparemment sans relations entre eux, nous permet donc de conclure que l’évolution.
des arts de la mémoire amérindiens est bien modulaire et multilinéaire. Elle se
développe suivant les deux critères que nous avons définis: l’exercice d’une pensée
taxonomique et l’invention d’une saillance visuelle. Chacun de ces niveaux, qui a sa
propre fonction mnémonique, confère à la tradition iconographique un certain degré
d’expressivité et de puissance logiques. L’univers des arts de la mémoire est donc
constitué d’un groupe bien défini d’opérations mentales. 486
Ce qui compte pour nous, c’est l’univers logique impliqué par le système et non son
apparence visuelle. 486
Vus dans cette perspective, les khipus ne seraient donc ni des écritures, ni des
mnémotechnies, mais appartiendraient légitimement—en tant que variante
cohérente, aussi bien par leurs traits communs que par leurs différences pertinentes—
à l’univers des arts de la mémoire amérindiens. Cet univers est constitué par un groupe
bien défini d’opérations mentales, qui orientent une pensée dont l’expression est
confiée autant à l’image qu’à l’espace mental où elle apparaît. 491
Au terme de notre analyse, nous pouvons conclure que les pictographies (et, peut-être
les khipus) sont des traditions iconographiques et orales, où le rôle des images dans les
processus de mémorisation est tout à fait identifiable: la parole ne s’y fait nullement«
illustrer» par l’image. Bien au contraire, l’image joue un rôle constitutif dans la mise
en place de relations mnémoniques entre certains thèmes visuels et certains mots qui
jouent un rôle-clé dans la mémorisation des récits. On pourra affirmer aussi que les
pictographies (et peut-être les khipus) acquièrent, dans cette nouvelle perspective, une
dimension de pratiques traditionnelles, socialisées et identifiées, dont l’usage se révèle
tout à fait comparable à celui d’un artefact mental. Elles appartiennent donc à un
univers mental auquel on peut légitimement associer des pratiques que l’Occident a
connues et développées selon ses propres axes et selon sa propre histoire. 491
Consacrons donc, pour conclure, quelques remarques encore à la notion d’écriture et
à ses relations multiples avec la pictographie. Une longue tradition nous a habitués à
établir entre ces deux systèmes une relation d’exclusion réciproque. Selon cette
perspective, la pictographie existe là où une véritable écriture n’a pas été inventée.
492
Dans ces documents [post-1870s Plains Indian texts influenced by colonial
discourses], le signe linguistique s’inscrit donc dans un espace mental qui reste orienté
par les opérations (ordre, saillance) impliquées par l’usage de la pictographie. Dans ce
cas, ce n’est pas (comme on l’a tant dit) la pictographie [492] amérindienne qui essaie
d’ «imiter» sans y réussir l’écriture des Blancs. C’est l’écriture qui, en se plaçant à la
place du pictogramme, parle la langue mentale («commune à bien des nations»,
comme l’écrivait Vico) des arts amérindiens de la mémoire, dont nous avons essayé
d’esquisser ici l’univers logique. 493
Ce serait là peut-être un moyen de nous libérer enfin, par la recherche empirique, du
mythe anthropologique de la langue des origines faite d’emblèmes et d’images
317
symboliques, où Vico voyait encore en 1744 le principe «de tous les hiéroglyphes».
493
Urua, Eno-Abasi, and Dafydd Gibbon. 2009. “Preserving and

understanding the Medefaidrin language of the Obεri Ɔkaimε
(‘Church freely given’) Ibibio community.” World Congress
of African Linguistics, 17-20 August 2009, Cologne.
1927: Inception of the language by Ibibio speakers
1930s:Further developments
• Oberi Ofaime script for Medefaidrin
• Research at International African Institute Investigation by colonial
authorities
1983: Ibibio orthography
• Linguistic work of Okon Essien
• Akwa Esop Imaisong Ibibio (sociocultural organisation)
Now: revival of interest in schooling children within the community 16
Texts hand written on notebooks: late 1920s
• severe wear and tear
• no resources available to Oberi Okaime group to preserve their language 21
Data: texts
Oldest surviving expert roughly 90 years old The documents in the script:
• grammar and mathematics
• handwritten on ordinary exercise books
• in extreme danger of disintegration
• no typewriters capable of writing such a script at the time – and no typwriters,
period. 23
Ibibio & Medefaidrin: Phonology
Ibibio Medefaidrin
2 tone register !language with terracing ! stress language. Adams (1947:26)
no voiced fricatives ! voiced fricatives and affricates: dzjaʃ,

gizn, ruzerd, seminant and dzibreant
318
very few consonant clusters, the highest consonant clusters: Seminant (Holy
being two consonant clusters, usually of Spirit) atieft, dzibreant, edikanapt,
the Cr and CG form. Enikrismas, ekenskwak, edipikn
none word finally
40
Medfaidrin: Consonant clusters

fenslet to forgive
cliffin to know
xpil to pluck
osprid quickly
texran table
dabt cup
41
Medfaidrin: Morphology
Nouns and verbs:
• No structural difference!
unlike Ibibio (nominal prefixes etc.)
• both may begin with either vowel or consonant segments. 42
Medfaidrin: Derivational morphology 44 [PK: see pdf for examples]

Medfaidrin: Nominal compounds 45 [PK: see pdf for examples]
Medfaidrin: Morphology 46 [PK: see pdf for examples]
Medfaidrin: Sentence structure 48 [PK: see pdf for examples]
Medfaidrin: Sentence structure 49 [PK: see pdf for examples]
Initial results: revealed but influenced
English influence:
• phonology:
clusters
• orthography
some individual characters resemble roman characters
319
punctuation, left-right orthography
• morphology:
-ing aspect
s/z plural
• Layouting conventions
53
Ibibio influence:
• adjective postposition
• numeral system
simplified from Ibibio (bases 5, 10 and 20)
only base 20
• !Increasing influence of Ibibio after 70 years?
54
Speculation on genesis ...
• imitation of missionary
preaching style
writing conventions
55
2010–2019
de Voogt, Alexander. 2010. “Introducing writing on writing.” In
The idea of writing: Play and complexity, edited by Irving Finkel.
Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Most, if not all, writing systems have been used to write words from languages
for which the writing system was not developed. 2
Writing systems do not belong exclusively to grammatologists. Linguists have

a view and method of analysis that is frequently applied to scripts. Philologists
developed their own view, less abstract and more connected with the
interpretation of texts, that lies at their basis. 5
de Voogt, Alexander. 2010. “The Caroline Islands Script: A

linguistic confrontation.” The idea of writing: Play and
complexity, edited by Irving Finkel. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
The Caroline Islands are located in the Federated States of Micronesia in the western
Pacific Ocean. According to Sohn (1975), the Caroline Islands refer to the islands of
320
Woleai Atoll, Ulithi, Fais, Soroi, Eauripik, Faraulep, Ifaluk. Elate, Puluwat, Lamotrek
and Satawal. 327
Woleaian is spoken with dialectal differences on Woleai, Eauripik. Faraulep, Elate,
Lamotrek, Puluwat, Satawal and Ifaluk. It is on this group of islands that the Caroline
Islands script was found. For reasons of convenience Riesenberg & Kaneshiro’s (1960)
term ‘Caroline Islands script’ is used and the islands and the language are referred to
as the Woleai group and the Woleai language. In 1975, there were approximately
1,500 speakers of Woleai on the various islands. Similar to Trukese and Ulithian, the
language can be classified as a member of the Trukic subgroup of the Micronesian
group of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family. 327
Riesenberg & Kaneshiro (1960: 282) found 78 characters of type 1 and 19 of type 2.
330
The number of inhabitants who knew how to write the script in the 1950s was
minimal. On Faraulep, Woleai, and Ifaluk, there were a few old people who knew the
script; on Elato and Satawal, the last experts had died. According to Riesenberg &
Kaneshiro (1960: 277), there is evidence that in 1909 both types of symbols were
known on Woleai, Faraulep, Puhiwat and possibly Satawal. In 1934, when Someki
visited, both systems were known on Ifaluk and Elato as well. But, as suggested by the
number of persons able to write in the 1950s, knowledge of the script was in decline.
331
In their analysis of the Caroline Islands script, Riesenberg & Kaneshiro (1960: 299)
considered phonemes and phonemic combinations. Based on Smith’s (1951)
orthography of the Woleai language, they assumed that Woleaian had fifty phonemes,
of which there were twenty-four vowels – eleven long and thirteen short. There were
also two semivowels, ‘w’ and ‘y’, and twenty-four consonants. The official
orthography by Smith was at that time proposed to the Trust Territory
administration. Riesenberg & Kaneshiro used this orthography in the remainder of
their study.
Riesenberg & Kaneshiro found 97 characters in the Caroline Islands script (78 of type
I and 19 of type 2). All of them have consonant + vowel, semivowel + vowel or vowel
values. 334
There is an overall lack of exact correspondence between characters and syllables.
Not only must one symbol serve for several different syllables, but also some syllables
may be represented by different symbols. 334
The Caroline Islander script has been criticized for variation in symbol values and
dismissed for its inadequacy by Riesenberg & Kaneshiro ( 1960:311 ). Smith’s
orthography of the Woleaian language [336] shows so many inaccurate transcriptions
of the Caroline Islands script and contains so many superfluous letters and poor
spelling conventions that a comparison between the Caroline Islands script and
Smith’s orthography does not warrant a dismissal of the script.!
One may add that the syllabary never developed into a standard form and as a
consequence, different writers of the syllabary solved spelling problems in different
ways. This does not, however, represent any obstacle for a writing system. Other
syllabaries have functioned quite satisfactorily with such a system. This flexibility of
the script also allowed dialect differences (Woleai, Faraulep, etc.) to be represented by
the script (Riesenberg & Kaneshiro 1960: 304). Finally, consistency was found when
321
writers had to decide on the end-consonant and individual writers were consistent
within their own writing, suggesting a writing system that was both appropriated by
the speakers of the language and served the local needs for writing. 337
Sohn (1984) argued that syllabaries and ideographies are inadequate for languages,
especially those with a complicated syllable structure. These writing systems need too
many symbols in order to represent a language systematically. In Sohn’s view, only
systematic writing systems should be developed, because this makes it easier for
outsiders to learn and to investigate the language. Sohn (1984: 216) stated that
“syllabaries are adequate only in such a language as Japanese where there are a
relatively small number of different syllables.” Sohn adds: WOL [pk: small caps]
[Woleai] has a syllable structure as simple as Japanese, but has many more vowels and
consonants. This fact makes it disadvantageous for Woleaians to have a syllabary.”
The Caroline Islands script was, by (Sohn’s) definition, inadequate. Similar
conclusions could be drawn for most scripts found elsewhere in this publication.
DeFrancis (1989: 231) stated that in the case of Japanese “there are 105 or 113
syllables and 46 syllabic symbols to represent them. The 46 symbols are juggled
around in various well known ways so as to handle all of the syllables, in somewhat the
same way that we combine ‘t’ and ‘h’ to represent the sounds in ‘this’ and ‘thin’.”
Thus, not even the Japanese represented all the possible syllables in their language. It
is interesting to note that with a phonemic spelling as proposed by Sohn, and
disregarding vowel length and geminated consonants, the total of possible (open)
syllables in Woleaian is just 15 x 8 = 120 and 8 syllables for single vowels. This
number is rather close to that of the Japanese language. Apparently, the ‘indigenous’
writers of various languages of ancient and modern times were and are not much
concerned with the particular features of syllabaries that Sohn finds so inadequate.
338
New linguistic research in the 1970s by Sohn and Tawerilmang made clear, however,
that Smith’s orthography was a poor one. The number of letters and possible syllables
of the language was much lower than Riesenberg & Kaneshiro had assumed. The
script appeared to have been unjustly dismissed as an inadequate orthography. 340
Linguistic analyses had the possibility of assisting in the improvement of the Caroline
Islands script, instead they left it no future. 340
Garrod, Simon, Nicolas Fay, Shane Rogers, Bradley Walker, and

Nik Swoboda. 2010. “Can iterated learning explain the
emergence of graphical symbols?” Interaction Studies 11
(1):33-50.
#mpi
For example, the Iterated Learning Model (Kirby, 2002; Kirby & Hurford, 1997,
2002), assumes that as language is transmitted from generation to generation it is
incrementally influenced by agents’ innate learning biases and constraints on
transmission until the language reaches an equilibrium that reflects these prior
linguistic biases. 34
The second kind of model of cultural evolution assumes that communication systems
arise through horizontal transmission among communities of language users. For
322
example, Steels and colleagues’ social coordination simulations (Steels, 1999; Steels,
Kaplan, McIntyre, & Van Looveren, 2002) show that when meaning is locally
negotiated, a dominant representation propagates horizontally among a population of
interacting agents until the entire community converges upon a shared
communication system (see also Barr, 2004). 35
For example, Galantucci (2005) had pairs of participants communicate their positions
on a grid using only graphical means. He found that with time most participants were
able to do this even though the graphical interface did not allow them to produce any
kind of conventional signs. In other studies participants attempted to communicate
one of two pieces of music using purely graphical means (Healy, Swoboda, Umata &
King, 2007), or specific items from a list (Garrod, Fay, Lee, Oberlander & McLeod,
2007) by drawing on a whiteboard. In all of these studies participants were not
permitted to use conventional language, either spoken or written. Hence, they needed
to create a novel communication system from scratch. A consistent finding across
studies was that participants rapidly established complex communication systems, and
that this process depended crucially on interaction and feedback. 36
Crucially, such refinement only occurred when partners were allowed to interact
graphically (even if this only involved placing a tick next to the drawing to indicate
comprehension). In a control condition in which the participants simply repeated their
drawings for an imaginary audience the drawings became more complex and retained
their iconic character. A second finding was that with extended interaction
communicators’ drawings became increasingly similar, or convergent (See Figure 1).
Thus, in this task graphical communication systems emerged and evolved through a
process of interactive grounding. Specifically, Garrod et al. (2007) argued that icons
rapidly evolve into symbols via interaction; icons help ground shared sign systems and
interaction promotes a shift in the locus of information from the sign to the users’
memory of the sign’s usage. This shift in information facilitates the evolution of
increasingly simple abstract signs that are easy for communicators to produce and
interpret. So this graphical communication experiment might tell us something about
how communicators overcome the symbol grounding problem (i.e., how language
systems might have emerged out of meaningless symbols; Harnad, 1990). The basic
argument is that the symbols evolve through the combination of convergence on
increasingly simple forms together with alignment on their meaning. 37
To summarise, experiments using the pictionary task demonstrate how graphical
communication systems (i.e., systems of graphical signs) naturally evolve as a result of
interactive communication. In particular, the signs change from complex iconic
representations to much simpler symbolic representations as a consequence of
grounding. Furthermore this evolutionary process is apparent both within isolated
pairs of graphical communicators and within micro-societies who interact like a small
linguistic community. This evolution is particularly interesting because it offers one
explanation for how communicators overcome the symbol grounding problem. 39
The main finding from this study confirms that the iterated learning version of the
pictionary task leads to the development of signs that are similar to those observed
when a single person repeatedly draws items for an imaginary audience. Rather than
the signs becoming increasingly simple and symbolic they retain their complexity and
iconicity when passed down the chain. The other results on semantic alignment (as
indicated by identification accuracy) and structural alignment (as measured by
323
similarity) of drawings also indicate that the iterated learning situation does not
produce expressive graphical ‘languages’ in the way that the interactive pictionary
situation does. The drawings are not well identified by members of the transmission
chain and there is no indication of strong convergence on particular drawings. 47
As can be seen from Figure 6 the drawings within diffusion chains are also judged
consistently more similar to each other than drawings within pseudo chains. This
indicates that there is a reasonable amount of transmission occurring within the
chains. Another interesting observation is that the drawings within pseudo chains
become consistently more similar over time ( F(1.15) = 12.11, p < 0.05; ηp2 = 0.45).
This reflects the other characteristic of iterated learning that over time chains
converge on a prior. So both in terms of transmission and across chain convergence
the data are consistent with previous iterated learning situations. 47
We began this paper by contrasting two cultural accounts of language change –
Iterated Learning and Social Coordination. Computer simulations indicate that both
approaches lead to the emergence of structured ‘languages’ under the right [47]
conditions. They also indicate that communities under each regime will converge on a
shared language. By contrast, our results indicate that Iterated Learning in the context
of the ‘pictionary’ task does not lead to the systematic simplification and increasing
symbolicity of graphical signs observed in the interactive situation. We suspect that
this is because Iterated Learning does not naturally promote expressive languages,
rather it promotes languages that are easy to learn.
This raises questions about the extent to which the two regimes may tap into different
aspects of language evolution. It might be thought that whereas social coordination
processes promote efficient and expressive ‘languages’ they do not promote languages
with structure or languages that are easy to learn. However, recent experimental
findings suggest otherwise. Theisen, Oberlander and Kirby (this issue) show how
under the right circumstances (e.g., by having many conceptually related items)
‘pictionary’ players produce systematic graphical signs. For example, they might
include a fork icon in all drawings referring to agricultural concepts (e.g., farmer,
barn, tractor). This suggests the emergence of a taxonomic systematicity similar to
derivational morphology (See Garrod et al., 2007). With respect to ease of learning,
there is evidence that communities of ‘pictionary’ players tend to converge on more
learnable graphical signs than isolated pairs of players. Fay et al. (2008) selected
graphical signs generated by community and isolated pair players of pictionary from
the first and final rounds of the community experiment described earlier (See Figure 2
for examples). They then presented them to other participants who had to learn which
sign went with which concept or object as paired associates. In a subsequent speeded
recognition task the late community signs proved far superior. They were faster to
recognise and with greater accuracy than any of the other signs. This suggests that
communities exert selection pressure on the signs to promote ease of uptake from
other members of the community.
This last observation suggests that there may be a component of the Social
Coordination mechanism operating in connected communities that is analogous to
what is seen in Iterated Learning. In this way, group wide social coordination may
optimize both for communicative efficiency (e.g., producing simple signs) and ease of
learning by other members of the community. 48
324
Gibbon, Dafydd, Moses Ekpenyong, and Eno-Abasi Urua. 2010.
“Medefaidrin: Resources documenting the birth and death
language life-cycle.” In Proceedings of the Seventh International
Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC’10),
edited by Nicoletta Calzolari, 2702–270. Valetta, Malta:
European Language Resources Association
Medefaidrin is a Christian ‘spirit language’ of the Obεri Ɔkaimε (‘church freely given’)
Ibibio community in South-Eastern Nigeria. From a sociolinguistic point of view,
Medefaidrin is an artificial special purpose language. The language emerged around
1927, and is particularly interesting as a purpose-designed vehicular language with
language contact features in relation to English and Ibibio.
Medefaidrin was inspired and rapidly developed by Ibibio speakers in a very short
space of time around 1927. The language was consciously developed and used by
adults, and not filtered by the universal constraints of the child language acquisition
process. The language functioned from the start essentially as a ‘secret language’
identifying the Obεri Ɔkaimε religious community, and enabling this community to
practise their religion and conduct their daily lives without interference from the
colonial administrators. Unfortunately this turned out to be a self-defeating strategy
which led to increased persecution. The functionality of the language includes
religious ceremonies and formal communication with official institutions, in
community schools, grammar and mathematics are taught in Medefaidrin.
Medefaidrin has attracted scholarly attention, especially Adams (1947). Even a
cursory examination of the data shows that Medefaidrin is definitely not a dialect of
Ibibio but a distinct language, with different lexical, phonological, orthographic,
morphological and syntactic features. However, further analysis shows that
Medefaidrin shares many typological features with English and few features of Ibibio,
which could be interpreted as evidence of contact with English. The language is not
only spoken but also written; the unique Medefaidrin script shows typological
similarities with roman script conventions. Other, including inspirational, sources
remain unknown.
A number of artificial languages of this kind were developed throughout West Africa
during the late colonial period in the early 20th century, and Medefaidrin is taken as a
possibly not untypical case. During a comparable period, artificial languages such as
Esperanto and Volapük were developed in Europe, but with inverse functionality:
universality rather than protection of a specific culture (cf. Cooper 1991, Coulmas
2002, Dalby 1968). The two functionalities are two sides of the same coin: a reaction
to the beginnings of globalisation in the early 20th century. 2703
Inspection shows that the numerals are constructed as a fully regular and exclusive
base 20 system.
This kind of system is rare. There are remnants in European languages (e.g. English
“score” = 20, French “quatre-vingt” = 80). The enclaving language Ibibio has a base
5 system, with elements of a base 20 system. The use of a base 20 system perhaps
indicates an attempt to play down dependence on another language, to create a
simplified system, and to enhance the ‘secret language’ functionality. 2705
325
Using transcriptions based on the previously given alpbabetic and numerical tables a
number of interesting results emerged, which suggest that Medefaidrin has features of
a contact language with English and – surprisingly – less so with Ibibio. Above all, the
language has the distinctive flavour of a natural language, with recognisable
typological properties which are also found in other languages. 2706
Medefaidrin has a phonology with plausible conventional syllable phonotactics Adams
(1947:26). Unlike the enclaving Ibibio, which is a tone language, Medefaidrin is a
stress language, though apparently adaptation to Ibibio is taking place. Medefaidrin
has voiced fricatives and affricates, /dzjaʃ/, /gizn/, /ruzerd/ and /dzibreant/, which
are absent in Ibibio, and also frequent consonant clusters: /seminant/ (Holy Spirit),
/atieft/, /dzibreant/, /edikanapt/, /enikrismas/, /ekenskwak/, /edipikn/, which are
rare in Ibibio. Further examples of consonant clusters are /fenslet/ (to forgive),
/cliffin/ (to know), /xpil/ (to pluck), /osprid/ (quickly), /texran/ (table), /dabt/ (cup).
2706
Inflection is by suffixation, e.g. noun plurals are formed by s/z suffixation, as in
English regular plurals (Table 2). 2706
Several of the glyphs used for the numerals bear a distinct resemblance to
internationally standardised Arabic numeral glyphs. For example, the first three digits
are rotations of “4”; five is a double-barred “2”, ten resembles the barred “7” used in
continental Europe. 2707
Inspection of the texts shows that text structure and layout correspond closely to the
conventions used in English (and in other European languages). The following text
linguistic features are particularly conspicuous:
• division into paragraphs,
• left-right lines,
• punctuated sentences,!
• space-separated words,!
• numbered lists,!
• tabulation,!
• marginalia in Medefaidrin!
• marginalia in Ibibio (‘Work be here. Women work.’),!
• Ibibio translation of longer passages (e.g. about the duties of female assistants),!
• Ibibio commentary,!
• conventional business letter structure.
All of these text structural features are characteristic of European text conventions.
2707
The documentation procedure so far has shown that the Medefaidrin ‘spirit language’
is an artificial special purpose vehicular language which represents a considerable
intellectual achievement by members of the Obεri Ɔkaimε community. 2707
It is tempting to speculate about the creative processes underlying the creation of the
Medefaidrin language and script, and indeed, closer inspection even at this initial level
of documentation has revealed not only unique features but also several features
which are strikingly English-like: complex syllables which are more English-like than
Ibibio-like; stress-based prosody rather than tone-based prosody; SVO word order like
English; MH modifier head order in compounds and adjective-noun constructions; a
326
script with several letters which are Latin-like; English text structure and layout
conventions. These English-like features suggest that English, perhaps biblical English
and the English of charismatic missionary preachers, provided the grammatical model
for the development of the language. In view of the inspirational perspective on
Medefaidrin in the community itself, this ‘well-founded speculation’ is certain to be
controversial; the similarities between Medefaidrin and English are clear, however,
from the point of view of linguistic typology. 2707
Nag, Sonali, Rebecca Treiman, and Margaret J Snowling. 2010.

