History of Writing

Systems
by Simon Ager (of Omniglot.com)
What is writing?

“a set of visible or tactile signs used to represent units of language

in a systematic way, with the purpose of recording messages which
can be retrieved by everyone who knows the language in question
and the rules by virtue of which its units are encoded in the writing
system.”

From: Coulmas, Florian,

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems (Oxford, Blackwell,
1999)
Uses of writing

To record knowledge and information

Divination
To write laws, proclamations and commandments
To write agreements
Advertising and propaganda
Literature, poetry, songs
Writing materials
Writing surfaces Writing implements First used in Features

Clay tablets Calamus (reed stylus) Sumeria c. 8,000 BC Readily available

Reusable
Long-lasting (if baked)

Stone, wood, metal and Sharp tool Many places Permanent

other hard surfaces

Papyrus Calamus or quill & ink Egypt c. 2,500 BC Portable

Light weight

Parchment Pen or brush & ink Egypt c. 2,400 BC Portable

Light weight
Reusable
Writing materials
Writing surfaces Writing implements First used in Features

Wax on wooden tablets Stylus Anatolia c. 14th C BC Portable

(pugillares) Light weight
Reusable

Bones and shells Sharp tool China c. 1,300 BC Readily available

Long-lasting

Palm leaves and birch Pen or brush & ink South Asia c. 500 BC Portable
bark Light weight

Paper Pen or brush & ink China c. 200 BC Portable

Light weight
Can be made into
scrolls and books
Reading & writing technologies
Clay tablets (c. 3,600 BC - Mesopotamia)
Printing (c. 3,000 BC - Mesopotamia)
Papyrus scrolls (c. 2,000 BC - Egypt)
Paper and woodblock printing (c. 200 BC - China)
Codex/book (c. 150 AD - Rome & Greece)
Moveable type (1040 AD - China & 1230 AD - Korea)
Indices and tables of contents (11th century - Italy)
Eyeglasses (c. 1286 - Italy)
Silent reading (14th century - Europe)
First European printing press (1439 - Germany)
The Principles Involved in Writing
Rebus principle Acrophonic principle
A way of representing a word A way to represent sounds based
or part of a word with a on the initial sound of letter
picture. names
Types of writing system
Abjads / Consonant
Alphabets
Consist of consonants with
optional vowel indication

(Phonemic) Alphabets
Consist of consonants and
vowels
Types of writing system
Abugidas /
Alphasyllabaries /
Syllabic Alphabets
Consist of consonants with
modifiable inherent vowels,
plus separate vowel symbols
Syllabaries
Consist of separate symbols
for each syllable
Types of writing system
Semanto-phonetic
scripts
Combine semantic and
phonetic elements,
including:

- pictograms
- ideograms
- phonetic symbols
- semantic symbols
- compound symbols
Writing direction
Many scripts started
off with variable
directionality and
then settled to one
direction.
Left to right in
horizontal lines is the
most popular
direction (other
directions are
available).
Writing systems statistics
According to Ethnologue: Types of writing system
7,105 languages 19 abjads
3,570 have writing systems 56 alphabets
696 are unwritten 71 abugidas
No data for the rest 22 syllabaries
16 semanto-phonetic scripts
There are some 184 writing
systems Most widely-used writing
71 are in regular use systems
33 are used to a limited extent Latin/Roman
80 are no longer used Cyrillic
Arabic
Devanagari
 Clay tokens (c. 8,000 BC)

Used in: Mesopotamia (Israel,

Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran)
Used from: c. 8,000-1,500 BC
Number of shapes: c. 500
Use: record keeping -
Sumerian script possibly based
on them.
Vinča / Old European script (8,000 BC)
Used in: Romania and
Serbia
Used from: c. 8,000-6,500
BC
Type of script: Proto-
writing?
Direction of writing:
Tărtăria tablets
variable
Used to write: ?
Number of glyphs: c. 100
(Proto-)Writing in China (c. 6,600 BC)

Used in: Jiǎhú ( 賈湖 ), Henan

province, and other parts of
China
Used from: c. 6,600 BC
Type of script: Proto-writing?
Direction of writing: variable
Number of glyphs: c. 100
Indus script (c. 3,500 BC)

Used in: Indus valley, India

Used from: c. 3,500-1,900 BC
Type of script: undeciphered
Direction of writing: variable
Used to write: Proto-Dravidian /
Sanskrit (?)
Cuneiform (c. 3,600 BC)
Used in: Mesopotamia
Used from: c. 3,600 BC - 75 AD
Type of script: semanto-phonetic /
syllabic
Direction of writing: variable
Used to write: Sumerian, Akkadian,
Hittite, Persian, Ugaritic, etc.
Number of glyphs: 1,000 (plus 500
variants)
Egyptian Hieroglyphs (c. 3,400 BC)

Used in: Egypt

Used from: c. 3400 BC - 396 AD
Type of script: semanto-
phonetic
Direction of writing: variable
Used to write: Egyptian
Number of glyphs: 5,000+ (700
in common use)
Reputedly invented by the god
Thoth
Map of ancient Mesopotamia
Chinese script (c. 2,100 BC)
Used in: China, Taiwan, Singapore,
etc.
Used from: c. 2,100 BC - present
Type of script: semanto-phonetic
Direction of writing: variable
Used to write: Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, Vietnamese, Zhuang, etc.
Number of glyphs: c. 50,000
Reputedly invented by Cāngjié ( 倉頡 / 仓
颉)
in around 2,650 BC
Proto-Sinaitic (1,900 BC)

Used in: Sinai and Egypt

Used from: c. 1,900-1,700 BC
Type of script: abjad
Direction of writing: variable
Used to write: Canaanite
Number of glyphs: 24 (plus
variants)
Phoenician alphabet
Used in: Phoenicia and
Phoenician colonies
Used from: c. 1,000 BC - 200 AD
Type of script: abjad
Direction: boustrophedon / rtl
Used to write: Phoenician
Number of letters: 22
Olmec script (c. 1,000 BC)

Used in: Oaxaca, Mexico

Used from: c. 1,000 BC
Type of script: undeciphered
Direction of writing: uncertain
Used to write: uncertain
Number of glyphs: uncertain
Greek - the first phonemic alphabet

Used in: Greece and Greek

colonies
Used from: c. 730 BC - present
Type of script: alphabet
Direction of writing:
boustrophedon / ltr
Used to write: Greek
Number of letters: 22 / 24
Latin alphabet

First used in: Italy

Used from: c. 700 BC - present
Type of script: alphabet
Direction: variable / ltr
Used to write: Latin and many
other languages
Number of letters: 26+
Based on: Etruscan alphabet
Brahmi script

Used in: India

Used from: c. 500 BC - 4th
century AD
Type of script: abugida
Direction of writing: variable / ltr
Used to write: Sanskrit, Prakit,
etc
Number of glyphs: 43
Sources
Books
Coulmas, Florian, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems (Oxford,
Blackwell, 1999)
Coulmas, Florian, The Writing Systems of the World (Oxford, Blackwell, 1991)
Daniels, Peter T. & Bright, William, The world's writing systems (Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 1996)
Robinson, Andrew, The Story of Writing (London, Thames and Hudson, 1995)

Websites
Omniglot - http://www.omniglot.com
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org
Ethnologue - http://www.ethnologue.com
Chinese Etymology - http://www.chineseetymology.org
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