From Prehistory to History: From Accounting to Writing: Early Scripts and Ancient Languages

Terminology

Script-language
Cuneiform (nickname)
Pictogram/pictographic
Ideogram/ideographic
Logogram/logographic
Phonetic/phonetization
Syllable/syllabic script
to decipher a script
Epigraphy (Inscriptions)
Palaeography (manuscripts)
Sumerian
Early Semitic languages:Akkadian, Eblaite, Assyrian, Babylonian
Hieroglyphic Script (Egyptian, Luwian)
Alphabetic Script
Papyrus, Parchment


When was writing invented?
Was it a single act?
What is the need that triggered developments that lead in the end to writing?
Intellectual needs? Spiritual needs? Other?


Earliest Written Signs around 3000 B.C.

Pictograms/Ideograms/Logograms: pictures of objects from economic transactions= sheep, grain, fish, cattle, jars of oil
One sign(picture) per object, numeric signs as well





Early writing has no language
Early writing is ideographic, often mnemonic (shopping list)
How do you write about ideas, feelings anything you cannot draw a picture of?
How do you write verbs, grammar, language?

REBUS Principle

Example that works in English
Belief= bee + leaf
The sound value of a sign is recognized
This step is the phonetization of writing: you begin to use the sound of words
each sign now conveys a syllable

Writing invented by Sumerians, Sumerian many mono syllable words, meaning changed by adding suffixes


Cuneiform: nickname given to Mesopotamian script= wedge shaped
No connection between visual sign and the meaning of the sound that it represents
Combination of syllabic writing with some ideograms
Problematic part: leads to a lot of signs!!!

Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing
Hieroglyph: ancient Greek designation for ancient egyptian script, ‘ta hieroglyphica’ means ‘the sacred carved (letters)’
In principle similar to cuneiform system= syllabic way of writing
Remains confined to Egypt and Egyptian
Mostly preserved inscribed on stone/wood/faience
Writing on papyrus invented in Egypt, writing used hieratic, an adaptation of hieroglyphic script to cursive and fast reproduction


Alphabetic writing

Next development in systems of writing: one sign per one sound (consonant or vowel)
Decreases the number of signs significantly to ca. 30
Seems to have been stimulated by egyptian hieroglyphic writing
Earliest signs encountered already in Sinai(Searbit al Khadim, cared by miners at the turquoise mines