Henry Rogers_Writing Systems -Linguistic Approach

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\X/riting Systems



BlackwellTextbooks n Linguistics

The books ncluded n this series rovidecomprehensive ccountsof someof themostcentralandmost rapidlydeveloping reas f researchn linguistics.ntendedprimarily for introductoryandpost-introductory tudents,hey ncludeexercises,discussionointsand suggestionsor further reading.

1 LilianeHaegeman Introduction to Gouernment nd Binding

Theory(Second dition)2 Andrew Spencer Morphological Theory3 HelenGoodluck LanguageAcquisition4 RonaldWardhaugh Introduction to SociolinguisticsFourth

Edition)5 Martin Atkinson Children'sSyntax6 DianeBlakemore UnderstandingUtterances7 MichaelKenstowicz Phonology n GeneratiueGrarnmar8 DeborahSchiffrin Approacheso Discourse9 John Clark and Colin Yallop An Introduction to Phonetics nd

Phonology Second dition)10 NatsukoTsujimura An Introduction to lapaneseLinguistics1.1. RobertD. Borsley Modern PhraseStructureGrammart2 Nigel Fabb Linguisticsand Literaturet3 IreneHeim and AngelikaKratzer Semanticsn GeneratiueGrammar14 LilianeHaegeman nd Jacqueline EnglishGrammar:A Generatiue

Gu6ron Perspectiue15 StephenCrain and Diane An Introduction to Linguistic Theory

Lillo-Martin and LanguageAcquisition16 JoanBresnan Lexical-FunctionalSyntax

17 BarbaraA. Fennell A History of English:A SociolinguisticApproach

18 Henry Rogers Writing Systems: Linguistic Approach19 Benjamin

S7.Fortson V Indo-EuropeanLanguage nd Culture:

An Introduction



'STritingSystems

A LinguisticApproach

Henry Rogers

lDFtffrffiu



O 2005 by Henry Rogers

BLACKVELL PUBLISHING350 Main Street,Malden,MA 02148-5020, SA9600GarsingtonRoad,Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK550 Swanston treet,Carlton,Victoria3053, Australia

The right of Henry Rogers o be identifiedas the Author of this tilfork hasbeenassertednaccordance ith the UK Copyright,Designs, nd PatentsAct 1988.

All rightsreserved.No part of this publicationmay be reproduced, tored n aretrievalsystem, r transmitted,n any form or by any means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying, ecordingor otherwise,exceptas permittedby the UK Copyright,Designs,and Patents ct 1988,without the prior permission f the publisher.

Firstpublished 005 by BlackwellPublishing td

Library of CongressCataloging-in-PublicationData

Rogers,Henry, 1940-Writing systems: linguisticapproach Henry Rogers.

p. cm.- (Blackwellextbooksn linguistics; 8)ISBN 0-631-23463-2hardcover: lk. paper) ISBN 0-631-2346a-0 pbk.:alk. paper)1.

'Writing.2.

'Writing-History.3. Graphemics. I. Title. II. Series.

P211.R538005411-dc22

200302616s

ISBN-I3: 978-0-63 -23463-0

A catalogue ecord or this title is available rom the British L1brary.

For further information onBlackwellPublishing, isit our website:http://www.blackwellpublishing.om



Gu mo mhic

Daibhidh 's lain





A

Lontents

Acknowledgments

A Note on Dates

1 Introduction1.1, The Importance f \flriting1.2 Definitionof \ilriting1.3 Aspects f

'Vfriting

L.3.1 Creationand historyof writing1.3.2 Relationshipof uriting to language1.3.3 Internalstructureof writing1.3.4 Sociolinguistics f uritingFurtherReadingTermsExercises

Theoretical Preliminaries2.1 InternalStructure

2.l.L Arrangement f symbols2.1.2 Graphemes nd allographs2.1.3 Freeand boundgraphemes2.1.4 Ligatures

2.2 Relationshipo Language2.2.1 Phonographicwriting systems2.2.2 Morpbographicwriting systems2.2.3 Non-segmental raphemicelements2.2.4 Unit disuepancies2.2.5 Contrastiue iscrepancies

2.3 Diglossia2.4 FurtherReading2.5 Terms2.5 Exercises

xiv

xvii

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vl t



vll l Contents

3 Chinese3.1, Background, istory,and Sociolinguistics

3.1.1 The language f utritten Chinese3.1.2 Ciuilseruice xaminations

3.2 Phonology f Modern StandardChinese3.2.1 Romanization

3.3 Relationship f Language nd\Triting in Chinese3.3.1

.Whatlinguisticunits do characters epresent?

3.3.2 Homophony3.4 Origin and Structure f ChineseCharacters

3.4.1 Early Chinesewriting3.4.2 Reconstructinghe earlypronunciationof Chinese3.4.3 How characterswere ormed

3.4.4 Traditionalanalysisof cbaracters3.4.5 Semantic-phoneticompounds3.4.6 Semantic-semanticompounds3.4.7 Someexaffiples f characterswith a complexhistory3.4.8 Writing borrowed words3.4.9 Dialect characters

3.5 Structure f ChineseCharacters3.5.1 Theshapes f characters3.5.2 Complexnumerals3.5.3 Hout characters re uritten

3.5.4 Writing directionandpunctuation

3.5.5 Calligraphy3.5.6 Ordering characters

3.6 How Many Characters oesChineseHave?3.6.1 Frequency f typesof characters

3.7 RecentReforms3.8 FurtherReading3.9 Terms3.10 Exercises

4 Japanese,Korean, Vietnamese4.1, Japanese4.1.1 Background nd history4.1.2 Releuant tructureof Japanese4.1.3 Borrowing a utriting system4.1.4 lapanesewriting4.1.5 Writing reform in lapan4.1.6 Psychology f writing in lapanese

4.2 Korean4.2.1 Background nd history

4.2.2 Korean exicon4.2.3 Phonologyof Korean4.2.4 Hankul

202021,23242526272829293 l32

34343637383939393940

41.4343444545474848

50505053545667685868

696970



Contents

4.2.5 Structure / hankul4.2.6 Hanca

4.3 Vietnamese4.3.1 Background nd history

4.3.2 Chfrn6m4.3.3 Qudcngir

4.4 FurtherReading4.5 Terms4.6 Exercises

Cuneiform5.1 Background nd History

5.1.1 Sumerian

5.L.2 Akkadian5.2 Tokensand the Inventionof '$Triting

5.3 Materialsof'sfriting

5.4 SocialContextof CuneiformWriting5.5 An Early Sumerian ablet rom Uruk5.6 InternalStructure f Cuneiform

5.6.1 Deuelopment f symbols5.6.2 Relationship o language

5.7 ExampleText5.8 OtherCuneiform'!flriting

5.8.1 Ugaritic5.8.2 Old Persian5.9 FurtherReading5.10 Terms5.11 Exercises

Egyptian6.1, Language amily6.2 Background nd History5.3 Phonology f Old Egyptian

6.4 Origin of Egyptian Writing6.5 Styles f \(rriting6.6 SocialContextof \Triting

5.5.1 Materials5.6.2 Literature6.6.3 Scribes nd literacy

6.7 Structure f Egyptian'Writing6.7.1 Pbonographic uriting6.7.2 Phonologicalcomplements6.7.3 Morphograpbicuriting

6.7.4 Semantic omplements5.7.5 Internal structureof Egyptianwriting

1X

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1001001.021,027021021031031,07108

109109



Contents

6.8 ExampleText5.9 Decipherment5.10 FurtherReading5.1,1 Terms6.t2 Exercise

Semitic7.1, The Semitic anguage amily7.2 Origin of the SemiticAbjad7.3 Development f the SemiticAbjad

7.3.1 SouthernWestSemitic7.3.2 Phenician7.3.3 Aramaic

7.4 Hebrew7.4.1 Background nd history7.4.2 Phonologyof Tiberian Hebrew7.4.3 Hebrewabiad7.4.4 Hebrewuowels7.4.5 Reading he Bible7.4.6 Other languages ritten with the Hebreutscript

7.5 Arabic7.5.1 Background nd history7.5.2 Phonologyof Modern StandardArabic

7.5.3 Arabicabiad7.5.4 Voutelsand diphthongs7.5.5 Hamzah7.5.6 Othersymbols7.5.7 Numerals

7.6 The EthiopicAbugida7.7 The Distinctivenessf Abjads7.8 FurtherReading7.9 Terms7.10 Exercises

The Greek Alphabet8.1 Background nd History8.2 GreekScripts efore heAlphabet

8.2.1 LinearB8.2.2 Other early Greekscripts

8.3 Development f the GreekAlphabet8.4 Abjad o Alphabet8.5 The Relationship f Language nd Writing in Greek8.5 ScriptsDerived rom the GreekAlphabet

8.6.1 Coptic8.6.2 Gothic8.6.3 Armenian

1,121,1.3tt3t L 4t t 4

1 1 51 1 5I 1 7r191201,21,t23L25t25t26I27t29r371 3 11.321321331351351 3 71 3 81 3 81 3 81401,41742142

145145147147151153155r501,61

t6 r1,621,55



Contents xl

1551.57r67r681 6 8

1701701701,721,72173173174

1,71771,771771 8 11 8 1t82

1 8 s1 85

1871.891901,921,931941951951951,97

1,97198

r99r99201,201202203203205207zn

8.6.4 Georgian8.6.5 Slauic

8.7 FurtherReading8.8 Terms

8.9 Exercises

The Roman Alphabet9.1, From Greeceo Italy9.2 Etruscan9.3 Latin

9.49.5

9.69.7

9.3.1 Background nd history9.3.2 Thephonologyof LatinThe RomanAlphabetExamples f Roman'S7riting

LaterHistory of the RomanAlphabetOrthographicDepth:Two Examples9.7.L Finnish:A shallow orthography9.7.2 ScofsGaelic:A deeporthography

10

9.8 FurtherReading9.9 Terms9.I0 Exercises

English10.1 Background nd History

10.2 Old English10.3 Middle EnglishI0.4 Modern English

10.4.1- Orthographicdialect uariation10.4.2 Creatiue pelling

10.5 Spelling nd SoundChanges10.5 SpellingReform

10.6.1 Thenatureof reform10.6.2 Problemswith spelling eform

10.7 FurtherReading

10.8 Terms10.9 Exercises

The Indian Abugida and Other Asian Phonographic WritingIl.l Background nd History11".2 IndusValley 7riting

11..2.1 Decipherment f the Indusscript11.2.2 The language f the Indus writing

11.3 Brahmiand Kharo$thi11.3.1 A1okan nscriptions11.3.2 Thesuipts11.3.3 Origin of Kharosthr nd Brabmt11.3.4 Later deuelopment f Brahmt

t l



xl t Contents

ll.4 Deuanngarlas Applied to SanskritL1.4.1 Sanskrit honology

11.4.2 Devanagarl riting system11.5 SoutheastsianWriting11,.6 The TibetanAbugida

11.6.1 Tibetanphonemic nuentory11.6.2 The Tibetanabugida11.6.3 Complex orthographicsyllables

11,.7 The 'Phags-paScript11.8 TheMongolianandManchuAlphabets

11.8.7 Mongolian11.8.2 Manchu

Il.9 FurtherReading11.10

Terms1,L.11Exercises

12 Mayatz.l Background nd History12.2 Structureof the Maya ril(riting System

12.2.1 lnternalstructure12.2.2 Relation o language

I2.3 The Maya CalendarI2.4 ExampleText

1,2.5 FurtherReading12.6 Terms12.7 Exercises

13 Other Writing Systems13.1 Cherokee

1.3.1.1-Background nd history1.3.1.2 Phonology f Cherokee1.3.1.3 The Cherokee cript

1.3.2 Cree

13.2.1 Background nd history13.2.2 Phonology f Cree13.2.3 Structureof the Creewriting system

13.3 Inuktitut13.3.1 Background nd history13.3.2 Themodern nuktitut suipt

13.4 Runic13.4.1 Background nd history13.4.2 Proto-Scandinauianbonology

13.4.3 The runic alphabets

13.4.4 Mysticismand magic13.5 Ogham13.5.1 Background nd history

213273214221223223224225227227227230230

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249250250252252253254254255255

2582582s8



Contents

13.5.2 TheoghamalphabetL3.5.3 Example ext

13.6 PahawhHmong13.6.1 Background nd history

1.3.6.2 Phonologyof Hmong13.6.3 Structureof PahawhHmong script

13.7 Bliss13.7.1 CharlesB/issand the origin of Blisssymbols13.7.2 Blisssym.bols san augmentatiue

communxcdtronystem13.7.3 TItestructureof Bliss ymbols13.7.4 Sentencesn Bliss


13.10 Exercises

14 Classification of Writing Systems14.1 Phonetic,Semantic, nd Glottographic'S7riting74.2 Glottographicfriting14.3 Note: Amount of Morphographyand OrthographicDeptht4.4 Gelb'sUnilinearTheoryof Development14.5 Syllabic ersusMoraic14.6 KoreanHankul as a FeaturalSystem14.7 Conclusion


Appendix A Some Basic Linguistic Terms

Appendix B The International Phonetic Alphabet

Appendix C English Transcription

Appendix D Glossary

Bibliography

Index

xiii

259260250260

261.261,263263

26326426s268258

268

269269271275275275277278

278279

280

285

287

289

300

3 1 0



Acknowledgments

Toronto is blessed ith a multiculturaldiversitywhich is ideal or learningaboutlanguages nd writing. I am very much indebted o the many friends,colleagues,

students, nd nnocentpeoplewho wanderednto my office or all thehelp, nforma-tion, and support hat they havegivenme over the years. would especiallyiketo mentionAbdel-KhaligAli, CherylCaballero,VeraChau,VincentDeCaen,ElanDresher,Karl-JiirgenFeuerherm, laineGold,DanielCurrieHall, Timothy Gianotti,DennisHelm, Kaoru Hashimoto, enniferHellum, Manami Hirayama,Mary Hsu,BridgetJankowski,Lif CrystalJing,Alan Kaye,Cynthia Lee, Ron Leprohon,TedLutz, Mary MacKeracher, aul Mercier,Laura Miller, Keir Moulton, Kenji Oda,DavidOlson,JoePartington,Hoa Pham,T6oYu6nke, nsupTaylor, Ann l7ehmeyer,ZhouJoy Hong, and four anonymous eviewers. am grateful o Tami Kaplan forher initial encouragement,o MargaretAherne or her excellent nd enthusiastic

editing,and to SarahColemanand the staff at Blackwell or their fine work on adifficult book.

The author and publishergratefullyacknowledgehe permission ranted o repro-duce he copyrightmaterial n this book:

Figures

Figure3.3 from Wayne Senner ed.),Tbe Origins of.Writing,

figure 5, p. 181.

Lincoln,NE:Universityof ebraskaPress,989.@1989 yUniversityofNebraskaPress. eprintedwith permission.

Figure3.8 from Fang-yiiWang, Introduction to ChineseCursiueScript,p.

Haven,CT: Far EasternPublications, aleUniversityPress, 958.O 1958UniversityPress. eproduced ith permission.

Figure5.L0 from Hans J. Nissenet al., Archaic Bookkeeping, rgure34, p. 38.Chicago:University f ChicagoPress,1993.@ 1986by University f ChicagoPress.Reproduced ith permission.

Figure5.L1 rom EdwardChiera,They Wrote n Clay,p. 53. Chicago:University fChicagoPress,1965.@ 1956 by Universityof ChicagoPress.Reproducedwithpermission.

New

Yale



Acknouledgments xv

Figure6.2 from Sir Alan Gardiner,Egyptian Grammar, plate2. Oxford: GriffithInstitute,Oxford UniversityPress, 950.O 1950by Griffith Institute.Reproducedwith permission.

Figure 6.4 fuomAnthony Loprieno, Ancient Egyptian:A Linguistic Introduction,chart,p.16.Cambridge:Cambridge niversity ress,995. @1,995 y CambridgeUniversityPress.Reprintedwith the permission f CambridgeUniversityPress.

Figure8.2 from FredWoudhuizen, heLanguage f theSeaPeoples, .70. Amster-dam: NajadePress, 993.@ 1993Jan Best.Reproduced ith permission.

Figure 8.3 from John Chadwick,The Decipherment f Linear B, 'Ventris grid,28 September951', igure13,p. 59.Cambridge: ambridge niversity ress, 967.@1967by Cambridge niversityPress. eprintedwith thepermission f CambridgeUniversityPress.

Figure 8.4 from Jan Best and Fred lfoudhuizen (eds.),Lost Languagesromthe MediterrAneAn,igure1, p.2. Leiden:E.J. Bril l, 1.989.@ 1993by Jan Best.Reproduced ith permission.

Figures8.5 and 8.6 from Jan Bestand FredVfoudhuizen

(eds.),Ancient Scripts

from Crete nd Cyprus, p.32-3,105.Leiden: .J. Bril l,1988.@ 1993byJanBest.Reproduced ith permission.

Figure8.8 from John Boardmanand N. G. L. Hammond (eds.),The CambridgeAncient History, 3.3, figure t6, p. 100. Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1970. @ 1970 by CambridgeUniversityPress.Reprintedwith the permission fCambridgeUniversityPress.

Figure9.L from Giuliano Bonfanteand LarissaBonfante,The EtruscanLanguage:An Introduction,no. 12,p. 1,32.Manchester:ManchesterUniversityPress, 983.O 1983 by ManchesterUniversityPress.Reproduced ith permission.

Figures1.2.7,12.8,12.9,12.10 rom Dr. Merle GreeneRobertson, he Sculptureof Palenque,vol.IV, 13/L7 includingR14-R17).Princeton: rinceton niversityPress, 991,.@ 1976by Merle GreeneRobertson.Reproduced ith permission.

FigureB.1 from InternationalPhoneticAssociation.@ 1993by the International

PhoneticAssociation. eproduced ith permission. ttp://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html.

Plates

Plate1 from Buddhist ext written n Japann the Chineseanguage. eproduced ithpermissionrom FreerGalleryof Art, Smithsoniannstitution,Washington,DC.

Plate2 from portion of Dead SeaScrolls.Reproduced ourtesyof the IsraeliAn-tiquitiesAuthority.

Plate3 from Ottoman tughra.Reproduced ith permissionrom FreerGalleryofArt, Smithsoniannstitution,Washington,DC.



xvi Acknowledgments

Plate 4 from Trajan column cast. Reproduced ourtesyof R. R. Donnelley&Company.

Plate5 from Indusseal.Reproduced ith permissionrom Harappa.com.

Plate6 from Presentation f Captiueso a Maya Ruler,ca.785. Reproduced our-tesyof the Kimbell Art Museum,Fort Worth, Texas.

Every effort hasbeenmade o trace copyrightholdersand to obtain their permis-sion for the useof copyrightmaterial.The publisherapologizesor any errorsoromissionsn the above ist and would be grateful f notifiedof anycorrectionshatshouldbe ncorporatedn future reprintsor editionsof this book.



A Note on Dates

The traditional abbreviationsn English or erasare AD (Latin Anno Domini'inthe yearof the Lord') and ec (BeforeChrist).To avoid the Christianbias n the

traditional erms, ome cholars aveused n (CommonEra) or no andnce (BeforetheCommonEra) or ec. In my view, his swell intentioned, ut in factsubstitutesa ludxo-Christianbias or a Christianoneand could be nadvertentlynsulting ootherreligions. Fora Muslim,200 cs is not common o anything.)To avoid heseproblems, haveused he termsoro and NEwas substitutes. heseare unconven-tional, but clearand neutral.

The year L oro was followed immediatelyby the year I NEw. Therewas noyear0. Sometimes,owever, have eferredo a time0 asa convenientiction,as n'by the time 0, the old writing systemwas no longer n use'.





Introduction

t.l The Importanceof Writing

\friting is one of the most significant cultural accomplishmentsof human beings.It allows us to record and convey information and stories beyond the immediatemoment. \7hen we speak,we can only inform those n our immediate vicinity. Writingallows us to communicate at a distance,either at a distant placeor at a distant time.Nowadays, we can record and senda spoken messagewith audio or video recordings,bu t these equire specialequipment at both ends.For writing, we need only a pieceof paper and a pencil.

\fith writing, we can supplement our own memory.'S[e

can record much longertexts than we could ever hope to memorize.The written text is also less allible thanhuman memory. Many of us have made a great deal of effort to memoize even afairly short poem. Just think of trying to memofize an entire book! or several!

With written records and manuals, we can create a much more complex societythan would otherwise be possible.By keeping recordsof weather observations,met-eorologists are able to discern patterns, allowing them to predict the coming wearher.A manual allows an appliance to be repaired. A map allows us to navigate unfamiliarareas.An encyclopxdia allows studentsto learn the history of distant places,peoples,and events.

Writing createsnot only a more complicated society,but as some have argued, amore just society.\7e frequently hear that

'thecontrol of information is power'.'When

information can be readily written down, printed, and distributed, there is lesschancefor it to be manipulated by a few people. During the 1930s, the Canadian governmentdistributed Hansard, the record of parliamentary proceedings, ree to those requestinga subscription. Many a politician regretted being met in a small rural community witha farmer pulling out a copy and saying,

'Butit says here that on the thirteenth of

May you stood up in Parliament and said . . .'. However, writing itself is not pure; itallows us to publish lies, to mislead, o libel, to cover up , to pu t a spin on the truth.'s7e

must also be careful not to equate a'literate society'with a'good society'.Formost of human history, most peoplehave been lliterate. Eventoday, illiterate peoplearound the world lead productive and satisfying lives. ]Ufho in the western world hasnot at some time identified with Paul Gauguin, who left literate France for Tahiti,where literacy was of less mportance? For many people today, even though theyare literate, reading and writing play only a small role in their day-to-day lives.



2 Introduction

Beforewe go on, we shouldalsopoint out that spoken anguagesclearlyprimaryfor humans nd written anguages secondary. ll languagesrespoken; nly somearewritten. All people earn o speakaschildren.Someater earn o write; othersdo not. The acquisition f language nd speechs normal or childrenandhappensautomatically,ike learning o walk. ttrfritingmustalwaysbe consciouslyearned.

1.2 Definition of Writing

In English, he term writing is used n varioussenses.t can mean penmanship':

Mary's utriting is much betternow that she s in GradeTuto.\Triting can refer tothe contentor literarystyle:Mary'suriting is muchbetterafterheryear n iournalismschool.Finally,writing can refer o writing systems: rabic writing goes rom right

to left.In this book, we will normallyusewriting in theast

sense.'Wecan definewriting as he useof graphicmarks o represent pecificinguisticutterances.hepurpose f a definitions to distinguish term rom other hings.Tounderstand hat writing is, t is helpful o investigateome imilar hingswhicharenot writing according o our definition.

tU(riting s not language.Language s a complex system esiding n our brainwhich allows us to produceand interpretutterances.(/riting involvesmakinganutterance isible.Our cultural raditiondoesnot make his distinction learly. $fle

sometimes earstatements uchasHebrewhas no uowels; his statements roughly

true for the Hebrew writing system,but it is definitelynot true for the Hebrew

language.Readers houldconstantly heck hat they are not confusing anguageand writing.Although writing is not language,writing does representanguage,and in our

definition, only language.Humans engage n many non-linguistic ypes of com-munication.Theseother ypesof communicationmay at timesbe visual,but theyarenot writing. For example,a paintingmay representNoah entering he ark withvariousanimals.Sucha paintingmay communicatemany things,suchas memoryof the story,emotions,asthetic feelings,nformationabout the ark or the animals,or about Noah, but we would not consider he picture o be writing becausetdoesnot represent specific tterance.The picturemight evokevariousutterances:

e.g.,Noah entered he ark, Noah brought the animals on board, or Tbe animalsaccompaniedhe old manas be setsail, or evenGermanNoah betrat dieArchemitden Tieren. X/ecannotsay that any one of theseutterancess specificallyhe onecommunicated y thepicture.On the otherhand, f we see he written sentence oahenteredtbeark, we recognizeitas writing since t is the visiblemanifestation f aspecificinguistic tterance, newhich would pronounce s ,nowa entard i 'qrk/.

(See ppendixC for an explanation f phonetic ymbols.) rom hisdiscussion, ecan see hat writing is related o language, ot to ideas n general.

An examplesomewhatcloser o writing is known asthe Cheyennendian Letter(figure1.1).Cheyennesan Algonquiananguagepokenn the UnitedStates.Mallery

(1893)citesa nineteenth-centuryocumentwhich purports o be a messagerom aman, Turtle-Following-His-\7ife,o his son,Little Man, tellinghis son to returnhomeand enclosing 53 for the costof the trip. According o Mallery, he message



Introduction

";#fr""S;;b

Figure 1.1 The Cheyenne ndian letter

was understood. Our initial reaction is likely skeptical, as we think that we our-selveswould probably not have beensuccessful t deciphering he message. ossiblyit was sent with someprior arrangements.Crucially, a semantic nterpretation doesnot seem to proceed systematically from the picture according to any definablesystem. Iilfe would not know how to interpret it reliably, and there is no sysremwhich would allow us to formulate a reply or other message.Even if our skepticismabout the easeof interpretation is unfounded, the document still doesnot qualify aswriting under our definition since it does not correspond to a specific linguisticutterancel rather, we expect that several different Cheyenne utterancescould beacceptedas correct 'readings' of the message, s with ou r picture of Noah.

A crucial element missing n the Cheyenne ndian Letter is a systematicstrucrure.The primary focus of this book is expressed n its title Writing Systems. 07riting issystematic n two ways: it has a systematicrelationship to language, and it has asystematic internal organization of its own. The Cheyenne letter is not sysrematic neither sense: here is no setof conventions inking the elements n the drawing to theCheyenne anguage,nor are there conventions which structure the elementsof thedrawing with each other.

'S7ecan refer to non-linguistic graphic communicarion,

such as the Cheyenne Indian Letter, by the term picture writing.Now let's look at the history of the word writing. Knowing about the etymology of

a word doesno t really help us understand ts meaning better, but the history is ofteninteresting.The word write comes rom an Indo-European root "wrId-'tearrscratch',



4 lntroduction

perhapselated o Greek hlne'fiIe, asp';presumably, arly ndo-European ritingwasseen sscratchingmarkson a surface. rom his Indo-Europeanorm, a Proto-

Germanicorm owrltanAntear,scratch'developed,roducing ormssuchasSwedishrita 'draw,

scratch',German ei$en'tear' andritzez 'scratch'.The oldestEnglish

form wrltan, attested n Beourulf,originallymeant 'score,draw', and somewhatlater'write'.

Other relatedwords includescribe andscripf, which are borrowedrespectivelyfrom Latinscrtba'secretary,cribe'andscrlptum'something ritten', both derivedfrom the Latin verbscrtberewrite'. At first script meanta pieceof writing; its usefor a systemof written marks is quite late, probably first occurring n the latenineteenthcentury. Letter is borrowed from the French lettre from Latin litera'letterof thealphabet'.n theplural,Latin hteraemeant a pieceof writing, epistle,literature'.Graph s from Greekgrdphein'scratch, rite'.

1.3 Aspectsof Writing

This book examinesour importantaspects f writing:

o the creationand historyof writing. the relationship f writing and anguageo the internalstructure f writing systemso the sociolinguisticsf writing

7.3.7 Creation and history of writing

\Triting can be created in three basic ways. It can be invented as a completely new

phenomenon. More frequently, writing is borrowed from one language and applied

to a new language.Finally, a new script can be developed,not as a completely new

phenomenon, but as a new form of writing.

Rarely has writing been invented from scratch, that is, without knowledge of any

other existing writing; but it has happened on at least three occasions.S7e

know

that the earliest invention of writing was about 5000 years ago by the Sumerians n

Mesopotamia. Some 1500 years ater, the Chineseagain invented writing. The lastcertain invention of writing was over 2000 years ago by the Maya in Meso-America.

Some scholars have claimed that the Egyptians and the people of the Indus Valley

also invented writing, but these claims are controversial.

Although the invention of writing is rare, the borrowing of a writing system

from one culture to another has been extremely common. Almost all the writing sys-

tems in use oday, except Chinese, nvolve some sort of borrowing. In Asia, several

neighboring countries borrowed writing from China. Early Mesopotamian writing

likely inspired the Egyptians to develop a writing system for their language. The

Semitic writing systemarose under the influence of Egyptian. The Greeks borrowed

the Semiticsystem.The Greek alphabet was borrowed by the Etruscans n Italy, andtheir alphabet was in turn borrowed by the Romans for writing Latin. The Roman

alphabet has spread widely and has been used to write hundreds of languages



lntroduction 5

around the world. Almost all writing systemsn use oday stemultimately romeither he Chinese r the Semiticwriting sysrems.

Rather arely,we have he creationof a new writing system. his type of creationinvolvesan anthropological otion known asstimulusdiffusion;with stimulusdiffu-

sion,somethings borrowed rom oneculture nto another,but only thegeneraldea,not all the details. n the caseof a new writing system,he creator s awareof thenotion of writing and creates new typeof writing. What is new is the particularwriting system, ot thenotionof writing itself; he Cherokee,Cree,PahawhHmong,and Blisswriting systems reexamples f this sortof development.hese ituationsaredifferent rom that of the Sumerians,he Chinese, ndthe Maya, who inventedwriting with no prior model.

In connectionwith his novelsand stories, . R. R. Tolkien nventeda numberofscripts, ttributing hem o variousof thepeoplesn hisstories. olkienwasa Celticand Old Norsescholar, nd the shapes f the symbols avemuch n commonwith

the medirval scriptsof Irelandand Scandinavia.

7.3.2 Relationshtpof uriting to language

An extremely interesting question is how writing and language arc related. InFinnish, for example, there is an almost perfect one-to-one relationship betweenwritten symbols (lettersof the Roman alphabet) and the phonemes of Finnish. InChinese, by contrast, there is a fairly consistent relationship betweenwritten symbols(characters)and the morphemes of Chinese. (Note: for an explanation of linguisticterms such as morpheme or phoneme) seeAppendix A.)

Russianand Belorusianare closely relatedSlavic anguages,both written with theCyrillic alphabet. Russianwriting corresponds o the morphophonemic level of thelanguage,overlooking certain predictable phonological variation, whereasBelorusian

writing corresponds to the phonemic level of the language,overtly specifying thetype of variation that Russianwriting overlooks.

In Hebrew, only consonantsare generallywritten; the reader s expected o knowthe languagewell enough to supply the missing vowels. Specialsymbols do exist toindicate vowels, but they are used mostly in materials for children and learnersofHebrew.

Some anguagesare written with a mixture of systems.Japanese, or example, hasdifferent kinds of writing; it usescharactersborrowed from Chinese,as well as twofurther types of writing known as kAna, in which each symbol representsa mora(i.e. a consonant-vowel sequenceor a consonant at the end of a syllable).Japanesewriting is normally a mixture of these systems. Some words are normally writtenwith characters,somewith kana, and many with a mixture of charactersand kana.The writer must know which type of symbol is appropriate for a given word.

In English, we use the Roman alphabet, bu t its relationship to the phonemesofEnglish is not simple. For example, the vowel /i / is written variously <ee,ea, ie , ei,y, i> as in meet, medt, siege, conceiue,city, spaghetti. By the same oken, the writtensequence<ough> can be pronounced quite differently as n the words tough, cough,

tbough, and through. Clearly English spelling is related to phonology, but the rela-tionship is complex and strongly shapedby lexical and morphemic considerations.



lntroduction

From these examples, we can see that the relationship between language and

writing is not necessarilysimple nor consistent.The relationship of the language

and writing system of Finnish is unusually simple, but the corresponding relation-

ship forJapanese

sextremely complex. Although Finnish and

Englishboth

usethesame Roman alphabet, they do so in different ways; the spelling rules of Finnish

and English are quite different. Similarly, Japaneseand Chinese both use Chinese

characters in their writing, but the rules for using characters to write the two lan-

guagesare quite different.

In our study of writing systems,we might assume hat there is a simple, one-

to-one relationship between written symbols and language: for example, that a

writing system has a distinct symbol for each phoneme, and that these symbols

are used to write utterances. n such a situation, an automatic conversion would,

in principle, be possible berween writing and language. Anyone who has learned

to write English, however, is more than aware that this situation does not hold forEnglish. \07eneed only consider such pairs as one and uton with exactly the samepronunciation and very different spellings to confirm this. There are, to be sure,

some writing systemswhich are fairly regular, but none is perfect. Varying degrees

of complexity are the norm. In the course of this book, we will investigatemany

types of complex relationships betweenwriting and language. n the next chapter,

we will develop some terminology which will help us to describe some of this

complexity. In the final chapter, we will examine this issuegenerally and develop

a taxonomic scheme for writing systemswhich takes varying kinds of complexity

into account.

1.3.3 Intemal sttactureof uriting

rUfriting systems have an internal structure independent of the language being

written. From English, we are used to writing starting at the top left corner of the

page, proceeding from left to right, with each row placed under the previous row.

But this arrangement is by no means universal; for example, the Arabic script is

written in rows like English, but each line is written right to left, starting at the

top right corner of the page. Arabic is also written cursively, so that most letters

within a word are connected to each other; as a result, letters have different shapes

depending on how they are attached to other letters. This internal structure ofthe Arabic script has been maintained even when it has been used to write other

languages,such as Persianor Urdu.

In English.-a very short public sign is sometimes written vertically with each etter

under the precedingone. This type of writing is typically done in upper-case etters,

rurely in lower-case.

Chinese writing has a different internal structure. Traditionally, it has been

written in columns, from top to bottom, starting at the top right corner of the

page; nowadays it is more often written in rows from left to right like English.

Chinese characters may consist of only one stroke or of a large number; no matter

how many strokes it has, each character is written so as to fill out an imaginarysquare with a fixed size; thus, each character on a page appears to be about the

same size.



Introduction 7

In Koreanhankul, he ndividual ettersarecombinedn variouspredictable aysinto syllable-sizedlocks.These lockshave he same izeso hat Koreanwriting isvisually ather ike Chinesewith a setof evenlyspaced ymbols.

Clay cuneiform abletsused n ancientMesopotamiawere shapedwith one side

flat and the other slightly convex. friting beganon the flat side; hus the readercouldeasilydeterminewhich side o read irst.

Apart from the generalnternalstructureof a writing system, ifferent ypesoftextssometimes avespecific ulesof their own. For example,on the title pageof abook,the writing in the argest izeof type s usually he title of the book.Writingin a smallersizeof type typically ndicates he author or editor. !flriting at thebottom of the title page s related o the publicationof the book, typically thepublisher, ity, and oftendateof publication.Thesemattersarenot without excep-tions,bu t it would beodd to find thepublisher's ame n themiddleof thepageandthe title at the bottom.

The rulesrelating anguage nd writing tell us which symbolsmust be writtento express givenutterance, ut the rulesof the internalstructureof the writingsystemell us how these ymbolsare actually o be written down.

1.3.4 Sociolinguisticsof writing

Ifriting is done n a socialcontext.For example,ScotsGaelic s a Celtic anguagespoken n northwestern cotland;he anguage asbeenwritten for manycenturies.Today,ScotsGaelicspeakersmay on occasionwrite somethingn Gaelic,bu t formost speakers f the language, riting is ordinarily done n the English anguage.Virtually all ScotsGaelicspeakersodayare luent n English; ecause f thesocialhistoryof the highlandand islandareas f Scotland,whereScotsGaelic s spoken,writing is usuallyassociated ith English.

Variousspoken ialects re ound hroughout he Arabic-speakingrea) ut writ-ing is done n a differentdialectknown as StandardArabic.StandardArabicmusrbe earned n schoolandgenerallys not mutually ntelligiblewith spokendialects.Although t is quitepossibleo write down a text in a spokenArabicdialect, his srurelydone.By the same oken,althoughStandardArabic may be readaloud, t israre o speak he written dialectextemporaneouslyor any engthof time.

Literacy,or theability o readand write, variesagreatdeal n differentsocieties.In technological ocieties, riting is so much a part of life that being lliterate sconsidered serious andicap.n manypartsof the world, however, iteracyplayslittle part in everyd y life.

At times, iteracyhashad a special ignificance.or example,mediavalEnglandhad special cclesiasticalourts or clergy. n the early Middle Ages, iteracywasalmost entirely imited to priestsand monks,and thus readingwas a simple estto distinguishhose o be tried in the ecclesiasticalourts rom those o be tried inthe civil courts. n time, any literatepersonwas legallydeemed o be a clericandcould claim this so-calledbenefitof clergy' o be tried in the ecclesiasticalourts.This distinctionhad significant onsequencesor the offenderas the ecclesiasticalcourts endedo bemore enient;or example,heyhadno capitalpunishment. hus,by being iterateone couldavoid execution a clearsociolinguisticenefit.





2 TheoreticalPreliminaries

This chapter ntroduces certainamountof theoretical erminologyaboutwritingwhich s necessaryo getus started.As we discuss achwriting systemn detail,we

will add further ermsas hey becomeelevant.Linguists raditionallyusedifferent onventionso indicatedifferentkindsof lin-

guistic ranscriptions. or example,we might mention he word toque tuk/ 'a knithat, especiallyn Canada'.The useof italicsshows hat we are talking about theword as such; n this situation,we use he ordinary spellingof a word. Phonemictranscriptions re raditionallyenclosedn slant ines: tuk/. A gloss, r shortdefini-tion, is pu t in singlequotationmarks.We useangledbracketso talk specificallyaboutgraphemes:.g., in English, he sound k/ is sometimes ritten as <que> nwords borrowed rom French',or 'in toque, he vowel u/ hasan unusualspellingof <o>'. Although we do not have much occasion o usephonetic ranscriptionsshowingallophonesn this book, they areplaced n squarebrackets:thuk].

2.7 InternalStructure

2.7.1 Arcangement f symbok

All writing has an underlying linear organization: that is, symbols follow each other

in some sort of predictable order. English is written in horizontal lines of symbols

from left to right with the lines ordered from top to bottom.'Sfe are so accustomed

to this arrangement that we may think that it is universal. In the course of this

book, however, we will see several other arrangements.Hebrew and Arabic are

written in horizontal lines from right to left. Chinesewas traditionally written vertic-

ally in columns starting at the upper right. Mongolian is written vertically in columns

starting at the upper left.

Even though all writing systems have an overall linear organization, we often

encounter non-linear elements n writing. In Arabic, for example,writing is writtenin horizontal lines from right to left; however, this description appliesonly to con-

sonants and long vowels. Short vowels are normally not written in Arabic; if they

are written, they are written as symbols above or below the phonologically preced-

ing consonant. In the Arabic example in table 2.t,the writing on the left shows the

word lmalikl'king'written without vowels. Vertical linesare usedhere o divide the



1 0 Theoretical P eliminaries

Table 2.1 Non-linear elements of Arabic writing; the

example is /malik/'king'. Consonant division is shown

on the left. On the right, the short vowels are written as

diacritics: <a> above. and below the consonants

<mlk> <malik>

k l m

consonants rom eachother. The writing is right-to-left. In the example on the right,the short vowels are indicated: <a> by an angled ine above the <m>, and by an

angled line below the <l>.

2.7.2 Graphetnes nd allographs

Since the mid-twentieth century, linguistics has had theoretical terms such asphoneme, phonetic, allophone, morphemic, allomorph, etc. In general, linguists

posit an -emic level of more abstract, contrastive units (e.g.,phoneme, morpheme)

which are realized as contextually determined variants on a more concrete -etic

level; e.g., allophone, allomorpb. (Appendix A has a discussionof these basic lin-guistic terms.)\U7edefine grapheme as a contrastive unit in a writing system,parallel to phoneme

or morpheme. For example, there is a grapheme in English which contrasts withother graphemessuch as . The collection of graphemes or segmentalunitsin English, i.e., for consonants and vowels, is traditionally known as the English

alphabet. Non-segmental graphemes or punctuation, numbers,wordspace, etc. arenot usually consideredpart of an alphabet. Linguists have emphasized hat the crucialnature of a phoneme lies in the fact that it is different from the other phonemes.

In the same way, each grapheme in a language is different from the others; eachgrapheme

contrasts with the other graphemes. For example, the graphemic unit inChinese s the character;each Chinesecharactercontrastswith the other charactersjust as the letters of an alphabet contrast with each other. Note that this definition

of grapheme refers to writing, and not overtly to language. \7e will want to explore

the relationship of graphemes o language,bu t that is a separate ask. I will reserve

the term symbol as a general term for a graphic mark used in writing, which makesno statementabout the structural significanceof the mark. In the same way, I will

use the term script as a general term for awriting systemwithout any further comment

about its structural nature.

Phonemesare classesof allophones, which are non-contrastive variants occur-

ring in complementary distribution or in free variation. In much the same fashion,graphemes are classesof allographs. The nature of allographic variation and its

conditioning factors is more complicated for graphemes han for phonemes.

. l l

. ' | | a

ly/\tv

a

k l mi



Theoretical Preliminaries 1 1

/L,/ ,t /LFigure2.1 Allographicvariation n Roman handwriting

A grapheme often has a good deal of allographic variation related to style ofhandwriting or printing.

.Wecan often speakof classes f allographs.For example,

we can distinguish cursive and printed letters as classes f allographs. \il7ealso dis-tinguish upper-caseand lower-case etters. In printed English, we distinguish differenttypefaces,such as Palatino, Times, Helvetica, etc., as well as certain style variations

such as roman, italic, and bold. These classesoften overlap so that, for example,

we can speak of an italic, upper-caseHelvetica <q> - O. The allograph categoriesmentioned here do not exhaust the possibilities; fo r examples, n figure 2."1., wocommon allographs of lower-casehandwritten <r> are given, as well as two allo-

graphs of lower-casehandwritten <r>.In some cases he use of an allographic category is determined by the internal

rules of the writing system. n English,we capitalize the first letter of the first wordof a sentenceand the first letter of a proper name. To some degree,upper-caseandlower-case etters are in complementary distribution: we have, for example,Toronto

and not otoronTo; the two allographsof <t> are in complementary distribution here.On further examination, however, the situation is not quite so straightforward, sincewe occasionally write using only upper-case etters - TORONTO. Note that theuse of upper-case etters is not without communicative significance tself; in e-mailcommunications, writing everything in upper-case ettershas beencompared to shout-

ing. Proper names are sometimes spelled with unusual capitalization: MacDonald,deForest, k. d. lang, PostScript, ffrench.

Becausewriting is much more varied in its structure than speech,and also becauseit is a more conscious rocess,Daniels(1.991,1,994; eealsoHerrick 1994a,1994b)has argued that a graphemic analysis of writing is impossible. His objections areessentially hat the term'grapheme' has not been definedcarefully, and that writing,being a conscious phenomenon, is fundamentally different from language, whichis unconscious. However, I believe hat we can define and use our terms carefully.Further, the fact that the data of languageand writing are different in nature doesnot preclude our using a similar theoretical framework. \$7euse he samemathematics

for counting orangesand for calculating taxes, and orangesand taxes are certainlyas different from each other as are writing and language.

2.7.3 Freeand boundgraphemes

A free grapheme s one which occurs independently. In English cat, for example, eachof the graphemeS(c), <a>, and <t> is a [ree grapheme since eachoccurs freely inother contexts. Diacritics are bound graphemeswhich occur only in combinationwith other graphemes. n French, or example, there are diacritics suchas <'> whichoccur only with other graphemes,specificallywith the vowels <a> and <e>: <a b> .

Such a combination of a free grapheme and a bound grapheme, as , can beconsidereda complex symbol.



t 2 T heoretical Preliminaries

Table2.2 The positionof diacritics o write differentvowels n Sanskrit.They occur after,before,below,and above he consonant ymbol

<k> 4 <ka> zFT

<ku> T

<ki> fu

<ke> h

Table2.3 The non-ligaturedand ligatured orms of<fi> and <fl> in Times ypeface

Non-ligatured Ligatured

In the Indian scripts, consonantsare written from left to right. Somevowels are

written after the consonant in this horizontal order as we might expect. Others,

however, are written before, below, or above the consonant that they follow in

pronunciation.

In the Sanskrit examples in table 2.2, the consonant <k> zF is a free grapheme

since t occurs by itself. The vowels <a i u e>TT- '

are diacritics(bound

allographs)since they occur only with a consonant^symbol a different allograph is used when

the vowel occurs alone). The forms zF'IzFzFzFare complex symbols.

2.7.4 Ligatures

Ligatures are symbols where two graphemesare joined and written as one unit. For

asthetic reasons, n printing the Roman alphabet, the sequences fi> and <fl> are

frequently printed as the ligaturesshown in table 2.3. This type of combination has

no structural significance or the writing system.English readersare generallyunaware

of thisprinting

convention, and consider the ligature <fi> simply to represent<f>

followed by .it. We will call this type of ligature a non-structural ligature.

Danish, on the other hand, has a ligature <a> which is clearly formed by join-

ing <a> and <e>. In Danish <&> is considered to be a separate grapheme and

is alphabetized after <z>.'W'e

will call this type of ligature a structural ligature.

Structural ligatures are treated by the writing system as a single grapheme whereas

non-structural ligaturesare treated as a sequenceof two graphemes.The treatment

as a single grapheme often shows up in the alphabetic ordering.

In older Danish, <?a), representing the vowel ltl, formed a quasi-ligature; that

is, the sequenceacted like a ligature even though the individual letters were not

physically joined.Like <r>,<aa) was alphabetized as a unit and placed after <z>(but before <r>). In modern Danish, 1da) has beenreplacedby a complex symbol

<6> although the spelling <aa> is still found in many Danish proper names,such as

fifl

fifl



TheoreticalPreliminaries 13

Kierkegaard. panish as raditionallyconsidered ch>and <ll> asquasi-ligatures,alphabetizinghem as though hey were ndividual e tters; n the 1990s herewasan official decision o consider<ch> and <ll> in Spanish s simplesequencesfsingle etters o facilitate heir use n computers.As a result, he alphabeticordering

in olderSpanish ictionaries ill differ from that in futureones.Notice that a quasi-ligatures different rom a sequence f letters n that it is

treatedas a singlegrapheme. he sequence ea> n English s a common way towrite the vowel il (e.g.,heat, eague), ut it is merelya sequencef letters,not aquasi-ligature,ince tructurallyt issimply he etter<e> ollowedby the etter<a>.There s nothing in the writing system, uch as alphabeticordering, that treatsleal as a singleunit. In traditional Spanish,ll t is a quasi-ligature ince t is con-sidered separate rapheme s evidenced y its alphabetic rdering; or example,the sequencella>would be orderedafter <lu>.

2.2 Relationship o Language

A primary consideration for us is to determine what linguistic level graphemes

represent. n the Roman alphabet, the letters are related to some level of the phon-

ology; however, the numerals <L, 2, 3, etc. are all related o morphemes.Al l writing

systemsseem to have some variation as to the linguistic level involved, bu t we

can often usefully speak of the level of language which is primarily related to thegraphemesof a writing system.

2.2.7 Phonographicutriting systeftrs

In a phonemic writing system, that is , one in which the symbols of the writing

systemare primarily related to the phonemesof a language,we might expect thatthere would be a regular one-to-one relationship betweengrapheme and phoneme.

Interestingly, there do not seem to be any such systems n the strict sense. n

some languages,such as Spanish, he relationship of the graphemesand phonemes

approaches a one-to-one relationship. In Spanish, for example, /sombrero/ 'hat'

is written <sombrero> with a one-to-one relationship between phonemes andgraphemes.However, this simple relationship in Spanishbreaks down: somewords

are spelledwith <h>, bu t this letter corresponds o no sound in the language:e.g.,hora loral 'hour'. Also, the sound /b/ is written both as and as <v>: e.g., uiuir,

beber /bibir, beber/'live,

drink'. To write these words in Spanish, we must know

which morpheme we are writing; the phonological information alone is not enough.The amount of morphological information required to write Spanish s not great,

bu t it does exist.

English writing, on the other hand, requires a great deal of morphologicalinformation. Very frequently in English,words which sound alike are written differ-

ently: you, ewe, !€w, U-turn. The sequence<oo> is commonly used to write two

different vowels: e.g., ul food, booth, boot, smooch, bloom, naose, drool, loop -

lul look, good, soot, wool. To write English, we need quite a lo t of morphologicalinformation.



14 TbeoreticalPreliminaries

From these wo examples, e see hat there s no such hing as a pure phonemic

writing system. ndeed, here is considerable ariation within phonemicwriting

systems s o the amountof morphologicalnformation equired.We can think of

phonemicwriting systems rranged longa continuum,with Spanish earoneend,

requiring ather ittle morphologicalnformation,and Englishnear he otherend,

requiringquite a lot. The writing system or Germanmight be near the middle;

mostGermanspellings predictablerom the phonology,but a certainamountof

morphologicalnformation s required.The segmentalconsonant nd vowel) symbolsof a phonemicwriting systemare

traditionallycalled etters,and he nventoryof theseetters s calledan alphabet. (e

will continue o use hese erms,but readershouldkeep wo things n mind. One, n

using he term alphabet,we are ikely to forget he non-segmentalraphemes,uch

aspunctuationmarks,numerals,word boundaryspace. econd, ur culturalheritage

in having earned o write with theRomanalphabetends o mislead s nto under-

estimating he role of morphological nformation, especiallyn writing English.

Alphabetsare hemostcommon ype of writing systemn use n the world today.rilTidely sedalphabets odayareRoman, Greek,and Cyrillic, as well as Georgian,

Armenian,Ethiopic,Mongolian, and otherswhich will be mentionedater n the

book.The Arabic,Hebrew,and ndianwriting systems resimilar o alphabets, ut

they are structurally omewhat ifferentand will be discussedater.

In moraicwriting systems,raphemesrebasicallyelated o mora. A mora s a

phonological ni t intermediate etween phoneme nd a syllable.'!7e an hink of

a syllable onsisting f an onset, ucleus, ndcoda,while amoraconsists itherof an

onset-nucleus equence r the coda.Thus, cut consists ftwo mor€: lktl and tl.

Japaneseana,Cherokee, ndCree-lnuktitutareexamples f moraicwriting systems.

In moraicsystems, symbol epresentingn onset-nucleusombinationwould be a

polyphone.n bookson writing systems, e frequently ee he erm'syllabicwriting

system'wheregraphemesresaid o relate o syllables. s Poser 1992)haspointed

out, these ystems eem o relatenot to syllables, ut to mor&. In general, ou can

translate he term syllabic'of other bookson writing to 'moraic'as t is usedhere.

The only clearexample, nown to me, of a syllabicwriting systems theone or the

Yi language poken n China(chapter14).Note that, in an alphabetic ystem, ut

would be written with threegraphemes;n a moraic system,with two; and in a

syllabic ystem,with onegrapheme.Phonemic,moraic,and syllabicwriting systems reall termedphonographic, nd

their symbols rephonograms.

2.2.2 Morphographic utriting syste?ns

When we get to Chinese n chapter 3, we will meet a writing systemwhere the

primary relationship f graphemess to morphemes. ucha system an be called

morphographic,and thosegraphemes an be termedmorphograms.Other authors

on writing describe raphemess elated o words, ather han o morphemes,ften

using he term ogogram. am unawareof systems here heprimary relationship

of graphemess to words, as opposed o morphemes. ccordingly, will use he

termsmorpltogramandmorpltographichere.



Theoretical Preliminaries 15

Sfe have a few morphograms in English; for example, the dollar sign <$> repres-

ents the morpheme dollar. Similarly the numerals <1 2 3> represent he morphemes

one, tLUo, hree.

Sampson (1985) described the hankul writing system of Korean as an example

of featural writing. He argues hat symbols n bankul relate o phonological featuresin Korean such as [velar], [aspirated],etc..S7ewill evaluate his notion more closely

when we look at Korean writ ing in chapter4,and again in chapter "1.4.For now,just note that Korean hankul seems o be the only candidate for such a relationship

and that Sampson'sclaim is tenuous.

2.2.3 Non-segmental raphemicelements

Apart from segmental consonantsand vowels) or morphological information, writing

often indicatescertain things which are not necessarilypresent n speech. n language,

many boundaries are phonologically unmarked, e.g., word or phrase boundaries;in writing, however, boundaries are commonly marked by special punctuation

graphemes.The use of punctuation graphemesvaries widely from language o lan-

guage. Even for a language such as English, the use of punctuation is not nearly

so standardizedas spelling. Further, punctuation graphemesare often used n more

than one w?y, such as the period to mark an abbreviation or to mark the end of a

sentence.

In most alphabetic writing, w€ have a short blank space, the word boundarygrapheme, inserted between al l words. This is such a strong rule with us that we

are usually astounded to see an early written text of Latin or Greek where word

boundaries were regularly unmarked, with words written next to each other with-out breaks.

In Tibetan, syllable boundaries are indicated with a raiseddot placed betweenal l

syllables.The dot here is a punctuation grapheme.In Chinese,syllable boundaries are

marked by character separation. Korean hankul is arranged in syllable-sizedunits.

Phrases n English are sometimesseparatedby a comma, but other phrasesare

unmarked. Sentencesn English are doubly marked: the first letter of the first word

is capitalized, and a period, question mark, or exclamation mark is placed at the

end. Spanish uses nverted question marks and exclamation marks at the beginning

of a sentence n addition to the regular ones at the end. Traditionally, Chinesedid

not mark phrase or sentenceboundaries, bu t in recent times, it has borrowed someEuropean punctuation graphemes.

Paragraphs are usually marked in English either by indenting the first word of

the paragraph a bit to the right or by inserting extra spacebetween he paragraphs.

In languageswritten from right to left, the indentation is to the left.

The structure of a page communicates much of how we understand a text(Mountford 1990). Material at the top written in larger type, often centred, is

usually a title. A number in the upper or lower (occasionally he outer) margin is apage number (note how odd it would be to have the page number in the middle

of the inside margin). A small raised number in the text is a footnote reference.At

the beginning of a book, a list of terms followed by numbers is likely a table ofcontents;at the end of a book, a list of terms followed by numbers s likely an index.



15 Tbeoretical Preliminaries

The table of contents and the index are sometimes abeled as such, but evenwithout

the labels, we recognizethem by their position in the book. Correspondence has a

fairly fixed format: date, salutation, text, closing signature. Letters in French used to

start halfway down the page. n German letters, he salutation ends n an exclama-

tion mark; in English,a comma or colon is used, with a sociolinguisticdifferenceof

formality.

Different stylesof type often signal how the text is to be understood; for example,

italics normally indicate something special about the text: a title, a cited form, a

special erm, etc. In newspaperheadlines,however, italics are often used simply to

help distinguish one article from others on the samepage.

2.2.4 Unit discrQancies

A unit discrepancynvolvesa differencen thenumberof units n a specificinguistic-

graphemicelationship morephonemeshangraphemes,r viceversa.A polygraph

is a sequencef graphemes hich represents linguisticunit normally epresented

by a singlesymbol; ypicalll, in an alphabet,a polygraphconsists f two letters

which represent singlephoneme. n English, he sequence sh> s a polygraph

since t representshe singlephoneme l; we might alsocall it a digraph,a special

caseof polygraphy,consisting f on ly two graphemes.n Frenchchaque'each',<ch>and<que>are bothpolygraphs ince heyeach epresent single honeme:/and /k/, respectively.

In English, he polygraph<sh> s not a quasi-ligature ince t is not considered

to be the equivalent f a single etter;<sh> s alphabetizedetween sg>and <si>

as we would expect or a sequencef <s> ollowedby .hr. In traditionalSpanish,

however,<ch> s a quasi-ligaturend not a digraphsince t is consideredo be the

equivalentof a singlegrapheme nd not a sequencef graphemes, s shownby its

alphabetic rdering.A polyphone s a singlegrapheme sed o represent sequencef two (or more)

phonemes.n English,hegrapheme x> s a polyphonewhen t is used o represent

the wo phonemesks/. In alphabetic riting,polyphones re elatively ncommon;

in moraicsystems,olyphones re he norm.

2.2.5 Contrastiue discrqancies\[ith contrastivediscrepancies, istinctive contrastswhich exist in languageare not

represented n writing, or the contrasts of writing do not exist in language, .e.,

phonological distinctions are neutralized graphemically - homography, or graphemic

distinctions are neutralized phonemically - homophony.

English provides abundant examples of both of these situations.There are cases

of (heterographic) homophony (different written form - same sound) as in seem,

seam, cede, siegewhere <ee,ea, e-e, ie> are a\l ways of spelling the single phoneme

lil. Conversely, there are casesof (heterophonic) homography (different sound -

same written form) as in read which can bepronounced either as lidl or as lrcdl;

similarly, the graphemic sequence<ough> has a variety of pronunciations as shown

by the examples tough, though, through.



