Writing: a representation of

spoken or signed language

Spoken Form vs. Writing

Writing
Visual signs used to represent language, to
record and to communicate information

Children learn to speak naturally through

exposure to language, without formal
training
One must learn how to read and write

Spoken Form vs. Writing

Whats the importance of the writing
system of a language?
The invention of writing comes relatively
late
Many spoken languages lack a writing
system

Kinds of signs in writing systems

Pictograms
Ideograms
Logograms
Rebuses
Phonographic symbols
Syllabic writing
Consonantal writing
Alphabetic writing

Types of Writing Systems

Logographic - each symbol represents a word
or morpheme
Syllabic - each symbol represents a syllable
Consonantal alphabetic - each symbol
represents a consonant (vowels may be
marked by diacritics)
Alphabetic - each symbol represents a vowel
or consonant

Pictograms
Or picture writings
Represent objects directly and literally.
Can be interpreted relatively
independently of any particular language

Pictograms

Ideograms
idea picture or idea writing
The meaning of a pictogram is extended to
attributes of that object, or concepts
associated with it

R: warmth, heat, light, daytime

Ideograms
Ideograms: less literal, less direct
representations
One may need to learn what a particular
ideogram means

VS.

Ideograms
Ideograms may become linguistic
symbols, e.g. sounds to represent the
ideas (words of the language)
Revolutionary step in the development of
writing systems!

Logograms
Signs in logographic writing represent
whole words (or morphemes).
$ % @ # 1 2 + : represent whole words
without spelling them out alphabetically

Logogram example
Mayan Logograms

BALAM
(Jaguar)

Logograms + Syllables
BA + LA + MA

BALAM

Rebus Signs
Some words are not easy to depict
graphically
Rebus signs use the depiction of
something easier to represent graphically
for other words that sound like the one
easier to draw
Belief =

The Rebus Principle

Using pictograms purely for
their sounds to represent new
words.
Many ancient writing systems
used the Rebus principle to
represent abstract words,
which otherwise would be hard
to be represented by
pictograms.
Ex.I represented by

Syllabic Writing
Each symbol represents a syllable
Mayan glyphs (see example above)
Japanese
Two kana syllabaries, which are 'alphabets'
based on syllables rather than single sounds
Katakana: loan words or special effects similar to
italics in European writing
Hiragana: native words

Kanji: borrowed Chinese characters

Syllabic Writing-Japanese

Syllabic Writing-Japanese
(kanji red, hiragana blue, katakana green,
others black):

radokurifu,

marason

gorin daihy ni

1 man m shutsuj ni mo fukumi

"Radcliffe, Olympic marathon contestant, to

consider also appearing in the 10,000 m"

Consonantal Writing
Semitic languages, such as Hebrew and
Arabic, are written with alphabets that
have no vowels
Hebrew: each symbol represents a
consonant and vowels may be
represented by diacritical marks (p.516)

Consonantal Writing
Arabic: Consonants form the root of most
ktb: root of words associated with write
katab He wrote
) (
aktub I write
) (
kutub books
) (

Reading consonantal writing:

Hw cn y rd a sntnc wtht vwls?

Phonographic Symbols
Primarily denote the way in which the word
is articulated.
European languages are nearly
exclusively written in phonographic
symbols.
Japanese employs both ideographic and
phonographic symbols.

Alphabetic Writing
Each symbol represents a vowel or
consonant
Phonemic principle
No need to represent the [ph] in pit and [p] in
spit by two different letters
No phonemic difference
Allophones of the same phoneme

Alphabets represent the distinctive phonemes

Alphabetic Writing (an example)

Korean
Hangul alphabet :17 consonants and 11
vowels
Designed on the phonemic principle
[l] and [r] are allophones of the same phoneme.
So, they are represented by a single letter.
Also true for [s] and [], [ts] and [t]

For example

The theory of the monogenesis of

writing

Theory that writing was invented only once and that all subsequent
writing systems were offshoots of this original
Was writing invented only once, and did the technique of
representing language with written signs spread out from one
center all over the world, or was writing developed multiple
times and independently?
The various systems of coding oral language that have been
developed at different places show a great variety and have
adapted a coding system to represent specific characteristics of
the language.
Evidence for the indigenous origin of Chinese
The decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs

The invention of writing

Sumerian cuneiform
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Chinese writing system
Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican writing
systems (including Olmec and Maya
scripts)

