SOURCE : pages Sith or K.L. lack s
The Written Record of Language
diffcut. For
re than §,000
lier than this. In
he world!
y only a few dozen
ten. Most languages have never
have no record of the
guistic history
Investigation
cone thing, writing was invented o
ago, and we have n
inti recently, only a
read and write, and
languages are reguiariy writ
been written down at all, a
‘overwhelming bulk of the world's lr
But writing changes too
Languages are always changing, not just century by century
but day by day. Take a look at this passage written by
Jonathan Swift in the 18th century
But where I say, that I would have our
Language, after it is duly correct, always to
last; I do not mean that it should never be
enlarged: Provided, that no Word which a
Society shall give a Sanction to, be afterwards
antiquated and exploded, they may have
liberty to receive whatever new ones they
shall find occasion for
as
ea
My brother Jacques he keeps at school, and
report speaks goldenly of his profit; for my part,
he keeps me rustically at honie, or, to speak
more properly, stays me here at home unkept;
for call you that keeping for a gentleman of my
birth, that differs not from the stalling of an ox?
tle And Further Back ...
Now look at a passage from Chaucer, in the 14th century
to Old English
fa sample of English from the 10th
period we call Old E:
Finall
century, dul
Ayyong man whilom called Melibeus myghty
and riche bigat vp on his wif, that called was
Prudence a doghter, which that called was
Sophie. Vpon a day bifel that he for his desport
is went into the feeldes hym to pleye
Her.../lfred cyning,..gefeaht, with ealne here,
and hine geflymde, and him aefter rad oth
thet geweorc, and thaer saet XIII niht.
whole army, ancl
This is on the very brink of
Incomprehensibility in
We could no more
Understand Chaucer's
spoker
sort of English
nged out of eel
ye from their e eri
en
eee
Hopefully, we’!! be
time for lunch
less stude a
than
| «after all t
bimbos, 1 though’
wuss to pass up
stonking parts ‘even if i
an indie flick", she said. tof chang
id toth
innovati
ay
Mseany,
ANI) 7
OF pap; )
Well, you cat
how ettectiv
being painted’
and nobody would now
dream of try t
defunct » SOURCE :
Roberts, William H, and Gregoixe Ticacee
About Language: A Read. c eS. «
ww York: Houghton Hifflin Company, 1449. Vint.
The Story of Writing
CM. Millward
‘As stadent writers discover, something we sy aloud may serve
Poly or nota ll if simpy wanscibed onto paper, Spoken aed
‘wen language are deen pal Because they wer invented 0
seve diferent purposes. Inthe following excerpt fom her book
The Biography ofthe English Language, language scolar and
teacher C.M, Milward explains why writing was invented and how
tng systems evolve. AS she explains in pose notable forts
laity and wie, "Civilzton as we know it depends onthe ween
word” eventhough weiten words once semed ore like mle
than like language,
MJOURNAL PROMPT Frequent; things we my aloud lose their meaning
when we write them on paper: Think about he primary faction of oa and write anquage.
How do they dir, and how do they complement one anther?
Tobe a wellfavoured man isthe gift of fortune; bt wo wrt and ead comes by nature.
Wiliam Shatespeare
‘Speech is ofcourse primary to language. People were speaking for hundreds of thou-
sands-—perheps milions—of years before writing was invented, Human beings
speak before they leam to read and write; even tay, many people never learn to
‘ead and write, and there ae still anguages with no writing systems. People lean.
how to speak without formal traning, but most have tobe tight how to read and
‘rte. Further, all forms of writing are ultimately based on spaken language. In other
words, wtng is a derivative of speech; it isa secondary form of language. Speech
is. quite properly, the focus of most linguistic sty
Nonetheless, we should not underestimate the importance of writing. Civilization
a8 we know it depends on the writen word. We study speech by means of writing
1nd we use writing fo represent the phonetics of speech, Most of our information
about lagu
isin writing
‘Writing has become so important that, forthe educated person, it ean become
almost totally independent of speech. Most of us know many word that we can read,
tunderstand, and even write but that We would hesitate to try 10 pronounce. Forex.
‘ample, {think ofthe word gners. know that it sa kind of rok, thai is usually
‘metamorphic in origin and that (to my untrained eye) it looks somewhat lke granite
Yer 1 do not normally speak this word and I have to refer to dctonary—another
writen source—to discover that gneis is pronounced ais and not fis or /gnais!