Theoretical Preliminaries 17

Sometimeshe relationshipbetweenphonemesand graphemes an be quitecomplex.Consider he English equenceth>.Usually t is a digraph;however,hisdigraph regularly represents ifferentphonemes:0/, 16l or ltl, as in ether, either,or thyme.Thus,<th> s a homographic igraphwhich heterophonicallyepresents

lgl, 16l,or ltl. In foothil/s, however, he spelling<th> is not a digraph,but simplya sequencef graphemesach epresentingifferentphonemes,tl and hl.ln thesecases,he elationship f <th>and hephonology re exically onditioned. lthoughEnglish s often citedas havinga particularlycomplexspellingsystem, omecon-trastivediscrepancyrom a one-to-one honemic-graphemic ituation s normaland is found n all writing systems.

2.3 Diglossia

Diglossia s a sociolinguistic ituation n which two verydifferentvarietiesof a lan-guage re both used n a society,but in differentsituations.Typically,one s used nmore ormalor literarysituations uchas ormalwriting, universityectures, ndnewsbroadcasts,nd s learned nd encouragedn school.The other s used n conversa-tion, informal elevision ituations,olk literature, tc.,and s preferred t home.

In the German-speakingreasof Switzerland, oth StandardGermanand localvarieties f Germanknown as SwissGermanare used; hey are differentenoughfrom eachother not to be mutually intelligible.Writing is almost always donein StandardGerman.StandardGerman s alsoused or formal speaking ituations.Ordinary conversation, owever, s normally in SwissGerman.For example,a

universitycourseusesa textbook n StandardGerman,and lecturesare given nStandardGerman;discussion fterclass etweenheprofessor nd students, owever,would be n SwissGerman.

Arabic sanotherexample f a language ith diglossia.We havementionedn theprevious hapter hat an Arabicspeaker ormallyuses nedialect or speaking ndanother or writing.ModernGreekand heDravidian anguageslsoshowdiglossia.

The term 'diglossia'is usuallyreserved or quite distinct versionsof the samelanguage. owever,other related ariationsoccur. n English, here s not a sharpdivision betweenwritten and spokenEnglish. forgot to put on my watch thismorningseemso beappropriaten anystyleof discourse, rit ten or spoken.How-

ever,wordssuchas est,pursudnt,or uouchsafe remuchmore ikely to be found inwritten English,or in English eadaloud from a written text. Formssuchas sn't,Aren't,would'uearenormal,almost equired,n spokenEnglish. n written English,theyareregularlywritten as wo words.

In many situations,diglossianvolvesdilfercnt anguages. flehave aheadymen-tioned he ScotsGaelicsituationwherenativespeakers f ScotsGaelicare ikely towrite in English ather han in Gaelic. n mediavalwesternEurope, t wasnormalto write in Latin, no matter what languagehe writer normally spoke. n manyareas f the world today, hecolonialhistory s such hat writing is normallydonein French,Spanish, r English, ather han in the native anguage.We can refer o

suchsituations sbilingualdiglossia. ote that diglossia, ilingualor not, doesnotnecessarilynvolvewriting, although t commonlydoes.





TheoreticalPreliminaries

In he following xamples, losseachwordyougiveas an answer, hat s, defineit briefly not an elaborate efinition,ust enough or someone lse o be surewhichwordyou mean:e.9.,stand'be upright'.Use singlequotationmarks orgfosses.

Not using he examplesn the chapter,

(a) find anotherexampleof homographic omophony.(b) findanotherexampleof heterographicomophony.(c) findanotherexampleof heterographiceterophony.

How manydifferent owelsoundsare represented y the followingwords?come,cut, dome,oven, over,pull, put, puft.Find ourwordsexemplifyingifferentways hat he vowelsound n thewordpuf

is spefledn English. Meatand meefwould be examplesor a different owelsound.)Suppose hat n Englishwritingeachsoundwerealwaysspelled he sameway(no examples ike cite-site). Would his make it easier or the reader? or thewriter?

Suppose hat in Englishwritingeach morpheme ad a distinctspelling noexamples ike well 'not sick'-well 'hole for gettingwater'). Would this make iteasier or the reader? or the writer?What s the statusof the ligature e> in the Englishword esthetic?Frenchwrites he vowel sl with he symbol<e>. This symbol s alphabetized

after<od>and before<of>. Describets nature.ln Canadian nglish,he costof an itemworth412penniess written s $4.12;in CanadianFrench, he same tem n the same currencys valuedat 4.12$or4,12$.Comparehe relationshipf thesymbol<$> o the inguisticermdollaroteach anguage.s therea structural ifference etween<,> and <.>?Can you thinkof an Englishword hat you can pronounce, ut whichdoes nothavea standard pelling? Hint: hinkof exclamations.)In comicstrips, he wordsays s occasionallypelled<sez>.Does his spellingrepresent pronunciationifferentrom that of StandardEnglish?What socio-linguisticnformation oes his spelling ive o the reader?

1 9

67

1 0



3 Chinese

3.1 Background,History, and Sociolinguistics

Chineses spokenby overa billionpeople n the People's epublic f China(PRC),

T6iwan, Singapore, nd othercommunities round he world. EthnicChinese eo-

ple are known as Hin ;F, after the Hin dynasty.Within China, thereare some

fifty-fiveotherethnicgroups,most of whom speakother anguages.

The Chineseanguage elongso the Sino-Tibetanamily, which has wo maior

sub-families: hinese nd Tibeto-Burman. ote particularly hat Chineses not

geneticallyelated o Japaneser Koreanalthough heseanguages aveborrowed

Chinese haracters spartof theirwriting systems.he combining orm sino-, rom

the GreekStnai,occursn a few learnedwordsrelating o China:sinology,si.nologist,

sinoph le, sinitic, SinoKorean, S no Japane e, S noV

etntmese, Sino Canadian.Today, there are sevenmajor dialectgroups n China (figure3.1): Northern

or Mandarin Jbnn ? (a large areaof the north and west ncludingBdijing),

W( R (Shinghii and Zhdjleng),Min Psl Ffjiin andTdiwan),Hakka or KEjiaE+(variouscommunitiesn the south),Yud S ot CantoneseGuingdOng nd Hong

Kong), Xiang i;[n Hrin6n),and Gin # (Jiangxi).Although nativeTaiwaneses

a Min dialect, he majority of people n T6iwan speakMandarin as their native

language. here s generallymore dialectvariation n the southof China than in

the north. Cantonese,n particular, s spokenby manypeopleof Chinese ncestry

living abroad.

Spoken ialectsn Chinaare oftenquitedifferent rom eachother.For example,Cantonesend Mandarin arenot mutually ntelligible;but, aswe will see, ll Chinese

is written the sameway, essentially singa Mandarin dialect, egardless f which

dialect hewriter speaks.Movies n Chinese ftenhavesubtitlesn Chinese haracters

to assist iewerswho speakdialects ther han the oneused n the film.

Somedebateexistsas o whetherChineses one anguagewith several ialects,

or several losely elated anguages. inguistsgenerally onsider t to be several

languages. he Chinese hemselvesenerally onsider t to be one languagewith

several ialects. he latterview agrees ith the fact hat the Chinese eoplegener-

ally feel hat theyshare he same ulture andwritten language ven hough hereare

considerable ifferencesn speech.n this book, I will take he one-languageiew,not really o disagree ith my linguisticcolleagues,ut becauset corresponds

straightforwardlywith the unifiedwriting of Chinese.



Cbinese

Figure 3.1 Map of China showing major dialect areas of Chinese.The Kdiia (Hakka)people do not form a contiguous group but are scattered among the neighbouring dialect

groups. Non-Chinese languagesare shown in parentheses

In thischapter,Chinesewords are ranscribednptnyln, the standard omanizationof Chinese ased n the Mandarin pronunciation.OccasionallyPA transcriptionsare usedwhere phoneticdetail is needed.Ptnytnand Mandarin are explainedin more detail below.Further, he traditional formsof characters avebeenusedexcept where simplified characters re specificallymentioned; his difference sexplainedn $3.7.

3.7.7 The languageof u)ritten Chinese

Sinologistscommonly divide the Chinese anguage nto three periods: Old Chinese

1100 to 100 oLD, Middle ChineseL00 oro to 600 NE\xz,nd Mandarin 500 Nrw

to present.Although the spoken Chinese anguage has always been changing, as al l

languagesdo, the written form of the late Old Chineseperiod becameaccepted

as the standard written dialect and changed very limle unti l the beginning of the

twentieth century. This written dialect of the language s known as wdnydn X€'literary language', generally rcfened to as Classical Chinese in English, and it was

used as the normal dialect for writ ing unti l the twentieth century. Thus, in thenineteenth century, Chinesespeakersspoke a nineteenth-century ocal dialect, but

2 l



22 Chinese

when writing, they usedClassicalChinese.By this time, the spokenand written

forms had divergedwidely,and written Chinesewas not understandable ithout

considerableducation. esides lassical hinese,herewas a much smallerand

less espectedradition of vernacularwritten Chinese,ating o theTdngand Sdng

dynasties,nown asbdihui A et 'plain speech', ftenused n popularstories.

Early n the twentiethcentury,a movementgained orce o usemodernspoken

Chinese s he written form. Bdihud ormed he basis or this new form of written

Chinese. oday,writing is done n Modern StandardChinese, dialect lose o the

Mandarin dialectspoken n BEijing.This standard orm of Chineses used or all

writtenChinese, o matterwhat dialect s spoken.n thePRC, his standardorm is

known aspiltonghud &e6'commonspeech', nd n T6iwan, t is referred o as

gu1yil El-#'national language'. he term hdnyil ]'FF*

Chineselanguage's also

sometimes sed or Modern StandardChinese, articularly n academic riting.

Until the twentiethcentury, o be iteratewasto be able o readClassicalChinese.

Thus,a literatepersonhad accesso almostall of Chineseiterature panningmany

centuries.Modern written Chinese, owever,squitedifferent rom Classical hinese.

Literatepeople oday cannotreadClassicalChinesewithout special ducation.As

a result, hey are typically cut of f from immediateaccesso traditional Chinese

literature,ndeed o most materialwritten before he twentiethcentury.

When writing was done n ClassicalChinese,he situationwas diglossicor al l

l iterateChinese peakers.Writing was n Classical hinese, ut speaking as n

the local dialect.Today, for Mandarin speakers,he written form of the language

is quite similar o the one they use n speaking, nd thus no longerdiglossic.For

non-Mandarinspeakers, owever, he difference etweenhe spokenand writtenlanguage emainsdiglossic.People iving in Canton, or example,useCantonese

for speaking, ut for writing, theyhave o learna differentdialect.Note that the

diglossic ituation of traditional Chineses somewhatdifferent rom that of Arabic

or Greek n that the standard orms of Arabic and Greekare the normal spoken

forms n certaincontexts,but ClassicalChinesewasnot normally spoken,except n

readinga classicalext aloud.Diglossia n Chinawas betweenwriting andspeaking,

not between wo forms of the spoken anguage. iteracy n China was relatively

widespread, ut undoubtedlymuch morecommon n thewealthierclasses,ndvery

rare amongpeasants.

To illustrate hesedifferences,onsiderhe written sentence

His

home s not inAmerica'in table3.L (Voegelin ndVoegelin1,964). Mandarin speaker,eading

this sentence loud from thewritten text, would pronounce his as tade ie bi zdi

m6igu6/.This sameMandarinspeaker,alkingto a friend ater n the daywithout the

paper,would say he same hing.By contrast,a Cantonesepeakerrom Hong Kong

would read his sentence loud from the paperas tidik gi bit joi m6igwok/; his is

a conventional haracter-by-characterronunciation n Cantonese f the written

sentence. n theotherhand, hesameCantonesepeakerwould render his sentencequitedifferently n ordinaryspeech, omethingike /k6uih 1[kkei hai mdigwok/.

From the Cantoneseerspectiye,pokenCantoneses not usuallywritten down,

at least n formal contexts,although t may appear n advertising, artoons, rsituationswhere the intention s to emphasize Cantonese ording. Sometimes

there s a characterraditionallyused o showa Cantonese orpheme, ut often



Chinese

Table 3.1 The written and spoken forms of'His

home is not in

America'. The Mandarin is transcribedinplnytn, and the Cantonese n

the Yale Cantonese romanization

23

Fhome

t&-,he

6tposs

4 & * Enot at o'"":'TL.,if,J""

Mandarin - reading pronunciation

Mandarin - ordinary spoken

Cantonese - reading pronunciation

Cantonese - ordinary spoken

Itade ia bi zdi mdigu6/Itade1iabd zii mdigu6//tedik gi bit joi m6igwok//k6uih gukkei hai m6igwok/

there is not (cf. S3.4.9). Even for colloquial Mandarin, there is occasionally aword for which no standard character exists. By the same token, written Chinese,

when read aloud in the conventional Cantonese eading pronunciation, may not be

intelligible to a Cantonesespeaker who is not well acquainted with the Cantonese

conventions of reading written Chinese aloud.

Note that there is no social distinction involved here. In the Cantonese-speaking

area, Cantonese s not regarded as socially inferior to Mandarin. In Hong Kong,

university lectures n Chinese iterature or history, for example, are typically given in

Cantonese, but essaysand examinations are written in Modern Standard Chinese.

\Tithin the PRC, spoken piltonghud (i.e., Mandarin) has been ntroduced in the

school curriculum throughout the country. Possiblyover a period of time it mayreplaceother dialects.But so far, this has not been the case.For most people, local

dialects are valued, andpiltonghuD is most commonly used for official purposes, n

schools, and in speaking to outsiders. Even native speakersof piltanghud who move

to another dialect area often find it useful to learn at least some of that dialect.

3.7.2 Ciuil senice examinations'Writing

hasbeenstandardizedhroughoutChina or some2000 years.For sucha Iargeanddiverse ountry, his s quite emarkable. i Si +$.f , a primeminister n

the Qin dynasty 221-207oLD), attempted o unify the script;his effortswereeventually dopted, ut not until some imeafterhisdeath.Much of the explanationlies n the historyof China'scivil service ystem.Around 500 Nnw,duringthe Suidynasty, heemperorntroduced system f examinationso enter he civil service.Therewere hree evels:ocal,provincial,and mperial.Examinations ere igorousand focused ntirelyon the Confucian lassics. he standardizationn writing thatwe justmentioned rose rom the requirementhat theexaminations ewritten inClassicalChineseas well as n a particularstyle of calligraphy.

Favourableesultsn the .*"-inrtions ensured suciessful, nd often ucrative,career n the civil service.A candidatewho failedcould try again,and again.

One reason or instituting he systemwas to weaken he powerof the nobility byeliminatinga hereditary dministration. ny malesubjectwas eligible o write the



24 Chinese

examinations;he dentityof the authorwas kept secret o that the examinations

could bemarkedwithout favoritism.Nevertheless,espitehe apparentdemocracy,

at least or men, only wealthy familiesgenerallyhad the money o provide the

necessaryducationor theirsons o pass he examinations. he civil service ystem

was a fixtureof Chinese ocietyand asteduntil 1904.Thecivil servicewas mportantnot only for the formal establishmentf classical

writing, but also or the nformalestablishmentf a spokenquasi-standardialect

which civil servants sedamong hemselves.heycame rom all over the country

andwerenot permitted o work in their home areai his commondialectof Chinese

allowed hem to speakcomfortablywith eachother.The capitalof Chinamoved

in differentdynasties;n eachperiod he dialectof the currentcapitalcontributed

to this quasi-standardialectof the civil service.n later imes,with the capitalat

Bdijing, he Mandarindialectemergedmost stronglyas a commonspoken orm of

Chinesewithin the civil service.In Chinesean official is guan E, andguanhud Ei t 'official speech'was the

term for the form of spokenChinese sedby the civil service. he English ermfor

guan s mandarin from Sanskritmantrin'counsellor'via Portuguese ndMalay).

Mandarinwas usedas a term for theseofficialsand by extensiono the language

theyspoke.Mandarin,inaddition o referring o the anguage,s stillusedn English

today o refer o seniorgovernment fficials,as n 'Themandarins f Ottawarecently

dec i ded tha t . . . ' .Norman (1988)hasa helpful analogy or the traditionalChineseanguage itu-

ation. t is as f thepeopleof Portugal,Spain,France, taly, andRomaniaall spokelocaldialectsbut wrote in Latin, andgovernment fficialsspoke he ParisianFrench

dialectamongsthemselves.

3.2 Phonologyof Modern StandardChinese

In traditionalChineseinguistics,he syllablen Chinese asbeendivided nto threeparts: nitial, final, and tone.The initial consists f the initial consonant, nd the

final consists f everythingelse,except he tone.The final can be further dividedinto medial,vowel, and final consonant.All partsof thesyllableare optionalexcept

the vowel and tone. n a simplesyllablesuchas ln6ql btg', ln l is the initial, /aql

is the final, and 2l is the tone (thereare four tones n Modern StandardChinese,each epresented y a number);here, he initial is the sameas he onset,and the

final s the sameas he rhyme. n morecomplicated yllables,he Chinese ivisions

of the syllable o not always orrespond xactly o theusual inguisticunits or the

syllable, f onset, hyme,nucleus, ndcoda.Table3.2 shows he possibleMandarin initialsand finals; he phoneticpro-

nunciation s givenafter thepinyln transcriptionwhere t would not otherwisebe

obvious. or furtherdetails, eeStimson I975).

Chinese as exical oneswhich vary from dialect o dialect; hat is, differentpitch patternsdistinguishdifferentwords. rilfith stressed yllablesn Mandarin,

thereare our toneswhoseshapes re shown n figure3.2.Including one, herearesome1840possible yllable hapesn Mandarin;of these, nly about1359actually



Chinese

Table3.2 The Mandarin nitialsand finals.Transcriptions prnyin,with IPA used n

bracketso show he phonetic etailmoreclearly

25

Initials

p b t d c z l t s d z f c h z h l t s d a l q i l t p d z l k g

s sh [e] x [s] h ["]r [.r]

v til

Finals

e a ei ai ou ao en an eng ang er

i ie ia iu iao in ian ing iang

u (u)o ua ui uai un uan ong uang

ii iie tin iian iong

Table 3.3 Examples of the four Mandarin tones

Tone 1 (high evel) ma n6 'mother'

Tone 2 (rising) m6 !fr,'hemp'

Tone 3 (falling-rising) mi ,F? 'horse'

Tone 4 (falling) mi ,Ei 'scold'

Figure 3.2 The four Mandarin tone contours

occur TaylorandTaylor 19951.In omeunaccentedyllablesn polysyllabic ords,the tone s predictablerom the contextand is left unmarked.

Examples f words with four different onesare shown n table 3.3 with theirptnyln tonemarkings.

3.2.7 Romanization

As Chinese s written in characters,outsiders ind it extremelyhelpful to have a way

to indicate the pronunciation of Chinesewords in the Roman alphabet.A scheme o

representutterancesof other alphabetsor writing systems s known as a romanization.

Various romanizations for Chinesehave been nvented (table 3.4). For many years,the Wade-Giles systemwas commonplace. A different romanization known asgw6yil

fI

m nw



26 Chinese

Table 3.4 A comparison of different romanizations. IPA shows the phonetic

pronunciation; the tone in the IPA column is indicated as with pinytn tone marks

IPA Pinyin Yale Wade-Giles Gw6yi lu6mizi

papnatsu5tshu5

sjsig\

si

par

p'at

tso2

ts'02

hsit

hsi2

hsi3

hsia

ba

pa

tzwo

tswo

shi

shyi

shii

shih

lu6mdzineverachievedwidespread se,bu t it was interestingn representinghe

tone with letters:hus ma m6 mi mi / werewritten <mha,ma,maa,mah>.Today,ptnytn has become he official romanizationof the PRC and is widely used.The

Yalesystemwas similar o ptnylnand was used n a gooddealof teachingmaterialprior to the ntroductionof plnyln.Unfortunately, t present,he advanced tudentin Chineses likely to have o becomeamiliar with Ifade-Giles as well asptnytn

because f the argeamountof materialwhich uses oth romanvations.Note that

the Yale romanizationsor Mandarin and Cantonese renot the same hing.

3.3 Relationshipof Language nd Writing in Chinese

The relationshipbetween he Chineseanguageand the writing system s relat-

ively simple.There are many characterso learn,but the structuralrelationship

between haracters nd anguages not complex.The Chinese haracter i $ is agrapheme;.e.,a characters the fundamental ontrastive nit of writing in Chinese.In an utterance, achsyllable s representedy a character, nddifferentmorphemesarewritten with differentcharacters.

Writing an utterance n Chinese s quite straightforward.First, we divide the

utterancento syllables.n thegreatmajority of cases, achmorpheme orrespondsto one syllable.For eachsyllable,we write the characterwhich correspondso themorphemeof that syllable.

$7eneedmorphemic nformation sincemost syllable

shapesepresentmore han one morpheme. he uncommonbisyllabicmorphemes

have wo characters. hus, n our written text, therewill beonecharacteror each

syllable.Homophony s verycommon n Chinesewith mostsyllableshapes orresponding

to more han onemorpheme, ut differentmorphemes regenerallyepresentedn

writing by differentcharacters. or example,he syllable til is the soundof severaldifferentmorphemes, achwritten with a differentcharacter: trl ' ladder'ffi,

Iti l

'scrape'

h,l, ti l 'kick' frft.Thissituationsometimeseads o the writing of anincorrect,bu t homophonous, haracter.U7ritinghe wrong oneof these haractersis similar to writingtheir fo r there n English. f we want to write something or

bapadz6ts6sisisisi

bapazu6cu6xtxixixi



Chinese 27

which we have forgotten a character and do no t have a dictionary or other help

handy, we would have to rephrase he utterance to avoid this morpheme.

ReadingChinese s perhapsa bit more difficult than writing. From eachcharacter,

we know what morpheme is intended. The difficulty arises n that word divisions

are not marked in Chinese.Reading requires that we parse he text into words andsyntactic structures correctly. We must recognize he occasionalbisyllabic morpheme

and sort out the relatively few chancters which represent more than one morpheme,

such as 4i lxingl'walk'

and 4i lhdngl 'line, row'.

3.3.7 Wbat linguistic units do characters Qresent?

In reading bout he Chinese riting system, ne requently ets onfusingnformationaboutwhat unit in the language character epresents. oesa character zi S)represent word (c i c;l), a morpheme ci si l

-A*1,or a syllable yrnii6 + fiF ?To

sort this out, let's ook first at the language,eavingwriting aside or the moment.Although Chinesehasalmostno suffixesor prefixes, ompounding s extremelycommon,and words frequentlyconsistof more than one morpheme.Taylor andTaylor (1995)say hat approximatelywo-thirdsof all Chinesewords arepoly-morphemic.The mostcommonpattern s for a morpheme o consistof one syllable,but this snot necessarilyo.A smallproportionof morphemesn Chinese ave wosyllables; isyllabicmorphemes re particularlycommon n the names or animalsandplants.Thus, ookingonly at the anguage, e find that in Chinese,morphemesaregenerallymonosyllabic ut that words are commonlypolymorphemic.

ti l7hathen doesa character epresent?n table 3.5, we haveexamples f the

typicalsituation.One-syllable orphemesre llustrated y wd'l' andhdo'good'.Two examples f the ess ommonpatternof two-syllablemorphemes reshanhil'coral' andhildid butterfly'.Many of the words of this type are borrowings romother languages.Words with the common wo-morpheme ompoundpatternareillustrated y tidlit 'railway' (= tid'iron' + Iit 'road') andzidi,in'dictionary'F zi'character'+ didn standard').\7ecannow easily ee hat there s no regular elationin thenumberof syllables,morphemes, r words.But if we now look at how theseformsare written, we can see hat the numberof characters orrespondso the

Table 3.5 Different types of lexical items showing the different number of characters,syllables,morphemes, and words in each. Note that the only consistent agreement s

between the number of characters in an utterance and the number of syllables

Characters Syllables

+ +"frMorphemes

?51*

Words-a

wd

hdo

shAnhfi

hildi6

tidlilzidi,in

'l',*,

'good' +t'coral' Wrq'butterfly' **n*X'railway'

MW'dictionary'+4-

1,1,22

22

1122

22

1111

11



28 Chinese

numberof syllables, ut not to the numberof morphemes r words. n summary,

there s a general ule n Chinesehat everysyllablen the anguage orrespondso

one charactern writing.

A small exception o therule

that eachsyllables written with one character

involvesnominal forms ending n the suffix /-rl. This l-rl is a diminutive suffix,particularly ypical of colloquialspeech f the B6ijingdialect.This suffix does

not increasehe numberof syllables, ut it is written as a separateharacter L,which originally meant child'. Thus, lhuarl, the colloquial form of 'flower', has

only one syllable, ut is written with two characters.n the terminologydevelopedin chapter2, iAJL rsa polygraphsince he two graphemesepresent singlesyllable,

a unit normally represented y one charactern Chinese.n this usage, L is a

boundcharacterormingpart of the polygraph.A secondexception s the number 20' in Chinese.This number s /dr shi/

'(l iterally)

two tens'and s normallywritten with two characters+. There s,

however, single haracter li which s sometimessed or'20'. Thischaracters apolyphone ince t is onegrapheme sed o representwo syllables.

Many Chinesemorphemes avevery limited distribution.The word lplngyilul

nnR'friend' is a compound.The second lement y6ul is somewhat estrictedn

that it doesnot occur as a word by itself,but it doesoccur in other compounds

with othermorphemes, uchas y6uhio/'friendly'. The first syllable p6ng/ s even

more restricted:t doesnot occur n any othercontext,eitherasa word by itselfor

in a compoundwith othermorphemes. he morpheme plngl is what is known as

a cranberrymorpheme occurring n only one context, ike the cran- of English

cranbeny).As for writing, the generalChinese ule still applies.Everysyllables

written with one character.Accordingly f we ask a Chinese peaker o write

/p6ngydu, we getEflA without hesitation. f we thenask what the individualparts

mean, he answer or ly6ul is likely to be friend', but /p6ng/ s harder.There s

a readingpronunciation or p1nglwhich allowsus to talk about he character, ut

the meaning s hard to describe learlysince t neveroccursby itself.We

cancall

sucha grapheme cranberrygrapheme.Englishspeakers avea similar difficulty if

askedwhat the cran-of cranberrymeans.Many characters re ike this in Chinese;

they do not form wordsby themselves,nd theymay occur n only onecontext.

3.3.2 HomophonyHomophony (two or more different morphemes with the same sound) is a pro-

minent feature of modern Chinese.Old Chinesehad lesshomophony, bu t historical

changes n the phonology of Chinesehave neutralized the pronunciation of many

syllables which were different in earlier Chinese. The result today of the historic

changes n the language s that although Chinese has a great number of homophonic

morphemes, different morphemes are written differently, thus facilitating reading.

To give one example, he sevenmorphemes n table 3.6 are all pronounced /si/ in

modern Chinese,but they are all written with different characters. n Old Chinese,

however, six of thesewere pronounced differently; only the morphemes for

'stay'

and 'dawn' were homophonous - /osjuk/. The Old Chinesepronunciations follow

Baxter's(1992) reconstruction.



Chinese

Table 3.6'Vflords

written differently, but pronounced the same in Modern

Standard Chinese

29

Character Meaning Modern Chinese Old Chinese

SU

SU

suS U

SU

susu

RtrGE\+,6$A/\r\

i*i

'millet'

'solemn'

'stay'

'dawn'

'white'

'tell'

'inform'

osiok

osjiwk

osjuk

osjuk

osaks

osgaks

osok

Taylor and Taylor (1995)note hat in modernChinese, f the 1359occurringsyllable hapes including one),eachsyllable hape s written by an average f!1 characters. hey note that 1,99 yllableshapes 14.5per cent)haveno homo-phony; .e., hey are written by only one character:€.9., he syllable hapebLilrepresents nly onemorpheme, amely he onemeaning white', which is written

6 . Thus,6 is the only characterwith thepronunciation b6il. On the otherhand,a few characters aveover 100 homophones: .g. ly\l,witten by 149 characters.Such iguresstem rom very largedictionaries, ut evena small dictionary orlearnersXudxfHdnyingCididn 1998) ists31 charactersor /yi/, each or a differentmorpheme.

Because f the considerable omophony n Chinese,t is possibleo composeentiresentences,r evenstories, sing he same yllable hape. he following story(table3.7) usingonly the Mandarinsyllable hape shi/ s an example.Note thatdifferencesf toneare gnored. Thisstory sgiven n TaylorandTaylor (1995),butit may havecome rom ChaoYuenrenwho used t in a lecture n Toronto in theearly1970s.)

3.4 Origin and Structureof ChineseCharacters

3.4.7 Eaily Chineseutriting

Aside from some early pottery marks which are difficult to interpret, the earliest

material which shows clear evidenceof writing is oracle-bone writing (Chin. jiigfw6n

W f X.), also known as shell-and-bonewriting. Oracle-bonewriting has been dated

to L200-1050 oro during the late Shangdynasty in the central eastarea of China.

Early inscriptions have been ound on bones,usually the shoulder-bladeof cattle, or

the plastron (undershell)of turt les. Thesewere used n making predict ionsabout

the future. The bone or shell was subjected o heat, and the resulting cracks were

interpreted.The questionand prophecy,and sometimes he outcome,were scratched

into the bone. Note that the character l- for /b[/ 'divination' was originally a

pictograph for two cracks.



30 Chinese

Table 3.7 A story in which each syllable s pronounced /shi/

r tE*+, i6R ' t r t r f r ,

+A+{ff .tA t ft++€rFinfu + ft+€+rtudTFfr.F+€.ttr\€fi .ffi,L\int-+ifr 'ltk* ,4*,ft-+IfrtrtE.t6R*5€ IfrR, fifr fi "E E-& irt,K4*.++**,n,fr E*r, ' 6Rr6a*ft+Mn.AF+ i6inhfr.\frR t+EtrfrRafFfr.+"

shi shi shi shi shi shi, shi shr,shi shi shi shi.shi shi shi shf shi shi shi shi, shi shi,

shi shi shi shi shi.shi sh(, shi shi shi shi shi.shi shi shi shi shf shi, shi shi shi,shi shi shi shi shi shi.shi shi shi shi shfshi shi, shi shf shi.shi shi shi, shi shi shi shi shi shi shi,shi shi shi, shi shi shi shi shi shi shf shi shi.

shi shi, shi sh( shi shi shi shi shi shi shi shi shi.shi shi shi shi.

TranslationA poetnamedShi ived n a stonehouseand iked to eat ion flesh,andhe vowed o eat en of

them. He used o go to the market n search f lions, and one dayat ten o'clock,he chanced

to see en of them there.Shi killed the lions with arrows and picked up their bodies, arrying

them back o his stonehouse.His housewas drippingwith waterso he requestedhat his

servants roceed o dry it. Then he began o try to eat he bodiesof the ten ions. t was only

then he realised hat thesewere n fact ten lions made of stone.Try to explain he riddle.

Figure3.3 showsan inscribedortoiseplastrondatedca.7200-1180oro. The

text is actuallywritten twice n similar erms.Keightley 19891translatesheright-

handportionas: Crack-makingon chia-shenday2L), Ch'uehdivined "Fu Hao's

childbearingwill be good". The King, reading he crackssaid: "If it be a ting

day childbearing,t will begood. f i t be kengday childbearing,t will be extremely

auspicious."On the thirty-firstday,chia-yin day5L), shegavebirth. It was not

good. t wasa girl.' The ancientChinese ad a ten-dayweek, ncluding ing, keng,

andchia as days.Since he king did not specifically entiona chia day,hispredic-

tion is technically orrect.This text a lso ells us something bout he appreciation

of women n Shang ociety.Some4500 differentcharacters avebeen dentified n the oracle-boneexts;only

about1500 havebeen onnected ith characters f laterwriting. For thosewhich



Chinese

Figure3.3 An oracle-bonenscription(from'WayneSenner ed.),The Origins of Writing,figure6, p. 181.Lincoln,NE: University f NebraskaPress, 989.A 1989by Universityof NebraskaPress. eprintedwith permission)

later fell out of use, t is difficult to determine their meaning. Undoubtedly, some of

the characters hat disappeared representedproper names of people that dropped

out of use or place-names hat changed over time.

The structure of the Chinese writing system has not really changed since the

oracle-bone exts although the shapesof characterschangedover time. This change

in shape s a calligraphic evolution rather than a structural change.

3.4.2 Reconstructing he early pronunciation of Cbinese

An obvious question is how do we know how Chinesewas pronounced in the past.

If we examine the historical documents of English, we find that modern /haws/'house'was

written <hus> n Old Englishtimes.From this, we can make a reasonable

3 1



32 Chinese

guesshat it would havesounded omethingike [hus].For Chinese,he situation s

much moredifficult. !7e know that the character $ 'horse'is pronounced mil in

Mandarin oday,but f we ook at Old Chinese ocuments, e stillget,Ftroranolder

calligraphic ariant)with no additionalphonetic

evidence.o reconstruct lder

spoken ormsof Chinese, cholarsook at a varrctyof evidence. he moderndialectformscan be used o help n reconstruction. urther, hepronunciation f the arge

numberof Chinesewords borrowed nto Japanese, orean,and Vietnamese ftengivesushelp.Sometimes,e haveearlyChineseexts ranscribed honeticallyn other

scriptsrom centralAsiasuchasBrahmi,Uighur,and'Phags-pasee hapter L).

Considerable elp in reconstructinghe pronunciationof Chinese omes rom

certainChineseexts hemselves.omposed round1000 oro in Old Chineseimes,

the ShIiIngwas a collectionof rhyming poems.By examining he rhymes n the

Shtitng,we can determinehat two morphemes erepronounced he same or at

leastsimilarly). n the fifth centuryNEw,dictionariesof characterswere writtenwhich ndicatedhepronunciation t that time.Thepronunciationwas ndicated y

showing hat the initial of the syllablewas pronounced he sameas the initial of

anotherwell-known character nd the final waspronouncedhe sameas he final

of another.We might similarlyshow hepronunciation f theEnglishword tongue

by saying hat it has he initial of tie and the final of sung.Obviously his systemrequires nowing what the reference haracters ounded ike, but with a bit of a

startingpoint, scholarsind this informationenormously elpful.Duringthe Sdngdynasty 960-1127Nrw), rhyme ableswereconstructed how-

ing the pronunciation f characters t that time. Eachpagewas a grid with the

initials listedat the rop, the finalsat the left, and characterswere entered n theappropriate ell according o their pronunciation.Characters ith different ones

were assignedo differentvolumesof the dictionary.

3.4.3 Hout charactersu)ere ormed

Very generally, Chinese used four methods in constructing characters: pictography,

phonetic extension, semantic extension, and differentiation. Pictograms were likely

the earliest types of characters. Some of these have survived into modern times

(although with substantially changed shapes).Figure 3.4 gives someexamples, show-

ing their early and modern forms.Figure 3.5 shows some abstract pictograms. These are similar to the basicpicto-

gram, but they are graphic representationsof abstract notions rather than of concrete

objects.

Any new writing system has the task of providing ways of writing any lexical

item. In Chinese, sometimes, rather than creating an entirely new character, an

existing character was used for a different morpheme which happened to have a

similar sound. For example, the character for lmil'horse'

was a pictogram f6 (the

modern form of the character s ,F?). nother similar-soundingword is lmal'mother'.

Rather than developing an entirely new character for lmal 'mother', the Chinese

extended the use of the character for lmd,l

horse'

to write lmal

'mother'

as well(figure 3.5). This is a processof phonetic extension (sometimes eferred to as rebus

writing). Later on, a separatecharacter for 'mother' developed.



Chinese 33

early

modem

Figure 3.4 Pictograms

early

modern

lyrl'one' lEr

two'lsenl'three'

T

llqrel'below'

---- g

/shnng/'above'

Figure 3.5 Abstract pictograms

lmel'horse' -) lmel

'mother'

Figure 3.6 Phonetic extension. The arrow here shows that the character for one word

was extended to write a different (but similar-sounding) word as well

Table 3.8 Semanticextension

mo

zlo.an

wa

nt

'a mil l ''a drill''a t i le''mud'

m 6 t szudn gF

w ) Eni ;fv

trsEE,;fv

' to grind''to

drill '' to

tile''to

daub on mud'

In some cases,characters were extended to different morphemes by semantic

extension, a processwhereby a character used for one morpheme is extended to

another morpheme with a similar meaning. Most of the instancesof this process

have since been disguised by having additional elementsadded to distinguish the

two characters, bu t in modern Chinese, examples do exist where the morphemes

have the samepronunciation or differ only by tone (table 3.8).

The fourth processof differentiation was very common. \Ufehave seen ust above

that, originally, the character ,$ was a pictogram for the morpheme lmil 'horse'.

By phonetic extension, t was also used or lmal'mother'. Presumably, he ambiguous

useof ,$ for both 'horse' and 'mother'was bothersome,so the Chineseeventually

created a separatecharacter for 'mother' by differentiation. The character for /n[/'woman' is Jc. The new character for 'mother' was created by combining the

character for 'woman'with the character for 'horse', giving i,F, an unambiguous

character usedonly for the morpheme lmal'mother'; thereafter, ,$ was used only

for lmll 'horse'. The logic for this compounding is clear: the meaning of 'mother'

was similar to 'woman',and the sound of lmal was similar to lmdl

'horse'.

nJrlni i lwoman

A,^t

lrfinl'man'

oH

l r r l'sun'

En

lyucl'moon'



34 Chinese

Table 3.9 Traditional categories of character formation

A. pictograms

B. abstract pictogramsC. semantic-phonetic compounds

D. semantic-semantic compounds

xiingxing

zhishixingsheng

huiyi

*-x,

*E'+nt+6*

This differentiation has created a semantic-phonetic compound: one part Jr was

used for its semantic value and the other ,$ was used or its phonetic value. Note that

the phonetic value of * lnil, and the semanticvalue of ,6'horse' are irrelevant. I

have usedmodern Mandarin pronunciations to illustrate this phenomenon; n early

Chinese, he pronunciations of'horse'

and'mother' would have been different from

what they are today, but we can assume hat they were fairly similarto

eachother

then. As we will see, n later years the semantic-phonetic compound became the

most common way to form a character in Chinese.

3.4.4 Traditional analysis of characters

Around 100 oro, the scholarX[ Shdn+,lF analyzedhe structureof charactersnto

six groups.His groupinghasbeenwidely used n discussinghis subject.We must

not forget,however, hat X[ Shdn ivedsome1500yearsafter Chinese haracters

were irst formed,and he had no directknowledge f the originalprocesses.

Two of Xil Shdn's ategoriesefer o their use,not to their structure.The remain-ing four categories regiven n table 3.9.S7ehavealreadyseenexamples f the first threeof thesecategories. emantic-

phonetic ompounds re so mportant hat we will look at them n moredetailand

then examine he semantic-semanticompounds.

3.4.5 Semantic-pbonetic ompounds

The semantic-phonetic compound is by far the most common type of character in

Chinese. Its structure is relatively transparent: one part of the character is related to

the meaning, and another part is related to the sound.\il(e

have already seenhowthe character ,6 lmal 'mother' is composedof a semanticelement* 'woman', and

a phonetic element ,f t lmil.

The semantic-phoneticcompounds in table 3.10 show further caseswhere ,6 is

used for its phonetic value. The meaning of the semantic component is given at the

right. Note that the pronunciation of the semantic element is irrelevant. Note as

well that a semantic-phoneticcompound character s a single characterand represents

a singlesyllable,as discussedn S3.3.1.A further example involves h, which originally was a pictogram for /wi/

'creature'. By phonetic extension, this character came to be used also for /wi/ 'do

not'. In time, the character for

'creature'

was modified to *h by adding a semanticelement for 'ox', and h was used thereafter only for 'do not'. Note that with'horse'

and'mother', the original meaning'horse'was kept with the original character



Chinese 35

Table 3.10 Semantic-phoneticcompounds with the phonetic ,6 . The semanticelement s

shown as a separate character at the right

Semanti c-ph o n etic comp oun d Semantic element

_afr*p

r6n&*s,6

lm6,llmillmdl

lmil

'agate'

'weights'

'grasshopper'

'scold'

'ge*' lyul'stone' lshil'insect, reptile' lch6ngl'mouth' (written twice) /k6u/

Table 3.11 Semantic-phoneticcompounds with the phonetic *,. The semanticelement n

it s allograph as a separatecharacter is shown at the right

Pronunciation Meaning of

character

Semantic

component

Meaning of semantic

component

!

ft,-;*,

&,fr*,,fu,#,w,l*,t*,

&,b*.

#,&,Eh*

i*,#,

ly6ollireolliidollqiaollqi6ollxiaollxiiol/shao/lnSolln6olln6olln5,olk6ol16olk5o; n6olkSolhdol

'legendary chief''water (verb)''lucky'

'lift foot''lift up''good horse, valiant''dawn'

'burn'

'shout, quarrel'

'oar''bell, cymbal''disturb'

'graceful'

'brushwood'

'roundworm'

'abundant'

'coil'

rf-,\/t-atr,BH)k€

^+++f+*A&

i"r.,''man, human''foot'

'quill

'horse'

tsunt

'fire'

'word, speech'

'tree, wood''metal'

'hand'

twoman'

'grass,plant''insect, reptile''eat, food''silk, thread'

shape,and the derived use mother' was associatedwith the new character.With

'creature' and 'do not', the derived use 'do not' was associatedwith the original

character, and the original usecreature'

was associatedwith the new character.

Table 3.L1 gives a large number of semantic-phoneticcompounds having the

phonetic element fr, ly6ol. Notice that the phonetic similarity here is not so tight as

with'horse'.

The meaning of the semantic element s given at the right of the table.

It is not always clear why a certain semantic elementhas beenchosen.Some of the

items n table 3.1I areno longer used n modern Chinese.

Historically, the semantic-phoneticcharacterswere formed in two stages.First, a

character with a certain meaning and sound was extended to representa different

morpheme with the same or similar sound as the first character.This process s

phonetic extension: a symbol is used for another morpheme with the sameor similar

sound. At this point, the character is ambiguous; it could be read in two different



36 Chinese

Table3.12 Examples f bound allographs.The free

allograph s givenat the left, then the boundform alone,

and at the right the bound form is shownaspart of a

character,with the bound form indicatedby an arrow

human, man

hand

heart

water

fire

(note different bound allographs)

bamboo +++ x

ways. In time, this ambiguiry was resolvedby altering the shapeof the character or

one of the meanings by adding a semantic element, thus forming a new character,

but keeping the original shape for the other meaning. This process s differentiation

in the form of adding a semantic determinative. In an historical sense, he phoneticelement s 'primary', and the semanticelement s 'secondary'.

In many cases, he semanticelement has a slightly different shapewhen it occurs

as a bound allograph in a character, often simplified, and generally written more

narrowly. Some of theseare given in table 3.1,2.For example, the bound allograph

for 'human' is written more narrowly with the first stroke clearly above the second.

\flith'hand',

the bound allograph is simplified by omitting the top stroke. The

bound allograph for 'heart' is quite different from the free allograph. The four-

stroke free form of 'water' is written as three strokes arranged vertically.'Fire' has

two bound allographs: one is simply a narrower version of the free form, but the

other is four dots written at the bottom of the phonetic element. The bound form of'bamboo' is a pair of three-strokeunits written above the phonetic element.

3.4.6 Setnantic-se?nanticompounds

Semantic-semanticcompounds are the fourth category in X[ Shbn's analysis

(table 3.13). He described hem as created by the combination of two independent

characters on the basis of their meaning. For example, the traditional explanation

for the character * lanl'peace' is that it is constructed of two characters which

together form a woman under a roof, a peaceful notion. A woman and a child

together are

'good';

the sun and the moon together are

'bright ';

a man leaningagainst a tree is 'resting'; two trees orm a 'grove'; the strength for work in the field

is 'masculine';and a

'home' is a pig under a roof.

Il&.I

J+hI,1.+t,'*

I

.}r'I--+/.+

+

rK

)(



Chinese

Table 3.13 Semantic-semantic ompounds

37

lanl +lhiol *t

lmingl Bnlxinl 4+tlint +tlninl Xtil''t *

+

f

.L

-r

+++

Modern scholars, ooking more closely at the early history of this category of

characters,have become doubtful of these radit ional explanations. Rather than

being formed purely on semanticgrounds, it seems hat many, if not most, of these

characters were formed as semantic-phonetic compounds, but becauseof phono-logical change, he phonetic element s no longer apparent. Boltz (7996, p. 197)

says:In

origin actual charactersare never formed this way; this is an art if icial,

retrospectivecategory.' Quite possibly, the explanation as semantic-semantic om-

pounds arose rom pedogogical needs; hat is, a teacher would make up an interesting

story to help children remember the characters better. The geminate (samegraphic

element written twice) example of l l inl'grove' ff iay, however, be a legit imate

semantic-semantic ompound.

3.4.7 Someexamplesof charactersu)ith a.complexhistoty

To illustrate the complexity that may be involved in the history of characters,consider

the examples n table 3.74. Al l of thesecharacterscontain the element E. By itself,

rr is used o write lk6ul'mouth'. lil7emight assume hat the secondand third char-

actersare semantic-phonetic ompounds with t? as the phonetic element since hey

are all pronounced similarly to lk6ul'mouth'. In fact, this seems o be the historic

situation, but the fourth and fifth charactersalso seem o be semantic-phonetic om-

pounds with tr as the phonetic element, but in this case, t would be pronounced

lmingl. Since he character by itself is pronounced /k6u l,we can understand characters

two and three, but the rationale for characters four and five is not immediately clear.

However, some historic digging may clear things up (table 3.15). Note that .& andqB both have a somewhat similar meaning involving using the mouth to make a

noise.$t/hat

seems o have happened s that by a processof semantic extension t?'mouth'

came also to be used to write the character for lmfngl'call, name'. \flith

Table 3.14 Characters with the element p

'peace'

'good'

'bright'trest'

tgfovet

'male'

'home'

lmiSnllnul

h\ l/rdnl/miiil\t/mi6nl

'rooftwomant

tsunt

tmant

ttreet

'strength'

'roof '

lnallz\l

/yuB/lmillmilIti6nl/shi/

twoman'

tson'

tmoontttree'

ttreet

'field''pig'

*+A^tE

T,

A

Jcfl/.th15

I?eP

lu

A€

/kdu//kdu//kdu/

lming/lmingl

'mouth'

'knock'

'hook, fasten''call,

name''cryof bird'



38 Chinese

Table 3.15 Development of characterswith the element tr l by the processes f phonetic

extension, semantic extension, and different iation

(p meanskneel';the mage s 'kowtowing'- kneeling nd touchingone'shead o the

floor as a signof subservience)

F /k6u/ 'mouth'

by phoneticextension t? /kbu/ 'hook, fasten'

by differentiation lu /kdu/ 'hook, fasten'

(withallograph f +'hand' as adical)

P'mouth'

pictogram

g lk6ul 'mouth'

by phoneticextensionbv differentiation

tl lk6ul 'mouth'

by semantic extension

by differentiation

Er /k6u/ 'mouth'

by phonetic/semanticxtensionby differentiation

E /kdu/ 'knock'

eP /kdu/ 'knock'

P lmingl'call, name'

A lmingl 'call, name'

Er lmingl 'cry of bird'

\A lmingl 'cry of bird'

(note that later, A was itself used as a phonetic element and combined with the

character for 'gold, metal'to form a new character 4A for lmingl'engrave')

this new soundandmeaning, r wasfurther extendedo the morpheme mingl 'cry

of bird'; this latteruseseemso bea joint caseof phoneticextension nd semantic

extension. n time, the shapes f these haracterswere all differentiatedrom tr by

addingadditional lements,amely lrat'evening'and€1nidol'bird' (Boltz19941.

By itself, rr is now usedonly with the pronunciation k6u/.

3.4.8 Writing bonouted words

The writing of borrowed words presents n obviousproblem for any morpho-graphicscriptsince hereareno symbolsor foreignmorphemes. o dealwith thisproblem,Chinesewrites he pronunciationusingcharactersor their phoneticvalue

only (phonetic xtension).For example,when the formerUS presidentRonald Reagan ecame ommonly

mentionedn newspapers,t wasnecessaryo devise way of writing his name. n

the PRC,his namewas pronounced li gEnlandwritten -tsi&. By themselves,Emeans inside' and ;tRmeans root', together orming a meaningless hrase; he

characters erechosen nly becauseheyrepresenthe soundof thenameReagan.In thisparticularcaset is nterestingo note hatTdiwanadopteddifferentcharacters

to represent eagan's ame€'+R with a slightlydifferentpronunciation l6i gEnl.Canada s written hr+ X ljie ni ddl. Again, the meaningof the characters

Utu ljial 'add to'; $ ln6l 'take';X lddl large')is irrelevant. he pronunciation f

the last two characterss obvious,but the choiceof lj ial seems dd. Here we



Chinese 39

must realize hat the first Chinese n Canadawere from Hong Kong and spokeCantonese.n Cantonese,he characterm is pronouncedgdl,soundingike [ki]. The

Chinese ame or Canadawas irstcreated y Cantonesepeakerss gi nih daaih/

rtv+d; this was then adoptedby speakers f Mandarin n which the characters

were pronouncedas ljta n6 di/. (The English orm Peking s similarly from theCantonese ronunciation f Bdijing.)

Less ommonly, oreignwords are ranslatednto Chinese nd then written withthe semantically ppropriateChinese haracters. or example,after he

Watergate

Hotel gainednotorietyduring theNixon years n the United States,t waswritten asrJ<fl, which is a simple ranslationof the two morphemesi *ter andgate.

3.4.9 Dialect characters'We

mentioned bove hat althoughall speakers f Chinese se he samedialect or

writing, occasionallyhey may want to write a dialectexpression. omedialects,Cantonesen particular,havedeveloped ialectcharactersor manydialectwordswhich are not used n standardChinesewriting, such as o* /fih/ 'not' and €' lItongl slaughter'.SeeD. Li (2000) or further nformationaboutcurrentwriting inCantonese ndTiu" (1998) or a discussion f writing in Taiwanese.

3.5 Structureof ChineseCharacters

Simply looking at characters, we find a wide variety of shapes;nevertheless,each

character, no matter how simple or complex, is written so as to fill an imaginarysquare.Books for children to practise heir brushmanshipconsist of blank pages

with a grid of equal-sizedsquares.

3.5.1 Theshapesof characters

Some haracters onsistof only onepart,which may be simpleor complex: r

t }i . €-. Some haracters onsist f two (or three)partsplacednext to eachotherhorizontally.Although he erm s not usuallyused n Chinese tudies, e might callthesecharactersigatures, L EX ,6 7E;*f. Somecharacters onsistof two parts

placedvertically,one on top of the other: t + + /A *. Some haractersonsistof a part written insidea border;sucha bordermay be a completeor partialenclosure, r it mayconsist f two balanced arts:E El ,fg H h1.Some haractershavemorecomplexarrangements. enerallyhey are ormedby iterativeapplicationsof thestructures ivenabove.Forexample,S is a politeway of sayingyou'; it con-sists irst of two parts, f, faboveand ,t-ibelow.The lower part is a singleunit, bu tthe upperpart consists f two units arranged orizontally,4and ,i . Other typesofcomplexstructures re shown n the followingt # # ,'* flfi A ffi E i;A fe .

3.5.2 Complex numeralsOne interesting kind of character is the complex numeral. The ordinary form of

the number'one' lyll is a singlestroke, as shown in table 3.1,5.It would obviously



40 Cbinese

Table 3.16 Ordinary and complex characters or numerals

Ordinary Complex

lylllErlsan//si/lwliul/fin/lqlltbaltjinl/shi/

tbît/chian/

I

;Tj-

+

)L-L

I

6+

aF\++ffirA*+tiltkJ*

t64+

be quite easy o alter this to a'two,

three, ten' or some other number. Because he

characters or numbers generally have rather simple forms, more complex variants

exist fo r use n contracts and other documents to avoid possible raud.

3.5.3 Hout charactersare u)ritten

Theorder n which the strokes f a character rewritten is important.Theadvant-

ageof a fixed stroke order is that when a characters written quickly, it will still

be legible.The general uidelinesor the order of writing strokesare shown n

table3.17.Theseareonly general uidelines;herearemanyspecial ules or strokeorder-

ing. Note especiallyhat a box-like shape onsists f threestrokes; he top and right

sides remadewith one stroke.Figure3.7 givessomeexamples.n the element ?

of characrerA, the left side s written first, then the top andright sideasone stroke,finally he bottom stroke guidelines and 6). CharacterB = goes rom top to

bottom(guideline ). Character ,t ' is written rom left to right (guideline ). tn

characterD, +, the horizontalstroke s written before he vertical guideline ). In

character , rJ<,he middlestroke s written before he sides,ollowingguideline .In both characters and G, + and H, the outerpartsarecompleted efore heinnerparts(guideline ). In characterH EI, the top and sides f the enclosure rewritten first, then the interior, and finally the bottom stroke(guidelines and 5).

Character SRviolates he guidelineswice: stroke4 precedes troke5 to its left,

and strokes8-10 precede troke11, in both cases iolatingguideline . Both of

Table 3.17 General guidelines or stroke order

1 .

2.3.

top to bottom

horizontal before verticalouter before inner finished

4. left to right

5. middle before sides6. close bottom last



Chinese

1r-

41

(c)B)

2 -

I

a 32 l D. t L 7

^ / l -! 4v

Figure3.7 Examples f strokeorder

these structures recur in many other charactersand are alwayswritten in the order

described.Although stroke order is generally ixed, it is not rigidly uniform; there is

a slight bit of both individual and d ialectal variation.

3.5.4 Writing direction and punctuation

Traditionally, haracters avebeenwritten in columns tartingat the top right sideof the pagewith the second olumn to the left of the first. The front of a book is

what an English eader hinks of as he back; hat is, when a book is lying before

the readerwith its front cover acingup, the binding s at the right, and pages returned ifting the ef t edge.

3 4

r \ \\),,I

(F)E)

( H)c)



42 Chinese

ancient

graphs

orac e

bone

largeseal

sma l l

seal

c le r ica l

standard

earlysimplif ication

20thcenturysimplif ication

common

cursive

runn ing

style

simpl i f ied

script

rnodern

cursive

erratic

scr ipt

Figure 3.8 Different srylesfor tiger and dragon (from Fang-yi.iWang, Introduction to

Chinese Cursiue Script, p. ii. New Haven, CT: Far Eastern Publications, Yale University

Press,1958. O 1958 by Yale University Press.Reproduced with permission)

Regularorms

t iger d ragon

#Xr %fr6 q

HAursiveorms

t iger dragon

€,J4.._ FL p t 4

frLff, fit

rt €, 4 A

fL E ,$,





44 Chinese

context s called he radical, he restbeing hephonetic. n the seventeenthenturyNEw,a standard ist of 274 radicalswas developedreducedrom an earlier ist

of 540 radicalswhich he exicographer [ Shdn rewup in L21,Nrw). Radicals regivenan order based n their strokenumber,and all characters ith the sameradicalaregrouped ogether. fithin eachgroupof characters ith the same adical,

the characters re orderedaccording o the numberof strokesn the phonetic, heremaining art of the character. oothill 1889)drewup a numberedis t of phonetic

elements,eferred o in somedictionaries.For many characters,his is quite straightforward.f we were searching,or

example, or the character+ lli l 'plum', we would look under radical ,f, theradical or trees.We would count he strokes emainingn the restof the character

+ - three,and then look for our characterunder hosewith three additionalstrokes. hiscan akea bit of patientploughing hrough istsof characters,ut it isgenerally uiteworkable.

3.6 How Many Characters oesChineseHave?

Beforewe cananswer he questionof how manycharactershereare n Chinese,weneed irst to distinguishwo differentquestions: ow manycharacters re here n

the Chinesewriting system? nd how manycharacters o peopleuse? hink about

answeringhese uestions boutwords n English.A largedictionaryhashundreds

of thousands f words;we would considert impossibleor any ndividual o know,

much essuse,all of thesewords.The sames

truefor Chinese.

Estimates uggesrhat knowledgeof 1500characterss required or basic iteracy;

2500-3000 for functional iteracy.Peoplewith university ducationsend o know

around 4000 characters, lthough studentsof Chinese iteratureor history willknow more.Figures f about 5000 characters regiven or scholars.Mdo Z6dong's

CollectedWorks containedonly 2981 differentcharacters, nd M6o had a strongtraditionaleducation.

If we look at running ext, we find that 1000 characters ccount or 90 percentof those ound n ordinary eading;2400 ccount or 99 percent,and 3800accountfor 99.9percent.The charactershat one earnsearly n life are hemost frequently

used,and those earned aterwill turn up lessoften(Taylor

andTaylor'1,995).If we look at very largedictionaries,we get figuressomethingike 50,000. f ahighlyeducated ersonknows5000 characters, hat are he other44,000?Quitesimply, they just are not commonly used.Many are archaic.Many are graphic

alternativeso standard haracters.Many are ocal: hat is, they are used or local

dialectmorphemes r for local namesand places.Someare quite specializednames or different ish or mushrooms r partsof a harness. his of course s

similar o the Englishsituation:do you know termssuchasmilch, drouth, thole,bolete,or crupper?