Learning to spell in an alphasyllabary: The case of Kannada.
Writing Systems Research 2 (1):41-52.
Although much research has been done on the acquisition of alphabetic writing
systems, especially English, less is known about the acquisition of other systems. This
situation has justifiably raised doubts about the relevance and explanatory power of
theorizing that has emerged out of Anglocentric and alphabet-centric research (e.g.,
Share, 2008). 3
#hypothesis: primacy of the syllable #acquisition
Alphasyllabaries might be thought to possess the advantages of both alphabets and
syllabaries. One can spell a word one chunk at a time, eliminating the need for
analysis into phonemes, but one can alternatively build up graphic complexes from
their phonemic components. 3
#definition: alphasyllabary
Theisen, Carrie Ann, Jon Oberlander, and Simon Kirby. 2010.

“Systematicity and arbitrariness in novel communication
systems.” Interaction Studies 11 (1):14-32.
#mpi
[…] we have one route to the systematic re-use of arbitrary elements: people generate
signs that are non-arbitrary, those signs become arbitrary as they simplify, by chance
there are a few signal-meaning regularities, generations of people propagate these
regularities, and the language becomes systematic. 1971
While previous work has explored the “evolution” of systematicity, this experiment
has shown systematicity in the very first signs people use with each other. It appears to
simply emerge, without explicit design on the part of the participants, as a natural part
of dialogue. 1975
Yakubovich, Ilya. 2010. “Anatolian hieroglyphic writing.” In

Visible language: Inventions of writing in the ancient Middle East
and beyond, edited by Christopher Woods. Chicago: Oriental
Institute Museum Publications.
The first-known specimens of Anatolian hieroglyphic writing come from the central
Anatolian kingdom of the Hittites after the introduction of the Mesopotamian
327
cuneiform to this region. It seemed odd to a number of scholars that this highly
original and complicated writing system was developed in competition with an
established form of writing. It was, therefore, suggested that the Anatolian hieroglyphs
must have originally been [203] invented somewhere else, for example, in the western
Anatolian kingdom of Arzawa, and only later borrowed by the Hittites (Hawkins
1986). In my opinion, this hypothesis is neither logically necessary nor empirically
plausible. On the one hand, a new writing system may be created not for pragmatic
reasons but as a way of expressing nationalistic sentiments. On the other hand, the
linguistic analysis of the Anatolian hieroglyphic script supports the hypothesis that
they originated in the Hittite-Luwian bilingual environment of central Anatolia.
The most obvious parallel for a new script marking a new cultural identity in the
ancient Middle East is the invention of the Old Persian cuneiform at the court of the
first Achaemenid kings (ca. 520 bc). This happened at the time when both
Mesopotamian cuneiform and the Aramaic alphabet were already in use in Iran.
Presumably, the early Achaemenids [204] regarded deploying new sign shapes for
writing Old Persian as an important propagandistic device. In a similar fashion, the
Hittite kings may have viewed the use of the hieroglyphic script as a symbol of their
cultural independence from Mesopotamia. This interpretation is all the more likely
since the appearance of the first phonetic hieroglyphic inscriptions roughly coincides
in time with the shift from Akkadian to Hittite as the principal language of cuneiform
texts in the Hittite capital Hattusa in the fifteenth–fourteenth centuries bc (van den
Hout 2009). In the case of longer texts recorded on clay tablets, the change of a
written language would represent a sufficient statement of nationalistic self-assertion.
By contrast, the short inscriptions on stamp seals largely consisted of personal names
and, therefore, could in principle be read in any language. Therefore, the use of the
new hieroglyphic script was the most efficient way of stressing their indigenous
character. 205
#old persian cuneiform #contrast scripts
Costello, Sarah Kielt. 2011. “Image, memory and ritual: Re-

viewing the antecedents of writing.” Cambridge Archaeological
Journal 21 (2):247-262.
Rather than viewing the development of writing as an evolutionary response to an
increasingly complex bureaucracy, I propose that this milestone was the locus of a
struggle for power, both power over information and memory, and power over
religious belief and practice. 260
Miller, Christopher. 2011. Indonesian and Philippine Scripts and

extensions not yet encoded or proposed for encoding in
Unicode as of version 6.0: A report for the Script Encoding
Initiative.
A large number of lesser-known scripts of Indonesia and the Philippines are not as yet
represented in Unicode. Many of these scripts are attested in older sources, but have
not yet been properly documented in the available scholarly literature. This report
attempts to synthesize the available historical literature and information based on
328
original texts (where available) to provide a clearer picture of the potential encoding
needs for indigenous scripts of Indonesia and the Philippines. Although there is a
wealth of information for many scripts in the region, the existence of certain alleged
historic scripts cannot (as yet) be verified on the basis of clearly authentic original
documents. These will be presented on the basis of the available documentation with
a critical evaluation of their likely authenticity. 4
#authenticity
The Indic scripts of the Philippines are among the earliest minor scripts to be encoded
in Unicode. These include the Tagalog script that was widely used during the 1500s
and 1600s before it was largely supplanted by Latin script, the Tagbanwa script of
Palawan Island, and the two Mangyan script varieties of Mindoro Island: the northern
Buhid and the southern Hanunóo. Tagalog script is also widely known as Alibata, a 1914
coinage derived from the first three letters of the Arabic script (Verzosa 1939),
Baybayin, a historically earlier and now increasingly widely used name derived from a
root with the meaning “arranged in order or sequence” (Pardo de Tavera 1884), and
finally, at least in the Bikol region of southeastern Luzon, the script was known as
Basahán, derived from the verb basa “read” (Mintz 2004).
With the notable exception of the Eskayan syllabary, the Philippine scripts are all
Indic alphasyllabaries. The historically recorded scripts are all left to right in direction
(apart from the mirror writing of left handed individuals attested for Hanunóo and
Tagalog). There has been a long-running misconception that the scripts were
historically written vertically from bottom to top, however this has been shown to be
merely the mechanical consequence of incising letters into bamboo segments with a
knife while holding the bamboo angled away from the midline of the body and
making cutting strokes away from the body for safety’s sake.
Over the past decade, the Tagalog script has been the subject of renewed interest as a
part of Filipino cultural heritage, and this has led to two kinds of proposals for
modifications of the script.
The first includes a number of individual proposals for expanding the script with
newly created or derived letters capable of representing the sounds of English; these
proposals have met with little acceptance given that the script is most widely used to
write Tagalog and other Philippine languages either in online forums, emblematic
inscriptions or, in another popular application, tattoos. These modern uses of the
script have however led to a small number of common extensions to the script not
provided for in the original encoding, in order to represent three sounds in modern
Tagalog that have become phonemically contrastive in the language largely as a result
of borrowing from Spanish and English.
The second modification is a fully fledged script for the Kapampangan language that
is distinct in its basic structure from Tagalog and most linear Indic scripts. The
character glyphs used are variants of Tagalog script characters recorded in sample
alphabets by European observers for the Kapampangan region, but the structure and
arrangement of the letters appear to be inspired in part by character arrangement in
Han’gul syllable blocks. 5
#deliberate script change
However, the past decade or so has seen spreading interest among segments of the
Kapampangan community in a script known either as Kulitan (writing) or Súlat
329
Kapampángan (Kapampangan script). The script has found popularity in marginal uses
similar to the Tagalog script, including calligraphy, tattoos, and emblematic uses such
as commercial and official logos. Súlat Kapampángan differs from the historically attested
variety, and from Tagalog script, in several important ways described below, which
may prove to be a complicating factor when it comes to encoding the script for
computer entry. The character inventory and orthographic conventions are described
in a series of papers by Michael Pangilinan alias Siuála ding Méangûbie of the
Kapampangan Studies Center at Holy Angel University in Angeles City, Pampanga.
The standard letter glyphs appear to be derived fairly directly from those attested in
the abecedaries reproduced in Marcilla y Martín (1895). The inventory has two letters
fewer than Tagalog script: no distinct letters are given for the glides /y/ and /w/,
although a shape very similar to Tagalog WA is used to represent the vowel /u/. 9
#deliberate script change
3.1.6. Alleged indigenous Minangkabau scripts
Images have been circulating on the World Wide Web of an alleged indigenous script
used in the Minangkabau-speaking area of central Sumatra, between South Sumatra
proper and the Batak lands to the north, attributed to Rais Kamardi (1987) and
Sango (no date).
The letter shapes, illustrated in Table 9, appear to be plausibly related to those in
other South Sumatran scripts, though the forms they take in the drawings are likely
distorted. According to the reports reproduced on the web sites, there are fifteen base
letters, four vowel signs and and one virama. The letter inventory corresponds to the
basic Rejang inventory without prenasalized consonant letters, but also lacks a series
of palatal consonant letters: this may be a reporting error since Minangkabau is
closely related to Malay and would most likely have the same set of palatal consonants
as Malay (namely /c/, /j/, /ɲ/, /y/), increasing the set to 19 letters.
According to a recent news article (Rinaldi 2010), Dr. Herwandi, Dean of the Faculty
of Literature at Universitas Andalas in Padang, has found similarities in the Batulih
Borobono stone inscription located in the region with illustrations of alleged
Minangkabau letters published by Datuk Rajo Darwas Malano and Zuber Usman (no
references available) and with other South Sumatran scripts. However, the lack of any
known manuscripts in an indigenous Minangkabau script has made it difficult to
determine the inscription’s letters accurately.
There seem to be no original documents available in any earlier Minangkabau script
according to the Rinaldi article, but from the available evidence, if it is accurate, it
appears that this script could be treated as a font variant under the Rejang block.
A second script is reported to be found in a book from Sulit Air in Solok Regency
(Rinaldi 2010, Rais Kamardi 1987). From the online reproduction of illustrations in
Rais Kamardi, this appears to be an invented cipher script only superficially related in
structure to Indic alphasyllabaries. Letter shapes in this script are completely
unrelated to those of Indic scripts, as are the shapes and positions of vowel signs.
Although these signs are placed above, below, to the left and to the right of consonant
letters like dependent vowel signs in Indonesian scripts, these placements are
unrelated to those of any Indic script; there is also a vowel sign for /a/ instead of the
unmarked default reading in Indic scripts, and no virama: bare consonant letters are
read without a vowel. The script also has a series of glyphs to replace Latin script
330
punctuation marks such as the comma, question mark and others, as well as a series of
clearly invented signs for arithmetical operations and relations. Since this script
appears to be attested only from a single source and is clearly an invented alphabetic
cipher that superficially mimics the appearance of an Indic script, it almost certainly
does not merit further consideration. 29
Table 9. A partial alleged Minangkabau script (from Datuk Rajo Darwas Malano
and Zuber Usman) compared with other South Sumatran variants. 30
#diagram
4.1.6. “An alphabet formerly adopted in Bima but not now used”
Raffles (1817) reproduces a set of characters (Figure 13) allegedly formerly used in
Bima. However, this is the only attestation of such a script and no other documentary
evidence of any similar letters has as yet been found. 42
Figure 13. Alleged older Bimanese letters from Raffles (1817). 43
4.4. Old Minahasa script
In general, the literature dealing with writing in Sulawesi has only spoken of
indigenous phonographic scripts in the south of the island. For the rest of Sulawesi,
including the Minahasa region of the northern peninsula, there is no clear evidence
for the existence of writing. For example, Lapian (1987:104) speaks of an oral culture
in Minahasa territories with no known written manuscripts, where the only known
record of what may be writing consists of undeciphered petroglyphs carved into the
famous landmark, the Watu Pinawetengan (Stone of Division). However, a recent
posting on a blog about the Minahasa region in the eastern end of Sulawesi’s northern
peninsula (Talumewo 2009) has brought to light an alleged indigenous script
described in a book by a local historian (Taulu 1980).
The book by Taulu is the only attestation of this script that I know of or have seen
referred to anywhere. The book, whose title translates to “History of the founding of
the Stone of Division and its charters”, contains a short discussion of the alleged
Minahasa script and numerous examples of texts in this script in a Minahasan
language or languages, accompanied by Indonesian translations, whose content
generally refers to pledges of unity between regional chiefs. 48
Table 19. The alleged old Minahasa syllabic script. 49
#diagram
The characters of this script are reproduced in Table 19 in drawings based on those in
the table in Taulu, supplemented with other characters that were omitted from his
table but found elsewhere in his example texts. Unfortunately, the available
microfiche of the book was of very poor quality due to the already bad quality of the
original printed typescript, so very little of the text was legible enough to extract much
useful information.38
In the discussion that follows, it must be kept in mind that all characters appear to
have been reproductions in Taulu’s own hand and — on the assumption that they
were drawn from authentic original documents — may not be fully accurate
renditions of any original letter shapes. Apparently on the basis of theories claiming
that the ancestors of the Minahasa migrated from Japan by way of the Philippines,
331
Taulu compares the shapes of the Minahasa characters with their orthographic
counterparts in Japanese kana and Tagalog script; however, his drawings of the
Japanese and Tagalog [49] characters are very distorted and it seems justified to
assume this may be the case for the Minahasa characters as well (if it is indeed the case
that they are reproduced from authentic originals). To compound the difficulty, my
redrawings of Taulu’s drawings may be missing important details due to the poor
quality of the microfiche.
There is enough information in the character shapes given by Taulu to make certain
generalizations about the structure of the script. These concern the representation of
vowels on consonant-based letters, the derivation of the ‹e› and ‹o› vowel letters from
‹i› and ‹u› bases, and the plausible origin of the letter shapes themselves.
First and most importantly, the character inventory Taulu gives departs from most
Indic scripts by not including any distinct dependent vowel signs. Instead, apart from
the expected series of independent (null onset) vowel letters, vowels are indicated by a
variety of modifications to the shapes of the base consonant characters. This in itself is
quite unusual: the only remotely similar Indic case I know of is the way Marathi Modi
script and the Buhid and Hanunóo script varieties of Mindanao combine certain
dependent vowel signs with their host letters by means of suppletive ligatures. Unlike
these, there appears to be no clear, regular pattern to the way the base consonant
glyphs are modified to indicate distinct vowels. This might however be due in part to
inaccurate copying of the originals if such exist.
Second, the script contains independent vowel letters for ‹e› and ‹o›, which is relatively
unusual for Indic scripts in general and especially for scripts of Indonesia and the
Philippines, which normally only have independent letters for ‹a›, ‹i› and ‹u›. The ‹e›
and ‹o› letter shapes are clearly mirror images of ‹i› and ‹u›, respectively.
Third, the glyphs are unlike those of the other Sulawesi scripts, but for the most part
show enough convincing and regular structural relationships to 16th century Philippine
handwriting variants for it to be relatively plausible that they are derived from
Philippine models. It is worth noting here that the Philippine letter shapes Taulu used
for comparison in his table are awkward copies of shapes specific to the print font used
in the 1620 Ilocano Doctrina Christiana, which have become the most widely known
exemplar of the old Tagalog script and are mistakenly believed to be typical of the
script. Some correspondences between the typographic Philippine letter shapes and
the Minahasa ones are apparent, but others become more apparent when the
Minahasa shapes are compared to authentic Philippine handwriting letter shapes.
This is significant in that Taulu appeared not to have access to Philippine script
handwriting samples, which is not surprising considering that even at the beginning of
the second decade of the 21st century, the sources in which these are available are still
not widely known.
It is unclear at this point if this is an authentic script, especially given the lack of
information about original texts. However, the structural evidence alone indicates
quite strongly that it may be derived from a Philippine script variety. Despite the lack
of a systematic explanation for the way the letter shapes change to represent different
vowel readings, the letter shapes themselves show enough systematic structural
similarities to older Philippine script varieties that there is good reason to suspect the
script is not an outright invention. Pending further research, the question must remain
332
open, but it seems prudent to leave open the possibility that the script may need to be
encoded. 50
Theisen-White, Carrie, Simon Kirby, and Jon Oberlander. 2011.

