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Typography > Quiz 1 > Flashcards

Quiz 1 Flashcards

1
Q

When, where, and why was the alphabet invented?

A

Invented in Egypt, 2000 BC, to show sounds of words.

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2
Q

Is the alphabet the earliest writing system?

A

Not earliest writing system - Egypt, Meso + probably China had non-alphabet systems.

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3
Q

Which system is the most efficient writing system?

A

Alphabet most efficient writing system.

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4
Q

How many people live in countries that use the alphabet?

A

4.8 bil/3/4 of humanity live in countries that use alphabet.

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5
Q

How many major scripts are there and which are the International 3?

A

26 scripts ww, I3 are Roman, Arabic, + Cyrillic.

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6
Q

What are the Roman script popularity stats?

A

Roman - most popular - 100 principal languages, 120 countries, nearly 2 bil users.

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7
Q

Why does Roman script dominate?

A

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.

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8
Q

How many ancient Roman letters were there and which 3 did we add?

A

The ancient Roman alphabet had 23 core letters- they lacked our J, V, W.

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9
Q

Which major alphabetic script doesn’t share a common origin with the rest? What is that origin?

A

All major alphabetic scripts have common origin (Near Eastern alphabet of 2000 BC) except Korea’s Hangul.

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10
Q

How are Roman, Cyrillic, Arabic, and Greek related in family tree?

A

Roman alphabet is 3rd cousin to Arabic + 2nd cousin to Cyrillic, + grandchild of Greek alphabet- Family ties.

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11
Q

How do alphabets reveal their relationship to each other?

A

Different alphabets may not look alike, but show their relation through shared general principals + sequences of letter sounds.

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12
Q

How many people use non-alphabetic writing? What countries use this writing?

A

1.4 bil//4 of population use non-alphabetic writing - China (including Taiwan + Japan).

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13
Q

How is Japanese related to Chinese?

A

Japanese system comes from adaptation of Chinese (600s AD).

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14
Q

How does a non-alphabetical system work?

A

Each symbol denotes whole word of Manderin (Chinese language).

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15
Q

What are the Greek roots for Logograms? What is a logogram?

A

“Logograms” (“word letter”- Greek Roots). Conveys idea behind word (Agreed–on symbol).

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16
Q

What is a pictograph and is it used as a symbol type?

A

Some symbols illustrate meaning (both logogram + pictograph “picture writing”)

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17
Q

What is a phoneme?

A

A letter’s sound - smallest amt possible to isolate

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18
Q

What is a syllable?

A

A syllable contains multiple phonemes and includes a single vowel sound.

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19
Q

What does the alphabet show?

A

Alphabet is a writing system based on letters and by definition - symbolize phonemes. Combine to show words.

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20
Q

How many letters typically needed for an alphabet?

A

of letters typically needed for alphabet is small (fewer than 30 in most).

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21
Q

How many phonemes per language?

A

Only 20-40 phonemes per language, but not same 20-40 from language to language.

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22
Q

How many phonemes does English have?

A

English has about 44-48 phonemes depending on regional accent (high amt).

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23
Q

How does Arabic generally differ from from English?

A

Arabic requires throat clicks that English speakers cannot do, but share similar sounds otherwise.

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24
Q

Why do we have an abundance of phonemes in English?

A

Phoneme abundance in English due to combo of Germanic + Franco-Latin influences.

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25
Q

How many of our phonemes in English are vowel sounds?

A

Nearly “Half of English phonemes are shadings of vowel sounds.

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26
Q

Why don’t we have 44 letters for 44 phonemes?

A

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).

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27
Q

What is the major advantage of the alphabet?

A

Alphabet’s huge advantage: fewer symbols. Easier to learn, 5 years instruction, won’t interfere w/ working. Historically a vehicle for mass literacy.

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28
Q

How was the first alphabet invented?

A

First alphabet invented for those excluded from Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.

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29
Q

How many symbols required and total in non-alphabetic Chinese system?

A

Chinese system: min 2000 symbols for daily educated reading/writing + total of about 60,000 overall.

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30
Q

When was mass literacy in China possible?

A

Chinese mass literacy only possible w/ communist State of 1949.

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31
Q

How much longer does it take Chinese children to learn to read/write than Western children?

A

Takes Chinese children 3 years longer to read / write than Western children.

32
Q

What are two reasons why the Chinese system serves the needs of its language?

A

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.

33
Q

What were the 2 major writing forms that preceded the alphabet?

A

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).

34
Q

What is cuneiform?

A

Cuneiform is/was syllabary system.

35
Q

How does the syllabary system work?

A

Symbols denote whole syllables in syllabary system.

36
Q

Which countries use both alphabet and syllabary systems now?

A

Hindi + Korean successfully combine scripts that overlap between alphabet + syllabary (now).

37
Q

What percent of the alphabet do A and B represent?

A

A+B represent nearly 8% of our alphabet. -Can obtain max efficiency w/ letters at the phoneme level.

38
Q

Why would a syllabary system not work for us?

A

We have too many different sounding words/syllables and would need to invent quite a few- would be chaos.

39
Q

How many words in English?

A

~ 500,000 words in English.

40
Q

Do letters jump from language to language?

A

Letters jump from language to language - if 2 are totally unalike, letters can make transition (core sounds almost universal)

41
Q

Why can letters jump from language to language?