In the end,we have wo typesof figures: knowledge f about3000 characters

means hat you can read most anything hat comesyour

way thatis not highly

specialized. figureof 50,000 s appropriate or a list of everysingle orm of every

characterhat anyone aseverused or anything, nywhere, t any ime n Chinese.





45 Chinese

Table 3.19 Simplified and traditional characters

Traditional Simplified

llu6llmlnllmd,llgu6lldidnlly6nl/miB/

/shuang/

lshal

'net for catching birds''door, gate''horse'

'country'

'lightning'

'cloud'

'extinguish'

(fire with line above)'pair'

(two birds E in a hand (archaic) X- -+ two hands)'ki l l '

vi19J

E{,*f<

+

@

*{i

r1.F?

EI€g)H,

q

+ft

The introductionof simplified haracters as akenon a curiouspoliticalaspect.Tdiwan hasbeenstronglyopposed o the PRC for political reasons.As a result,

the simplified haracters avebeen egardedn Tdiwan as communist'and arestudiouslyavoided.Two totally differentcomputerencodingsystems aveemergedas a resultof this politicalsplit.

In Hong Kong, herehasbeen esspolitical ensionwith the PRC han foundin Tdiwan,

and,asaresult,

raditional ormsof charactersontinued o beused, ut

of both nertiaand a loyalty o tradition.After the handovern 1997, t isexpectedthat the simplified haracters ill be used n thegovernment nd schools ndwillgraduallybecome sed or privatepurposes. eople f Chinese ncestryiving abroadhavemostlycontinued o use he traditionalcharacters.

Singapore, hereChinesesan official anguage, as nstitutedsome implificationsof its own, but thesearenot necessarilyhe sameas hoseof the PRC.With HongKong becoming art of the PRC, t is l ikely that Singapore ill gradually endtowards he PRCsimplifications.

Simplifiedcharacterswerecreatedby variousstrategies: omecursive ormswere

used,or sometimes lder, simpler orms of a character;sometimesew

simplerformswerecreated.Examples regiven n table3.t9.In somecases,wo differenttraditional characters re written with the samesimplifiedcharacter.Thus it ispossibleo translate utomat icallyrom the traditionalcharacterso the simplifiedones e.g.,bya computerprogram),bu t it is not possibleo go automaticallyn theoppositedirection.

Thesimplificationwas based rimarilyon strokecount. t alsoeliminated lternat-ive formswhich previouslyexisted.Psychologistsavebeenmorerestrainedn theirenthusiasmor the simplified haractershan the politicians.Fewerstrokes learlyhelps he writer. For the reader,however, he evidencen favourof simplification s

lesspersuasive.n termsof complexversus implecharacters, aylor and Taylor(1995)pointout that a characters recognizedsa wholepattern,not asa combina-tion of individualstrokes.Thus, for readers,here s no advantageo the simpler



Cbinese 47

characters, nd n fact,simplercharacters ay present lesseasily dentified isualpattern.Taylor and Taylor (L995)suggesthat for writing, an upper igure of 21.strokeswould be appropriateand that morecomplexcharactershouldbe simplifiedfor easierwriting. Theyalsopoint ou t that with greateruseof computerized ord

processing,he advantageor simplified haractersn writing candisappear. heiroverall eeling s that there s insufficient videnceo makea reliableassessmentfthe valueof simplified ersus omplexcharacters.

A third type of reform hasbeena proposal or abandoning haracters ltogetherin favourof some ypeof alphabeticranscription. he currentofficial omanizationis ptnyln In the 1950s, t appearedhat the governmentwas moving towardsreplacing haracters ith plnytn.Later, t seemedo abandonany suchscheme. anypeople,both Chinese nd others, ee l hat learning he largenumberof charactersrequired or evenbasic eading s a uselessurdenand wasteof time in a child'seducation Hannas1997).Criticsof reform point to the large numberof homo-

phonousmorphemesn Chinese. ince hesearewritten with differentcharacters,reading s easier han it would be usinga phonographic ystem.However,spokenChinese etsalongfinewith all this homophony,and I am somewhatat a loss ounderstand ow writing could not cope.Havingsaid his, I mustadmit that I havenevermet a Chinese ersonwho could comfortably eada long text written inpinytn; his difficultymay of coursebe simplya lackof experience.

My own feelingabout hereasonhat the Chinese ant to keepcharacterss thatthey havea symbolicvalueof enormous mportance.Many peoplewould feelthat givingup characters ould be antamount o givingup 3500yearsof Chineseculture.Althoughusinga computer o write Chineses not quiteso easyaswriting

with an alphabet, t is certainlyworkable.Oneproposal or writing reformsucceeded odestly, ut in an unusualway.The

ZbiryInzimil ('phonetic lphabet', lsoknown asBopomofo)was ntroducednl9l3.It hasspecial ymbols or representinghe nitial, inal,and oneof a syllable.Thesymbolsook likeverysimple haracters.hilytnzimil did not succeedsa wayof normal writing, bu t it has beenusedextensivelyo indicatepronunciations n

dictionaries, articularly n Tdiwan.

3.8 FurtherReading

Chen 1999), eFrancis1984), ratochvil1968), orman1988), ndRamsey1987)

al l provide oodbackgroundo the anguagen general.Boltz 1996) nd Mair 1996)

aregoodshort ntroductionso earlyand modernChinesewriting espectively;aylorand Taylor 1995)and Yin and Rohsenow 1994)are longer reatments.Moore(2000),Keightley1989),Hsu (1996), nd Boltz 1994) ocuson historicalmatters.Simon 1959) s useful or the serious tudentdespitehis use of the gw6yil uhmdziromanization.hereare manyEnglish-Chinesend Chinese-Englishictionaries,eachwith its own personality nd with slightlydifferingways of locating pecificcharacters. anfagon1997)and Harbaugh1998)are both nterestingpecialized

dictionaries hoseprimary im s to explain he originand structure f charactersrather han o defineChinesewords.



48

3.9 Terms

abstractpictogram

b6ihuircalligraphyCantoneseClassicalChinesecomplexnumeralcranberry raphemecranberrymorphemedialectcharacterdifferentiationfinal

hitnziinitialMandarinModernStandardChineseoracle-bone riting

3.10 Exercises

Chinese

phonetic

phonetic xtensionpictogrampictographyptnylnpilt1nghuitradicalsemantic xtensionsemantic-phoneticompoundsemantic-semanticompoundsimplified haracter

strokeordertonetraditional haracterWade-Giles omanizationwdnydn

1 The followings a list of possible ishes n a Chinese estaurant.

(a) 1.8 'hi..A X ji ding chdo b6i ciricubedchicken tir-fried ith Chinese abbage

(b) P, h 'f , ff * y[ pidnchio qfn cdisliced ishstir-friedwithcelery

(c) rfl T '}il.ia *- rdu ding chio hudsh6ngporkcubesstir-fried ithpeanuts

(d) + A 3# '}r-* it' niri r6u si chio ciri hua

beef shredsstir-friedwith cauliflower

Glossary

rdu 'meat',used o mean pork'if no otheranimal s specified

nif 'cow'

pidn 'slice'

si 'silk,shred, ulienne' theshapeof a matchstick)

X b6i ciri 'Chinesecabbage' literally:whitevegetable')

E hudsh6ng 'peanut'

B ddu u 'beancurd'

6I

+h#fi.

a+l40

I



Chinese

(a) What s the meaning nd pronunciationf the following haracters?

49

a ,rr-(b) Write he characters nd the pronunciationor the following ish:

shredded hicken tir-friedwith beancurd

(c) Write he characters nd the pronunciationor the folfowing ish:

fishslicesstir-fried ith Chinese abbage

How manystrokes rewrittenn the following haracters? ive he numberat therightof the character.

mfng'bright' BIJ

ching 'sing'

qiu 'seek'"E,|

3 Show he correctstrokeorder or the following haracters.ndicatehe orderbywritinga number nside he circlenext o (oroverlapping)achstroke.

(b) 4i lyfunglpretend'(a) fr /mdi/sell'

f oo



4 [apanese, oresn,Vietnamese

Thecultural mportanceof China hasbeenenormous hroughoutAsiasinceancienttimes.Theneighbouring ountriesborrowedChinesewriting, firstwriting in Chineseand thengraduallyadapting he Chinesewriting systemor writing their own lan-guage.Dfewill examine apaneseirst,because f its manyspecial etails, nd henlook at KoreanandVietnamese.

4.1 Japanese

4.7.7 Backgroundand history

Japaneses spokenby essentiallyhe entirepopulationof Japan,about125 millionpeople.The standarddialect s basedon educated okyo speech. he dialectsof

Japanese,lthoughquitediverse, regenerallymutually ntelligible;he Ryukyuandialectspokenon Okinawaat the southernend of Japan s differentenough o besometimesonsidered separateanguage.

The genetic elationshipof Japaneses a matterof debate.Possibly t is related oKorean,and moredistantly o the Altaic anguagesManchu,Mongolian,Turkic).Theconnection etween apanesend these anguages, owever, s not so closeasto be uncontroversial.

Japanwas in earlycontactwith China.Objectsmade n

Chinadated o about

the time 0 and nscribedwith Chinese haracters avebeen ound n Japan,aswellas objectsmade n Japanshortly afterwardswith Chinese haracters.Writing,as such,was ntroduced rom China via Korea n the third centuryNEw.Koreanshad alreadyacquiredChinesewriting, and Korean utors came o Japan o teachthe Chineseanguage ndwriting system o Japanesetudents.Note that the writingof this time, n both Japanand Korea,was completelyn Chinese, oth languageand script.The practiceof writing in ClassicalChinese, nown as kanbw, )Ri(= Ch. hdnutdn),ontinuedn Japan or centuries. hinese haractersreknown in

Japanese s kanii ,'*+ (= Ch. hdnzi).Many Chinesewords were borrowed nto

Japaneselongwith their characters. late1

showsaBuddhist

ext writtenin

Japanin the Chineseanguagen the late twelfth century;Japanand Koreanshared hecalligraphicraditionsof China.



l>

()U

l-r

- i

bD.rl

bDr-

(t(ur-

14

Ua.)

l-l

zL{

!J(1

c.)L)?'l

I+i

c.)l>

!J

q.)]-

d t r

:)t r . !.i c, n

(g (g

. = z9? .:- t 1

F "J !

T <I'=

c)

5 \,-/FA r-r

. c )(u

ts fIr( ) t 1

a t rE . i

d\+r

t+{ X

(tt

\\i U)S D t rFa Ll

; i 9



52 Japanese, oreAn,Vietnamese

Over time, however,writing was adapted o theJapaneseanguage, ndcharacterscame o be associated ith native apanese ords aswell.Forexample,he Chineseword /shan/ mountain'was borrowed nto Japanesend pronouncedsan/.The

Chinese haracter or /shan/ rl r was also borrowedand used o write the newlyborrowedJapanesemorpheme sanl.However,Japanese ad alwayshad a wordlyamalmeaning mountain'. In time, the character J-r as also used o write thenativeword lyamal.Present-dayapaneseaskept both terms or 'mountain',butuses hem n differentcontexts: or example,by itself,a mountain s usually eferred

to as lyamal,but the well-knownJapanese t. Fuji is /fujisan/. n speechhispresents o problem,but in reading,both lyamaland /san/ arewritten as rb, andthereadermustdecide t eachoccasionwhether he characters to bereadas lsanlor lyama/,depending n thecontext.

In looking at an early ext from Japan, t is difficult to know if the author was

writing in the Chinese r Japaneseanguage, nd even f we can determinehat thelanguage asJapanese,t is still often uncertainwhether he authorwaspronounc-

ing a specific ord asa Chinese orrowing e.g., sanl)or asa native apaneseord(e.9., yamal).Gradually,however, cribeswrote increasinglyn Japanese.

TheJapanesend Chineseanguagesrecompletely nrelatedo eachother.The

structuraldifferences etween he two languages resented ertaindifficulties nborrowingChinesewriting for Japanese.or example,Chineseword order s SVO(subject-verb-object),hereas apanese ord order s SOV (subject-object-verb).

TheJapaneseould, of course, avesimplywritten a text in Japanese ord order;theprestige f Chinese, owever,was sogreat hat theycontinuedo write thetext

usingChinese ord order,but theysometimes ddedmarks o indicate he order nwhich the characterswere to be readto achievea correctJapanese ord order.Gradually, apanese ord orderwas adopted.

A further problem s that Chinese as almostno inflectionalprocesses,hereas

Japaneseasa considerablemountof inflection, articularly erbalsuffixes. herewereno obviousChinese haracterso use or indicating heJapaneseerbalsuffixes.For thesemorphemes, haracters ere added o text, usuallywritten smallerandbetween he main characters f the text. These haracters erechosen rom existingChinese haracters ecause f their soundwith no referenceo theirmeaning; his isan exampleof the process f phoneticextension.

'Wesaw n chapter3 that in China the civil service layeda strongrole in settingstandardsor writing. In Japan, nstead, t was he eisurednobility which played heleading ole.In earlier imes, iteracywasfairly restrictedo the upperechelons f

Japaneseociety;hey often usedwriting asmeans f displayingheir eruditionandcleverness. t the more fundamentalevel, heypreserved nd encouraged haractervariantsand manyunusualor obscure pellings. t a morerefinedevel, he noblestook positive elight n writingswhichpresented himsical roblemsor thereader.An examplesthewriting of thenumber99 ' as'fr. Ordinarllyh means'white', utif we think of the charactersor '100' -fi'

and for 'L ' -, \rye ee hat € is-6. 100'

minus he op stroke'1', or'99'. Clearly, his typeof writing s doneas a learned

form of amusementor the writer and reader,not for readycommunication.From time to time, reportshavearisenof an early ndigenous apanese riting

system alled indai moii'god-agescript' which purports o predate he borrowing





54 Japanese,KoreAn, Vietnamese

Table 4.3 Japanese omanization differences

Kunreisiki Hepburn Phonetic

sizi

ti

tu

dizi

du

hu

syV (sya, yu)zyv

tyvdvv

shi

i ich i

tsu

i ij i

zu

fu

shV(sha,shu)

ivchV

iv

f idr itlitsIu

dsi

3idzut

9urIV (e.g.,Ia, [w)dsv

tJVdsv

There are two common romanizations or Japanese:he Kunreisiki (Cabinet

OrdinanceSystem)s used n this book since t correspondsmorecloselywith thewriting system. he Hepburnsystem s widely usedand correspondsmorecloselywith thepronunciation. or the mostpart, hese wo romanizations gree;able4.3

shows he points at which the two systems iffer.More than the syllable, he mora is an important unit in Japanese honology;

poetry, or example,s measuredn mora. A mora n Japaneses a C(y)V sequencewithin a syllable,or /N/, or /Q/. For example, he word /niQ.poN/ [nip.pon]

Japan'

has wo syllables, ut four mor€ /ni-Q-po-N/ [ni-p-po-n](with periodsshowingsyllableboundaries, nd hyphens howingmoraic boundaries). oughly,eachmora takesabout the sameamountof time to pronounce. ong vowelsconstituteseparatemora; thus, ltarcolhas hreemorc lta-ro-ol,althoughonly two syllablesIta.rool.

Japaneseasa pitch accent tructurewhich is totally different rom the Chinesetonal system. veryword in Japaneseasone of two pitch patterns:.e.,with pitch

accentor without pitch accent. n words with pitch accent,one mora is marked

to indicate he positionof thepitch accent,which can al l on anymora n the word.Pitchaccent s not marked n Japanese riting although t is indicated n somedictionaries. n borrowing words from Chinese, apanese aid little attention oChineseones.

4.7.3 Botrouting a utriting system

Beforewe examine the problems that had to be solved n adapting Chinesewriting

to Japanese, et's seehow we might adapt Chinesewriting to English. To imitate the

early Japanese ituation, let's imagine that we don't have any way to write English

at the moment, and we have no knowledge of writ ing except Chinese- i.e., noalphabet,etc. The first stagemight be that we would simply translate our thoughts

into Chineseand write them as a Chinesespeakerwould. For example, f we wanted



I apanese, oreAn,Vietnamese

Table 4.4 Chinese sentence

55

Chinese

English

xu6 sheng shi yin mii jiu

+ + - &i k

* , Astudent be drink beer'The

studentsare drinking beer.'

Table 4.5 Neo-English writing of sentence n table 4.4

Neo-English: + * -XUE SHENG

llwei[^\l

6k_ i{r + rHYIN yins MAI JIUdrink-ing beer

to write a sentenceuchas The students redrinkingbeer', he Chineseranslationwould be xu6sheng hi yin miijiu/ as shown n table4.4 (examplerom Inouye1987\. Eachsyllable s written with one character.Note that two of the Chinesewords consistof two syllables nd are thus eachwritten with two characters:xudshengand mdiiiu. A word-by-word translation nto English s written belowthe Chinese.

Table4.5 showsa possiblewriting of the equivalent entencen EnglishusingChinese haracters. nlikeJapanese,nglishbasicword order s similar o that ofChineseso we do not have a maior differencehere.

Wemight try reading his

sentenceloudasbestwe canby justsubstituting nglishmorphemeshere

possiblegiving'Student e drink beer'or 'studentaredrink beer'.Although his s definitelynot English,we might do it often enough hat we got somewhat sed o it .'V7e

might borrow certainChinesewords into Engl ish;e.g.,we might start sayingxudshengor 'student'(pronouncingt perhaps s 'f*ej ,lnql) endingup with asentencelke Thexudshengsre drinking beer,which we couldwrite as n table4.5.

Threedistinct ypesof borrowingare nvolved n this example. Jfith/'{wej,{tql,the Chineseword is borrowed nto Englishas well as he Chinese haracters sedfor writing this word. This is a semanticborrowing with the charactersead asa Chineseword; we could refer o such a word as belonging o the Sino-English

vocabulary.Recall

hatSino- s a bound orm meaning

Chinese'.)

This first ype ofborrowing swritten here n upper-casetalics.The second ype of borrowing is shown n the writing for the Englishword beer.

Herethecharacters ppropriate or writing the Chinese erm for beerareborrowed,but not the Chineseerm mdijiu. This is also a semanticborrowing,but with thecharacterseadas an Englishword. This typeof borrowing s indicatedby upper-case oman ype.

The third typeof borrowing s illustratedby <de>and <si>.Thesearephoneticborrowings; hese haracters re chosenbecause f the word they representnChinese. he Chineseword /de/ ([da])sounds imilar o the Englishword the.The

meaning f 6t is irrelevant ldel s, in fact,a subordinating article n Chinese).Similarly, he characterP, epresentssi/ the nameof a river n Honan; t is chosenpurely or its soundvalue.

ie, € tLsi SHi er

s are

alde

The



55 Japanese, orean,Vietnamese

For Are,we haveadopteda morecomplicated olution.This word is written withtwo characters:he first is a semanticborrowing,meaning be'. The second s aphoneticdeterminative sed o showwhich of the possibleorms of the verb be'

is intended; ince he characteru

'son,

child'is pronouncedd.rl ndsounds bitlike are, t is used o indicatea reading are' rather han 'is', 'am', 'was',or anyother form of the verb 'be'. To show the participleending l-ry| of drinking, thecharacter 'go to meet' s used.This s used or its phonetic alue; n Chineset ispronounced yingl, somethingike the Englishsuffix l-ry|. For drink andbeer, he

Chinesewriting is retained, ut they arepronounced s n English.

As you can see, he varietyof strategieshat we haveused o write Englishhasresultedn a system onsiderablymorecomplex han that of the originalChinese.Thecomplexityof theJapanese riting system rose or similarreasons. ou should

alsobe aware hat Chineseeaderswould probablynot makesense f our English

sentence ritten in Chinese haracters. his is similar for Japanese nd Chinesereaders eading he other language; ometimeshey can identify the topic of thetext, but theyoftengo wildly astray.For an amusing resentationf theproblemofscriptadaptation,eeTheSinglish ffair ' n DeFrancis1984).

4.7.4 Japanese )riting

The Japaneseborrowed the Chinese writing system some 1700 years ago. At first,

they simply wrote in the Chinese anguagewith the Chinesescript. Gradually, how-

ever, they adapted the Chinese writing system to write Japanese.The adaptation

process, ogether with other changes n the system,has resulted in what is widelyregarded as the most complicated writ ing system in use today (Sproat 2000).

Chinesecharacterscontinue to be widely used, but usually representingmore than

one Japanesemorpheme (asopposed to Chinese writing where they generally repres-

ent only one morpheme). In addition to characters, two moraic systems,known

collectively as kana, are used as well.'Sfle

should state again that characters do not refer to ideas, rather they are ways

of writing specific exical units.'tJTriters

choose the appropriate symbols to write the

word using the orthographic rules of Japanese.The reader has the task of deciding

which sequencesof symbols go together and of determining how to interpret the

symbols linguistically, relying on the context.

4.1.4.1 GN/I tR+

Chinese haracters re known as kanii.(Chin. hdnzi) n Japanese. hinesewordsand the charactersor them were borrowed nto Japanese t three differentperiods

in time. The Go borrowingswere early,before he sixth centuryNErv, rom the

southernU(fdialectof Chinese. he sixth to ninth centuries aw he Kan borrow-ings,primarily from ChangAn, the capitalof the Tang dynasty. n the fourteenthcentury,during the Tang and Songdynasties, few terms,particularlyassociated

withZen Buddhism,areknown asToo-Sooborrowings.Thecharacter4i has hreedifferent ronunciations,gyool,lkool, and anl,which are he resultof independent

borrowings rom different ime periods.



I apanese,Korean, Vietnamese

Table 4.5 Imaginary example of borrowing a Chinese character to write English

57

Source Target

Meaning Pronunciation Meaning Pronunciation Example

a. semantrcoz

b. semantickun

c. phonetic on

d. phonetic kun

lfol11

/lo'l1

lfo,lI

llol2

'law'

tlaw'

<She studies *.t

Iti strdiz fal

<Shestudies *.>

l[i stdiz lol

.My;* ther is i l l .>

lmai fo6et n ill

.i * mat /lqme/

(Buddhistmonk)

4.1.4.1.1 KUN- AND ON-READINGSIn theexample bove n $4.1.3,we had wo typesof semantic orrowings.Ufithheword for'students',he Chineseermwasborrowed, nd hus+ 4- waspronouncedas a Sino-English ord borrowed rom Chinese'[wej,lnql.In this situation, hecharacters an be said o be givenan on-reading.n the second ype of semanticborrowing, llustratedby'beer', the Chinese haracters re borrowed,but theyarepronounced

sa nativeEnglishword. In thissituation, he charactersan be said obe givena kun-reading.The distinctionof kun- and on-readingss an important one in Japanese. o

introduce hesenotions ully, we will givea further imaginaryexample rom ourNeo-Englishwriting (table4.5).\07ewill call the borrowing anguage Z (Neo-English), nd the anguage orrowed rom L1 (Chinese).

Supposehat Neo-English L2) borrowed the Chinese L1) word lfdl meaning'law'along with its Chinese haracter*. We have our possibilities epending nthe details f the borrowing. In the dialectof Englishusedhere, au is pronouncedtl.J't.)

In the first case a), he character s said o havea semanticon-reading. heborrowing s semanticwith the Chineseerm borrowed nto Englishas fol with themeaning'law' like 'Iwej ln1l above).n the second ase b), hecharacters saidto havea semantic un-reading; ere he characters borrowed,but used or thenativeEnglishsemantically quivalenterm law (likebeer abovel.

In Japanese,he termskun andon normally eferonly to semantic orrowings;however, heycould also be applied n a parallel ashion o phoneticborrowings.To continue ur examplewith lfol, examine ituation c) .Here heChinese haracterfor lfdl 'law' was borrowed nto English,only for its sound,without regard o itsmeaning. fe might thenuse t to write anyoccurrence f lfa,l n English,suchas n

the first syllableof father. This would be an exampleof a phonetic on-reading:phoneticbecauset is used or its soundvalueonly, andon becauset is based n itspronunciationn L1.



58 Japanese, orean, Vietnamese

A phonetickun is similar o a phoneticon, but based n the L2 word. First, hecharacters borrowed nto L2 andgivena kun-reading in our example lol 'law'.

Then, his useof the character ndergoes honeticextension, o that it is used or

the same ound n other words. n example d) ,we see hat the character's se orwriting lla,l Iaw' hasbeenextended o otherwords with the sound lol, in this case,the first syllable f lama.

This fourfold ypologyof borrowing scomplex,but understandingt thoroughlywill repay he effort.

4.1.4.1.2 READTNGCHARACTERSN JAPANESETurning now to Japanese, kun-readings a characterusedwith the pronunci-

ation of a nativeJapanese ord (NJ), and an on-readings a characterused or

a word borrowed rom Chinesento JapaneseSJ for Sino-Japanese])etainingan

approximation f its Chinese ronunciation. n our first two examples, imonoand yakusyu, hecharacter 6 hasboth a kun- and an on-rcading.n kimono, thefirst part fti- is written with a semantic un; the Chinese haracter or ljial 'pot'

was borrowedand used or the nativeJapanese ord /ki/ with approximatelyhe

samemeaning,wear'.The second art -?nonos written with a characterwhich is

alsoa semantic un;here he Chinese haracteror /wr)/'thing'was borrowedand

used or the semantically orresponding ativeJapanese ord /mono/. Note thatthe fact that /mono/ in Japanese as two syllables, ut is written with only one

character,s not consideredignificant.n theprocess f borrowingChinese ritingintoJapanese,he one-to-oneelationship etween haracter nd syllablen Chinese

was undone.

/kimono/ 'clothing'rt +h

In tyakusyu'start' [tJakuJru] (literally 'puthand'), the first part tyakz-

'put'is

written with the samecharacter as we found above for ki-. Here, this character has

a semantic on-rcading; the Chinese word ljdul 'pr'rt' was borrowed into Japanesewith the pronunciation /tyaku/ (remember that theseborrowings took placecenturies

ago when both Chinese and Japanesewere pronounced differently). The second

character is also a semantic on since the Chineseword /sh6u/ was borrowed into

Japanesewith the pronunciation lsyul tJurl. (Note that * also has a kun-reading as

Itel, the native Japaneseword for'hand'.)

/tyakusyu/start'fr +

frlkil 'wear' NJ

Ch. ljiul 'put'

semantickun

EItyakul put' SJ

Ch. ljdul pur'

semantic n

+hr/mono/'thing' NJ

/wi/ 'thing, creature'

semantic kun

+lsyul hand'SJ (alsoNJ /tel 'hand')/sh6u/'hand'semantic n (semantic un)



Japanese, orearu,Vietnamese

Table 4.7 Four characters and their kun- and on-readings

59

frh.un lkilon ltyakul

NJSJ Ch. jiut

/mono/

lbutal

/te/

lsyul

lagol

/doo/

tweart

'put'

'thing'

'thing'

'hand'

'hand'

tmovet

tmovet

Ch. /wt/

Ch. /shdu/

ch. dn/

+hkun

onNJSJ

NJSJ

NJ

SJ

frhkun

on

+kun

on

ln doobutu'animal' dorburtsru]literally movingthing'), he firstcharactersa semantrc n since t representshe Sino-Japaneseord ldool omove'.(Note that6i alsohasa kun-reading s lugol move'.)The second haractern doobutu s thesameone hat we metearlieras he second haractern kimono, but this time witha on-reading utu.

/doobutu/'animal'6rt h

91ldool move'

SJCh. /di/ 'move'

semanticon

(alsoNJ /ugo/)

(semantic un)

thlbutul 'thing' SJ

lwil 'thing'

semantic n

Table 4.7 shows the kun- and on-readingsof the four characters that we have

used in these examples. As we said earlier, understanding kun- and on-readings

takes a bi t of work. Remember that characters n Japanesecan usually be read in

more than one way. There are native Japanesewords, and words borrowed from

Chinese called Sino-Japanese.Kun-rcadings are native Japanesewords, and on-readingsare Sino-Japanese ords. Semanticborrowings are basedon meaning, andphonetic borrowings are basedon sound.

Up to now, we have primarily looked at semantic borrowings in Japanese; heseare

the only oneswith which the terms kun andon areused n traditional Japanese tudies,

and phonetic borrowings are lesscommon than semantic borrowings. A phonetic

on is the use of a character with its Chinesepronunciation fo r a similar-sounding

morpheme in Japanese.An example of this is the use of the Chinese character K'sky'

ltianl as part of the word for'oven'

^ )K /teNpi/ becauseof it s sound.

A phonetic kun is the phonetic extension of a Japanese-basedronunciation of

a character to a different, but similar-sounding, morpheme. In early Japanese, heword for 'crane'and a perfective verbal morpheme had the same sound ltwul

[tsurru]. The Chinesecharacter &6'crane' (Ch. /he/) was first borrowed as a kun





I apanese,Korean,Vietnamese

Table4.11 Different implificationsn Japan ndChina

6 1

Chinese

traditionalJapanese Cbinese

simplified

'Buddha'

'door'

'country'

'price'

Table 4.12 How /nippon/ Japan' can be written in

three different ways (/Q/ is realized as gemination of the

following consonant)

4fri1EI(;r

4tr:E4fr

4*,r1EI4H

kaniihiragana

katakana

/niQpoN/<ni-Q-po-N>

<ni-Q-po-N>

H Al z c l f P= y i f , /

Some haracters avebeensimplifiedn Japan.These implifications ay or maynot be hesame s hesimplified haractersf China.Thus, hecharacteror'Buddha'hasbeensimplified n Japanese,ut not in Chinese;door' hasbeensimplifiednChinese, ut not in Japanese.

Country'has he same implificationn JapanesendChinese, ut price'has

different implificationsn Japanesend Chinesetable

.ll).

4.7.4.2 KANA tE,&

Theword for 'Japan'can bewritten n threeways n Japanesetable4.12).The firstway is with kanii,and he other wo arewith oneof the two additionalscripts sedin Japanese:itherhiragana'plain kana' U b rt\ S (*LnA) or katakana'sidekana' , 9 rt f G 4E-.2); ollectively, iraganaandkatakanaareknown as kana.The etymologyof the word kana n this conrext s disputed.

Although thekana scriptsare usuallycalledsyllabaries,hey are n fact moraic

systems. achsymbol n the kana scripts epresentsne mora. Most of theseareCV sequences,ut final /N/ or /Q/ countas separatemorr, andvowel engthaddsa mora.Recall hata mora s a CV unit, a secondV (additional owel ength),or acodalC.

4.1.4,2.1 HISTORICALDEVELOPMENT OF KANAThe text Man'yooshuu'Ten ThousandLeaves' rom the eighth centuryNew hadboth morphographicmostlywith kun-readings)ndphonographic seof characters.Characters erecommonlyused or both phonetickun- andphoneticon-readings.From phoneticuses uchas his,kana developed.

The early extswritten n the Chinese tyle acked he affixes resentn Japanese.The katakanasymbolsarose rom abbreviated haractersnserted nto academicandadministrativeextsparticularly o indicate heJapaneseffixeswhichwerenot



62 Japanese,Korean, Vietnamese

Table 4.13 The kanii sources for some hiragana and katakana symbols

Katakana Source character Hiragana Source character

T-X_+n

$.

e,q)

4K)tu

+

77,1

+

lhulItellkalItil

lhul

Itel

la l

lnol

representedn the Chinese-styleexts. n general,he katakanasymbolswere ormedby writing only a partof a character table4.131;thehiraganaandhatakana ormsare not alwaysderived rom the sameoriginal character.The biraganasymbols

arose rom the useof characters ritten cursivelyn informal andprivate exts oindicatepronunciation enerally.Over time, katakana andhiraganadeveloped s similarparallelsystems ut were

used n differentcontexts.

4,1.4.2.2 MODERN KANAThecomplete etof kana sshown n table4.74: hiragana n the upperrow;katakanain the second ow. The two kanasystems re structurally like.Any Japanesetter-ancecan bewritten in eitherhiraganaor katakana,andany utterancen one can beconvertednto the other.

The diacritic<"> is used o changea symbol rom voicelesso voicedz iraganat<ki> e' <gi>,katakana*'t. . The diacritic<"> s used o changehe <h> series fsymbols o the series:hiragana I, l <ho> (f <pot; katakana fi f,i; and thevoiceddiacritic<"> usedwith <h> gives he series: iragana I <ho>{f <bor,katakanarl r i. Thesediacriticsare used or both hiraganaand katakana.Recallthat the sequencetu/ is pronounced tsru], du/ is pronounced dzul],and /hu/ ispronounced gu]. The consonants s,z, t, dl are pronounced s IJ, dg, tJ, d3]respectively hen they occur before il or lyl.

The symbol for /Q/ is a smallerversionof the symbols or /tu/: hiragana til A

lQl c , katakanahul Y lQl v.

The sound yloccursonly before he vowels a u ol . Complexonsetswith lyl asthe second lement ccur afteral l phonemesxcept yl and wl: e.g.,lkya,hyu, ryol.The clusterswith lyl arewritten as<Cirv>,with the <rv>-symbol ritten slightlysmaller. hus, kyulis writtenas<kiru>E t@n biragana, nd as * a in katakana,and lnyol is written as <niyo> 3J or in katakant = e.

In hiragana, ong vowels are written by adding the appropriatesinglevowelsymbol: okaasan/mother' *Jrt'b Z /v <o-ka-a-sx-tr),oniisan/ olderbrother'*sEL'3rL <o-ni- i-sa-n>. ost words with lool arewritten as <ou>: doozol'please'

E i <^ <do-u-zo>,kinoo/'yesterday' E 0) i <ki-no-u>.However,a fewwords with lool arewritten as<oo>: ootl many' *J*J [' <o-o-i>, tool 'ten' I *J

<to-o>.You should ealize hat mostof thesewordscouldalso be written usingkanii, or a mixture of kanii andhiragana:okaasan*J& Z lv, oniisan *3X' Z L,kinoo wFA , ooi g [., /oo l.



Japanese, orean,Vietnamese 63

Table 4.14 The complete kanalist. Hiragana are given above the equivalent katakana

-{, if. { f i

be bo

t' )-"

7" 1.."de do

tf ;", " J

8e go

$ " 3s

€ lze zo

b tJ + .me mo

()" 3:C 7 "bi bu

5 ' Jf - ,di du

3" ('*" ,"gi gu

t" f't Azi zu

/ ^ b

i ami mu

tf

ba

t:t"da

a"v-'za

*

ma

fc

to

(ftlipo

tI,

to

Ja

ko

?vso

*r 0)i )ne no

i L, . a

u e

) o o

5. '

/ {pu pe

. tv 7tu te

t l,ke

rttrt"ga

,ku

f7su

fl

7

nu

I r

4i

Ucpi

b7ti

3*ki

I'

isi

lg

=ni

e)7a

(f

pa

t:,ta

.fit

rtka

3+/

sa

lg

fna

rftse

(J

ha

U +c rPya

b t r+ <tya

a +t tkyu

U WC : -

pyu

b wy ' t -

tyu

3 t P{ - z

kyu

b t* a

tyo

t rt =kyo

6 +* ' tdy"

3 " +* " twa

(,1.-p

ts":z

byo

r )wf zdyr't

E " P{':-gyu

cr.*C a

byo

6 rf adyo

E " r* ' =8yo

5El

ro

b 9 6 t Li l t t Vra ri ru re

t)vwa

{T,tho

F

ayo

u 5 .E 7hi hu

t9J-

yu

av

a

he

&7wo

etya

Arv

N

()"+c rby"

U TC =

pyo

[cont'd]



64

Table .14 (Cont'd)

Japanese,Korean, Vietnamese

L +

i rsya

( 3 +

nya

( ) +E , thya

l , W

! t -syu

{3 'o

nyu

U WE : -

hyu

u rV a

hyo

U T

! asyo

{ : r

nyo

L" +

y ' rzya

a t +

i tmya

, aI t

rya

L" tP

) - zzyu

4 Wa t t

myu

L " r

i azyo

/ ^ ri a

myo

9 w 9 rt ) - t ) a

ryu ryo

Table 4.15 Examples showing how non-Japanese sounds are written in borrowed words

Isogaa]

[wiin]

[/erii]

[gonto]

'sofa'

'Vienna'

'sherry'

'font'

v 7A ' ri t -

7 t

7 -- v

, -/ l '

<so-hu"-:>

<s i

"-ri-:><hu o-N-to>

ln katakana, the same ules for writing long vowels apply as with hiragana,

but only for words of Japanese rigin: okaasan rt 7 +t y , oniisan 7l = 4 +t y ,

doozo l: , y", ooi t t 4, too F t .For words of foreignorigin,vowel ength orany vowel s indicatedby a horizontalbar (writtenas a verticalstroke n verticalwriting and transcribed ereas <:>): aisukuriimu/ ice cream' 7 4 7, t)- A,

lkaadol (credit)card' , - l '", suupu/ soup'A'/ ,lnooto/'notebook') - l',

/sooseezi/sausage'Y ' +.- t.

To transcribe oreignwords in katakanA,certainconventions avebeenadopted(table4.15).As an example,ake heEnglishword disco,whichhasbeenborrowedintoJapaneses disuko/.Referringo table4.1,4,we ee hat the basic anasystemhasno way of writing [di]; to write <di> would be to indicatea pronunciationof

[dSi].The solution for this is somewhat ike the writing of the lCyYl clusters.A

kana symbol with the correctconsonantsound s first written, followed by theappropriate owel symbol,written small.For this sound, he kana symbol or /de/ sused, ollowedby a smallversionof the symbol for li/: 7" 't z 3 <de;-su-ko>;

thus, .de , > is the way to write ldil . To write an initial lwl, the vowel symbol for

/u/ is used.Other examples f this type of writing areshown n table4.15.

Threeof the postpositions re written with irregularhiragana table4.16).Thecareful eaderwill havenoted hat in fivecases,hereare alternative aysof

writing certainmorr (the hiragana ormsare given n table 4.17; the katakanaequivalents ould work the sameway). The useof thesephoneticallyequivalentforms s lexicallydetermined.

Hiragana'plainkana'hasalsobeen alledonnade'woman's and' rom itsearlierextensive se n literature or women. n Japaneseoday, t is used or inflectionalendings nd grammatical articles, nd for many nativeJapanese ords.



I apanese,KoreAn,Vietnamese

Table .1-6 Irregular iragana

65

lwal topic marker

le l direction

lo l direct object

d

&

(normally used fo r .hat)

(normally used fo r .het)

(formerly used for <wo>)

Table 4.17 Potential ambiguities in writing ltiragana

lzulldzilld:allds"lld:ol

<du>

<di>

.dy"t

.dyrlt

.dyot

a',;t j r, ) wb ' r

<zu>

<zi>

<zya>

<zyu>

<zyo>

ft"L " tD t pL " r

or

or

or

or

or

Table 4.18 Examples of katakana writing

t - - L= f i

rtltut - t f i + x ' ir)zr'v v v v, : 9r t i t l v

/haamonika/

lkaerul

/hatukanezumil

/riNgo/

/waNwaN/

/pataN/

/kane okure/

'harmonica'

'frog'

'mouset

'apple'

'bow-wow'

'soundof slamming'

'Sendmoney!'

English borrowing

animal

animal

plant

onomatopoetic

onomatopoetic

telegram

Table4.19(below)and

'Kimono' written in kaniiin furigana (above)

Katakana'sidekana' is used or emphasis, on-Chineseoanwords,Chineseloanwordswhere the kanii would be usedbut for some eason s missing,namesof many plantsand animals,onomatopoetic ords, and telegramstable4.18).In modern-day apan, he useof katakana s increasing;t is frequently ound incomputerwork, in filling out forms, n new tradenames, nd n colloquialexpres-sions. n somedictionarres, un-readings regiven n hiragana,and on-readingsnkatakana.

A special seof hiraganascalled urigana,which swritten smallnext to charactersto indicate he pronunciation.n earlier imes,when a largenumberof kanii wereused, uriganawere usedextensivelyn popular publications uchas newspapers,

sometimeso thepoint whereeverycharacterwas accompaniedy furigana.ln theexample n table 4.1,9of the word kimono, the urigana show hat the firstcharacteris pronounced ki l and he second mono/.

t ' OYnmono

afrki





I apanese, orean,Vietndmese

4.7.5'Writing

reform in Japan

From hemid-twentieth entury,manyproposalsor thesimplification f theJapanesewriting system avebeenproposed.Suchproposals avebeen esisted tronglyby

conservativesesiringo retain he older system.After the SecondD(orld'Ufar,thetime was felt to be particularlyripe for change. n1949, the government reatedtheKokugo Singikai National LanguageCouncil' which has ssued arious nstruc-tions about writing for schools nd the public at large.Until the mid-twentiethcentury, irtuallyany Chinese haracter ouldbe borrowed nto Japanese.n 1981,the Kokugo Singikai ssueda list of only I945 charactersor generaluse and284 furtherones or writing propernames.Older variantsof kanii andkanaweredropped.The government lsoestablishedn official ist of kun- and on-readings,eliminating many esscommon readings.Needlesso say,not everyone ollows thegovernment uidelines trictly.Newspapers nd mostotherpublications enerallyfollow the officialguidelines, nd about 99 percent of the charactersn their textis from the official ist, but for the other L per cent, hey needsome1000-1500charactersor propernames.ndividualsare more ikely to stray rom the officialguidelines. requently, iraganas used f the writer cannot hink of theappropriatekanii, and writers requentlyusekanii not on the list, especiallyor propernames.The older hiraganavariantsmight be found on the sign of a country nn where heywould conveya traditional, ustic lavour.

Smithand Schmidt 1996) nvestigatedtereotypical ttitudes owards he differ-ent waysof writing used n Japanesetable4.22).They nvestigatedhe proportionof script ype ound n several arieties f popular iction. n general,he

stereotypeswereconfirmed.Comicbooksand scienceiction,aimedat a youngaudience, adfewerkanii and morekatakana.Businessnd mysterynovels,aimedat adult men,had morekanii and ess atakana.Romance ovels, imedat women,hada greaterproportionof hiragana.

The governmenteformsof the mid-twentiethcentury eft the traditionalJapanesewriting system ssentiallyntactwith its mixture of kanii andkana.The intentionof the reformswasa containment f diversity, ather han a thoroughgoingevisionof the writing system.t would, of course, epossibleo write Japanesentirely nhiraganaor katakanaor Roman etters.The writing system, owever, s so strongly

identifiedwith the Japaneseulture hat there s little movementat present or amajor reformation.After the reformsof the mid-twentiethcentury, herewas a nationwide ncreasen

literacy eported.Unger 1996)argueshat thiswasdueprimarily to the reformof

Table 4.22 The social connotations of kanii, biragana, and katakana

'Wr ter/r eader featur es Stylistic features

67

kanii

hiraganakatakana

male, middle-agedand older

female, youngyoung, especiallymale

erudition

softness or femininitymodernity; pop culture



58 lapanese,Korean,Vietnamese

thesoucATroNAL ystem, ot thewRrrrNG ystem.Greateropportunitiesor women,

. . .expansioninhighschoolenro lments, . . . l ibera l isat ionofunivers i tyadmissi- thesewere he changeshat madea difference'p. 1,23;Unger's mphasis).

'lfhen

computerswere first introduced, hey requiredsimple nput and outputmethods. n general,katakanAwas used,and at first it seemed s if computing

would force he abandonment f characters.n a short time, however, omputers

becamemoresophisticatednd accommodating.oday,Japanesean bewritten on

a computerwith only a smallamountof inconveniencein comparisono enteringRoman ext). Technologyadapted o the writing system, ather han the reverse.

Typically he keyboard s set up to accommodate itherkana or Roman nput.

Theword processorhen showspossible anii forms or the nput,oftenexamining

the contextand trying to guesshe most ikely kanii form, presentingt first along

with other possibilities;he author then selectshe suggestedorm or chooses

another orm.

4.7.6 Psychologyof utriting in Japanese

A gooddealof research asbeendoneon readingandwriting Japanese.or example,

Paradis t al. (1985) nvestigatedcquired yslexia disabilityn reading) nd dys-graphia disabilityn writing) amongJapaneseativespeaker-writers.e found

that the ability to usekana andkanii were ndependent,nd that any combination

of difficulties ould arise.For example, personmight ose heability o readkana,

but retain he ability o readkanji, or viceversa, r be able o write one,but not the

other.

4.2 Korean


Korean s spokenby about 70 million people iving in North and SouthKorea,as

well as by about ive million speakers verseas.he genetic elationship f Korean

is not certain.Quite ikely it is related o the Altaic (Manchu,Mongolian,Turkic)

languages, nd possibly o Japanese. ost dialectsare mutually intelligible.Thestandarddialect n the south s that of Seoul,and n the north that of Phyengyang(Sohm 997\.

Someof the phenomenamentioned arlieraboutJapanese riting haveKorean

parallels.Partof the reason or this s that it was theKoreanswho first took Chinese

writing to Japan.More importantly, both countrieswere strongly nfluenced y

Chinese ultureovermanycenturies. urther, he linguisticstructures f JapaneseandKoreanare similar,and thus both languagesacedsimilarproblems n adapting

the Chinesewriting system.Koreancontactwith China was very eaily; according o King (1996) he Koreans

wereawareof Chinesewriting from beforeHan times i.e.,before he second enturyoro). Althoughearlierexamples f writing in Chinese re ound n Korea, he first

evidence f writing in theKorean anguages an nscription n a stone tele ated o



Japanese,Koredn,Vietnamese

414 rvnw.Thewriting isentirely n Chinese haracters, ut several haractersn thesteleare usedphoneticallyo write Koreannam€s.

In addition o borrowing he writing system,Koreanborroweda largenumberof words from Chinese;he Sino-Korean ocabulary s stil l sizeablen modern

Korean. n a fashionsimilar to Japan,Koreans irst simply wrote in the Chineselanguage singChinese haracters. radually, he writing was adapted o writingthe Korean anguage singcharacters.n a form known as tutu'clerical writing',the Sino-Korean ordscontinued o be written with their Chinese haracters, ndcertaincharacters ere used or writing nativeKoreanwords and the verbalsuffixes(phonetic unl; Koreanword orderwas used.The earliest urviving tutu text isfrom 754 Nrw. In 958 NEw, he Koreancivil servicewas formed,modelledon theChinesenstitution;tsdocuments erewritten n itwu,which remainedhestandardway of writing Korean or centuries, articularly or official, egal,and administrativepurposes ntil it wasofficiallydiscontinuedn 1894.

A secondype of writing, known as ryangchal'local etters',emerged,eminiscentof theJapanese an'yogana ypeof writing in which the characters re primarilyused or theirphoneticvalue;Koreanword order was used Hyangchalwasmostlyused or writing lyric poetry; wenty-five uchpoemshavesurvived.

A third type of writing waskwukyel'orul formulr', in which simplifiedormsofcharacterswere developedor writing the Koreangrammaticalmorphemes;Chineseword orderwas used.Thiswasprimarilyused or annotatingConfucianandBuddhisttextswritten in Chinese.

Sfecan easilyseea parallelwith Japaneseanahere.

4.2.2 Korean lexiconThe Korean lexicon can be divided into three large groups: native Korean words,Sino-Korean borrowings, and borrowings from other languages(especially ecent

borrowings from English).During 1910-45,whenJapan ruled Korea, manyJapanese

words were borrowed, but subsequently, here has been a consciouseffort to avoid

Japanesewords. The Sino-Korean words are monosyllabic; native Korean wordsoften have polysyllabic morphemes.The Sino-Korean vocabulary has connotationsof tradition, education, and form ality1'native Korean words have either neutralconnotations or onesof informality, warmth, and friendliness.There are some homo-phones in Korean,

but not nearly so many as in Japaneseor Chinese.

4.2.3 Phonologyof Korean

Korean has 21 vowels and 19 consonants. There are two common romanizationsfo r transcribing Korean. The Yale system s used here because t agreeswell withthe hankul writing schemewhich we will discussshortly; in linguistic terms, theYale system s a deep system, .e., at a morphophonemic level. The other system,the McCune-Reischauer (M-R) system, is shallower, more at the phonetic level,

showing the pronunciation more clearly. The Yale system tends to be used n lin-guistic publications,

and M-R in more popular writing. Both systemsare shown intable 4.23. The rules for the M-R system are complex and, for certain contexts,involve other symbols; only the main symbol for each sound is given here.

59



70 Japanese,Koreln, Vietnamese

Table 4.23 The Yale and McCune-Reischauer systemsof romanizing Korean; the IPA

column at the left shows the phonetic pronunciation (U = unrounded; R = rounded)

IPA Yale M-R

Front Back Front Back Front Back

U

Vowels

u w u i w i n u

e o e o e 6 o

a a e a

i y i u i

e a t a o e y

& a a y

wl

woy

php"

p o

Consonants

Korean has three classes f obstruents:plain, aspirated,and tense. n the con-

sonant chart in table 4.23,the plain stops are given in the top row, the aspirated stops

in the second row with the lhl diacritic, and the tense stops are given in the third

row with a diacritic lo . The fricatives s so/ similarly have a plain-tense difference.

The basicsyllableshape s (C)V(C)(C).About 2000 syllableshapes ccur.Although

the glides lwl and lyl are included with the consonants here, the writing system

treats them as part of the vowel nucleus, .e., as the glide in a diphthong.

4.2.4 Hankul

In the fifteenthcenturyNEw,a completelynew alphabetknown ashankul ['hcngul]was developedor writing Korean.This alphabets attributed o King Seycong, ho

took a strongpersonalnterest n its development. he originalnameof the alphabetwashwunmincengum { RrI.+ (8E14*) 'Thecorrectsoundsor the nstruction

of the people'. n North Korean, t is referredo aschosenkul'Koreancript'. n

SouthKorea, henamehankul Koreanscript'hasbeenused ince a.1.900.

Hankul is an exampleof an inventedscript. rU(ritingwas well known to theKoreans;heyhad,after all, beenwriting for centuries.Onequestions whetherornot the development f hankul was influenced y other alphabetic cripts.Given

that Buddhismwas well establishedn Koreaat the time, the inventor of hankulwould likely havebeenawareof the Indianscripts see hapter11)traditionally

associated ith Buddhist exts.Further, he Mongolianscriptwas usednot far to

the north. Any or all of these criptsmight haveprovidedsome nspiration or the

t

th

t o

S

s o

n

I

c h k

ch' k '

cc kk

h

n8

c k p

ch kh p'

cc kk pp

h

t

th

tt

s

S S

n

I

t l k p

tf kh ph

tf" k* pp

h

t

t '

tt

s

SS

n

I







Japanese, oreAn,Vietnamese

Except for <ey> and <ay>, the simple vowels are written with simple symbols: a

single horizontal or vert ical main stroke; four of thesehave an addit ional short

stroke attached to the main stroke. For the <y>-diphthongs where the glide follows

the vowel nucleus as in <ey, ay, uy, wuy, oy>, the y-glide is written as the vertical

stroke of and is attached to the appropriate vowel. In the past, the vowels [e ]and [a] were both diphthongs; this fact explains their writing as <ey> and <ay>.

Each syllable is normally written as one glyph. A glyph is one square-shaped

combination of the indivi dual hankul graphemes.Each glyph takes about the same

spaceas one Chinesecharacter.The graphemesof a glyph are combined according

to the following rules.

1 The onset consonant is written at the top of the cluster. If there is no onset

consonant, he symbol o is usedas a dummy consonant.

lmul E lu l .o

2 If the vowel has a main vertical stroke, it goes o the right of the onset consonant.

lmal u| lmel "l

3 If the vowel has a main horizontal stroke, it goes below the onset consonant.

lmol _E_ /mwu/ +

4 Any consonant n the coda is written in a separate ayer at the bottom of thecluster. If there are two codal consonants, he first goes on the left, and the

secondgoeson the right.

lmall g lmalkl E+

/son/ + /hulth/ *

Ittelpl H langl .J

\7hen hankul writing began, t had a fairly simple grapheme-phoneme relationship,

but it has become ncreasingly more complex over time. To pronounce Korean from

a hankul text today, one must use a number of morphophonemic rules to arrive atthe correct pronunciation. These rules underlie much of the difference between the

Yale and McCune-Reischauer romanizations. The Yale romanrzation is similar to

hankul and representsKorean phonology at a deeper evel, whereas the McCune-

Reischauer omanization representsKorean at the surfacephonological level.

4.2.6 Hanca

Hankulwas ntroducednto a societywhereChinese ulturewasveryhighlyregarded,and the Chinesewriting system haredn that esteem. he Koreannamefor charac-

ters s hanca 'hon,dgo]

Chinese

characters';his is a borrowingof the Chinesehdnzi (cf.Japaneseanii). The educated eoplewho had spentconsiderableffortin learning o write Koreanwith characters erestronglyopposed o abandoning

73



74 Japanese, oreln, Vietnamese

traditional writing. They argued hat the use of Chinese haractersmaintained

a crucial ink to Chinese ultureand to the classicConfucian iterature.To theprivilegediterateclasses,ankul appearedo be a deeply nferior writing system.

They referred o it as

women's

letters,monks' letters,children's etters'.Despiteits royal endorsement, ankul wasnot really adoptedwidely until long after its

introduction.For the smallproportionof the population hat was iterate,writing

continuedas before.Althougha certainamountof materialwaswritten in hankul n thenext 400years,

particularlyby women, t wasonly in the mid-nineteenth enturywith rising iteracy

thathankulbegan o gain populariry.Thesystemwhich emerged as n facta mixed

one with the Sino-Korean ords written in characters nd everything lsewritten

tn hankul.After the politicaldivisionof Korea n 1948,North Koreaeliminated

characters ntirely, eaching nly a few in school or historical nterest.

SouthKorea hascontinued he mixed form of writing, with students earningabout1800characters. nly Sino-Korean ordsarewritten n characters.owever,

since1948, he matter hasbecome ighlypoliticizedwith government dicts wice

eliminating nd thenreinstatinghe useof characters.aylor and Taylor (t995)

report hat overall he useof characters ppearso be decreasing.

4.3 Vietnamese


Vietnamese is the first language of most of the 57 million people living in Vietnam.

The native speakersof other languages n Vietnam usually also speak Vietnamese as

a second anguage.Vietnamese s a member of the Mon-Khmer group of the Austro-

Asiatic family of languages; t is completely unrelated to Chinese, apanese, r Korean.

In structure, Vietnamese s isolating with no affixes; morphemes are monosyllabic.

Vietnam was ruled as a colony by China with brief interruptions from 111 oro

to 939 NEw. Even after this time, Vietnam, although nominally an independent

monarchy, was in fact controlled indirectly by China. During the period of direct

Chinese colonial rule, education and thus writing were done in Chinese (Nguy6n

1959). After independence n 939, writing continued in Chinese, although a distinctSino-Vietnamesepronunciation of Chinese developed. By the eleventh centuty, d

new distinctive type of writing had emerged known as chfr n6m'southern

script'.

In this script, a large number of new characters were developed specifically to

write Vietnamese.Thesewere characters unknown in Chinese,which nevertheless

had been created along the traditional Chinese principles of character formation,

primarily semantic-phoneticcompounds.

4.3.2 Chfrn6m

tJ7ith ts monosyllabic and isolating nature, Vietnamesehad no need to develop waysto write inflectional affixes, asJapanese nd Korean did. It is also not clear why the

Vietnamese el t the need to create new characters.We can ask why they could not

have adapted Chinesecharacters o Vietnameseas the Japaneseand Koreans did to



Japanese, orean,Vietnamese 75

their languages ithout changing he shape.Possiblyhe development f the newVietnameseharacters asa way of expressingultural ndependence,lthough heprocess f creating he newcharacters asgenerallyChinesen its nature. n anycase,chir n6m continued nto the twentiethcenturyas waysof writing Vietnamese.

Vietnamese orrowedheavily rom the Chineseexicon;Hannas 1,997) itesestimates etween30 and 60 per cent of the modernvocabularyas borrowed.The borrowingextendedover a long periodof time, forming differentclasses fborrowedwords,with the older borrowingsbeing ully assimilated, nd the laterborrowings aving ecognized ino-Viernameseronunciarions.

The development f cbir n)m is somewhat imilar o theJapaneseituation,andwe will use he term we developedor Japaneseharacters arlier n this chapter.The examples re rom Nguy6n G959)and Hannas (1997).

4.3.2.1, SEMANTICON

Chinesewords were borrowed into Vietnamese nd were written with Chinesecharacterstable4.25).This is the sameprocesswe haveseen n JapanesendKorean.Thesewordswereperceived s Chinese orrowings.

4.3.2.2 KUN

Sometimes, Chinese haracterwould be borrowedand used or an indigenousVietnamese ord which had the sameor similarmeaning semantic un) or sound(phonetic un) as expressedy the

characrern

Chinesetable4.26).

