Writing system

Writing system is a form of human communication that uses visual symbols or signs to represent language. The earliest examples of writing date to about 5,300 years ago in Mesopotamia and Egypt. In China, animal bones dating from 3,250 years ago have been found that bear written inscriptions. In Mesoamerica (what is now Central America and Mexico), the Maya developed a writing system less than 2,000 years ago.

Before writing

Counting devices

have been used in all parts of the world. Such devices include sticks, pebbles, clay tokens, and strings. They were all used as a means of counting and keeping track of objects. Counting devices could not easily be adapted into real writing. However, they may have led to the first systems used to record numbers.

Ideograms

express an idea without any connection to a specific language. For example, as an ideogram, a picture of a smiling face might represent happiness. Understanding the idea expressed by the drawing of the face does not depend upon speaking the same language as the person who drew it. Ideogram pictures are often simplified, leaving out details that are not needed for communication. See Pictogram.

Kinds of writing

Logograms.

People took a major step toward developing writing when they began to use logograms. Logograms were symbols that stood for the words in a language. Ideograms were symbols that expressed the ideas for which the words stood. To communicate the meaning “The king killed a lion” as an ideogram, the message would include two drawings. One would show a man with the insignia of his office (perhaps a crown) holding a spear in his hand The other would show a lion. The same message when expressed as a logogram would use signs that stand for the words themselves. One sign, of a man wearing a crown, might stand for the word king. A sign of a spear could stand for the word kill, and a lion sign would stand for lion. Early in the development of this kind of writing, the pictures became conventional, or simplified and formal. They often showed only a part for the whole, such as using only a crown for the word king.

The Sumerians, who lived in southern Mesopotamia, were the first people to reach the stage of logographic writing, about 3300 B.C. They kept records with such simple entries as “10 arrows” and the sign for a personal name, or “5 cows” and the sign for another name. They could easily use signs for numbers and for items such as arrows or cows. But the Sumerians had difficulty using their writing to express abstract ideas.

Phonetization.

To overcome the problems presented by logograms, the Sumerians found that they could use word-symbols of objects that were easy to picture, such as arrow, to stand for words that sounded similar but were hard to picture. The sign for arrow could also stand for life, because the word ti means both things in Sumerian. This principle of phonetization, often called the rebus principle, is the most important single step in the history of writing (see Rebus). If the arrow sign could stand for both arrow and life, because they are both pronounced ti, why not use the arrow sign for the sound ti wherever it occurs, regardless of its meaning? The Sumerian language was made up largely of words of one syllable, so it was not difficult to work out a syllabary—that is, a list of symbols or characters, each of which represents a syllable.

Sumerian writing is called logosyllabic, or word-syllabic. It uses both logograms, or signs that each represent a word, and syllabograms, or signs that represent a syllable. Logograms expressed most of the words in the language. Syllabograms expressed concepts and proper names. Sumerian writing gradually developed the wedgelike appearance we call cuneiform. See Cuneiform.

The Egyptians developed an important word-phonetic writing, hieroglyphic, about 3200 B.C. This Egyptian writing resembled Sumerian in using logograms. But hieroglyphs never lost their pictogram appearance. Hieroglyphs could stand for a word or for one, two, or three consonants. Unlike Sumerian, however, hieroglyphs did not stand for syllables. See Hieroglyphics.

In about 1500 B.C., the Chinese began a very highly developed logography (system of logograms). Over the centuries, Chinese has used over 50,000 different signs called characters, but only about 4,000 of these characters are needed for reading modern Chinese. Almost all Chinese characters are made up of a segment that suggests the meaning of the word represented and a segment that suggests the pronunciation.

Writing was also developed by the Maya in Mesoamerica. The earliest examples of Mayan writing date from about A.D. 250. Mayan writing was made up of symbols that experts call glyphs. Some Mayan glyphs were phonetic. Other glyphs were ideograms representing an idea or word.

The importance of writing

Some scholars believe that writing began once people started to live in large groups in the first cities and needed to keep track of commercial transactions. But writing seems to have begun only among people whose languages had words that were mostly one syllable long. Soon after using symbols for simple accounting entries and lists of words, people began writing down the deeds of kings (in Sumer) and addresses to the gods (in China). Eventually, letters, laws, literature, and the discussions of scientists and philosophers all followed these beginning writings.

Thousands of languages have been spoken over the last 5,000 years, and thousands still are (see Language). Only a tiny fraction of all the languages spoken have ever had a written form. Both written and unwritten languages are equally complex. Having a written form does not make a language better or more important. In fact, some people have thought writing might even be harmful. For example, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato expressed the fear that writing would lead to the degradation of memory in human beings as they began to depend upon the written characters.