Quiz 1 Flashcards
When, where, and why was the alphabet invented?
Invented in Egypt, 2000 BC, to show sounds of words.
Is the alphabet the earliest writing system?
Not earliest writing system - Egypt, Meso + probably China had non-alphabet systems.
Which system is the most efficient writing system?
Alphabet most efficient writing system.
How many people live in countries that use the alphabet?
4.8 bil/3/4 of humanity live in countries that use alphabet.
How many major scripts are there and which are the International 3?
26 scripts ww, I3 are Roman, Arabic, + Cyrillic.
What are the Roman script popularity stats?
Roman - most popular - 100 principal languages, 120 countries, nearly 2 bil users.
Why does Roman script dominate?
Statistical dominance b/c Spanish, Portugese, languages of South and Central Africa + English. The 23 Ancient Roman letters are used in variation in these and other languages.
How many ancient Roman letters were there and which 3 did we add?
The ancient Roman alphabet had 23 core letters- they lacked our J, V, W.
Which major alphabetic script doesn’t share a common origin with the rest? What is that origin?
All major alphabetic scripts have common origin (Near Eastern alphabet of 2000 BC) except Korea’s Hangul.
How are Roman, Cyrillic, Arabic, and Greek related in family tree?
Roman alphabet is 3rd cousin to Arabic + 2nd cousin to Cyrillic, + grandchild of Greek alphabet- Family ties.
How do alphabets reveal their relationship to each other?
Different alphabets may not look alike, but show their relation through shared general principals + sequences of letter sounds.
How many people use non-alphabetic writing? What countries use this writing?
1.4 bil//4 of population use non-alphabetic writing - China (including Taiwan + Japan).
How is Japanese related to Chinese?
Japanese system comes from adaptation of Chinese (600s AD).
How does a non-alphabetical system work?
Each symbol denotes whole word of Manderin (Chinese language).
What are the Greek roots for Logograms? What is a logogram?
“Logograms” (“word letter”- Greek Roots). Conveys idea behind word (Agreed–on symbol).
What is a pictograph and is it used as a symbol type?
Some symbols illustrate meaning (both logogram + pictograph “picture writing”)
What is a phoneme?
A letter’s sound - smallest amt possible to isolate
What is a syllable?
A syllable contains multiple phonemes and includes a single vowel sound.
What does the alphabet show?
Alphabet is a writing system based on letters and by definition - symbolize phonemes. Combine to show words.
How many letters typically needed for an alphabet?
of letters typically needed for alphabet is small (fewer than 30 in most).
How many phonemes per language?
Only 20-40 phonemes per language, but not same 20-40 from language to language.
How many phonemes does English have?
English has about 44-48 phonemes depending on regional accent (high amt).
How does Arabic generally differ from from English?
Arabic requires throat clicks that English speakers cannot do, but share similar sounds otherwise.
Why do we have an abundance of phonemes in English?
Phoneme abundance in English due to combo of Germanic + Franco-Latin influences.
How many of our phonemes in English are vowel sounds?
Nearly “Half of English phonemes are shadings of vowel sounds.
Why don’t we have 44 letters for 44 phonemes?
Don’t need 44 letters for 44 phonemes -can do double duty. Several sounds assigned to each vowel letter + extra sounds in letter pairings (OI, CH. TH).
What is the major advantage of the alphabet?
Alphabet’s huge advantage: fewer symbols. Easier to learn, 5 years instruction, won’t interfere w/ working. Historically a vehicle for mass literacy.
How was the first alphabet invented?
First alphabet invented for those excluded from Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.
How many symbols required and total in non-alphabetic Chinese system?
Chinese system: min 2000 symbols for daily educated reading/writing + total of about 60,000 overall.
When was mass literacy in China possible?
Chinese mass literacy only possible w/ communist State of 1949.
How much longer does it take Chinese children to learn to read/write than Western children?
