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- There are many different kinds of languages. Some are written down, and others aren't.

- There are different types of writing, and different ways of classifying those types!

phoneme - smallest sound in a language, e.g. the "h", "i", "p" etc. in "hippopotamus"

syllable - a unit of spoken language larger than a phoneme, e.g. "hip" "po" "pot" "a" "mus"

referent - what a sign or word is referring to -- that is, a real hippopotamus

language - We also need to remember the difference between a language and an alphabet. With our alphabet, we can write many different languages; we can write English, or French, or Welsh, or Spanish, or whatever (with a few accents). Some other languages can be written using two different alphabets; for example, Serbo-Croat is a single language, but is written in either a Latin alphabet (ours), or a Cyrillic alphabet (like Russian).

logographic or pictorial systems - the symbols represent words or parts of words. Many are pictograms, i.e. look like the thing they represent. Sometimes represents the sound of a word, and sometimes represents the thing.

syllabic systems - symbols for spoken syllables - these go together to replicate the sound of the word

alphabetic systems - 2 types - one with consonants only, and the other has consonants and vowels. one sign per sound (or phoneme)

Logograms are signs representing a word but not indicating its pronunciation (e.g. $)

Pictograms are a simplified picture of the thing they represent (e.g. ☼ for sun)

Ideograms are signs representing an idea as a whole (e.g. an arrow pointing direction ↔ )

Rebus – a transferred pictogram, used to represent something that sounds the same as what it’s depicting

Determinative – an ancillary sign which helps in the interpretation of a sign

Writing system	Type: Picture writing? Syllables? Alphabet? Combination? What is the sign referring to?	What was it written on? Role of writing in society? How did archaeologists decipher it?
hieroglyphs	logographic - syllabic phonetic signs - express sounds and ideas n.b. no vowels so sometimes a word was ambiguous, so they added another sign (ideograms/determinatives/taxograms) - to tell specifically what the word is about www.omniglot.com/writing/egyptian.htm	decipherment - via Rosetta Stone, which had three scripts written: Greek, hieroglyphic, and demotic. Champollion knew the names of Ptolemy and Cleopatra from the Greek text, and deduced their presence in the other texts. He knew Coptic, the Egyptian descendant language, which was also very helpful.
cuneiform	logographic - syllabic originally pictures, but then turned on their sides and simplified, and eventually came to represent syllables. Some determinatives also used. www.upenn.edu/museum/Games/cuneiform.html www.omniglot.com/writing/akkadian.htm www.mesopotamia.co.uk/writing/story/sto_set.html	deciphered because of inscriptions on Persian tombs which were written in three languages.
Chinese	logographic - stylized pictures - each character represents a thing, but also a spoken syllable. some determinatives used. therefore minimum 3000 symbols needed to read modern Chinese! www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese.htm	a version of it still used today - therefore the knowledge was never totally lost

What makes an alphabetic writing system different from other writing systems is that it just represents very basic sounds; the images don't inherently mean anything or refer to anything in the real world. This is different from logographic systems/pictorial systems, in which a symbol represented a word/thing. It is also different from syllabic scripts, which have a different sign for each syllable. Thus, instead of hundreds or thousands of signs, you only need a couple of dozen (e.g. 26 signs in our alphabet). This makes them much simpler to learn and use. If you know the sounds of words, and you know how to write those sounds, you can (more or less) write words. Standardized spelling came later.

(e.g. word: Mesopotamia. Sound it out, letter by letter. Consider how else one could write this word, through pictures or syllables.)

The first alphabet was known as Protosinaitic, circa 1700 BC, based on hieroglyphs. (Box 8.1, Fig 8.2). It was modified and became Canaanite/Phoenician; this had 22 letters but no vowels. ( www.omniglot.com/writing/phoenician.htm)

From this derived the Hebrew alphabet and the Greek alphabet. www.omniglot.com/writing/greek.htm) Many other alphabets (Latin, Etruscan, other ancient Italian) are related to the Greek, but the lines of relationship aren't quite clear. The Greek alphabet was the first to use vowels, and has thus often been regarded as the basis for most other alphabets. However, lines of influence also came directly from the Phoenician.

Our own alphabet is known as the Latin/Roman alphabet, which first started to take shape in the 6th century BC. www.omniglot.com/writing/latin.htm It is derived from the Etruscan alphabet.

Frequently asked question about Coptic: The Coptic alphabet emerged after the Greek conquest of Egypt. The actual Coptic language is simply the ancient Egyptian language -- the word "Coptic" is based on the later Arabic term for "Egyptian". The writing system in Egypt before the Greek conquest was demotic script (which was a late Egyptian script, derived from hieroglyphic and hieratic). Thus the Coptic alphabet is a fusion of the native Egyptian script and the invaders' Greek alphabet. Coptic combines 7 demotic letters with the standard Greek letters. (www.omniglot.com/writing/coptic.htm)

The ancient Egyptian language was spoken from about 4,000 BC until the 11th century AD, whereupon it was replaced by Arabic for usual daily life. The ancient Egyptian language is still used by the Coptic Church in Egypt, however -- much as Latin is used in the Roman Catholic Mass.

