Ling 115
Writing Systems
This page gives a description of the topics covered in Linguistics 115:
Writing Systems at the University of Pennsylvania. The course has no
prerequisites, and satisfies the General Requirement in History and Tradition (Sector II).
If you are interested in more information about the course, see the current
syllabus and course schedule.
Specific questions should be directed to Prof. Gene
Buckley. See also other
courses in linguistics.
Linguistics 115 is a survey of the ways in which natural languages have been,
and are today, represented graphically throughout the world. Here are
some of the topics covered, and the sorts of questions that will be answered.
The historical origin of writing in Sumeria, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica
- How did the first writing come about?
- How many times in world history was writing independently invented?
- To what extent did these ancient systems inspire or influence each other?
The transmission of writing across languages and cultures, including the
route from Phoenician to Greek to Etruscan to Latin to English
- How did the letters Y, F, U, V, W all develop out of a single Phoenician
consonant?
- Why does the Greek alphabet have K but not C, even though they have
the same original pronunciations and the Latin alphabet is derived from
the Greek?
- Why are the Greek letters X and H pronounced unlike the Latin letters
with the same appearance?
- How is Etruscan responsible for the fact that Latin Q is used only before
U?
- In what ways does English spelling actually make a lot of sense?
The development of writing systems over time
- Why did Sumerian develop from carved pictures to cuneiform?
- What's the difference between Egyptian hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic
writing?
- What's the crucial role of kana in Japanese and hangul in Korean, and
why doesn't Chinese need the equivalent?
The traditional classification of written symbols
- Ideographic (general concepts): Is this really "writing"?
How is that defined?
- Logographic (words): Does any language actually have a symbol for each
word?
- Syllabic (consonant + vowel combinations): Is "syllable" the
right notion?
- Alphabetic (separate symbols for consonants and vowels): Did the alphabet
as we know it arise by the genius of the Greeks, or by linguistic accident?
Related issues
- How are ancient languages deciphered?
- In what ways does writing represent more, and less, than spoken language?
- What effect does literacy have on the development of individuals and
of societies?