“Integrating the horizontal and vertical cultural transmission
of novel communication systems.” Proceedings of the 33rd
Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society 1:956-961.
#mpi
Even if it could be shown that horizontal transmission resulted in a communication
system with all the crucial features of language, the story cannot end there – the
communication system must be transmitted beyond the closed set of individuals who
developed it, and work has shown that this is far from straightforward (Galantucci,
Theisen, Gutierrez, Kroos, & Rhodes, in press). Similarly, even if it could be shown
that vertical cultural transmission resulted in a communication system with all the
crucial features of language, the story cannot begin there – unless we want to assume
that one individual invented a communication system on his own and transmitted it to
the next generation, we must allow that horizontal transmission shaped at least the
beginning of language. In addition, it is clear that in the real world, generations are
not neatly divided and populations are not static, so both processes are undoubtedly in
operation. 957
We did this, and found that both horizontal transmission and vertical transmission
had an [960] effect on systematic compositionality. This result lends strong support to
our argument above that the full history of a communication system must include
both its horizontal transmission between members of a closed set of individuals and its
vertical transmission beyond them through generations of individuals. 961
Unseth, Peter. 2011. Invention of scripts in West Africa for

ethnic revitalisation. In Handbook of language and ethnic
identity: The success-failure continuum in language and ethnic
identity efforts, edited by J. A. Fishman and O. García. New
York: Oxford University Press.
West Africa is unique, in that over a dozen scripts have been invented there in a
relatively short time, all with some degree of ethnic revitalization as part of their
impetus. In this paper, “WAIS” (West African Indigenous Scripts) will be used as a
label to refer to this group of indigenous scripts created in West Africa. These are fully
functional, sound-based writing systems, either alphabets or syllabaries. (This is in
contrast to the Adinkra symbols in which each symbol stands for a concept, such as
“peace.”) It is not a coincidence that almost all of these scripts were invented during
the period of time between World War I and independence for much of West Africa,
a time of great political aspiration and social change. During that same time, local
religious movements (often some form of Christianity) were also proliferating,
separating themselves from foreign-linked churches and religious institutions. It is not
a coincidence that at least three WAIS are directly linked to new religious groups. 23
#writing systems
333
Dalby (1969, 180) discusses the motivation for these WAIS:
Many—if not all—of the inventors were impelled by the desire to demonstrate the ability
of Africans to create their own forms of writing, independent of either European or Arabic
systems. In this respect, the scripts have a motivation that is comparable to that of the
indigenous African churches. This search for African “independence” is reflected in the
way that Kantè maintains the independence of his script from either the occidental or
oriental influence... and by the claim that both the Wolof and Dembélé Fula script are
suitable for writing all [emphasis in original] African languages. [end quote] 24
#writing systems
Necessary conditions for scripts to succeed
For a script to be a successful part of an ethnic revival, certain conditions must be
fulfilled. First, and obviously, there must be adequate desire for change among a
significant number of members of the ethnic community for a revival to succeed.
Second, a script must be successfully implemented and developed as a writing system.
In keeping with other studies in this volume, objective criteria have been selected to
measure the success of these scripts. For this study, the objective criteria are concepts
from the field of language planning: “status and domain planning,” “corpus
planning,” and “acquisition planning” (Cooper 1989).
The first and foundational concept is status and domain planning. For a script to be
successfully adopted, a critical mass of the language community must decide that they
want to use their language in written form, using the script. (For almost all of the
languages involved, there was no prior literacy in the language in another script, so
they had to choose to write their language.) The community will have to choose some
functions, some social domains, for which they will use their written language,
domains such as genealogical record keeping, personal letters, education, government
documents, religion, and so on. Choosing to implement their script in these new ways
is a change of status. If the status and domain decisions are too limited, or if the
people making the decisions are too few, a script will not be used widely enough to be
a tool for ethnic revival.
The second relevant concept from language planning is that there must be what
language planners call a “corpus,” a codified form of the script and also a body of
literature using the script. Those scripts that have been more successful (both as tools
of ethnic revival and as writing systems) are those that have been accepted [24] by
enough of the community and have been used to publish larger bodies of literature
(larger in number of titles and topics, and numbers of copies produced).
Third, there must be what language planners call “acquisition planning,” provision
for some sort of efforts to teach others to use the script. Those scripts for which some
form of teaching was carried out had greater chances of being successfully acquired by
significant numbers of people, and greater chances of being successfully used in ethnic
revivals. For example, the Fula script of Adama Ba was taught only to a small circle,
but the N’ko script is taught in elementary schools in Guinea (Wyrod 2008).
Obviously, these three points are closely related; deciding which takes precedence will
sometimes lead to a chicken-and-egg dilemma. But the three separate concepts will be
shown to be relevant in studying which scripts have been most successfully used in
ethnic revivals.
334
Comparing the fate of the various WAIS, it becomes clear that those that have been
most successful as tools for ethnic revival have been those that have succeeded in the
three areas labeled by language planners. That is, no matter how much desire there
was for ethnic revival, unless a script is supported by a decision to use it in writing for
a variety of functions, and there is a large body of literature using the script, and there
is a system for teaching the scripts, the script will contribute little to an ongoing ethnic
revival movement. However, an indigenous script can still be a powerful symbol in
ethnic revitalization even if now used only in symbolic ways and no longer as a
functional writing system, such as Bamun. 25
#writing systems
Most newly created scripts are syllabaries rather than alphabets, especially those
created by those with little education (Daniels 2008, 35). 25
#writing systems
Dalby’s description of ten of the WAIS is instructive:
With the exception of the inventor of the Bassa script, “they all appear to have been young
men, with an average age of about 25 at the time of their inventions. They all lived in
areas where Christian missions had been active, and they were all aware not only of the
practical advantages of the Roman script but also of its regular association (especially in
the West African context) with a revealed religion and with a ‘holy book.’” (Dalby 1968,
163) 26
#writing systems
None of the other script creators claimed any antiquity for their script. The majority
of these script creators claim that their script had been inspired or revealed by divine
revelation (Dalby 1968, 161, 162), not uncommon for creators of a new script (Cooper
1991). 26
#writing systems
It appears that for a script to be a useful tool in an ethnic revival, the literature
produced in the script does not have to be directly linked to activities related to ethnic
revival, such as ethnic history, calls for ethnic solidarity, or traditional stories and
poems (though such literature can be helpful). Rather, for a script to be useful in an
ethnic revival, it must succeed as a script. That is, there must be an adequate corpus, a
body of literature (on any topic) that will be used by the community. 30
#writing systems
It may be helpful to state the conclusion in the negative: a new script will not be
successful (as a tool for ethnic revival or any other purpose) if the community does not
endorse it, if there is no sufficient corpus of literature in the script, and if there is no
system to teach it to new readers. These three factors by themselves may not be
adequate, but they are necessary. 31
#writing systems
335
Brown, Jessica Erin. 2012. The evolution of symbolic
communication: An embodied perspective. Edinburgh: University
of Edinburgh PhD thesis.
#mpi
The principle of parsimony is based on the idea that evolution typically works as a
minimalist, with change being rare and taking place through the simplest and fewest
available routes as possible (Sterelny & Griffiths, 1999). Thus, given equal evidence for
two or more possible evolutionary scenarios, the one that involves the fewest
transitions is the sequence with the greatest likelihood of reflecting the actual course of
events. In other words, overly complicated scenarios involving events that are not
strictly necessary to reach the known end state violate the principle of parsimony and
should be assumed to have a low probability of having occurred in actual evolutionary
history. 8
Continuity is related to parsimony, in that new traits tend to be built upon existing
ones as opposed to constructed from scratch. This is because co-opting and tweaking
precedents requires fewer and more minor changes than creating entirely new
structures to perform the same function. 8
An axiom of biological evolution is that it is not directed, meaning the sources that
provide the raw material for natural selection are blind to their effects on the fitness of
an organism. In other words, genes can only produce random variation, from which
advantageous traits are selected and retained by way of the reproductive success of the
organism carrying those genes. Thus, the fact that a given change would be
advantageous does not increase the likelihood of its appearance and is not in itself a
reason for a trait to arise. This critical idea is deceptive in its simplicity and can be
difficult to apply, and as such is frequently violated in evolutionary theorizing. As
Gould and Lewontin (1979) and later Gould (1989) have described, many proposed
evolutionary scenarios fall prey to a tendency to equate current utility with reasons of
[9] origin. That is, theories often carry an implicit assumption that evolution
inevitably leads to progressively more complex and sophisticated traits and behaviors
– in other words, that evolution is inherently directed. However, because the
mechanisms of biological change are blind, progress is not guaranteed, and stasis is in
fact the norm, particularly when a trait or strategy is especially successful (Gould,
1996).
There are some reasons to caution making a direct analogy to cultural evolution
concerning the idea of directed change. In contrast to biological evolution, variation
in cultural evolution is generated by intentional beings with goals, needs and desires,
and selection stems from the psychological and social features of cultural transmitters
themselves. As such, it is possible to argue that innovation from the insight of those
transmitters results in a more directed process, with more advantageous strategies or
artifacts arising than sheer random variation would predict. However, the extent to
which cultural evolution is directed in this sense is contested, as cultural change can
often resemble the ‘blind’ processes of biological evolution (Mesoudi, Whiten &
Laland, 2006). That is, improvements in cultural artifacts are frequently the result of
copying errors or unintentional alterations that are only recognized as advancements
after the fact and retained. This indicates that evolutionary explanations that invoke
insight into cultural advancements may not be the most likely or viable solutions. In
336
addition, studies on cultural processes involved in communication suggest that even
non-directed cultural evolution can produce improved communication strategies. A
number of computational models and behavioral experiments demonstrate how
‘blind’ cultural mechanisms involved in repeated transmission and learning can shape
communicative systems to take on the appearance of ‘design’ for enhanced
functionality (Batali, 1998; Kirby, 1999; Kirby, Cornish & Smith, 2008). In these
studies, low-level forces have amplified and unanticipated effects as a result of the
complexity that arises out of many communicative interactions taking place over an
extended period of time. The emergent properties of such systems and processes are
therefore a potential alternative source for more effective communicative strategies
apart from intention-based forces. 10
This discussion of evolutionary theory highlights three primary principles with which
this thesis aims to be consistent: parsimony, continuity and the avoidance of appeals to
intentional forces. 11
As it is used here, symbol refers to a sign – an intentional representation [11] for
communication – with a particular form-meaning relationship (this relationship is
described below) that is context-independent (can be displaced in time and space from
its referent). 12
While symbols may not involve a physical correlation in this way, their forms are
nevertheless associated with their referents; the two do reliably co-occur, in that a
word is used when communication is about its referent. For example, the word ‘cat’
always occurs when the topic of discussion involves cats in some way, which is a kind
of association between a form and a concept to which attention is directed. In this
sense, the relationship is not arbitrary, because the word and the communication
about the concept reliably co-occur. If we accept this as an association, then it
becomes difficult to draw a clear line between indices and symbols.
One way to reconcile this problem is by appealing to an important difference in the
correlation between symbols with their referents and indices with theirs. Although
symbolic forms are associated with their referents, these co-occur only in the minds of
communicators as they express and comprehend meaning conveyed through signs. In
other words, the association for symbols exists internally to the semiotic process itself
and nowhere else. Indexical relationships are exploited for communicative purposes
only after they have been observed and reinforced in non-communicative experience
in the world. 15
Conventionalization is a functional consequence of – and prerequisite for – using
arbitrary signs as communicative devices. In this way, interpretation and
conventionalization are not entirely independent. Interpretation is an individual-level
phenomenon that feeds into conventionalization, a cultural-level phenomenon. 18
While the arbitrariness of symbols may not have the same expressive and mnemonic
effects, it does appear to have benefits of its own. In a computational modeling study,
Gasser (2004) demonstrates that arbitrary signals are a superior signaling strategy
when communication involves many and related meanings. 26
Labels, as Clark calls them, therefore become separate objects of thought that allow
for new cognitive possibilities – a view that is mirrored in Tomasello (1999) and
Deacon’s (1997) conception of symbols and their function in language and thought.
By condensing a rich and varied aspect of experience into a single representation,
337
symbols reduce the computational load of many cognitive processes. Thinking about
[26] relations between complex features of the world is thus converted from a
complicated problem to a much simpler one. This allows for more and more
regularities in the environment to be recognized and labeled with ever-increasing
levels of abstraction. Once established, symbols can then regulate and structure
cognitive processes, aiding selective attention and guiding reasoning. 27
Regarding the comparison of sign types, while nonarbitrary signs are beneficial in not
requiring conventionalization, symbols vastly expand the communicative and
cognitive potential of their users. 30
First, without prior conventions, symbolic communication is not an immediately
obvious or advantageous strategy (Deacon, 1997), as it requires multiple individuals to
share the same arbitrary form-meaning mappings. As such, the advantages of symbols
may only become apparent ex post facto, after a conventional system is learned and
used. In addition, a striking historical example of another symbolic revolution in
human cultural evolution illustrates how even modern humans are not inclined to
have insight into a new representational strategy despite its ready availability and
numerous advantages. While we do not know precisely when modern spoken,
symbolic language first appeared, it is generally believed to roughly coincide with the
emergence of anatomically modern humans, somewhere between about 100,000 to
200,000 years ago. Written language, however, did not appear until much more
recently in human history, probably no earlier than about 5,000 years ago (Schmandt-
Besserate, 1996). The advantages of a permanent, written linguistic system are quite
obvious in the abstract, and this form of representation ultimately enabled the
elaboration of the tools, social institutions and practices upon which our modern
cultural institutions are crucially dependent. We can see, in retrospect, that human
society prior to the development of a graphical symbolic representation of language
would have similarly benefited from the adoption of a writing system. Pre-literate
societies often have elaborate and rich cultural traditions and information that must
be passed down across generations through extensive teaching and the memorization
of lengthy oral ‘texts’, such as poems and stories (Ong, 1982). The time and energy
invested in preserving these cultural traditions could be greatly reduced by the
creation of permanent records. In addition, in the same way that spoken linguistic
symbols reduce the cognitive demands of processing conceptual information (section
3.3), written linguistic symbols reduce memory loads and create opportunities for
contemplating and manipulating conceptual knowledge, which aids and enhances
thinking about complex problems (Olson, 1996; A. Clark, 2008). Despite these
profound advantages, and despite the fact that symbolic representation already existed
as an established means of spoken communication, writing systems were only
developed in isolated parts of the world in relatively very recent history. Moreover,
symbolic writing systems only came about after a long period of cultural evolution
from what appear to be initially nonarbitrary visual representations (Olson, 1996).
There appears to have been no ‘insight’ for the potential to represent language
through graphical [31] symbols, but rather, the transition occurred as a result of
imperfect transmission and learning across generations and cultures, leading to the
reinterpretation of originally non-symbolic signs (Olson, 1996). The fact that modern
humans – with a remarkable ability for innovation – have not universally discovered
and invented visual symbols for linguistic information, and that the limited cases
where this has happened represent a considerably late fraction of human history,
suggests the likelihood of pre-symbolic communicators deliberately inventing symbolic
338
representations is highly improbable. Thus, appeals to intentional construction should
be avoided in an explanation for symbolic emergence.
The research on cultural evolutionary processes described in section 2 shows that
alternative avenues may be available by which symbolic communication could arise.
Complex systems, like communicating populations, have emergent properties, and
these studies demonstrate that functional communicative strategies can take shape
under certain conditions. In this way, cultural processes that do not involve the
conscious, deliberate action of communicators may be capable of spurring the
development of symbols. Because this alternative has explanatory potential, an
investigation of the emergence of symbols should first look to such mechanisms before
appealing to intention or insight. 32
This blend of feedback and limited nonarbitrariness highlights an important aspect of
emerging communication systems. For a novel sign to be understood and
communication established, a receiver must be able to identify a producer’s intended
referent. In the absence of a shared symbolic system like language, as simulated in
most of these experiments, people appear to rely on iconic and indexical
representations to convey meaning. Information contained in the features of signs
themselves allows for a receiver to interpret their meaning correctly without the need
for much aid from additional information. The sign alone does not of course fully
indicate meaning, as implicit information and inference from context are also [52]
involved. Factors like shared situational awareness, intention reading and perceptual
biases, which can be thought of as ambient information that colors and frames any
instance of communication, are always at work when interpreting a specific sign in a
specific context and will also aid in reaching the intended interpretation (the role of
these factors will be more closely examined in section 4 below on computational
models). These studies demonstrate that nonarbitrary signs are able to do much of the
work in conveying meaning and reducing uncertainty, and thereby lessening the
burden on inferential resources. 53
Presently we can note that the reviewed experiments, under the current analysis, do
not demonstrate with certainty the conventionalization of novel symbols, as they do
not involve the use of arbitrary signs. 59
Following that, we can reason that, in naturalistic settings, the relationship between a
form and meaning is first established through iconicity and indexicality based on
shared sensorimotor knowledge (together with inference from ambient information)
before other communicative forces could cause that relationship to shift to an
arbitrary interpretation of signs. Thus, we can conclude that symbolic representations,
when they do arise, somehow develop out of the nonarbitrary representations created
to enable the initiation of communication. This is in line with the hypothesis of bodily
mimesis, which holds that the transition from nonhuman communication to symbolic
language would have involved an intermediate stage of nonsymbolic, referential
communication, from which symbols emerged.
It is also important to note that, in the absence of additional supporting mechanisms,
nonarbitrary signs shown capable of effectively establishing communication are
representationally potent. That is, their forms typically embody many iconic features
and robustly portray and/or indicate their referents. As the opportunity for
nonarbitrariness is diminished, successful communication relies more and more on
feedback. 60
339
In addition, it appears users do not deliberately invent symbols, further demonstrating
the need to look for other forces apart from intention and insight. Thus, it is
important to identify the factors that could in fact cause or allow a transition to take
place. 61
For such nonarbitrary signs to become symbolic, their forms must somehow become
disconnected from their meanings in the mind of some user or users. If a transition
does take place, it will therefore likely occur unintentionally, resulting from a
misinterpretation on the part of communicators. Because, at least in modern settings,
a symbolic interpretation of an intended nonarbitrary sign involves a misperception of
iconic or indexical features, if and how a transition occurs will depend on the semiotic
profile of the medium of expression and the social dynamics of communication. If a
medium has a high capacity for iconicity and multiple features of a referent are
depicted in a sign, the more likely it is that those features will be recognized and the
intended nonarbitrariness of the sign preserved. If communicators have extensive
common ground and shared understanding of the communicative circumstances, the
more likely they are to correctly interpret each other’s signs as intended. Thus, the
interaction of these two factors in a given circumstance will influence whether
symbolic interpretation arises. 61
Although many iconic features produced in early rounds are lost in later ones, the
shared history of interacting partners ensures recognition of those features that
continue to be portrayed in drawings. These dynamics result in low transparency in
form, as described above, though a break in the nonarbitrary connection between
form and meaning for sign users likely has not yet taken place, and this transition may
result from the additional involvement of outsiders in communication via interaction-
derived signs. Even if outsiders would potentially interpret reduced signs as arbitrary,
however, it is not clear from these studies how such signs move beyond the limited
context of interaction. Imagine that after an interactive exchange like those described
above takes place, one member of the pair or group is asked to communicate the same
concepts to a new person. The person from the interactive pair knows that an outsider
who did not witness their development will not understand final stage signs used with
the previous partner, and would therefore not use them to communicate with the new
individual. Instead, we expect a reversion to more elaborately iconic forms that can be
understood without prior knowledge. Thus, it is not clear how interaction-derived
signs would be used with outsiders, and therefore also not clear how transmission
would occur. Precisely how interactive communication combined with other
transmission processes could result in initially nonarbitrary signs becoming symbolic is
likely an important and potentially fruitful line of research into the origins of symbols.
62
While the studies examined here may not demonstrate an actual symbolic
transformation, it is of course still possible for initially nonarbitrary representations to
become arbitrary and conventionalize through other or additional means. This
process appears to have occurred in modern sign languages (Frishberg, 1975) […] 63
As evidenced in experimental sign research and developing sign languages, it is a
combination of form-meaning relationship and transmission dynamics that underlies the
transformation from nonarbitrary to arbitrary. Complexity in form and extensive
common ground tend to ensure nonarbitrary features are perceived, while simplicity
in form and lack of shared knowledge increase the likelihood of misperception. The
interaction of these two factors will determine if signs are misperceived and become
340
detached from their nonarbitrary origins for an individual, opening up the possibility
for shared symbols to emerge. 81
Of course, misperception does not automatically lead to or guarantee this outcome.
Signs must not only be misperceived, they must also be reinterpreted as symbolic. 82
How might misinterpretation of a nonarbitrary sign result in reinterpretation of the
sign as symbolic? Assuming that communication is preserved and meaning is
successfully conveyed, this process requires both skilled intention reading and some
kind of contextual support. First, the signer’s communicative intent itself must be
recognized so that an interlocutor will attempt to interpret the sign in the first place.
82
These issues will be addressed in the following chapter, but for present purposes we
can reason that with an awareness of communicative intent in place, and after failing
to perceive any meaningful features in the sign’s form, a receiver might infer an
intended meaning based on other context-based factors. If the receiver concludes the
sign represents a meaning that appears arbitrarily related to its form, that sign has
become a symbol for this individual. 82
Evidence from experimental sign studies and emerging sign languages show that
communication is established through nonarbitrary signs. Furthermore, results
indicate that symbolic reinterpretations of these early signs do not arise via intentional
creation by individuals, but instead nonarbitrary signs become symbolic when they
are transmitted to others who did not participate in their creation and development.
These results thus further support the argument that an explanation for the
emergence should first explore the potential for ‘blind’, unintentional forces to
instigate the interpretation of signs as symbolic before implicating the insight of users
or other [194] deliberate actions to construct a conventional, culturally-based method
of communication.[fn] 195
First, the predominance of symbolic vocalizations would be a natural consequence of
interpretation processes, as the vocal modality’s lower capacity for nonarbitrary
representation relative to that of gesture would translate into more vocalizations being
interpreted as arbitrary and symbolic. 196
Results showed that nonarbitrary signals in isolation – that is, without the additional
aid of more sophisticated learning and signaling strategies – can sufficiently reduce
uncertainty and allow agents to correctly identify each other’s intended meanings,
which in turn allows arbitrary signals to conventionalize across a population of agents.
These findings suggest that nonarbitrary gestures, together with other known
mechanisms that support grounding, represent a robust model for the
conventionalization of symbols. This model is constituted by factors inherent to the
communicative process itself and would be in operation during normal transmission
dynamics. As such, it avoids implicating additional and/or intention-based forces in
order to explain how shared arbitrary signs could arise and therefore represents an
evolutionarily and psychological plausible explanation. 197
Gray, Andrew. 2012. The languages of Pentecost Island.