Table 4.25 Examples of semantic on Vietnamese

Modern Mandarin Modern Vietnamese Chinese meaning Vietnamese meaning

'head,beginning beginning'

Aoau

thidu

sdch

t6u

shio

cd

eH,yW

Table 4.26 Examples of semantic and phonetic kun in Vietnamese

Mandarin Modern Vietnamese Chinese meaning Vietnamese meaning

Semantic kun

"i wdi4k yi,& bEn

mul

vrgc

von

'flavour,smell'

'work, labour''root, capital'

'smell, odour''work, event''capital,

funds'

Phonetic kun

)9-EI'R

m0tc6ai

'one''have'

twho'



75 Japanese, oreln, Vietnamese

Table 4.27 Examplesof characters nvented in Vietnamese

Mandarin Vietnamese

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

* ,+ - t .

c + * .

4 + &

i + 4P t a

&

,t<@

s{i

t ian'sky'+

shing'up'

wdng ' lose '+ sh l ' lose '

ni6n'year' + su i

'year of age

mEi + mil'mother'

ba + san 'three'

w6 i 'do '

y t ' sky '

16o 'net '

tf t t

-#t

+8(z/,

k@+5

gidl

mdt

tudi

m9

ba

lim

ay

la

'sky,heaven'

'lose'

'yearof age'

'mother'

'three'

'do,make'

'that,those'

'strange'

4.3.2.3 CHARACTERS NVENTED IN VIETNAMESE

Sproat 2000,p. 156)seemso haveoverlooked he examples f semantic-semantic

compounds table4.27, forms a{), when following Nguy6n (1959).He says:'ExclusivelyVietnameseharacternnovationswere ound n chfrn6m,but thesewere

apparently ll semantic-phoneticonstructions.'Someemantic-phoneticompounds

(table4.27, ormsd-e) are ound. Note that these xamples re n the phonetic-semanticorder rather than the more common Chinese emantic-phoneticrder.Sometimes hinese haracters eresimplifiedn shape table4.27, orms f-h).

4.3.3 Qudc ngir

In the seventeenthcentury, a third way of writ ing Vietnamese arose with the

name qudc ngfr. French Christian missionariesdeveloped a version of the Roman

alphabet for publishing religious materials in Vietnamese.One of them, Alexandre

de Rhodes, published Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum 'A

Vietnamese, Portuguese,and Latin Dictionary' in 1651- He added three letters tothe basic Roman alphabet <d u o> and used diacritics to indicate vowel quality as

well as tone. As Vietnam fell more under French cultural and political influence,

de Rhodes'alphabet was increasinglyused n schools.Haarmann (7991) points ou t

that in the late nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century, the

languageand writing system of Vietnam was quite complex with three languages

(Chinese, French, Vietnamese) used in schooling and two writing systems n use

(chtr ndm and qu6c ng;r).

In 1945, with independence rom France, the new communist government pro-

claimed that qu6c ngtr would be the only recognized script. The northern dialect of

Hanoi is the standard dialect for writing. By now, qudc ngir is strongly identifiedwith the Vietnamesepeople, and the older scripts are limited to academic and

antiquarian interests.



I apanese, orean, Vietnamese 77

4.4 FurtherReading

Taylorand Taylor 1995)cover both Japanese nd Korean.Miller 1967,1986),

Seeley 1991),Shibatani1987,1990), ndSmith 1996) ll present asic nforma-tion about he Japanesewritingsystem.Unger(1996)discusseshe historyofJapanesewriting mmediately fter he SecondWorldWar. Paradiset al. (1985)give an interesting iscussion f aphasiaand its effecton Japanesewriting.ForKorean,Sohm (1997)has general nformation bout he language nd writ ingsystem.Kim-Reynaud1997)hasa numberof more echnical rticles. ietnameseslesswelldiscussed,utsee Nguy6n 1959, 996), ndalsoHannas 1997).Hannashasvoicedstrongcriticismo the continued se of charactersor writingany Asianlanguage.

4.5 Terms

ateji

cht ndmfurigana

hancahankul

hiragana

hyangchal

itwujukujikun

kana

kanbun

kanji

4.6 Exercises

katakana

kokujikun-reading

kwukyel

mora

on-readingphonetic xtension

phonetic unphonetic nqudc ngu

semantic unsemantic n

tomato 'tomato''femalebar manager'

Howmanypronunciationsan

youind or he number ne<1> n English?Hint:consider 0,1"v,etc.)

The followingwordshave beenborrowed ntoJapanese romother anguages,primarily nglish.What s the ypeof scriptused?Romanizehe Japanese riting,and henguessas to the meaning. omeanswers avebeengiven oryou.

l . ? 1 .

-f Z l'x < - - 1 .

U ,< 4 'U F Liszt'



78

< - ,- t 7 ,

t 4 < -

l ' -z l 'F - x 9 -z t - g -4 v '< l ' Yr ) v ,

z 9 v F < v7 - yV tUY, U7 < z y t )

f v va v l7 v * 'l t tv9)t tV7,- l'."7 4 z t v '< v ?t t / + y ,

Japanese, orean, Vietnamese

'mutton'

'stuntman'

'yacht'

'pfayingcard'< Port.carta'medicalrecord'< Ger.Karte'cataloguecard' Eng.card

ln Chinese,dn/bank,

shore'iswrittenwith he characterf. ThisChinese ordwasborrowedntoJapanese s /gani'bank, shore'.

(a) WhenF is readas lganl n Japanese,what s this reading nownas?(b) The same character f was also used for the native Japaneseword

/kishi/'bank, hore'.What s thisreading nownas?

The ollowing ordshavebeenborrowedromother anguages, rimarily nglish,

into Korean.MatcheachKoreanword with he English loss. Hint: emember

that Koreandoes not havean lll-ltl distinction.)

zl :ol-o1,.--3?oJ=.

94ulolzJsl:

E=,4E

r-=.}JE

alibi

boombulldozercaloriecampus

charisma

disk ockey

orchestra

9fl1^ e zl

4e49,rll-1 -1

eil e.*:42144+ z-zlzlzl4+ "lEF?+

restaurant

rucksack

spaghettistoptundraice cream

kiss

milk



5 Cuneiform

5.1 Backgroundand History

Cuneiform, he earliest nown writing in the world, was done a little over 5000yearsago by the Sumerian eople iving in southernMesopotamia figure5.1).Mesopotamia s the land lying between he Tigris and Euphrares iversand is nowpart of modern-d y haq. A domesticated gricultural ife emergedhere around7000 oLD, and citiesarose n the fifth millenniumwith large emplesknown asziggurats(a famous one was the biblical Tower of Babel - i.e., the ziggurato{Babylon).The Sumerians ad an activeeconomy entredaround he temples.

5.7.7 Sumerian

The Sumerians ettled n this areaaround 4000 oLD, apparently eplacing arlierpeopleswhose namesare unknown to us. The Sumerian anguage s unrelatedto any other known language. he phonemes f Sumerian re given n table 5.1(Hayes1990).There s somedisputeamongSumerologistsboutseveral oints nthis nventory.

Sumerian riting was on clay. flhen clay s dried, t is extremely urable.Some-times abletswerebaked o preservehem better,but often heyweresimplyallowedto dry. Firehasdestroyedmanypaperandpapyrusdocuments f history;however,with clay,a fire simplybakes t and makes t evenmore durable.The fact that the

Sumerianswrote on clay has meant hat the modernworld has an unparalleledamountof informationabout heir life at so earlya period.

Table 5.1 The phonemes of Sumerian

k g

rl

x

p b

m

u

o

t d

n

s z

l r



80 Cuneiform

Figure 5.1 Mesopotamia

The earliestSumerian ocuments ere bookkeepingecords ept by the temples.Latermaterialalso ncluded argenumbers f administrative nd economicexts,as

well as egaldocuments,etters, oyal nscriptions, nd iterary exts(Postgate 992).

The best-known iterary text is theEpic of Gilgamesh.

5.7.2 Akkadian

The Akkadians, ed by Sargon, onqueredhe Sumeriansn 2350 oLD.Akkadian s

a Semiticanguage, ompletely nrelated o Sumerian. he Akkadiansadoptedmuch

of Sumerian ulture, ncludingSumerianwriting. At first, the Akkadianssimply

wrote in theSumeriananguagewith the Sumerianwriting system;ater heyadaptedthe writing systemo write Akkadian, but theyneverentirelygaveup writing in the

Sumeriananguage. or theAkkadians,Sumerian as a language f learning,muchas

Euphrates .



Cuneiform

Table .2 Thephonemesf Akkadian

8 1

p b t d

tS Z J

sn

l r

k g

q

x

l : u:

e: a i

l u

e a

Latin wasfor medirval Europeans. he namesAkkadian,Babylonian,andAssyrianare all used or this language pokenat different imesand places.We can viewthem simplyasdialects f a single anguage hichwe will callAkkadian.Akkadianliterature s vast, ncludingadministrative nd economic ocuments,oyal decrees,legalcodes, iterature, vencookbooks.

The Akkadianphonologicalnventory s given n table5.2.If we compare he Sumerian nd Akkadian inventories,we see hat Akkadian

had more phonemeshan Sumerian. he sounds t q g/ probably nvolvedsomesort of pharyngeal,laryngeal,r uvulararticulation see hapter7). Glottal stop 2/was presentn proto-Semitic, ut it was lost during the early stages

fAkkadian.

Assyriologistsspecialistsn this area)usually ranscribe? I x j gl as.' 5b i 0r .Sumerianwas replacedby Akkadian in the eaily secondmillennium oLD. Later,

during he irstmillennium,Aramaic,a differentSemiticanguage,ecamehe inguafrancaof the Akkadianworld; it waswrittenwith an abjad asystemike an alphabet;seechapter7).In 537oLD, the Persiansonqueredhe Akkadians.Although thePersianspokeOld Persian, n Indo-Europeananguage,headministrativeanguageand lingua francaof the area emainedAramaic.

5.2 Tokensand the Inventionof WritingDeniseSchmandt-Besserat1989,1992)has put forth a very interestingheoryasto how writing arose n Mesopotamia. rom the period 8500-3000 oro, a largenumberof artefacts nown as okenshavebeen ound.These re smallclay objectsof simplegeometric hapesfigure5.2):spheres,ones, etrahedra, ylinders, isks,lens-shapedisks,etc.; okensof this periodare known asplain tokens.They areassociated ith the beginnings f agriculture;Schmandt-Besseratelieveshat theywere used or record-keeping.

S7ecan imagine wo farmersagreeing:In exchange

for the twenty bushels f grain I am givingyou now, you will giveme two sheepn

the spring; will keep hese wo tokensas a recordof the agreement.' hearguesthat the differentshapes f tokenswereused or differentagricultural tems:barley,sheep,wool, etc.



82

$ @ # f f iFigure 5.2 Plain tokens

Figure5.3 Hollow envelopewith tokensenclosed

Although the archaological context for many tokens has been lost, some havebeen found stored inside sealed, hollow clay balls forming envelopes around the

tokens (figure 5.3). Schmandt-Besserat rgues that these envelopesrepresenteda

way of safeguarding he record of the contract. If there was a disagreement, he

envelopecould be broken, and the evidenceof the tokens would be inside.

From the seventhmillennium oLD, sealswere used in the Near East; they were

the property of an individual or institution and servedas evidenceof authenticity(cf. the sealsused by corporations and notaries public even today). Mesopotamian

sealswere cylindrical in shape and were rolled across he clay, leaving the impression

of the pattern of the seal.Thus, the eaily Mesopotamians would have been familiar

with the notion of pressing something into the clay to make a record. Schmandt-Besseratsuggestshat, in order to record a contract, tokens were sometimessimilarly

pressed nto the outer surface of a clay envelope, hen they were placed inside the

envelope,which was then closed (figure 5.4). This procedure had the advantageof

allowing the contract to be consulted without breaking the envelope.

Once the tokens were pressed nto the outer surfaceof the clay, people realized hat

there was no need o enclose hem in the envelope; hus, the envelopesgaveway to

impressed ablets.A flat tablet of clay was marked with a cylinder seal mpression,

indicating the party to the contract, and then the tokens were pressed nto the tablet

to show the content of the agreement.

From about 4400-3000 oro, more complex tokens (figure 5.5) were found inaddition to the plain tokens. These had more complex shapes,sometimes with

incised ineson their surface.They are associatedwith the emergence f cities during

Cuneiform



Cuneiform

Figure 5.4 Envelope showing where tokens have been impressed; token shown separately

@ # # f f iFigure 5.5 Complex tokens

Figure5.6 Tablet with inscribedsigns

this time. Schmandt-Besserat rgues hat the complex tokens represented he manu-factured goods such as cloth, beer, and bread which were traded in the cities.

\fhen complex tokens came into existence, their more complex shapes andparticularly the lines in them were difficult to reproduce on the tablet merely bypressing he tokens into the clay. To solve this problem, the shapeof the token was

drawn into the tablet with a stylus rather than impressedwith the actual token(figure 5.5). Special types of impressionscame to be used to indicate more than

one unit.

83



84 Cuneiform

From simple documents which recorded different numbers and objects, someone

realized hat other typesof recordscould be made and ultimately that any utterance

in the language could be written down. Schmandt-Besserat'sheory that writing

developed from the use of tokens as a means of record-keeping is not without con-troversy, but it seems o be gradually gaining acceptance. f it is true, evenpartially

so, it givesus considerable nsight into the origin of writing in Mesopotamia.

5.3 Materialsof Writing

Theearliest nownrealwriting s romtheancient ity Uruk (southernMesopotamia,

near he Euphrates). e presumehat the anguagesSumerian, ut thepictographic

natureof the writing doesnot give any direct evidenceor the language f the

scribes. he symbolswere drawn with a pointedstick,or stylus,n soft claywhichwas allowed o dry. Since ullinga stylus hrough heclay hrows up ridges, more

satisfactory ay of writing on clay wasfound, namely,pressinghe stylus nto the

clay.A triangularstyluswasgenerally sed,eavingwedgeJikempressions.hename

cuneiformwedge-shaped'is a nineteenth-centuryermcoined rom the Latinword

cuneus'wedge'. umberswerewritten with a circularstylus figures .5 and 5.9):

one mpressionor'one', two impressionsor'two', etc.Largerunits werewritten

with a largerstylusand alsoby impressinghe stylusat an angle.A rectangular labof cIay,known as a tablet(figure5.711,as held n onehand

and the stylus n the other.Earlysymbols how strokesn all directions, ut soon

only the oneswhich could bemadewithout too much rotation of the styluswereused.For reasons ot entirely understood, ut no doubt related o the way the

tabletwasheld or writing andreading, ymbolswere otated90" counterclockwise(seeigure5.10).

At first, the scribeswrote the cuneiform symbolsby using the triangular stylus

to duplicate arefully he samedesignmadeby thepointedstylus;however,n time,

Figure 5.7 Portion of a cuneiform tablet



9 1 0

1 3

1 4 1 5

1 1 2' 1 61 7

Front(Obverse)

85

1 8 1 923 24

20 21 222 5 2 6

Back(Reverse)

Cuneiform

Figure5.8 The order of writing on both sidesof a tablet s shown

the shapesof the symbols became stylized. \7ith the ro tation and stylization, con-

tinuity with the original representational shape was lost. Later scribes ikely had little

knowledge of the origin of the symbols.

The shapeof clay tablet varied but was typically rectangular, of a sizeconvenient tofit in the hand. The obverse front side)was usually flat, and the reverse back) convex.This design made it easy to find where the writing began. The scribe sometimeswrote in columns beginning at the upper left of the obverseside (figure 5.8). Withina column, the symbols were written hofizontally from left to right. At the end ofone column, a new column would begin at the right of the last one. \7hen the lowerright corner of the obversewas reached, he tablet was turned over, top to bottom.The first column on the reversestarted at the right with further columns ro the left.

Thus, the columns were ordered differently on the two sides.Many tablets have

only one column per side, but the tablet would still be turned top to bottom.

Sfe have aheady mentioned envelopes n the context of tokens; cuneiform tabletswere also sometimeswritten in the form of envelopes.A contract would be written

out on a tablet, thensealed

nsidea clay envelopewhich would also bear a copy ofthe same contract. The Akkadians took fraud in contract law very seriously. Seals

could also be used to authenticate he author of a tablet.

The standard medium of cuneiform writing is the clay tablet; however, inscrip-tions were also occasionallymade in stone, metal, glass,or ivory. Clay objects n theshapeof large ceremonial building nails with inscriptions, even lengthy ones, weresometimesplaced in the walls of temples.

5.4 SocialContextof CuneiformWriting

Scribeswere an educated lite n Sumerian nd Akkadian society.They attendeda long and often harshschooling. n addition to the basics f writing, they also



86 Cuneiform

learned bout iterature ndmathematics. kkadian-speakingtudents penta good

dealof time earningSumerian. abletsexistwhere he eacher aswritten a model

text on one half of the tablet and the studenthascopied t on the other.The same

school exts are found from different time periods,suggestinghat the methodofschooling emainedmuch he same or centuries.One peculiarkind of text was the lexical ist. Thesewere istsof semantically

relatedwords. At first, the lexical istswere only in Sumerian, ut later Akkadian

translationswere addedalongside. ikely thesewere catalogues f symbolsmade

to helpscribalstudents.Literacywas not widespread, ut therewere still manypeoplewho could read.

Although abletswereusuallydiscarded hen theywereno longer equired,many

libraries, omeof considerableize,havebeen ound.

5.5 An Early SumerianTablet from Uruk

Nissen,Damerow,and Englund(1993)have examineda collectionof 82 tablets

from ancientUruk dated o about 3000 oLD.These abletsare among he earliesttrue writing known to us today.The tabletsaremainlybookkeepingecords. hey

were found in dumpswhere hey had beendiscarded nd were no longer n thelocationwhere hey would havebeenproducedor used.The scriptof these abletsis known as proto-cuneiform, rawn with a pointedstylusbefore he introduction

of the triangularstylus.'S7e

will look at one of these ablets figure5.10)producedby an administrativeofficial with the name Kushim lka|fiml. Seventeen ther tablets n this collectionmention Kushim, who appears o be the chief warehousemanor a brewery.His

title is Sanga, senioradministrator.His significancesclear rom the argequantities

of ingredientsor which hewasresponsible.First,we should ook at the counting system or grain.There seemso havebeen

a standard nit of volumeof about24 litresused or barley figure5.9).Different

symbolsndicatedmultiplesof this basicunit (figure5.9); he multiplesdid not have

a consistentarithmetic relationship o each other. This systemwas usedonly forgrain,particularlybarley.Other objects addifferentsystems f measurement. issen

et al. (1993) found thirteen differentsystemsor such hings asanimals, ish, milkproducts,weight,days,etc.Thesymbolsor numbers ppear o havebeenmadewith

two round styli, one small and one large. U7itheach stylus wo different symbolscouldbemade,by pressinghe stylusstraightdown into the clayor by pressinghetip in almosthorizontally.Thiswas ndicated n the textsby the symbol abelledin figure5.9. ilfewill label hese nitsasa, b, c, d.In figure5.9,symbols andb aremadewith the small stylus,c and d with the largeone. \fith symbolsb and c, the

tip of the stylus spressedtraight n, andwith symbols andd,the stylus spressed

in at an angle.Six unitsof a equal1 unit of b;10 units of b equal1 unit of c; and

3 units of c equalone unit of d.

In the Uruk tabletshown n figure5.10, he obverse hows our differententrieson the left al l having o do with barley;on the right, the tablet s signedby Nisa,

who appears o be Kushim'ssecond-in-command.he reverse ummarizesheinformationon the obverse nd is signedby both Kushim andNisa.



Cuneiform 87

O

O

Dsurement symbol

b - 6

= 1 0

- 3

s for grain

D

o

O

1 un i t

6 units

60 uni ts

d

Figure 5.9 Mea

1B0units

total

Nrsa assistanto Kushim)

Figure5.10 An earlyaccounting ablet from Uruk (from HansJ. Nissenet al., ArchaicBookkeeping,rgure34, p.38. Chicago:University f ChicagoPress, 993.@ 7986byUniversityof ChicagoPress.Reproducedwith permission)

Looking now at the four entrieson the obverse,we see hat each one contains anumber and the title of an official. The first entry shows an amount of 4b,2c,1-d ora total of 324 units (where 4bis 4 occurrences

of symbol b as shown in figure 5.9);the secondentry has 1a, 8b or a total of 49 units; the third entry has 7b or a totalof 42 units; and the fourth entry has3b,'l,d or a total of 198 units. The total numberof units on this side s thus 613 units or approximately l4,7l2litres.

Kushm

Nisa(assistanto Kushim)

oto>r>r-

.ooraQto

ffiffi

sssg#



88 Cuneiform

The reverse howsa number,and the signatures f KushimandNisa.Thegrain-

shaped ymbol epresentsbarley'.The symbolbelow hat hasnot beendeciphered

but seemso refer o somekind of distribution.The amountof grain s ta,2b,'1-,c,

3d or a total of 5"1,3nits; his figure sobviously he total of the four entries n theobverse.This tabletshows he clearand accurate ookkeepingechniques f theAkkadians.

Another tablet shows he amount of various ngredientshat the warehouseman

would need o haveon hand for a certainquantityof beer o bemade.One nterest-

ing series f tablets hows hat a certainpersondid not havesufficient rain o pay

his taxes ully oneyearand that the shortfallwas carried orwardto the nextyear.

5.6 InternalStructureof Cuneiform

5.6.7 Deueloptnentof Etmbok

Eachcuneiformsymbol s a grapheme; raphemesepresent oth morphological

andphonologicalnits n the anguagefigure .11).Theearliest ymbolswerepictograms.n the llustrationsn figure5.L1, he symbols

for lsagl head' (1l1,ki l 'land' (7: pictureof ploughed ield), sal/ 'femalesexual

organs' 8), and lkurl 'mountain' (9) are pictograms.n the earliest orms of the

symbols column ) the conicnature sapparent, ut with therotationand cuneiform

stylization, he original pictorial quality has been ost, and the later forms are

simplysymbolic column V). Thesymbol or ldul'go' (5)wasoriginallypictographic,showinga foot,and henextendedo the semanticallyelatednotionof 'go'. Similarly,

a pictograph f a star (5) came o be used or lanl 'heaven'and ldir'ft| god'.

Abstractpictogramsarerepresentational,ut not exactlyof the object tself. The

symbol or al 'water' (3) s a picture,not of water tselfwhich would be difficult o

draw, but of a stream.Semantic xtension as common.The symbol or ldul 'go' (5)startedasa picto-

gramof a foot and was thenextended emanticallyo the verb ldul 'go', and also

to the verb gub/'stand'.From ts use or ldul 'go', it was hen urtherextendedo

the semanticallyimilarmorphemesnl and ginl, all generallymeaning'go'.From

its originalpictographic hapeor a'star',

the symbol or lanlheaven'

(5)was alsoused or ldir,irl'god'.Thesymbol or lkal 'mouth' (2)was extendedo representhe

semanticallyimilarmorphemedugl'speak'.Thepictograph or lsall femalesexual

organs' 8) became s well the symbol or /munus/ woman'.

In theexamples,we see honeticextensionn the useof thesymbolfor lal 'water'

(3) to write the morphemeal 'in', and indeed o write any syllableof the shapelal.\rith phoneticextension,he meaning f the originalmorphemes irrelevant.

One symbol can be changed o another symbol by differentiation, hat is, byaddinga diacritic. n Akkadian, his processwasknown asgunu. The symbol or

/kal'mouth' (2) was formedby addinga gunu mark in the form of diacritichatch

marks o the symbol or head(1) in the areaof the mouth. Note that the symbolfor lkal 'mouth' later underwent emantic xtensiono be usedas the symbol or

ldugl speak'.



F C==(F=T +{R .& @ 4{

il fl n

froeh sq ffi

t F{ tr{ \rfi

)+ * +f< r?K

@ e 6 sV u,-a

A A cI VY t(

VoA A Fo[ + F{{

Cuneiform

Ig

/sp,g/

'head'

/ka/'mouth'

/dug/'speak'

/a/'wate(

/a/'in'

/nag/'drink'

/du/ /ra/ /gin/'go'

/gub/'stand'

/digt/'god'

/an/'heaven'

/lrr/ 1and, earth'

/sal/'female

sexual organs'

/munus/'woman'

/kur/'mountain'

/geme/ 'female slave'

Figure 5.11 Examples of symbols. Different chronological stagesof each symbol are

shown from left to right (from Edward Chiera, They Wrote in Clay, p. 63.Chicago:

University of Chicago Press,7966. @ 1966 by University of Chicago Press.Reproduced

with permission)

The symbol or lnaql drink' (a) is an illustrationof a semantic ompound.The

symbol for lsagl

head'

(1) was combinedwith the symbol or la l'water'

(3) tocreatea new symbol.Anotherexampleof a semantic ompound s shown n (10);here, hesymbolsor /munus/ woman'(8) and lkurl'mountain' (9) arecombined

8 9

UI



90 Cuneiform

to produce newsymbol or /gemel'female lave' 10).The ationaleor this was

that slavesypicallycame rom the mountain angeso the East.The examples o far havebeenbasedon Sumerian,which is the periodwhen

the processesf creatingnew symbolsemerged. he sameprinciplescontinuedto be used o createsymbols equiredby Akkadian. One complexityduring theAkkadian period resulted rom the large borrowing of Sumerian ocabulary.A

symbolcouldhaveboth a Sumerian nd anAkkadian eading,he same sJapaneseon- and kun-readingschapter4) . For example, he symbol for 'head'could begiven a Sumerian eading lsagl (oz-reading)or an Akkadian reading hezluml(kun-reading);imilarly, he symbol or 'land'couldbereadas kilin Sumerianonl

or as ersetu/ n Akkadian (kun).Over time, the Akkadianreadings ecamemore

common,but someSumerian eadings ontinued hroughout he entireAkkadianperiod.

Phoneticextensioncould be basedon either the Sumerian phoneticon) or theAkkadian eading phoneticun).Forexample,hesymbol or'head'couldbe used

both for syllableswith the sound lsagl ollowing the Sumerian ronunciation, r

with hefl following the Akkadian pronunciation.

Semantic xtension urthercomplicatedhe situationby associating varietyofdifferent-sounding orphemeswith the samesymbol.For example, he symbolfor lkal 'mouth'was alsoextendedo othermorphemes:zul'tooth', liniml word',

/gu/ 'voice',and ldugl speak';and by phoneticextension,t was further used or

syllables ith thesoundszul,lgul, and ldul.

5.6.2 Relationship to language

Some symbolsare morphograms; or example, he symbol trll+ was used torepresenthe morpheme sagl head',and -* is used o representhe morpheme

ldhirl 'heaven,god'.

Some symbolsare phonograms;or example, he symbol =* was used torepresenthe syllable uml. Phonographic uneiformsymbols epresented ora

or syllables, ot singlephonemes. syllablemight havehad an initial consonantor not, and t might havebeenopenor closed: C)V(C).Thus, hereweredifferentand unrelated ymbols or lu l =ffi=,l[ul ,fl, /um/ F:l[, and ffuml =ft. The

symbol nventorycontained ymbols or mostsinglevowels,CV, and VC sequences,but not all.Thereweresymbols or only someCVC possibilities. ote that although

cuneiformsymbols epresentedyllables,hey sometimesepresented singlevowelphoneme,where he syllablehad no initial or final consonant.

AlthoughAkkadiansymbols ouldrepresentyllables, ot everypossible hono-

logical syllablehad a corresponding ymbol; often two moraic symbolswere com-

bined o showa singlesyllable.Vowel length, or example,was shown rregularly

in Akkadian.Sometimesong vowelsare simplynot indicatedat all but have obe inferred rom a knowledgeof the language.At other times, hey were ndicated

by repeatinghe vowelwith a differentsymbol.Thus lba:lcould be written just as

.bat, or moreexplicitlywith two moraicsymbolsas <ba-a>. n a closedsyllable,a longvowel suchas lba:mlmight bewritten with two symbols s<ba-am>;t was

up to the reader o know whether his representedne syllablewith a long vowel



Cuneiform 91,

lbatml or a two-syllable sequence ba-aml, or perhaps /bam/. Many consonantal

contrasts were neutralized in writing. Thus, the written symbol <ku> might represent

lkul, lgul, or lqul.

Some symbols are used as a semanticcomplement - a symbol used to give addi-

tional semantic nformation. For example, the star symbol is used as a morphogramforldi4irl 'god'.

However, this symbol is also used to accompany the name of anygod that is mentioned. In this case the star symbol was not pronounced, but itindicated that the accompanyingsymbol was to be interpreted as the name of a god.

Semanticcomplementsare useful in disambiguating homographs.

Frequently a symbol representedmany different things. For example, the symbolif was a morphogram meaning

'tree,wood'; as such, it could be pronounced as

lgifl, the Sumerian (on) reading, or as lisul, the Akkadian (kun) reading. The samesymbols could also be phonograms, ambiguously representingeither lisl, lizl, or

/is/. Further, this particular symbol could be used as a semantic complement pre-

ceding many words to indicate that the following word is a tree or an object made

of wood, in which case he symbol would not have been pronounced at all.

Clearly, in readingAkkadian, context was of great mportance in determining whichreading was appropriate in eachcase.As a result of this complexity, Assyriologistshave developedcertain traditions for romanizing Akkadian texts. They distinguish

the terms transliteration and transcription. A transliteration of a text involves giving

a symbol-by-symbol rendering of the written Akkadian text. A transcription gives

the correct pronunciation. Morphemes with a Sumerianreading are transliterated nroman letters,and those with an Akkadian readingarc in italics. Morphograms aretransliterated in upper-case etters, and phonograms are in lower-case etters. The

semanticcomplements,such as ldiqul, are transcribed by superscriptabbreviations.This semanticdeterminatiye s transliteratedby a small <'l > (the abbreyiation is for

Latin deus'god', nor ldiDirl).

5.7 ExampleText

tlammu-rapiwasoneof the most amous ingsof Babylon, uling 1792-1750oto.He ordered hat a collection f lawsbe publicized, nd a copyof theseaws s on alargestelenow found n

the LouvreMuseum n Paris.Oneof the aws s presentedin table5.3, not with the shapeof the symbols ound on the stele,but in the laterform normallyused n teachingAkkadian.

The roots or verbsareof the ypicalSemitic riconsonantalorm (see hapter71.The other vowelsand consonants f verbs represent nflection l material.Accentsin the transliteration re used o distinguish omophonicgraphemes. yphens nthe transliteration orrespondo symbolboundaries; yphens n the transcriptionseparateexicalmorphemes.

An awi:lum was a 'first-classcitizen', different from a mulkenurmsecond-class

citizen',or from a slave.The nominativesuffix s -um and the accusative uffix s-am.Note

that the word order s SOV(subject-object-verb).

n this text, all itemsareAkkadianphonograms nd huswritten n lower-casetalics.Note thedifferencebetweenransliteration nd transcription.



92 Cuneiform

Table 5.3 Sample Akkadian text: A law from the code of Vammu-rapi

r* EI II al--G=Translit. fum-ma a- ui- lumTranscript. fummA aui:lum

If citizennom

Translit.Transcript.

+ITranslit. la

Transcript. la :

not

Translit.Transcript. mubbir-fu

accuser-hisroot lTbrl

II ol- (=il =ilI= G = ffi EI

a- wi- lam dt- ub- bi- ir-maaui:lam ubbirma

citizen accuse

acc root l?brl

4;lffiAl =II-EEIIEI RI(+EIne- er- tam e- li- fu iddi- ma

ne:rtam eli:-fu iddi:-ma

charge of murder against-him l^y- and

acc root lnd?l

EF*l(EH€luk- ti- in- fuuktin-fuconvict-himroot k?nl

*sFG=ff iEI EIEII-Emu-ub-bi- ir- fu idda- ak

idda:kkillroot ld?kl

'I f one citizen accusesanother and brings a charge of murder against him, but has not

convicted him. his accusershall be executed.'

5.8 Other CuneiformWriting

Several eighbouring ulturesborrowedcuneiformwriting from the Akkadiansandadapted t to their own languages. s a whole, theseborrowingswere rathercon-servative,eepinghegeneral tructure f Sumerian nd Akkadianwriting.\$7e illdiscuss everal f these orrowingsbriefly,and henexamineUgariticandOld Persianwriting in a little moredetailsince hey show certain nterestingnnovations.

Thestateof Elamwas n westernran, north of the Gulf.Elamite extswerewrittenover a very ong periodof time, rom 3100-331 oro. The Elamite anguages notknownto berelatedo any other anguage. heearliestextsare n an undecipheredpictographic cript.A linearscript ollowedwhich s only partly understood. romthe thirteenthcenturyoLD, Elamite exts existwhich usea limited numberof the

phonographic ymbols orrowed rom Akkadian.Around 10,000 abletswerediscoveredinlg64n Ebla,a site n SyrianearAleppo.

The Eblaite extsaredated rom therelatively riefperiodof 2500-2400 oLD.They



Cuneiform 93

werepartiallywritten n Eblaite,a Semiticanguage. he textsare mostlyadminis-trative n nature.Theyare argelywritten in Sumerianwith Eblaite nterspersed;sa result,much of the structureof the Eblaite language emainsunknown.

In northeastern urkey atBo$hazkoy, roundL0,000cuneiform exts were oundin 1906,written in Hittite, an Indo-Europeananguagesome cholars rgue hatHittite and Indo-Europeanogether orm the Indo-Hittite family).The Hittite scribesuseda largenumberof Sumerian nd Akkadiansymbols.The textscover a widerangeof subjects: dministration, iplomacy, eligion,magic,and literature.Theyare dated rom the seventeentho the thirteenth enturies LD.

The Hurrians ived n northernMesopotamia, peaking language nown to berelatedonly to anotherancientanguage f the area)Urartian.An archiveof inter-nationalcorrespondencen Hurrian wasfound n Egypt n 1887,with thematerialdated o theendof the ifteenthcenturyoLD.One of thesesthe argest nowncunei-form tablet.The

script s moraicand is an adaptation f the Akkadianscript.TheHurriansare known as he peoplewho introduced he horse o the Near East.As mentioned bove,Urartian s related o Hurrian. The Urartians ivedaround

LakeVan in eastern urkey. The textsare mostly historical n nature,dated romthe thirteenth o the seventh enturies ro. Like Hurrian. t uses reduced umberof Akkadiansymbols.

5.8.1 Ugaritic

ln 1929,about 1000Ugaritic abletswere oundat RasShamraUgarit)on thecoast

of Syria(Segert

1.984,

C. \Talker 1987).The languages Semitic, ut the script scuneiform,but unlikeany other cuneiformwriting. The texts,whichhavebeendatedfrom the fourteenthcentury oLD, include iterary and administrativeexts.Ratherthan representing orphemesr syllables s n Akkadian, he script epresentsndi-vidualsegments.n general, nly the consonants rewritten,not the vowels; hesecharacteristicsmakethe Ugaritic script an abjad,a type of script which we will bediscussingn chapte 7 The abjadwas the typical script for most Semitic anguagesotherthan Akkadian.

Eachof theconsonants asa separateymbol. n addition, hereare hreemoraicsymbols or theglottalstopcombinedwith a followingvowel:<?a?i2u>; his s an

exceptiono the rule that vowelsare not represented.here s alsoa symbol for aword divider.The order of the symbolss attested, nd t is almost dentical o theoneused or Phanicianand Hebrewscripts chapter ).

Essentially,he Ugariticscript s structurally imilar o the earlySemitic cripts,except hat the symbolswereof a cuneiform hapewritten on clay ablets.Presum-ably, the SemiticUgariticspeakers erefamiliarwith both the traditionalSemiticand Akkadiantraditionsand incorporatedboth writing traditions n their script.The internalstructure f the Ugariticscript s Semitic, nd the externalstructuresAkkadian.

Table5.4 shows he Ugariticsymbols n thenativeorder.Where here s a differ-

encebetween symbolused n Ugariticstudies nd the usual PA symbol or thereconstructed ronunciation,he IPA symbol s given n brackets.The subscriptdot indicates n emphatic onsonant;hesewerecommon n Semiticanguagesnd



94 Cuneiform

Table 5.4 The Ugaritic cuneiform symbols in the traditional order

}*

'a f?al

wv til

p

b l*l

(Id16l

+s [r]

F>

w

>lrlE

n

II

z

tr<? t9l

t-'i

[2i]

I Ih d

L Ib s

> <l>k 5 t / 1

m {l m

r ^ lr t [ o ]

+ , J -hth l r

Y (s

'[s]

IIL ^l^'u

[2u] 3 [su]

involvedsomesort of secondary haryngeal r laryngeal ctivity.The symbol or/su/ was added ateand wasquiterare.

5.8.2 OId Persian

Iflhen the Persians onquered he Akkadians in the sixth century oLD, the

administrativeanguage f theAkkadianempirehadbecome ramaic.The Persians

continued o use Aramaic as an administrative nd diplomatic anguage.They

themselves,owever, pokeOld Persian, n Indo-Europeananguage. ing Darius(521-486 oro) ordereda Persian uneiform o be constructedo givehis empire

and language distinctive cript.The scripthad 36 phonographic ymbolsand afew morphograms, nd a word divider (table5.5). \Ufherehere s more than one

symbol or a consonantn table 5.5, eachalternativewas usuallyusedonly before

cerain vowels.Relatively ew texts were written in Old Persian,mostly stone ormetal nscriptions,ather han on clay.

Table 5.5 Old Persian cuneiform symbols

Vowel symbols

f f i f r f i

q

ilI

<E[

d

EII

d

YT

d

k r c I F

I i k

m-t

Ew

c

Kr

m

YF

tl

'|{

I

'TYT

m

(K

h

EI

r

*

v

( F

n

<(r

FC

m

<Fd3

HYT

t

{

d3

{

v

n

Consonant symbols

F H K <

KI

e

(T

k

(fi

x

t'Iz

./>\F

8

IE

s

(II'

8



Cuneiform 95

Table5.5 (Cont'dl

Morphograms

F((IlI

xfaja9ija dahjau['king' 'country'

bnmd Auramazda'god'

divinename

baga'earth'

B{(

Numerals

I I

20

fi

3 1 0

<fi

1 3

KI

33 40

T100 r20

5.9 FurtherReading

Bott6ro1992),Kramer 1963),Nissen 1988),Postgate1992),Roaf 1990) ll pro-videbackgroundnformationn Mesopotamia.or more nformationn thecuneiformscript or Sumerianand Akkadian, ee Cooper 1996),Green(1989),Michalowski(1996),C. Walker 1987),whichall provide elativelyasy ntroductions.euerherm(1998)and Huehnergard1997)are introductionso the Akkadian anguagewithinformationn the writing ystem.Schmandt-Besserat1989,1992), asimandOates(1986), nd Lieberman1980) iscussokens.Green 1981), arsen 1989),Nissen(1986), issen,

amerow,nd Englund1993), icchioni1985),M. Powell 1981),Reiner 1973),Sack 1981),Vanstiphout1979) iscuss pecific oints.See Collon(1990),Gibson nd Biggs 1977), nd Schendge1983) nseals.Forother anguagessee Bermant nd Weitzman 1979,Eblaite), urtis 1985,Ugaritic), ragg 1996,general),Gurney 1981,Hittite),Hawkins 1986,Hittite), ent(1953,Old Persian),Pettinato1981,Eblaite), egert 1984,Ugaritic), ndVallat 1980, ranian).

5.10 Terms

abstractpictogramAkkadian

AssyrianBabel

Babylonian

cuneiformdifferentiationgunu

Mesopotamia

morphogram

obverseOld Persianphonetic xtensionphonogram

pictogramreverse

sealsemantic omplementsemantic ompoundsemantic xtensionstylusSumeriantablet

tokens:plainand complex

transcriptiontransliterationUgariticUruk



Cuneiform

5.11 Exercrses

1 Examine he development rom tokens to fully developedSumerianwriting.

At what pointcan we say that writing irst occurred?What development(s) as/

werecrucial or this change?2 Usingyourown familiarity f writingwitha pen and ink on paper,considerwhat

changeshappenedwhen Akkadianscribeswho were accustomed o writing

cuneiform n clay irststarted o writeAramaic n flat surfaces.

3 Using igure .9,write he numbersn cuneiformor36, 87,23 and henadd hem

together.



6 Egyptian

6.1 LanguageFamily

Egyptian s a memberof the Afro-Asiatic anguageamily, a group of languagesspoken n northernAfricaandthe Middle East.Therearesix branchesn the amily( table .1) .

The Egyptian branch has only the Egyptian language,which is known fromca. 3000oLD.The Egyptiananguagesusuallydivided nto variousperiodsasshownin table5.2 (Loprieno1995).Middle Egyptian ame o beregarded s he classicallanguage;manytexts,particularly eligiousones,werewritten in Middle Egyptianup to 450 rqnw,ongafterMiddle Egyptianwasno longerspoken.From 1300oLD,secular exts werewritten in Late Egyptian, and after 700 oLo, Demotic Egyptianwas used or record-keepingnd for other

extsof apractical

nature.The lastpre-

Coptic Egyptian ext written in theold style sdated o about450 New. n thesecondand third centuries, gyptbecame redominantlyChristian; rom Christian imes,the Egyptian anguages calledCoptic. Coptic died out around 1500 although tcontinues o beusedasa liturgical anguagen the Coptic Church.Theterm Coptic srelated o the Greek erm for Egypt,Aigypto.s; ote he similarconsonants <c p t>of Coptic and <g p t> of Aigyptos.

Table 6.1 The Afro-Asiatic language family; only the better-known languages are listed

Egyptian

Egyptian

(Coptic)

Semitic

Akkadian

Phenician

Hebrew

Aramaic

Arabic

South ArabianAmharic

Berber

Tuareg

Tamazight

Mandara

Sokoro

Masa

Cushitic

Sidamo

Somali

Omotichadic

Hausa

Bura

Afro-Asiatic



98 Egyptian

Table 6.2 Periods of the Egyptian language

Old Egyptian

Middle EgyptianLate Egyptian

Demotic

Coptic

3000-2000oro

2000-1300oro1300-700or.o

700 oro-300 nrw

300New-l500


The inhabitedpart of Egypt s a long thin areaconsisting f the banksof the Nile

and its delta (figure6.1).The land outside his area s mostlyuninhabiteddesertwith only the occasional asis.The ancientEgyptianempirearoseout of the union

Mediterranean ea

SaudiArabia

NEGYPT

? cairo

z*r(\,o\

k \

* Aswan

Figure 6.1 Map of ancient Egypt



Egyptian

Table .3 Thecultural eriods f Egypt

99

3100-2580 oro2680-2160 oro

2060-1,780oro1,570-1,085ro650-332 oto

332-30oro

30 oro-284 upvr284-640

700-1100

1,250

1,515

1,882-191,9

l9l9-19521,952

Archaic period

Old Kingdom

Middle Kingdom

New Kingdom

Late Dynastic Period

Greek

Roman

Coptic

Arabization of Egypt

Turkish

Ottoman

British

Independent,bound by treaty to BritainIndependent Republic

of two kingdoms: ower Egypt (theNile delta)and upperEgypt(themain part ofthe river, oughly rom modern-day airo o Aswan).Memphis nearmodernCairo)was the capitalof lower Egypt,and Thebes nearmodern Luxor) the capital ofupper Egypt.The main part of ancientEgyptianhistory is usuallydivided ntofour periods table6.3):Old Kingdom,Middle Kingdom,New Kingdom,and LateDynasticPeriod.The Greeksand then the Romansconquered gyptbut generallymaintainedhe traditionalEgyptian ulture, ncluding he writing system. romthethird centuryNEw,however,Egyptbecame hristianand urned ts backon theoldculture.From this time, he peopleand the language ame o be known as Coptic,and the language aswritten in the Copticalphabet, ased n the Greekalphabet(chapter8). Egyptbecame redominantlyMuslim after he Islamicconquestn theseventh entury.Betweenhe eighthand eleventh enturies,EgyptgraduallybecameArabized.Today,Arabic s the normal anguage f mostEgyptians. hereare alsosmallGreek-and French-speakingommunitiesn Egypt.

6.3 Phonologyof Old Egyptian

The inventory n table 5.4 shows he phonemesor Old Egyptian.Many pointsaboutthe phonologyof Egyptianareuncertain.

Table 6.4 Phonemesof ancient Egyptian (adapted rom Loprieno 1995)

k sbfm

w

t ds z

n

r l

u

c J

I

?

s hq

X



100 Egyptian

6.4 Origin of EgyptianWriting

The emergence f writing in Egyptpresents n interesting roblem or scholars:was

Egyptianborrowed rom Mesopotamian uneiform,or did it developndependently?The raditionalviewhasbeen hat writing was irstattestedn Mesopotamia round

3300 oro and in Egyptaround 3000 oLD.From this time difference,many scholars aveassumedhat cuneiformwriting

developedirst and was borrowed to createEgyptianwriting. The borrowing was

clearlynot a close mitation. The structuresof the rwo writing systems iffer con-

siderably, s do the shapes f the symbols.This type of borrowing s known as

stimulusdiffusion: he underlying dea is borrowed,althoughnot the superficial

details.Recent vidence,rom Abydos,however, uggestshat Egyptianwriting dates

back o 3500 oro (Cruz-Urube 001).The textsareprimarilyof an administrative

nature,similar to the kind of early documentsound in Mesopotamia.Clearly,

this new Egyptianevidence rgues hat Egyptianand cuneiformwriting developed

simultaneously.he fact hat theywereboth used or similarpurposesuggestshat

there may havebeensomecontact between he two peoplesn the development f

the two writing systems. lthough theseearlyEgyptian exts wereused or admin-

istrativeand mercantile urposes, riting became ssociated ith the upper class.ufriting in Egypt has beenparticularlyassociated ith scribes,who were drawn

from the upper classes; riting itself became marker of socialstatus n Egypt(Cruz-Urube001).

6.5 Stylesof Writing

Thereare hreemajorstyles f Egyptianwriting, known by their Greeknames. he

earliest,and best-known, orm is calledhieroglyphic sacredcarving' from its early

use n religious exts.Hieratic 'priestly' writing was a cursive ype of writing, first

appearingabout the same ime as hieroglyphic.Hieroglyphicand hieraticwriting

styleswere argely n complementary istribution,with hieroglyphicused or more

formalpurposes, nd hieratic or less ormalones.Around 500 oro, a third typeof

writing calleddemotic'popular' rose, ndhieraticwritingwasconfined o religioustexts(hencehe Greeknamehieratic'priestly').Demoticwas an evenmorecursiveform of the scriptand was widely used n administrative nd personal ocuments.Examples f hieraticand demoticstyles re shown n figure6.2 with a hieroglyphic

transcription. Note that the hieroglyphicand hieratic stylescontinued alongside

demotic,although t became ustomary o write certain ypesof texts n only one of

the three ormsof writing. The last known pieceof writing in ancientEgyptian s a

demoticgraffito in the templeof Philae,dated450 New.A graffito (pl. graffiti) is aninformal ext, especially n a wall.

Hieroglyphicwriting hasa strongpictorialaspect. pictureof a bird, although

stylized, ooks like a bird. This pictorial aspectwas never ost in hieroglyphicwriting throughout ts history. In hieraticand demoticwriting, which were written

cursively,he pictorialaspectsgenerally bsent.n thehieroglyphic tyle,ndividual



Egyptian 1 01

"SF#rT

ffit-zw$i,"y'4s2-l7e;a7+vtAtK,",t?xetrf,nK\{-[[-fi dl[= ge4a a *E$.' *l:? g ?-&ar17 ..-4>g= A=:n3{ -<7[(, e<<ll 4n<r t 4_

=&gg 1:.4/roAo€iFoL'r P;(410{3[ o,ofLiterary'

Tll""'J"*ilT'"ii'hdvnastv'

etM,@ 97,,L*,lfrk;,,,La21Ii T,knnlLA3*JkUftAflfreLagt*}'^9@"7!4tttttI,rt.ofr.ryaageezbs,yt,.tw,6(Wtrtwetffi inuotett -@

# 11T, 0 iq,ykL A. -fi3Y,,,, IY,,,LY ,, W&Z&Yfr Y -,, lin', I h 7f

#rtlTF--'d/*li"{Vrl*,Rli'?[=-EryLLf-M9qJ/.f:ilf:-(RtEt:E

g*k,tL'P-'K[4q:i |,llynsL?l='(fX.flllKfu4t")"f+::f qqilf:{T*il,t-*-,3il-ornar

"Tffi ':"'*il11"*YnastY'

rfut ru-ty'z gltll o-ol"1 "'t,]f lt u) t+,{ enJ(42 v,f+\ tpr - frl ?-g

l' a yt-fi { -,ttt t Qg€ TS r {*$"'Dy'r J$1*? ta rri-llf,,frr;,i1lfu)u.p1,1: 4+tnl,"V-!t,luuf) 013,fu21!19u,t uftr, ltc';

r3/oor$0{r.*so€r[O"il$r"-itb0$Jib&Z--z0lEUW96qlt{KkfD'llt{90'{ru{.Y*r"[1ilrS

-;:IiltJ.Vb6Jt3tllvtZ,i.{;:^l-G-dfn{.oofil4.,-xooof€r{f =,ffi:;fl,/]VitzFmgii=tlht.19J,A*-i-fr=$\T,',{Vtw-ib?ll;,tlk|ltffgd-Jl:?$ll.rltt+=) -lh^:ft.Literry

"Tif ;il::.11',i3n""n'uo'"'

Figure 5.2 Some examples of hieratic and demotic writing with hieroglyphic transcription(from Sir Alan Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, plate 2. Oxford: Griffith Institute, OxfordUniversity Press,1950. O 1950 by Griffith Institute. Reproduced with permission)



702 Egyptian

graphemes erewritten as separate nits, but in hieraticand demoticstyles,many

ligatureswere used.

6.6 SocialContext of Writing

6.6.7 Materials

Hieroglyphicwriting was frequently nscribed n stone,but hieroglyphswere alsopaintedon walls and other surfaces.Most writing, however,was done n hieratic

or demotic on papyrus.Papyrus s a reedyplant growing in warm, wet locations.

Thin slices an be aid togetherwith overlappingedges o form an excellentwriting

surface, ooking somewhat ike a sheetof paper.For longer works, the sidesof

sheets f papyruswereattached ogether o form a scrollwhich could be rolled upfor storage.n theverydry climateof Egypt,many objects uchaspapyrushavebeenpreserved hich would havedecayed lsewhere. s a resultof the climate,Egypt

hasan enormously ich archaologicalecord.Many documentsn other anguages

arepreservedimply becauseheyhappenedo haveendedup in Egypt.

Scribes arried eedpensn a special ase.Most writing was n black nk, but red

was also usedon occasion.Hieroglyphic nscriptionswereprobablydrawn in ink

by a scribeand then cut by a stonecutter.

6.6.2 Literature

Early records which mention a name may have shown ownership of an object or

honoured the person named. This use of language s found in many placeswhere

writing is first used. Among the earliest Egyptian documents showing writing is the

Narmer palette (figure 5.3), a ceremonial cosmeticpalette from around 3000 oLD.

(Cosmeticswere used n certain ritual situations,and the paletteservedas a surface

for mixing different substances.)

Egyptian religion provided an unusual use for writing. Egyptians believed in an

afterlife. As long as a person's name was regularly mentioned, that person would

continue to have a life after death. Iilriting provided a permanent way of invoking

someone'sname. By putting someone'sname in a funerary inscription, that personwas ensured of a continuing afterlife regardlessof the possibleneglectof descendants.

Conquerors who wanted to be particularly vindictive would chisel away the name

of the conquered king off inscriptions, effectively ending his life forever.

Beyond religion, Egyptian literature has a very wide range of material: personal and

administrative letters; medical, dental, veterinary guides; economic and diplomatic

reports; prose, poetry, epics; wisdom literature (etiquette books); and moralistic

books.

6.6.3 Scribesand literaqt

Scribes ccupiedan importantplace n Egyptian ife. Beingable o readand write

was a matter of considerable restige. t is difficult to estimatehow widespread



Egyptian 103

Figure 6.3 The Narmer palette

literacywas in ancientEgypt: the lower classes ere probably uniformly illiterate,although iteracywas likely somewhat ommonamong he upper classes. or themiddleclasses,iteracyexistedwhere t was necessaryor work. No doubt, whenpeopleneeded o write a letter or when they receivedone, they often went ro ascribewho, for a fee,would write or read he document.

6.7 Structureof EgyptianWriting

6.7.7 Phonographic

Egyptian writing has a large phonographic component. Only consonants werewritten; vowels were not written. There are different graphemes for all the con-sonants except lll, which according to Loprieno (1995) was written ambiguouslyin a variety of ways. In principle, all Egyptian writing could have been done phono-graphically, bu t that was not the practice; Egyptian writing also had a significantmorphographic

component.The absenceof written vowels presents a difficulty for modern scholars. TheEgyptians themselves,of course, spoke the language and knew what vowels went



104 Egyptian

Table 5.5 The monoconsonantal symbols of Egyptian

Grapheme Transliteration Soundualue Obiect depicted

7

i o r ?

i

s

-NN

/t)

/t / l\ \

*_--n

f\

\q4

En

i l).

I

/qi-

\\-lda-\

mHX

l

tI

vti

vulture

reed

rwo reeds

arm

quail chick

(alternative form for <w>)

foot and leg

mat or stool

horned viper

owl

water

mouth

plan of courtyard

wick of twisted flax

placenta

animal's belly with teats

door bolt

folded cloth

pool

hill

bowl with handle

stand for pot

loaf

tether

hand

snake

<5:

nil n

t "

r-l

A/ 1

\7

/ A \

A

-n\|



Egyptian 105

where.For us oday, he writing doesnot tell us whena voweloccurrednor what thatvowelwas.For example,when a form waswritten <pt>, t couldhave epresentedavariety of shapes:pt ,Vpt, pVt, ptv/ (where Yl representsny vowel),or othercombinations,and further, different vowelscould have illed the V position.

By usinga variety of evidence, uch as other Afro-Asiatic anguages,nternalreconstruction,nowledge f Coptic,and Egyptian oanwords n Greek,scholarshavemadesomeheadway n determining he vowelsof ancientEgyptian,but agreatdeal s unclear. n pronouncingEgyptian,Egyptologistsften nsert he vowel

[e] simply o make he word pronounceable:or example,he word for 'house'is<Pr>,and scholars suallypronouncehis as per]without necessarily eaninghatthe ancientEgyptianvowel n this word reallywas [e].The written transliterationremains, owever,<pr>.

5.7.1,.1 MONOCONSONANTAL GRAPHEMES

EveryEgyptianconsonantal honeme except lll had a specific rapheme;heseare shown in table 5.5. The traditional transliterationused by Egyptologistssgiven; he column 'Sound

value' is a guessas to how the phonemes f ancientEgyptiansounded.Most graphemes re fairly clear as to what object hey depict,but someare uncertain; he names or the objectsdepictedhereare traditional nEgyptology.

Thesymbol<l> representsglottalstopwhich s sometimesransliterateds<a>.A curled op is usedwith <l> to emphasizehat it is not a vowel. The graphemes

<w> and<s>haveallographic ariation.The spiralallograph f <w> was a cursivehieratic orm which came o be used n hieroglyphicwriting as an alternativeorthe quail chick. The two allographs or the sound s/ werc n free variation; theseoriginally epresentedwo differentsounds, ossiblys zl , which fell together arlyon. Therewere our different h]-typesounds ranscribedh h b b]t; the phoneticvalues ivenare easonableuessess o how theyactuallysounded. heEgyptianshad no fixed order for their graphemes;he order given herewas developed ynineteenth-centurycholars nd s universally sedby Egyptologistsn dictionariesand other ists.

5.7.1,.2 BICONSONANTAL GRAPHEMES

In addition to the monoconsonantal raphemesepresenting ne consonant, heEgyptians lsohadgraphemes hich representedwo- and hree-consonantequences.Note that these id not necessarilyepresentonsonant lusters. he biconsonantalgrapheme rr <mn>could epresentmenlr munl,lmtnl,ot lmnl,or anyothercom-bination in which the consonants m/ and/n/ might haveoccurred n thar order.Not al l phonologically ossible onsonant equencesavegraphemes.f the mono-consonantal raphemesre akenas basic, henbi- and riconsonantal raphemesanberegarded sdiphones nd riphonesn our terminology.Some f the biconsonantal

symbolsare given n table 6.6. The transliteration s given alongside;he soundvalues anbe determined y referenceo thepreceding hart. Not all biconsonantalgraphemesregivenhere.)