A

Letters jump due to core selection of sounds inherited from alphabet’s early stages.

42
Q

What is the most important fact about the alphabet? What does this help us understand?

A

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.

43
Q

How did letters being able to jump promote literacy in the ancient world?

A

Letters jumping allowed the previously illiterate to read + write in the ancient world. Acquired alphabet by copying and adapting letters.

44
Q

How did alphabets spread after the initial copying phase of the spread?

A

Alphabets continued to spread due to conquest, missionary religion, or cultural politics since initial spread.

45
Q

Under what circumstances do alphabets change in a language?

A

Many countries have had alphabet changes due to gov’t + politics.

46
Q

How many major languages do Arabic letters serve? How did this happen?

A

Arabic letters serve 9 major tongues linguistically unrelated to Arabic - due to being carried from Arabia by armies + seafarers after midl-600S AD.

47
Q

What is it called when a language uses two alphabets for the same language? Which languages do this?

A

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.

48
Q

What countries will switch to Roman alphabet and why?

A

Struggling nations (particularly C/Southeast Africa) expected to switch to Roman to the into global trade, communication + prep to learn English.

49
Q

How is Phoenician alphabet related to ours in family tree?

A

Phoenician alphabet of 1000 BC is great grandmother to own.

50
Q

How many of our letters can be directly traced back to Phoenician alphabet? How?

A

~ 19 of our letters can be directly traced back-in shape, sequence + most part, sounds.

51
Q

How many of today’s major scripts belong to a single alphabet family?

A

Almost all major scripts today belong to a single alphabet family.

52
Q

How do letters reproduce?

A

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.

53
Q

Who were the Phoenicians?

A

Were dynamic Iron Age people based in now Lebanon. Remembered as best seafarers of ancient world.
Sustained trade with 14 major colonies.

54
Q

What was the Phoenician homeland like?

A

Homeland was not a unified nation - group of independant port cities. (Linked by language, religion + self-interest).

55
Q

Who were the Phoenicians ethnically akin to?

A

Phoenicians were Semites - akin in ethnic group + language to ancient Jews. Language would have sounded like ancient Hebrew.

56
Q

What country was southern neighbor + trade partner and when?

A

Israel was Phoenicia’s southern neighbor + trade partner in 900s BC.

57
Q

When did Phoenicians begin writing language and how many letters were there?

A

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.

58
Q

How did the Semitic alphabet acquire an international platform?

A

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.

59
Q

What other technologies did the Phoenicians prosper?

A

Phoenicians also prospered other technologies, -shipbuilding + navigation, carpentry, metal working + earliest glass working.

60
Q

If Phoenicians came along ~1000 years after the alphabet’s invention, why are they so important to the alphabet’s history?

A

Although Phoenicians came along ~1000 years after the alphabet’s invention, they provided sufficient archaeological remains that can be understood + analyzed.

61
Q

How many inscriptions survive from Phoenicia and Carthage? What is Carthage?

A

~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.

62
Q

What were those first inscriptions?

A

First inscriptions are mostly brief - prayers, gravestone epitaphs, statements of ownership on artifacts, etc… +class exercises (alphabet learning).

63
Q

Why did Phoenician writing survive when others didn’t?

A

Material is reason for writing’s survival - chiseled or scratched into stone or ceramic.

64
Q

Where does the word “Phoenician” come from and what does it mean in ancient Greek?

A

“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.

65
Q

Some Phoenician writing has vanished due to material? What was written that vanished and what were those materials?

A

Phoenician and Carthinian historical annels, business archives + written religious lore have vanished b/c they were ink on hide or papyrus (ancient reed paper).

66
Q

Who did not preserve Phoenician literature?

A

Phoenician literature not preserved /copied by Greco-Roman culture -they actually burned scrolls in library when sacking Carthage.

67
Q

What type of letters did not exist in the Phoenician alphabet? Why was this?

A

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).

68
Q

How was Phoenician vocab structured?

A

Phoenician vocab more uniformly structured- one consonant first + another last. Vowel sounds being framed was clear.

69
Q

What happens when words had the same consonants, but not vowels?

A

Context would clarify if other vowels were being used with the same consonants as other words.

70
Q

What were the 4 built-in memory devices of the Phoenician alphabet?

A

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.

71
Q

What does the naming system of the Phoenician alphabet resemble in modern times?

A

Resembled a modern, phonetic (radio-communication) alphabet, common names/words replace typical letter names according to the sound of the 1st letter.

72
Q

Phoenician direction of writing?

A

Right to left.

73
Q

How does Phoenician letter sequence relate to our own?

A

Their letter sequence anticipates our own: b, g, d, k, l, m, n, g, r, sh, t. (+ exact shape and position for L).

74
Q

How does Phoenician letter sequence, shape, and sound relate to our own?

A

Letters anticipate our Q+ T in shape + sound, EH. +O in shape, and B,D, K in sound + sequence (not shape).

75
Q

What were the two letters of the Phoenician alphabet that were very different from ours?

A

Some letters were different: aleph (breathing stop) + ay in (harsh throat noise)

76
Q

How many types of S’s did the Phoenicians have and how many do we retain (in what form?).

A

Needed 4 types of S (lots of sibilance), which we retain 2 of in S+Z.

77
Q

What is sibilance?

A

The hissing sound to say S’s.

Typography (1 decks)

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