Middlesex, England: Manples (BFOV) Publishing.
#avoiuli
341
History of Pentecost
Pentecost is one of a dozen main islands in the South Pacific republic of Vanuatu,
formerly the New Hebrides. The island is long and mountainous – 62 km from tip to
tip but only 12 km across at its widest point, covered in small gardens, dense forests
and ageing coconut plantations. Its climate is tropical and wet, with a steep landscape
carved up by rivers and gulleys. Much of Pentecost’s population of around 18,000 is
concentrated in villages on or near the west coast, which faces the neighbouring
islands of Ambae, Malekula and Ambrym and is relatively sheltered. The eastern side
of Pentecost is wilder and very sparsely populated.
The island’s native inhabitants are Melanesians whose ancestors arrived around 3000
years ago, probably from the north, bringing with them a lifestyle based on the
rearing of pigs and the cultivation of tropical fruit and vegetables, particularly yam
and taro. The islanders historically lived in small, mutually-suspicious communities,
within which individuals would rise in status through the ceremonial exchange of pigs
and other valuables, and would seek to further their interests or harm their enemies
through sorcery and superstition as well as by earthly means. Although there was
some trade within the island and with neighbouring islands, overall contact with
outsiders was extremely limited.
Arrival of Europeans
The first European to discover Pentecost was the French explorer Bougainville in
1768, who named the island after the day on which it was sighted. Over the following
century the island had occasional visits from other Europeans, but significant contact
with the outside world only began in the 1860s, when ‘blackbirding’ ships first came to
recruit islanders to work as labourers on plantations in Queensland and Fiji. Early
visitors reported Pentecost to be quite densely populated, but exposure to European
diseases to which the islanders had no resistance, together with labour recruitment
and the introduction of modern weapons, led to a crash in population from which the
island is still recovering.
Returning labourers helped to bring Christianity to Pentecost, and between the 1870s
and early 1900s, Anglican, Catholic and Churches of Christ missions were established
at various sites around the island. These have since been joined by other
denominations. The island came under formal European rule in 1907, with the
establishment of an Anglo-French condominium government in the New Hebrides,
though the running of schools was left to the missions. By the end of the 1930s, all of
Pentecost had been Christianised except for a handful of ‘custom villages’ where
traditional beliefs are still maintained (though in a sanitised form). A few Europeans
came and established coconut plantations in the less precipitous areas of Pentecost,
particularly in the south-west around Lonoror. The colonial government later began
to construct a network of rough, unsealed roads, and airstrips were built at Lonoror in
the south-west and Sara in the north.
Independence
Following Vanuatu’s independence in 1980, all rural land in the country reverted to
its customary owners. Today most people on Pentecost continue to inhabit small
villages and live off their gardens, earning cash from copra (dried coconut), kava (a
narcotic root) and other crops, which are exported via the small cargo ships that pass
along Pentecost’s west coast. Exposure to foreign media is limited and to a large
342
extent traditional customs are still followed, though younger and better-educated
islanders are inevitably becoming gradually Westernised. In Pentecost’s larger
settlements a small but growing number of people are employed in schools, churches,
clinics, government offices and small businesses. [8]
High prices for cash crops have brought significant amounts of money to Pentecost in
recent years, which has led to an increase in the ownership of vehicles, electricity
generators, mobile phones and DVD players, the building of houses from imported
materials rather than local wood and thatch, and the consumption of imported foods
rather than home-grown taro. However, these things are still luxuries to the average
islander: Pentecost remains poor, and vulnerable to natural disasters and fluctuations
in commodity prices. Large numbers of foreign day-trippers visit Pentecost between
April and June to watch its famous land-diving ceremonies, and there are hopes for an
expansion of tourism and other developments following the upgrading of Lonoror
Airport, but so far this has failed to benefit most islanders. Educational opportunities
for young people on Pentecost have increased in recent years with the expansion of
local schools, but work opportunities have not expanded to match, and many young
people leave for the towns of Port Vila and Luganville, where significant communities
of Pentecost islanders are established. Here too, work is in short supply, and many of
the people who move to town will eventually return home to their villages and their
gardens.
Recognition of these difficulties has led some islanders in recent years to turn their
attention back to the ‘custom economy’, the traditional way of life based on the
growing of crops for local consumption and the trading of pigs and textiles. The
custom economy has been promoted most vigorously by Turaga, a controversial
movement based at Lavatmanggemu in north-eastern Pentecost whose members
preach a unique religious, economic and cultural philosophy that purportedly
represents a form Pentecost’s native traditions adapted to the modern age. Among
other things, Turaga has devised and adopted its own alphabet (page 42), calendar
(page 111), currency (page 148) and school curriculum. However, those outside the
movement question the wisdom and authenticity of Turaga’s ideas, and many dismiss
it as a self-serving cult or as a step backwards into heathenism. For most young people
on Pentecost, the lure of a more Western lifestyle remains strong. 9
Avoiuli –Pentecost’s own alphabet
Whilst most people on Pentecost write their languages using Western letters, the
Turaga custom movement has abandoned these in favour of a unique local writing
system called Avoiuli (from Raga avoi “talk about” and uli “draw” or “paint”). Turaga
leader Viraleo Boborenvanua spent fourteen years devising (or “rediscovering”)
Avoiuli, which was inspired by designs found in traditional sand drawings. The
writing system has since been learned by quite a number of students from North and
Central Pentecost, who pay substantial school fees to be educated at Turaga’s ‘school
of custom’ at Lavatmanggemu in north-eastern Pentecost. In Lavatmanggemu,
Avoiuli is used to the exclusion of the Western alphabet, and can be seen on posters,
schoolwork, financial records, carved stones and even graffiti. Elsewhere on Pentecost,
names written in Avoiuli can occasionally be seen on baskets and storefronts, and a
few people use the alphabet in private notes (which are unreadable to the uninitiated),
or for keeping household accounts, a practise encouraged by Turaga as part of their
effort to promote the ‘custom economy’.
343
This book does not provide an authoritative guide to writing in Avoiuli; anybody
seeking this will have to travel to Lavatmanggemu with enough pigs’ tusks and mats to
pay the necessary school fees! The short account below is based on my observations of
the writing system as it is used at Lavatmanggemu and elsewhere. Samples are
reproduced with Viraleo’s permission.
At first glance, Avoiuli seems a relatively straightforward imitation of the Western
alphabet, although it does have a few distinctive features. Like traditional sand
drawings, its words are designed to be written in a single stroke, without taking one’s
pen off the paper (or finger out of the sand): there is no dotting of ‘i’s and crossing of
‘t’s. As well as having equivalents to the letters A through Z, Avoiuli has a unique
symbol for the ng [ŋ] sound (although not all writers make proper use of it), as well as
an elongated g that can be used to represent ngg [ŋg] [PK: the engma is superscript in
original]. Other special characters may also exist, but I have not observed them in
use.
The letters used in writing Raga language are shown below:!
The sounds bw, mw and vw are generally represented using letter combinations, as in
conventional Raga orthography. Avoiuli equivalents exist for the other letters in the
Western alphabet but these are needed only in foreign words. There appears to be no
distinction between capital and lowercase letters, although occasionally the first letter
of a phrase is ornamented with extra loops.
Letters are joined up in a continuous stroke to make words:
<image> AVOANA
Avoiuli has its own numerals:
[42]
These numerals are put together to make larger numbers in a similar way to Western
numerals, although unlike in Western numbering, the digits in Avoiuli numbers are
often joined up.
In informal writing, most people write Avoiuli from left to right, as with Western
writing, though on posters Avoiuli is often written inverted, from right to left. The fact
that most of the letters are symmetrical (or nearly symmetrical) makes Avoiuli easy to
read in either orientation. (The samples shown in this book are in left-to-right
344
orientation.) Many posters in Avoiuli are intended to be read from the bottom
upwards, although informal writers tend to follow the Western practice of filling a
page from the top down. 43
The language of the leaves
Prior to the introduction of reading and writing, people on Pentecost would convey
messages to one another by displaying particular leaves and other objects, a means of
communication that researcher Carlene Winch-Dummett refers to as ‘the language of
the leaves’. In traditional days a huge variety of such signs were in use: several old
people have claimed to me that “every leaf had its meaning”, and some signs had
multiple meanings depending on the context in which they were used. Leaves
displayed by the roadside or outside houses communicated warnings, prohibitions and
announcements, and leaves worn by dancers during ceremonies served as tokens
indicating a person’s role or the value of pigs brought along to exchange.
Signs could be used in combination to build up messages. For example, a cycad
(namele) leaf, a universally-recognised taboo sign, might be tied to chicken feathers to
prohibit the killing of chickens. ‘Conversations’ could be held in which a passer-by
would place his leaf on top of another: if a person thought another’s sign unimportant,
for example, he might express this by leaving on top a fragment from a tree whose
wood was notoriously light in weight.
Some signs are common to different parts of the island: red, for example, always
signifies blood and violence. To walk into a village anywhere on Pentecost with a red
hibiscus flower on one’s head is to pick a fight. Other signs play on features of
particular languages: leaves of the New Guinea rosewood (Apma nanaa), for example,
were traditionally used by Apma speakers to mark their property because the tree’s
name happens to resemble the local word for “me” (nana).
With the spread of literacy, leaf signs are now dying out as a means of
communication, although a few – such as the namele as a taboo sign – are still widely
recognised and used.
Listed on the following pages are some signs traditionally used in Apma-speaking
Central Pentecost. Many of these have equivalents in other parts of the island. [PK:
see PDF in Endnote] 43
The Turaga kastom movement has abandoned the Western calendar in favour of one
inspired by native traditions. This is based on lunar months of either 29 or 30 days
each (the cycle of the moon lasts 29.53 days), divided into seven-day weeks that
correspond roughly to quarters of the moon, plus a final ‘week’ of one or two days.
The name of each day consists of a week name describing a phase of the moon (bwatu-
, goro-, guni-, bara-, mate-) followed a day number between 1 and 7 (tuvwa, rua, tolu, vasi,
lima, ono, bitu). Thus, the fifth day of the second week is Gorolima. When asked when a
Turaga event is scheduled to occur, followers are liable to give an answer such as “the
day the moon dies” without necessarily knowing the exact date. 113
345
Lincke, Eliese-Sophia, and Silvia Kutscher. 2012. “Motivated sign
formation in Hieroglyphic Egyptian and German Sign
Language (DGS): Towards a typology of iconic signs in visual
linguistic systems.” In Lexical Semantics in Ancient Egyptian,
edited by Eitan Grossman, Stéphane Polis and Jean Winand,
113-140. Göttingen: Seminar für Ägyptologie und Koptologie.
Iconic hieroglyphs in Egyptian function either as classifiers (like in Ex. 1) or as
logograms. In this paper, we will focus on iconic logograms,[fn] as well as unique and
repeater-like classifiers.[fn] Both of these sign function classes are subsumed under the
term semogram (Schenkel 2005: 42-51). Semograms fulfil the condition
[+meaningful] (Kammerzell 2004; cf. Lincke & Kammerzell, this volume, Table 1) in
contrast to phonograms in the wider sense that are [–meaningful].
The question arises as to how meaning is encoded in an iconic hieroglyph. Which
semiotic principles can be detected in meaning-encoding and what degree of
specificity can be reached? What are regular form-meaning-referent relationships and
where are the limits of the hieroglyphic system? In other words: What are the
potentials and constraints of iconic hieroglyphs? 115
#iconicity
It is our declared aim to avoid idiosyncrasies. In order to do so, it is very helpful to
include different systems so that shared characteristics will be placed at the centre of
the typology while particular properties of individual systems are described as
differences and not falsely considered as universal semiotic key points. 116
#ideography
Recent research, however, also discusses decisive differences of signed languages that
differentiate them from all spoken language systems, such as simultaneity in syntax
and the pervasiveness of imagistic iconicity on the lexical level (e.g. Taub 2001; van
der Kooij 2002; Meier et al., eds. 2002; Pizzuto et al., eds. 2007). [fn] 118
This is the point in which our approach differs fundamentally from that of Derchain
(1991): He not only follows a model of language that places Written Language as a
secondary representation (i.e. a vehicle) of Spoken Language, speaking of the
hieroglyph as the signifiant (sign vehicle) of the (Spoken Language) phoneme (signifié,
i.e. sense). In order to integrate visual iconicity, Derchain has to consider the
hieroglyph to be in a double function: (1) –– as just mentioned –– as a sign vehicle of a
Spoken Language element and (2) as a sign vehicle of an image: “... le hiéroglyphe
signifie simultanément une image, celle de l’objet qu’il représente, et un ou plusieurs
phonèmes, exclusivement des consonnes” (Derchain 1991: 245). We reject this non-
autonomous model in concord with Lincke & Kammerzell (this volume, Section 1.2).
We incline to an autonomous model of Written Language in close overlap with
Spoken Language. Therefore, we interpret a written sign as a sign vehicle of a sense
(without a detour of being a sign vehicle of the sign vehicle, i.e. phoneme, of Spoken
Language). And we follow Peirce when we consider signs to have a symbolic, iconic or
indexical nature if the relationship between sign vehicle and referent is symbolic (i.e.
habitual), iconic (i.e. based on similarity) or indexical (i.e. contiguous) and not –– as
346
Derchain argues –– if the sense (in his terms signifié) is a symbol, icon or index
(Derchain 1991: 245-246 with Figure). 1! 21
#writing = model of language #writing is language
The evaluation of a sign as iconic is subject to cultural and conceptual conditions and
restrictions and therefore cannot be determined objectively. Iconicity in a linguistic
sign is thus dependent on the mental conceptualisations of the sign user (see also Taub
2001: 20) and to conventions of the linguistic community. Most importantly, in a
linguistic sign, the relation between sign vehicle and referent may exhibit all three
kinds of relation simultaneously. Depending on which kind of relation is foregrounded
in the sign, a classification of signs into symbol, icon and index is established (Peirce
IV: § 448). From the viewpoint of language systems, linguistic signs are primarily to be
classified as symbols, since every linguistic sign is conventionalised within the language
community which uses it. Consequently, an iconic linguistic sign is by its nature also a
symbol. From the perspective of language use, the iconic and indexical relation may
predominate. For our purpose, we consider the classification or evaluation of a sign as
depending on the perspective and on the weighting of the contemplator, i.e. the
producer of an iconic sign but also the scholar (cf. also Ransdell 1986: 57, Nöth 2000:
186). 122
#iconicity
As mentioned above, Peirce defines iconicity as a relation between sign vehicle and
referent. They are in a similarity-based relationship. For visual iconic signs, this means
that the sign vehicle depicts visible properties of the object, e.g. its shape or colour.
When a particular object serves as a model for a sign vehicle, abstraction and
categorisation are involved. By abstraction we mean that due to affordances of the
respective visual communication systems, not all properties of the object can be
depicted. A simplification[fn] — subtracting individual features and details — takes
place, e.g. the non-representation of leaves in the DGS sign vehicle BAUM ‘tree’ (Ex.
4). Properties that cannot be imitated in the respective systems (e.g. material, colour,
actual size) are also disregarded. Categorisation is met, for instance, when a particular
object — like a broadleaf tree — is chosen as a representative of a more general sense
— e.g., tree in general —, i.e. a broadleaf tree is categorised as a member of the
category of tree (e.g., in Ex. 3). Therefore, it can be used to represent the category as a
whole. This categorisation is also attested in Egyptian and has been described by
means of prototype theory (Goldwasser 2002). In categorisation, prototypes play an
important role. The object chosen for the representation of a more general sense is
usually a prototype and not just any member of the category. Prototypes are bound to
cultural concepts and stereotypes (see the next section). 123
The motivation of a sign may not be transparent to the interpreter of the respective
sign for a number of reasons: (1) The part or characteristic of an object which is
imitated by a sign vehicle depends on cultural concepts, e.g. in the DGS sign vehicle
for grandmother (Ex. 3a), the bun that used to be worn stereotypically by elderly
women is chosen while other culturally relevant characteristics of elderly women (e.g.
a cane) [123] are ignored. (2) It is probably principally unpredictable which culturally
relevant characteristic is chosen as a basis for the formation of the sign vehicle. From
the interpreter’s point of view, the iconicity of a sign vehicle only becomes evident
when the associated sense or the respective referent as well as the underlying cultural
347
concept is revealed or known. Thus, iconicity is only transparent if the sense of a sign
is given to the receiver or if it can be easily deduced from the context by an interpreter
who is familiar with the respective culture (cf. Sonesson’s term ‘secondary iconicity’,
cf. Sonesson, without year: lecture 3, page 25f.). (3) In the case of iconic signs, opacity
also comes along with conventionalisation. When a sign enters the sign inventory of a
speaker community it gets conventionalised, i.e. sign vehicle and sense become a fixed
association. This, of course, implies an attenuation of the iconic character because the
sign vehicle does not depict the actual referent in discourse. Furthermore, the sign
vehicle is often not adapted to changes in sense, which imply referents with which the
unmodified sign vehicle is not in a similarity-based relationship.18 Also, essential
visual characteristics, like the shape or functional parts of a referent, might undergo a
change in the course of time. (4) The defining cultural concepts may be opaque to a
foreign interpreter and sometimes — despite a possible original transparency — also
to contemporary members of the respective culture. In either case, they are not
universal. 124
#iconicity #conventionalisation and compression
We claim that modality, mode and medium in which a sign is transmitted determine
its iconic character. The term modality refers to the sensory system in which the sign
is perceived. The term mode refers to the signalling system that conveys the
information to be communicated, and the term medium refers to the actual vehicles of
transmitting the information, e.g. papyrus, stone, body.[fn] 125
#iconicity
Two sub-types can be distinguished from each other. In the first one, the shape of the
referent is imitated in its entirety, for example in DGS ‘mussel’ and ‘tree’ and in
Egyptian ‘duck’, ‘cow’ or ‘lake’[fn] (Ex. 4).
The second sub-type of the shape-for-shape class represents the referent
meronymically. Only a part of the object is chosen to be signed or depicted (part-
whole relationship). Examples from DGS are ‘deer’, where only the antlers are shown,
and ‘machine’, where two cog-wheels are signed. In comparable Egyptian cases, only
the head of a duck or a cow, or the blossom of a ‘lotus flower’ are depicted (Ex. 5).[fn]
127
#iconicity #conventionalisation and compression
Linguistic systems in the visual modality can make use of their potential to form
semantically transparent, motivated, and therefore iconic signs. These signs are iconic
to any interpreter who is familiar with the sign’s sense, the activated cultural concept
upon which the sign vehicle is based and the underlying principles of iconic sign
formation. 135
#iconicity
Morey, Stephen. 2012. Correspondence with Stephen Morey,