Mesoamerican Writing Systems

Logosyllabic: combined
the use of logograms
(symbols representing
words as well as
concepts) with a
syllabary
May be up to 2,500
years old
Include Olmec, Mayan,
and Zapotec Systems

Monte Alban Inscriptions

The Zapotec script - one of the earliest

writing systems in Mesoamerica.
The first examples of Zapotec writing are
in the form of danzante slabs, carved
stone monuments with brief inscriptions

The majority of
danzantes are found
in Monte Albn (600BCE)

The Evolution of Cuneiform

SAG (head) as it evolved from a pictogram to

an abstract representation.
Logographic: each symbol represents the
word as well as the concept

From Pictograms to Syllables

Cuneiform spread throughout the

Middle East and Asia Minor
It was adapted to represent the sounds
of the languages spoken in those
places (Babylonian, Assyrian, and
Persian), evolving into a syllabic writing
system
Syllabic system: each syllable is
represented by a different symbol

Egyptian Hieroglyphics
Same time as Sumerian
cuneiform (4000 BC) independent origin
Pictographic carvings that
became logographic, then
syllabic
Hieroglyphics > Proto-Sinaitic
Script > Proto-Canaanite
alphabet

The Phoenicians
Lived in what is now
Lebanon
Developed a writing
system of 22
consonants by 1500
B.C. called the West
Semitic Syllabary
Evolved from ProtoCanaanite alphabet

From Phoenician to Hebrew and

Arabic
Phoenician is the
basis for both the
Hebrew and Arabic
writing systems
Still do not represent
vowels, only
consonants (known
as abjads)

Worldwide Use of Arabic Script

Arabic script used to write unrelated languages such

as Farsi, Urdu, Kurdish, Azerbaijani, Dari, Pashto,
Punjabi, Kashmiri
Dark green Arabic script is the only official
orthography; Light green Arabic script is used
alongside other orthographies.

From Phoenician to Greek to

Roman
The Greeks borrowed the Phoenician
system and added vowels, inventing the
first alphabet (1000 B.C.)
The Romans borrowed the Greek
alphabet and adapted it to Latin (500
B.C.)
We still use the Roman alphabet today

In Sum:
From
Egyptian
Hieroglyphics to
Our Modern
Alphabet

The Cyrillic Alphabet

Adapted from Greek by
Saint Cyril, a Byzantine
monk, around 900 A.D.
Used to write Russian,
Bulgarian, Macedonian,
Serbian, Ukrainian,
Belarusian, Tajik,
Mongolian, Kazakh,
Uzbek

Where Cyrillic is Used

Indian Writing Systems

Devangar (used to write Sanskrit, Hindi,
Marathi, Sindhi, Konkani, Nepali, and others)

Sinhala (Spoken in Sri Lanka)

Devangar
Each consonant is inherently associated with the
following vowel

Vowels can be written as independent

letters, or by using a variety of diacritical
marks which are written above, below,
before or after the consonant they belong
to.
When consonants occur together in
clusters, special conjunct letters are used

Basic Principles of the Chinese

Writing System
Not alphabetic
Logographic or Word-writing system
Each character represents both the meaning
and pronunciation of each word or morpheme
Longer words are formed by combining words
or morphemes (compounding)

Basic Principles of the Chinese

Writing System

din
din-dng
din-l
din-sh
din-q

More difficult one

din-no

electric, electricity
electric light dng=?
electric power l=?
television
sh=?
electrical machine q=?

computer no=?

Basic Principles of the Chinese

Writing System

din
electric, electricity
din-dng electric-light=electric light
din-l
electric-power=electric
power

din-sh
electric-vision=television

din-q
electricmachine=electrical
machine

din-no electric-brain=computer

Problems and advantages of the

English writing system
Based on English spoken in the 14th, 15th,
and 16th centuries
The advent of printing (15th C) froze the
current spelling
Advantages of a historically based
alphabetic system

Writing a signed language?

Stokoe Notation
http://www.signwriting.org/forums/linguistics/ling006.html

Used to capture values of phonological

parameters (handshape, place of artic,
movement)
SignWriting http://www.omniglot.com/writing/signwriting.htm
Created in 1974 by Valerie Sutton
Limited circulation of a newsletter printed in
SignWriting

Neither system above is learned/used by

the vast majority of signed language users