Some early writing systems were not very grammatical -- they were more like a short-hand which would help people remember things, rather than precise sentences.

But if you live in a primarily oral culture... do you need full literacy like we have today?

What about multilingual inscriptions like the Rosetta Stone or the tomb of Darius? Why write in more than one language? (obviously it has been helpful to archaeologists, but that wasn't why they did it!)

What does it mean when your writing system no longer directly represents anything from the real world?

The challenge of layers: Representation upon representation, meaning over meaning

Classic examples of multilingual inscriptions: The Rosetta Stone (hieroglyphic, demotic, Greek), and the Behistun Inscription, Iran (Persian, Elamite, Babylonian).

Stela fragment of Horiraa, From Memphis, Egypt, 30th Dynasty to early Ptolemaic Period (380-200 BC) Image from British Museum Compass collections online.

Diego de Landa's Mayan "alphabet"... which turned out to be only part of the system.

The Rebus Principle - "whereby a word that cannot easily be written is represented by a word or words that have the same sound and can easily be written" (Marcus 1992:65)

Image from Marcus, Joyce. 1992. Mesoamerican Writing Systems: Propaganda, Myth, and History in Four Ancient Civilizations. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p 65

More shedding of alphabetic preconceptions: Egyptian hieroglyphs combine pictograms, logograms, ideograms, phonograms, and determinatives.

- determinatives are silent (e.g. for names... male - seated man... female - seated woman)

- ideograms (sense signs) - logograms and determinatives (to distinguish words otherwise identical n.b. no vowels, also as word dividers)

- organization - aesthetics and symmetry - Egyptians liked rectangles, avoided blanks and gaps, would adjust size, direction, and orientation to make it pretty

Image from Marcus, Joyce. 1992. Mesoamerican Writing Systems: Propaganda, Myth, and History in Four Ancient Civilizations. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p 25

But that would be okay... since there were often many ways of visually representing the same spoken word.

Image source: Parkinson, Richard. 1999. Cracking Codes: The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment. London: British Museum p 151

A Mayan hieroglyph may include several "affix" signs around the main sign. This is the emblem glyph for Palenque.

Image from Marcus, Joyce. 1992. Mesoamerican Writing Systems: Propaganda, Myth, and History in Four Ancient Civilizations. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p 86

Six ways of writing the same Mayan name -- Lord Shield, aka Pacal -- using combinations of logograms and phonograms.

Image from Marcus, Joyce. 1992. Mesoamerican Writing Systems: Propaganda, Myth, and History in Four Ancient Civilizations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Left: Tartaria amulet - Romania c 4500 BC - example of Vinča script, undeciphered.

The "Unicorn Seal" of fired steatite, from Mohenjo-daro, c. 2000 BCE and another seal impression.

And for something completely different... the Quipu or Khipu... potentially a method of binary coding.

Images borrowed from Gary Urton's 2003 book, Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records. Austin: University of Texas Press.

e.g. Evolution of Kanji - one of three different scripts used in Japanese - origins in China, introduced via Korea.

tHE cHALLENGE of layers: Representation upon representation, meaning over meaning

Assyrian relief with cuneiform: "A winged deity pollinating stylized trees, symbolizing fertility. This is an alabaster relief from the Northwest Palace of King Assur-nasir-pal II at Nimrud." Brooklyn Museum.

Images from Gordon, Cyrus. 1968. Forgotten Scripts: How they were deciphered and their impact on contemporary culture. New York: Basic Books.

Yaxchilán lintel 24: Shield Jaguar II, and his wife, Lady K'ab'al Xook. AD 709

Image from: Ross, Kurt. 1978. Codex Mendoza: Aztec Manuscript, with commentary. Miller Graphics. p 41

Image from: Ross, Kurt. 1978. Codex Mendoza: Aztec Manuscript, with commentary. Miller Graphics. p 38

Image from: Ross, Kurt. 1978. Codex Mendoza: Aztec Manuscript, with commentary. Miller Graphics. p 28

Image from: Ross, Kurt. 1978. Codex Mendoza: Aztec Manuscript, with commentary. Miller Graphics. p 117

Among the ancient Egyptians, the inventor/donor of writing was held to be the god Thoth (depicted either as ibis-headed man or as a baboon, often associated with the moon).

Quartzite Baboon figure, possibly representing Thoth, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, circa 1350 BCE.

In China, the (mythical?) sage-emperor Fu Hsi is often given credit for inventing writing and animal husbandry. Sometimes credit goes to his contemporary, the historian Ts'ang Chieh instead.

In Hinduism, the elephant-headed Ganesh is the god of writing (and wisdom and luck and doorways).

In Judaeo-Christian tradition, "The Ten Commandments" were the first writing - also from a divine source.

In some cases, even a written word was believed to heal or curse... hence the high value of books once upon a time.

Quotation and Image from Drogin, Marc. 1989. Biblioclasm: The Mythical Origins, Magic Powers,

and Perishability of the Written Word. Savage, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, pp 124