706 Egyptian

Table 6.5 Some biconsonantal symbols of Egyptian

Grapheme Transliteration Obiect depicted

,ffi

+l?

b

v

0I(

I.F

1+

ti

A/.t

N

f--a

ffi1i il

TM

l-i

IV

-'-

IU

n

lw

wl

wd

bl

mr

nb

[rm

s3

sw

kr

dr

lr

wr

mn

M S

NS

[rn

sn

mt

tl

dd

spine and spinal cord

lasso

cord wound on stick

jabiru (kind of stork)

hoe

basket

laundry club

pintail duck

sedge

two arms

fire drill

eye

fork-tailed swallow

gameboard

three foxskins

tongue

cloth receptacle

arrowhead

penis

pestle

reed column



Egyptian

Table 6.7 Some triconsonantal symbols of Egyptian

r07

Grapheme Transliteration Obiect depicted

Itln

T

f,

fl'f

II0

1+-.N

n

tf

Td

Hir

b\dd{r}

f)

ffi

,lt

nlr

iwn

wlh

ndm

ryw

trb

nfr

shs

rwd

hp.

5mT

dsm

column with tenon

swab

fl^g

pod

bread loaf on mat

oar

buzzard

sandal strap

heart and trachea

mast

bowstring

scarab beetle

flowering sedge

staff with animal head

htp

br*

6.7.1.3 TRICONSONANTAL GRAPHEMES

There are also triconson antal graphemes for three-consonant sequences.Some of

theseare given in table 5.7. Note that Egyptian typically had triconsonantal roots;

that is , a root consisted of three consonants.Thus, a root could always be written

with the same triconsonantal grapheme.

6.7.2 Phonologicalcomplements

A phonological complement is a grapheme that repeats phonological information

akeadygiven by a previous grapheme.The previous graphemecan be a phonogram

or a morphogram. Phonological complements were commonly used in Egyptianwriting to repeat or reinforce phonological information given by a bi- or tricon-

sonantalgrapheme.Consider, for example, the word lnfrl'beautiful, good'. There is



108 Egyptian

Table 6.8 Examples of phonological complements. In these examples, the bi- or

triconsonantal grapheme is at the left or top, and the phonological complement is

at the right or bottom. The phonological complement is written in parentheses

m i- \

#\ tr 3w (w)

N..- wr (r)

* mn (n)

\i-LN ndm (m)

- f tN w3(3)

F -N br (r)

? n wrhh)A\fh o

bpr (r )

a triconsonantal grapheme A fot the sequence<nfr>. In principle, this word could

be written with this symbol alone; normally, however, this word was written A

where the graphemes for <f> and <r> do not add new information, but merely

reinforce part of the information already present n [. One problem in reading an

Egyptian text is to distinguish the phonographic graphemes presenting new informa-

tion from the phonological complementswhich merely repeat information already

given by the bi- and triconsonantal graphemes. n the examples in table 6.8, the

phonological complement is shown in parentheses.

6.7.3 Motphographic utriting

Although n principleEgyptian ouldhavebeenwritten completely honographically,

it wasnormallywritten asa mixtureof phonographic ndmorphographic raphemes.

Many graphemes ould be used as both morphogramsand phonograms.Thegraphemeor lprl 'house'is ffi (table6.9).Frequently, smallverticalstrokewas

added o a graphemeo indicate hat t was usedasa morphogram,.e.,asa symbolmeaning house'.To indicate he plural in older writing, a graphemewould berepeatedhree imes.Later for the plural, the symbolwould be written only once,

and threestrokesor threecircleswould be added.Since he word for'house'was

pronouncedprl, this grapheme as alsousedphonographicallyor the consonantsequenceprl generally;his use s an exampleof phonologicalextension,a process

by which manygraphemeserived heir phonological alue.

Table 6.9 Examples of morphemic writing . Note that the same symbol could be used

morphographically for 'house'or phonographically for the sequence prl

morphogram'house'

olderplural'houses'

later plural'houses'

E=

phonogram

lprl

m0 i l

F]mm

mI



Egyptian r09

6.7.4 Semantic coffiplements

Semantic complements, graphemes which are used to give additional semanticinformation, were common, particularly with nouns and verbs. In general, they

relate to the generalsemantic areaof the form. In English,we sometimesclarify themeaning of the word 'funny'

by saying funnyweird' or 'funny ha-ha'; here, weird'

and'ha-ha'

function as semanticcomplements. n Egyptian, semanticcomplementswere normally written at the end of a word and were not pronounced. Table 5.10shows some of the common semantic complements.

The word lptrlmeans 'see,behold'. It is written $ a <ptr> with three phono-

graphic graphemes, (t ) (r), and the eye at the end is a semantic complementshowing that the word has to do with vision.

Semanticcomplementsare often useful in distinguishing homonyms (table 5.1,1,),but they are by no means imited to such situations.For example, there are severalwords lmn/:'be firm', 'be ill', 'a sick man'. Remember that although these wordswere written the same, we do not know if they were pronounced the samel i.e.,they may have had different vowels. Thesewords are written with the samephono-graphic elements, but are distinguished by the semantic complements. The scrollindicates an action or state. The specific bird in the second one always showssomething bad or wrong. The third word, for 'a sick man', has two semantic com-plements: the bird shows that the meaning is bad, and the seated igure refers roa man.

Another set of examples is shown (table 5.12) by the homonyms /5sp/ (thegrapheme itself is a pictograph of a fence). The square mat I is a phonologicalcomplement repeatingthe lpl of the basic symbol.

6.7.5 Internal structureof Egyptian utriting

The direction of writing varied. Figure 6.4 shows the same text written in differentways. In the top part, the same hieroglyphic text is written in three ways: top left -

written left to right; just below - right to left; top right has two vertical arrangementsshowing how the sametext would be written on each side of a door. Numbers inthe top left example show the order in which the individual symbols would bewritten and read. In the

text below, the transliteration shows a symbol-by-symbolromanization; the transcription shows the consonantal text. Next comes the trans-lation, and the conventional Egyptological reading.

Most commonly, writing went from right to left. In the hieratic and demoticstyles his was always the case. n the hieroglyphic style, ef t to right was also used.One can easily ell the direction of writing by looking at a symbol of a living figure.If an animal looks to the left, writing goes from left to right; if the animal facesto the right, writing goes from right to left. It is as though the reader walks alongencountering the animals going in the opposite direction. In some cases,such asnext to doors, writing was vertical, going from top to bottom; in suchcases,writinggoes

rom the outside n: that is , glyphs of animals face away from the door. In textsfor modern readers, he hieroglyphic style is usually given left to right since that isthe normal way usersof the Roman alphabet read.



1 1 0 Egyptian

Table 6.10 Examples of semantic complements

Grapheme Use as semantic complement No/es

S man,person

tq woman

?'1il god, kingr Rua force, effort

$:l force, effort

h enemy, foreigner

6 eye, see,vision

A walk, run

q limb, flesh

S small, bad, weak

\> wood, tree

C sun, light, time

D copper, bronze

A town, village

m house, building

skin, mammal, leather piece of skin with flesh attached

note beard

replaced previous allograph in later texts

man with elbows tied behind back

eye

piece of flesh

sparrow, note rounded tail

branch

piece of metal

layout of village

one-room building seen rom overhead

(

>4 boat

\F capsize

Table 6.11 Homonyms having the samephonological

symbols /mn/ but diffe rent semantic complements

114

AL _ - :1 \4hm j F - H -

lmnl

lmnl

lmnl

'be firm'

'be ill'

'a sickman'



Egyptian

Table 6.12 Homonyms having the same phonological symbols /5sp/, but differentsemantic complements

lJ1

Graphs Soundualue Meaning No/es on semantic complement

+?++ ti,4U1".

"

ffi-tl

n.,ee4 ll

dtu- t l ) l

*++ - .8aLLr _ | | \

lfspl

lfspl

llspl

/[sp/

'accept'

'palm (unit of length)'

'statuet

'white,bright, dawn'

force or effort

pictorial origin of semantic

complement uncertain

upright mummy

sun with rays

GA

JJi

a* n

iriL;fin$

rrr--.J

hf*FJidfi:$c>'111*-.-

. 3 e 5 7 8 I | t o t t t t

:i,x.LFJtlnG:U

tff:ilnhLdJ_ff

Trr\^NsLt-rEp"A.l'tON: d zlvtDV 3j -ao sgb-6b - 7"GOD" 8|1 9n - lO.

llpSD -r27 r3-tdlS'66p9' - lf f

TReuscRrprroN: d@) mdw(.w) jn gbb lrn' pset=f

TRnqsutnoN: "To say thewords by G.b wirh his Ennead'CoNvENTIoNAtEADING:uedmeduun'gebeb'[ena eseptefj

Figure 6.4 The same text in different orientations (from Anthony Loprieno, AncientEgyptian: A Linguistic Introduction, p. 16.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1995.@ 7995 by Cambridge University Press.Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge

University Press)

\Tithin a lineof text,graphemesrearrangedo fit the space uitably.Graphemesareoftenmade o fit into an maginary quare. hus wo graphemes ith agenerallyhorizontalshapewould be written on top of eachotherrarher han n a horizonralsequence. earrangements normalwith nameswhich include he nameof a god,where he graphemeor the god is alwayswritten first no matter where t actuallyoccurs n the name.Very occasionally, raphemes re wriften in the wrong orderfor esthetic easons.n /n/ (table6.t3), the <t> symbol s placedabove he bird to

fill the spacemoreevenly.Over time, new graphemes ere added and older onesabandoned. herewaslittle, if any,attemptat simplifying he writing system verrime.Althougha wordmight potentiallybe written in a varietyof ways,normallyoneway prevailed.



11,2 Egyptian

Table 6.13 Examples of asthetic rearrangement

_u,\9 K A

lr

n l q . : : > An \ \ \ / \l J j i N l l

not ^N

not St

/tll'this'

/wd/ 'command'

not N T: A /mr/ pyramid'

Table 6.14 Egyptian sample text

$\ . - - o - t q , l l *

A ? / i f f i ) \ U -

< nfr f.r.t fem tn m sn n. tI nfr-t tn m sn-t-i /

beautiful-fem this-fem is sister-my'This beautiful woman is my sister;

f e m i >

t - l M n-. tu- Cr : '

< n d . d n s

I n ;d-n-snot say-not-she

she cannot speak any evil.'

f\ -,

\.\ \1--

- l ) C > a

dw- w t .bad nb. t >

'w-t nb-t /

evil-fem any-fem

6.8 ExampleText

In the first ineof the sample ext in table6.'1.4,lnfrlisa triconsonantal honogram,

reinforcedby two monoconsonantal honological omplementsfl and r/. (Periods

in the transliteration eparate ymbolswritten vertically; n the transcriptionhyphensseparatemorphemes.) his is followed by a phonogram tl, which represents

femininesuffix. At the end of the word is the semantic omplement or a woman.The secondword is /tn/, the feminine form for 'this', written phonographically.The third word is /m/ used o form a copulative entence,.e. is'. In theword /snti/'my sister', he biconsonantal raphemeor /sn/ is reinforcedby a phonological

complement nl. This is followed by the femininesuffix ltl, andthen the semanticcomplementor a woman.The il tsa suffixmeaning'my masc.)';t is written withthegrapheme hich s alsocommonlyusedas he semantic omplementor'man',but here s a morphogrampronouncedil .

In the secondine,a morphogram or ln l 'not'is the first word. The verb ;dns/'shedid not say' is written with four monoconsonantalhonograms. he noun

llwtl 'evil' is written with the biconsonantal honogram or ly l followedby thefemininesuffix marker t/ (abstract ounsare frequently eminine).The semanticcomplement t the end of the word is the sparrow ndicatingsomethingsmall'or



Egyptian

'bad'.The adjectivenbtl any (fem.)'modifiesywtl; t is written with the bicon-

sonantal honogram nbl followedby the femininesuffix t/.

6.9 Decipherment

The decipherment of Egyptian is an extremely interesting story (Parkinson 19991.

\fhen the Egyptians became Christian, they turned away from the ancient Egyptian

culture which they regardedas heathen.As a result, knowledge of the writing system

was lost. The existenceof Egyptian writing was obvious to anyone visiting Egypt,

bu t it had becomeunreadable. n Europe, t was commonly believed hat the symbols

were ideographic, that is , that they represented deas, not linguistic entities.

ln1799, a French soldier came across a large stone in the Mediterranean town

of Rashid (Rosetta).The stone contained the same ext in two languages Egyptian

and Greek) and three scripts (hieroglyphic,demotic, and Greek).The RosettaStone,

as it came to be known, quickly found its way to England where it can be seen

today in the British Museum. Copies of the text were sent to scholarsaround Europe.

The Greek was easilyread. The stone records a decreeof 196 oLD: the priests were

to establisha cult in honour of King Ptolemy V in return for favours he had granted

them.

An Englishman, Thomas Young (1773-1829), took some steps owards decipher-

ing the text; however, the French scholar Jean-FrangoisChampollion is generally

credited with using the stone to decipher the Egyptian script. In the hieroglyphic

portion of the text, he found severaloccurrencesof a graphemeenclosed n an oval,

called a cartouche. In "1,761,,the Rev. Jean-Jacques arth6lemy had suggested hat

these cartouchescontained the names of rulers. Champollion was fortunate in that

these names were written almost entirely phonographically, and furthermore the

Egyptians had made some attempt to include the vowels in these oreign-sounding

Greek names. (Recall that Egypt was ruled by the Greeks after Alexander's con-

quest of the fourth century oro.) With this foothold, Champollion was able to

make considerableheadway in deciphering the entire language.By the end of the

nineteenthcentury, Egyptian texts were once more understood.

6.10 FurtherReading

Allen (2000)provides n excellentmodern ntroductiono the language nd writing

system,with many nteresting ultural ssays;Hoch(1996) s anothergoodmodern

text orbeginners. ardiner1973)s he standardeferencerammar. oprieno1995)

is a good introductiono the language, ut with littleon writing.Faulkner 1988) s

a usefuldictionary;t is also an example f handwritten ooks,commonbefore om-

puterprinting f Egyptian. avies 1990) s a short ntroductiono thewriting ystem.

Quirkeand Andrews 1988)gives a life-size eproduction f the RosettaStone;

the decipherments describedn the recentwork by Parkinson1999).The readilyavailable eprintsof worksby WallaceBudgeare to be avoidedas unreliable nd

outdated.

r13



l l 4

6.ll Terms

biconsonantalrapheme

cartouche

Champollion

Copticdecipherment

demoticgraffito

hieratic

hieroglyphic

monoconsonantalrapheme

Egyptian

morphographicritingpapyrus

phonographic ritingphonologicalomplementphonologicalxtension

semantic omplement

stimulus iffusion

transliteration

triconsonantalrapheme

6.12 Exercise

The folfowingcartouchesshow the names Cleopatraand Ptolemaioswritten in

Egyptian.Without ookingat the values n table6.5, try to decipher he writingof

these names.The cartouches ontainadditional ymbols hat you will not be able

to decipher.

qr r=+ :

ffi_= fi.I+[h



7 Semitic

7.1 The SemiticLanguageFamily

The Semitic family of languages s a branch of the Afro-Asiatic family akeadyintroduced n chapters and5. The Semitic anguages re particularly mportantfor the history of writing becausehe SemiticAkkadianswere among he very firstpeople o write, and because n early West Semiticspeakernvented he abiad,from which ultimatelydescend ll the non-Chinese riting systemsn use oday.Recall rom chapter2 that an alphabet s a writing systemn which all phonemes,both consonants nd vowels,arerepresentedy a distinctsymbol;an abiad s likean alphabet,but only consonants re written, not vowels; he term 'abjad' wasintroducedby Daniels 1995a).One of the Semiticscripts,Ethiopic,hasa some-what differentstructure,which Daniels allsan abugida;n an abugida,he vowelsare written

as diacritics n theconsonants, nd one vowel s not explicitlywritten.(Abugidas rediscussedn moredetail n chapter11.)Theclassificationf Semiticanguagesresentedn table7.1,s based n Herzron

(1987)and Faber(1997).The Semiticanguageamily as a whole is divided nto

Table 7.1 The Semitic language family

East Semitic

Akkadian, Babylonian, AssyrianEblaite

West Semitic

Central'$fest SemiticNorthwest Semitic

Ugaritic

Canaanite

Old Canaanite

Phanician, Punic

Hebrew

Moabite, Amorite

Aramaic, Syriac

Arabic

Southern'West Semitic

Old South ArabianModern South Arabian

Ethiopic

Ge'ez, Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigr6



116 Semitic

Figure 7.1. Linguisticsitesof importance n the Middle East

East and !7est Semitic.'We

have already seen hat Akkadian, the main language of

East Semitic,used cuneiform writing.'S7est Semitic s divided into Central West and

Southern'West Semitic. Central West Semitic consistsof two branches:Northwest

Semitic and Arabic. Northwest Semitic languages nclude Ugaritic (seechapter 5),

Canaanite,and Aramaic. Canaanite ncludesOld Canaanite a few early nscriptions),

Syr ia

. Palmyra(Tadmur)

Mediterranean ea

lsrael

o

SaudiArabia

S ina i



Semitic I t 7

Phanician and ts later orm Punic,spokenn Carthage), ebrew,anda few orherpoorly attestedanguages. outhernWest Semitic ncludeshe SouthArabian an-guages nd a numberof languagespokenn EthiopiaandEritrea.TheSouthArabianlanguages re spokenat the southernend of the Arabianpeninsula note hat theSouthArabian anguages redifferent rom Arabic).SfehaveancientSouthArabianinscriptions, ut the languages f those nscriptionsare not the ancestors f theSouthArabian anguageshat are spoken here oday.

The Semitic bjademerged bout1500oLD. I7e haveakeady een har the EastSemiticspeakersived in Mesopotamia chapter5) . In this chapterwe are con-cernedwith the WestSemitic eopleswho by this time had establishedhemselvesin the Levant theeastern ndof theMediterranean;igure7.1,).Togeta pictureofthe Semitic anguage ituation n this areaaround1500 oLD,we see hat Akkadianis spoken n Mesopotamia.In the Levant,Eblaite,oncespokenaround Aleppo inSyria,hasdiedout. The Ugariticpeoples re iving

atRas

Shamrain

modern-daySyria)and heCanaanitesre arthersouth.The Aram&ans whospokeAramaic) reto the northeast. oon, he Canaanites il l divide nto Phaniciansn the north andHebrewsn the south.We know little about he ancestors f the Arabicspeakers tthis time,but they arelater oundat Petra in modern-dayJordan) nd n thenorthernArabianpeninsula. he SouthSemitic eoples re iving n southernArabiaand willsooncross o northeastern frica.

7.2 Origin of the SemiticAbiad

The \fest Semitic abjad appeared around 1500 oLD. An interesringand difficultquestion for us is how this system came about. Very likely the Semitic peoples

did not invent the abjad out of nothing. The Levant was a crossroads betweenthe two important empires of the Akkadians and the Egyptians,each empire withits own writing. Anyone living there could easily have learned about both rypesof writing.

Both Egyptian and Akkadian had a morphographic component in their writ-ing systemswhich the Semitic writing did not adopt; the abjad was completelyphonographic.

The Akkadian systemof writing is a less ikely ancestor or the abiad. Akkadianwriting was structurally quite different from the Semitic abjad. The phonographic

component of Akkadian was syllabic, not phonemic, and it indicated both conson-ants and vowels. In the Semiticabjad, writing was consonantal and did not includevowels.

The Egyptian writing systemhad greatersimilarity to the Semitic abiad.It wouldhave beenpossible n Egyptian to useonly the monoconsonantal symbols.Further,Egyptian did not write vowels. Thus, the Egyptian writing system is strucrurallylike the Semitic abjad in two crucial aspects:only consonants were written, and aword could be written consonantby consonant. On balance, chooseEgyptian over

Akkadian as the more likely ancestorof the abjad on the basisof sysremicsimilarities.In the creation of the Semitic abjad, the system used in Egyptian was greatly

simplified. All Semitic writing was phonographic, and all symbols were used to



1 1 8 Semitic

represent ingle onsonants nly.The morphographic nd multiconsonantal sages

of Egyptian, swell as hephonological nd semantic omplements,erediscarded.

Sass 1992)pointsout that it was common n Egyptduring the Middle Kingdom

period(2060-1780oro) to write foreignnamesphonographically.t is alsoquitepossiblehat Egyptianscribeswere taught by learning o write phonographically

first and then ater o substitutehe appropriatemorphographic ymbols. apanesechildren earnkanafirst in this way and thengraduallysubstitutehe appropriate

kanii.We

can magine hat an Egyptianwriting instructormightexplain o a Semitic

speaker ow phonographicwriting was done, but not get to the morphographic

explanation.TheSemitic ymbolswereusedacrophonically.n acrophony, symbol sused o

representhe irstphonemen the objectportrayed. or example,f, in English, use

a pictureof a tulip to representtl or one of a daisy o representdl,I haveused

thesesymbolsacrophonically. he relevance f acrophony or the history of theSemitic bjadwill bemadeclearshortly.

Gardiner 1916)analysedheProto-Canaaniteaterial ound n 1905 n turquoise

mines n the Sinaiat Serabig l-KhAdem. he mineswereoperated y the Egyptians

with Canaanite laves. everal bjectswere ound herewith short nscriptions. he

reading f thesenscriptionsemains roblematic, ut manyscholarsGardiner916,

Albright 7966,Cross1,989,

Naveh 1982)haveseen hem as he forerunners f the

Semitic bjad.

Gardinersaw a resemblanceetween omeof the symbols nd Egyptianphono-

grams figure7.2).Possibly Semitic peaker,who was familiar,at least o some

degree,with Egyptianwriting, tried to apply Egyptianwriting to the Semitic an-guage.Gardinerbelievedhat rather han using heEgyptian alueof a symbol, heSemitic peakerranslatedhe Egyptian erm nto Semitic nd henused he symbol

acrophonicallyo representhe first phonemen the Semiticword. For example,the Egyptiansymbol for house s Fl. This symbolcan be used n Egyptianas amorphogramor 'house',but alsophonographicallyor a /pr/ sequence. ardiner's

view was that this symbolwas used n writing Semitic, ut not with the Egyptian

sound value.Rather, he Egyptiansymbol meaning house'was translated nto

Semitic bEtl, and the symbol was usedacrophonically s the symbol for lb l in

writing Semitic.Note that althougha symbolmay havebeenbi- or triconsonantal

in Egyptian, ll symbolswere usedmonoconsonantallyn Semitic.Subsequentis-coveries eremade n the Sinai,andAlbright (1965),who reanalysedhe material,

claimed o havedecipheredhe majority of it. Figure7.2 gives omeof the dentifica-

tions that Gardinerand Albright made.Other symbolsof the Semiticabjadmay

havesimply been nvented.Although the matter s not decided ully, and the Gardiner-Albrighttheorymay

not turn out to be correct n al l respects,t appearshat the Semiticabjadwas atleastpartiallybased n a simplifiedapplication f Egyptianwriting.

Naveh (7982) summarizeshe development f the Proto-Canaanite cript asfollows:

1 It was nventedaround1700olo by Canaanites ho had someknowledge fEgyptianwriting.



Egyptianhieroglyphic

Semitic

EarlySemitic

+

4

Nameof fetter

119

Si aiscript

?aleph 'ox'

bet house'

waw trooK

kuph'open

hand'mem 'water'

nahas 'snake'

sajin '"yu'

Figure 7.2 Some examples of the Egyptian sources of Semitic letters according toGardiner (1916) and Albrighr (1,9661

The number of letters representing he consonantal systemwas initially twenty-seven.By the thirteenth century, it was reducedto twenty-two.The original signs were pictographs and most developed acrophonic values.Theseevolved into linear letters.

The pictographic conception permitted writing in any direction: from right toleft, from left to right, in vertical columns, and even horizontal or vertical bou-

strophedon (lines n alternating directions; see$8.3). Vertical writing effectivelydisappeared round 1100 oLD.

7.3 Development f the SemiticAbfad

Figure7.3 givesa timelineof the development f the Semiticabjad startingwithProto-Canaanite. any of thedates hownareuncertain.$7ewill discusshe Semiticabjad n historical rder.During heProto-Canaaniteeriod,SouthSemitic peakersused he abjad o write their anguages;heyestablished SouthSemitic criptwhich

took its own course SS7.3.1 nd7.6). The Greeksborrowed he Semiticabjadnext,but we will delay he historyof Greekwriting until chapter8. In thenorthernLevant,Phanician is the direct descendant f Proto-Canaanite,n both language

ar-l

V\

.vv\

1

vmYI

\=

.ffi iA

"-)(

G

)

r41

Y



120 Semitic

Syriac

ArabicAramaic New Hebrew

Many local Aramaic scripts

Phenic ian lndianscr i

Proto-Canaanite

Old Hebrew Samaritan

Etruscan Roman

Coptic

Armenian

Mod.Creek

Ceorgian

oLD 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 200 400 600 800 1000NEW

Figure7.3 Timelineof the development f the Semiticabjad

and script. The Phcnician script was used irst to write Phanician and then Hebrew

and Aramaic.

7.3.7 SoutheruWestSemitic

The Southern'S7estemiticanguagesre spokenby smallnumbers f peoplen thesouthern art of the ArabianpeninsulatheSouthArabian anguages)nd by much

largernumbers f people n northeastern frica (Ge'ez,Amharic,Tigr6,Tigrinya).(Besurenot to confuseSouthArabianwith Arabic;seeable7.1.)TheSemitic bjadbecame nown in this areaquiteearly,possibly y 1400 oLD,and was used or theold SouthArabian languages. large numberof SouthArabian nscriptions refound n thesouthwestern reaof theArabianpeninsulan a monumental cript,dat-ing from theeighthcenturyoLD.The SouthArabian scripthad2g lettersas opposedto the Proto-Canaanitenventoryof 27. The two additional etterswereadded owrite newphonemes hich had emergedn the SouthArabian anguages.

TheSouthArabianabjad ravelledrom theArabianpeninsula crosshe narrowstretchof water to Africa.Originally, he Ethiopicscriptwas a purelyconsonantal

abjad,likeSouthArabian.However, he scriptwaseventuallymodified o an abugida,probably hroughcontactwith Indianscripts Daniels ,996a). he Ethiopicabugidais presentedn moredetail n $7.5.

If

I

Amharic



,1?A

Semitic 727

K(t/Slv/t, t1 KJg'los/4,/o)r f I K

r Jh g , 4 + w v t t K

t+ tHJ,K jY, r f9 , rvT fvL s ,v /1 , /xfv )+J+r@)wf?@H\TE+tJrtgK ,h)y , / g ' ! )b

,t1wt)),I y)+Ht) tK 1y,b't (o,g19+tuly, J-..,/LJ,KT r

Figure7.4 Phanician nscriptionof Ahiram. Byblos,eleventh enturyoLD.'Thissarcophagusasmadeby Et(?)basal,onof Ahiram,King of Gebal, or Ahiramhis father;herehe laid him down for erernity.'

7.3.2 Phunician

After 1050 oLD, the Semitic peoples n the northern Levant came to be known asthe Phanicians. They left a considerable body of material in the Phanician language.

The Phcnicians were important traders in the Mediterranean; they founded a numberof colonies, notably at Carthageon the coast of north Africa. The languageof these

colonies was known as Punic; it continued to be spoken and written after the lan-guagedisappeared n Phanicia proper. The last Punic writing is from about 200 Nrw.The Phcnician script is written only right to left, and the symbols no longer have apictographic quality. Ar inscription of the sarcophagusof Ahiram (figure7.4) showsan early form of the Phenician script.

The Phanician abjad was adopted by the Aram&ans to the northeast and by theHebrews to the south. The Aram€ans lived in northern Mesopotamia and spokeAramaic, a Nlorthwest Semiticlanguage. By the tenth century oLD, they had borrowed

the Phenician abjad and used it for their own language.By around 750 orn, theAramaic abjad had developed an identifiable form, distinct from its Phcnicianorigin.

The Hebrews borrowed the abjad from the Phcnicians and developed a newform known as the Old Hebrew abiad. Early Hebrew inscriptions have been datedto the ninth century oLD. The longest ext is the Hebrew Bible, composed betweenthe fifteenth and fifth centuriesoLD, although preserved n manuscript copiesonlyfrom a much later time. The earliest existing manuscriptsof the Hebrew scripturesare portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls dating from the second o first centuries oro(plate 21. Hebrew at this time had more consonants than Phanician which meant

that some letterswere used ambiguously.In 586 oLD, the Babylonians conquered he Hebrews, holding alarge number of

them in captivity in Babylon, especially he more educatedupper classes.Up to that



r22 Semitic

fiP:r :,:'ttltr

Iurrrrf ir 5151 ill,lttt 5il8ll1ltsl

: : i: , : f . : i: : : .

ffii

4fistt

tn \g)rr, nlT'I-P nYJ :###*$ffi.ilririffiiiir'iir'ro.t,rfinl#tlro\ -u2sjrr,t{.rr.', ...

315\ nf il ff nrn\tnl n$1t1fi "Ir$t\tl$5'tf

ttr*- rtjrL,wr\ tnJtt rt ..$.ni*i..'....,

Plate 2 Dead Sea Scroll version of a psalm not included in the Bible. The body of the text

is written in the New Hebrew abjad, but the name of God is written in the Old Hebrew

abiad. This name occurs six times on this page: the first occurrence is the leftmost word in

line 4. 30-40 Nnw. Reproduced courtesy of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem

!!f $frl$4



Semitic r23

point, the Hebrews adbeen peaking ebrewand using heOld Hebrewabjad.Bythis time, Aramaichad replaced abylonian Akltadian)as he spoken anguage fthe Babylonian mpireand the lingua rancaof the entireMiddle East.Because fits internationalmportance,he Hebrewswere ikely familiarwith Aramaicbeforethe Babyloniancaptivity; but during the sixth century oLD, while they were inBabylon, he Hebrewpeoplebegan peaking ramaicand using heAramaicabjad.After their return to Israel n 538 oLD, Hebrew becamencreasinglyestrictedoreligious urposes, nd Aramaicbecamehe ordinaryspokenanguage. artsof thebiblical booksof Ezraand Danielare written in the Aramaic anguage; nd later,

Jesus' ative anguage as Aramaic.In writing aswell, an Aramaic orm of theabjad, heNew Hebrew abiad, eplaced

the Old Hebrew abjad, descendedrom the Phanician abiad.The Hebrewswerea conservative eople; hus the switch from the Old Hebrew abiad o the New

Hebrewabjad s hard o explain Naveh1982).Goerwitz 79961noteshefact hatthe Hebrew-speakingreahadbeen uledby a series f powerswho usedAramaic.Sincehe wo abjads aveequivalentnventories f letters, o structural hangewasinvolved. n one of the DeadSeaScrolls plate2), the main text is written in theNew Hebrewabiad,but the nameof God swritten n theOld Hebrew orm. Coinswereoccasionally intedwith the Old Hebrew etters.But for reasonshat arenotentirelyclear, eligiouseadersook a dislike o the Old Hebrewabjadand nsistedon the New Hebrew orm. Jewish heologians ontinued o write in both Hebrewand Aramaicusing he New Hebrew abjad for both languages. he Samaritans,a groupwho separatedrom the mainstream ews,havecontinued o use he Old

Hebrewabfad.The New Hebrewabjad developedts own characteristicsn time;it is still in use odayas he normalway ro write Hebrew.

7.3.3 Aramaic

Aramaic was spoken n Syria and northern Mesopotamia. The Aram€ans borrowed

the Phcnician script by the eleventh or tenth century oLD, but specific Aramaic

characteristicsdo not appear in the script until the mid-eighth century (Naveh 1982).

By the sixth century oLD, Aramaic had become the script used for administrarivepurposes of the Babylonian Empire. \Ufhenthe Achemenid Persians,who spoke

Old Persian,an Iranian languageof the Indo-European family, conquered Babylonin 549 oLD, they took over the existing civil service which was functioning in

Aramaic. Although the Persianscreatedan Old Persiancuneiform system or writ-ing their language Testen1,996), t was usedrather little, primarily for monumentalpurposes (seechapter 5). Correspondence,contracts, and records continued to be

written in Aramaic in the Aramaic abjad. During the Persianperiod, the script main-

tained a strong uniformity throughout the empire.

The Assyrians adopted Aramaic as the official languageof their empire, as didthe Akkadians and Babylonians,and later the Persians.As a result,Aramaic became

one of the most important languages n the history of the world, spoken as a first or

second anguageby enormous numbers of people in the ancient Middle East. TheAramaic abjad developedalarge number of local variants, severalof some inguistic

and cultural importance.



1,24 Semitic

\n>R

l l p\D.)&\r< J < n j I

)Jr,\r

A > < l A > A >

Figure 7.5 Aramaic morphograms in Middle Persian writing. In the transliteration,

the Aramaic morphograms are in upper case,and the Middle Persian suffixes are

in lower case

At first, the situationwas bilingualdiglossia. he peoplespokeMiddle Persian,

and writing was in Aramaic.By the second enturyoLD, Middle Persianwords,

written n theAramaicscript,graduallybegan o appearn writing; .e., heAramaic

scriptwas borrowed or writing Middle PersianSkiarvs 1996).In time,a curiousmixtureof language nd writing emerged. rom bilingualdiglossia,writing came

to be conceived f as entirely n Middle Persian.Many words,however,werestill

written n the Aramaic anguage, ut werepronouncedn Middle Persian. or example(figure .5), he Middle Persian ord for'brother'is lbredl;however,ather han

spelling bradl out in the Aramaicscript,which would havebeeneasy o do, thepracticewas to write the Aramaicword for <AHJ> brother' but to pronounce t

lbradl.SuchAramaicwords, hus,came o bemorphogramsor thePersian cribe.

Middle Persian uffixes ouldbeadded o Aramaicmorphograms: .g., henominative

pluralof brother bradarlwas ormedby writing theAramaic ogogram<AHJ>and

thenattachingheMiddle Persian uffix<-tl>whichrepresentshe sounds-drl.Thegenitiveplural was ormedby adding he furthersuffix<-jn> -in/ giving<AHJ-tl-jttt

pronouncedbradarin/ (Skje va 1,996). heMiddle Persian seof Aramaicmorpho-

grams s a remarkableexampleof the conservatismn borrowing writing systems

that we often encounter.Note that thesemorphogramsare different rom Chinese

characters orrowed nto Japaneser Korean,since heir pronunciationwas rans-parent o the Persian cribeas they werewritten in the Aramaic script. n English,

we havea similarsituationwherewe write Ib. (anabbreviationor the Latin word

Iibrum)but pronouncet aspound.By addingan Englishsuffix o this abbreviated

Latinword, we form thepluralas bs., n a manner imilar o theadditionof Middle

Persian uffixes o the Aramaicwriting of the word. Similarly,we oftenwrite otherLatin abbreviations s etc.,e.g.,or i.e. but pronounce hem in Englishas and so

on', 'for example', r 'that is'.In 330 oLD, Alexanderhe Greatconqueredhe Achemenidempireof Persia nd

established reekas the official anguage. ramaiccontinuedas a lingua franca,

but the centralauthoritywhichgaveuniformity o theAramaicscriptdisappeared,

andmany ocalvarieties rose.In the west, two local scriptsemerged.UVe ave alreadyseen hat a Hebrew

versionof the Aramaicabjadcame o be used n Israel,and the Nabatran empire

aroundPetra in modern-dayJordan) lsodevelopedts own variant,which ultimately

led to the Arabicabjad.In Mesopotamia,he Hatran script was used n the north and Mandaic n the

south.A numberof scripts rosen PersiaPersian, arthian,Sogdian, horazmian),



I'C0I\UVGL,'

NffiIONI.t

Semitic 125

rr-r1uJ nturt xJ:{TFigure 7.6 Palmyrene Aramaic inscription from Britain. The inscription reads

<rginZ bt xr j brst? xbl>'Regina,

the freedwoman of Barates:woe!'

all derived rom the earlierAramaic.The Sogdian criptwas adoptedby peoples

living farthereast. t is the ancestor f theUighur,Mongolian,andManchu scripts

(chapter 1).

In India, King A6okawas a powerfulking in the third centuryoLD.As a convert

to Buddhism,he erecteda numberof Buddhistmonuments round the country.

Thoseon the northwestern dgeof his empire modernAfghanistan)werewritten

in Greekand Aramaicso as to be more easilyunderstood y the people here. n

chapter11, we will see hat the Aramaic script s likely the ancestor f the many

Indianand southeast sianscripts.

Palmyra modernTadmur) s an oasis n Syriabetweenhe Mediterranean nd

theEuphrates iver.The nhabitants pokeAramaicand developed localPalmyreneversionof theAramaic abjad.An interestingnscription s found in Englandwritten

in thePalmyrene bjad.Apparentlya man namedBaratesrom Palmyradecidedo

seekhis fortuneat the other endof the Romanempire. n SouthShields,n north-

easternEnglandnear Newcastle, e erecteda monument figure7.6) in the late

second enturyNEw n Palmyreneetters o the memory of his latewife, Regina.

\fith thespread f Islam,Aramaicwasreplaced y Arabic as he ingua rancaof

the Middle East.Today Aramaic s still spokenby about200,000people,with the

largestgroup of speakersn an areawhereTurkey, raq, and Syriameet.Aramaic

today is usuallywritten with the Syriacabjad,of which there are threeversions:

Estrangelo, erto,and Nestorian.

7.4 Hebrew

7.4.1 Backgroundand histoty

The linguistic situation of Hebrew is unique. As we have already noted, by the

second century oLD, Hebrew had died out as a spoken language,and Jews were

speaking mainly Aramaic or Greek. As they later spread out to various parts of

the world, they spoke the local language where they were living. Nevertheless,Hebrew remained the liturgical language,and scholarscontinued to write in Hebrew

(and in Aramaic) and occasionally used Hebrew for spoken communication with



126

visitors. In the nineteenth century NEw, a movement arose to revive Hebrew as a

spoken language. This movement succeededand coincided with the establishment

of the modern state of Israelwhere it has become he native languageof native-born

Israelis.This is the only known caseof the successful evival of a dead language oa language spoken natively by a sizeablegroup of people.

7.4.2 Phonologyof Tiberian Hebreu,

The Bible s the only large ext of ancientHebrew. t containsmaterialwritten overseveral enturies nd rom differentdialectareas. he text aswe know it todaywasfixed around the seventh enturyNEw, ong after Hebrew wasno longera spokenlanguage.The editors were known as Masoretes,and the text is known as theMasoreticext.Since he editingwasdone n Tiberias,he dialectof Hebrewuseds

referred o asTiberian Hebrew. In the variouspartsof the Jewishworld, differentways of pronouncingBiblicalHebrewarose.None of these s exactly he sameaswhat we now believeancientHebrew sounded ike, nor the sameas the TiberianMasoretesn the seventh enturyNEwwould haveused, or the same s hat whichemerged n modern Hebrew n Israel oday. In order to talk about the Hebrewwriting system,we will usea reconstructedorm of what scholarsbelieve o be theTiberianpronunciation Khan 1997).

The consonantphonemes f Tiberian Hebrew are presentedn table 7.2. Thes tops /ptkbdS lhadf r i ca ti vea l lophones [f0xvdy ]h ichoccur reda f te rvowe ls .Thephonemesqg/ weredistinct rom /t s/. Proto-Semitic ada series f obstruents

referred o by Semiticists s emphaticsounds.The exactphoneticnatureof theseobstruents uring the early stages f Semitic s difficult to determine s heyturn updifferentlyn differentSemiticanguages. enerally, owever,heemphatic topsseemto have nvolveda secondary rticulationat the backof the oral tract (i.e.,velarization,uvularization,pharyngealization,r laryngealization).fle will simplynote here hatTiberianHebrewhad these wo emphatic honemesEQl,distinct rom lt sl.

A varietyof analyses xist for Tiberian Hebrew phonology,particularly for thevowels. The one given here is only one of various possibilities. n this analysis,TiberianHebrewhad eightvowels table7.3).

The Tiberian Masoretesexplicitly indicatedcertain variations n the vowel sys-

temwhich areregarded ereas allophonicand predictable. or example, lthoughscholars oday generallyview vowel length as allophonicand predict it from thesyllablestructure,he Tiberianscholarsndicated ength n the writing as though

Table 7.2 Consonant phonemes of Tiberian Hebrew

h s

k sd

!

$

s zn

I

p b



Semitic

Table7.3 Vowelphonemesf TiberianHebrew

t27

it were phonemically ontrastive. he Tiberian theory of phonotactics eld thata syllablecould end only in a consonant r a long vowel.Thus, ICVCI or lCYtlwould constitutesyllables, ut /CV/ alonewould not; as a result, he sequences/CVCV:/ and /CVCVC/ were treatedas singlesyllables. he first vowels n thesecomplex syllablesare referred o as reducedvowels; he relevance f this analysisfor

thewriting systemwill bediscussedelow. n thischapter, haveomittedvowellengthwhen citing Hebrewwordsgenerally, ut I have ncluded t whendiscussingthe writing of a word to make it easier or the reader o relatea cited item totraditionalwriting.

In modern Hebrew, ltl and tl havemergedas ltl; lk/ and ql havemergedas/k/; [6 y 0] havemergedwith the stops d g t] , respectively;wt has become v];/s/ hasbecome tsl; e e a/ havemergedas [e]; and lal andbl havemergedas [a](Bolozky1997).For somespeakers,he sounds?1,lrl, and hl havedisappeared.Despite hesehistoric phonological hanges,modernHebrewwriting has tendedto retain raditionalBiblicalspelling.

7.4.3 Hebreutabjad

At first in early Semitic,only the consonantswere written and no vowels. Later, somelong vowels came to be written using consonant letters.This systembegan with theAramaans and spread o the other Semiticusersof the abjad (except he Phanicians).In Hebrew, the symbol r, originally usedonly for the consonant ljl,was used o writelong vowels /i r et/;1, originally used only for the consonant wl, was usedfor longlu t ot ; and sometimes he consonantalsymbol ;'l <h> was used for lar,l.Thus ffotrefl'root'was

earlier written Ur-][t .ltb, with no vowel marking the long lor,l;later it

was written as Urll[t.Jwrft where the <w> shows the long vowel lotl. Aconsonanrsymbol used in this manner to indicate a vowel is known as a tnater lectionis (Latin

for 'motherof reading', pl. matres lecti.oni.s).Matres lectionis were common for long

vowels in Hebrew, but they were not always used; short vowels were not indicatedat all. By the seventh century NEw, even with the matres lectionis, concern arosethat knowledge of the correct pronunciation of the Hebrew scripturesmight be ost.By this time, Hebrew scholars were familiar, of course, with the Greek method ofusing ordinary letters or vowels; however, they did not wish to alter the sacred extby inserting vowel symbols betweenthe existing letters.Their solution was to indicatevowels by meansof a set of diacritic marks over or below the consonantal letters.

This use of diacritics in Hebrew is known as vowel pointing, and texts with vowelsindicated are called pointed texts. Actually, three different sysremsof pointingdeveloped,but in the end the system rom Tiberias in Palestinewon out. A few other

i

e

a

u

oJ



128 Semitic

Table7.4 Letters of the Hebrew abfad. The sound values given for the abjad are those

reconstructed for Tiberian Hebrew; parentheses ndicate transcriptions appropriate for

modern Hebrew. The super- or subscript macron is used to show a fricative pronunciation:

. b d 0 p t k ' = [ v d y f 0 x ]

Printed Cursiue Sound ualue

final finalform form

Name Modern pron. Numeric

of name ualue

NlI1i]'lTnt)t

? p,N Or lo

Ua f3 3i)-)Q'

D

f 1,b EJ lo

vD ls Ti2-'l

V)n

If,t3tI5D6)

?

bg

dh @ )w (v)zh @ )

t ( t )j

kImns\

(g)p

$ (ts)q (k)

R

s l It

zalep

bet

gimel

dale!

he

waw

zayin

he!

!et

iodkaF

lame{

mem

nun

samef,Tayin

pe

sade

quBrelsin{in

taw

l'olfil

lbstl

/'grmal/

l'dolatl

lheil

lvavl

l'zajinl

lxetl

Itttl

tjudl

lktf I

/' lomad/

lmeml

lnunl

/'somex/

l'ajnllpetl

/'tsadi/

lkufl

lxxf/

lsn, {nlItovl

12345

6789

1 02030405060

708090

100200300400

marks were added o removeambiguities n pronunciation,and a set of symbolsknown ascantillationmarkswere also added o indicate he liturgical tune.

Hebrew is written from right to left like all Semitic abjads.Five lettershavespecial llographswhich are usedonly at the end of a word. Variouscalligraphic

stylesexist. In table 7.4, the letterformsat the left are typical of those used n

modernprintedmatter.The forms o their right are ypicallyused n handwriting.Lettersare written separately nd not joined,even n handwriting.

The order of letters n the Semiticabjad,given in table 7.4 has a very long

tradition.As we haveseenn chapter5, the Ugariticcuneiform abjadhad essentiallythesame rder n the atesecondmillenium O'Connor7995a). oday, heHebrew,

Roman,and Greek alphabets till haveessentiallyhe sameorderingof symbols.Arabic and the Indian scriptsstand out in having reorganuzedhis order:Arabic

slightly,and he Indianscripts, horoughly. 7e haveno ideahow this earlySemiticorderarose. Hebrewhad no special ymbolso represent umbers, ut used etters

with numericvalues. s shown n table7.4.)



Semitic r29

Table 7.5 Sibilant letters of Hebrew

Letter Faber's Proto-Semitic

reconstruction

Early Hebreupronunciation

Tiberianpronunciation

Name

owa

S

s

{

D

n)

p D

t nk l

f.T

I

b l

d : ls l

tsIS

same15

sin

shin

Table 7.6 Dagesh letters o{ Hebrew.'SThere

the modern pronunciation differs, it is givenin parentheses

v

6 (d)v (g)

f

o (t)X

Originally,Semitic ad threesibilants table7.5).The reconstructionf thepro-nunciationof these asbeenproblematic. aber 1981;seealsoDaniels79991 asreconstructedhem as [s], [{], and [ts]. The traditional view for Hebrew hasbeenthat early Hebrewhadthreekindsof s-soundss 5 which werewrirten with twolettersO and l/ ; the etterD waspronouncedsl,and the etter ll hadtwo differentpronunciationsS l. By Masoretic imeS,<5>had come o be pronouncedas /s/.

The Masoretesmaintainedhe traditionalwriting of bothD and I, and, n pointedHebrew, hey distinguishedhe two pronunciations f ll l by puttinga dot overrheleft or right side.

In pointedHebrew,the dagesh a dot inside he letter) s used n two ways.First, t is used o indicatea geminate onsonant: tFy <$ammrm>peoples',Eti?tl,<Saqqim>sacks'.Second,Hebrew historicallyunderwenta process f lenition,changing ingle tops o fricativesntervocalically. lthough hiswas an allophonicchange, iberianscholars sed he dagesho indicatehat the etterwaspronouncedas a phoneticstop [b d g p t k]; without a dagesh,he letterwaspronounced safricative u6 y f 0 x] (table7 61.lnModernHebrew, he stopswithout a dagesh re

pronounced s [u d g f t x] (olderHebrew[6 V e] havebecomemodernHebrew[d g t]). The dual functionof the dageshs facilitatedby the fact that singlestopsdonot occur betweenvowels.Thus, an intervocalicstop without a dagesh epresentsa fricative,and an intervocalic top with a dagesb epresents geminare luster.

7.4.4 Hebreut uouels

The Tiberian writing of Hebrew vowels is fairly complex. As we have alreadynoted, earlyHebrewwriting did not indicatevowels.Some ong vowelscame o beindicated y adding , '1 ,

and n some ases asmatresectionis. majorpurpose f

theTiberianeditionof the text was o fix thepronunciation f the Bibleby indicat-ing all vowels.This was accomplished y usingthe existingmatres ectionis ncombinationwith a newsetof diacritics nown al points(table7.7).Thediacritics



130 Semitic

Table 7.7 Tiberian Hebrew vowel pointing, shown with the letter D <m>

Short Longldiphthong

hireq

sagol

pa!ax

qame$ xatup

qibbus

hireq jo{

9ere

qamef

holem(-waw)

ftreq

?l)

Db

i ' Dc c i D ' De Po o w b t D

r l D

i

e

a

o

u

DDDDb

[awa o, A

hagep sagol E

hagep paph Ft

hagepqamef 6

Table 7.8 Hebrew personal names

nq- r

n r s

e a

rlgl'

< 6 r h > < S a r i h >

are written with the consonant that they phonologically follow. As an example, the

earliestwriting of /dawid/ [da:wir6]'David' would have been

-l'l'T<dwd> (the <w>

here s consonantal,no t a mater lectionis),later with .j t as a mater lectionis fo r the

long vowel li'^lJ'l-l <dwjd>, and finally with points J'l:l <dawid>.As we have said, vowel length was indicated although this was essentially

allophonic. The writing of the diphthongs and corresponding long vowels is some-

times conflated.The reducedvowels were given specialsymbols.One of the reduced

vowels is known as schwa (literally 'nothing';this is the source of the name of the

phonetic symbol [a]). The written diacritic fo r schwa indicates either the presence

of the reduced vowel [a ] or the absenceof any vowel. The names of the points are

given in table 7.7; vowels are often referred to by thesenames. Examples are shown

with the letter b <m>.

Note that <o> and <a> are written with the samediacritic. Knowledge of Hebrew

is necessary o determine which is intended. Romanization schemessometimes usea circumflex to indicate that a long vowel is written with a mater lectionis. Readers

should be aware that a number of different romanizations for Hebrew exist.

Although these symbols for vowels exist, as we have just seen, Hebrew today

is not generally written with vowel points although matres lectionis are regularly

written. Biblical texts are normally written with points although the scrolls used in

a synagogueare unpointed. Texts for children or learnersof the language are pointed

to give extra help. Poetry is sometimespointed since t often contains unusual words.

For other material in Hebrew, the reader is expected to know the language well

enough to supply the appropriate vowels.

Like all Semitic abjads, Hebrew is written right to left. In pointed texts, the

vowels are written with the consonant which they phonologically follow. For

example, the name Sarah (table 7.8) is written as <6rh>. The reader sees he con-

sonantal sequence<6rh> and given the context of the word, interprets this as the

iTlU'h r S

10rlnl



Semitic r31

nameSarah.See f you can guesshe secondname n table 7.8; the third may behardersince t is not pointed.

Hebreworiginallyhadno special umerals.Ordinary etterswereusedasnumbers.In table7.4, thenumericvalueof each etter s given.Today,Arabicnumerals re

used n most situations.One interesting ociolinguistic henomenons that thenumberof a year,accordingo theJewish alendar,s written with Hebrew ettersand then nterpreted s an ordinaryword, to predictwhat kind of year t will be.

7.4.5 Readingthe Bible

God is referred o by several amesn the Hebrewscriptures, ut the mostsacredwas JJi'lt<jhwh>, likelypronounced jahweh/. n thecourseof time, his namecameto be regardedas too holy to be spoken,exceptoncea yearby the High Priest n apart of theprayers n the Day of Atonement.Note that in the DeadSeaScroll extshown n plate2, the text is written in the New Hebrewabjad, but the nameofGod is written in the Old Hebrewabjad.Whenreading he Biblewhere hiswordappears,he reader s supposedo substitutehe word :JlS /Iddnai/'my Lord'. Toremindreaderso make his substitution,he vowelpointsof lddonailarc writtenwith the consonants<jhwh>, the result being written as il]it' or iTJhr with hateppagah -> predictably hangedo schwa.,;).This form ir, *rr.-onic and notintended o be pronounced swritten.Medirval Christian ranslators f the Bible,with a somewhat hakyunderstandingf Jewish radition, enderedhis iterallyas

Jehouah, word which doesnot exist n Hebrew.Traditionalsosays hat the readersmustnot

touch he holyname

n a scrollwiththeir fingers.To avoid this, scrollshavehandles or rolling and unrolling them,andreaders sea special ointer o keep heirplace n the text. The book of Estheroftenhasonly onehandle, ince t is the only book in the Biblenot containing heholy name.

Another nteresting ociolinguisticoint is that if a reader n a synagogue elievesthat the scrollcontainsan error, the services to stop until the matter s clarified.A youngboy is called orward,one old enough o have earnedhe Hebrew erters,but not experiencednough o understandhe meaningof the words. He is askedto decidewhat the letter n question s. If his decision hows hat the scroll s in

error, t must be takenaway to be corrected r destroyedElanDresher, ersonalcommunication).

7.4.6 Other languagesurritten urith the Hebreu)script

After the destruction f the temple n 70 NEv, theJewswere orced o leave sraeland spreadout widely. Theygenerally ame o speak he languagewhere hey wereliving. For example, hose iving in the Middle East and North Africa came rospeak udao-Arabic, form of Arabicwith manyHebrewand Aramaic oanwords.The Jewswrote this language sing he New Hebrew abiad.Similarphenomena

happened lsewhereHary 1996).In northeastern urope, ewsspokea form ofGermanwhich developednto Yiddish,alsowritten with the New Hebrewabjad.In southernEurope, he same hinghappenedn theSpanishLadino,Judezmo) ndItalian Judao-ltalian)reas.



\;-TA'il{\1

t r}.nr t'-'i.* b

132 Semitic

Figure 7.7 Inscription from Jabal Ramm (near Aqaba), late fourth century NEw;

the oldest Arabic inscription so far discovered Reuuebiblique 45.91,,1936)

7.5 Arabic


Very little is known about pre-IslamicArabic writing (i.e.,before 622 New). A

considerable ody of pre-Islamic oetry has beenpreserved, ut this was passedon orally and not written down until Islamic imes.S7e now that the Nabataankingdomof PetraspokeArabic,but theNabataansnormallywrote n Aramaic,orthey wrote Arabic texts n non-Arabicscripts.The Nabatcan varietyof theAramaic

script s believedo be the ancestor f the Arabic script.Only fiveclearexamplesof pre-IslamicArabic inscriptionsexist (Bellamy1989).The text in figure7.7 is the

oldestknown. Bellamyanalysest as a boastmadeby an energeticman who went

out into the world and made money; his he announceso all thosewho are soworld-weary hat they cannotdo likewise'.

\flith the adventof Islam(622 Nnw),Arabic experienced n explosionof writing.

Tradition holds that Mohammed himselfwas illiterate and dictated the Qur'an,the Islamic acred ext, to scribes. y 550 NEw,hiswritingshad been ollected ndpublished. ubsequently,anycopies f the Qur'an weremade,andotherwriting,

both religiousand secular, nsued.Tealthy amiliesamassedarge ibraries.As Islamspread, ome onverts egan o speakArabic,andothersused heArabic

script to write their own language. oday, many languages poken n areaswhereIslam s a common religion are written with the Arabic script,notably PersianandUrdu, and manyother anguagescross entralAsia. n the past,other anguages,

suchasTurkish,Swahili,and Hausa,were written using he Arabicalphabet.Like otherSemiticabjads,Arabicwriting doesnot showvowels ully. Longvowels

are regularly ndicatedby matres ectionis, but not short vowels. SomecenturiesaftertheQur'an waswritten down, Islamicscholarsdeveloped way of indicatingshort vowels.They did this partly to facilitate heir missionarywork amongnon-Arabicspeakers,nd alsobecauseheywereconcernedhat the sacredextmightbe



Semitic 133

altered. hey ntroduced iacriticmarks o indicate hortvowelsand othermarters;these ymbolsare consideredo be secondary ymbolsand arenot used n writingordinary text, but they are regularlyused n writing the Qur'an, and n texts forchildrenor students f Arabic; hey arealsooccasionally sed or decorative ur-poses, son thecoverof a book.Thereare nteresting tructuralandsociolinguisticparallelsbetweenhe Arabicand Hebrewwriting of vowels.

Arabic s highlydiglossic. hroughout he Arabic-speaking orld, everyone peaksa localdialect,often referred o as colloquialArabic.

Writing,however, s almost

entirelydone n the dialectknown asStandardArabic,which sgenerally ot mutuallyintelligiblewith local dialects. oday, his dialect s similar ro, but not exacrly hesameas, the classicalArabic of the Qur'an and other older literature.Althougheveryone peaks olloquial Arabic, StandardArabic is highly regarded.ModernStandardArabic can on occasionbe spoken,but it is more usuallyread aloud.

Universityectures,he newson television, nd formal speechesre usuallycomposedin StandardArabic and then readaloud. It would, however,be quite unusual oran Arabic speaker o useStandardArabic for any extended eriodof time in aninformal situation.Normally, all Arabicspeakers, o matterwhat their socialstatus,conversen their ocaldialect.S7rittenArabichas he advantagehat it is the samefor al l Arabicspeakers.o becomeiterate n Arabic meansearning his dialectofArabic.Although t is quitepossibleo write colloquialArabic, his is rarelydoneoutsideof special ituations uchas n a comic book, popularadvertising, r in aplay to showa local pronunciation.