for fs We also use words ane grammatical constructions in wrting that we rarely if
ever spontaneously produce in speech. Who uses the subordinting conjunction lest
‘n a casual conversation? What does «paragraph sound lke? Many people read and
196
and ceriaily all of our information about the history of languages,
C.M. Millard /The Story of Wrting 197
sometimes even write fluently in languages that they cannot speak. Skilled readers
take in and mentally process wtlen tex at arte so rapid thatthe words cannot,
possibly have been silently aiculated and “listened 0"; clearly, for such readers,
‘writing has become a form of language virtually independent of speech. Final, there
is even physiologieal evidence tat writing is more than simply a secondary form of
speech: Some brain-damaged people are competent in reading and ving but are
unable to speak or understand speech,
‘The Effects of Writing on Speech
Writing has numerous effects onthe spoken language, andthe more literate a cul-
ture is, the greater these effects are. Because ofthe prestige, the conservatism, and
the permaneicy of writing, it tends to act as a brake on changes in the spoken
Tanguage. Conversely, writing tends to spread changes from one area or group of
speakers o another; tis is especially true of vocabulary items. Most of us can recall
new words that we fist encountered in a written txt and only late—or pevhaps
rnever—heard spoken. Writing also preserves archaisms that have Been lst inthe
spoken language and sometimes even revives words that have become obsolete in
the spoken language. For example, Edmund Speaser probably reintroduced rampant
inthe meaning af “ere” trough his writings the OED's las citation inthis mea
ing prior. Spenser is nearly two hundted years earlier
Writing and literacy give rise to spelling pronunciations. that is, the promuncis
tion of words as they are spelled. These may tk the fon of the reinsertion of lost
sounds of the insertion of unhistoical sounds. Many people today’ pronounce the
word offen as [ofan], eventhough the i] dropped aut ofthe spoken language cen
turies ago, and even though they do not pronaunce a (i in such parallel words as
soften olsen. Smilaly, because English readers associate the lee sequence th)*
withthe sounds 8] and [2], words spelled with that sequence that historically were
pronounced with [t]have come « be pronounced with [8]. Examples include the
given names Katrine and Arthur (compare the short forms Art and Kate that retain
the [). The river Thames is pronounced {temz] in Briain, but [Bem2] in Connect
because the itluence ofthe spelling proved stonger than earlier oral tadition,
Conventional spellings for vocal gestures involving noises outside the English
‘Phonemic system may aso lead 10 & biter pronunciation. Examples include the
voeal gesture for disipproval or commiseration. an alveolar click. Because ths
sound is writen fist its ocasionally pronounced (sk sk) Even more miliary
sate the pronunciations [bo] for (bt). speling originally imtended ro represent
voiced bilabial il, and fk] for ed, a spelling intended to representa high-pitched
Literacy and our alphabet so permeate our culture that even our vocabulary is
affected, The widespead use of acronyms presuppases speakers who are familiar
‘with the leers with which words begin. We even use letter shapes as analozes to
‘Whe ts sey ding grape fms fam phaslopepesrnos angesbakes 14774 Language Development Personal and Soi
describe objects: The words T square, U-turn el asa wing ofa bung), Scuve
aul Venek areal derive fom te names of alphabetic chance
In sur, wring has ben sch an integral pan of Engh for he past thine
tune years thats inpossibe to magne wha te spoken language woul
be like today i English hd never ben commited to weing Indeed, ont wr
ing, Engi probably weuld have spit pio numerous mataly nile di
lets long ao.
Why Was Writing Invented?
Efcient as speech is, i is severly limited in bot time and space. Once an uter-
ance has been made, its gone forever, andthe preservation of its contents is depen
dent on human memery. Writing is as permanent as the materials used in producing
its eaders can return to written record as often as or after as long a period of time
8s they lke, Further, speech is mich more limited in space than is writing. Until he
‘cent developments of electronic media—all of which require supplementary appa-
Fats inthe form of transmitters and receivers—speech was spatially limited tothe
‘ange of the unampliied human voice. Writing ean be done on portable materials
and carried wherever people ean 20,
she
[A POOR DEVIL
Sips ofthe ngue an pea have always heen pat of mal language, but perhaps
nly medieval monks would invent a pate demon for them, Titus, a he nak
ume, collected fragments of mispronounced, mule, or skipped words ia he
vine services He pt ther all inc sich an cid them to is master in hl
where they were istered ais he offer
Later Tails jurisdiction was extended Yo oihographic and pining
over Ike or mater to pt his ik, F
te
ican theres owe le lores nae Re
finally had to recall every copy for destruction, dia
“vis ws ng, in ng nd Conia
ssachancern mend yey pean oe ene Heh se
Strat ovate etapa Sentry ton a
1am poe dyad my ame ys Ty. ae ce dy. ye my
"ow Foes alte. and of mpyens in sates and wee
More of Ou La
EE
CoM, Millvazd /The Story of Weng 199
Although it would perhaps be exthetcally comforting to think that de rst writing
systems were created to preserve literary works, all the evidence indicates tha the
first tre writing was wed for fa more mundane purposes. Although “creative” Iter
ature arse long before the vention of writing, it was orally transmitted, with de-
vices such as alteration, repetition and regular meter being used a ads to memory:
‘Writing was invented for the same practical purpose to which, in terms of sheer bulk
most writing today is dedicated, corimercial recordkeeping—the number of labs
bom in season, the numberof pts of ol shipped to customer, the wages paid to
Taborers, A second important early use of wtng was to preserve the exact wording
‘of sacred texts that would otherwise be corrupted by imperfect memories and changes
in the spoken language. For most of the history of writing, tracy has been restricted
toa smal elite of bookkeepers and priests; often, the two occupations were combined
in one srbe, To the iliterate, writing would have seemed form of magic, an im
pression that was not discouraged by those who understood is mysteries.
