Final Exam Essay

Question 1

What are some basic structural features of the Maya logosyllabic (“hieroglyphic”) writing system? (i.e. how it relates language to script?)

Answer 1

Logographs and Syllabic signs with phonetic compliments.

Question 2

What are the four possible elements of Classic Mayan syntax? Can you identify three of them on the Kimbell Panel (from lectures)?

Answer 2

Temporals, Verbs, Objects, and subjects.

Question 3

What uses (practical & esoteric) was ancient Mayan script put to? And what all kinds of materials did the ancient Maya write on?

Answer 3

Uses – Political history, cosmological, rituals & dedications, name-tagging, astronomical, divinatory, administrative. They also used to describe what objects belonged and fantastic animals and creatures, inner souls.
It was painted, sculpted, or inscribed. Materials – stone, ceramic, bone, stucco, walls of buildings and caves, wood, amate paper, and clothing & body art.

Question 4

What was Yuri Knorosov’s approach to the phonetic decipherment of Mayan glyphs? How is this illustrated through examples from the Dresden Codex (Robinson pp.121-124 & lectures).

Answer 4

Discovered how to break down glyphs, such as dog Tzul, that the first part must be Tzu.

Question 5

What pattern did Proskouriakoff notice in the inscriptions of Piedras Negras? And what did she hypothesize from this?

Answer 5

She noticed that by the dedication dates the stelae were set up every one for every five years, she guessed it was birth to ascension so it was the rulers dynasty.

Question 6

What are three explanations for script obsolescence discuss in the article “Last Writing”?

Answer 6

Sociolinguistic loss of prestige, sphere of exchange model writing as a general purpose vs. restricted use, and demographic smaller number of writers and readers, smaller chance of cross generational transfer.

Question 7

Compare and contrast the decline of indigenous Egyptian scripts, Mesopotamian cuneiform, and Mayan hieroglyphs. What shared patterns exist?

Answer 7

Egyptian – declined in administrative use, and decline in Roman patronage of traditional high culture.
Cuneiform – used only in temples, and it was translated to Greek in schools.
Mayan – Declined in monumental use, restricted scope of literacy, and loss of calligraphic tradition.

Question 8

How did ancient Egyptian contribute to the origins of the alphabet? What are three likely reasons the Egyptians didn’t use the alphabet themselves?

Answer 8

They contributed by creating proto-canaanite. They didn’t use it because it was inefficient (used multiple signs to write a single word), ugly (letters not aesthetically placed), and cumbersome (each word had to be sounded to make sense without a pictographic clue)

Question 9

What features characterize the Early Alphabetic script used by Semitic speakers?

Answer 9

27 or 28 characters, variant grapheme stance, and variant reading directions.

Question 10

What four scripts are the immediate, direct descendents of the Phoenician alphabet? From which script did Arabic and Hebrew descend?

Answer 10

Paleo-Hebrew, Aramaic, Punic, and Greek. Aramaic.

Question 11

What is the role of calligraphy in Arabic literacy? Why? How is this reflected in the allographs that make up the Arabic script?

Answer 11

It is used as a design, to create floral motifs, the allographs reflect the phonetic values in Arabic?

Question 12

As discussed in “Literacy & Secrecy among the Mende” - for what social functions do the Mende value literacy? How is this different than the assumptions of the Autonomous Model of Literacy?

Answer 12

Literacy is not enough to communicate without a tradition, it gets put to gossiping, AM argues that the introduction of literacy will have the same results because literacy has technical potentials in it like remember. All social groups have particular functions attributed to literacy. Secret societies.

Question 13

What are the traditionally favored writing surfaces in India? What different writing instruments were used in the north versus the south, and how was this reflected in the shapes of the scripts?

Answer 13

Birch bark and palm leaves. North – reed pen, more angular South – metal stylus, made it more rounded.

Question 14

As discussed in Dr. Lidke’s guest lecture, what is the ideological relationship between spoken language and the Devanagari script in classical Indian thought?