Takes Chinese children 3 years longer to read / write than Western children.
What are two reasons why the Chinese system serves the needs of its language?
Chinese system serves needs: 1. logogram system partly accessible to non- Manderin- speakers. 2. Chinese languages contain homonyms (distinguished only
by tones of voice). Symbols can distinguish where letters couldn’t.
What were the 2 major writing forms that preceded the alphabet?
2 major writing forms preceded alphabet in ancient Near East - Egyptian hieroglyphics (-700 pictograms, logograms, phonetic signs in combos) and Mesopotamian cuniform (phonetic script of ~600 symbols w/ half used regularly).
What is cuneiform?
Cuneiform is/was syllabary system.
How does the syllabary system work?
Symbols denote whole syllables in syllabary system.
Which countries use both alphabet and syllabary systems now?
Hindi + Korean successfully combine scripts that overlap between alphabet + syllabary (now).
What percent of the alphabet do A and B represent?
A+B represent nearly 8% of our alphabet. -Can obtain max efficiency w/ letters at the phoneme level.
Why would a syllabary system not work for us?
We have too many different sounding words/syllables and would need to invent quite a few- would be chaos.
How many words in English?
~ 500,000 words in English.
Do letters jump from language to language?
Letters jump from language to language - if 2 are totally unalike, letters can make transition (core sounds almost universal)
Why can letters jump from language to language?
Letters jump due to core selection of sounds inherited from alphabet’s early stages.
What is the most important fact about the alphabet? What does this help us understand?
Letters jumping opens the most important fact about the alphabet - the key to understanding bg of our 26 letters and much of world cultural history besides.
How did letters being able to jump promote literacy in the ancient world?
Letters jumping allowed the previously illiterate to read + write in the ancient world. Acquired alphabet by copying and adapting letters.
How did alphabets spread after the initial copying phase of the spread?
Alphabets continued to spread due to conquest, missionary religion, or cultural politics since initial spread.
Under what circumstances do alphabets change in a language?
Many countries have had alphabet changes due to gov’t + politics.
How many major languages do Arabic letters serve? How did this happen?
Arabic letters serve 9 major tongues linguistically unrelated to Arabic - due to being carried from Arabia by armies + seafarers after midl-600S AD.
What is it called when a language uses two alphabets for the same language? Which languages do this?
Switch-hitter languages: Malay- traditionally written in either. Roman dominates, but Arabic printed newspapers in cap. city. Africa’s Swahili, too- Roman or Arabic. Serbo-Croatian (Cyrillic by Serbs, Roman by Croats), India’s Hindi + Pakistan’s Urdu same w/ different scripts. The akin Yiddish and German.
What countries will switch to Roman alphabet and why?
Struggling nations (particularly C/Southeast Africa) expected to switch to Roman to the into global trade, communication + prep to learn English.
How is Phoenician alphabet related to ours in family tree?
Phoenician alphabet of 1000 BC is great grandmother to own.
How many of our letters can be directly traced back to Phoenician alphabet? How?
~ 19 of our letters can be directly traced back-in shape, sequence + most part, sounds.
How many of today’s major scripts belong to a single alphabet family?
Almost all major scripts today belong to a single alphabet family.
How do letters reproduce?
Adaptability/reproduction of letters: borrow letters (22-24), adjust foreign symbols to fit sounds, letter sounds modified, whole letters dropped + invented as needed. Evolution in shape over generations.
Who were the Phoenicians?
Were dynamic Iron Age people based in now Lebanon. Remembered as best seafarers of ancient world.
Sustained trade with 14 major colonies.
What was the Phoenician homeland like?
Homeland was not a unified nation - group of independant port cities. (Linked by language, religion + self-interest).
Who were the Phoenicians ethnically akin to?
Phoenicians were Semites - akin in ethnic group + language to ancient Jews. Language would have sounded like ancient Hebrew.
What country was southern neighbor + trade partner and when?