Over time a large numberof calligraphic tylesof Arabic haveemerged.slam

discouragedhe drawingof living beings.As a result,calligraphy aineda specialsignificances a permittedartisticendeavour. ometimes,he decorative alue ofthewriting became upreme. uringtheOttomanEmpire,an officialsignature nownasa tughra(plate3) wascreated or eachSultan; heseweresoornare hat theyhadto be written by scribes.

7.5.2 Phonologyof Modern Standard Arabic

Arabic sspokenby about150millionpeopleivingprimarily n theMiddleEastandnorthernAfrica.Thedialectdescribed ere s Standard rabic. t has28 consonants

and5 vowels table7.9).Thesubscript ot indicatesheemphatic onsonants.

Table 7.9 The phonemes of Modern Standard Arabic

h h(

X

Y

t t

d d d go s q l6 0 2

Ir

w

m



:i i i, t: . 4 . :

':.i!.t::.

ix's;

P : .

i'fl

Plate 3 Imperial edict with tughra of Sultan Ahmed II, Turkey, 1694 Nrw. Reproduced

with permission from Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution



Semitic 13s

7.5.3 Arabic abiad

Arabic is written from right to left with an abjadod23 lettersplusa numberof addi-tional,optionalsymbols. he etters ndicate

onsonants ndong

vowels.Althoughthereare diacritics o indicate he shortvowels, heyarenormallynot written.Theconsonant ymbols f eachword aregenerally onnectedo eachother;wordsaredivided rom eachother.Theshortvowelsand otheroptionalmarks,whenwrirren,are written as diacriticsaboveor below he consonants.

Arabic s alwayswritten cursively,.e.,with the letters oined.There s nothingequivalento our hand printingwith separateetters.Most lettersare connectedoany preceding nd following etterswithin a word; these ettershave our shapes:initial, medial, inal, and isolated.Six letters<2 d 6 r z w> are connectedo theprecedingetter,but not to the following letter; heyhaveonly rwo shapes:solated

and final.The lettersaregiven n table 7 10 in the traditionalArabicorder.The sequencea:m-:alif is neverwritten as U, but alwaysas a ligature Y. Thisligature s sometimes onsidered s a letter in its own right; it is then orderedsecond-last,fterwa:w.

The orderof the letters n Arabic s a modifiedversionof the traditionalSemiticordering,with letters f a similarshape laced eareachother.Thisreorderingmusthavebeen he resultof thoughtfulplanning,not simplya gradualdevelopment.slightlydifferentorder s used n northwesrern frica.

The terms nitial, medial, inal, and isolated efer o a writing group.A writinggroup startsat the beginning f a word or aftera non-connectingetter<?d 6 r z

w>. A writing group endsat the endof the word or with a non-connectingetter.If a writing groupconsists f only one etter, he isolated orm is used.Otherwise,the initial, medial,or final form is useddepending n the position n the writinggroup. Somenonsense xamples table7.11) with a connectingetter and anon-connectingetter <d> will illustrate his. The vowel al is understood, ut notwritten.

7.5.4 Voutelsand diphthongs

Thethreeshortvowelsareknown as al fatbab,lil kasrah,and ul f,ammah;vowels

are optionally written with the consonant hey follow. Fayttaband Qammabarcwritten above he consonant; asrah s written below he consonant:

lbal

Long vowelsare written by t la:l,c;symbol s optionallywritten with the

tbil

/ba:/ tt ot t+ :

li |, or j lu:l; the corresponding short vowelprecedingconsonant:

lbi:l

lbu:/

,t o'

,/ ot

lbul

€ + q

J + t . t



t36

Table7.10 The Arabicabjad

Semitic

Isolated Final Medial Initial Name Value

7) ai

b

t

e

ds

h

X

d

6

r

Z

s

I

$

d

t

0s

Y

f

q

k

I

m

n

h

w (u:)

y (IPA tjly(i)

-)

I

.>

-ti-

.'i-

l lr !

? ! +

r> l:

a Ltv) (-

e e7 7 -ls t-

a c) . L

i j t

l rJ J

r ;J J

, /, L

' f , t *

e e

,f o^

b L _

b J L

7 F\ - !

? L\* \-j ..i

, I(JL,

J d Il l

t) J-

f r +r l

/ lv , F

v

0 J -

J ,

€ q 5

-e

-"b

_b

t .-D

t

i

j

A

t

j

-D

L

L

.t-

i

i,

s_I

<-



Semitic 1 3 7

Table 7.11 Arabic nonsenseexamples showing connecting and non-connecting <d>

ba

'-*

bababa

da

J*

babada

J{

bada

./J{

badaba

(-tJ

daba

)-IJ

badada

-

baba

*)

dababa

?) )

dadaba

dada

-u)

dabada

dadada

In the remainder of the section on Arabic, short vowels are explicitly indicatedwith the understandingthat this would not ordinarily be done.

'7.5.5 Hamzah

Glottal stop is a phoneme n Arabic; t appearsn al l positions initial, medial,and final. n theoriginalSemitic bjad,glottalstop waswritten with an ?alif . The

Qur'an was written much ater n the dialectof Medina of wesrernArabia. By thetime the Qu'ran waswritten, the glottal stopsoundhad been ost n word-medialandword-finalposition n the Medinadialect.As a result,glottalstop waswritten

in the Qu'ran only in initial position.Earlyscholarsrom other dialectareasweretroubledby this lossand wanted o indicate he glottal stops n the Qur'dn whichthe Medinascribes adomitted;however,hey wereunwilling o change hesacredtext. In theend, he scholars olvedheir dilemmaby creating new mark 9, calledhamgah, o represent lottal stop. The hamzahwasaddedaspart of the secondarylayerof symbolsand thuswasnot consideredo alter he sacred i.e.,consonantalor primary) layerof the texr of theQur'an.

In modernArabicgrammar, hehamzah tself s now consideredo be the symbolwhich ndicates glottal stopand thezalif s viewedmerelyasa 'seat'for the hamzah(or asmarking ong a:lin othercontexts)Bellamy989, Bauer1996).Thecomplete

rules or writing hamzaharequitecomplex;only the basics regivenhere.In word-initialposition,a glottalstop swritten with an zalif andan accompanying

hamzah.If the vowel following he glottal stop s lal or lul, thehamzah s writtenabove he zalif; with lil, it is written below:

l?akalal 'heate' lTumml 'mother'

lzibnl 'son'

This caseof hamzab shows a situation where a straightforward relationship (glottal

stop written as an zalif) has been drastically altered (glottal stop is written as a

bamzah, sometimeswith an ?alif, whose placement is quite complex) becauseofdialect variation and a desire to preservea culturalvalue, namely a sacred ext inits traditional form

e 2

p l

*1L.



1 3 8 Semitic

Table 7.12 The writing of Arabic nouns. Note the special tanuln diacritics for the

indefinite endings

Indefinite Definite

r t .

Nom. l-unl -rt:S

Acc. l-anl

Gen. l-inl

/kita:bun/

/kita:ban/

/kita:bin/

l-ul /al-kita:bu/

lal-kita:bal

lal-kita:bil

l-al

7.5.6 Other symbokOther optional diacriticsarenot normally used,but theyare ound in the Qur'anand in material or learners.A doubledconsonants written only once, and an

optionaldiacritic ikea small oundu is written above,o showconsonant oubling(seenn theexample?umm/above). he absencef a followingvowel s shownby

a superscript ircle:

';ft/qallaqa/ |^3 /xums/

Arabic has hreecases:ominative, ccusative,ndgenitive. he cases re ndicated

by suffixes,which are llustrated n table7.12 with the word -'13 lkitabl 'book'.The indefinitesuffixesare written with specialsymbols called tanuln (left side,

table 7.'1.2), hich areessentiallyoubled orms of the simplevowel diacritics. he

indefiniteaccusatives written with a silentzalif.

The definitearticle s theprefix lal-l the'which is alwayswrittenas a prefix .. .Jl

before he noun(table7.12)even hough he 1/ assimilateso a followingdentalorpostalveolaronsonant.

7.5.7 Nutnerak

T h e n u m e r a l s f r o m 0 t o g i n A r a b i cr e \ Y t o 1 V A I < 01 . 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 > .Arabicnumbers rewrittenfrom left to right: \ I 1 o '1955'.Theso-calledArabic

numerals'used n Englishare actually rom India (see hapterL1) and are called'Indiannumerals'n Arabic.Theyare oftenused n modernArabic writing.

7.6 The Ethiopic Abugida

The early South Arabian abjadand its developmentnto an abugidahave akeadybeendiscussedn

$7.3.1.The Ethiopianabugidawas irstused or Ge'ez, he class-

ical anguage f Ethiopia. t was originallyspokenn northernEthiopia.Most textsfrom theearlyperiodare ranslations f Christian iterature rom Greek.Ge'ezdied

out asa spokenanguage round1000NEw.Sincehemid-twelfthcentury,Amharic

t-il

u[5t ' /

{-Jli)



Semitic 139

Table 7.13 Phonemesof Amharic

k s

k'

d3b

p'f v

Fj

m

w

r d

t'S Z

ts

n

l r

tl

tl'I

k* g*

h*s

;

IY

f

+fi

uA

r+{l

r

L

ftot

t

It

F

,l

\

E

Tq

*

i

Y.lto{.

tIL

F

u

rl

ft

@

*

tl

uA

otr

f

tl

s

h

I

m

q

b

q*

Table 7.14 Selectedsymbols from the Ethiopic abugida. Symbols in the same row have

the same consonant; those in the same column have the same vowel

hasbeen he main spoken anguage f Ethiopia,but Ge'ez etainedgrear mport-anceas a liturgicalandcultural anguage. ntil the nineteenth entury, irruallyal lwriting in Ethiopiawasdone n Ge'ez, nd t remainshe anguage f theEthiopianchurch.TheJewishFalasha f Ethiopiaalsoproduced smallamountof material nGe'ez.Now we will examine ow themodernEthiopicabugida,he scriptof Amharic

and neighbouringanguages, orks. (Formoredetailson abugidas, ee hapter11on the Indianscripts.)

The phonemicnventoryof Amharic sgiven n table7.1,3C'indicates n ejectiveconsonant).

Recall hat in an abugida, he consonants re he main symbols, nd the vowelsare written as diacritics.Also, n an abugida,onevowel s not explicitly ndicated.In the Ethiopicabugida,hevowel sl is not explicitly ndicated;hus, heabsencefa diacriticshows hepresencef lgl.The othersixvowelsare ndicated y diacritics.The shapes f the diacriticsare almost,but not quite,predictable. s an example,considerhesecondow for ll in table7.'1.4: llsl, tt llul, tt" lil,\ llal, \ / le/, A

llal, tv llol. Bycomparingheseormswith those n otherrows,we can see hat A sthe basic onsonant hape or ll , and hus that lslis the vowel hat is not explicitlyindicated. he other vowelsare ndicatedby diacriticsattachedo rhis symbol.



140 Semitic

Table7.15 Ethiopicnumerals.Theseare borrowed rom Greek

4 1 ,

R zt 3n 4e 5

11

iP.

I

6

7

8

9

10

n 2 0q 3 0

f 4 0

I 5 0

f r 5 0

c

lt

,l

n

I

70

80

90

100

The symbolswith the diacriticfor the vowel al arealso used o show he absence

of a vowel, husallowingconsonant lusterso be written. Thethera <Ca>symbol

representsCl or lCal can only be determined y a knowledgeof the language.

Geminate onsonants re not indicatedalthough hey arephonetically istinctive.Labralized onsonants re written with specialdiacritics.The writing systempre-

serves ertaincontrasts o longerexisting n the present-dayanguage.

Theorderof the etters n theEthiopicabugidasdifferent rom the usualnorthern

Semitic rder.The reasonor theEthiopicordering s not known. In certain eligious

contexts,he northernSemitic rder s used,and henameabugida omesrom this

order;cf . aleph,beth,gimel,daleth n Hebrew.The numerals table7.751wereborrowed rom the Greekalphabetic umerals;

see hapter8 for the useof Greeknumerals s etters.Horizontalstrokes rewritten

aboveand below he numerals. oday,Arabicnumerals reusedn mostsituations.

7.7 The Distinctivenessf Abiads

Semiticmorphology is unusual among languages, onsistingof two interlocking

patterns.Onepattern epresentsheroot,which ypicallyconsists f threeconsonants:

for example ktbl'write' or lfsll'do'. Theotherpattern sthe nflectionalmorphology;

different nflectionalpatternsaremarkedby insertingdifferentvowels between he

consonants f the root. Prefixesand suffixesmay also be part of the inflectional

morphology.The examplesrom Arabic (table7.1,6)show this structure. n the

lastcolumn, he phonemes f the root are n uppercase /s/ s to be ncludedhere),and thoseof the affixes n lower case o highlight the two different patterns. f

you examine he phonological orms,you will see hat the formsfor 'write' all have

lktbl, and those or 'do' have frll.If we look at the writing system,we see hat the consonantsof the stem are

alwayswritten, and the inflectionalmorphology s written only to the degreehat it

contains onsonants. uite frequently,wo formsare exactlyalike,and the correct

reading anonly bedetermined y the context.The orms n table7.17, or example,

would all bewritten exactly he same.In English,we aremuch ess ommonly acedwith this sortof homography.7here

it doesoccur, he context n English,as n Arabic, usuallydistinguisheshe possible

readings: ow lbowl and bawl,or lead lidland lledl. Onemight expect ormssuch

as ead idl and rcdlto bemoreproblematic ince hey distinguishhe present nd



Semitic

Table 7.16 Examples of Arabic showing Semitic morphology. The root consonants areshown in upper-case etters. The inflectional morphemes consist of the medial vowels,prefixes, and suffixes

t41

J-,i.ts

i"l*'

.^<l

t n

d;1tt--

Ji.n"

kataba

fasala

katabna

fasalna

yaktubu

yafsalu

yaktubna

yaf(alna

'hewrote'

'hedid'

'they (fem.) wrote'

'they (fem.) did'

'hewas writing'

'hewas doing'

'they (fem.) were writing

'they (fem.) were doing'

KaTaBa

Fasal-a

KaTaBna

Fa(al-na

yaKTuBu

yaF{aLu

yaKTuBna

yaFTaLna

Table 7.17 Homography in Arabic. These words, although

phonologically different, would be written the same

c-i-i

cl'i

dÎ'i

c-lri

< f s l t >

< f \ l t >

< f s l t >

< f s l t >

fasaltu

fasalta

fasalti

fasalat

'I did'

'you (masc.) id '

'you (fem.)did'

'shedid'

past tenseof the sameverb, either of which could easily occur in the same syntacticposition. Even though read is a rather common verb in English, my own experience,however, is that I have ittle senseof misreadingthis word, certainly not very often.Similarly, Arabic speakersdo not have frequent difficulties in reading Arabic.

Some people have claimed that Semitic languagesare ideally suited for an abjadsincewriting only the consonants highlights the lexical root. Sometimes his argumenr

is statedas though the inflectional morphemesare of no consequence.Most people,however, feel that there is some significance n the difference between'I will die'and'I

have died'. Rather than saying that the inflectional information is not so important,perhaps t would be closer to the truth to say that it is likely to be more redundantor more easily ecovered rom the context. In this sense,he Semiticabjad emphasizesthe lexical and less edundant parts of words.

7.8 FurtherReading

Thischapter overs greatdealof territory ithan enormousiterature. ealey 1990)is a goodshortgeneralntroduction.he various rticles n Daniels nd Bright 1996)are all usefulstudies f the individual cripts:O'Connor 1996a,1996b),Goerwitz



142 Semitic

(1996),Daniels 1996b), kjarvo (1996),Bauer 1996),Haile 1996),Hary 1996),

Kaye (1996).Bellamy 1989)and Cross(1989)are alsovery useful.Driver 1976),

Naveh(1970,1982- the most accessible), nd Sass (1992)are more technical

treatments. ersteegh1997) s an interestingntroductiono Arabicwith a gooddealon writing.Abbott 1939) ndGruendler1993)dealwith he history f Arabicwriting.

Brustadet al . (1995) s a modern ntroductiono Arabicwriting.Mitchell 1954) s

quitedetailed, ut will repay he efforts f a serious tudento learnauthentic rabic

handwriting.enderet al. (1976)and Weninger 1993)give more nformation n

Ethiopicwriting.

7.9 Terms

abjadabugidaAchamenid

acrophony

Akkadian

alphabetArabicAramaic

BabylonianBabylonian aptivity

BiblecursiveDeadSea scrollGe'ez

hamzahHebrew

LevantMasoreticmater lectionis

morphogram

morphographicNew Hebrewabjad

Old HebrewabjadPersian

Phenicianphonographic

pointing, ointed ext

Proto-CanaanitePunic

Qur'dn

schwaSemiticStandardArabic

tanwinTiberian

tughravowelpointing

writinggroup

Yiddish

7.10 Exercrses

1 This exercisenvolvesHebrewnameswhich havebeen borrowednto English.

Foreachof the followingtems, ranscribehe Hebrewnamecursively. ransliter-

ate he name n Roman etters sing hechart n table7.4. Don't orget o reverse

the Hebreworderso that your transliterations in the correctorder or English.

Therewill usuallybe somediscrepancy etween he Hebrewand English orms

of the names.Note hat he Hebrew onsonants 'may represent lides j w/, but

they mayalsobe matres ectionisor long i e:l or /u: o:/.Theconsonantalalue

of Hebrewlis likely o be lvl in English, nd Hebrew willoftenbe ld3l. Hebrew

tav h often urnsup in English s <th>.



Semitic 143

(a) Eachof the names n italicsbelow s containedn the followingHebrew ist(there s one extraname);write he English ame or each Hebrewname nthe appropriate ow.

Daniel,David,Dinah, Esau,Esther,Rachel,Reuben

Hebrew

e.g. ?llil'fa. ?nrb. ?x':'tc. ;]Jt-l

d.-lnoN

e.-I'l't

Cursive

prc-)

Transliteration EnglishName

< r ? w b n > R e u b e n

(b) Foreachof the ollowingtems,ranscribehe Hebrew amecursively. rans-literatehe name n Roman etters.Write he English ame oreach Hebrewnameat the right.

Hebrew Cursive Transliteration EnglishName

a.b.

c.d .

e.f.g .

nT'lEl;]''llN

?x:'n;1i7fr'byJ

E'TN

J'b'Jf

(c) The followingHebrewnamesare a littleharder:

Hebrew

a. fllCb. 13tcJ?flJc. fxrcd. njianr

Transliteration EnglishName

The followingwords are importantpropernamesprimarily rom the Arabic orMuslimworlds.Transcribinghe words n Romanetters irstmayhelp.Mostof thewordsare givenas theyare ordinarily ritten n Arabic that s, without owels.The irstone s done oryou.Note hat somepropernouns n Arabicareprecededby the article ?al-l Jl . (Note: tem (g) is namedafter a famousGreekgeneral

who founded hiscity.Twothingshappenedo this name n Arabic: 1) two con-sonants re reversed metathesis),nd (2) t has beenreanalysed s containingthe article.)



1,44 Semitic

r a q >raq

ui) -

Jti-..ful* 6

/ o . . a t oa

AJ,-U>*, JlJ g

' / i

r ! .SJtJ

- r /

4)\J

)l&-r

?t'fF?r{brt?m'?utlll,lrvni75u ?Tb

;T93fi

lDv?u

<?l

c.

e.

Yiddishmeaningdoughnut-shapedread(chicken)at

an unluckyperson

to press,complain

congratulationsimpertinence,erveto drag

b.

d.

f..

i .

,JlrJl

tll:;r ^,Jl

rJ*'Lrx*"Yl

s) q '^lJ J A '

l-t;t

[Jiblt,

J

3 A numberof wordshave been borrowednto English romYiddishand Hebrew.

Try to guess he wordwrittenbeside.Yiddishorthographys slightlydifferent rom Hebrew.Note hat $ represents

la/; 9 is lel; a double representsejl; and a double1'l epresentsv/. The

superscriptorizontaline ndicates fricative ronunciation.ote hat heEnglish

meaning f a borrowedword s notalways he sameas the originalYiddish. he

infinitive f Yiddish erbsendsn

l-nl.

Englishmeaning wheredifferent)

excessive entiment

a mess

'lYJYlllrba crazyperson

l3Y:'7 chat

lUr$J to snack

Suppose hat English peakers ad borrowedEgyptianwritingand used t in the

sameway that earlySemiticwriters id.Whatwouldbe the phonologicalalueof

the first hreesymbols f the English lphabetn this situation?How do modernHebrewand modernArabicdiffer rom eachother structurally(not ust in havingdifferent-shapedymbols)n the way vowelsarewritten?Writeyourown nameandcity n the HebrewandArabicscripts, ayingattention

to the sound, ot English pell ing.



8 The GreekAlphabet


Greek s heonly language f theGreekbranchof the ndo-Europeananguageamily.Althoughmanyof ustoday are amiliarwith the Greekalphabetwhich hasexistedfor almost3000years, arly exts n several cripts avebeen iscoveredn theGreekarea.The earliest exts in the Greek languagedate from the Mycennan period,1550to 1200oLD. The Mycen&,anextsare n an early orm of Greek n a scriptknown asLinearB. LinearB diedout around 7200orn andknowledge f thesysremwas ater ost o theGreeks.Otherveryold undecipheredcripts xist;we aregener-ally uncertainof the languagen the undecipheredexts. Only in the eighthcenruryolo do we find textswritten in the ancestor f the modernGreekalphabet.

The Greek anguage an bedivided nto the periodsshown n table8.1.The Greek poet Homer composed he epics Iliad and Odyssey n the eighthcenturyoLD.Theseare he oldestpost-Mycen€anGreek exts hat we have.Clas-sicalGreek rom 500 oro is well known with a vast iterature hat formsa majorcomponent f European ulturalhistory.AncientGreekhada greardealof dialectvariationalthough he Attic (i.e.,Athenian)dialecthasa certainprestige.

AncientGreecefigure8.L) ncludeda much argerarea han hemoderncountryof Greece;n particular,a largeportion of what is today Turkey was earlier Greek.Greekcoloniesexisted n Cyprusand southern taly. Thus,Greekwas the nativelanguage f manypeopleivingbeyond heboundaries f modernGreece. ollowing

Alexander he Great'sconquestsn the late fourth centuryoLD, Greekbecame nimportant ingua ranca hroughout heeasternMediterraneannd heMiddle Easr,as far as India. In largepart, Greeksupplanted ramaic n this role. The Hebrew

Table 8.1 Periods of the Greek language

Mycenran

Homeric

Classical

Hellenistic (Koin6)

Byzantine

Mediaval

Modern

1500-1200 roca. eighthcentury oLD600-300oro300 oro-300 Nrw300Naw-l1001100-1500

1600-present



UKRAINE

HUNCARY

MediterraneanSea

BOSNIA

ERZEGOVI

CREECE

146 The GreekAlphabet

Figure 8.1. Map of ancient Greece

Biblewas ranslatednto Greek or Greek-speakingews.Thistranslations known

as the Septuagintafter the Greekword for '70' because f the 70-72 translators

involved.Early Christianswere argelyGreek-speakingews,and their sacred ext(theNew Testament) as composedn Hellenistic Koin6 ,kcj'nej/)Greek.Greek

wasthe language f the ByzantineEmpire n Constantinople nd continues s he

language f Greeceoday.Modern Greek s an exampleof a diglossicanguage ituation.Although the

language ad changed ver time, many mediavaland modernauthorsattempted

to write in ClassicalGreek.The result is that two forms of Greek developed:

kathareuousara0apa;ouocr'purifying',ko0o'revu,so/)s conservative nd morelike Classical reek although ot completelyhe same) nd s used or more ormal

purposes;he othervariety s demotifte Enpottr.cipopular'/,di'motr'ki/), which is



The GreekAlphabet 147

basedon current speech nd used n less ormal situations.Up to the twentiethcentury,writing wasgenerally nly done n kathareuoust. ince 900, he tendencyhasbeen o increasehe useof demotike.

Greekpronunciationhas changedconsiderablysinceclassical imes. n Greecetoday, however,ClassicalGreek s pronounced s though t weremodernGreek.Students f Greekelsewhereave endedo use hepronunciationeconstructedyErasmusn the fifteenth enturyNEw.Modern scholars isagree ith manydetailsof Erasmus' econstruction.

8.2 GreekScriptsbefore he Alphabet

8.2.7 LinearB

Theoldest nownwriting in Greekconsists f clay abletsn an early orm of Greekknown as MyceneanGreek n a scriptknown as Linear B (figure8.2).Texts havebeen oundprimarilyat PylosandMycen&on the Greekmainland,and ar Knossosin Crete.Theyhavebeen ated o 1550-1200oLD. The extswerewrittenhorizont-ally left-to-righton the tabletswith a pointedstylus.Most are accounting ecords.Apparentlya disaster truck the societyaround 1200 oLD, in which the palaceswereburntdown.As a result, he clay abletswerebaked.There sno laterevidenceof the LinearB script.

The discovery nd decipherment f Linear B is an interesting tory (Chadwick

1967).Mycenran siteswerediscovered round 1900and work began oon hereafteron the tablets.The decipherment asparticularlydifficult; hescriptwasotherwiseunknown,and at this time, almostno one thought hat the language as Greek.

In the mid-twentieth entury,an Englisharchitect,MichaelVentris,beganworkingon thedeciphermentsinga purely ormalapproach.Ventris elt that the nventoryofsignswas oo large or thesystem o bealphabetic nd hat it wasmore ikely moraic.

AliceKober 1945)hadpreviouslydentified numberof relatedriplets the hreeforms in eachcolumn)which sharesymbols.For example,n table 8.2, the firsttwo symbols n eachcolumnare shared. urther, n the top two rows, the ast woare shared, nd n the bottom row, the astsymbol s shared.Kober's hinking was

that each riplet representedifferent nflectedormsof the same temandeach owrepresentedormsof different temswith thesamenflectional nding.Thus, n eachform the stemconsists f the two leftmostsymbols,and the inflectionalendingscomprisehe rest.

1filFigure 8.2 Example of a Linear B tablet (from Fred'$foudhuizen, The Language of the SeaPeoples, .70. Amsterdam:Najade Press,1993.@ 1993Jan Best.Reproducedwith permission)



148

Table 8.2

unknown

The GreekAlphabet

Examples of Kober's Triplets. The transcription (as we now know it, but

at the time to Kober) is shown below

+ ? Y F* I Y '* ? q r

? l A t A E? W + \qP lll 'l

V * A EY * A T\ t * ' 1

+ Y A E+ Y f \ f+ Y T

T T N E? T T i \ T? 1 7

ru.ki.t-i. a

ru.ki.t-i.io

ru.ki.t-o

pa.l.t-l.la

pa.i.t-i.jo

pa.i.t-o

However,we see hat the nflectionalendings renot exactly he same:he second-

last symbols f rows 1 and2 arc the same,but the last symbols f these ows aredifferent,and the astsymbols f row 3 aredifferent rom eachother. f the system

is moraic, hese atterdifferencesan be explained s follows.The stemends n a

consonant which alls n the third mora in these xamples);he suffixesn rows L

and2 have he shapeVCV; and the suffix in row 3 has he shapeV. The natureof

a moraicwriting systemwould mean hat the symbols epresenting morawhich s

entirelya pafi of the stemwould be written the same the irst two symbolsn these

examples);encehe vertical imilarity n each olumn.Similarly,he symbolswhich

representmor€ entirelya part of the suffix would be written the same;hence he

horizontal imilaritybetweenhe columnsn rows1 and2.Dlffercnceswould occur

at the stem-suffixboundary the hird mora in these xamples) here he symbolswould represent ifferentCV combinations thethird symbol n theseexamples).

Kober'swork started his typeof analysis nd Ventrisbuilt on it.

UsingKober'swork, Ventris ried organizing he symbolsnto patterns figure8.3)

where he symbolsn the same olumnhave he same owel,and hose n the same

row have he sameconsonant.On a whim, he tried reading he texts as an early

form of Greekandmetwith success. owever, he LinearB formsdid not look like

HomericGreek, he earliest orm of Greekknown at that time.Partly, his wasdue

to the fact that the Greek anguage ad changedn the time betweenhe Mycen&an

era (1200oro) and Homeric imes(earlyninth centuryoro). But the differences

are also due to the fact that LinearB is written with moraicsymbols table8.3),and not the alphabetic ymbolsused or Homericor ClassicalGreek.The useof a

moraicsystemmade t look unusual or two reasons. ince herewerenot symbols

in Linear B for vowelless onsonants,inal consonantsn Linear B weregenerally

omitted,and consonant lusterswere written with a dummyvowel: e.8.,d cluster

lksal would be written <ka-sa>using two symbols epeating he vowel. JohnChadwickwasa youngGreekscholarwho immediatelyecognizedhatVentriswas

on theright track. Unfortunately, entriswaskilled n an automobile ccident, ut

hiswork remains n outstanding ccomplishment.The LinearB writing systems a mixture of moraicand morphographicwriting.

Most of the writing moraic,bu t a numberof morphographic ymbolswereusedaswe[l, particularly n inventory istsand asnumerals.

tu.ri.s-i.ja

tu.ri.s-i.io

tu.ri.s-o

ko.no.s-i.ja

ko.no.s-i.jo

ko.no.s-o

rr.lo.n-r.la

ri.jo.n-i.io

ri. jo.n-o



TbeGreekAlphabet

LlllEARSCR|PTB SyLLAB|C RID uoil torE t( rro srrrr

otAcltosts 0F CoilSorlilt AID voUELEoulnotg AtftllSr2! SEtt fll[ flE ![rLEX|o||AL|ATEitA[Fto]t rylos:

149

*:Esig;l) f 6 - -

i;s;g;HiXETEgsEF

lrtlrf .!alrllplcrl r;lr|lairfor -tf -E

n Clrr2c 5

'?rrr'rrlh;,

ttrlcrl roif;mtlrcr olfqrh Colrrl I

l rc l l lsrponl l l :

trocrllth:tt

llrorllt tcr freprrtly,llc lnlmllr:r ol lcrr

h Colrrr I

nE$ srGflsoorfroccurarromB-

IHESEtclrs occui LEss oIrorly 0i t|orAT [r rcrorr E-

IrloRtoFTEtfF${llilflE

TltAtlxlc,e!il rr,

lroi[ oFrEil xlscuuxE

rnrr rexnne?

[mE of'rErFOfl$XE

rI^lflr,tl|| llr I

IoRHALLYoR]t TrEGflilTtv€ StXGULAn

av oorncf

IIORIIATLYilH TBEG€XITIY€

smGuLAnr rootrc- B

rorcl I vo;cl 2 vor:l 5 rorrl 1 rorrl 5

t!?3rdrrb ? b 'o.s H

I rr.2r r rnl -rot : l ?

{r ! f . 0 \ p.r

A rf .g ft iz-l Z z..z ff zel li r...2 A tg.6 I l7.t tt.7

5 f r.2 K t r 10.0

4 /'\ r7.o I,' | zt.a W o.f5 t1\4"., r0.5 l l l 1.1 f r.26 f 1.1-Wt 205

TTJI rf.f ? rfr

7 X{, T {..08 V o. l

1,

6. t D rr-r M tt.a9 It.l

Mn !2.t F r-.

t0 g 22.2 :l: ,, r.t 2.2

t l

b--n

r-I tt.r u.4

r.)I r. l 0.7

t2 17.0 A *.1 O 21.0r5 , t -

T e..f O r4.2t4 ' l

5.0

r5 V tz.6iltGIAELWXrilS

Figure 8.3 A sample page from Ventris' notebooks. His working hypothesis was that thesymbols represent CV sequences; hose in each row share the same consonant, and those inthe same column share the same vowel (from John Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear

B,'Ventris

grid,28 SeptemberL95"L', igure 13, p. 59. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversiryPress,1957. @ 1967 by Cambridge University Press.Reprinted with the permissionofCambridge University Press)



1 5 0

Table 8.3 Some Linear B symbols

The GreekAlphabet

Phonographic(moraic) symbols

T A ru

dpu

vtu

3ku

0ldu

ESU

Tmu

blnu

Tru

Do

t--I

po

Tto

aI

ko

{!

T

qo

tdo

Iso

Azo

1mo

llL

no

+ro

dwo

Tjo

l )V

mi

X XI

ni

att

ri

.(A\

wi

e

NV

pe

me

Yne

Yre

Zwe

lj e

a

+T

Pa

L

ra

F| | l

wa

Rti

tta

oka

Tqa

Fda

YSA

tza

Uma

Tna

-t -

te

/l\

ke

\7

qe

X

de

$t-I

se

L

ze

T

Yi

rilpi

f\ti

Tki

.T

qi

mI

di

iltIT\

si

Examples of morphographic symbols

O Twheel grain

mrwine

o

100

FI

bronze

o

200



The GreekAlphabet

Figure8.4 LinearA tablet (from JanBestand FredWoudhuizen eds.), ost Languages

from theMeditenanean)igure1, p. 2.Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1989.@ 1,993 y JanBest.Reproduced ith permission)

8.2.2 Otber earb Greekscripts

Other textshavebeen oundon Crete n scripts nown asLinearA (figure8.4).Todate, hese exts havenot beendeciphered.

Sometime round 1,700oLD, a clay disk about L8 cm in diamererwas madein Crete figure8.5). This PhaistosDisk has igures n a spiralorderon both sideswhich appear to be writing. The symbolswere not written individually, butwere impressedwith stamps; here arc 242 separate mpressionsmade with 45different stamps.The impressionsare made in

boxes with two to seven m-pressionsn eachbox. Unfortunately,he Phaistos isk has esisted ll attemprs tdecipherment.

Two possibly elatedancient scripts have been ound on Cyprus.The oldergroup s known as he Cypro-Minoanscript rom 1500-1200oro. It hasnot beendeciphered.he aterCypriotscript rom about 800-200 olo hasbeendeciphered,and the textsare n Cypriot Greek figure8.5).The script s moraic.Although hesymbolshavedifferentshapesrom the Linear B symbols, he orrhographic on-ventions rc verysimilar.See he discussionn thenext section f

'sfoodard'sclaim

for the importance f Cyprus n the historyof Greekwriting.

1 51

> 'nY 0 T

r,,Y- -W-YBvo\hfuor

r-\-#VrG;

*b"?+



Qn@

#Zffi a€

\

s,

ffi#

N RM6+

tuq,@

Figure8.5 PhaistosDisk (from Jan Bestand Fred foudhuizen (eds.),AncientScripts

from Creteand Cyprus, p. 32-3. Leiden:E. J. Brill, 1988.@ 1993by JanBest.

Reproduced ith permission)



*-tnFil,i?,?il'

/#'$,fifiiil{F";tdd} fifo4ltt ttf ?trho+ot4t

. il? tf Ofgrj rni rbn l^tf -t

fiffjl$lHfffiffiHfH{ruxw;"f,F p,rirOi $tlr!I: I Oo!,+pJll+tt'cbhrr7tr tr ilil F € €

rf4FP,*roi f$tr! lr fi ooffrtPtrnO?rlil Bhr?tt'g;fl no?rlil Bhr;rF?r e hl

ffiyh?,:_


Figure8.6 Exampleof a Cypriot Greek ext (fromJan

Bestand Fred'$Toudhuizeneds.),AncientScripts rom Creteand Cyprus,p. 106. Leiden:E.J. Brill, 1988.@ 1.993 y JanBest.Reproducedwith permission)

8.3 Development f the GreekAlphabet

The Semitic bjadwas brought o Greece robablyby Phanician raders.Severalactsmake t clear hat theGreekalphabetwasborrowed rom the Semitic bjad.First, heorderingof the Greek etters s basicallyhe sameas n Semitic.Second,he Greek

namesof the lettersareobviouslysimilar o the Semitic cf . Greek lalphal Sem.lzalill, Greek be:tal- Sem.beztl,etc.; he actualGreekormsof the namesmay havebeenborrowed rom Aramaic).Third, thesenames re meaningful nd acrophonicin Semitic, ut meaninglessn Greek: ikely, he Greeks orrowed he etterswith theirnames ven hough heydid not understandhosenames. ourth, he shapes f thelettersaresimilar to thoseof olderPhcnicianwriting. And fifth, ancientGreek exrsrefer o the ettersasrporvtretapd,ppataPhanicianletters'and asro8peloypdppatcr'Cadmeanletters' namedafterCadmus, legendary hanicianhero).

Although he act hat theGreekalphabet erivesrom Phcenicianriting isclear,the date of the borrowing s problematic Naveh 1982, 19Sg).The earliestGreek

textsdate rom only theeighthcenturyoLD; however,he form of earlyGreekwrit-ing s more ike that of Phanicianwriting of theeleventh enturyoLD. f borrowingtook place n the eleventh entury, henwhy do we not have exrsuntil the eighth



1,54 The GreekAlphabet

a b c d 6

I i r l s t

k l m n o

l e r p { t

Figure 8.7 Boustrophedon. Note that in boustrophedon, the direction of the letters is

reversedas the line direction changes

. ilfili;i," ji/: :r._t*,A'qqn'

'"am;'7q$r

Figure 8.8 Inscription on Nestor's cup (from John Boardman and N. G. L. Hammond(eds.),The Cambridge Ancient History,3.3, figure 16, p.100. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1970, @ 1970 by Cambridge University Press.Reprinted with the

permission of Cambridge University Press)

century?On the other hand, f the borrowingdid not take placeuntil the eighthcentury, hen wo aspects f Greekwriting must be explained.One, he shapes fthe letters esemble lder Phanician orms. And two, older Greek exts are some-timeswritten in boustrophedonfuuorpoq466vas an ox ploughs' ,bustra'fidan/),that is, lineswritten alternatingly eft to right and right to left (figure8.7). Early

Phanician extsare oftenboustrophedal,ut by the eighthcenturyoLD, Phenicianwritingwasonly done ight to left (only aterdid Greekwriting become xclusivelyleft to right). I am inclined o agreewith Naveh(1988)and opt for the earlierdate




of borrowing,but thedatingof the Greekscript emains n openquesrion. Sproat(2000)notes hat thereareregular eports hat with boustrophedonhe reverialoflettersas shown n figure8.7 is optional.He says,however, hat he has ound noexampleswhere he ettersare not reversed.)

\Toodard (1997)hasarguedhat Cyprusplayedan mportant ole n theborrow-ing of the script for Greek.He claimsthat it is likely t[rat Cypruswas the site ofthe borrowing and that Greekscribes amiliarwith Cypriot *iiting werecruciallyinvolved n the process.7oodard places he Cypriot

-btrrowingoi the phenician

script n the ninth century.Whereas the early evidence or writing is associatedwith bookkeeping n

Mesopotamiaor in Mycenaan Greece,or with religion for Hebrew and Atr'bi.,or with oracularpredictionsor Chinese, uchassociationsor Greekare ess lear.One suggestions that writing was at least n parr an affectation hat upper-classyoung men used o show off andamuse hemselves. or evidence

of this theory,we canexaminean exampleof an earlyGreek nscription,he dipylonwine jug ofAthens,known as Nestor'scup and dated,o 740 oro (figur.'ti.g). The tex-t swritten right-to-left,and reads I am thedeliciousdrinking cup of Nestor.Whoeverdrinks from this cup swiftly will the desireof fair-cro*n.*d Aphrodite seizehim'.

8.4 Abiad to Alphabet

The phonemic inventoriesof Phanician and Greek were different. Greek hadsoundsnof found in Phanician

and did not have all the soundsofphcnician.

Thus, it neededa somewhatdifferent inventory of symbols or writing. How theGreeksdealtwith thesedifferencesed to a significantchange n the ,-r"tur.of thewriting sysrem.

The ClassicalGreekphonemic nventory (Attic dialect of the fifth and fourthcenturies ro) is shown n table8.4. (Notes: w/ was ost early n somedialects fGreek.There s alsosomeevidenceo consider he clusters ps/, lks/,and lzd,lassinglephonemes, r at leastas ightly boundphonological nits.j

Table8.4 The phonemes of ancient Greek

t k

d sth kh

n

s

l , r

p

b

ph

m

(w)



155 The GreekAlPhabet

Table 8.5 The development of the Greek alphabet from the Phenician abiad. Faber's

(19S1) proto-Semitic reconstructionsare used for the Phceniciansibilants,and the

traditionally posited Phanician forms are in parentheses.The symbols in parentheses

in the Modern Greek column were not used in Classical Attic Greek or later except fortheir numeric values

Plten. Phen. Early Greek name

sound shape Greeh

8th-7th

centuries

Early Modern Numeric

Greek Greek ualue

sound shaPe

+ A4 E( A

6 . 4a 1Y 1

7

bg

dh

w

&fupcr

Ffr.oyrippn

661rai ryilov

qno

(flta

qra

Ofltoi6na

rdrno

Lir,F6"ttl,

v0

Er6 pirp6v

nl

odv, oripnt

rbnna

i6oiypa

to03 - ^ t

D \rlAOV

eixrw,f pryo

alpha

beta

gamma

deltaepsilon

wau

digamma

zeta

eta

theta

iota

kappa

lambda

mu

nu

xi

omikron

pi

san, sampi

koppa, qoppa

rho

sigma

tau

upsilon

phi

chi

psi

omega

a) ai

b

8

de(w)

zd

e:

t"

i, i:

k

Im

nkso

p(z\

r

s

t

ur u:

ph

kh

ps

) I

A c r

B Bf y

A 6E e(F)

z cH q

o 0I t

K r

A l .

M p

N v

O o

f I n(1)(e)P p

r o g

T tY urD p

X yY y

Q r o

12

3

45

6

dz (zl

h

tj

k

I

m

n

ts (s)

s

p

ts (q)

q

r

S(I)

t

IHaIX1

AIo'l

,-1q{(

TYqAX

T

a@

7

),-1

Y

+o7jy

I4

wf

789

1 0203040

50607080

9009A

100200300400s00600700800

Table8.5shows hedevelopmentf the GreekalphabetromthePhanicianabjad.

For mostof theconsonanti,he Phcenicianymbolwassimplyused ot a similar-

soundingGreekconsonant.Somesymbols,however,were reallocated.Phanician

<g> te:tlwasused or Greek th/.The symbols w> (waw,alsoknown asdigamma),

<s>(sampi, .qt (koppa)werekept,but usedonly in somedialects.New symbols

for /phki ps/ werecriated.Following he Semitic radition,ordinary etterswereused o ,.fr.r.nt numbers. or this special urpose, he older etters F g }t were

kept asnumerals.




Table 8'6 The traditional view of the borrowing of the Greek sibilants from phanician

Symbol

Phenician Greek Phenician Greek

zai

semk

sade

shin

z

s

tS

t

T!F

lv

w

zeta fx i tsan nsigma {

d z > z d

ksz

S

Table 8'7 The implications of Faber's reconstruction of the early Semitic sibilants for theborrowing of the

Greek

Symbol Sound

Phenician Greek Phenician

(Faber)Greek

zal

semk

sade

shin

zeta

xisansigma

dztS

ts'

s

rtn{

IFIvw

d z > z dkszS

The borrowingof the Pheniciansibilantshas been roublesomeor scholars.The traditionalviewhas he correspondencesf table8.6 (earlyGreek dz/ becameClassicalzdll.

.Thesecorrespondenceseems dd. $fty would the Greeksnot have used, emk

(instead f shin) for ls/,and gade or dz/ (instead f zai)?The role of sanin Greekis uncertain.t iscommonly ranscribed s zl,in which.rr., why would theGreeksnot have usedzai for lzl; however,

.san and, igma seem o be in complementary

distribution n most dialectsof Greek,with boti retained or their diffirentualuesin the numericsystem.Faber (19s1) has_reanalysedhe reconstructionsf the proto-Semitic ibilants

(table8.7).Her analysiss based n Semiticevidence, ur ii helpsconsiderablynresolvinghe problemof the borrowingof the Phaniciansibilant ettersnto Greek(Daniels 9991.

If .Faber'spronunciationsor the proto-Semitic oundsare valid for phcnician(table8.7), the borrowingsmakemuch bettersense. eta ldzl andsigma s/ arestraightforward.San s an alternativefor sigma,but retained or its u"l.r. of 900in the numericsystem. he only syllable-firrilonronant clustersn Greek are ps/

and /ks/. The creatorsof the Greek alphabet elt the needfor separate ymbtlsfor these lusters;heycreateda n.* ,y-bol psi for lpsland borrowedsemh forxi lksl.



1 58 The GreekAlPbabet

\[ith this understanding, the types of adiustment which we have iust seen are

rather typical of what happenswhen one language borrows the writing systemof

another lang.rage.The real-change hat occurred in Greek was that some unneeded

Semitic letters were used for vowels, thus changing fundamentally the way in whichthe writing sysrem related to the language.The abiad became an alphabet. The

reasons oi this changeare not clear.English-speaking tudentsof Semitic anguages

such as Hebrew or Arabic find the absenceof vowel indications very frustrating;

perhapssome Greeks, rying to learn to write Phcenician,were also frustrated and

ino.rght that they could do better. The Aramaic model of using matres lectionis may

have also been an influence.

Perhapsa Semitic speaker,demonstrating the way the abiad worked, pointed to

an zalif ind said lzal io indicate a glottal stop. The Greek listener,however, paid no

arrention ro the glottal srop, which did not exist in Greek, bu t rather thought that

?alif wasthe way to write the vowel lal. Generally, however, we find that borrowe_rsof a writing system tend to be very conservative. They often keep the old methods,

no ma6et ho* inconvenient they may be. Certainly, the Semitic abiad spread to

many other languageswithout becoming an alphabet. Note that the Greeksborrowed

writing, they did nbt borrow the Phanician languageor culture generally;perhaps

with this detachment, rhey felt little need to preserve the system intact. In any

case, he Greekscreateda new type of writing system, he alphabet, which spread

vigorously and is considered he norm today when we want to createa new writing

system for an unwritten language.

Almost al l vowel distinctionsof ClassicalGreek were written; only the long-short

differences or /i ir y yr a arl were not indicated.Table 8.8 shows how the Phanicianconsonant symbols were reassignedo the Greek vowels.

Note that the spellings<EI> and <OY> reflectan earlier period when thesevowels

were diphthongs, hence he use of digraphic writing.

Table8.8 Phanicianorigin of Greekvowel symbols

Phenician Phenician

letter consonant

sound

Early Greek Greekuowel Modern Greek

letter sound letter

I

I

E

E IH

A

A

oo

O YY

YY

IIaI

1lHAA

o

OYYY

I

i r

e

e i > e r

EI

a

ai

f, I

o

o u > u :vyI

new symbol

derived from

waw <w>



The Greek Alphabet

Table 8.9 Dialectal variation in the early Greek alphabet

159

Modern

Greek shape

Ionia Athens Corinth Eubea (borrotued

by Etruscans)

ABC

FFr

H

aIKLrrxorf4IPtTYIY9 /

AtnC

AB

Fr

H

a{KArr

gor14IP

TYIx

I

ABAAFFrH

aIKtf^rx(or

IPt

TYIA

1',

AErAF

rH

(digamma)

AB

f

A

E

rZH (/er/)

uht)

oIK

AM

N

oII

1 (sampi)I (qoppa)

PTT

Y

oXYcl

@I

KArr

fol-

IP(

TYIxYn

The letterS<F>, .9t, .l t were usedas regular letters only in archaic times; theiruseas numbers, however, continued. In medieval times, sigma developedtwo lower-caseallographs: <g> occurs word-finally, and <o> o.corsllrewhere.

Different versions of the Greek alphabet emerged in differenr areas of Greece(table 8.9). In the fourth century oLD, the Ionic alphabet generally replaced theother local varietiesof script; however, n terms of language he Attic dialect ncreas-ingly became ecognizedas the standard. The early Attic dialect had usedthe Semiticletter he: <h> for the sound /hl.The Ionic dialect, however, had lost the sound /h/and used <h> for the vowel letl. Thus, to write Attic lhl,a new device had to befound: diacritics, known as breathings, developed(probably from divided versions

of <H> F and -]; . rhe rough breathingover an ini t ia l vowel (.d.. .> lha... /)indicated that the word began with lhl, and the smooth breathing over an initialvo w e l ( . . r . . . > l a . . . l ) i nd i ca te dha t t d i d no t .



160 The Greek AlPhabet

Early Greek apparently had a pitch accentsystem,and diacritics were developed

by the third cenrury oLD ro indicate these pitch accents. Later, this pitch accent

systemturned into a stressaccent system,and the same symbols continued to be

used o indicate the stressaccents.Recent spelling reform has simplified the writingof theseaccentsand has removed other diacritics.

8.5 The Relationshipof Language nd Writing in Greek

\7e will use ClassicalGreek,as written in modern times,as an exampleof how

grapheme-phonemeelationships an be formulated systematically. he relation-

ship is fairly straightforward,yet with enoughcomplexity to make it interesting.

The phonemes f ClassicalGreekhavealreadybeengiven n table8.4. Note that

the arrow can be readas is written as'.

1 Simplephoneme-graphemerelationships:

lbl +ldl +lql +lpl +Itl ->

lkl +

lpnl + aIthl + 0lkhl + xlll + l"h l - + p

lml + p

l n l + v

li'- :l + 1lel + €

le:l + q

la, azl + crltl -) 0)l o l + o

ly, y:l + rl

p6

Tn

I,

K

2 Two digraphsare used:

letl + 11 lu:l + 01)

Three diphones are found:

lzdl + q lpsl + V lksl + 6

ln l before/kg khks/ assimilateso [r]]; n these ases,t iswrittenas<Y>:Tr(W

rxv\.ls l + g at the end of a word, and + o elsewhere.

/h/ occursonly initially and is written with a diacritic known as a rough

breathing ver he ollowingvowel: i i d (b6 t. If a word beginswith a vowel,

a diacriticknown as a smoothbreathings writtenover hat vowel (indicating

that no initial h/ occurs): i i e ,b6ri .Note that everyword-initialvowelmust

have either a rough or a smooth breathing. $(/ithdiphthongs,breathingsare

written over the second owel lhaftlo:l aip6c,lseize'.

In initial position,hl is writtenwith a roughbreathing; a sequencef lrrl rs

written di ; otherwise,hlis written asp: piryoqfrost', Iltppoq Pyrrhus'.In modernpedogogicalexts, ong la: : y:l aresometimes ritten with a macron

a s a i 0 .

56



8.6.7 Coptic

The main language f Christianity n the easrernMediterranean as Greek.As aresult, he Greekalphabetwasadaptedo many anguagesn order o write transla-tions of the ChristianBible and other religiousmaterial.As we have apeady een,Egyptianswere known as Copts after they becameChristian n the third cenruryNnw(chapter ). TheCoptic anguage aswritten in a versionof theGreekalphabei.Thenames f the ettersand he numericvalues how he Greekorigin (tableS.10).Six letterswereprobably adapted rom demoticEgyptianwriting. boptic died out

asa_ pokenanguagen thesixteenth entury,but it continues sa iturgical anguagein the CopticChurch.Six symbolswereapparently orrowed rom demoticEgyptian table8.11).

r61he GreekAlphabet

1 0

Historically, herewere long diphthongs a: j e: j r:j/ which were wrimenascrt rl1 cot.Later thesediphthongswere simplified to la: e: y.l. Although nolongerpronounced,he iota of thesediphthongswas still written, bui in aspecial hapeknown as iota-subscript;his is smalland written beneath heprecedingvowel: g n g: e.g., Arovuotrpdionysir/ from earlier /dionysicrj/'to Dionysius'.Three accentsare written in ClassicalGreek:acute <'>, circumflex <^>,andgraYe<'>. Everyword, with the exceptionof a few verycommonshortwords(whichhaveno accent), asoneandonly oneaccent. he positionof the stressis

_determinedy a combination f lexicalandphonologicalules,but it alwaysfallson oneof the ast hreesyllables. he exactphoneticmanifestarion f theancient onemarks s not entirelyclear.

(a) Thecircumflexaccent ccursonly on longvowelsand only on oneof thelast wo syllablesn rheword: i fr & A)0.

(b) The acuteaccenr ccurson both shortand ong vowels: t fi & 6 6 6.(c) The graveaccent alls only on the last syllable. t occurswhen a word

which would ordinarily have an acureon its last syllable s followedby anotherword in the sentence;n sucha case, he acute urns into agrave:

€.9., Uetti qv pcl,plv+ petd d1vpri26qvafter the battle'

(d) A circumflexaccent s written overa breathing: fi : dl6e

thus'.

(e) An acute or grave accent s written after a breathing:6 E: &v0ponog'person'.

(f) T7ithan initial diphthong,accents re written on the second owel:cripdrrr,Aip6ro.

(g) Accentsand breathings re written beforean initial upper-caseowel(exceptwith a diphthongas n (f ) above):

H 'E '?"fr:

'oprnpoqHomer'.

8.6 ScriptsDerived rom the GreekAlphabet




Table 8.10 The development of the Coptic script from the Greek

Coptic Coptic

name sound

Greek shape

3rd-|th centuries

Coptic

shape

Greek

ndrne

Numeric

ualue

alf.a

ve:ta

kamma

talta

ei

sou

sata

hata

thita

io:ta

kappa

lauta

me:

ne

ksi

ou

pi

ro:

se:mma

tau

he

fikhi

ps i

o!

alpha

beta

gamma

delta

epsilon

zeta

eta

theta

iota

kappa

lambda

mu

nu

xi

omicron

pi

rho

sigma

tau

upsilon

ph ichi

psi

omega

?

b

g

d

h

z

h

t

1kIm

n

S

(

TBrA€

uLHeIKAMN7onPCT

Y

+Xv(I)

ABrA€

ZHoIKAMN

=ol-l

PCT

Y

\PX

Yu)

123456789

1 020304050607080

100200300400

500500700800

pr

It

i r Y

fx

ps

o:

Table 8.11 The six symbols in the Coptic script borrowed from demotic

Sound Shape Demotic

Iai

faihori

dgandSia

qima

ti

379d{L

0)

qzx6

t

Ifhdgqti

(numeric value 90 )

8.6.2 Gothic

Gothic s the only memberof the EastGermanicanguageamily. t was spoken n

eastern urope n the first millenniumNEw; he main surviving extsare ragmentsof a translationof the ChristianBible rom the fourth centuryNEw,madeby \7u1fi1a.

Possiblyhe Gothicalphabetwas nfluenced y otheralphabets, ut contemporary

Greekwasclearly hemajorsource table8.12).



The GreekAlphabet r63

Table8.12 The Gothicalphabet

Gothic shape Gothic sound Early Greek shape Transliteration Numeric ualue

AB

r

a,

e

u

z

tr,1,ti

R

A

n

N

q

n

n

rl

t(s

T

YFxo

a

f

a

b

g

d

e

A

B

r

A

€

alat

b

g

d/6

e/el

kw

wly

f

kh

AT

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

20

30

40

50

6070

80

90

100

200

300

400

500

500

700

800

900

7

H

o

I

K

A

M

N

z

h

e

i l t

k

I

m m

n

iu

p

r

s

t

w

f

r

s

t

q

z

h

bi

k

P

C

T

Y

X

hw

o

Note that Gothic created several etters for soundsrhat Greek did not have:

lk* i f kh,,tr,/by this timethe ClassicalGreek khl hadbecome fricative x/). Somesymbols re usedonly for numbers, uchas .When lettersareused or numbers,they are written between aiseddots or markedby horizontalstrokesi T. or f'300'.




Table 8.13 The Armenian alphabet.'Western

sound values are indicated where they differ

from Eastern

Minuscule Maiuscule Eastern sound ualue Western sound ualue Numeric ualue

a

bg

d

ic

z

e

e

th

3I

I

x

ts

k

h

dz

Ytl

m

hti

n

Ivo/o

tIn

p

d5

rs

v

t

J

tsh

v/whp"

kh

u

of

uF9-tD2f

t(h6t'lhl

TIt

I

?dUILb

n()

ql

p

,FU.1.s(r

Ih

a#nh

0,s

uI

F

++b

1_t

Ertd

t,Ll"dtlt\d

Id,tJIt.,(n

tL

ut

2IL

u

4n

tt

I

L

+PN L

o

#

p

kt

dz

g

itlee

1,

2

34

56

7

89

10

20

3040

5060

70

80

90100

200300400

500

500700

800900

10002000

30004000

500060007000

8000

9000

rS

dg

b

tl



The GreekAlphabet t65

8.6.3 Arwenian

In the early ifth centuryNEw,BishopMesrop created heArmenianalphabet,knownas the aybuben,primarily basedon a Greek model.

The Armenianalphabet sknown for its strongone-to-one elationshipbetweenphonemes nd graphemes.Armenian is a memberof the Indo-European anguage amily. The two dialectsEastArmenianand lfest Armenianuse he samealphabet.The vowels or the twodialects re he same,but the consonantnventories iffer.

TheArmenian lphabets shown n table8.13.

