Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Orthography
- cambridge handbooks in language and linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Orthography
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Structures and Theories
- 2 Classifying and Comparing Early Writing Systems
- 3 Elements of Writing Systems
- 4 Orthographic Conventionality
- 5 Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Writing Systems
- 6 Grapholinguistics
- 7 Typologies of Writing Systems
- Part III Organization and Development
- Part IV Empirical Approaches
- Part V Explanatory Discussions
- Bibliography
- Name Index
- Subject Index
2 - Classifying and Comparing Early Writing Systems
from Part II - Structures and Theories
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 September 2023
- The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Orthography
- cambridge handbooks in language and linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Orthography
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Structures and Theories
- 2 Classifying and Comparing Early Writing Systems
- 3 Elements of Writing Systems
- 4 Orthographic Conventionality
- 5 Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Writing Systems
- 6 Grapholinguistics
- 7 Typologies of Writing Systems
- Part III Organization and Development
- Part IV Empirical Approaches
- Part V Explanatory Discussions
- Bibliography
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Summary
This chapter focuses on the terminology and typology relevant to the study of early writing systems from a linguistic perspective. It first introduces writing as a linguistic notation system that arose in the context of numerical and iconographic notation systems, and the study of writing systems as a growing subdiscipline of linguistics. Next, it presents the typology of written signs, including the basic divide between logograms and phonograms. It also describes how writing arose independently in three or four places in the world, resulting in writing systems that were heavily logographic, encoding morphemes, which have both phonological and semantic values. Abstraction along the phonological and semantic dimensions led to phonography and semantic determinatives. The author briefly characterizes each of the pristine systems and considers the typology of phonographic writing more closely, following the traditional division into syllabaries and alphabets. This chapter defends the established definition of syllabary and offers some criticism of the Daniels’ abjad-abugida-alphabet typology of segmental scripts. The chapter presents some early historical examples of phonographic scripts and considers implications of script typology on sign inventory size as well as the evolution of script types, and whether there is directionality in script evolution.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Orthography , pp. 29 - 49Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023