Answer 14

That language represented man and a woman.

Question 15

What features of the Greek alphabet suggest to scholars that it resulted from “mistakes” made by illiterate Greeks as they learned the alphabet from Phoenicians?

Answer 15

Letter names that adapted to Greek phonology. Some consonant signs for (previously non-existent vowels)

Question 16

What were the earliest uses the Greek alphabet was put to, as least as evidenced by the earliest surviving texts?

Answer 16

They were used almost as a decoration on cups and mugs. Hexameter’s were put on them.

Question 17

What are some ways that the Romans transformed the alphabet in the course of adopting it from the Etruscans?

Answer 17

They got rid of Semitic letter names, had 23 capital letters, had digraphs of AE, AU, and OE, had an informal old roman cursive, and books with rustic capitals

Question 18

When, where and for what uses was Ogham utilized?

Answer 18

When – In use by the 4th century AD- 17th-18th centuries, Where – Ireland, What uses – It was used as a tally rod system or as a finger language, used for names on grave & boundary markers, and did not follow alphabetic order of Latin.

Question 19

When, where and for what uses were runes utilized?

Answer 19

When- It was in use by 150 AD Vimose Comb- Died out in Britain c. 1066 AD, Where – It was located in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, What – It was used for memorial inscriptions, object labels, coin legends, and Latin religious texts.

Question 20

Although not the first society to develop moveable type, what technological, social & cultural developments provided the context for the printing revolution in Europe?

Answer 20

Technologically - There was an expanded use of paper, scratch resistant quills, cotton & linin rags, 1st paper mill, olive oil & win presses. Social & Culturally – 13th century expansion of literature and origins of European universities, growing market for books, correcting Greek, and wider audiences now than Latin.

Question 21

What were some ways the spread of printing impacted languages and their scripts?

Answer 21

It made it so there was more writing not just reading, created standardization, changed the script form such as modifying letters, ligatures, digraphs and vowel accents. It also created not just the Latin alphabet but also the English, Turkish, Vietnamese, and languages of Sub-Saharan Africa

Question 22

At present, what do we think we know about the following undeciphered scripts? What known materials were used? To what social & cultural uses was the writing system put? - Zapotec and Isthmian

Answer 22

Zapotec – No sufficient, belongs to large linguistic family, no bilingual, No knowledge of cultural contexts, Yes pictorial references. Inscribed on stele, lintels, painted walls, ceramic vessels, bones, and shells. It was used for numerals and day names, wall inscriptions, commemorating conquests, diplomatic relationships and royal lineage. Isthmian – Inscribed on monuments, potsherd, carved monkey mask, and celt. Used for calendar notation. No sufficient length, No language relation, No bilingual, No knowledge of cultural context, no pictorial references.

Question 23

At present, what do we think we know about the following undeciphered scripts? What known materials were used? To what social & cultural uses was the writing system put? - Indus Valley

Answer 23

MC – No sufficient examples of adequate length, No knowledge of what language is represented, No bilingual inscription, No knowledge of cultural context, yes pictorial references…. Materials – seal stones, pottery, copper tablets, bronze implements, and ivory & bone rods

Question 24

At present, what do we think we know about the following undeciphered scripts? What known materials were used? To what social & cultural uses was the writing system put? - Etruscan

Answer 24

Materials – bucchero, bronze, linen, ivory, and gold…. spoken by Etruscans preists and scholars, used in religius ceremonies, and funerary epitaphs…. we know direction of writing, system of counting, pronunciation, and status of writing…. MC – sufficient examples of adequate length, languge represented is unkown, has bilingual, has pictographic, has knowldge of cultural context.

Question 25

At present, what do we think we know about the following undeciphered scripts? What known materials were used? To what social & cultural uses was the writing system put? - Phaistos Disc

Answer 25

Written on a clay disc, it could be a warning or some random languge its unknown, no sufficient text, the language is unknown, no bilingual inscription, no cultural context, syllabic signs are pictoral references