Fundamentals of Linguistics -2016 Licda. Milvia Rosales G.
Writing materials
History of writing
Chinese Mar 2012 characters
2nd c. BC - 3rd century . AD
15th century BC
1600 BC
2500 BC
3000 BC
First American 2nd c. BC script 3rd c. AD
The Arabic Oct 2015 script
The seals of the Jan 2009 Indus valley
3100 BC
3100 BC
The Egyptian The Sumerian
5th century BC
Cuneiform in Aug 2003 Mesopotamia
Phonetics and Oct 2015 the alphabet
Hieroglyphs and Sep 2006 papyrus in Egypt
The first known writing derives from the lower reaches of the two greatest rivers in this extended region, the Nile and the Tigris. The two civilizations responsible for this transforming human development are the Egyptian and the Sumerian (now Iraq). Start
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The Land between two Rivers
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CUNEIFORM (MESOPOTAMIA) On wet clay the scribes draw a simplified picture of an item. They then make a similar mark in the clay for the number counted and recorded. When allowed to bake hard in the sun, the clay tablet becomes a permanent document.
In Mesopotamia clay remains the most common writing surface, and the standard writing implement becomes the end of a sharply cut reed.
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-One of the earliest forms of written expression is cuneiform.
-Sumer, an ancient civilization of southern Mesopotamia, was the place where written language was first invented around 3200 BCE. Writing of language was invented in at least two places: • Mesopotamia (Sumer) around 3200 BCE and •Mesoamerican around 600 BCE (Olmec or Zapotec of Mexico) Start
Hieroglyphs and papyrus in Egypt
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•The second civilization to develop writing, after the Sumerians, is Egypt, but the system is similar. •Hieroglyphic inscriptions in temples and tombs by painters. •With the introduction of papyrus, the Egyptian script is also the business of scribes. •The Egyptian scribe uses a fine reed pen to write on the smooth surface of the papyrus scroll. •There is one script for religious documents; •literature and official documents; and for private letters.
The seals of the Indus valley: from 2500 BC The Indus script, which has not yet been deciphered, is known from thousands of seals, carved in steatite or soapstone.
The centre of each seal is occupied by a realistic depiction of an animal, with above it a short line of formal symbols. Start
The Indus Valley (Sanskrit=the Sindhu) •The Indus is the longest river in Pakistan (Asia). • Afghanistan is to the west, China to the north, and India to the east.
• The Indus River begins in the Himalaya Mountains, and flows nearly 3,000 kilometers to the Arabian Sea. Start
Chinese characters: from 1600 BC The last of the early civilizations to develop writing is China. But China outdoes the others in devising a system which has evolved. They have even provided the script for an entirely different language, Japanese. And also had influence on Korean, Vietnamese Chu Nom and others.
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Chinese characters
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Phonetics and the alphabet- 3200 BC The most significant development in the history of writing is the move from a pictographic or syllabic system to a phonetic one, based on recording the spoken sound of a word.
Phoenician is a Semitic language and it is adopted by Phoenicia and Palestine (Aramaic and Hebrew) . Only the consonants are written, leaving the vowels to be understood by the reader Start
The contribution of the Greeks, adapting the Phoenician system of writing is to add vowels. The result is a Greek alphabet of twenty-four letters.
The Romans in their turn develops the Greek alphabet to form letters suitable for the writing of Latin. Portable writing materials such as papyrus, wooden tablets or leaves written correspondence becomes a familiar part of everyday life. Start
ΠΡΟΣ ΚΟΡΙΝΘΙΟΥΣ Αʹ 4Ἡ ἀγάπη μακροθυμεῖ, χρηστεύεται ἡ ἀγάπη οὐ ζηλοῖ, [ἡ ἀγάπη] οὐ περπερεύεται, οὐ φυσιοῦται, 5οὐκ ἀσχημονεῖ, οὐ ζητεῖ τὰ ἑαυτῆς, οὐ παροξύνεται, οὐ λογίζεται τὸ κακόν, 6οὐ χαίρει ἐπὶ τῇ ἀδικίᾳ, συγχαίρει δὲ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ· 7πάντα στέγει, πάντα πιστεύει, πάντα ἐλπίζει, πάντα ὑπομένει. 4 Love
suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
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The Arabic script: from the 5th century BC A stele, or inscribed column, is set up at Tema in northwest Arabia. Dating from the 5th century BC, its inscription is the earliest known example of the writing which evolves a millennium later into the Arabic script. Start
The first American script: 2nd c. BC - 3rd c. AD
Of the various early civilizations of central America, the Maya make the greatest use of writing, but they are not the inventors of writing in America. The credit for this would be to the Olmecs, they were the first to create a Calendar. The first Mayan stele to be securely dated is erected at Tikal in the equivalent of the year AD 292.
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Materials for writing •Engrave on stone or metal, or other durable material •Lead,brass, and gold •Clay •The tablet and the roll •Wooden •Papyrus •Wood-pulp paper
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Papyrus Plant
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E-graphy •http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=15 89&HistoryID=ab33&gtrack=pthc#ixzz3A6jVCId9 •http://www.omniglot.com/writing/greek.htm •http://www.funsci.com/fun3_en/writing/writing.htm •http://ancienthistory.mrdonn.org/Mesopotamia.html#SEVEN •http://www.ancientscripts.com/chinese.html •http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/worldhistory/rosetta_sto ne/ •http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/history/ egypt/hieroglyphs/ •http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/indus_valley/land_of_th e_indus/ Start