27 December.
Hi Stephen,
Great to hear your talk at the recent CRLD conference which has really got me
thinking. I wanted to ask you a couple of things:
348
I’m haphazardly collecting examples of newly devised scripts in Asia and the pacific,
and arguably your zone counts as ‘Asia’ in some dialects of English! Are you able to
send me any useful references for the Lakhum Mossang script?
I really enjoyed the traditional story you retold of how words were written on animal
skins and then eaten. I’m generally interested in creation/destruction stories about
language and writing. Do you have any references for this one? Perhaps in your own
work?
Can you remind me about the symbolic relationship between writing and the human
body for one of the scripts mentioned?
I’m in absolutely no hurry for answers to any of these questions!
Hope you had a merry xmas and are looking forward to the new year,
Piers
Reply from Stephen Morey, 27 December 2012
Dear Piers,
Thanks. Your talk was certainly wonderful to have and the whole Eskayan story is so
interesting. You’re onto something really worthwhile there.
Quick answers to your questions
1) Nothing is in print about Lakhum Mossang as far as I know. I append the full
version of my paper which discusses it a little bit. Paul Hastie, who is a PhD student at
CRLD has made a font for it.
2) Very well known stories. Mark Turin had one version (perhaps he has written
about it); another was mentioned on Stephen Fry’s program about Endangered
languages earlier in the year. I’m sure Mark Post has recorded such stories and Stuart
Blackburn and I daresay many people in Burma and China as well. Here is a Singpho
version from Kumku Gam of Miao (Singpho first then English translation):
Moi săgya wa prat hpra wa prat nat wa prat goi măchang kăsa ningnan săngai yawng i
săngai gaw ngut săda. Dai singdim i măchang kăsa hpe i jai jaw pingya jaw gaw nga re. Ya
ngai wa ming wa gaw mălap sa. Dai ma re mung a săgya wa hpra wa aima yu na gaw
măchang kăsa yawng hpe săga re. “Măchang kăsa bawk e lăhta lăyang goi i ya hpan wa
săgya ni hteng hpe i a săhkat da de sălat da de. Deng gaw jai pingya lik lai pingya wa
mung yet ni hteng e lang la re. Dai ni hteng ngai jaw sa re.”
Deng i hpun hpi goi ka ya. Kăwa hpi goi ka ya. Hpun lap goi ka ya. Kăwa lap goi ka ya
hkau wa hkau wa hpan goi kun ka ya. E jinghpaw hpan hpe wa gaw gai ra ai da. Ngang
wa gaw ngu na gaw san hpi goi ka ya re. Daw lăni ma si n nga gaw i mhpaw hpan wa i dai
san hpi dăwa dup sai. Dai goi laika si wa mat wa e. Dai ma re mung chumhpaw wa i
mhpaw wa wa i i chumhpaw wa wai laika si wa sa ninghkan i kawng goi hkat wa i kawng
goi măching wa gai nga.
Dai lăhkan i daini wa i sumhpaw hpan wa aw sam man gaga sawt re mi mi nan săna
laika wa n nga wa re. Ya găde ning sawng goi kun lăcha ning hpu du ha răkun, i
sumhpaw dung hpe inglik ni wai, hkăni na inglik laika wa, i na sumhpaw ga goi gălau
349
na gaw i na mhpaw lik sătai ya re. Dai wa chum daini sumhpaw lik tai na gaw lang lu
re. Găja wa ha i na măra htat sa. Dai nrai yawng moi săgya wa i jaw re mădung wa
gaw i wa i sa măkau de moi dung sălang lai wa bawk i pung di su da de.
Dai htum na i hke wa man wa mănun găla wa gaga i inglik wa gaga wa gaw, dai sawt di ka
ya re. Dai hpun hkep goi hpun hpi goi hpun chen goi ka ya e la ha. Bai hke na mung goi
japan na mung goi, hkau wa kun hkăni hpe i hpa hpan je lap kun nam lap kun goi ka ya e.
Dăwa loi ma dumhpek dai hkau kun dai ninghkan i hkăni wa dai wa lam da re n-ga goi
tawn de. Het hkaw yawng hta la kaw ngu re. Dai goi wa hkau wa kun re na gaw hkăni
hteng wa wen akhing goi u wa i ahpe na gaw a je lap kun dai mi ka ya re laika dăwa dăga
kun găma nawng ga wa. Ya hta la kaw hta ndai wa.
A je lap dai wa mi na lik dai wa mu n nga. Laika wa găning di da ha kun yu re. A kau wa
gaw je lap tawng de nga a dai wu ahpe hkang gaw i m. U wa ahpe hkang gaw i. Dai u na
lăgawng hkang wa yu na gaw, de sawt di ka la. Dai lăhkan i daini hke na lik bawk wa
japan na lik bawk wa, u lăchang hkang săsawn ne dai aima re sa. A dai sawt rai de.
Long ago, at the time of Chau Sigya, at the time of our Buddha, at the time of the nats,
when humans were newly created, when their birth might After that, (gods thought that)
they should give knowledge to human beings. Now I have forgotten (his) name.
Although one Indra came down, and called to all the people. “Oh people, I, Lord Săgya
have created the lăhta lăyang, have caused it to fall down for you. Now you should soon use
this knowledge of writing (that I have given you). I have given it to you.”
Then he wrote it down on bark. He wrote it on bamboo bark. He wrote it on leaves. He
wrote it on the leaves of bamboo, he wrote it on anything. He really loved the Jinghpaw
people. So that it would be what is called long-lasting, he wrote it on leather.
Then, one day, there being no vegetables, they cut up the meat. And there the writing died
and was lost. And we people, because we had eaten the writing, it fell inside to our
stomach, there was a lot of remembering in the stomach. Therefore, today, we do not have
writing (unlike) the Shans and others.
Now, how many years ago, maybe it was a hundred years ago, the English converted our
language to English writing, they made our Singpho language for us. Now, today, having
made our Singpho books, we got to use it. It has been good for our use.
Then, long ago when Săgya gave it, the people of long ago, told this story. And after
that, we write in this way using these different writings, of China, Burma, the Indians
or the English. So we write on small pieces of wood, and bark, and so one.
Again, in China and Japan, maybe they write on thin paper or on forest leaves, They,
making it a little bit wet, therefore dry it in the sun, they put it on the ground. Then when
it is dried, they take it. Then, when they go away from it, at that time, the birds having
scratched it, whatever was written on paper, this writing was scattered and broken. Then it
take it, this one!
So there is no writing on paper as there had been before. Look at how the writing was
kept. Oh some there was paper lying, just the impression of the scratching is left, isnt it?
The print of the scratching of chickens. Then, after seeing the print of the chickens legs,
they wrote in that way. So Chinese and Japanese writing is just like the print of chickens
claws, at one with it. Ah, it was like that.
3) Here we are talking the Meitei Mayek. I append for you the paper by Harimohon
Thounaojam Singh in Hyslop, Gwendolyn, Stephen Morey and Mark Post (eds).
North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 3. New Delhi. Cambridge University Press
India.
350
The wikipedia site is at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meitei_Mayek_script
The Unicode people have gone ahead and listed 27 consonants, which would be
objected to by some people in Manipur, for reasons that you’ll start to understand if
you go through Harimohon. (His list stops at Unicode’s ABD1).
So, there it is!
Stephen
Pangilinan, Michael Raymon M. 2012. Kulitan: The indigenous

Kapampangan script. Angeles City: Center for Kapampangan
Studies.
#kulitan
Bunduk Aláya [Mount Arayat] is the home of the Kapampangan sun god Ápûng
Sínukuan of whom many in Maglanag still believed and venerated back when i was
growing up as a child. Considered the father of Kapaampangan civilization, Ápûng
Sínukuan was said to have been the one who taught Kapampangans how to express
their thoughts in written form. 21
According to Akademyang Kapampangan folklore, it was the Katipunan mystic and
playwright Aurelio Tolentino […] who sought to revive the cult of Ápûng Sínukuan
and the pre-colonial civilization of the Kapampangan and Tagalog nations thtat
inculded Kulitan and Baybayin. He was one of the initial members of the Katipunan
and a good friend of its founder Andres Bonifacio. A bilingual writer, Aurelio
Tolentino is better known in Philippine History as the Father of Tagalog drama. It
was the Katipunan who implemented Jose Rizal’s proposal to indigenize Tagalog
orthography in the Latin script based on the Baybayin. Aurelio Tolentino carried out
the same thing for Kapampangan orthography based on his knowledge of the Kulitan.
After Tolentino’s death, Don Zoilo Hilario, a relative of Aurelio Tolentino by
marriage, co-founded the Akademyang Kapampangan in 1937 with the leading
writers of Wawa, namely Amado Yuzon and Monico Mercado, to continue the
Katipunan’s task of indigenizing Kapampangan orthography.
The cult of Apung Sinukuan and the practice of using the indigenous scripts to write
talismans and commune with the ancestral spirits were said to be a part of the rituals
of the various mystic cults that became popular among Kapampangan peasants in the
1880, a decade or so before the founding of the [23] Katipunan in Tondo in 1896.
These cults were most prolific among the peasant communities that surrounded the
Pinak (Candaba Swamp) and Bunduk Aláya (Mount Arayat). The Katipunan flag
with the white noon day sun of Apúng Sinukuan (Tagalog Apolaki) or Bayang (‘the
destroyer superimposed with the indigenous script ‘KA’ on the blood red background
of Apûng Maliári ‘the life giver’ is said to be a powerful talisman in Kapampangan
mysticism. The Kapampangan revolutionary mystics who joined the ranks of the
Katipunan might have injected some of their indigenous knowledge into the
movement.
351
Like many of the scripts in Southeast Asia, the indigenous Kapampangan script has
always been veiled in folklore, mysticism and taboos. For a long time, Súlat
Kapampángan or Kulitan has been used by mystics and spiritual healers in their various
rituals, especially in creating channs and talismans and in communicating with the
ancestral spirits. Letters and petitions were written and burnt as a form of
communication with the spirits of dead heroes and ancestors. Curses were also written
in Kulitan, believing that they would acquire more potency if read and possessed or
carried out by an ancestral spirit. A certain graveness and seriousness has therefore
been attached to them, preventing the writer from trying to use them for
communicating trivial mundane matters. One of the most enduring taboos in Kulitan
is in using them to write foreign words or names. Another taboo is in teaching them to
foreigners. It was for this reason that the majority o f the Kapampangan people
cannot read and write in it despite the fact that the script has existed among them.
If the indigenous Kapampangan script were to survive in this present era, then it has
to become a relevant means of expression among the living in this world instead of it
being used to communicate with the ancestral spirits in the next world.
In 1989, Edwin Navarro Camaya and I decided to do just that and began using
Kulitan in our regular correspondence [Fig. B]. I am sincerely grateful to Edwin for if
not for him, my knowledge in Kulitan would have gone to waste or simply forgotten.
Edwin was most in pushing for its revival and popularization in everyday
commumcation. His brother, Emerson Navarro, Camaya, was the first to encode the
script in digital format and therefore make it possible to finally use and record them in
computer word processing. A student of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños
at that time, Edwin Camaya organized a group of Kapampangan students studying
there in the mid-[24]1990s and trained them to become cultural advocates and
experts in Kulitan. For this I am indebted to one of my grand aunts from the Tayag-
Lacson clan of Magalang, the late Apúng Nénî (Evangelina Hilario Lacson), daughter
of Don Zoilo Hilario and president emeritus of the Akademyang Kapampangan at
that time. She was the one who pushed Edwin and me to become cultural warriors for
Indûng Kapampangan. According to one of my grand uncles in Magalang, Apung
Ambû (Paul Aquino), husband of my Apung Bidang (Brigida Manaloto) and a former
commander of the Communist led Peoples Liberation Army Against Japan
(HUKBALAHAP) and later The Peoples Liberation Army (HMB), Edwin is
descended from a family ofKapampangan revolutionaries in the province ofTarlac.
Ápûng Ambû once mentioned that the indigenous scripts were revived during the
Great Pacific War by a number of female couriers of the HUKBALAHAP from
Candaba and Arayat who had undergone intelligence training under Squadron 48 in
Bunduk Aláya. They were then called Súlat Bayánî or ‘warriors’ script’ since they were
identified with the revolutionary heroes of the Katipunan. Ápûng [25] Ambû stressed
that the struggle of the HUKBALAHP, and later the HMB, was a continuation ofthe
revolutionary struggles of the Katipunan.! The practice of using Kulitan and Baybayin in
Huk communiques was discontinued in 1943 when the scripts were identified with the
Kapisanan ng Paglilingkod sa Bagong Pilipinas (KALIBAPI), a political party made up of
intellectuals who supported the Japanese cause in Asia and used Kulitan and
Baybayin in their display of nationalism. Although they have been demonized·so
much after the war, the KALIBAPI intellectuals and propagandists, like the
Katipunan revolutionaries, sought to revive pre-colonial knowledge inorder to create
a new country devoid of any traces of Western colonialism. When Japan defeated
352
Russia in 1905, she became a beacon of light for many nations still languishing in the
darkness of Western imperialism. The veterans !of the revolution against Spain and the
war against the United States saw Japan as Asia’s saviour from white colonial rule.
Rabidly anti-American, many them and their descendants joined the KALIBAPI and
supported Japan’s war against the white colonialists in Asia. Sadly, Kapampangan
nationalists become caught up in the politics of the foreign ideologies they have
espoused. One group joined the Communists. Another group joined the Fascists.
The KALIBAPI was headed by Apung Ambu’s cousin, Benigno Aquino, Sr., the
father of Philippine hero Ninoy (Benigno Aquino, Jr.) and grandfather of current
Philippine president Noynoy (Benigno Aquino III).
I am also indebted to the late poet laureate from Magalang, Apung !(Vedasto
Ocampo), who together with Kapampangan poet laureate! José M. Gallardo of
Candaba, was also said to have fought the Japanese in the resistance movement in the
last Great Pacific War. He was at first apprehensive in reviving Kulitan because they
were identified with the group of anti-American intellectuals who supported the
Japanese cause in Asia, the KALIBAPI. Among the leading members of the
KALIBAPI in Pampanga was none other than Don Zoilo Hilario, the founder and
head of the Akademyang Kapampangan at that time. Despite of that, Apung Viding
became the vice president of the Akademyang Kapampangan and the editor in chief
of their quarterly publication, Ing Susi. He later agreed that the Kulitan belonged to the
Kapampangan people and should not be identified nor tied to a particular group or
individual. 26
Powell, Barry B. 2012. Writing: Theory and history of the

technology of civilization. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
[PK: this book is not very rigorous]
Immense changes have taken place in the art of lexigraphic writing since that time, as
one will quickly discover if setting out to learn Akkadian cuneiform. Yet such changes
rarely result from evolution, except in writing’s earliest stages, and were never
inevitable. They came about through the accidents of history and the intercession of
individual men of genius working across racial and linguistic bounds, when fresh
approaches were possible. There is no certain direction that a writing must take.
Because writing systems are arbitrary and conventional they do not respond to nature
(whose rules of behavior are not arbitrary and not conventional), but to the
inventiveness of unknown creators, who had a purpose too often hidden from us.
So improbable is it that anyone should devise a means of encoding elements of speech
by means of graphic symbols that in the Old World lexigraphic writing was invented
only once, in Mesopotamia, and perhaps a second time, much later, in China. But
even in China the idea of “writing” must have come from Mesopotamia over the
Gansu corridor north of the Himalayas, where caravan traffic was constant. China
was never wholly separated from cultural developments in Mesopotamia. A separate
invention did take place in Mesoamerica, providing a test case for principles distilled
from the study of Near Eastern writing. 4
Human groups who possess writing triumph over those who do not, without exception
and swiftly. 11
353
Writing is the most important technology in the history of the human species, except
how to make a fire. 11
Writing has been defined time and again, always in different ways, but let us say that
writing is a system of markings with a conventional reference that communicates information, like
the signs on this page.
Thomas, Megan C. 2012. Orientals, propagandists and ilustrados:

Filipino scholarship and the end of Spanish colonialism.
Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
[PK: More from this source in !Notes on the Philippines]
In Orientalism’s classic moments, the focus on ancient texts worked in part to
establish the authority of the (European) Orientalist over that of the “native” keepers
of the text. That is, the existence of a written text, and knowledge of the language in
which it was written, allowed the (European) scholar to interpret its significance
without reference to the readings or interpretations of any indigenous scholarly or
priestly institutions or authorities.[fn] Thus Orientalism’s focus on ancient texts
performed work analogous to Protestantism’s emphasis on the Bible: access to the text
itself allowed for traditional institutional authority to be usurped. Further, the
particularly ancient quality of the texts on which the Orientalists lavished their
attentions was important in part because it confirmed their authenticity. For Schlegel,
Müller, or Jones, for example, the more ancient the text, the closer it was to the true,
untainted original, unpolluted by the [32] decay of the latter-day Orient, with the
perversions of the Persian (read: Muslim) translation or the influence of Dravidian
(read: dark-skinned) cultural practices.[fn] The theme of Oriental decay emphasized
both the greatness of the ancient and the need to rescue it from the present-day
Orientals, which simultaneously authorized European scholarly work and political
rule. 33
#chapter 4 #primacy of writing
Yet other contributors demonstrated their authority, or their familiarity with the
science’s method, by using the same techniques that were practiced among folklore
gatherers elsewhere. The science of folklore privileged data whose origins were
demonstrably old (e.g., oral data from old people or texts that recorded the oral
accounts of people no longer living).[fn] Filipino folklorists sometimes emphasized the
authenticity of their data in these terms. One of the sources that Ponce cited most
often, for example, he first described as “a Tagalog manuscript (none could assure me
of having seen it) that an educated native [ilustrado indígena] of the province, who was
one of the first students of the University of Santo Tomás of Manila, had. . . . It is of
note that the elders that supply me with these data only know this by tradition,
transmitted from [125] generation to generation by their ancestors who have read said
manuscript.” [fn] 126
#ideology: antiquity #oral history #primacy of writing
Serrano Laktaw, too, established the authenticity of his sources by noting that they
came from old people via oral tradition. For example, he identified the source of a
story as an old man, “an old octogenarian, as he normally called himself, a man that
354
was in the twilight of life, and who was there to watch over his children and
grandchildren who worked in a nearby hacienda.”[fn] This old man told Serrano
Laktaw things that “he [the old man] said that, when he was young, he had been told
by an old man who by reputation was the only one that had managed to penetrate the
bowels of the enormous mountain” that was the subject of the legend.[fn] 126
[PK: compare to Jose Marcos/Pavon/Povedano manuscripts (?)]
#ideology: antiquity #oral history #primacy of writing
Continuing, [Ferdinand Blumentritt] asked, “How can this ignorant [man] [Pablo
Feced] speak with disdain of the Malayan languages [idiomas malayos], if he knows (or
does he not know . . . ?) that the majority of the branches of the Malayan race [raza
malaya] had their own alphabets? Where are the Spanish, French, English, or German
alphabets? Were not the Malayans superior in this respect to the majority of the
European nations that now march à la tête [at the head] of civilization?” [fn] 141
#chapter 5 #primacy of writing
The interloping letter “k” became, in the Catholic Review, the focus of especially strong
criticism. The writers repeatedly claimed that “k” was particularly German and
definitely not Spanish (and therefore not Tagalog). They gleefully reminded their
readers of the supposed German origins of the new orthography, signing one of the
articles with a pseudonym hindí aleman (not German) and demonstrating a point about
the conjugation of Tagalog verbs by using the Castilian word for “German” (aleman) as
if it were a [156] Tagalog verb root, coining words for “to do German” (umale-aleman),
“was made German” (inaleman), and “to be made German” (alemanin).[fn] 157
#article: rizal #chapter 9 #article: writing system
[small quote] [Rizal:]When you were attending the town’s school to learn your first
letters, or when you had to teach them to the younger ones, your attention must have
been drawn, as mine was, to the great difficulty that the children encountered when
they got to the syllables ca, ce, ci, co, ga, ge, gua, gue, gui, etc., because they did not
understand the cause for these irregularities or the reason that the sounds of some
consonants change. Whips rained down, punishments abounded, canes broke when
the little hands did not become cracked, the first pages fell to pieces, the children
cried, and sometimes even the decurions [head students] had to pay, but these terrible
Thermopylae could not be passed.[fn] [end small quote] 160
Figure 4.3. Three of the many different Katipunan flag designs. The figure in the
middle of the bottom flag is the pre-Hispanic Tagalog script for “ka.” (Author’s
drawings, with help from Robeson Bowmani, based on those in Agoncillo’s Revolt of
the Masses [1996]. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.) 165
#chapter 9 #article: writing system
Even more particularly, however, the shift to the letter “k” not only changed the
shape of Tagalog words, but it helped obscure the Spanish origins of some Tagalog
words.[fn] 165
355
By severing the very real links between Castilian and Tagalog that had been visible in
the shapes of words, the new orthography enacted a separation between the two
languages. In this sense, the new orthography was indeed a “traitor” orthography, a
traitor to Spain and to the Spanish language.[fn] 166
Emphasizing law and morality on the one hand and technology on the other, Rizal’s
comparisons of past with present functioned in two important ways. First, they
articulated with common Orientalist themes in unusual ways that ennobled the
ancient past, despite its textual lack. Laws, morality, and religion—the subjects of
some of the most ancient and ennobling texts elsewhere in the Orient—were figured
as having functioned so effectively in practice that written codifications were
superfluous. This captured the value of ancient (Oriental) grandeur while eliding the
lack of texts (the source of admiration of the ancient Oriental elsewhere). 182
#chapter 4 #chapter 10 #mimicry and rejection #imagined communites #primacy of
writing [contra]
The data and methods of linguistics suggested a new way to spell old languages, which
emphasized their difference from Spanish. This controversial move became a subject
of public debate in which the status of the local’s relationship to Spain and to the
wider world was at issue. Though not the explicit subject of debate, the new spelling
in fact hid Spanish roots incorporated into modern languages. 202
de Voogt, Alexander. 2012. “Invention and borrowing in the

