Lecture Notes on Writing Systems

Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics

• Early pictorial writing system.
• Borrowed by Phoenicians for their writing system.
• Developed into an abjad system (no vowels).

Evolution of Writing Systems

• Greek Alphabet

  • Developed from the Phoenician script in the 8th century BC.
  • Added vowels to create the alphabetic system.
  • Contains 24 letters from Alpha to Omega.
  • Origin of several scripts, including Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Georgian, and Gothic.

• Latin Script

  • Derived from the Greek script via the Etruscan language (Old Italic script).
  • Widest used script around the world, used in many Western European languages (English, French, Spanish, etc.).

• Cyrillic Script

  • Combination of Greek alphabet and Glagolitic alphabet (older Slavic script).
  • Used in Eastern Europe and parts of Central Asia (Russian, Bulgarian, Kazakh, etc.).

Other Writing Systems

• Hangul

  • Created in the 15th century by King Sejong the Great.
  • Developed to efficiently represent Korean (phonetically different from Chinese characters).
  • Considered easy to learn.

• Abugida

  • A segmental writing system where consonant-vowel sequences are written as units.
  • Each unit starts with a consonant, followed by diacritic vowel marks.
  • Used in languages like Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and Tibetan.

• Syllabary

  • Each symbol represents a syllable (e.g., Japanese).
  • Japanese syllables follow a consonant-vowel structure.
  • Examples include Hiragana, Katakana, and Cherokee syllabary.

Mixed Writing Systems

• Some Indigenous North American languages use a combination of abugida and syllabary systems (e.g., Cree, Ojibwe).

Conclusion

• Overview of five major writing systems: logographic, abjad, alphabetic, abugida, and syllabary, highlighting their evolution and characteristics.