Author: Clyde Winters
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781532967368
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
In Archaeological Decipherment of Ancient Writing Systems I explain how archaeological evidence indicates that African literacy began in the Sahara over 5000 years ago . This earliest form of writing was a syllabic system , we call Thinite, that included hundreds of phonetic signs, which over time was shorten to between 22 and 30 key signs, and used as an alphabet by the Mande people of the Fezzan and Niger Valley, Dravidian speaking people in India, the Sumerians , Elamites, the Xi (Olmecs), Egyptians, Meroites, Phonesians and Ethiopians.
Author: Maurice Pope
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 230
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Book Description
Author: Peter T. Daniels
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195079930
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 970
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Book Description
Ranging from cuneiform to shorthand, from archaic Greek to modern Chinese, from Old Persian to modern Cherokee, this is the only available work in English to cover all of the world's writing systems from ancient times to the present. Describing scores of scripts in use now or in the past around the world, this unusually comprehensive reference offers a detailed exploration of the history and typology of writing systems. More than eighty articles by scholars from over a dozen countries explain and document how a vast array of writing systems work--how alphabets, ideograms, pictographs, and hieroglyphics convey meaning in graphic form. The work is organized in thirteen parts, each dealing with a particular group of writing systems defined historically, geographically, or conceptually. Arranged according to the chronological development of writing systems and their historical relationships within geographical areas, the scripts are divided into the following sections: the ancient Near East, East Asia, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Additional parts address the ongoing process of decipherment of ancient writing systems; the adaptation of traditional scripts to new languages; new scripts invented in modern times; and graphic symbols for numerical, music, and movement notation. Each part begins with an introductory article providing the social and cultural context in which the group of writing systems was developed. Articles on individual scripts detail the historical origin of the writing system, its structure (with tables showing the forms of the written symbols), and its relationship to the phonology of the corresponding spoken language. Each writing system is illustrated by a passage of text, and accompanied by a romanized version, a phonetic transcription, and a modern English translation. A bibliography suggesting further reading concludes each entry. Matched by no other work in English, The World's Writing Systems is the only comprehensive resource covering every major writing system. Unparalleled in its scope and unique in its coverage of the way scripts relate to the languages they represent, this is a resource that anyone with an interest in language will want to own, and one that should be a part of every library's reference collection.
Author: Silvia Ferrara
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198908768
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349
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Book Description
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Writing from Invention to Decipherment contains a wealth of global scholarship on ancient writing systems from China, Mesopotamia, Central America, and the Mediterranean, to more recent newly created scripts such as the Rongorongo from Easter Island, the Caroline Island scripts, as well as the alphabet. The aim is to dig into the foundations of writing, showcasing the complexities and varieties of scripts, from their invention to the potential decipherment of poorly understood scripts. The volume offers state-of-the-art research on undeciphered scripts from the Aegean (as for example, Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A) or not completely deciphered (as for example Maya) scripts. From a methodological perspective, these contributions lay out how and why writing was invented, who used it, and to what ends. Here writing is presented as a multi-modal cultural phenomenon, that intersects and transcends neat discipline boundaries, within an inclusive approach bridging archaeology, linguistics, epigraphy, and cognitive studies.
Author: C. B. Walker
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520074316
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 384
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Book Description
Contains six previously published titles brought together in a single volume.
Author: Stephen D. Houston
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521838610
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 444
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Book Description
In this book, leading scholars in the field discuss and analyse the origins of ancient writing.
Author: Maurice Pope
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Extinct languages
Languages : en
Pages : 216
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Book Description
Author: E. J. W. Barber
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
Author: Leonard Cottrell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
The author tells how three ancient languages- Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Babylonian Cuneiform, and Cretan Linear B. - came to be deciphered.
Author: Wayne M. Senner
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803291676
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 260
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Book Description
This collection of 12 essays outlines what is now known about the origins and development of writing. The topics discussed include such precursors to writing as the tokens used for record-keeping in the Middle East, as well as cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics.The alphabet is treated from its invention to its use in Arabic, Greek and Latin. Also presented are the writing systems of China and Middle America and two European systems, runes and ogham, that have been superseded by the Latin alphabet. An introduction surveys the subject and explores myths and theories on the invention of writing.