‘Types of Writing Systems
I we ean judge by the delight a child takes in its own footprints or scribbles made
‘with any implement on any surface, human beings have aways been fascinated by
drawing. The urge to create pictures is revealed by the primitive drawings—eals
forms of grafti—found incaves and on rocks al ve the world. But pictures as sch
ae not witing, although isnot always esy to dsinguish pictures from writing. I
‘ve define writing as human communication by mean of x system of conventional
‘sible marks. then n many cases, we donot knw whether the mas are system
atic because we donot havea large enough sample. Nor do we know if the marks
‘were intended t communicate a message. For example, Figure | isan American
Indian petroglyp (a drawing or earving on rock) from Cottonwood Canyon, Uh
"Ss
icon in Peso
+The defn sage a 1. Ge A Sd of Wing, (Chicago: Univers of Ceag>
Pre 190. 2
"Drawing wed frm Ra Serio Prehiric erp and Pacoraps nth Sa La
iy: Uh Soe Histo Sec. I972p. 62: Reduced wi erisin of he Uh SH ‘Conceivably, the dotted lines, wavy lines, spiral, and semicircle ha! some conen-
tional meaning that could be interpreted bya viewer familia withthe conventions. I
0, the petoglyph might be called prewriting, but not actual writing.
Pictographs and Ideograms
More clearly elated to writing are the picture stories of American Indians. Like the
‘modem cartoon strip without words, these pietographs communicate messtge
Further, they often include conventional symbols Figure is from abirch-bark record
made by Shalish’king (b), the leader of a proup of Mille Las Ojibwa (a) who
undertook a military expedition aguinst Shikop e). Shakopi's amp of Siow (c) was
ton the St Peters River (), The Ojbwas under Sha lost one man (atthe
St Peter's River. and they got oaly one am ofan Ii (2)
Although such pictographs do communicate & message, they ate nol diret
Sequential representation of speech. They may include ideographie symbols, sym-
hols that represent ideas or concepts but da not stand for specific sounds, syllables,
‘or words. In Figure 2, the drawing at (F) means that the Ojibwa lost one man, but it
does not represent a unique series of sounds or word, I could be translated a “We
lost one man” or “The Sioux killed a wartioe” or “Lite Fox died on this expedition”
‘or "One man fell by the river” To tke s more familar example, the picture # i an
isi
Ideogram: it does nt represent a sequence of sounds, but rather a concep that can
be expressed in
shin various ways: "yo that way” or“ this direction” or "over
there” or. combined with words or other idengrams, such notions as “the Sits are
to the right” oF “pick up your luggage at that place.” Meograms are not necessarily
pictues of objects: the arithmetic “minus sign” isan ieogrom that depicts not an
‘object, but a concept that can be tanslated as “minus of “subract the following
from the preceding” or “negative
Logograms
Meograms are not writing, bu they are the ancestors of writing. If particular
‘deopram is always translated by the same spoken word, itcan come to stand for that
‘word and hat word alone. At this point, logograms, or symbols representing single
+ Adape ror Grck Malley, "Pt Wiing of the America Idian"n Teh Al Report of
the Baca of Eos (Washingt, D.C: Genesee Printing Of, 1893p. 59-80
CM. Millward /The Story of Waiting 201
sword, have been invented, and tue writing has begun, Indeed, an entire writing sys
tem may be based on the logographic principle. Tis isthe ease with Chinese, in
‘which each character stands fora word or part of a compound word. In their purest
forms, logographic symbols have no relationship to individual sounds, bt only toe
tire words. For example, the Chinese character FB stands fora verb meaning “to
thang, to suspend it is pronounced oughly as [dao] in Standard Chinese, bt no par
sic pat ofthe character represents [] or fio [aor [ul By itself the top pat of
the character, [is pronounced hou], and the bottom pat, Fis pronounced [jin].
“The character is pronounced in exactly the same way a5 but #91 means to
fish with a hook and line” Like all wring systems actally wed for natural lan
‘euages, Chinese i es than totaly pure; many characters contain both ideograpic
‘and phonetic components, Stil tbe Chisese system is basically logographic in that
‘ach charter stars for an entre word ar morpheme, and one cannot determine the
renunciation of an unfamiliar character fom its components
‘The disinetion between ideograms and logograms is somewhat arbitrary. If
Within a given language, a symbol i always interpreted as representing one word
and one word alone, it isa logogram for that language. However, i it has the same
‘meaning but is represented by different words in ater languages, its, tctly speak
ing, an ideogram. An example would be the symbol &, which stands only for the
word and in English, but for aus in rsh, erin French, och in Swedish, win Russian.
ra in Swahili and s0 forth Iisa logogram within a given language, but anideogram
across languages,
Spllabaries
Lopographic systems are inefficient for most languages Because, if every single
wort inthe language i to he represented hy a diferent symbol. an astronomical
umber of complex symbols is required. Therefore while the iting i tll a
the ideographicloggraphic stage, serbes may begin to use symbols to represent
sounds instead of eoneepts, The probably begin by punting on existing logorans
Fc example assume thal English used the logoram
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