Assignment # 1 / What is writing? / Contreras, Francisca

1. According to the article, why was writing invented?

At first writing was invented as a consequence of the burgeoning needs of accounting, they used writing as a method of recording and presenting transactions. After in Mesoamerica writing may have evolved through calendrics and a political necessity for recording historical events.

2. Writing is both a noun and a verb. Explain.

Writing as a noun, the thing that is written; and writing as a verb, which designates the activity of writing. It refers to the inscription of characters on a medium, thereby forming words, and larger units of language, known as texts. It also refers to the creation of meaning and the information thereby generated.

3. Name the 4 different categories of writing systems.

The 4 categories are: logographic, syllabic, alphabetic, and featural.

4. Why are ideographic and pictographic methods NOT considered categories of writing systems?

Because ideographic (symbols for ideas), has never been developed sufficiently to represent language and pictographic is insufficient to represent language on its own.

5. Name 10 different types of writing tools and materials.

The different types of writing tools and materials are: stone tablets, clay tablets, wax tablets, vellum, parchment, paper,copperplate, styluses, quills, ink brushes, pencils, pens, and many styles of lithography.

6. True or False: The difference between prehistory and history is when written records were kept.

True

7. Who developed the first writing system:

a. Sumerians

b. Mesopotamians

c. Hittites

d. none of these answers are correct.

8. Which cultural group were the only ones to develop a written language in the Americas?

The Maya culture.

9. It is possible that the Chinese language was developed:

a. c. 1500 BCE

b. c. 6000 BCE

c. c. 3200 BCE

d. none of the answers are correct.

10. Where does the word, alphabet, originate?

The word "alphabet" came into Middle English from the Late Latin word Alphabetum, which in turn originated in the Ancient Greek Αλφάβητος Alphabetos, from alpha and beta, the first two letters of the Greek alphabet.

11. Name 3 types of NON-linear writing systems.

Braille,fingerspelling, and Morse code

12. Name 2 examples of NON-alphabetic writing systems.

Egyptian hieroglyphs and Chinese characters are two of the best-known writing systems with predominantly non-alphabetic representations.

13. The alphabet helps distinguish between which 2 types of spoken sounds?

The International Phonetic Alphabet and phonetic approximation of foreign words.

14. In English, what was The Great Vowel Shift?

It was æ in Old English.

15. Japanese is a complicated language not only because there a 3 different forms of the written language and there are at least 14 levels of formality, but because the spoken language originated from the Korean peninsula and the written language originated from China. English has a similar complicated history. Briefly explain the origins of the English language.

English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Lower Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Great Britain. This was then influenced by two waves of invasion. The first was by language speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family. The second was the Normans who spoke Old Norman and developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. After the Norman conquest, Old English developed into Middle English, borrowing heavily from the Norman vocabulary and spelling conventions.A significant number of English words, especially technical words, have been constructed based on roots from Latin and ancient Greek.