How does it work?

WRITING around the world: How does it work?

Notes for physics class. Texting your friend on Instagram. Putting together an essay at 1 am. Everyone writes, and not many people realise how convenient of an invention writing is. Our lives would be very different and harder, if writing didn’t exist. Not only does it allow us to communicate from place to place, without even seeing each other, but it allows us to store information for other people to use, and so it made the development of our species faster.

The very first forms of writing usually developed from earlier systems of symbols and pictures that, while signifying some sort of meaning, didn’t represent language. These systems are known as proto-writing, and the main difference between them and actual writing is that proto-writing only represents vague thoughts and ideas, whereas writing always correlates to specific words or sounds. Examples of proto-writing include proto-cuneiform, which was used to document the flow of goods in ancient Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq) , the Vinča symbols from eastern Europe, or the relatively recent Nsibidi system from today’s Nigeria.

Proto-Cuneiform: Earliest Form of Writing on our Planet. ThoughtCo.com is the World's Largest Education Resource [online].

https://www.thoughtco.com/proto-cuneiform-earliest-form-of-writing-171675

https://www.pulse.ng/lifestyle/food-travel/nsibidi-do-you-know-about-the-ancient-igbo-system-of-writing/65b16p0

True writing emerged from proto-writing at several places and times in history - the most notable being cuneiform in Mesopotamia (which evolved from the aforementioned proto-cuneiform), Egyptian Hieroglyphs, the Chinese Script and the scripts of the indigenous peoples of Central America, namely the Maya. The first medium for writing was clay in Mesopotamia and animal bones, for example, in China.

Logographic scripts such as the Chinese Script have specific symbols for words or their parts. Syllabaries (like Japanese) have a specific symbol for each syllable. Consonantal writing systems (like Arabic or Hebrew) are only written using consonants (sounds like p, t, k, s, l, etc.) and finally, alphabetic writing, such as the Latin Alphabet most of us write with, where all or most sounds are represented in writing, vowels (a, e, i, o, u, etc.) included. These types of script all blend into each other and writing systems usually don’t fit neatly into any one of these categories - for example, in Arabic today, vowels are also written in specific circumstances.

Evolution of writing also usually progresses from proto-writing to logographic systems, through syllabaries and consonantal systems into more complex forms of writing. All the oldest writing systems - Egyptian hieroglyphics, Mesopotamian cuneiform, Chinese writing, American indigenous writing systems and others started out as logographic systems.

Chinese calligraphy | Description, History, & Facts | Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica [online]. Copyright ©2021 Encyclop [cit. 16.05.2021]. https://www.britannica.com/art/Chinese-calligraphy

https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/schools/asset/hebrew-alphabet/

The first ever alphabet was the Greek alphabet, which originated around 1000 BCE. It was based on the older Phoenician script, which was a Consonantal System used by the ancient Phoenician merchants in the mediterreanean.

phoenician alphabet - NumisWiki, The Collaborative Numismatics Project. [online]. Dostupné

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=phoenician%20alphabet

Many alphabets originating from the Greek alphabet were created in Europe and Asia, but the only one which remained was the Latin alphabet, which spread around the Roman Empire and slowly became the West’s primary writing system, and the Cyrillic, mainly used in Eastern Europe.

Paper, today’s second most common method of conveying the written word, was first created in China, about 2000 years ago. It was brought to Europe by Arab Muslims in the Middle Ages, and spread from there afterwards.

Mechanical printing was created in fifteenth century Germany by Johannes Blacksmith. This allowed the copying of texts without hours of manual labour.

The final innovation related to writing, the typewriter, which served as a basis for modern computer keyboards, was created in the nineteenth century. The invention of the typewriter made it possible to write in a much faster and more efficient manner.

Writing is the one of the things that make humans unique in the animal kingdom, and definitely one of our greatest inventions. Without a way to record information, we would most probably still be just a primate, hunting and gathering in forests and savannas.

Written by Gabe

SOURCES:

(PDF) Introduction to the Danube script from the book Neo-Eneolithic Literacy in Southeastern Europe | Marco Merlini - Academia.edu. Academia.edu - Share research [online]. Copyright ©2021 [cit. 16.05.2021].

https://www.academia.edu/3035626/Introduction_to_the_Danube_script_from_the_book_Neo_Eneolithic_Literacy_in_Southeastern_Euro

A brief history of writing materials and technologies | Ewan Clayton [online].

https://www.bl.uk/history-of-writing/articles/a-brief-history-of-writing-materials-and-technologies

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-alphabet

Proto-Cuneiform: Earliest Form of Writing on our Planet. ThoughtCo.com is the World's Largest Education Resource [online].

https://www.thoughtco.com/proto-cuneiform-earliest-form-of-writing-171675

The Evolution of Writing | Denise Schmandt-Besserat. University Blog Service - University of Texas at Austin [online].

https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/tokens/the-evolution-of-writing/

The Evolution of Writing | Denise Schmandt-Besserat. University Blog Service - University of Texas at Austin [online].

https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/tokens/the-evolution-of-writing/

The History of Paper [online].

https://www.paperrecycles.org/about/the-history-of-paper

https://www.britannica.com/topic/writing/Types-of-writing-systems