development and dispersal of writing systems.” In The idea of
writing: Writing across borders, edited by Alexander de Voogt
and Joachim Friedrich Quack, 1-10. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
#stimulus diffusion
In the history and dispersal of writing systems, borrowing is a central feature. Only in
three or perhaps four known instances, script was invented independent of contact
with other writing or prior knowledge of writing. Mesopotamian, perhaps Egyptian,
Chinese and at least one Meso-American writing system are thought to have
developed independently while all subsequent systems borrowed at least the idea of
writing. 1
The above scenario suggests that all elements of a script are necessary before writing
can occur. In other words, apart from the independently invented scripts mentioned
above, there is no gradual development towards writing but only a sudden appearance
of a ‘complete’ script that subsequently may develop further. This is particularly true
for scripts that borrowed the idea of writing since a growing awareness with
incremental steps towards the idea of writing, which one could consider an
evolutionary development, is not necessary. The process of signs changing into lexical
items, rebus-forming and the slow development of writing is only attested, or perhaps
only necessary, if the idea of writing was not present from the start. In all other
instances the development of a script is an exercise that can be completed by one
person, such as for Cherokee, or decreed by an administration, as is suggested for the
356
cuneiform script used for Old Persian, or at least can be established in a relatively
short time and with limited means. 1
#phylogeny #caroline islands script
Even the presence of a complex society, an elaborate administrative system within a
state or other elements that point at a practical need for writing are not necessarily at
the basis of [1] later script development. Later scripts, i.e., scripts that were created
after the idea of writing was already present in a region, are unlikely to use signs for
administrative purposes first and then develop these into script signs over time since
they are already aware of the use of signs for writing. Rather, if the idea of writing is
known—in some cases people may even be literate in another language—, the script
signs and values are borrowed or invented, and the entire writing system is created
relatively sudden. 2
#state societies #evolution of writing
Previous essays on the history and development of writing systems suggest that a
category of independently invented scripts exists separate from the above-mentioned
systems in Mesopotamia, China and Meso-America. Examples of these scripts often
have a known inventor. Daniels (2007: 55; Daniels & Bright 1996: 579) termed them
unsophisticated grammatogenies when the inventor is unfamiliar with the workings of
an existing writing system. The unsophisticated grammatogenies, such as, according
to Daniels, the Bamum and the Caroline Islands scripts, always appear to have a
syllabic system of writing. It is argued here that invention takes place on multiple
fronts and if the idea of writing is already present, it is better to speak of borrowing
and innovation processes. The Caroline Islands script came about after a failed
introduction of an alphabet by a stranded missionary. The otherwise illiterate
islanders then developed a syllabary for which some of the sign shapes were clearly
borrowed (Riesenberg & Kaneshiro 1960, de Voogt 2010a). The processes that
involve the development of a script are much different from one example to the other.
Most of these so-called invented scripts, whether the grammatogeny was sophisticated
or not, are only partly invented and differ widely in their borrowing strategies. 2
#article: sophisticated
In contrast, when a new script is developed, the inventors may take sign shapes from
several different scripts and incorporate them into their sign list. Cherokee has Cyrillic
and Roman alphabetic signs, and Maldivian Thaana has Arabic numerals that were
transformed into consonant signs (Desilva & Sugathapala 1969, de Voogt 2010b).
These examples, however, are not without complication. In the latter case, it is not
clear where many of the other consonantal signs were taken from. In the case of
Cherokee, its syllabary signs were partly transformed when they were used for
printing purposes, several years after the inventor of the syllabary, Sequoya, successful
introduced the script to other Cherokee people. It appears that part of the inventory
developed by Sequoyah was at least inspired by existing alphabetic signs, while
another part was somewhat similar but was made to resemble alphabetic signs more
emphatically when they were printed and, finally, a small portion underwent
significant changes to make them look like the known English alphabet (Cushman
2010). Many signs remain unique to the Cherokee syllabary but this borrowing and
redesign process for, at least, part of its inventory has required detailed historical
analyses before it became clear (Cushman 2010; Walker 1984, 1985; Walker &
Sarbaugh 1993). 3
357
As soon as a writing system is in place, it is unlikely that sign shapes from yet other
writing systems are borrowed into the system. Instead new signs with shapes similar to
the ones already present are much preferred. In sum, the sudden creation of such a
script is followed by a gradual development of that script. 3
It is possible to borrow from more than one script and both ancient and modern
examples exist. With each script from which a new system has borrowed, the above
three elements can be distinguished. If placed in a table, the three elements of
borrowing create the following borrowing scenarios:
L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7
Sign No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
shape
Sign No Yes Yes No No Yes No
value
System No Yes No Yes No Yes/No Yes
Language 1 (L1) borrowed no elements and this happened in the three regions
mentioned above that created the Cuneiform, Chinese and Meso-American scripts. It
is also possible for other scripts in later times to fall into this category but they would
need to have had a new set of sign shapes unrelated to those found anywhere else. In
the history of writing systems, this seems rarely the case. Possible contenders are
Linear B from ancient Crete, Rongorongo from Easter Island or the earliest Egyptian
writing. In these cases, it remains difficult to show that all signs were indeed invented
and that the system of writing, syllabic or logographic, was not borrowed. It suffices to
state that the (un)sophisticated grammatogenies also do not fall into this category.!
L2 borrowed all elements and much of the alphabetizing projects of today are of this
nature. As was mentioned above, some parts of the script may be borrowed rather
than the entire script and this scale makes the above table only a first and crude
categorization.
A number of the (un)sophisticated grammatogenies fall into the category of L3 in
which sign shapes and values are borrowed but the system of writing is different,
usually syllabic or alpha-syllabic. Meroitic writing is an example from antiquity in
which a series of signs was taken from Demotic and Egyptian hieroglyphs for both the
cursive and hieroglyphic variation. The sign values were mostly the same but the
system changed from the complex Egyptian system (with coexisting phonetic and
logographic writing, plus the semantic marking of categories) to the Meroitic [4]
alpha-syllabic system. The basic factor of the change in this case was not so much
active addition but the abandoning of much of the model.
L3 is a borrowing category for which many examples exist but this is not the case for
L4. Here the signs and the system are borrowed but the sign values have been
changed. In the case of Maldivian Thaana, Arabic numeral signs were changed to
consonantal signs. Arabic is an abjad system, while Thaana has alpha-syllabic
characteristics (see de Voogt 2010b/c).
358
Carian shows an L4 borrowing strategy with alphabetic signs that were taken from
Old Greek but for which almost all sound values were changed. For instance, the
delta received an /l/ sound, gamma represented /b/ and mu became /s/. It is said
that this was a conscious effort to distinguish its writing system from Greek (Adiego
2007).
L5 may apply to much of the printed form of Cherokee where the signs appear
borrowed from existing alphabetic signs but the sign values are different and the
system is syllabic rather than alphabetic.
It is noted that the strategies of L3, L4 and L5 are all different with respect to the
extent of borrowing that took place and the number of inventions that were necessary.
They do not resemble the application of an existing script to a new language but they
are independent efforts to create a script using ideas and inventions already present in
neighboring areas.
L6 is only a theoretical category since it suggests that the signs were invented but the
values of such signs were borrowed. For instance, a secret script, as developed in war-
times, in which each sign is replaced by a number, would fall into this category. The
inventory remains the same but the sign shapes are changed. It may be possible to
change the system of writing as well, but, to my knowledge, L6 is a rare or even
unknown borrowing strategy in the history of writing.
Creating a new sign also means that an accompanying sign value needs to be created.
Most scripts have used a combination of the above borrowing strategies and creating
such new signs is one of them and is presented here as category L1. In this category all
signs and their sign values are invented. Ogham writers, for instance, invented all of
their signs but kept the alphabetic system they had been exposed to. Even systems
such as Braille and Morse code can be put into this category. 5
#phylogeny #typology #cypher
In addition to sign shape, sign value and system of writing, it is possible to add the
borrowing or invention of numeral systems, punctuation, the direction of writing, or
even script materials. They have been excluded in the list above. Their presence or
choice rarely influences a sign inventory that is necessary for a writing system. 6
#phylogeny
The direction of writing also does not affect the sound inventory represented by the
signs in the script. Although writing from bottom to top, as attested in some Philippine
scripts (Conklin 1949), is particularly rare, sign inventories are not necessarily
dependent on the writing direction. The direction is often a preference of the users.
Script materials affect the shape of signs and in the Philippine case also partly explain
the direction of writing. Their use of bamboo shoots makes writers carve away from
their body so that the script is written from bottom to top. It also makes left-handed
writers carve the signs in mirror-image. Readers of the script are described as being
flexible in reading texts from different angles or directions with a common practice to
read the signs from bottom to top. For Western alphabets, fonts are developed that
are more suitable for computer screens than the earlier fonts developed for
newspapers and books. Several scripts show separate inventories of signs for writing in
stone or on parchment, paper and other soft materials. This often doubles the number
of sign shapes and such versions may be treated as separate scripts in terms of
359
borrowing strategies. In other cases, the signs are adapted to be used on a different
writing material but their borrowing strategy may remain the same. 6
#orientation
In sum, contact with writing may transfer the idea of writing but the creation of a
script also requires sign shapes and values that combine into a writing system. This
latter development consists of borrowings and inventions that need to be largely
completed before the script can be put to use. This part of script development is not
gradual but abrupt.
As soon as a first sign inventory is put in place, the script may develop further and add
or change sign shapes and values. These, mostly gradual, [6] transformations are also
influenced by changes in the language and the use of other writing materials. At this
stage new sign shapes are less commonly borrowed from other scripts.
The examples from Mesopotamia, Meso-America and China where script developed
independently have a preceding stage of script development in which the idea of
writing emerges gradually. Examples of administrative systems that develop into
writing suggest such a gradual development.
Daniels (2007) found that syllabaries are much more common for grammatogenies.
However, his unsophisticated grammatogenies are not an unusual category in the
light of the above. Still, it is reasonable to claim that (alpha-)syllabic systems are much
more common in general than logographic scripts. To this one may add that the
alphabet has become a dominant system only with the implementation of alphabetic
writing to unwritten languages in the twentieth century. 7
#evolution of writing #article: sophisticated #progressivism: writing
Blommaert, Jan. 2013. Writing as a sociolinguistic object. Journal

of Sociolinguistics. 1-19.
It has taken quite a while for literacy to make it to the major league of sociolinguistics.
The early discipline displayed remarkably little interest in writing, often dismissing it
as a derivative of ‘real’ – spoken – speech, as ‘a record of something already existing’
(Hymes 1996: 35; cf. also Basso 1974) rather than as an object of sociolinguistic
inquiry in its own right. New Literacy Studies have, since the 1980s, broken ground in
identifying writing and reading as sociolinguistically sensitive areas of practice (e.g.
Heath 1983; Street 1995; Collins and Blot 2003), and the emerging ethnography of
writing has demonstrated the complexities of writing practices as embedded in specific
social and cultural contexts (Barton 1994; Barton and Hamilton 1998; Blommaert
2008a). More recently, inquiries into new digital literacies (Kress 2003; Prinsloo 2005)
and into Linguistic Landscapes (Scollon and Scollon 2003; Stroud and Mpendukana
2009) have invited an increasingly sophisticated view of written language as a complex
of practices as well as a semiotic object. 411
The central question in Grassroots Literacy was: what is the place of literacy in the
repertoires of people, and more precisely, what are the specific literacy resources that
enter into people’s repertoires? Inspiration for this question was obviously found in
earlier work on repertoires by Hymes, Gumperz and other early sociolinguistics (see
Blommaert and Backus 2011 for a discussion). The fact that this question would not
360
be all that easy to answer was anticipated in seminal New Literacies work such as that
of Brian Street (1995) and Gunther Kress (1997), and warnings that literacy was
becoming vastly more complex as a theme of research due to contemporary
technological innovations were not lost on me either (e.g. Kress and Van Leeuwen
1996; Kress 2003). 411
Language and writing are usually seen as separate, and expressions such as ‘English
writing’ (as different from, say, ‘Swahili writing’) or ‘writing in English’ (versus ‘writing
in Swahili’) emphasize this fundamental distinction. We write a language or we write in a
language. The facts of language are not coterminous with those of literacy, and both
demand different analytical approaches – traditionally, sociolinguistics and literacy
studies.[442]
It is good to remind ourselves, however, that whenever we consider actual samples of
‘English writing’, we are looking at one complex sign, which is judged, in its totality, in
terms of communicability. If we stay within the familiar region of our own academic
literacy practices, we can see that whenever we read and assess an essay written in
English, we mark the paper in its totality, as one single object. And even if, in more
sophisticated systems of marking, we distinguish between e.g. ‘contents’, ‘style’ and
some other specific characteristics, we still process a totalizing judgment in statements
such as ‘this is a fine paper’. Likewise, the millions of examples on ‘funny English’
circulating on the Internet are overwhelmingly examples of written English, and we
judge the quality of ‘language’ from the quality of writing. We appear to have, in
other words, one normative complex, which we can and do apply to the total semiotic fact
of ‘written language’. We apply this normative complex whenever we ‘read’ a written
text, and even if our overall judgment can be dominated by specific features such as
stylistic fluency or the strength of argumentation, we appear to fold such more specific
normative judgments into one total judgment of ‘the text’. A ‘good writer’ is, thus, a
synthetic or composite judgment that summarizes a range of different judgments
attached to specific features of the texts produced by this good writer.
This composite judgment can be disassembled, and we can see this one normative
complex as composed of a range of micro-norms related to specific mappings of form
over function. That is: we can distinguish a range of ‘components’ of writing, each of
which needs to be ‘in order’ if we wish to provoke an overall positive judgment on our
writings. Each of the components of writing, thus, needs to be organized according to
specific micro-norms, and the judgment of the complex sign – ‘English writing’ – will
only be positive if the different components are brought within the area of normative
‘normalcy’. I can refer again to Grassroots Literacy to illustrate this. 443
Every form of communication is inherently proleptic: that is, whenever we
communicate, we do so with an anticipated effect in mind. We wish to make sense,
and be understood as producers of specific meanings. 443
If we keep in mind, in the terms of Jørgensen et al. (2011), that ‘languages’ are
conventionalized ideological projections of semiotic form-and-function, and are
therefore artefactual projections of language-ideological interpretation, we can avoid
major misunderstandings (cf. also Blommaert 2008b artefactual). The same goes for
widespread notions such as ‘adequacy’, ‘correctness’ and so forth: if we see them as
locally produced judgments passed on recognizably (i.e. conventionally) ordered
semiotic resources, as a recognition of semiotic order to use Silverstein’s (2003) and
Agha’s (2007) terms instead of as universal and objective criteria for using language,
361
readers should be able to keep track of my argument. Thus, whenever I refer to norms
and normativity in what follows, I beg the reader to understand these terms as locally
produced and situated, not abstract and absolute phenomena.
Technological/infrastructural resources […] 445
The rapid development of alternative (‘heterographic’) forms of writing in new social
media contexts shows us the dynamic interplay of affordances and constraints in real
time, offering us a kind of laboratory to observe the creation of new writing systems
(e.g. Velghe 2011). This brings us to the second set of resources.
Graphic resources […] 446
Linguistic resources […] 447
Semantic, pragmatic and metapragmatic resources […] 447
Social and cultural resources […] 448
And note how the 14-year-old primary school pupil from the South African township
of Wesbank near Cape Town, in Figure 2, appears to lack almost every resource
required for writing, but still appears to be ‘fluent’ in filling the required slots in a
school test – a graphic resource which is not absent from his repertoire. While many
would qualify this pupil as ‘illiterate’, he still deploys a very small amount of literacy
resources, and, we can assume, still tries to make sense by deploying them. 450
There are differences in the threshold of accessibility as well. The appropriate usage of
emoticons in text messaging or Internet chat code is [451]typically learned in informal
settings, while spelling rules are acquired through formal schooled training. Some of
these trajectories of acquisition and learning are more ‘democratic’ than others:
informal learning environments such as the media, peer groups or popular culture are
generally easier to access than elite institutions of formal learning, for instance.
It is therefore not a surprise that people who display difficulties with orthographic
spelling norms are at the same time sometimes extraordinarily fluent users of
heterographic codes such as texting and chat codes of the ‘w84me’ kind. In an earlier
paper we documented the case of Linda, a young woman from the Wesbank
Township near Cape Town, whose literacy practices [12] were entirely concentrated
in instant messaging through the mobile phone (Blommaert and Velghe 2012). 452
This evidently works the other way around as well. Someone who has never
encountered keyboard writing, and has never ventured on the Internet, will have very
little benefit from finding him/herself in a place where there is splendid broadband
access. And when, in such places, that person is expected to perform important
literacy tasks by means of keyboard and Internet technology, this can become quite a
challenge. Imagine that this person can only buy railway tickets online or from a ticket
vending machine with a touchscreen; or that an Internet-based application form
needs to be filled out prior to seeing a doctor, an employment or real estate agent or a
welfare worker. We can see that the specific patterns of distribution here cause
problems for people moving into the zones where such resources are concentrated.
And the person has but one option: to acquire such skills fast and adequately; the
alternative is a mountain of problems in daily life.
We begin to understand that in a globalizing world where people, images, messages
and meanings are intrinsically mobile, ‘knowing how to’ write is becoming an
362
increasingly complex proposition. What exactly is required to perform specific forms of
writing? And how do we get access to the specific resources needed for certain writing
tasks? 453
So rather than to generalize judgments towards either ‘language’ or ‘writing’, we
should make specific statements about the precise building blocks for meaning-making
that are lacking or insufficiently developed.
We should be able to do that for a variety of reasons. One, there would be great
pedagogical benefit in using a considerably more refined analytic and diagnostic
toolkit for judging and monitoring writing. Millions of young learners are qualified as
‘struggling’ or ‘underachieving’ in ‘writing’. As we have seen here, the actual specific
problems they have can, however, be deeply different and thus very different routes
should be taken in addressing these challenges. 455
‘Problems with writing’ are not an adequate diagnostic label; in fact, it would be
equivalent to the degree of precision and usefulness of the term ‘headache’ in the
neurology ward of a hospital. It is high time that we become more precise and
accurate in our expert assessments. 455
Two, we need to be far more precise in our inquiries and analyses because the field of
literacy is rapidly changing. The widespread use of new media and communication
technologies has reshaped the broad field of literacy practices across the world. It has
thus fundamentally altered the conditions and the modes of literacy production, and it
has created new forms of inequality in [455] access to critical writing infrastructures.
Some people have the opportunity to build an extensive and flexible repertoire of
writing resources, while others are building a restricted and inflexible one. Grassroots
Literacy focused on the widening gap between ‘economies of literacy’ in a globalizing
world and argued that we should see literacy as organized in relatively autonomous
formations, developing at unequal speed and generating very unequal affordances for
users. It is good to keep this in mind whenever we engage in passing judgments on
writing products from various parts of the world. 456
Keane, Webb. 2013. On spirit writing: Materialities of language

