W6: Written language Flashcards
Do all cultures have written language?
No - all have spoken language but not all have written language
Written language has…
Changed the course of human history
Allowed facts to be recorded
How did written language arise?
Textbook: writing arose independently in several areas
Other evidence: was invented in only 1-2 places but once known, it was spread around the globe
Why is written language considered secondary to spoken language?
Brains are hardwired to speak - every child learns to speak but they have to go to school to learn to read and write (it is not as natural and its not as easy!)
What are pictographs?
Picture drawings - not the same as language, were symbols representing concepts
E.g American first nations tribes drawing things in the dirt - like a battle symbol
What happened to pictographs over time?
They became more and more abstract and simplified over time until they became letters that we use today
E.g. Ox symbol became the letter ‘a’
What role did ancient Egyptians have in the development of writing?
Hieroglyphics
HOW PEOPLE STARTED TO WRITE IN A SOUND BASED FASHION
Symbols for syllables and individual word sounds
Ox in their language began with a sound so everytime they wanted that sound they would use the ox symbol
What were the shapes used in writing dependent on?
The environment around people and the materials they had to use to write
E.g. reeds, clay
Which two languages only represent consonants still?
Hebrew and Arabic - guess from the context what the vowels would be
What did the Greeks do to the alphabet?
They added vowels to an alphabet full of consonants
The alphabet is…
The most efficient way of writing - it has never been superseded
How many people live in a country that employs an alphabetic writing system?
75%
Australia uses a ……. alphabet
Roman
What are the three types of writing systems used around the world today?
- Logographic: unique symbol for each word (e.g. Chinese)
- Syllabic: unique graphic symbol for each syllable (e.g. Japanese)
- Alphabetic unique graphic symbol for each phoneme (e.g. Italian, English and Russian)
What are the 3 conditions for a true alphabet?
- Every phoneme must be represented (have to show each sound)
- Correspondance between graphemes and phonemes
- Ideally 20-30 graphemes (memorising ability - rough number of sounds that lets all words be written)
What do shallow orthographics mean?
‘Shallow’ systems have one-one grapheme phoneme correspondance
What you see is what you say and what you say is what you see
What do deep orthographics mean?
Inconsistent grapheme-phoneme correspondance
- more than one way to write each phoneme
- more than one way to say each grapheme
For many adults, reading is…
completely automatic
Learning to read is not..
Automatic
What are the three different types of real words?
Regular words
Irregular words
Lexical hermits
What are regular words?
Predictable in pronunciation
Graphemes map onto phonemes
E.g. beef, mint, stove
What are irregular words?
Graphemes are not pronounced in the consistent, usual way
E.g. Steak, pint, love
Do not follow usual rules
What are lexical hermits?
No close neighbours - not similar to other words in sounds or looks
E.g. laugh, yacht, stomach