Week 7 - Writing Systems

Question 1

Basic types of phonographic systems

Answer 1

SEGMENTAL

- abjad (consonant only)
- alphabetic (consonant and vowel)

SYLLABIC
- (entire syllables)

ALPHA-SYLLABIC
- ABUGIDA (syllabic but based on consonants w default vowel)

Question 2

SYLLABIC systems

Answer 2

Syllabary: each symbol rep distinct syllable

• only used for languages w relatively small no. of possible syllables
  
  • Mycenean Greek
  • amahric
  • Cherokee
• JAPANESE hiragana / katakana

Question 3

ABJAD systems

Answer 3

Consonantary or Consonantal Alphabet

Name derives from First letters in the Arabic abjad: ʔ, b, j, and d.

• Arabic (no vowel points)
• Hebrew
• Phoenician

Egyptian mono-consonantal signs
Probably developed from logograms via rebus or acrophonic principles.
- Unlike modern abjads, used primarily as phonetic indicators in mixed representations.

Question 4

ALPHABETIC systems

Answer 4

Set of symbols representing both consonantal and vowel phonemes

• Latin
• Greek
• English
• Thai

Enormously popular, possibly bc of utility

Question 5

the “ideal” alphabetic system

Answer 5

Ideally, each symbol represent distinct phoneme, 1 to 1

• alphabets typically exploit systems which do not meet ‘ideal’
  
  • MULTIGRAPHS (2 or more com. for 1 phoneme)= ‘SH’
  • UNDER-DIFFERENTIATION (fail to differentiate between 2 distinct phonemes) = TH and TH

Question 6

ABUGIDA

Answer 6

From ethiopian Ge’ez script, first 4 letters “a” “bu” “gi” “da”
- alphasyllabary or SYLLABIC ALPHABET

 - Basic symbols represent a CONSONANT and INHERENT/DEFAULT VOWEL together: CV
 - Diacritics added to indicate:
        - that consonant w different vowel
        - that consonant alone, as at end of syllable

DENVAGARI - used to write Hindi, Gujari, etc
> consonant only (diacritic can ‘cancel’ vowel
> Vowel-only syllables also have own symbols (ie when syllable doesn’t commence with consonant)

Question 7

UTILITY: Size of the set of symbols

Answer 7

Given that languages have:

• thousands of words
• perhaps hundreds of distinct syllables,
• often <100 n 12 - 100 phonemes

LOGOGRAPHIC SYSTEM @ 1 symbol per word
= thousands of symbols

SYLLABIC SYSTEM @ 1 symbol per syllable
= maybe hundreds of symbols
- English has ~10k monosyllables…

ALPHABETIC SYSTEM @ 1 symbol per sound
= 12 - 60 symbols

Question 8

LINEARITY

Answer 8

Writing systems = sub-classified based on the placement / direction of symbols

Mixed/variable:
eg Chinese, Japanese: Horizontal First or vertical First
eg Egyptian hieroglyphics: L-R or R-L.

Boustrophedon: reverse direction from one line to next. From Greek bous ‘ox, cow’ + strephein ‘to turn’ ‘as the ox plows’

Question 9

Interpreting Unknown Writing

Answer 9

Rosetta stone
Greek
Egyptian Hieroglyphs
    - Hieretic
    - Demotic

1814 Thomas Young matched greek names w/cartouches - first sound/hieroglyphic match
Jean-François Champollion used Rosetta Stone to transliterate Egyptian, announcing his results in 1822

Question 10

Current Controversy: WEST INDUS

Answer 10

4000 linear inscriptions on seals, miniature tablets, pottery, stoneware, copper plates, tools, weapons, and wood

- ave.5 symbols per transcription, max. of 17. 
- Indus Valley civilization ca. 2600-1900 BCE. 
 - Approx. 400 distinct symbols n possibly suggesting a syllabic and/or logographic system. 

Disputes include

• significance of the brevity of transcriptions
• the overall probabilities of sequencing vs non-linguistic systems

Question 11

RONGORONGO

Answer 11

Rongorongo (Easter Island)

• after 400 CE
• Written in reverse boustrophedon:
• Left to right, but from bottom to top
• Alternate lines were written upside down.
• Decipherment is still problematic Few texts exist.