8.6.4 Geotgian

The Georgianalphabet,or mxedruli, is the only Caucasiananguagewith its own

writing system.OtherCaucasiananguagesavebeenwritten in theCyrillicor Arabicalphabets. he creationof the Georgian lphabet assometimes eenattributed othe ArmenianBishopMesrop,but thisattriburionhasbeen efutedby Gamkrelidze(1984).The earliestext is from 430 Nsw;the alphabet tselfwasprobablycreatedin the early ourth centuryNEw.

The Georgianettersaregiven n table8.14.

Table 8.14 The Georgian alphabet

Georgian Sound Numeric ualue Georgian Sound Numeric ualue

x

c

b

g

d

e

v

z

et

t"

i

k'

I

m

n

,5

o

,o

R

3E%

a)

o

{U

Ra5

-c.

(Il

d

o

P

3

1

2.'J

4

5

6-|

8

9

1 0

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

6

It

0?

tsdR

ilaB(td

v3b

5

r

S

t'

uhp"

kh

Y

q'

{

tt

tS

dz

ts '

tl'

x

q

d5

h

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000




Table8.15 The Glagoliticand Cyrillic Slavicalphabets.An older form of the Greek

alphabet s givenat the left for comparison

Greeh Old Cyrillic Glagolitic Value Modern Russian Cvrillic

A a

B 6

B n

f r

n nE e

E e?It ar

3 s

1 4 u

V l u

V t nK rI I n

M u

H s

O ol I n

P p

C c

T r

Y y

o 0

X x

U qV q

III nr

ill nt

b

b i l u

b

9 g

0 nfl, g,

a

b

v

g

d

e

3

dz

z

i

i :

k

I

m

n

op

r

s

t

au, ou

f

ex

o

s

tS

t{

()

I

u

tu

I

e

va

+H1PsJt3

xts6?

tAdFdb

P

IfbIOU

&+ebu,s1'suJ[l€

traA

f

A

E

B

f

AE

B

rA

e

X

s3H

I

Z

H

I

K

n44

N

ofl

PcT

oy00X\I/

[lqrl

IUqI'h

t l

h

t

Ion

K

A

M

N

oT]

PC

T

OY

0eX

ul



The Greek Alphabet r57

8.6.5 Slauic

In the early850s NEw, wo brothers,Cyril and Methodius,undertooka Christianmission rom Constantinopleo

the Moravian Slavs.Cyril is creditedwith thecreationof the Slavicalphabet,and the Cyrillic alphabet s named after him. Theactual historic situation,however, s not clear. Early Slavic had two differentalphabets:Glagoliticand Cyrillic (tableS.15).Srrucurally the two alphabets reequivalent. he Cyrillicalphabetsclearlybased n Greek.TheGlagoliticalphabet,however, s particularly puzzlingbecausets lettershapes o not obviously esemblethose of any other alphabet.Cubberley 1996) feels hat Glagoliticwas likelyolderandbased n Greekcursive.After the ninth cenrury,Glagoliticwasgraduallyreplacedby Cyrillic, although t survived n somePolish and Czechareasuntil thesixteenth entury,where t was seenas a signof independencerom the Roman

Church.The Cyrillic alphabetbecamehe normal alphabet or languagesn the EasternOrthodox Slavicareas;he RomanCatholicSlavicpeoples, uchas hePoles,Czechs,and Slovaks, sed he Romanalphabet. n the earlyeighteenth entury,Peter heGreatof Russia nstitutedreformswhich slightly simplified he writing systemandwesternizedhe shapes f letters.The communist evolutionof t918 made urtherreforms.Russian,Belorusian, krainian,Bulgarian, nd Macedonian re normallywritten in theCyrillic alphabet.During thecommunistperiodof a unifiedYugoslavia,Serbo-Croatian as written in both the Cyrillic and Romanalphabets.With tneseparation f Serbiaand Croatia, he languageends o be written in Cyrillic in

Serbia nd n Roman n Croatia.Thereareminorvariationsn the symbol nventoryof Cyrillic for all these anguageso accommodate ifferencesn their phonologicalsystemsCubberley993,1,995;Comrie

1,996a,l991b\.

In addition o theSlavic anguages, anynon-Slavicanguagesf Eastern uropeand Asia are written in the Cyrillic alphabet Comrie 1996,il: o name a few -Moldovan,Tajik, Komi, Azeri,Turkmen,Tatar,Kazakh,Uzbek,Kirghiz,Abkhaz,Kabardian,Avar, Chuckchee, nd Mongolian.Since he fall of the SovietUnion,therehasbeensomemovemento return o scriptsused n earlier imes,principallyArabicand Mongolian.

8.7 FurtherReading

Chadwick 1967) s a fascinating ccountof the decipherment f LinearB. Stroud(1989) s a shortgeneral ntroductiono earlyGreekwriting, nd Chadwick 1g87) sa short ntroductiono LinearB. Chadwicket al. (1986-98),Bennett 19g6),andWoodward1997)aresources or the moreadvanced tudent or preclassical ritingin Greece.Naveh 1988), wiggers1996),Daniels1999), aber 1981), ndWoodard(1997)discuss he transmissionf Phenicianwriting o Greece.Palmer 1980)dis-cusses he ancientGreek anguage enerally; effrey 1961) s a thoroughreatment

of dialectvariationn Greekwriting;Woodhead 1981)presentsGreek nscriptions.For he scripts erived romGreek,see: Ritner 1996) or Coptic,Ebbinghaus1g96)for Gothic,Gamkrelidze1984)and Holisky 1996) or Georgian,Sanjian 1996) or





The Greek Alphabet 169

When Ventris irst deciphered inearB, many Greekscholarsargued hat thelanguagewas not Greek.Whatmight have ed them to this concfusion?Describe nd contrasthe history f the followingetters: eta, epsilon, igamma,theta,xi, psi.

Writeyourown nameand city n the Greekscript,payingattentiono the sound,notEnglish pelling.Do he same n someof theotherscripts f this chapter uchas Gothic, rmenian, eorgian,yrill ic modern nd old),andGlagolit ic.



9 The RomanAlphabet

9.1 From Greece o Italy

Greece adcoloniesn ltaly,and t is through his contact hat thealphabet ame rom

Greece o Italy during the seventhcentury oLD. At this time, the Latin-speaking

Romanswerea smallgroupof people iving in andaroundRome.Their neighbours

to the north were he Etruscans,who first borrowed he alphabet rom the Greeks.

Eventually he Etruscanswere conqueredand absorbedby the Romans, who

borrowed he alphabet rom them. n the Greekalphabet ach etter s a grapheme,

andthis situationcontinuedwith the Etruscan nd Romanalphabets.

9.2 Etruscan

Etruscan s a langvageunrelated o any other known language.Until recently t

hasbeenundeciphered,nd even herecent laimsof deciphermentBonfante990)

aredisputed.SinceEtruscans written in a familiaralphabet,we havebeenable o

readthe inscriptions n the sense f knowing roughly how they would have been

pronounced,but we have not understood hem.Etruscanwas usuallywritten from right to left. We have an earlyEtruscanwrit-

ing tablet(figure9.1)with an abecedary ritten acrosshe top. An abecedarys the

inventoryof letters n order. t is easy o see rom this figure hat theEtruscanorder

is essentiallyhe Greek order. \ilfle houldnote that it is the'SfestGreek versionofthe alphabet hatwasborrowed; f. theEubaian (tU(est reek) ersionof the alphabet

in table 8.9,not the easternonicversionwhich predominatedater n Greece.

The Etruscan lphabets shown n table9.1 alongwith the ettersof the'Western

Greek alphabetand a Romantransliteration. comparison f the Etruscanand

Greekalphabetseveals ow accuratelyhe Etruscansreservedhe Greekalphabet

including he letterswhich havesincedisappearedn Greek:digamma</>, sampi

.Mr, andqoppa <Q>.Omega<S)> s not includedhereas it was not used n the

West Greekalphabet.Note that the \ilVest reek etter <X> was a diphonerepres-

enting ks/, not /kh/as n other versions f the Greekalphabet.Note also hat the

Etruscan etters aceto the left as was normal in right-to-leftwriting; later, whenRomanwriting went from left to right, the orientation of the letterswas reversed.

I have ransliteratedhe letter 1t as <C> (instead f <G> as t would havebeen

transliteratedor Greek) or reasonshat will be explained elow.



TheRomanAlphabet

Figure 9.1 Etruscan writing tablet with alphabet written ar rop from right to left(seeBonfante 1990) (from Giuliano Bonfante and Larissa Bonfante The EtruscanLanguage: An Introduction, no. 12, p. 1,32. Manchester: Manchester University Press,1,983.O 1983 by Manchester University Press.Reproducedwith permission)

Table 9.1 The Etruscan alphabet. Etruscan in the top row, early West Greek in the

middle row, Roman transliteration in the bottom row

Etruscan did not have voiced stops, aspirated stops, nor a vowel /o/. Never-theless, he Greek graphemes or lb d g tn pn kn o/ were dutifully included in theEtruscan inventory of graphemes.These graphemes were borrowed because healphabet was seenas a whole, a singlecultural entity. We have previously mentionedthe conservatismwhich often accompanies he borrowing of a writing system.TheEtruscanborrowing of the Greek alphabet is a clear example of this. Over time, theneed to be faithful to the original weakens as it did with Erruscan,and the letters were dropped.

In the northern Etruscan area, three different letters <C K Q> were used for the

single Etruscan voiceless top /k/, with the distribution shown in table 9.2.It is notclear why this situation developed. Quite possibly, the distribution correspondedto different allophones of lkl precedingdifferent vowels. These three letters appearto be in complementary distribution and to be allographs of the same grapheme.

171

r J ) t E g I 1 1 ( 1 {\ 1 H t 6 F t I 1 l Z A tM L K I T h H Z V E D C B

9 X Y T 1 , 4 9 M 1 O Eq x Y T ( { e n l o tp n K S U T s R a s p o s

AAA

tl

^N

) 1?Pro



t72 The RomanAlphabet

Table 9.2 Etruscan allographs for writing /k/

1 <c>

) <K>

I .Q'

lkl before e, il

lk/ beforc al

lkl belore o, al

In any case,keep this point in mind as we will return to it later in discussing he

Roman alphabet.

9.3 Latin


Latin is the best-knownmemberof the Italic family of Indo-European. ther Italic

languages ere Oscan,Umbrian, and Faliscan, ll spoken n ancient taly. Latin

survivesoday as heRomanceanguages:talian,French,Spanish, ortuguese,nd

Romanian.Table9.3 shows he varioushistorical tages f Latin.

Latin-speakingeoples ettled he areaaroundRome n the eaily irstmillennium

oLD.Politically,heywereamong he most successfulocietiesn thehistoryof the

world. First, hey extendedheir control o the entire talianpeninsula y the early

third centuryoLD,and ultimately he RomanEmpireextendedrom Britain o theMiddle Eastand north Africa. The Latin spokenby ordinary people s known as

vulgar('popular')Latin asopposedo theclassical tyleusedby themoreeducated

elite.The Romanceanguagesevelopedrom latevulgarLatin, not Classical atin.

Even after he classical eriod, schoolscontinued o teachClassicalLatin with the

result hat during heLateLatinperiod, he anguage ecamencreasingly iglossic.

For much of the early Middle Ages,peoplespoke ocal Romancedialectswhile

writing wasdone n Latin. n the earlyMiddle Ages,Latin was henormal anguage

for writing in all of westernEuropebecause f its role as he anguage f the western

Christian Church, although n the later Middle Ages vernacularwriting became

increasinglyommon.Until the seventeenthr eighteenth enturies, atin was thepre-eminentanguage f learning hroughoutwesternEurope,and it remainsan

importantpartof European ulturalheritage ven oday.The erms Latin alphabet'

Table 9.3 Historical stagesof Latin

753 orn

seventh century oLD

before 150 oro

L50 oro-L50 New150 Nrw-sixth century

sixth-fi fteenth century

fifteenth century-

Traditional date for the founding of Rome

(no certain evidence for this)

earliest inscriptions

Early Latin

Classical LatinLate Latin

Mediaval Latin

Neo-Latin



Tbe RomanAlphabet

Table 9.4 The phonemes of Classical Latin

173

t k k * i i rd g e e rs h a a i

n

r l

j

p

b

f

m

u u :

o o I

and 'Romanalphabet'are often used nterchangeably.will use Roman' for the

alphabetand'Latin' for the anguage.The earliestLatin inscriptions ate rom the seventh enturyoLD. By the early

sixth century,examples f writing are found in majorcentresaround Rome. ntime, literacy becamemoderatelycommon, at least or men. Literacywas normal

for upper-class en,and often for women.Schoolswerecommon,and childrenofwealthy familieswere usually aught by householdslaves.The graffiti at the ruinsat Pompeiisuggesthat fairly ordinarypeoplecould write. For boys,a knowledgeof Greekwas a desirable efinemenr;hose amilieswho could sent heir sons oradvanced tudy n Greece.

9.3.2 Thephonologyof Latin

The phonologicalnventoryof Classical atin is given n Table9.4.

9.4 The RomanAlphabet

Perhapsenvying the cultural achievements f their Etruscanneighbours, he Romansborrowed the Etruscans' alphabet. However, the structures of the sound systemsof the two languageswere different. Unlike Etruscan, Latin did have voiced con-sonantsand the vowel /o/. The Romans used he graphemes or /b/, ldl, and/o/ just

as if they had borrowed the alphabet directly from the Greeks. This usagesuggesrs

that although the Romans primarily borrowed the Etruscan alphabet, they werenevertheless ware of the Greek alphabet and the sound values of its letters.As we noted above, the northern Etruscans used three different allographs

<C K Qt to write the single phoneme /k/.The Romans retained this system.Theyused <Q> to write /k*/. The grapheme<K> was used or only a few words (all withlal after the /k/), and <C> became he normal way to write /k/. Interestingly, althoughthe allograph <K> was not important for Latin, it was never dropped from theRoman alphabet.

In Greek, <C> had been used to write lgl,but the Etruscan alphabet used thissymbol as one of the ways of writing /k/. The Romans had a sound lgl and needed

a way to write it. They could, of course,have used<K> for lkl and <C> for lg l as nGreek. The Romans choserather to keep <C> for lkl, and to crearea new symbol forlgl by adding a lower stroke to <C> to create<G>, and they placed the new graphemeafter <F> in the alphabet. The abbreviations for the common Roman men's names



174 The RomanAlphabet

Gaius lgajusland Gnaeus gnajus/were always<C> and .CNt, respectively, sing

<C> n its older Greekvalueof lgl.The Romanswere ess onservativehan the Etruscansn their borrowing.They

discardedetters hat theydid not need,e g.,<Z> and he symbolsor the aspiratedconsonants, s well as other Greek etters.For Cicero, he alphabetwould have

endedn <X>: <A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S TV X>. Thegrapheme

 was used or lil,litl, and jl; similarly,<V> was used or lul,lul, and w/. The

modern etters J U t0fY> weremediavaladditions, nknown o the ancientRomans.

The sequenceks/ could, in principle,havebeenwritten <CS>or <KS>,but the

Romans retained he Sfest Greek diphone <X> for /ks/. Only rarely was vowel

length ndicatedby an accent n the vowel symbol.At first, he Romansdiscarded Z> as unnecessaryinceLatin did not havea lzl

sound.However, n time heyhadborrowedsomanyGreekwordswhich contained

the sound zl that they found <Z> useful for writing this Greek sound, so theyresumedhe useof <Z>, but theyplacedt at the endof the alphabet. he emperor

Claudius ca.50 Nnw)proposed hreenew letters or /ps, y, w/; they were used

slightlyduringhis reignbut disappearedoon afterhisdeath.As you can see, he Romanskept the Greek-Etruscanrderingof the alphabet

reasonablyntact, but they did not borrow the letternames.Rather, hey created

new names ased n the soundof the etters.For vowels, he soundof eachvowel

was usedas its name.The namesof the consonants ere made with the sound

of the consonantplus lel; for <f I m n r s x>, the lel waspronouncedbefore he

consonant. hus, he Latin alphabetwould havebeenpronounceda beke de e efl

etc.Sfhen

<Z> was eintroduced t theendof the alphabet,tsGreekpronunciationlzetal wasused; his givesmodernEnglish ztdl. The nineteenth-centurymerican

lexicographerNoah tDflebsterdvocated he regularizingof this to lzil Iike /bi si di/

etc. His preferenceor lzil has become he norm in the United States,probably

producing he form that would haveoccurredhad the Romansnot removed<Z>

from the alphabetn the first place.

Unlike Etruscan,Latin writing was always eft-to-right.This direction s perhaps

further evidencehat the Romans ook the Greekalphabetas a model n creating

the Romanalphabet, inceby the fifth centuryoLD, Greekwriting was regularly

left-to-right.

9.5 Examples of Roman Writing

The form of writing usedon public monuments rectedn ancientRome sstrikingly

readable y us today.This monumentalorm of the ettershashad suchprestigen

thehistoryof theRomanalphabet hat t hascontinued or two millennia.The Trajan

monument plate4) in the RomanForum softencitedasa fineexample f this sort

of writing. Even f we know no Latin, we haveno difficulty n recognizinghe etters.

Lestyou think that all ancientLatin writing is easy or us o read oday,consider

the example f ancient ursivehandwriting n figwe 9.2.TheoldestLatin nscriptions ate rom the ateseventh enturyoLD. Among hem

are two inscribedwine vesselsWallace1989)dated 620-500 oLD. One hasthe



TheRomanAlphabet 1,7

Plate 4 Trajan inscription, L'J.3 rw. Roman Forum (photograph of a full-size replicacreated by Edward Catich; reproduced courtesy of R. R. Donnelley 6c Sons, Chicago)

Figure 9.2 Example of ancient Roman cursive handwriting

wording: SALVETOD TITA 'May Tita be in good health' (Classical atin: saluetotita). The other is ECo URNA TITA VENDIAS MAMARICOS MIED YHEICEDI'I

am the urn of Tita Vendia;Mamarcosmademe' (Classical atini egourn(t itaeuendiae.mAmarcusmefecit).The portions n bracketsare ost andhavi been econ-structed;he portionswith subscript ots areparriallyobscured.

9.6 Later History of the RomanAlphabet

Over the courseof time the Roman alphabet developed nto many local calligraphicvarieties.Some are difficult for us to read today without extensive raining. Never-theless, hese local forms were always considered to be forms of a single Roman

alphabet shared by all western European cultures, and the classical monumentalforms of the letters retained their status as the standard shape for letters. If wecompare this with the Greek situation, we note that when the alphabetwas used or

,j

vA)\'

fr)'r\,1..t T6F'

f..,Mu

t,,Y (\ \ b

( I'u'o

, A

k,o

X) '

Lt

lo

T V

,r'( , t ,

, 1 .

u r

I)^

.lT

, ( . , ,

/r \1 ,

>)

r\

N/

[,

\

).

t( t

qf.{c

A -'l

I)"



176 The Roman Alphabet

other languages, hosevariants frequently became ndependentscripts: Coptic, Gothic,

Cyrillic, etc. In chapter 11, we will see hat in India a single early script gave rise

to a very large number of different scripts.'Vfestern

Europe, however, maintained a

senseof cultural unity which preserved he Roman alphabet intact.Very rarely does a particular language using the Roman alphabet have a com-

pletely different grapheme beyond the basic rwenty-six. Rather, new graphemes

have usually been created by modifying an existing graphemewith a diacritic. For

example,French usesa number of diacritics: <6 B 6 Ct . German has one diacritic, the

umlaut, as in <a o ii>. The umlaut derives rom a small <e> written over the main

symbol; although the umlauted forms are normal and required in all typesof German,

if the writer is unable to write an umlaut (perhaps using an English typewriter),

writing <aeoe ue> is a recognizedalternative. A few proper names are alwayswritten

without the umlaut,Goethe fo r example. German also uses he special symbol 

instead of <ss> n certain situations; this symbol is used in Germany and Austria,but not in Switzerland. Writing <ss> s a recognized alternative to if it is not

available.The symbol is etymologically a ligature of <f> (an old form of <s> -

seechapter 10) and <z>; it is known in German as /es tset/'S-Z'.

Of the few new symbols which are not simply diacritics, Polish has a plain <l>

lll, and one with a slanted cross-bar<l>. This cross-barcould be considereda dia-

critic, bu t it occurs nowhere else n Polish, nor is it otherwise usedwith the Roman

alphabet in other languages. celandic uses two symbols for l0l and 16l <0 6>

(upper-case p D>).

One of the great difficulties in using the Roman alphabet is that Latin did not

have any postalveolaror palatal consonants.For {/ , English uses he digraph <sh>whereasFrench uses<ch>, and Italian uses<sci>.The Slavic anguageshave a number

of these sounds and different languageshave solved the problem in different ways;

some of these are shown in table 9.5.

Late Latin had a palatal nasal lpl (e.g., senior lseporl'older,

elder' and title of

respect)and a palatal ateral I,tl (e.g.,filia) lfr,Ial'daughter'. The different Romance

languagesarrived at different solutions fo r writing these (table 9.6l'. ltalian uses

<gn gl> for the palatals,and Portuguese ses<nh lh>. French uses<gn> and <ll>, and

Spanishuses<fl> and <ll>. In Spanish, he Romancepalatal lt l has become hl, e.g.,

hiia lrhal'daughter',

bu t the palatal l,{,1has been reintroduced in other words such

as amarillo 'yellow'. In French, the earlier palatal lateral [d ] has become a palatal

approximant Ii].

Table 9.5'Ways

of writing postalveolar obstruents and

the palatal nasal in different Slavic languages

Polish Czech Croatian

uthyls llt l

s

cz

nj

s

cz

n

SZ

czL, rz

fi



TheRomanAlphabet 177

Table 9.6 Different ways of writing the palatal nasal and lateral in Romance languages

Italian French Spanish Portuguese

lnl

tIlsrgnore

figlia

selgneur

fille

seflor

(amarillo)'yellow'

senhor

filha

'sir,Mr ''daughter,girl'

9.7 OrthographicDepth: Two Examples

In this sectionandthe next,we will compare wo somewhatdifferentorthographies,

both using he Romanalphabet:Finnishand ScotsGaelic.The two systems ifferratherstrongly n what is known asorthographicdepth.Finnishwriting is shallow,ScotsGaelic sdeep.By orthographic epth,we are alkingabout he relationship fwriting and anguage.Youmayat thispoint need o reviewphonemic ndmorpho-phonemicevelsn AppendixA on linguistic oncepts.)n a writing systemwhich sorthographically hallow,graphemesepresent honemes;n a writing systemwhichis orthographically eep, raphemesepresentmorphophonemes.anguagesreofteninconsistentn that they may represent ome hingsat one evelandother hingsatanotheror at an intermediaryevel.Onecommonlyseeshe erm phonetic'

used omeanshallow,as n 'Finnish

writing isphonetic'.This s a poor choiceof words on

two grounds.First, n linguistics,'phonetic'impliesubphonemic,llophonic,whichis clearlynot meanthere.Second,phonetic'

suggestsn absoluteype of relation-shipbetweenhewriting system nd anguage, hereasdeep'suggestsneendof acontinuum,a muchmore realisticappraisal,n my opinion.

9.7.1 Finnish:A shalloutorthography

Finnish calledSuomi n Finnish) s a Finno-Ugricanguage poken n Finland.TheearliestFinnish ext goesback to the thirteenthcenruryNEw,and more plentifulmaterial s found from the sixteenth entury.The phonemes f Finnishare given

in table9.7.Finnish orthographyalmost perfectly agreeswith rhe phonemicrepresentarion

except n three respects:he final glottal stop is not written, ql is written as <n>before kl , andlong lqgl is written as <ng>.Finnishwriting is a strikinglysrrongexampleof a shalloworthography.Other lettersare found in recent oans romother anguages.

9.7.2 ScofsGaelic: A deeporthagraphy

Scots Gaelic provides a contrasting example of a deep orthography. Scots Gaelic

is a Celtic language spoken in the northwestern part of Scotland. Gaelic came toScotland from Ireland in the fifth century NEw and formed a continuous linguisticand cultural area with Ireland until the fifteenth-sixteenrh cenruries. Although a




Table 9.7 The phonemes of Finnish. The doubled vowels are long

Consonants

Vowels

Diphthongs

Table 9.8 The consonant phonemes of ScotsGaelic

rldE

I

few early rexts exist in the ogham script (seechapter L3), the vast majority of Irish

and Gaelic texts have been written in the Roman alphabet. During the Middle

Ages, Middle Irish became established and fixed as the written form of the lan-guage n both Ireland and Scotland.Although the languagescontinued to change,

the writing system did not, and the situation became ncreasingly diglossic. n the

fifteenth and sixteenth centuries this situation broke down, and the modern lan-

guagescame to be written. It was at this point that Irish and Scots Gaelic writing

becamedistinct from each other. However, certain writing conventionswhich had

been established n Middle Irish have substantially continued in both languages

to the present ime.

The consonant phonemesof modern ScotsGaelic are shown in table 9.8.

At the morphophonemic level, there is a considerably simpler inventory shown

table 9.9.Two historic phonological changes account for much of the discrepancy between

the phonemic and morphophonemic inventories. First, consonantsbetweenvowels

t

d

s

n

r

I

v

m

u i i W u u

o e e o o u u

a e a a

r y

e c i

a

yi ui

er or ol

al al

tds

n

Ir

pbf

v r i

m n

+r*

k r kgj g

E x h

i v



The RomanAlphabet

Table 9.9 The consonant mofphophonemes

of Scots Gaelic

179

pb

f

m

cg

td

S

n

Ir

Table 9.10 The effect of lenition in Scots Gaelic. The non-lenited forms are shown aboveand the lenited forms below

Sound

non-len.

len.

Vriting

non-len.

len.

p b t d k g f s m

f v h y x y g h n

p b t d c g f

ph bh rh dh ch gh fh

S

sh

m

mh

underwent lenition: i.e., generally, stops became fricatives, and fricatives werefurther weakened or lost. Orthographically, lenition was earlier shown by writinga dot over the letter, and in modern writing with an <h> after he consonant. In thiisection' I will indicate morphophonemic transcriptions in curled brackets { }. Thus,in the word mdthir'mother', the {t } is lenited as shown by the writing of <th>; alenited {t } is pronounced as /h/, so the word is pronounced as /ma:hitll 1^n accentindicates a long vowel). Over time, the original interyocalic conditioning environ-ment of lenition has changed so that lenition is partly lexical (as here) and partlymorphological. Modern Scots Gaelic spelling, however, is clear about indicatinglenition with an <h>; with a few exceptions ar the beginning of a word, the lettei

<h> does not occur in any other use. Table 9.L0 shows the lenited form of someof the consonants.

Note that {d} and {g} both lenite to lyl, and {s} and {t } both lenite to lhl; lf ldisappears n lenition.

The second phonological change which affected Scots Gaelic was palatalization(table 9.11). Roughly, consonants before a front vowel were palatalized. Again,the conditioning factor for this change has been lost over rime, and the pto..rthas become lexical or morphological. For example, some plurals are formed bypalatalization:

singular plural written formslbarsl lbafl bds bdis 'death'

lexl leql each eich 'horse'




Table 9.11 ScotsGaelic masculine vocative. The initial consonant of a man's name is

lenited, and the final consonant is palatalized

Spoken orms Written forms

Nominatiue Vocatiue Nominatiue

James''Donald'

l{emesl

ld6all

la hemitl

/a ytilj/Seumas

Domhnall

a Sheumais

a Dhomhnuill

Table 9.12 Examples of the writing of palatalization. Note that B is always next to b,

and N is always next to n [b = broad, n = narrow; upper-case for consonants, lower-case

for vowels]

cadal lkadell'sleep' (noun)

cadail lkadillgen. of cadal

caidil lkad3lll'sleep' (verb)

cinnich Ik)intig 'grow'

c a d a l

B b B b B

c i n n i c hN n N n N

c a d a i

B b B b n N

c a i d i l

B b n N n N

The vocative of masculine names is formed by an initial particle /a/, which lenites

the initial consonant, and in addition the final consonant of the name is palatalized

(a neighbouring vowel is also sometimesaffectedby palatalization) (table 9.11).

The writing of palatalization is an unusual feature of Scots (and Irish) Gaelic.

The example /bars/ is written bds; the plural lba{ is written bdis.Palatalization is

indicated here by inserting an before the palatalized<s>. The generalrule is that

a non-palatalized consonant must always be next to a back vowel <a o u>, and apalatalized consonant must always be next to a front vowel . \fith

'horse',the

singular is spelled eacb and the plural eich. First, in both forms, the spelling <ch>

representsa lenited {k}. In the singular, the <a> is a back vowel showing that the

<ch> is not palatalized; in the plural, the <a> is replaced by .it to show palataliza-

tion. These etters <a> and are present o show pronunciation not of the vowel,

bu t of the adjacent consonant. Interpreting the function of a vowel letter presentsa

difficulty in learning to read Gaelic.

In Scots Gaelic, palatalized consonants and front vowels are called'narrow',

and non-p alatalized consonants and back vowels are called'broad'. To describe he

writing of palatalrzatron) here is a sayingLeathann ri leathann's cAolri caol'Broad

to broad and narrow to narrow'; i.e., broad consonantsonly occur next to broad

vowels, and narrow consonantsonly occur next to narrow vowels. The examples n



The Roman Alphabet 181

table 9.12 illustrate the writing of palatalization. The label below each consonanridentifies he type. In the noun cadal lkadall'sleep' , al l threeconsonantsare

broad',

and both vowels are the broad vowel <a>. Thus, each broad consonant s only nextto broad vowels. ln

cadail lkadill, the genitive of

'sleep',

the {1} s palatalized (ltlbecomes l]); this is indicated by insertingan before the <l> giving cadail. Noticenow that the first two consonantsare broad and are both next to broad vowels; thefinal consonant is narrow and is next to a narrow vowel. ln caidil lkafuiLl

'sleep'

(verb), the first consonant is broad, but the other rwo are palatalized. Here an appearsbefore the secondconsonant to show that it is narrow, and the <a> of thesecondsyllabledisappearsas t is no longer needed o show a broad consonant. Thefinal example is cinnicb lkiiniiQl 'grow'

with all consonants palatalized; here an appears n both syllables.Broad consonantsare always next to broad vowels, andnarrow consonantsnext to narrow vowels;however, broad and narrow vowels may

be next to each other.Scots Gaelic spelling conventions are decidedly different from those of English

or Finnish or most languagesusing the Roman aiphabet. However, rhey allovi thewriting system o representa morphophonemic level of the languagequite elegantly.In doing so, a much smaller number of symbols is needed han if a shallow writingsystem representingphonemeswere used.

9.8 FurtherReading

Bonfante 1990,1996)and Bonfante nd Bontante1983)providean introductionorecentwork n Etruscan.Wallace 1989)discusseshe development f the Romanalphabet. omrie 1996b), enner 1996), nd Tuttle 1996) iscusshe use of theRoman lphabetorother anguages; cManus ndHamp 1996) nd Rogers1972)specifically iscussScotsGaelic.Ullman 1980) s an interestingultural iscussion,and Harris 1989) reats iteracyn Romeand Greece.

9.9 Terms

abecedarycalligraphydeepEtruscangraffiti

Latinlenition

orthographicepthpalatalization

Romanalphabet

shallowumlautvulgarLatin



182 The RomanAlpbabet

9.10 Exercrses

1 Discuss he question:Does talianhave a letterW?

2 Why s Czechwritten n he Roman lphabet, utBulgariann he Cyrillic lphabet?

3 In ScotsGaelic,how wouldyou expect he followingwords o be pronounced?

c6ig'five' <6> representso:/]m6r'large masc. g.nom.)'mh6r'large fem. g.nom.)'mh6ir'large masc.sg.gen.)' thevowel s still o:/]

MacThdmar'sThomson'[the<a> s /al; <d> representsct ; the finalvowel s /i/]

Sasunnaich'Englisheople' cl. Saxons)thevowelsare la,e, il l

4 Germanwas previouslywritten n a form of the Romanalphabet nownas Fraktur/,fiok'tur/:

atsrtuSre

SlnE8utsgroB

6riufer[eitllcn

muStsiien9cIoSOcIiiiic

ieiniotuieioQtrotfle

la''sl 'ate'

lqserel 'exterior'

/flus/ 'river'

Itu'.sl 'foot'

/gro:s/ 'big'

lhqzarl 'houses'

/hajsan/ 'arecalled 3 pl.)'

/mus/ 'must(3 sg.)'/pasen/ 'fit'

llo.,sl 'lap'

llysal 'shots'

lzEnl 'be'

lzo:vi',zo. 'anyhow'

lllra'sel 'street'

cu$enefien

$lriiic$iiSc6onttcilhUlefic

mtiiicnia'llOcInts

icc0tienbcnipriteiten6irits

/awsan//esen/lllyselIty.'sel/hawsi/hajse//mese/

/mysan/lza:s/

fiusllzeksllzendenl

{pe:testens//sy:s/

'outside''gat''rivers''feet''housg''am called''lair'

'must(1,3pl . ) ''sat''shot(n.)''six''send''at the latest''swggt'

(a) In Fraktur, hereare three ormsof the lower-caseetters: <t itfl>.Note hat

there is a differencebetweens <t> and f <f >. The differencebetween he

use of <6>and .it is simplyorthographic,epending n its positionn theword. Examine he data above,and complete he rulesbelow by stating

the appropriate nvironments simplyas possible t the end of eachrule.

The rulesshoulddescribewhen <E>occursand when occurs.Do not

worryaboutdoubled fit or or upper-case <g>.

/s/ -+ <0> | (l = in the environment)/s/ --r I

(b) Thedifferencen the useof <fi>and <t> is morecomplex.Onlyoneof these

occursat the end of a word.Completehe following ule by writing fit ordl> as appropriate:

lsl -+ < > I al the end of a word



Tbe RomanAlphabet 1 83

(c) Note hat ongvowelsare ndicated y a l: l atler he vowel n thephonemictranscription. ermanorthographyoes hotdirectly howvowel ength.Thediphthongsaw/, ajl,and cjl areconsideredo be longvowels.Examinehewordshavingeither ii t or <rf]> n the middle.Complete

hefollowing

ulesby stating he environment s simplyas possible. State he environmentafter he fsign.)

iv. /s/ + <ii> Iv. /s/ -+ dl> I

Italianhas (amongothers) he following onsonants:

u k

d 5 gs lt

and the consonant luster sk/. For this exercise,we will assumea five-vowels y s t e m :i e a o u l .

The writingof theseconsonant ounds s somewhat omplex n ltalian. romthe folfowing xamples, ry to figureout the system.

acciughe

amicheamicibroccolibruschettabuchicacciatorecanollicecocelloche

Chiaraconcertofacciafunghifungogallogelatoghettoghiaccioghiotto

Ginagioielli

Giorgio

/atJ:uge/

/amike//amitJi//brok:oli//brusket:a//buki//katJ:atore//kanol: i/lrlekol/r!el;ol/ke/

lkjara//kontlerlo/Ital[:alltuqgtllluqgollgal:ol/dSelato//get:o//$atllo//gjot:o/

/d3inal/d5ojel:i//d5ord5o/

'anchovies''(female)

friends''(male)friends''broccoli'

a type of horsd'€uvres

a type of pasta

a woman'sname(= Eng.Clara)

'mushrooms''mushroom''chicken''icecream''ghetto'' icg'

a woman's ame'jewels'

a man'sname = Eng.George)



1 8 4

Giovannimaggiorana

maraschino

santascarolascena

scherzo

schiavo

sciabla

scienzasi

spaghettiviaggio

zucchini

TheRomanAlphabet

/d5ovan:i/

/mad5:orana/

/maraskino/

/santa//skarola/

fienallskerdzo/

/skjavo/

llablal

Itenzal

lsil

/spaget:i/

lvjadSol

ldzuk:inil



10 English

The English anguage as arguablybecomehe most important nternarionalan-guageand the most widely studiedsecond anguagen the world today.In view ofits world importance nd alsoby the fact that as a readerof this book you obvi-ously have some familiarity with and interest n Englishwriting, we will devotesome imeto exploring he Englishwriting system. nglishorthographys interest-ing in its own right, particularlybecause f its repurarion or complexity.

S7ewill

investigatehe natureand development f thiscomplexity.


Britain was conqueredby the Romans n 43 NrEw nd becamehe westernmostregionof the ancientRomanEmpire.The British nhabitanrs t rhat time spokea

Celtic anguage,he ancestor f modernWelsh.Although heseniorRomansoldierswere literate, here s little evidencehat the Britonsborrowedwriting from theRomans. n the early ifth centuryNErw,he Romanshad difficultiesat homeandrecalledheir troops rom Britain,with the withdrawalcompleted y 425 nrw. Inthe ensuing oliticalvacuum,Germanic-speakingeoplesnvaded rom the contin-ent, akingover heareawe nowcall England ndsouthern cotland. heir anguagecame o be known as English.

Latin-speaking hristianmissionarieseintroducedhe Latin language nd the

Romanalphabet o Englandaround500. Somewhatater he Norse nvadedpartsof Britain.Many runic nscriptionschapter13) havebeen ound n England n theNorse anguage swell as a few in Old English.Although the early Middle Agesaresometimesalled he 'Dark Ages' n referenceo the collapse f learningafter thefall of the Romanempire, his erm s somewhatmisleading, speciallyoi England.lfinchesteremerged s he capitalof England t this ime, andwith the sponsorshipof KingAlfred, ts monastery ecame recognizedentre f learningn Europewitha large ibrary.OthermonasterieshroughoutEngland ollowed finchesteis lead.

During the Old Englishperiod,Latin held sway as the preferred anguageorwriting. Documents f both church and statewerenormally n Latin, as was the

case hroughoutwesternEurope;nevertheless,nglishwas written to a limitedextent n fairly early imes.Portions f theBible,prayers, nd otherreligiousmater-ia l were ranslatednto English or the devotionalneeds f the people. ilTillswere



186 English

sometimes ritten in English;presumably, eoplewere more comfortable f the

arrangementsor their inheritancewere made in their native anguage.Certain

other works were also eitherwritten in English,such as the Anglo-SaxonChron-

icles,or translatednto English rom Latin, suchas heVenerableBede'sEcclesiast-ical History of the EnglishPeople.The best-knownOld English iterary work is

Beowulf

In 1055,Englandwasconquered y William of Normandy,who quickly nstalled

his own French-speakingeople nto positionsof authority.Latin remained he

languageor muchwriting,but Norman French merged s he court anguage, nd

many documents ame o be written in French.The nobility spokeFrench,but

ordinarypeople ontinued o speakEnglish.For about 200years,until 1250,very

little waswritten in English.

By the late thirteenthcentury, he nobility had begun o speakEnglish.English

begangradually o replace oth Latin and French n almostall contexts.By 1350,Englishwas used n schools,and in 1384, tUfycliffe'sEnglish ranslationof the

Bible had appeared.n 7420,English eplacedFrenchas the official anguage f

Parliament.Englishsurvivedas the ordinary spoken anguage f England,but it

had changed onsiderably. s well as changesn the phonologyand grammar,an

enormous umberof Frenchwordshadbeenborrowed nto English: ftenwordsof

government nd warfare duke, udge,gouernment, ounty,general,Army,but also

very ordinarywords - table,uery,single,, eef.London was the capital,and the

dialectof the Londoncourt becamehe standard poken orm of Middle English

although herewas considerableariation hroughout he country.Whereas

Old

Englishspellingwas relativelyuniform, following the Winchester tandard,MiddleEnglish spelling was quite diverse,often following the local pronunciation. The

best-known iterarywork in Middle English s Chaucer'sCAnterburyTales.

In thefifteenthcentury,a standard orm of English,based n courtusage, merged

as he official styleof writing for government nd spread hroughoutBritain. It also

becamehe standard orm used or all typesof written communication, radually

displacingocal variation.The English anguages usuallydivided nto threeperiods:

500 nnv-1100 Old Englishor Anglo-Saxon1100-1500 MiddleEnglish1500-present Modern English

The boundarybetweenOld and Middle English s markedby the Norman con-

questand the introductionof French; he boundarybetweenMiddle and Modern

English s lessdramaticallymarkedby a setof soundchanges.n the mid-fifteenth

century, English underwent what is known as the Great English Vowel Shift(describedn more detail below) which affected he quality of all long vowels.

Shakespeares the bestknown of the earlyModern Englishwriters.

Printing came o Britain in the late fifteenthcentury and was established y the

mid-sixteenrh entury.The Reformationencouraged veryEnglish amily to read

the Bible;printing madeBibleswidely available,f not to every amily, at least o

thoseof moderatemeans. he Renaissance,ith its interestn the classical orld,



English I87

introduced argenumbersof words of Latin and Greekorigin. Printers ended ouse uniform spelling,and by the reign of Elizabeth in the mid-sixteenth entury,Englishspellinghad become airly standardized.

Sincehe sixteenth enturyvariousminormodifications avebeenmade o Eng-lish spelling, ut the basicstructure emains.As Venezky 1999,p. 115) remarks:

'Theamountof orthographic hangehat hasoccurred ince1500 s small,and the

amount hat has akenplace ince1700 s minuscule.'Dictionariesadconsiderableinfluencen propagatinghe standard.Samuel ohnson'sdictionaryof 1755 wasparticularly mportant n England,and Noah Webster'sdictionaryof 1805 set aslightlydifferentstandard or the UnitedStates. nglishhas neverhad an officiallanguage cademyo regulatehe anguage,uchas hose ound n France,Sweden,Portugal,and other European ountries;quite possibly, he effectivenessf thesedictionarieseduced he need for a regulatorybody. The fixed narureof spelling

since 1'500,of course,did not meanthat the language id not change. n fact thephonological hangeshat haveoccurred ince hat time havemeant hat the rela-tionshipbetweenwritten and spokenEnglishhasgrown morecomplex.

lA.2 Old English

old Englishhad the phonemenvenroryas shown n table 10.1.For manysounds herewasa one-to-one orrespondenceetween rapheme nd

phoneme.Al l of thesewerestraightforward daptations f the Romanalphabet o

the sounds f Old English.





<t>

<d>

<f>

<m>

<n>

<l>

<r>

lpltbtlt /tdttfllmllnltIl

hl

<plegian>

<blod>

<tunge>

<deap>

<folc>

<mus>

<nama>

<lufian>

<read>

lplejianl

lblo:dl

/tungel

lde:a9l

lfolkl/mu:s/

lnamal

llufianl

he:adl

'pIay'

'blood''tongue'

'death'

'people'

'mouse'

'name'

'love'

'red'

In Old English, [h ] and [x] were allophones of the same phoneme lh l in com-plementary distribution, with [h ] used word-initially, and [x ] used elsewhere.Theletter <h> was used for both allophones.

Table10.1 The phonemes f Old English

t! ds

Iyr u:

o:

o:

i y u

e o

o

k sh

t d

S

n

I

r

p b

f em



1 8 8

<h> tht thl[" ]

English

<hat> lha:tl [ha:t]'hot'

<riht> hihtl [rixt]'right'

The letters<c>, <g>, and <s> were usedwith their expected atin values orepresentkl, lgl, and lsl, but they were alsoused o represent ther soundsnot

presentn Latin. The letters<c> and <g> were alsoused o representt/ and jl

respectively;urther, the digraphs<cg>and <sc>were used or the sounds dsl

and l.

<c> lkl

<c> ltf

<g> lg l

<g> l j l

<s> lsl

<cg> ldsl

<sc> [l

<corn> /korn/'grain'

<ceap> lt[e:apl'cheap'

<guma> lgumal'man'

<geard> lieardl'yard'

<s€> lse,l 'sea'

.bry.gt lbrydSl'bridge'

<scip> l[ipl'ship'

The soun l0l which was not found in Latin was first written as <th>. Later,

however, he symbols and <6>wereusedmoreor less nterchangeablyor l0l.

Thesymbol ht is'thorn'from therunicalphabetchapter 3),and hesymbol<6>

is a modified orm of <d>.

 lol<pancian, dancian> l}ankianl

'thank'

In early Old English, a runic symbol , known as'wynn', was used for <w>.

Later, wynn was replaced by , <uu), or <w>. Note the three similar symbols:

thorn <h>, wyntr , and modern lower-case.

 lwl <Pepen> lwe:penl

Vowel length was not marked in Old

the low front vowel. In later Old English,

were written as .

short

 li l <siffan>

<y (i)> lv 0l <yfel (ifel)>

<e> le l <bern>

<&> ln l <frder>

<a> lq l <wacian>

<o> lo l <god>

 lul <lust>

English. The ligature <€> was used for

the vowels /y, yr l merged with li, it and

long

<wif>'woman, wife'

<fyr (fir)> 'fire'

<swete>'sweet'

<hrlan>'heal'

<gan>'go'

<mod>'heart,

spirit'

<pu>'thou'

'sit '

'evil'

'barn'

'father'

'beawake'

'god'

'desire'

A portion of the Lord's Prayer s shown n figure10.1.The first ine

the next two are n Old English.Note that the upper-caseorm of <6>in Latin;

<D>.



English

Parr R îR.QvrrsrhTcEfls

1 8 9

patern[oste]rqui es n celis

Du ure nder

fe eart on heofenu eo in namatlvyRrFfiDER-]*t Ftry onhopenufunn an:u

Figure 1A.1 The beginning of the common Christian prayer known as the Lord's Prayer.The first line is in Latiry and the next two lines are in Old English (eleventh cenrury)

Table 10.2 The phonemes of Middle English

p b t d t / d 3 k gf v e A s z I hm n

Ir

I l r

e :

e t :

u u :o:

f , J :

a a :

10.3 Middle EnglishThe phonemicnventory or Middle English s given n table 10.2.

Unlike Old English, he fricativesn Middle Englishhad contrastive honemesdistinguishedy voicing: f vl, lO 61,s zl. The etters<f> and <v>wereused or thephonemesfl and v/ respectively. oth lpt and16l arespelled<th>; thorn .bt,however,was retainedn a fewcommonwords:<pe pat pou pen> the,that, hbu,then'. This limited use of thorn survived nto the .ight..nth ..ntury, giving thequaint formssuchaspe oldesboppe.Commonly, he thorn waswritten as a super-script: b.t; the thorn was atermisunderstoods, and this antiquatedwriiing

of the is commonlymisread odayas ji/.The etter<s>wasused or both s/ and zl. Furthermore,wo lower-casellographs

of <s>arose: s>and<f>,with no setpattern or their distributionalthough heiewasa tendencyo use<f> word-initiallyand-medially,and <s>word-finally. nstead fdouble<ss>or .fft, a form wascommon,a combinationof <f> and <z>.Thelong<{>continuedo beused nto the earlynineteenthenturywhen t was eplacedentirelyby .t".

As a result of the influenceof Frenchborrowings,suchas cellar, <c> came tobe used or both lk l and s/. The Frenchuseof <c> for /s/ was extended o somenative words such as lice and mice.French <qu> replacedOld English<cw> for

lkwlzOE cwenMidE quene queen'.The digraph<sh>was used or [l : OE scamuMidE shame;<ch>was used or ltfl: OE ceapMidE cheap;and <gh>was used or/x/: OE riht MidE right.



190 English

The letters and<j> were n freevariation: iim tiim'time', iuge ugeiudge',as

were and<v>:up up'up'reueneueneven'.The letter<y> was consideredn

allographof .

One phonologicalchange nvolving vowels also affected he relationshipoflanguage nd writing. In Middle Englishunstressedowelswereneutralizedo lal,

and sometimesost; the writing, however, etained he etymologicalvowel. Thus

in writing today, one needs o know the etymological pellingof a word. For

example, he first and third syllablesof the words sereneand diuin€ were both

unstressed nd the vowel in thesesyllables ecameal : Mid. Eng. /sa're:na/ nd

/da'vi:na/.The final syllable s spelled<e> in both cases, ut the first syllable s

spelled ifferently n the fwo words,<se-,di-t, reflectinghe historyof the words.

Today, Englishspeakers ften stumbleover pairs such as affect and effecr;both

words arenormallypronounceda'fektl,but distinguishedn spelling y the etymo-

logicalvowel.In Late Middle English, unstressed e> lel was lost in word-final syllables:

/da'virna/> /da'vi:n/,and sa're:na/ /sa're:n/, ut again he spelling id not change

to reflect his changen pronunciation. he situationof a long vowelbeingwritten

as <VCe>was so common hat in Modern English he convention asarisen hat

this s a normal way to spell ense owels:e.g.,bite,made, ose'cute.

10.4 Modern English

Between Middle and Modern English, various changesoccurred in the languagewhich altered the relationship between writing and pronunciation. During the

Middle English period, a sound change known as trisyllabic shortening occurred

(table 10.3), which shortened ong antepenultimatevowels. This shorteningresulted

in many morphemes having different allomorphs with long and short vowels. Since

the writing system did not distinguish long and short vowels, no change to the

writing of thesewords was indicated.

Table 10.3 Trisyllabicshorteningn Middle English.Antepenultimate owelsare

shortened. he addition of the suffix(right

column)o the root causeshe long vowel

to occur n the antepenultimateyllableand thus become hortened.Except n the

first example,only the affected owelsare shown

MidE Long Short

ti l

la l

lu l

diuine

deriue

serene

supreme

sane

explainprofound

abound

/(dav)i :(na)/

f t l

le:l

lezl

la t

la tlut l

lu l l

diuinity

deriuatiue

serenity

suprema.cy

sanity

explanatoryprofundity

abundance

/(div)i(niti)/

t i lle l

le l

la l

la llu l

lul



English

Table10.4 Great EnglishVowel Shift. The long highvowelsbecame iphthongs,and the othersshiftedupwards

19l

li',let,l

let

lat

Itwll w l

lotl

lu,l

In late Middle English imes, after risyllabicshorteningwas complete, he longvowels' but not the short ones,underwenta sound changeknown as the GreaiEnglishVowel Shift (table 0.4) in which the highvowelsbecame iphthongs, ndthe other long vowelswere shifted upwards.

For morphemes avingallophones ith longand shortvowels, he GreatEnglishVowel Shiftgreatlyaccentuatedhephoneticdifference etweenhe two allomorphs.Englishorthography ouldhave evisedhe spelling o reflect hese oundchanges,perhapswith forms like "serine-serenity,

sene-sanity.Sucha changewould havemaintainedhe relationship etweenanguage nd writing muchas t hadbeen,.e.,a _fairly losephoneme-graphemeorrespondence.owever, his did not happen.The spellingof thesewords remainedas before.The retentionof thesesp.ilingtgreatlychangedhe relationshipbetweenEnglishwriting and pronunciation.Forthis typeof alternationn ModernEnglish,morphemes eregivena single pelling,andallomorphic ariations ad o besupplied y thereader. he effect oday of the

Great Englishvowel shift is shown n the following examples:

serene serenityMiddleEnglish le:l lelEarlyMod. English li:l le lLater Mod. English lil lel

sAne sanity

lat,l lal

lezl lal

lejl lel

Thus, we can see hat from a relativelysimple relationshipbetweengraphemeand phonemen Middle English, arious orcescombined o creare

"-rr.h more

complex elationship y Modern English imes. n particular, t frequentlybecame

necessaryo know which morpheme newaswriting. Thus,Modern Englishspellingis deeper cf. discussion f orthographicdepth n chapte 9) than Middle Englishspelling ecausef the argernumberof cases here hespellingsmorphophonimicor morphemic.

One incidentaleffect of the Great EnglishVowel Shift was that Englishrensevowels today are pronounceddifferently from the way they arc pronounced nthegreatmajorityof languagessing he Romanalphabet: f <ae i o u> in Englishlei i ai ow u/ and n Germano e o u/. English egularlyuses numberof digraphs.S,ome igraphs ike <ch> tf , <sh> f , and<th> /e, 6l areused n a fairlyconsistentfashion.Other digraphsare usedonly in certainenvironments. he sound d3/ isusuallyspelled jr at the beginning f a word, but <dge>at the end,cf . ay, edge,iudge. The sound /k/ is usuallyspelled<k> or <ke> after rensevowels or aftertwo vowelsequences,ut <ck>after ax vowels: eek, ke,break, ake,soak,smoke,



r92 English

Luke, like; Iick, deck,rack, duck. The diphone<x> has he samevalue ks/ that

it had in Latin: axe, six; n the few words with <x> in word-initialposition, t is

usuallypronouncedzl: xylophone,Xauier.

For mostwords borrowed nto English n Modern English imes rom languagesusing heRomanalphabet, heoriginal spellinghasbeen etained.For example, rom

French,we havesouffli, ballet, lingerie, cul-de-sac;rom German:Kindergarten)

Fahrenheit,Gesundheit,Umlaut; from Italian spagheni, oncerto, ologna.Although

the pronunciation f a borrowedword is regularlyaltered o fit Englishpatterns,

sometimeshereareotherunpredictablehanges:ingerie 'lon3a,rejl, hereonemight

expecta final -il, or bologna ba'lowni/ instead f /oba'lownja/; ompareEinstein

/'ajn,stajn andHolstein 'howl,stinl,both borrowed rom German.

Spellingpronunciations (or reading pronunciations) arise by guessingat the

pronunciation f a word by applying he regularorthographic onventions f Eng-

lish. This is commonwith foreignwords.The surnameSamarancbs pronounced/somoroqlinCatalan,but it is regularlyheardas 's€ma:rntfl in English;French

ddshabill| ldezabriels sometimes eardas 'deiJabil/.

A somewhatdifferent situation involves he Chinese apital Beiiing l,bej'd3tql,

which softenheardas ,bej'5ry1. ote that <jinp is a perfectly rdinaryspellingn

English or d3ryl; thesyllable 3n1lis,n fact,unusualn English.Probably,hemis-

takenpronunciation 3ryl for the Chinese ity is used n Englishbecauset sounds

more foreignand exotic and thusmore appropriateor a foreignword. Similarly,

one occasionally earsCopenhagen'kopen,hejgan/pronouncedith /-hqg-/ (the

Danish s quite different:Ksbenhaun kaBanhawn/);presumably, he vowel lsl is

assumedo sound oreign.The television haracter amedBucketwho insistedhather namewaspronounced,bu'kej/givesusan exampleof manipulating hedifferent

spelling onventions f English n an attempt o achieve legance.

70.4.7 Orthographic dialect uariation

In the nineteenth entury,particularly because f the spellingpreferences f Noah

Webster's ictionary, wo standardspellingvariationsarose,which we may term

orthographicdialects.Most of the English-speaking orld generally ollows what

we can call 'British usage';he UnitedStates, owever, ollows Americanusage'.

The actualnumberof wordsaffecteds not large,but the differences ftenassume

patrioticand symbolicsignificance.omeexamples f theseorthographic ialectal

variations regiven n table10.5.

These differencesare never significant enough to impede anyone's reading;

however, heir symbolicsignificances enough hat popularnovelsare frequently

re-typeseto reflect he appropriatemarket; film titles are also often similarly

altered.Canada,having an inherited radition of British spelling,yet widely exposed

to Americanmedia,often showsan interestingmixture of the two traditions.The

word cheque,or the

bankinstrument, s almostneverspelled beck n Canada;

check s the spellingeverywhere or the meanings inspect,obstruct, intersecting

pattern',etc.The-rewordsoccur n Canadawith Britishspellingairly consistently.

\fith the other ypesof words, here s a gooddealof variation.The-our spellings



English

Table10.5 Examplesf English ialect ifferencesn spelling

193

American British

color, fauor, bonor, humor, glamor

center) theater, fiber, liter (but acre, ogrel(bank\ check

traueling, leueling

enroll, enrolled, enrollment

license, practice

defense, offense

iudgmentcatalog, cigaret

colour,, fauour, honour, humour, glamour

centre, theatre, fibre, litre, acre, ogre

cheque

trauelling, leuelling

enrol, enrolled, enrolment

Iicence, practice (nounl; license,practise (uerb)

defence, offence

iudgement (but iudgment in legal contexts)

catalogue, cigarette

morewidely used n Centraland EasternCanadaand in BritishColumbia han inthe prairieprovinces Pratt 1993).The spellingof other words takeson a some-what randomappearance. ost Canadiannewspaperssesomevariantof Britishspelling; et ,despite he besteffortsof editors,odditiesstill occur.Overcorrectionsare not uncommon.Honour and honourableboth have a ; honorary is notsupposedo haveone- in any tradition - but Canadiannewspapersavenever-theless ecordedmany an honourary degree. n the food section,one often seesareferenceo the herbassummer auoury,whichn all dictionariess givenassauoryisduourys the general djectivemeaningtasty'.EditorsalmostalwaysgetMinister

of Defenceright (cf. the AmericanSecretary f Defense),but the sport secion ofnewspapers ften extolsa strongdefense.At my own university, he official docu-ment or examinerso registerheirdecisionor a PhDexamination ontained othspellings efenceldefensen the samesheetof paper.By the same oken,Americaneditorscomplain hat theyhaveconstantbattles o keep he <e>out of iudgementand the out of glamour.

