Writing system
lastmod 2024-07-20created 2024-07-202 edits
A writing system is a symbolic system for recording language. Almost all of them arose or were created to record spoken language. Both writing and spoken language are useful for conveying messages, but writing differs in that it allows information to be stored and transmitted reliably. The first writing system used by humans is cuneiform, from around 3000 BC.
A writing system requires a shared understanding between writer and reader of the meaning behind the set of characters that make up a script. Writing is usually recorded on a durable medium such as paper or electronic storage, but non-durable methods can also be used, such as writing on a computer display, a blackboard, in sand, or in the air. Reading a text can take place purely in the mind as an internal process, or be expressed orally.
Writing systems can be classified into broad categories such as alphabets, syllabaries, or logographies, although a particular system may have attributes of more than one category. In the alphabetic category, a standard set of letters represents speech sounds. In a syllabary, each symbol correlates to a syllable or mora. In a logography, each character represents a semantic unit such as a word or morpheme. Abjads differ from alphabets in that vowels are not indicated, and in abugidas or alphasyllabaries each character represents a consonant–vowel pairing.
Alphabets typically use a set of fewer than 100 symbols to fully express a language, whereas syllabaries can have several hundred and logographies several thousand symbols. Many writing systems also include a special set of symbols known as punctuation, used to aid interpretation and to capture nuances and variations in the meaning of a message that are communicated orally through cues in timing, tone, accent, inflection, or intonation.
Writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, which used pictograms, ideograms, and other mnemonic symbols. Proto-writing lacked the ability to capture and express the full range of thoughts and ideas. The invention of writing systems, dating back to the beginning of the Bronze Age in the late Neolithic of the late 4th millennium BC, made it possible to record human history accurately and durably in a way that is not prone to the same types of error. Fragile oral history. Soon after, writing provided a reliable form of long-distance communication. With the advent of publishing, it provided the medium for an early form of mass communication.