Israel was Phoenicia’s southern neighbor + trade partner in 900s BC.
When did Phoenicians begin writing language and how many letters were there?
Before 1000 BC, Phoenicians began writing language in 22-letter alphabet inherited from prior Semitic tradition. Created ~2000 BC, alphabet writing spread through parts of Near East + its Semitic speakers.
How did the Semitic alphabet acquire an international platform?
With Phoencians, Semitic alphabet acquired an international platform. In urban society, alphabet was taught to kids, used in gov’t, and carried abroad by merchants.
What other technologies did the Phoenicians prosper?
Phoenicians also prospered other technologies, -shipbuilding + navigation, carpentry, metal working + earliest glass working.
If Phoenicians came along ~1000 years after the alphabet’s invention, why are they so important to the alphabet’s history?
Although Phoenicians came along ~1000 years after the alphabet’s invention, they provided sufficient archaeological remains that can be understood + analyzed.
How many inscriptions survive from Phoenicia and Carthage? What is Carthage?
~500 inscriptions survive from Phoenicia after 1000 BC + over 6,000 from Carthage + network (Phoenician colony, grew into a great power, bigger than Phoenicia) after 400 BC.
What were those first inscriptions?
First inscriptions are mostly brief - prayers, gravestone epitaphs, statements of ownership on artifacts, etc… +class exercises (alphabet learning).
Why did Phoenician writing survive when others didn’t?
Material is reason for writing’s survival - chiseled or scratched into stone or ceramic.
Where does the word “Phoenician” come from and what does it mean in ancient Greek?
“Phoenician” comes from ancient Greek: Phonikes “red people”. Due to copper skin or prime luxury product textile dye (red to dark purple) from sea mollusks.
Some Phoenician writing has vanished due to material? What was written that vanished and what were those materials?
Phoenician and Carthinian historical annels, business archives + written religious lore have vanished b/c they were ink on hide or papyrus (ancient reed paper).
Who did not preserve Phoenician literature?
Phoenician literature not preserved /copied by Greco-Roman culture -they actually burned scrolls in library when sacking Carthage.
What type of letters did not exist in the Phoenician alphabet? Why was this?
Vowel sounds: existed in speech, but felt it was unnecessary in writing, so no vowel letters. Inherited from traditional Semitic alphabet. (Inspired biblical Hebrew later).
How was Phoenician vocab structured?
Phoenician vocab more uniformly structured- one consonant first + another last. Vowel sounds being framed was clear.
What happens when words had the same consonants, but not vowels?
Context would clarify if other vowels were being used with the same consonants as other words.
What were the 4 built-in memory devices of the Phoenician alphabet?
Built-in memory devices (from Semitic tradition):
1. Letters given strict sequence. (22)
2. Letters had names - names of familiar objects.
3. Each letter was stylized sketch of familiar object. (Ox-2 horns, Throwing stick - boomerang shape, water-wavy line).
4. Each letter name started w/ different sound -cleverest touch.
What does the naming system of the Phoenician alphabet resemble in modern times?
Resembled a modern, phonetic (radio-communication) alphabet, common names/words replace typical letter names according to the sound of the 1st letter.
Phoenician direction of writing?
Right to left.
How does Phoenician letter sequence relate to our own?
Their letter sequence anticipates our own: b, g, d, k, l, m, n, g, r, sh, t. (+ exact shape and position for L).
How does Phoenician letter sequence, shape, and sound relate to our own?
Letters anticipate our Q+ T in shape + sound, EH. +O in shape, and B,D, K in sound + sequence (not shape).
What were the two letters of the Phoenician alphabet that were very different from ours?
Some letters were different: aleph (breathing stop) + ay in (harsh throat noise)
How many types of S’s did the Phoenicians have and how many do we retain (in what form?).
Needed 4 types of S (lots of sibilance), which we retain 2 of in S+Z.
What is sibilance?
The hissing sound to say S’s.