and the religious work of transduction. Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute 19 (1):1-17.
[St John of Damascus]:
Just as the Word made flesh remained the Word, so flesh became the Word remaining
flesh, becoming rather, one with the Word through union. Therefore I venture to draw an
image of the invisible God, not as invisible, but as having become visible for our sakes
through flesh and blood. I do not draw an image of the immortal Godhead. I paint the
visible flesh of God, for it is impossible to represent a spirit, how much more God who
gives breath to the spirit. (John of Damascus 1994: 4-5) 5
[…] operations on writing can partake of the more common intuition that what
happens physically to signs can affect those things of which they are signs. 6
#writing systems #iconicity
#chapter 9
[Schimmel]:
363
[t]he letters themselves form an important part of the symbolical language in mystical
and profane poetry and prose [in Islamic teaching], some of them being charged with
high religious qualities. Alif, the first letter, a straight line, numerical value I, is the
chiffre for the graceful slim stature of the beloved, but at the same time, and much
more, the symbol of Allah, the One God, free from every worldly quality, the
Absolute Unity ... In poetry, mim is the symbol for the small, dot-like mouth of the
beloved ... Many letters ... have been compared to the curls or tresses of the beloved
(Shcimmel 1970: 12-13; see also Shimmel 1994).
This doctrine seems to crystallize a widespread notion, that the formal properties of
writing are neither accidental nor merely conventional. 7
#writing systems #iconicity
If, by contrast, language is viewed (within the terms of a given semiotic ideology) as an
arbitrary sign, and writing as a second-order arbitrary sign of that sign, then it makes
sense to focus on spoken language as ontogenically and logically prior to writing. In
that case, linguistic form should not be taken to be meaningful in itself. One should not
make anything of apparent iconicity: for instance, the apparent resemblance between
the letter o and an open mouth – one might notice the resemblance, but not find it a
plausible candidate for an efficacious practice. Here iconicity of visual form is an
affordance that is not taken up in principle. But if, conversely, language is a divine
emanation, then in itself it is already a divine presence, and its form is part of that
presence. This is one reason given in the Islamic tradition for the non-translatability of
the Qur’an. Having been transmitted orally by the angel Gabriel, the text was first
received by the Prophet as certain sounds. Those sounds are an inalienable part of the
sacred text that was transmitted. Moreover, since translation is a function of linguistic
diversity, to translate the sacred text would implicate it in human differences and the
potential for conflict; it is only as a unitary Arabic text that the Qur’an remains stable
as a text that is identical in all possible circumstances (Messick 1993). And in addition,
if language is an aspect of divine presence, then this might also apply to its visible [7]
embodiment as script. A version of this notion is found in the Balinese idea that letters
are found in the body, and emerge as sound. In this view, spoken sound is derivative
of a prior script. 8
#iconicity #writing systems #chapter 10
Sterponi, Laura and Paul F. Lai. 2013. ‘Literacy’. In Oxford

bibliographies,
http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-
9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0123.xml
Playing a central role in social and institutional functioning, while holding significance
at the personal level, literacy has become a trope of modernity, a metaphor for our
relationship with the world. n.d.
#intro
These works, listed in Tracing the Literacy Debate, characterized literacy as a causal,
transformative force, deemed to propel advancements of unprecedented import in
societal organization and individual cognition. In light of ethnographic and historical
work carried out since the late 1970s, our understanding of literacy has shifted toward
364
a situated perspective, a Social Practice approach, that acknowledges the sociocultural
and ideological nature of reading and writing. No longer necessarily promoting
societal progress and cognitive sophistication, literacy is appraised for its involvement
in the reproduction of power relationships and its role in forming identities and
subjectivities as well as institutions, as explored in Critical Literacy. n.d.
#intro
Tracing the Literacy Debate
Beginning in the 1960s, various anthropologists, media theorists, cultural historians,
and other scholars produced a set of landmark works positing literacy as more than
merely a significant tool of communication, but as a causal, transformative, and
epoch-marking force on society, cognition, language, and consciousness. Taken
together, many of these early works can be said to have introduced a “literacy thesis,”
a set of staggering claims of literacy’s significance that would have to be taken
seriously (incorporated or refuted) by any studies of modern culture and society (see
General Overviews). These works initiated and elevated consideration of literacy in
contemporary scholarship.
The Literacy Thesis
The “literacy thesis” had its seeds in studies of classical Greek oratory and literacy by
Havelock 1963 and in new recognitions of the expansive effects of media technologies
by McLuhan 1962, but found its most concentrated and bold statement in Goody and
Watt 1963, in which (particularly alphabetic) literacy was shown to have
encompassing cognitive, organizational, and epistemological consequences the world
over. This strong thesis, though later qualified and mitigated by many of its
proponents, nevertheless provided the basis for Goody 1977 and Goody 1986, which
provide an anthropological examination of literacy’s rise and role in civilization,
Olson 1977 and Olson 1994, which discuss the far-reaching cognitive impacts of
literacy, and Ong 1982, which studies the oral-literate divide, serving as a major point
of departure for later perspectives of literacy. n.d.
#intro
Seminal Critiques
Though the provocative assertions of the literacy thesis would be moderated by many
of their authors, most notably Jack Goody and David Olson, the critiques of grand
claims about literacy’s effects not only tempered those claims but also provided the
bases of alternative approaches to the study of literacy. Some critiques addressed the
empirical grounds of literacy thesis arguments, such as the author’s account in Gough
1975 of literacy in Asian contexts and the discussion in Harris 1989 of Greek writing
and thought. Others challenged the conceptual generalizations, such as the author’s
work in Finnegan 1973 on the orality-literacy divide and the experimental study in
Scribner and Cole 1978 that attempts to distinguish literacy’s effects from schooling.
Scribner and Cole 1978, Heath 1980, and Street 1984 would not only criticize the
literacy thesis’s ambitions, but also develop a contrasting point of view with a different
set of methods for investigating literacy in society (see Social Practice). n.d.
#intro
Social Practice
365
In reaction to the literacy thesis and the embedded conceptualization of reading and
writing as technologies—independent of social context and endowed with inherent
cognitive potential—an ethnographically informed perspective on literacy has
emerged which characterizes it as a practice that is ideologically shaped,
socioculturally organized, and historically contingent.
Theoretical Formulations
The references included in this section articulate the theoretical underpinnings of the
late-20th- and early-21st-century trend of studies that look at literacy as a social
practice. Barton 2007 and Street 1993 highlight the ideological nature of literacy in
the authors’ presentations of the approach known as “New Literacy Studies.” Szwed
1981 and de Certeau 1984 emphasize the importance of exploring the ordinary, the
former outlining an ethnographic method and the latter providing rich theoretical
material. Barton and Papen 2010 is an edited volume containing dialogues and
syntheses of the New Literacy Studies and the Anthropology of Writing.
#intro
Wagner, Esther-Miriam, Ben Outhwaite and Bettina Beinhoff.

2013. Scribes and language change. In Scribes as agents of
language change.
According to Vachek (1982: 45), “in absence of a written norm, a language falls short
of its optimal development”. Although the term “optimal” may prompt discussion and
require clarification, it is certain that the Verschriftung of a language induces a process
of further language development. One of the most noticeable impacts is that written
language normally serves as a vehicle of standardization. Standardisation is defined by
Milroy and Milroy (1999: 26) as “intolerance of optional variability in language”, and
is normally “motivated in the first place by [9] various social, political and commercial
needs” (1999: 22). In the case of written language, it is probably foremost driven by a
desire to disambiguate language. 10
#article: writing system #chapter 7
Written registers ordinarily emerge from spoken languages but over time tend to
preserve a more conservative state of the language. 14
The contributors of this volume repeatedly refer to the important act of a particular
individual form or of a whole register reaching a “threshold”: once it has been
committed to paper, parchment, papyrus or clay tablet, an innovative [15] written
form acts as a precedent, acquiring a level of acceptability and respectability. 16
366
Brandt, Carmen. 2014. “Script as a potential demarcator and
stabilizer of languages in South Asia.” In Language
Endangerment and Preservation in South Asia,, edited by Hugo
C Cardoso, 78-99. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
However, other languages that share [83] the same script with Hindi, such as Awadhi,
Bhojpuri or Braj Bhasha, are today classified as dialects of Hindi, though they hgave
their own literary history and, unlike Urdu, differ from Modern Hindi in grammar
and syntax. 84
In this context, one could also point to Gujarati, which, written in its own script is
classified as a language in its own right, whereas the allied speeches of Rajasthan,
today usually written in the Nagari script, are considered to be dialects9 of Hindi (in
the Indian census, for instance) despite the fact that they are linguistically closer to
Gujarati. 84
For instance, during his field studies in North East India, Stuart Blackburn observed
that several tribes, including the Bodos, tell their very own story of lost writing.[fn]
While such stories vary in extent and detail, they all seem to serve the same purpose:
to compensate for a feeling of inferiority for lacking a written tradition like other
surrounding cultures. Blackburn states that
[a]lthough the story [of lost writing] claims possession of writing in the past, it is really
about loss in the present, a feeling of exclusion from dominant neighbors, who have now
become nation-states. It is a local and oral counterpoint to the official and written list of
the national languages. (Blackburn 2010: 309)
More and more so-called tribes compensate for this feeling of inferiority not only with
stories of lost writing, but also with the invention of their very own scripts.
6.1. SANTALI AND ITS INVENTED SCRIPT. The most prominent example of script
invention among the so-called tribes of South Asia is that of Santali, which has around
6.5 million speakers (Government of India 2001). In the course of history, the Santals
not only settled in several Indian states, but can today also be found in Bangladesh,
Bhutan and Nepal. Literacy was spread only in the 19th century among them by
missionaries who printed the first Santali publications, such as the Bible, in the
Roman script. Nowadays, Santali is written also in the Ol Chiki, Nagari, Bengali and
Oriya scripts. The use of the last three depends on the dominant language and script
of the respective country or Indian Union state (Murmu 2002: 242).
Santali is an Austro-Asiatic language with a phonology different from that of the
languages from which it has borrowed these scripts. In 1941, the Santal nationalist
and linguist Raghunath Murmu created a script exclusively for Santali (Singh 1982:
237) – the Ol or Ol Chiki script (also Ol Cemet), which is, in contrast to most Indian
scripts, an alphabetic and not a syllabic script. It seems obvious that, besides the
allegedly more accurate [89] rendering of the Santali phonemes, the choice of this
writing system was Santals. But the invention of this new script served yet another
purpose:
The introduction of Ol Chiki could serve as a link among Santals of various states who had
a common distinct culture which faces the danger of extinction. (Singh 1982: 239)
367
Additionally, with this new script Raghunath Murmu also laid the foundation for a
distinctive written literary tradition which he himself started with several publications,
including mythological stories of the Santals (Lotz 2007: 235)
As he [Raghunath Murmu] saw it, every respectable high-culture language in India has its
own distinct script and an old (written) literature. (Zide 1969: 425)
90
6.2. OTHER HISTORIC EXAMPLES OF SCRIPT INVENTION. Other well-known
examples of script invention in the 20th century include the Ho language and the
claim of an old script (nowadays known as Varang Kshiti) which was said to have
been re-discovered in the 1950s by Lakho Bodra, a Ho himself and a driving figure of
Ho nationalism (Singh 1982: 240f). For Gondi, a Dravidian language, a script was
invented in 1928 (Pandey 2012: 1), and for Sora, an Austro-Asiatic language, a script
called Sorang Sompeng in 1936. In contrast to Santali, the endeavors to establish the
scripts for Ho, Gondi and Sora have been comparatively unsuccessful until now
(Daniels 2008: 305). There seem to be neither a considerable production of literature
in these scripts, nor movements in their support worth mentioning. Santali, with its
invented script, and Meitei, with its revived script, seem to be exceptions rather than
the rule.
6.3. SCRIPT INVENTION TODAY. There is a lack of studies on recent script
inventions, which makes it necessary to rely mostly on internet sources in order to get
an impression of recent initiatives. This short overview hence does not claim to be
complete, and it is impossible at this moment to predict whether the activities
described will have any impact at all. Nonetheless, it indicates that the idea of script as
an identity marker seems to experience unbroken popularity in South Asia, especially
in India. But whereas in the past the main actors in the field of script
invention/revival were the language communities in question, nowadays supporters
and initiators come from diverse backgrounds. 91
One activist in the field of script inventions is Prasanna Sree. According to an online
newspaper article (Vishnu 2010), she comes from a tribal community but is socially
and economically well-off, and is today a professor of English Literature at Andhra
University in Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). In addition to her university position,
she also engages in activities for the welfare of various small tribes. In a newspaper
interview about her endeavors to preserve the languages of various tribal groups, i.e.
Adivasis15, she stated in 2010:
Adivasis have always waited on the threshold of progress. All outsiders who have
conquered them have made Adivasis run from themselves. English education is the latest
culprit. I devised scripts for something Adivasis desperately need – a cultural renaissance.
(Vishnu 2010)
So far, Prasanna Sree has devised 18 scripts which are given on her website (Sree
n.d.). Some remind us of existing scripts, while others seem to be based on completely
new designs. Sree claims that some scripts are already taught in various tribal villages.
According to the article quoted above, the Gondis were especially eager to demand
the approval of their Pradesh and its introduction in schools, in 2010.
In the same article, we learn about another supporter of minority languages who,
according to this and another article (Sunavala 2012), has created scripts for 11
languages which had only oral traditions until then. Ganesh Devy (Ganesh N. Devy
368
or G. N. Devy) is a prominent scholar of English Literature from Gujarat, where he
has also established the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre aimed at the
preservation of small, previously strictly oral languages. Devy’s scripts, in contrast with
Sree’s, are very close to the Nagari and Gujarati scripts. He defended his choice in an
interview: “Scripts are not sacred. Language scripts are like a [92] camera. The
language is what forms a universe.” In the interview he also pointed out that Ol Chiki
for Santali “took nearly a century to reach its currently thriving state” and Prasanna
Sree’s “scripts will face just as many challenges” (Vishnu 2010). Unfortunately, an
overview of his scripts is not available online but, judging from written samples of the
tribal languages Devy publishes on the website of the Bhasha Research and
Publication Centre, we get the impression that these, e.g. Ahirani, Chaudhuri,
Dehwali, Dungri Bhili, etc., are written in Nagari or Gujarati script, or maybe slightly
modified variants (Anonymous n.d.).
In North East India, the Naga Script Literature Central Board (NSLCB) came
forward with an invented Naga script in 2010. Allegedly, this script was revealed by a
person called Laokeinang Phaomi in 1958 (Shapwon 2007: 120f.). One supporter
claimed that this script “could be a bond to unify all Nagas scattered all over the
country and beyond” (Anonymous 2010a). This statement reminds us of the invention
of the Ol Chiki script for Santali. But, while the Santals form an ethnic group, though
not as homogeneous as imagined, “Naga” is a label for a range of diverse ethnic
groups in Northeast relatively stable) creole based on Assamese (often called
Nagamese) to communicate among each other. Hence, the implementation of this
script – by Konyaks (Anonymous 2010b) and Kyongs (Anonymous 2010c) – only a
few weeks after the plans of the NSLCB were made public.
A similarly difficult situation occurs in Arunachal Pradesh, where Tony Koyu
designed a script for the various languages of this Indian Union state. He unveiled the
Tani Lipi script in 2001 and, since then, has gained attention from the media, scholars
(cf. Barbora & Post 2008) and representatives of the government of Arunachal
Pradesh (Taikam 2010). The main aim behind the development of this script is that of
strengthening the bond between the various ethnic groups by providing at least a
common script for their diverse languages. The project has received positive as well as
negative reactions from various groups and individuals and has, probably for that
reason, not yet been officially approved. Until now it seems to have been implemented
only by smaller, privately financed initiatives. 93
In general, the endeavors of so-called tribes in South Asia for their own script, and
ultimately an individual literary history, seem to serve three purposes. On the one
hand, an ethnic group without a literary tradition often seems, from today’s
perspective, an incomplete nation, so various so-called tribes have tried and still try to
compensate for this by creating or searching for their own written texts. 94
Secondly, a specific literary tradition can help demarcate one language from another,
and ultimately even stabilize it as a vibrant literary and functional language. The case
of Chakma – a language often still considered to be a dialect of Bengali – is an
interesting example whose recent developments need to be studied in depth.
A third, and quite recent, purpose for the invention of scripts is that script may serve
as a unifier of various ethnic groups in either a single Indian Union state, such as
Arunachal Pradesh, or an imagined community consisting of several ethnic groups,
such as the Nagas. Here, script is [94] expected to play an integrative role on a sub-
369
national level, in opposition to scripts which are already associated with strong
identities of other dominant groups, examples being the Assamese and Bengali scripts
associated with Assamese and Bengali ethnicity in North East India; the Roman script
with Christianity; and Nagari with Hindi, which aspires to national language status in
India and privileged association with Sanskrit and thus Hinduism. 95
de Voogt, AJ. 2014. “The cultural transmission of script in

Africa: The presence of syllabaries.” Scripta 6:121-143.
#article: sophisticated
It is shown that of the African scripts invented in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, scripts appear to have been mainly syllabic before the 1930s (e.g., Figures 6,
7, 8, 9 & 10 below) and mainly alphabetic (e.g., Figure 5 below) in the period
thereafter. It is argued that the explanation for this transition is not found in the
typological characteristics of the individual languages or in the limited awareness of
alphabets in the earlier periods but rather in the historical contacts that existed within
West Africa where most of the syllabic systems were found and in some cases are still
used today. 122
The preconception that syllabaries can only be successfully used for languages with
particular syllable structures and phonology has been amply refuted by the existence
of successful syllabic scripts that defy these principles. Examples include the
implementation of the alphasyllabic Fidäl script to multiple languages in Ethiopia
(Amha 2010), the success of the syllabic Vai script in Liberia (Scribner & Cole 1981)
and the (alpha) syllabic Cherokee and Cree scripts in the United States. 123
#hypothesis: primacy of the syllable #hypothesis: predisposition to phonography
Generalizations about the development of script are frustrated by either an
incomplete or a highly embellished record of their origin as well as by the limited
number of comparable scripts in terms of time period and geography. In this light, the
study of writing systems in Africa is of particular interest due to the relatively large
number of scripts generated in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (see Table 1) as
well as the use of alphabetic, alphasyllabic and syllabic sign inventories in both
Western and Eastern Africa. Their relatively short history makes them less suitable to
the study of script transmission from generation to generation, i.e., so-called ‘vertical
transmission’. Instead, this study is mostly concerned with the first inception of a script
for a particular language after one peer group comes in contact with another, also
known as ‘horizontal transmission’. 124
If individual scripts are excluded, the syllabic scripts appear largely limited to the time
before the Second World War, while the alphabetic scripts seem clearly preferred in
the period after the war. 131
The period that marks the change of preference from syllabary to alphabet in sub-
Saharan Africa coincides with at least two developments, one linguistic and the other
political. In 1934, the Institute of Linguistics was founded, an organization which
further formalized bible translation and alphabetization efforts worldwide. At the
same time the Africa Alphabet was developed, which assisted with writing African
370
languages in alphabetic form. Both developments can be interpreted as the onset of
the alphabetization efforts in the region. 135
The Bassa syllabary was, unsuccessfully, introduced by William Crocker in 1835. 136
The clear break around the 1930s from a [139] preference for syllabic to one of
mostly alphabetic systems may suggest a linguistic or political development to be at
the basis of this change. 140
[PK: No. The more proximal variable here is literacy/non-literacy of inventors, and world
literacy rates spike in the 20th century, hence later twentieth century there are more
literate inventors]
Ultimately, the history of African scripts illustrates that the idea of writing can be
transmitted together with the idea of a system of writing and that this influence can be
separate from the shape and form of the individual signs. 140
[PK: There is no doubt that systems can be transmitted. However, this does no damage
to the observation that illiterates who are exposed to alphabets will invent syllabaries and
never alphabets]
Manta-Khaira, Liani. 2014. “Inscribing identity: Discourses

surrounding the revival of baybayin.” BA, Department of
Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.
Liturgical languages such as classical Hebrew and Pali have been associated with
symbolic and spiritual meanings. To Khmer monks in the 19th century, Vinaya texts
written in Pali were sacred as they were considered to be physical embodiments of
Buddha. It was believed that contact with these texts would increase one’s merit. Such
beliefs shape the ways people treat text and rules surrounding it. For example, sacred
texts would be placed at consecrated places such that only certain people of power
could access them.[fn: Manuscripts in the royal collection were more spiritually
symbolic and thus protected so that even French colonials who intended on studying
local codes could not access them in the 1880s. These meanings, according to
Hansen, seem to be controlled or shaped by the power of stronger authorities such as
rulers and states like King Mongkut in Bangkok. Hansen briefly explains how
legitimacy and thus loyalty is built through restoring sanctified Buddhist scriptures, as
was attempted by Ang Duong. This implies the influence of the center in directing
how sacred texts should be understood.! See Anne Ruth Hansen, How to Behave:
Buddhism and Modernity in Colonial Cambodia, 1860-1930. (Honolulu: University
of Hawaii Press, 2007), 77-108.] 34
Bonifacio Comandante Jr is convinced that baybayin reflects a primordial and divine
wisdom that Filipinos can learn from to enrich themselves.[fn: Bonifacio
Comandante, interview by author, Dagupan City, January 12, 2014.] He believes that
this wisdom is achieved and received through the practice of tapal, that is, to attach a
paper with baybayin symbols onto a subject as a form of healing.[fn: Ibid. This is
done while reciting the written words in baybayin. It was clear that Comandante
desired to locate baybayin symbols in his surroundings when I visited him at his fish
farm in Dagupan City. He introduced me to a large mango tree overlooking the river
which he described as mystical. It bore an extraordinary amount of flowers even at
the branches. A baybaylan priestess confirmed that a magical fairy, “Saraay”, had
371
been guarding it. Comandante consequently requested for his workers to carve the
name of this fairy on the tree to celebrate and pay respect to the fairy’s protection.]
The incorporation of baybayin in tapal and other healing practices is idealised as a
continuation of indigenous Filipino knowledge that is practised and imparted from
ancestors to babaylan spiritualists and advocates today. 35
#urasyun
Morin, Olivier. 2014. “Review of: ‘Inventer l’écriture’ and ‘Le

geste et l’écriture’ by Pierre Déléage.” Social Anthropology 22
(1):122-123.
#mpi
[…] according to Déléage […] that logographic writing systems usually begin, and
survive, as ‘bounded’ writing systems (écritures attachées). In other words, their use is
restricted to a handful of speci”c contexts: rituals and prayers. Since ‘bounded’ writing
systems do not need to possess the kind of all-purpose generative power found in ‘un-
bound’ systems, their semiotic structure can be quite free. Pure logography, for
instance, is much easier to apply to a bounded system – where only a handful of
relevant words need to be encoded – than to an unbound one. In Déléage’s words,
most bounded writing systems will be ‘selective’ (i.e. unable to encode the totality of
meaningful utterances in a given language), while unbound writing systems will always
be ‘complete’. 122
Déléage’s reflexions on bounded writing systems do more than dispel the second myth
of pictography – the view that something like ‘pictography’ gave birth to modern
writing systems. He also sheds light on the reasons that made the myth plausible. Both
Inventer l’Écriture and Le Geste et l’Écriture forcefully argue against vague categories like
‘pictography’ or ‘ideography’, and the outdated evolutionary theories that popularised
them. Both books, however, suggest that ‘bounded’ and selective writing systems are
the right place to consider if we want to understand how writing was born. Inventer
l’Écriture argues that complete writing systems were more likely to arise in small
communities of ritual specialists, like the Midewiwin. Their rituals placed such high
demands on human memory that complex visual props became a necessity. Those
esoteric societies, however, were also the least likely to propagate their invention
beyond narrow boundaries – to unbind their writing. This intriguing view may help
explain why the rise of writing systems as we know them – systems that were
complete, unbound and massively diffused at the same time – was such a rare event in
history. 123
Rovenchak, Andrij, Dafydd Gibbon, Moses Ekpenyong, and Eno-

Abasi Urua. 2015. Preliminary proposal for encoding the
Medefaidrin (Oberi Okaime) script in the SMP of the UCS.
“[…] Bishop Aikeld Ukpong (alias Michael Ukpong) on a ‘spiritual board’ visible only
to the initiated, after having been taken into seclusion by the Holy Spirit, known as
the ‘Seminant’ in Medefaidrin. Since Bishop Aikeld Ukpong was not literate, it fell on
372
the Secretary of the group, Prophet Jakeld Udofia to transcribe the spiritual writings
revealed in a vision to Bishop Ukpong.” (Gibbon et al. 2010) [PK: this is not actually
in Gibbon et al. 2010. Cannot source this quotation]. According to other sources, the
actual date the Holy Spirit descended was 1927, but the language was revealed or
impacted in 1932 (Moses Ekpenyong, interview with a consultant from the
community, 2015).
Currently the Medefaidrin language has less than 20 adult speakers, is critically
threatened and mainly used for saying prayers or meditation of the scriptures. 1
Morin, Olivier. 2015. How traditions live and die. London & New
York: Oxford University Press.
#diffusion: writing
We lack both the desire and the capacity to imitate everything that circulates around
us. Instead we transform, we customize, we reinvent, we forget, we select. n.p.
Diffusion is a distribution of ideas and practices in time or space; transmission is an
interaction among individuals. n.p.
Anonymous. 2015. Email correspondence 7 August.

#avoiuli
Hi Piers,
Good to hear from you.
Viraleo is back in his village in the jungle, so I can’t get definitive answers to your
questions, but here are some tentative ones:
What Viraleo A more critical answer
would probably
answer
When was Avoiuli During 14 years of Viraleo continues to make it up as he
first developed? research from the goes along, adapting his script as he
early 1980s to the discovers new sounds in Vanuatu
late 1990s languages, and occasionally forgetting
rarer symbols and reinventing new
versions
Has its use spread Custom chiefs all For a while, scholars from other islands
beyond Pentecost over Vanuatu have were studying it at Lavatmanggemu
Island? endorsed it (before they were chased away by
Viraleo’s enemies). However, I
personally haven’t seen it used by
anyone other than Pentecost islanders.
Was Chief Viraleo It has existed since Probably, yes
Boborenvanua the ancient times. But
sole inventor? Viraleo is the sole
rediscoverer and
claims personal
373
‘copyright’ to his
discovery.
Does he have an He is head of the Short answer, no. He grew up in a
occupation or ‘kastom subsistence farming community and left
primary skill (other government’ and school in Grade 4. I heard that in his
than chief)? professor of custom youth he tried his hand at conventional
economics, among party politics before becoming
other largely self- disillusioned with it and starting his
proclaimed titles. own movement.
Was he formally Yes, but only to a primary school level.
literate in the Roman
alphabet prior to
developing Avoiuli?
What inspired The wisdom of the The Western alphabet, mainly, with
Avoiuli? ancients. stylistic inspiration from sand drawings.
There is no particular connection with
the language of the leaves. I can’t think
of anything else that might have been
an inspiration.
What is the origin Viraleo spent many Similarities between Avoiuli and the
story for the script years studying the Western alphabet, and the lack of any
among members of sand drawings that other evidence of pre-Western literacy
the Turaga have been handed in the region, clearly point to it being a
movement? down since pre- recent invention. Local non-Turaga
colonial times and supporters are sceptical of the origin
realised that, myth but do not dismiss it out of hand.
unknown to
everyone else, it
had in fact
constituted an
alphabetic writing
system.
What motivated the It’s silly that people Viraleo observed that schoolteachers
creation of the script? on Pentecost learn earn money and respect for teaching
a foreign alphabet people to write in Western languages,
when a native one and wanted a piece of the action. The
exists. alphabet also provides an air of mystery
and protects Turaga writings from
scrutiny by the uninitiated. The desire
for secrecy from non-Avoiuli-users was
probably not a major motive for
Viraleo in inventing the script, but it is
definitely a motive for some in learning
and using it. I myself have occasionally
switched my phone into Avoiuli (using
a custom font) when I wanted to text
without risk of people looking over my
374
shoulder seeing what I was reading and
writing!
The script is taught To teach it to those Though it would be very easy to pass it
in custom schools. Is who haven’t paid on informally to others, and I know of
it transmitted any school fees to one case where this has happened, a
other way? Viraleo would be a strong culture of respect for customary
breach of copyright authority (and a widespread lack of
academic teaching/learning skills)
seems to have largely inhibited it. It
would also not be that hard for an
intelligent person given a small sample
of texts to work the alphabet out for
himself. This idea has occurred to a
handful of people but I know of nobody
who’s seriously attempted it. Logic
puzzles are not a local pastime.
In your rough Depends how you define literate. The
estimation, how number of people withsome knowledge
many people would of it might be a few hundred (a small
you say are literate in fraction of Pentecost’s population of
Avoiuli? around 20,000), with a few dozen using
it regularly and fluently. The only
person whom I know for a fact is
better-literate in Avoiuli than in the
Western alphabet is Viraleo himself,
though there may be a few others who
are. I’ve met nobody personally who is
literate only in Avoiuli, though it’s
conceivable that such people exist,
since there are kastom villages on
Pentecost that don’t send their kids to
formal school at all but do have contact
with Viraleo.
I’d definitely be keen to see the products of your research when it’s done. Keep me
posted!
Regards,
Email correspondence with Chris Miller. 7 October 2015.

Hi Piers,
To continue what I touched on briefly a few days ago, I have put together a PDF
(attached) that shows how the Air Sulit Minangkabau letters and vowel signs seem to
be largely based on Jawi models. It’s interesting that there are three (perhaps more?)
pairs with contrasting direction and/or curved versus rectilinear shape that corelate
with adjacent letters in the Arabic/Jawi letter order.
375
Nonetheless, there are many squarish shapes based on a vertical line that have no
direct relationship; I’m wondering if there may be some relationship between them
based on their order (apart from the pattern I just mentioned), but haven’t had the
time to explore that possibility yet.
As I said in the other email, I find it interesting that this character set does contain
letters for the palatal series, unlike the Panjang Padang (I hope I’m remembering the
name right) set. I find it interesting nonetheless that while there is a “j” (old spelling
for “y”) as well as a”tj” and a “nj”, there is nothing labelled “dj”, i.e. “j”. There is,
however, a “z”—a marginal phoneme in most Austronesian languages, with the
notable exceptions of Malagasy and Kazadandusun, where it developed out of /y/.
Given the common confusion of this and the voiced palatal-alveolar affricate, I take it
that this likely represents the latter—and I think the shape correspondences support
this. (You will notice that I compare it both with Jawi jim and za.)
I found the range of scripts you cover in your two presentations fascinating. I knew of
several of these in Africa beforehand, as well as a number of the SE Asian ones, but
there are many more I had not known of before this. Where did you find this
information?
It strikes me that (unless I missed something) all these scripts are outright inventions
with only superficial relationships to contact scripts—in other words examples of
stimulus diffusion. The Minangkabau cases, on the other hand, like Gangga Malayu,
seem clearly to be directly derived from existing scripts, whether by natural change
(which seems plausible for the incomplete Indic one) or by deliberate modification (as
in the Air Sulit case, cf. Gangga Malayu).
The last two are reminiscent of what seems to have happened in the creation of
Makassarese Jangang-jangang script out of an eclectic selection of letter variants from
a range of South Sumatran varieties, most but not all rotated -30° or so along the lines
of the “Gaja Mukur” (=memukul?) script play style—supplemented with several
Javanese letters (again rotated -30°) taken in all likelihood from the idiosyncratic style
of a specific scribe whose hand shows up in one of the 1619-1620 letters from the
Sultan of Banten to the Dutch in the Dutch National Archives.
Here there was a conscious effort to construct a script by adapting and modifying
shapes familiar to someone in contact with a range of Sumatran and Javanese writers,
but probably unfamiliar to most Bugis and likely even Makasarese users of the
indigenous “Lontaraq”. The fact that the letters were adapted to the existing
Lontaraq arch stereotype and that the Lontaraq vowel signs were used rather than the
Sumatran ones (as well as the coda-less spelling and vowel sign doubling
conventions) all seem to show this is a case of invention by adaptation, but the origin
of the Javanese borrowings in a single hand are a pretty clear indication that the
origin of the script was around the earlty 1600s,rather than the much earlier period
that people have generally assumed. It seems to me that this script invention and its
subsequent adoption as an officially used “national” script have to be interpreted in
the light of rivalries with the Bugis and a likely attempt to distance the Makasar
kingdoms from their neighbours.
Since we don’t have any information about the purported original texts in the two
reported Minangkabau scripts, it would be hard to say anything substantial about the
conditions that led to their development. But as the Panjang Padang (?) script is
reported from the southwestern part of Minangkabau, not far north of Kerinci, I
376
would not be surprised at all if it were a second local development from Surat Ulu, if it
turns out to be authentic. On the other hand, as it now seems the reported Air Sulit
script can be largely explained as a cipher formed by reshaping at least a large
proportion of corresponding Jawi letters, this seems to be a different case. I know next
to nothing of Minangkabau history, so I wouldn’t want to speculate on whether it was
associated (if authentic) with a particular marginal religious or social movement, but it
is an intriguing possibility. On the other hand, it could well simply be one of the
relatively numerous examples of cipher scripts that seem to have been quite popular
in the region. (See Tim Behrend on “Textual Gateways” in Illuminations, for example.)
Would love to hear your thoughts on how the archipelago scripts fit in with the rest...
Cheers,
Chris
Reply:
Hi Chris,
Pulling a few stray thoughts together now.
Firstly, my apologies – my Indonesian language skills are virtually nil, so I have been
unable to read the Limbago article I sent you without the aid of Google Translate.
For this reason I had at first just carelessly skimmed it, looking for things that might
jump out of me and I assumed the author was talking about one script with variants as
opposed to two separately named Minangkabau scripts. Re-reading it more carefully
now, I can see that the author was making a claim to separateness even in the title of
the article (and that you have touched on both of these already – my bad).
I find your Jawi hypothesis for Sulit Air compelling. I’m guessing that the ‘reversal’ of
Jawi letter models in Sulit Air is perhaps explicable by the reversal of orientation for
the script as a whole. In other words, Jawi=right-to-left and Sulit Air= left-to-right, at
least from the examples in the article.
I have now re-read the Limbago article and your commentary. Here is my attempt to
condense and summarise what we ‘know’ so far and assuming for the sake argument
that the article is reliable, and leaving aside for the moment the possibility/likelihood
of these scripts being ciphers for other scripts.
Pariangan (or Padang Panjang) script
First reported: 1970 (at a seminar in Batusanggkar, West Sumatra)
Locality: Pariangan village in the district of Padang Panjang, West Sumatra.
Manuscripts: A source document for this script is a manuscript known as the Kitab
Tambo belonging to Datuk Suri Dirajo and Datuk Bandaro Kayo of Pariangan, in
Padang Panjang.
377
System: An apparent Indic-style alphasyllabary of 15 characters with an inherent
/a/. The vowels /u/, /o/(?) /e/ and /i/ can be realised with a diacritic above or
below the character in the form of a small circle or a small angular point. No
characters for the palatal series.
Script morphology: At least some relationship or inspiration from regional
Indonesian scripts. Possible development from Surat Ulu?
Sulit Air (Silek Aia) script
First reported: 1987 (Limbago)
Locality: Sulit Air village, West Sumatra
Manuscripts: Ruweh Buku of Sulit Air village. This text was owned by sultan
SYamsuddiN (?) in 1980, who had received the book from Datuk Tumanggun in 1921
and this in turn is supposed to date from the time of the royal ‘buek’ of Minangkabau
adat.
System: Mixed alphabet-alphasyllabary. I.e., an inherent vowel system with diacritics
for realisations other than /a/, but with the inclusion of a set of stand-alone letters for
vowels.
Script morphology: Appears to be a reversal of Jawi letter shapes for many letters.
Is this basically the story so far? I’m afraid my attention is being pulled in so many
directions at the moment that I get confused very easily.
I would just love to go to West Sumatra to do some manuscript hunting and oral
history elicitation, but my interest is really in script invention as a regional
phenomenon and how it fits into broader historical and political currents. If these
scripts turn out to be ‘authentic’, in the sense of pre-twentieth century and not-
entirely-cipherish then that would be super-fascinating outcome, but this is more your
domain! The ANU is chock full of Indonesian students so I might put the word to see
if there’s anyone on campus from that region, as a start.
Some other things you mentioned:
I found the range of scripts you cover in your two presentations fascinating. I knew of
several of these in Africa beforehand, as well as a number of the SE Asian ones, but
there are many more I had not known of before this. Where did you find this
information?
Most of the African scripts are mentioned in three very interesting articles by David
Dalby published in 1967, 1968 and 1969. I can send them your way. There’s a couple
he didn’t know about that come up in later French and English sources, and there’s a
new script for Wolof invented in the last decade which I only just learned of (it’s in a
German source).
As for the Southeast Asia and Pacific scripts, my sources are purely archival for
Sayaboury, Pahawh Hmong, Caroline Islands, Mama and Urup Iban Dunging. I
relied on my own fieldwork for Eskaya and Ottomaung, and on sources in Vanuatu
for Avoiuli (though there is a tiny bit published for this).
To be verified: Dinagat script was witnessed in use by the anthropologist Ray Wood
who told me about it but couldn’t locate any photos. It was used by members of the
378
PBMA cult. Sinsuwat script was rumoured by Mike Pangilinan at the Tokyo
conference, apparently used by women in one particular clan. So I’ve got zilch on
both of these.
Anyway, if you want me to send sources for any of them just let me know and I can
easily dump them all in a dropbox or wetransfer folder.
It strikes me that (unless I missed something) all these scripts are outright inventions
with only superficial relationships to contact scripts—in other words examples of
stimulus diffusion. The Minangkabau cases, on the other hand, like Gangga Malayu,
seem clearly to be directly derived from existing scripts, whether by natural change
(which seems plausible for the incomplete Indic one) or by deliberate modification (as
in the Air Sulit case, cf. Gangga Malayu).
Yes, mine are all examples of stimulus diffusion since the inventors were all aware of
writing as a concept. The degree to which the inventors were literate in other systems
prior to inventing new scripts is variable. So in the case of Vai and the Caroline
Islands Script, existing literacy was likely to be non-existent (cf. Cherokee). But for
others its evident that the inventors were either semi-literate or fully literate to begin
with. And no, none of them are derived from existing scripts on the model of Gangga
Malayu—they merely take inspiration in some of their particulars from Roman,
Arabic or pre-existing traditions of indigenous graphic symbolism.
Anyway, I better get back to my ordinary life! I’m slowly preparing a postdoc
application to look at script invention in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, but my
chances of success are vanishingly slim. I’ll keep you informed.
All the best,
Piers
#gangga
Overmann, Karenleigh A. 2016. “Beyond writing: The

development of literacy in the Ancient Near East.”
Cambridge Archaeological Journal 26 (2):285-305.
Since characters become recognized through combinations of local and global
features, the need to preserve the original iconic appearances of pictographic images
may be relaxed, a phenomenon inherent in the chronologies of individual (proto-)
cuneiform signs (Fig. 3) that argues against the idea that writing systems and scripts
‘do not develop’ from pictographs (Daniels 1996, 3; emphasis added). 288
#evolution of writing #iconicity
Applications. In the late fourth millennium, writing was used strictly within
administrative contexts. Institutional and royal writing characterized the third
millennium (Veldhuis 2011), with literary texts appearing in the mid third millennium
(Veldhuis 2014). !
Curriculum. From the late fourth to the mid third millennia, there is little evidence of an
organized curriculum; structured exercises appear in the mid third millennium
(Veldhuis 2014). !
379
Language. Archaic proto-cuneiform had so little expressive power, scholars still debate
its associated language. The Sumerian language was unambiguously expressed by the
early third millennium and writing was adapted for Akkadian toward the mid third
millennium. 2! 98
Déléage, Pierre. 2016. L’enchâssement (7/11), Trop tart, trop tôt.

[…] pour lui [Pierre Darriand] l’écriture n’était qu’une variante des langues secrètes
enseignées pendant les rituels initiatiques – les signes graphiques redoublaient les
signes sonores de la même manière que les signes sonores des langues secrètes
venaient redoubler les signes sonores des langues ordinaires.
#bound writing #origin of writing
Stryjewska, Anna. 2016. “The Yi writing system.” Summer

School Iconicity in Writing. Practices and Constraints,
University of Basel, 5-9.09.2016.
Classical Yi, on the other hand, seems to be a logographic system undergoing intense
phoneticization with a widespread employment of the rebus principle, in the process
of transformation into a “fluid” syllabary. Such transformation is facilitated by the fact
that words in the Nosu, Nisu, Nasu and Sani languages are generally monosyllabic
and at the same time monomorphemic. 2
There are some compound signs in Yi writing which can be broken down to simple
signs used as semantograms or phonograms, but they are relatively rare. 9
#combinatoriality
As you can see here, there is a general tendency for signs derived from each other to
write similarly pronounced words. 13
#iconicity
380

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L’alphabet prend trois formes : l’alphabet

O) force, chaleur, lumière.

U) cri, parole, bruit.

Les consonnes sont, chacune,

Voici les formes des voyelles dans les trois

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Toujours, A est supposé après une

De même A s’écrit et se prononce quand

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Quand il y a lieu d’écrire le nom d’un

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� u13051 pregnant woman

u13076 ‘head in profile’

u130B ‘phallus’ Det.

� u1316D ‘pintail duck’

u13170 ‘fatted duck’

u1321E ‘well full of

sealed (from Dyn

Elsewhere, as in � when abbreviation for ḥtp ‘favour’ (§42, OBS.), or in �� sḏm

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