In the twentiethcentury,Englishbecamewidely used n internationa| affairs.Theincrease f politicalandeconomicmportance f theUnitedStatesn thisperiodhasled to an increasing seof Americanorthographicusage, ot only in areaswhereEnglishs a foreign anguage, ut also n Canada,Australia,New Zealand,etc., nd

at timeseven n Britain tself.

70.4.2 Creatiuespelling

Since he Second il(orldWar, there hasbeena markedpopularity of what Venezky(1999)callscreative pellings. ormssuchas Kids"R" f.Is,MolsonLite Beer,E-Z-Kleendemonstrate layful, inventivespellingso give grearerdifferentiation o thename; or marketing, his often givesgreaterbrand recognition o a companyorproduct. The umlauts n HiiagenDazs cecreamor the musicgroupMoxy Friiuousare apparently urelydecorative. pellings uchasnitelitesubstitute morecommon

spellingconvention or anotherslightly lesscommon one. Ye Olde ClackeShoppeuses pseudo-)archaicpellingo suggest ld-worldcharmandvalue see iscussionabove n S10.3).



194 English

Computer usagehas ed to manycreativespellingvariations,suchasPostScript,

theglobeandmail,DVORAK. The internet revived the almost defunct @-signas

part of an internetaddress. he punctuationmark <.> traditionallyhasdialectal

pronunciations, eingknown both asperiod'

andfull

stop'; n internetaddresses,however, t is universally eadas dot', as n www.widgetuille.com.Note: he @-

signarosen the Middle Agesas an abbreviation f the Latin word Ad'to' (Ullman

1980).Theverticalstrokeof the<d>wasenlarged nd curvedover he <a>,eventu-

ally resulting n the present orm. In later times, he abbreviationwas used or

English t in commercialhrases uchas 10 apples@ Te each'.)

10.5 Spellingand SoundChanges

Frequently, oundchanges ccur without a correspondinghangen the spelling.tUfe avealreadyseen xamples f this n trisyllabicshortening nd heGreatEnglish

Vowel Shift. n Middle English, he words see se:/and sea sezlwerewritten and

pronounceddifferently. D7ithhe GreatEnglishVowel Shift, he vowelswereraised

to see si:/ and sea lse:l n early Modern English,still pronouncedand spelled

differently. n the eighteenth entury sea se:lwas aised o /sir/,neutralizinghe pro-

nunciationwith see,but the spellingdifference as maintained. his is an example

of the ater endency f English o retainspelling ifferences here heydistinguish

morphemes.

Old Englishhad nitial clusters f /hl, hn, hr/ spelled espectivelys<hl, hn, hr>.

By Middle English imes, he lhl of theseclustershad been ost and the spellingrevised o reflect he change n pronunciation.This is an exampleof the earlier

tendency f English o revise he spelling o reflect hangesn pronunciation.

French, f course,s a descendantf Latin.Over he centuries, renchhasunder-

gonemanysoundchanges. y the eleventh entury, he Latinwords debitum'debt'

anddubitum'doubt'had lost he bl andthe inal lml andwerewritten n French s

dette and dout The Norman conquerorsbrought thesewords with them to Eng-

land,and heywere borrowed nto Middle Englishasdette dttl anddout /durt/. In

Renaissanceimes,scholars howedoff their knowledgeof Latin by insertingan

etymological into the spelling,giving the modernforms debt anddoubt. Here

we havea spellingchangewith no soundchange.Thesewords haveneverbeenpronouncedwith a lbl in English.

Similarly, he Latin falconem'falcon'was borrowed nto Middle English n its

French orm as faucon with no /1/. Note the proper nameFawkner (alongside

Falconerl; he <l> was added o the spelling ollowing the Latin spelling alcon-,like the n debt anddoubt.In modern imes, alconshavenot figuredpromin-

ently n mostpeople'sives,although hosewho used he word usuallypronounced

it in the traditionalway without an lll as 'fokan/ (or /'fckan/, depending n their

dialect). n the twentiethcentury, he Ford Motor Company ntroducedan auto-

mobile with the name Falcon.By this time, the word was sufficientlyunfamiliar

that a spelling ronunciation'f*lkanlbecame thenorm, at least n North America.As a sidenote, automobilemanufacturers eem o like fast birds.Toyota found a

rather are erm for a kind of falcon tercel.Dictionariesegularlygive his word



English 195

with a stresson the first syllable 'tarsal/.Toyota, however,stressedhe secondsyllableas tar'sel/,perhapshinking that this soundedmore French,more exotic,and worth more money.

English place-names,otably in Britain, often have unusualspellings.Often,the spelling eflectsan older pronunciationand has not kept pacewith soundchange. ome xamples f theseareThames temzl,Gloucester'glostatlrTowcester/'towstarl, Kirkcudbright /kar'kubri/, Cholmondeley 'tftmlil, and my personalfavouriteFeatherstonehaugh' fnn,lol.

10.6 SpellingReform

70.6.7 The nature of reform

Because f the complexrelationshipof writing and languagen English, herehavebeenmanyproposalsor spelling eform,ranging rom the scientific nd well-thoughtout to the amateurish nd confused.Variousarguments an be made or spellingreform in English,but the strongest s that a phonemicallybasedsystemwouldallow children o learn o readand write morequickly.Differentspelling eformershaveproposeddifferentapproacheso reformingEnglishspelling,but certain hemesrecur.

Most of these chemesim to spellEnglishwith a one-to-one rapheme-phonemerelationshipn which eachsoundwould be representedy a singlesymbol. U7here

the samesound s now spelled n differentways,only onespellingwould be used,a singlegrapheme herepossible. or example,he useof <c> or both lkl and lslwould be eliminated, y usingeither<k> or <c> consistentlyor lkl, and <s> or/s/. The sound d3l would be consistently pelledas <j>, eliminatingspellings uchas<dge>.

Silentsoundswould be removed n suchwords as debt, ndict, right, hymn, sign,knee,sword. Many schemes ould eliminate he final silent<e> n words suchaskite, ate, lute.Thedigraphs shzh ch> would beused o spell 3 tl;/0/ would bewritten as <th>, and ldl as <dh>.Thesedigraphswould be usefulsinceno reason-ablesinglesymbol s otherwise vailable. he onediphone<x> would be replaced

by <ks>.The largenumberof Englishvowelscreatesa problem since he Romanalphabethasonly fivevowel etters.However,doubledvowel symbolsand voweldigraphs ould be used.

A basicway to spellEnglishphonemicallywould be to removemorphemicallybasedheterography. hus,pairssuchasblue-bleq scene-seen, ood-would, ring-wring, meat-meetwould eachhave he samespelling.Further,words with irregularspellings uchas is,wls, of, one would be respelledo reflect heir pronunciation.

70.6.2 Problemstaith spelling reform

Despite he effortsof variouspeoplewith a varietyof schemeso reform Englishspelling,he astsuccessfuleformswere he minor reformsof Noah'Webster ome200 yearsago,and his nfluence utside he UnitedStates asbeenvery imited.



196 English

Why hasspelling eform n Englishnot met with greater uccess,onsideringhenumberof proposalsor reform?Onereasons thenaturalconservatismf people.

Reformedspelling ooks strange.Somepeople,of course are attracted o novelty,

but moreseemo beput of f by unusual pellings. illions of people ave earned ospellEnglish. ndeed, he expectationoday for most nativespeakers f English s

that they will becomeiterate.We have ittle sensehat English-speakingountries,in relation o others n the world, havebeenheldback n science,he arts,or com-mercebecause f any extra ime spent n school earningo readand write English.

\fith this successate, he general ublicreaction s to invoke he adage:'If t ain'tbroke,don't fi x it.'

If we take a more scholarly,scientificview of spellingreform, other problems

emerge.One, English s widely spokenwith many dialects.Which dialectwould

be chosenas a standard?Shouldcar be spelledwith an <r> or without? English

speakers an be divided nto two largedialectgroups:one which pronouncesr/in sucha word, the otherwhich doesnot. The present ituation s that words ike

cnr arespelledwith an <r>, and the largegroup of Englishspeakerswho do notpronounce he lil have o learn when to insert the <r> in spelling. f the <r> wereto be omitted in spelling, he largegroup of Englishspeakerswho do pronounce

/r/ would have o learn not to write a consonantwhich they pronounce.Either

woy, he undamental otion of a simpleone-to-one quivalenceetween honemes

and graphemess violated.This problembecomes normous swe go through he

variousother dialectalvariations:most dialectsdistinguish he vowelsof cot and

caught,but manydo not. Shouldpath have he samevowel aspat or palm?Should

solderhavean <l> to reflect he Britishpronunciation,or no <l> to reflect he NorthAmericanpronunciation?Quite simply, the dialectalvariationof Englishmeans

that no transcription ystem an bedevised hich would not requirea largenumber

of arbitrary rulesand considerablememorization or many people,preciselyheproblem hat spelling eformsetout to avoid.

The secondconcern s that evidencerom psychologysuggestshat someof theso-calledrregularities f Englishactuallyserveo facilitate eading, speciallyor the

experiencedeader.Experiencedeadersend o perceive ordsas singleunitsanddo not'read'them etterby etter.Evidenceuggestshatwe processhe nformation

slightly faster when homophonousmorphemesare spelleddifferently:pair-pear-

pare.On the other hand,whenwe see he word well, we have o spenda slightlylonger ime figuringout which morphemes intended.

Phonemic ranscription may be useful to the inex-perienced riter in that thespelling an be accurately eterminedrom thepronunciation. or the reader, ow-

ever,especiallyor the experiencedeader, he English endency f spellingdifferentmorphemes ifferently s useful.

Otherobjectionso spellingeformalsohavesome alidity.Theamountof litera-ture n thecurrentEnglishorthographysenormous.Most people, ertainlyuniversitystudents,would haveto learn to read both systemsor at least 50-7 5 years; or

scholars,nowledge f both systems ou ld berequired or much onger.Moreover,

thepolitical ikelihoodof persuadingll English-speakingountries ndpublishersousea single evised ystems unlikely.Even f thepoliticalwill for revision xisted,it is not unimaginablehat a hodgepodgef new standards ould emerge.



English r97

Certainarguments gainst pelling eformare ess ersuasive.ometimes e takefalsepride n difficulty: If I coulddo it , so canyou.' A bad sysrem eednot be per-petuated ust becauset is workable. Having mastere a difficulty,we sometimesascribegreaterattributes o ourselveshan is

warranted:

People

who can spellchrysanthemum orrectlyare of a highermoral characterand havea greater ntel-ligence han thosewho cannot.' We should not forget the purportid sayingofAndrewJohnson,a president f the United States nd a poor speller: lt takesapoor mind not to beable o think of more hanoneway to spella word.' Sometimesthe argument s made hat our currentspelling ystem eepsus in touch with thepast: Writing

a <g> n gnaw keepsus awareof our glorioushistory.'Justexactlyhow much glory arewe talkingabouthere?

In summary,spellingreform in Englishwould offer somehelp to writers andthose earning o read; hepresentsystem, owever,hasvirtuesuseful o theexperi-

enced eader.The extensive ialectvariation, he complex nternational ituaiion,and theenormousamountof materialexisting n the presentsystemwork to makechangempracticable. here s a dangerof fragmenting stable ystem. t present,there s no viablemovemento reformEnglishspelling.

In othercountries,writing reformhasbeensuccessful.or Dutch, he socialsitu-ation was verydifferent.First,Dutch is spokenby many fewer people han English.Second, lthough t is spoken n two countries,he Netherlands nd Belgiu-, ih.teis a strongdesire o maintainuniformity n linguisticmatrerswherever ossible.

The character implificationn China succeededor different easons. lthoughChineses spokenby a very large numberof people,China has been uled by a

strong central government or centurieswith the authority to make significantchanges. he communistgovernment f the People'sRepublicof China imposedenormous hanges n Chinese ociety, f which writing reformwas simply one ofmany. In Tdiwan and elsewhere utside he PRC, Chinese peakers ave resistedcharacter implification, artly out of conservatismnd partlt because f a dislikeof the communistgovernmentn the PRC. However,as more material s printedu.singhe simplified haracters,ndwith the handover f Hong Kongto rhe PRC,aslow drift of otherusers owards he simplified haracrerseemsnevitable.

10.7 Further ReadingLass (1987),Millward 1988),Wakelin 1988)are recent reatments f the historyolEnglish.Englishorthographys specifically iscussedn Carney(1994),Deighton(19721, arkes 1993), cragg 1974), allins 1954), ndVenezky 1 ro, 1999).

10.8 Terms

Anglo-Saxon

creative pellingGreatEnglishVowelShiftJohnson, amuel



198

language cademyMiddleEnglishModernEnglish

Old Englishorthographicialect ariation

reading ronunciation

spelling ronunciation

spelling eform

Webster,Noah

English

10.9 Exercises

1 Give he British/Americanlternative pellingor the followingwords.

(a) program

(b) pyjamas(c) jail

(d) maneuver(e) sulphur(f plow

(g) woolen(h) kerb

(i ) esophagus

2 Why wouldacre and ogrenot be spelledacer andoger n the UnitedStates ike

center and scepter?3 Findexamples howinghreedifferent aysof spelling achof theEnglish owels:

l i e j o u l4 Lookup the standard ronunciationf the followingwords n a dictionary. on-

siderwhy each wouldbe considered n unusualor problematicpelling.Where

two differentpronunciationsre in commonuse, dictionariesypicallygive the

one consideredmorestandardirst.

(a) boatswain(b) brooch(c) cotoneaster(d) diocese(e) dour(f gaoler(g) gunwale(h) stele(i ) victuals



11 The IndianAbugida andOtherAsianPhonographic'S7ritirg


This chapterexamines everal nteresting honographicwriting systems f Asia,particularly hose ound n SouthAsia,but also n Tibet,Mongolia,and Manchuria;we have akeady ooked at kana of Japan and hankul of Koria in chapter4.

SouthAsia s an areaof greatdiversityandcomplexiry. t comprises ix counrries(figure11.1): ndia,Pakistan, angladesh,epal,Bhutan,and Sri Lanka; ndia sexpected oon o have he argest opulationof any nation n theworld. As a resultof the partition in the mid-twentieth entury,British ndia was divided nto threecountrieswith Muslim Pakistanand Bangladeshn the westand east,and mainlyHindu India n the middle.Fourmajor religions ave heir originshere:Hinduism,

Buddhism,Jainism,andSikhism.Christianity ame o Indiaquit. earlyandwasre-inforcedby theEuropean olonizationmuch ater.Moreover, n thesixteenth entury*T*, the Mughals rom Persia rought slam.As we will see, eligion n India haioften been onnectedo the useof differentscripts.

Thereare wo major anguageroups n SouthAsia(figure 1.1and able11.1):Indo-Aryan in the north and Dravidian in the south.Since he nineteenth entury,Englishhasbecome n importantsecondanguageor manypeople hroughout hisarea.The Indian Government ecognizesifteen official languages.Mosi of theselanguagesave heir own script.

Sanskritand its later form Prakrit are the ancestors f the modern Indo-Aryan

languages.anskritwasspoken n northernSouthAsiaaround1500-500 oro. The

Table 11.1 The major languagesof South Asia

Indo-Aryan

Sanskrit

IPrakrit

Sindhi

Marathi

Assamese

UrduPuniabi

Oriya

HindiNepali

Sinhalese

GujaratiBengali

Tamil MalayalamTelugu Kannada

Brahui

Dravidian



200 Indian Abugidaand Other Asian'Writing

Figure 11-.L Languagesof South Asia. The Indo-Aryan languagesare shown in roman

type; the Dravidian in italics

earliestorm of the anguages known asVedicSanskrit,n which the oldestSanskrit

text, a collection f hymns, nownas heRigveda, ascomposed round1200oLD.

A later orm of the anguages known asclassical anskritwhichhasa vast iterature.

Thesuccessoro Sanskritsknown asPrakrit, ollowed by gradualdialectdiversifica-

tion which led to thevarious ndo-Aryan anguages e have oday.

Sanskrithascontinued o be used o the present ay as a language f learning,literature,and religion. t is the sourceof learned ocabularyn SouthAsian an-

guages, speciallyn the non-Muslimareas. t has also been he sourceof much

lexicalborrowing nto other anguages hereBuddhism asbeennfluential, uchas

Tibetan,Burmese, hai,Laotian,and o somedegree hinese ndJapanese.anskrit

still functionsas a language f learningn India muchasLatin did in Europe n the

Middle Ages; here s evena daily newspaper ublishedn Sanskrit.

The Indo-Aryan anguages re spoken n the north (figure11.1),with the excep-

tion of Sinhalese,hich sspokenn SriLanka.As a whole, hemaingroupof Indo-

Aryan languagesorm a dialectcontinuumwithout cleargeographic oundaries

betweenhem.Hindi is the mostwidely spokennative anguage f India.

The Dravidian anguages ere probablydistributed hroughoutSouthAsia in

early imes.The ndo-Aryan peakers,owever, rrivedaround1700-7400olo and

sf'p'



Indian Abugidaand Other Asian'Writing 201

conqueredhe northernarea, ushing he Dravidianso the sourh seeigure 11.1)leavingonly smallgroupsof speakersn the norrh.

SouthAsia hashad a strong radition of oral transmission f texts.Evenwhenwriting did appear, he early Hindu

and Buddhist raditionswere wary of writingreligiousmaterial.NeitherHindu nor Buddhist acredextswerewrittendown unrilwriting had beenused airly extensively or other purposes.t is interesring o norethat by the time Sanskrit extswere irst written down around 300 NEw.Sanskrititselfwas no longera living language.

tl.z IndusValleyWriting

Beforewe examine he historyof Sanskritwriting,we must ook at a phenomenon

which developed efore he Indo-Aryansarrived.Plentifularchaologicalevidenceremains f an ndusValleyculturewhichexisted long he ndusRiver(modern-dayPakistan) ating rom about 2500-1900orn. Some 000sites reknown; he argeronessuchasMohenjo-daroand Harappahousedat least40,000peopleeach.

The Induscultureproperbegan n the BronzeAge around 3500 oLD. By 2500oLD' the Induspeoplehad developed omplexcitieswith systemariclanninganda stronglycentralized dministration. treets ere aid out in straight ineswith agood watersupplyand a sewage ystem. he houseswereof bakedbricks.Therewas a fair|y high standardof living with a ratherevendistribution of wealth.

Induswriting developed round2500 oro (Parpola1996).The rexrs hat have

been ound are short,mostlyon stampsealswhichwerepressednto clay.Around1900oLD, the Indusculturecollapsed. he reason or this demises not clear,butthescriptdiedwith theculture.Not longafter he fall of the ndussociery, n Indo-European eopleknown as the Indo-Aryansmigrated nto the IndusValley.

The Indussiteswereessentiallyorgottenuntil the nineteenth enrury.Unfortun-ately,some ites adbeen lunderedor buildingmaterials, nd he Britishdestroyedsomesitesby using ubbleas ballast or over 100 milesof railway rack. The mainexcavations ere n the first half of the twentiethcentury,and unexcavateditesstill remain.

Of the some4000 nscribedndusValleyobjectswith writing, 50 percenrareseal

inscriptions,ypicallysquare, bout an inchon a side,with a lineof text at the topand a picturebelow(plate5). The shortestextsconsistof only onesign; he aver-age engthof a text is about ivesigns; nd the three ongestextshave 4,17, and28 signseach.There s no evidence f word division.

$7eassumehat writing also

occurredon perishablematerial,suchas cloth or bark,which was ost over ime.

71.2.7 Deciphermentof the Indus script

The deciphermentof an unknown languagehas a romantic aura about it and oftenattracts many devoted workers, some luckier or more gifted than others. In evaluat-

ing a proposeddecipherment,a degreeof scepticism s nor out of place.The essentialpart of a successful ecipherment s uncoveringprinciples which apply to al l rexrs na regular manner.



202 Indian Abugidaand Other Asian Writing

Plate5 Indusseal rom Mohenjo-daro.National Museum,Karachi.Reproducedwith

permissionrom Harappa.com.

Anyone attempting to decipher the Indus writing faces he worst possibledecipher-

ment task (Bright 1990a). For the Indus script, neither the languagenor the script

is known. No bilingual text exists, such as the Rosetta Stone which helped in

deciphering Egyptian. At the present time, the tentative attempts at decipherment

by Parpola ('1.994,1996lrseemmost plausible; however, evenhe admits that there is

no generalagreement hat any attempts at deciphermentof the Indus writing have

been successful.Possehl 1996) has an extensivediscussionof the various attempts

at deciphering he Indus script.

77.2.2 The languageof the Indus utritingInduswriting hasabout400 symbols; hese avea generally eometric, tick-figurequality o them.Theclear conicnatureof some igns uggestspictographic rigin,

such as thoseappearing o represent person, ish,or bird. The most frequently



Indian Abugida and Other Asian Writing 203

occurringsign,however, s not clear. t appearso be a cup with two handles neachside,but this identifications likely incorrectsince he pottery found in theHarappansitesdoesnot includeany suchvessels. n alternativenterpretationsthat it representshe headof a hornedanimal.

Ligatures ppear o exist, .e.,composite ignscomposed f two differentsigns.A few of these igature parts do not occur as independent ignsand are boundgraphemes. he scriptshowsno development ver ime excepr or stylisticvariation.There s ittle geographicariation n the script hroughout he area n which t wasused.Scholars enerally greehat the directionof writing is right to left.

An inventoryof 400 differentsigns s far too largea number for a purely phon-emic or moraic system.A phonemicsystem s likely to have ewer than fifty sym-bols,and a moraiconearound50-100 symbols.For a completelymorphographicsystem,we would expect,however,a larger igure,perhaps loser o a thousand.Parpola 1994,1996)

concludeshat the nduswriting sysrems most ikelya mixedmorphemic-moraicystem.Of the 400 differentsigns,perhaps ome80-100 aremoraic symbolsrepresenting onsonant*vowel equences, ith the rest beingmorphographic igns epresenting orphemes. mixedmorphemic-moraicystemwould alsobe consistentwith the short engthof texts;a typiial five-sign ext mightcontain wo to four words,suitable or a seal ext containingpossiblyone or twonames lusa title.

Oneof themost mportantquestionsn decipheringhe Induswriting is to deter-mine what languagewas written, or at least o try to limit the choices. he mostlikely candidateanguageor the Induswriting is Dravidian.Today, he Dravidian

languagesremostly ound n thesouthern art of India;however,Brahui s spokenon the Pakistan-Afghanistanorder,and a numberof smallgroupsof Dravidianspeakers re ound scatteredn northern ndia.'S7as

the Induswriting a local invention,or was it borrowed rom someotherwriting system? t the timeof the development f Induswriting around2i00 oLD,the existingwriting systemswere cuneiform n Mesopotamiaand lfestern Persia,Egyptianhieroglyphics,nd Chinese. here s no evidenceor anycultural conractat this time with China or Egypt.Thereseemso havebeenno directcontactatthe time with Mesopotamia, ut the Indus peoplewould likely haveknown aboutcuneiformwriting from their trade with the Gulf area.And evenmore likely, they

would also havebeenawareof writing throughtheir contacs with their westernneighboursn Persia.Knowingas ittle aswe do now about he Induswriting sysrem,we cansay ittle with certainty,but if the writing was borrowed, t is likely that theborrowingwas an exampleof stimulusdiffusion,with only the most tudi-entrtynotion of writing beingborrowed,not the details.

ll.3 Brahmi and Kharosthi

77.3.7 A6okan nscriptions

After the demise f Induswriting around 1700oLD, there s a gap of 1400 yearsbeforewriting againappearedn South Asia. Aside rom the Indusmateriai, heearliestwriting in SouthAsiadates rom the hird centuryoLD.The EmperorA6oka



204 Indian Abugida and Other Asian Writing

Figure 17.2 An example of an A6okan Brahmi inscription

(264-223oLD; a'Jowka/) onvertedo Buddhism nd caused numberof inscrip-

tions o be erectedhroughout he and with textsurgingBuddhistmoralvalues n

his people figure11.2).By A6oka's ime, Sanskritwas no longer spokenalthough t was still a widely

known languageof learning.Peopleordinarily spoke Prakrit, a descendant fSanskrit. he A6okan nscriptions ere n Prakrit,not Sanskrit, resumably o that

theycould bemorewidely understood y thepeople. extswritten n Sanskritater

became uitecommon,but the earliest ate or Sanskrit exts s from around150

NEw,some400 yearsafter the Adokan nscriptions, time when Sanskritwasno

longera spoken anguage. he A6okan extswere written in two somewhat imilar

scripts Brahmiand Kharo$thi,discussed elow.The climateof SouthAsia s not conduciveo preserving riting on bark, palm

leaves, r othersoft material or any length of time. We might reasonably onclude

that writing existedor some100-200yearsbefore he A6okan nscriptions, hich

werewritten on stone.Prior to A6oka's eign,an oral traditionof linguisticanalysis ad arisenn South

Asia. The best-knownwork of this tradition is the grammarof Panini(probably

fourth centuryoro) whichhasdetailed escriptions f thephonetics ndmorphology

of Sanskrit.Palini's work was held n high esteem nd widely studied.However

writing in SouthAsia may havearisen, t is clear hat the writing systemook its

particularshapen the ight of this linguisticanalysis.The Brahmrscriptgraduallychanged hapeover ime with many ocalvariants.

Thesechangeswere eventuallysufficient hat knowledgeof how to readthe early

Brahmi extswas lost. The knowledge f Kharo$thiwas also ost.The early exts

were not deciphered ntil the nineteenth entury,principallyby an Englishman,JamesPrincep.By L900, alargenumberof textshad beenpublished rom all areas

andperiodsof SouthAsianhistory.



Indian Abugida and Otber Asian Writing

Table 11.2 SomeBrdhmiand Kharogghi ymbols.The lastthreesymbols howconsonant lusters

205

Brahmi Kharosthi

77.3.2 Thescripts

The early scripts,Kharosthi and Brahmi (/ka'roJti/, /'brohmill, areboth abugidas,atype of writing which we have alreadyencountered n S7.5.An abugida is similar toan alphabet:al l vowels are indicated, but normally, vowels are written as diacritics,and one vowel is not written. The Kharo$thi and Brahmi abugidashave very similar

structures(table Il.2).In both scripts,all consonanrsare written. Vowels generallyhale two allographs: one is a free allograph used only in word-initial position; thlother allograph is bound, and is usedword-medially and -finally. Further, the vowellal, the most common vowel in Sanskrit, is no t written in word-medial and -final

position; the absenceof any vowel diacritic predicts the presenceof la/.Thus, la lhas only one allograph, the one occurring in word-initial position. The Indian tradi-tion considers /a/ to be inherent in the consonanr symbol. Vowels, other than shortlal, are shown by diacritics on the preceding consonanr (table 11.21.Consonanrclustersare written as ligatures. The abugida came to dominate Indian writing andremains the organizing principle of the indigenous scripts of South Asia today.

The question ariseswhether the Kharosthr and Brahmi scriptscould be analysedas a moraic systemrather than as an abugida. Recall that in a true moraic system,such as Japanesehiragana, each symbol representsone mora; however, the various

I'

tI'

,

vb

II

:

1

1l

b)

?

e

+++A

,(

,L

IrL

o

d

o-

4

lr

ka

ki

ku

ta

ti

tu

ta

r i

ru

va

vi

vu

tva

rva

rvi




hiragana ymbols aveno internalstructure. or example,he symbolsepresenting

anyparticularconsonant r vowelshareno graphic eature.Bycontrast, hesymbols

of the Brahmiabugidado havean internalstructure;or example,he symbolsor

/ka ki ku/ all share he symbol , and he symbolsor /ki ti ri l al |share he diacritic'.This difference f internalstructures preciselyhe difference erween moraic

system nd an abugida cf. he discussion f Cree n chapter13).

In the igatures,he irst consonants writtenabove he secondseetva rva vil in

table l.2). The firstconsonants fully formed,and the secondmay be somewhat

attenuated.n earlyBrahmi, he ligaturesaregenerallyransparent;n Kharogqhi,

therearesomeopaque igatures cf.<tva> n table71.2)whosesources not clear.

In some nstances,he consonantsmay be written in the reverse rder; thus, the

same ymbolmay ambiguouslyepresentsralor hsal.

11.3.2.1,KHARO$THI

The Kharogqhi cript existedprimarily in the northwestern art of SouthAsia(northernPakistan nd eastern fghanistan) here t was used o write the Prakrit

dialect nown asGandhari.n this area,Kharogqhiswell attestedrom theA6okan

period to the third centuryNEw,when it was replacedby Brnhmi, eavingno

descendants.haro$thi s probablyslightlyolder than Brahmi(Salomon 998).

Kharogghrmaterial has also been ound from the secondand third centuries

Nrw in the Tarim Basinof westernChina (Xinjiang-Uighur utonomousRegion),

Uzbekistan, nd neighbouring reas,whereKharogqhimay havesurviveduntil the

eighthcenturyNnw (Salomon 995).Kharosghis written from right to left. In this script, the free vowel allographs

wereall variants f the freeallograph f <a>;e.g., hefree orm for was ormed

by adding he diacriticof to thefreeallograph f <a>.Kharosghl nderspecified

the phonological ystem y not distinguishinghe contrastive hortand ong vowels.

1,1.3.2.2BRAHMI

Brahmiwas used o write Prakrit,and later Sanskrit,n mostof India outside he

northwesternKharosthi area.Ultimately, it is the ancestorof all Indic scripts,of

Tibetanwriting, and of most of the scriptsof southeast sia.Generally,heBrahmisymbols remadewith linesof uniform width, without serifs

or headlines; achsymbol s distinctwith little tendency owardscursiveness.n

appearance,rahml smonumental ndmore ormal han hemorecursiveKharogghi.

Brahmi s written from left to right, and the freeand bound vowelallographs o not

physically esemble achother.Even hough the later variantsof Brahmrwere adapted o the variousspoken

languages,he cultural mportance f Sanskritmeant hat all the scriptswere con-

servativen retaining he ability to write Sanskrit.Eventhe scriptsadapted or

Dravidian anguages ith differentphonological nventoriesmaintained he symbolsfor writing Sanskrit, he notableexceptionbeing he Tamil scriptwhich followed

Dravidianphonology.On the one hand, his conservatism aintained relatively

consistentelationship f language nd writing for all of Indiagenerally ndcreated



Indian Abugida and Otber Asian Writing 207

therea commonculturalunderstandingf how a scriptworks.On the other hand,this oyalty o conservatismasmade he relationship f eachspoken anguage ndits writing morecomplicated.

71.3.3 Origin of Kharo4lhi and Brdhmi

The origin of writing systems resents ertain nteresting roblems,not the leastof which is the obvious act that little can be known aboui writing

.beforewriting

itselfexists.As we saw n chapter1, writing systemsomeabout n variousways:independentnventionof writing, borrowingof a writing system, r the develop-ment of a new script.nflewill investigatehe history of Kharosthi and Brahmi inlight of thesemethods.

To show hat writing was ndependentlynvented s largelya negative ndeavour.

One mustshow hat for thescript n question ny similarities etweenhe shape fits symbolsor theconventionsor using hemand thoseof anyother wriring ryit.-canonly haveemerged y chance. urther, ulturalcontactat therelevantime withany existingwriting sysremmusrbe ruledout.

To show that one writing systemwas borrowed from another,one must showthat culturalcontactexisted t theappropriareime.Thisalonewould allow for thepossibilityof stimulusdiffusion.To show a closerdegree f borrowing,one musrshow hat similaritiesn theexternal hape f symbols r in theconveniiotr f theirusearegreater han randomchancewould allow.

In manycases, ith theevidencevailable,t isnot possibleo demonsrratelearly

whethera writing systemwasborrowedor independentlynvented. he Indiansitu-ation is frustrating n this regardwith its paucityof early historical nformation.

Most scholars gree hat Kharosthi s derived rom Aramaic(table11.3):'AconnectionbetweenKharogthiand the Semiticscripts. . , particularlyAramaic,hasbeen vident o scholarsrom an earlyperiod'(Salomon g98,p. 52i. For manyof the symbols, ormal similarities an be found betweenKharoggiiand Aramaic.The symbols or Kharosthl b g v k n r t/ seem easonably lose o their Aramaiccounterparts. tructuralsimilarities xist as well. In Aramaic,as in other Semiticwriting, only consonants rewritten; vowelsarenot usually ndicated.TheKharosthipracticeof not writing short lal is reminiscent f this Aramaicconvention.Cul-

turally, Kharosghrwas a local script of the northwest.,an area which from thesixth centuryoLD was controlledby the Persianempirewhich usedAramaicasits chanceryscript. People iving in rhe area where Kharogrhidevelopedwouldhave been amiliar with Aramaicwriting. Despite ts Aramaic beginnings,t isobvious hat the internalstructureof Kharosthihasbeen horoughly ewotked naccordance ith the linguistic heoryof the Sanskritgrammarians. or example,the symbol nventory its Prakritclosely,and the orderof the symbols ollowsihelogical phoneticorder worked out by the Indian grammarians. Note the sytematicordering f stops n table 1.4.)

The originof Brahmihasproveda moredifficultquestion o answer.There s no

direct nformationabout tsearlyhistory.TheA6okaninscriptionsppearn the mid-third centuryolo with a fully developed riting system. he pre-A6&.n (composedorally, written down later) religiousand linguistic exts havebeen nterpreted s




Table 11.3 Comparison of Aramaic and early Indic symbols

Semitic sound Phen. shape Aramaic Indic sound Kharostht Brahmt

tl

trnt

t

o

Eb

oJ

+J

U

I

rt

L

d

1

I

A

A

fl

ul

?5

z1

Y

+n'),

4

U

I

P

f'tf

q

I

n,

a

b

g

d

h

v

ish

th

v

k

I

m

n

s

e

p

c

kh

r

6

t

x91t4

41

lR

6

1

IL

t

tIa,l

,^

lq

vn

+4(

4

aY

TE

&

z)

vnY

!F

o7

h/

I4

wf

7

b

g

d

h

w

zh

t

v

k

I

m

n

tS

s

p

ts (q)

q

r

S (T)

t

having a few references o writing, but they are not clear. Somecommentariesby

early Greek visitors to India mention writing, but they have conflicting comments

about the existenceof writing. The presenceof the Indus writing complicates the

situation further: is there a relationship between t and Brahmi?

No other writing system(except Kharosthi) was in use n the third century oLD

which offers a transparent resemblance to Brahmi. The diacritic way of writing

vowels is strongly reminiscent of the way they are written in the Ethiopic languages,

but this feature of Ethiopic writing seems o have been borrowed from an Indian

writing system,not the other way around.

Various theoriesabout the origin of Brahmi havebeenproposed.The most import-

ant of these are consideredbelow in turn.



Indian Abugidaand Other Asian Writing

11.3.3.1 BRAHMI TSRX INDIGENOUS NDIAN INVENTION

209

The ndigenousheoryholds heview hat writing in rhe orm of Brdhmlwas nventedin SouthAsia ndependentlyf the ndusValleywriting,

Semiticwriting,Chinese, rany otherwriting system. hisviewwasoriginallyadvanced y Cunningham 1877),who thought that Brahmi had developed rom an earlier pictographicscript. Noevidence xists,however, or an earlierpictographic cript n SouthAsia.

More recently, omehaveargued hat the Brahmiscriptwas invented n Indiaduring the periodof A6oka.These heories re speculativiand not based n evid-ence Salomon 995).

Even hosewho are not persuaded y the indigenousheoryagree hat Brahmiwasthe resultof considerableeworking n SouthAsia n light of the phonologicalframeworkdeveloped y the early ndian inguists Bright r990a).

11.3.3.2 BRAHMI IS BRSE,D N THE INDUS VALLEY WRITING

\fith the discovery f Induswriting in the earlypart of the twentiethcentury,somescholars,mostrecentlySircar I97I), haveattemptedo show hat the Indui Valleywriting is theancestor f Brahmi;however,Parpola, leading cholaron rhe ndusscript,says hat there s 'no positiveevidencewhatsoeveror a [Indus]origin ofthe Brahmlscript' (1,994, . S7).Thishypothesis asbeenwidely rejectedoithreereasons. t present,we havenot decipheredhe nduswriting system; nycomparisonbetweent and Brahmicanbe madeonly on the shape f symbols.Compariions f

thissort arevery shakybecausef the high ikelihood hat somethingn onesetofmarkswill outwardly esembleomethingn a differentsetof marks.A .o-p"risonof the symbolsof Induswriting and Brahmr evealsno obviousconnection hatcould not be due o coincidence.

A second ifficulty s that mostscholarsbelievehat the Indo-Aryanswere nor yetin SouthAsiauntil after he Indussociety ollapsed.

Third, if the Indo-Aryansborrowed he Induswriting sysrem,here s a very ongperiod between1700 ot-o and 300 oro with no writing. The bestexplanationwhich hasbeenput forward or thisgap s that writing during hisperiodwasdoneon perishablematerialswhich havedisappeared. right pointsout thar this is not

veryplausible.Given hat Induswriting waswidely doneon stoneand other hardmaterials,t is likely that the Indo-Aryanswould havecontinued his tradition.The fact that the indigenoushypotheses escribedn this and the preceding

sectionhavebeenheld primarily by SouthAsianscholars, nd rejected ener lly byscholars rom elsewhere,aiseshe awkward question f patriotismover evidence.Somedoubt alwaysarisesabouta theorywhich tends o glorify the ancestors f theproponentof the theory.This scepticism verlooks he very fine scholarship ndsensitivityo evidencehat someof thoseproposing he indigenous r Indushypo-theses bout he originof Brahmihaveshown.At times, oncern asbeen *presiedthat outsiders iewSouthAsia hrough oreigneyes nd from a foreignperspective,

undervaluingts realaccomplishmentsnd,consciously r unconsciomly, ant toseea European onnectiono the origin of Indianwriting. Thisposition,however,overlooks he fact that all scholarsof Europeanbackgroundposit a non-Europeanorigin for their own writing.



2t0 Indian Abugidaand Other Asian Writing

Issues uchas theseusuallysettle hemselves,ot by a sudden, lear-cut ictory

on rheacademic attlefield, ut by a gradualdriftingof the roops nto onecampor

the other.At the moment, he non-indigenousiew seemso be winning.

11.3.3.3 BRAHMI IS BESEDON A SEMITICMODEL

The notion that Brahmr s basedon a Semiticmodelgoesback to the nineteenth

century Salomon19981. ccording o this theory, he Indo-Aryanswereawareof

Semiticwriting in the west,borrowed he system, nd thoroughlyreworked t with

Brahmias he result.

The Indo-Aryanshad ample opportunity to learn of Aramaic writing from the

conracr rom the sixth centuryorn with the Persian mpire n the northwest.A

few of the A6okan nscriptionsn this areawerewritten in Aramaic.However,a

comparison f the ettershapes f Aramaicand Brahmi table11.3)doesnot showenough ormal similarity n the symbols o provideverypersuasivevidence.

Bright (1996) and Salomon 1996) have stressedhe typologicalconnections

between he Aramaicabjad and the Brahmi abugida.As we haveseen,with the

Aramaicabjad, onsonantsrealwayswritten,but vowelsarewrittenonlysporadic-

ally. In the Brahmiabugida, he consonantsarealwayswritten and form a primary

class f graphemes ith thevowelswritten asdiacritics.

Salomonsuggestshat the Semiticsystem f not writing vowelswas continued

for Sanskrit al, he most commonvowel,andthe othervowelswere ndicated n a

secondaryashion eeping he consonantsrimary.He argueshat it would behard

to arriveat sucha system tartingcompletely rom scratch, r from a morphographicsystem.

According to rhe theory of a Semiticorigin, a possiblescenario or the intro-

ductionof writing is that during he period n which Gandhara elongedo Persia,

an Indo-Aryan speaker bservedhe way in which Aramaicwas written down. This

persondecidedo apply he same rincipleso Sanskrit r Prakrit.Thisadaptation,

however, equireda largernumberof symbols han was available n the Aramaic

abjad.Unnecessaryramaic etterswereredeployedwith differentvalues,although

often retainingsomephonetic similarity. For example, rom the Indo-Aryanpoint

of view,Aramaichad two symbols aph andqoph available or lkl. One of these

wasused or Indo-Aryan kl and heother or /kh/. Other extensions eremadebytinkeringwith symbols or relatedsounds.

Within SouthAsia, the existing inguistic analysisof the phonologyof Sanskrit

recognizedhe aksaraor open syllableas a primary unit. For the adapterof the

alphabet,herewas a strongcorrespondenceetweenhe unit written by a Semitic

letterandan Indo-Aryan kgara. he inguistic nalysis f Sanskrit, owever, learly

recognized oth consonants nd vowels. n order o preservehe principle hat one

akqaraequalsone symbol,andyet fully to acknowledgehe vowelsof the linguistic

analysis, iacriticswere added o the consonant ymbols or all the vowelsexcept

short lal. Further, he symbolswere orderedaccording o the logical sequence f

the inguisticanalysis ndweregivennew ogicalnames ased n their Indo-Aryanpronunciation.

Differences etweenSemiticand Indo-Aryanwriting are o be explained s fol-

lows:(1)the borrowerdid not feelconstrainedo maintain he exactshapes f the




Semitic ymbols possiblyhe shapes erenot learned r rememberederfecily; 2)Indo-Aryanhad moreconsonantshan Aramaicand somenew symbots rad o beinvented; 3) the rulesgoverning he Aramaicuseof the symbolswere horoughlyreworked n accordancewith the principlesof the Indian linguistic traditio.rr thitinvolved primarily maintaining he akgaraas the primary unit of writing, and thediacritic ndicationof vowels; 4) the directionof writing was changedo left toright, a not uncommonrypeof change; alk (1993)views his change spossiblyGreek nfluence.

On balance, directSemiticorigin for Brahmlseems ossible, ut nothing ikeclearevidenceor this hypothesis xists.

11.3,3.4 BRAHMI TSENSEDON KHAROSTHI

A final possibility s thatBrahmi is derived rom Kharosthi.This theory has beenadvanced y Falk (1993)andconsidered t leastplausible y Salomon 1998).The

structureof the two scripts s virtually identical:particularly, the manner n whichvowelsand consonant lustersare written. The most obviousdifferences re thedifferentdirectionsof writing, the absencen Kharosthiof differentgraphemesorshortand ong vowels,and generally,he differentshapes f the symbois.

As we haveseen,Kharosthl sgenerally greedo havebeenderived rom Aramaic;further,Kharoqqhi eemso haveappeared omewhat arlier han Brahmi.A possiblescenario or Brahmi is that, after Kharosthi emerged n the northwest, he sysremwas aken o the northeasternrea,whereseveralmodifications eremade.Possibly

a conscious ffort was made o producea different-appearingcript,possiblywithsome eferenceo Aramaic etters.Or , Brahmi s possiblya revisionof an earlierscript bringing r more into line with Kharosthi.

In my view, the Kharosthi hypothesisseemshe most arrracriveof the existingpossibilities.The advantage f this theory is that it explainsrhe grearsimilaritybetweenKharoqthi and Brahmi, and it requiresno great leap of faith to -oulfrom Aramaic to Kharosthi to Brahmi. The additional letters n Brahmr can beseen s he resultof correcting ertain laws n the earlierKharosthi.Thechange fdirection is not uncommon n the history of writing. The different shapesof theindividual lettersmay have been he result of an intentionaI effort to disringuish

the two scripts.

77.3.4 Later deuelopnent of Brd.hmt

Although Kharosthidied out, Brahmrsurvived o becomehe ancestor f all theindigenous cripts f SouthAsiaaswell as hoseof TibetandmanySoutheast siancountries.Tithin SouthAsia, his ypeof development asevolutionary, erymuchparallel o the common diversification f dialects nto distinct langu"g.t. Localvarieties f the Brahmiscriptemerged nd were dentifiedwith localvarieties f thespoken anguage.Just as the varieties f the spoken anguage volvedoften into

mutuallyunintelligibleanguages,o thevarieties f scriptdiverged ntil theyoftencould no longerbe recognizedby ll readers.In general,al l the scriptsof India maintained he samebasicsrrucrureas the

original Brahmi.This was partly due to the fact that the scriptswerecommonly



2r2 Indian Abugidaand Other Asian Writing

used o write not only the contemporaryanguage, ut alsoSanskrit.Theprestige f

Sanskrit ctedas a strongconservativeorceon the evolutionof the scripts. ustas

we saw with Chinese hat, although he shapes f characters hanged ver time,

the basicstructure f writing did not change, o also n India, he nternalstructureof the variouswriting systems tayedmuch the same,but the shapes f the letters

changed, ometimes rastically.

In general,henorthern criptsmaintained moderate implicity, ut thesouthern

scriptsbecame uiteornateand elaborate. y and arge, henorth-southdivision n

scripts orrespondso the dividebetweenhe Indo-AryanandDravidian anguages;

however, he Sinhalesecriptof Sri Lankabelongso the southern roupalthough

the anguages Indo-Aryan.

Hindi and Urdu are sometimes escribed s a single anguage ividedby two

scripts. ypically,Urdu is spokenby Muslims iving n Pakistan nd swritten with

theArabic script,whereasHindi is spokenby Hindus iving n Indiaand s writtenwith the Indian Devanigan script.For ordinary conversation, owever, here s

almostno difference etweenhe wo languages;heyaremutually ntelligible.But,

for more academic urposes,he two languages iverge omewhat inceUrdu has

chosents learnedvocabulary rom Persian r Arabic (consider ow Englishuses

Latin andGreek or thispurpose)whereasHindi hasborrowedwords rom Sanskrit

for its learned ocabulary.Deuanagaru,iscussedn detail ater in this chapter, s the scriptused or writ-

ing Hindi, Marathr,and Nepali.Today,Sanskrit s usuallywriften in Deuanagart.

Occasionally,anguagesf Indiawith no traditionalscriptof their own arewritten

in Deuanagarl.The Gujarati script s used or the Gujaratiand Kacchi anguage. he Gujarati

script is historicallya cursive orm of Deuanagart, evelopedor keepingbusiness

records nd or personal orrespondence.n thepast,more ormalwriting in Guiarati,

such as literary and scholarly exts, were done n the Deuanagarl cript.Since he

beginning f printing n the early1800s, he Gujaratiscripthasbeenusedgenerally

for prosewriting although verse s still sometimes rinted in Deuanagarl oday.

(Texts n Sanskrit renormallywritten in Deuanagart.)Mistry (1,996)eports hat

the earliesthandwrittendocument n Gujaratl dates rom 1592, and the earliest

printedrecord s an advertisementrom 1797.

Bengalis spokenby Hindus n the'!(est Bengal tateof Indiaandby Muslims nBangladesh. lthough many anguagespokenby Muslimshavecome o bewritten

in theArabicscript e.g.,Persian, rdu), heBengalianguageBangla) ontinueso

be written with the Bengaliscript by all speakers. he reason or this is that during

theperiodof Muslim dominationn India, ather hanwriting Bengalin theArabic

scripr,most writing was n the Urdu language sing he Arabic script.The Bengali

script s alsoused or Assamese, anipuri, and someMunda languages.

The Punjabi anguage s spoken n northern India and in Pakistan. n India,

Punjabispeakersregenerallymembers f the Sikhreligionand use he Gurmukhi

(/'gurmaki/) script for writing Punjabi. n Pakistan,Punjabi s sometimes ritten

in theArabic script.However, he situation here s oftenbilinguallydiglossic, ithMuslim Punfabispeakers ommonlywriting in a different anguage, rdu, in the

Arabicscript.



lndian Abugidaand Other Asian Writing 213

Oriya s themajor anguage f Orissa tate.TheOriya script s used or the Oriyalanguage swell as for the numerous ther minority languagespoken n Orissa.The tradition of writing Sanskrit n the Oriya script is coniinu.d th.t. as well.Although he Oriyascript smoreclosely onnectedo the norrherngroup

of scripts,the largecurved inesaresimilar o those ound n the sourhern cripts.The Kannadaand Telugu scriptsare very similar; they ate ured to write the

Dravidian anguages annadaandTeluguof south ndia.The Malayalamscript sused or the Malayalam languageof south India. This script is characterized ythe largenumberof specialigature orms.

The Tamil script s used or the Tamil language poken n south India and inSri Lanka.TheTamil script s unusualamong he Indianscripts n two ways.First,it follows he Dravidianphonology, nd n its basic orm ."nnot beused oi writingSanskrit. o do this,several dditional ettersareused.Second,he useof ligatureshas

beenalmostabandoned ith the result hat the script s morean alphaber hanan abugida.The Sinhalesecript is used n Sri Lanka for the Sinhaleseanguage, n Indo-

Aryan.languagepoken n the far southof the SouthAsian area.The languagesstronglydiglossic. he distinctionof voiceless nd aspirated topsand oi voicedand breathyvoicedstopshas been ost, but the differentsymbols or thesesoundshavebeen etainedn writing.

Apart from the major borrowingof the Brahmiscriptby languagesf SoutheastAsia which areconsidered elow in $11.5,a considerable umberof versions fIndianwriting areusedor havebeenused or various anguagescrosshe south-

eastern reaof Asia,particularlyn the slands, tretching s ar as he Philippines.In Japan,a script derived rom Brahmi,known as siddbamor siddhamatTka,susedby someBuddhistsor religious urposes stevens 995).

11.4 Deuand.ganas Applied to Sanskrit

To illustrate he Indianabugida n moredetail,we will look at theDeuanagart criptasapplied o Sanskrit.Deuanagaris the script mosroften used n modern imes orwriting Sanskrit lthough raditionallySanskritwaswritten n a varietyof localscripts.

Deuandgarl s alsocurrently used or writing Hindi, Marathi, and Nepali, and onoccasionor writing other anguages.t is the mostwidely usedscript n India andgenerally erves s hedefault ndianscript.The nameDeuanagariis ot entirelyclear.The script softencalledNagari,whichseemso mean of thecity';Deuanagarutwouldthenbe of thedivinecity,nagarlof thegods'.The relationshipo 'city' is uncertain.

The variousabugidas f SouthAsiaall derive rom Brahmiand havecontinuedto function in much the sameway. The structurewe find for Deuanagarls, by and7arge,he same or all the scriptsof SouthAsia.

77.4.7Sanskrit

phonology

The phonemesf Sanskrit regiven n table11.4 n the order n which heynormallyappear n grammars.



2'1,4 Indian Abugidaand Otber Asian Writing

Table L1.4 The phonemes of Sanskrit, in the traditional order

The romanization cheme sedhere s frequently sed or SouthAsian anguages;

the order of thephonemess the onecommonlyused n SouthAsiaandreflectshe

ancient rammaticalradition.Vowelsoccur,both short and ong.Superscriptars

indicate ength.The subscript ircles ndicatesyllabic not voiceless!)onsonants.Thus, he vowels gg!J/ arephonetically yllabic onsonants;he vowels il and ll

occuronly rarely.Longsyllabic [/ doesnot occur n anyrealSanskritword; it was

addedby the grammarianso make he vowel repertoire ymmetrical. he sound/rir/ is pronounced sa homorganic asal,or it nasalizeshe preceding owel; lh l

represents regularvoicelessh], whereas hl indicates reathyvorced hl.Note that the stopsareorderedaccordingo theirplaceof articulation rom back

to front. The voicelessspirated tops kh Jh ntnpn]areromanized s kh ch gh hph/. The breathyvoicedstops g dl { d bl are romanizedas gh jh dh dh bh/. The

subscript ot under t 4 qr$ U dho'ils'a etroflexplaceof articulation;without the

dot, /t d n s Il aredental.The retroflex ateral f/ is found only in Vedic texts; ater,

it is replaced y l4l.The symbol[fr] is palatal,and [n] is velar.The postalveolar

fricative J] is romanized s 5/.

A complicated et of morphophonemic lternations, nown as sandhi,operateacrossmorpheme oundaries nd sometimes venacrossword boundaries.

77.4.2 Devanigan utriting systetn

The ancientBrahmi script was developedor Sanskritas described arlier.As

a successorcript to BrahmT,Deuanagarlcontinues his tradition and follows thephonological tructureof the anguage uiteclosely.Thereareseveral mall egional

variations n Deuanagari hich are describedmore ully in section11.4.2.5below.Deuanagarl s written left to right.

The graphemesf the writing system table11.5)aregiven n the samearrange-mentas he soundsn table1,1..4;his arrangements used or the orderingof words

in dictionaries s well. The series f svmbolss known as he uarnamala fulTlfoT.

i i

r Tl lo o

o a u

a e

r io o

e a i

kc

ttp

v5

h

k h sc h j

s h dt h dp h b

n

fr+n

m

( ! )

ghjh

dhdhbh

v

h




Table 11.5 The basic symbols of Deuanagart

215

a

3t

f

4

e

q

ng

shET

g

TT

k

4

j i h n

G T A S T

c

q

+uT

r r h de 6 g

n

;T

t

d

m

q

p

g

I

ovq

sTT

5ET

u

s

u

g

i i

= +q P

I Tr l

; ;c ' c

a

3tT

o

fr

r4,

ai

t

h

au

3nl

kh

(E

ch

ct

rh

g

ph

EF

r

{

Iq

dh

a

dh

sI

bh

t{

v

Et

h

€

d

(

b

G[

rr.4.2.1 vo\rELS

Vowel graphemestable11.6)have wo allographs: ne ree,and the otherbound.At the beginning

9f an orthographicunit (seeak;ara below), he free allograph sused;otherwise,he boundallograph s used, .e., he vowel swritten

"r"

dir.titi.

on the preceding onsonant.Table 11.5 shows he freeand boundallographs nd the boundallographwiththe consonant F<k>, forminga complexsymbol.



276 lndian Abugidaand Other Asian Writing

Table 11.6 The vowel symbols of Deuanagarl

Bound

uith <k>

Free Bound Bound

uith <k>

ka

4

a

3t

ki

tu

kr

T

kl

3

ka i

*

't

a

3nT

i

s\a

I

sr4

!F[

ai

t

ka

ZFT

ki

fr

ku

T

kau

d

ku

4\t

kg

q

u

g

rT

!q

e

q

kl

T

ke

+ko

dau

do

d\T

Note the following points about vowels:

The short vowel lal is written only at the beginning of an ofthographic unit

(akpara);otherwise, it is not overtly indicated. The absenceof any vowel diacritic

indicates the short lal: V (=/pal). To indicate the absenceof a followingshort lal,the diacritic uirama, a short subscriptdiagonal line (. . ), is added below

the consonanr symbol: {. /p/, ( /t/, fi. /map/, thus indicating the absenceof a

vowel at the end of a word.

The diacritic for lil preced,eshe consonant symbol: $ lpil. The diacritics for

le ailare written above the consonant symbol: Q lpel'4 lpail' The diaclitics for

la T o aul follow the consonantsymboltW tpil, fr /ii/, fr /po/, fi /pau/.

Note that the rop portionsof the diacritics or lol and laul are he sameas the

diacritics for lel and al, but placedabove he verticalstroke of lal.

The diacritics for lu

"f f ! ll are_writtenbelow the consonantsymbol:$

lpul,!/pt/, Y /pf ,l lpll,E/pl/, Elpll. Note that the diacriticsor /u [/ differonly in ih.it orientation.As mentionedabove, he vowels l Ll are rare,and lll

doesnot reallyoccur.



Indian Abugida and Other Asian Writing 2 1 7

3 certain special orms of consonant vowel exist:e.g.,d /ru/, F hul, e ldrl,Taldl l ,E /hg/.

4 with somevowels,^6l takesthe allographicshape : e.g., liEl, { /su/,{ /6[ /; but ttT 5a/, rr lSil.

11.4.2.2 CONSONANTS:SINGLECONSONANTSANDCONSONANT CLUSTERS

A single onsonant, sopposedo a consonant luster, s written with the symbolsasgiven n table11.5.

A consonant luster s written as a ligature,with the individualgraphemes fthe cluster ombined nto a singlesymbol.Frequenrly, pecial llographs re used;often,a verticalstroke s omitted rom an initial grapheme. or.*"-f1., for .pyr,

theverticalstrokeof e s removed o give he allographu; this is th.o .ornbinedwith ET<y> to give he igatureET<py>.A ligature s treatedas a singleunit with respecto vowels.The voweldiacritics

areattachedo thisconjunctsymbolexactlyas o a single onsonant ymbol.Super-script and subscriptvowelsare written aboveor below the last elementof theligature:

q r z 1 T f u u f r q q<py> <pya> <pyi> <pyi> <pyu> <pyt>(- lpyal)

q q<pys> <pyr>

q d u f t

<pyai> <pyo> <pyau>

qTI

<py!> <pye>

The complete set of ligatures is quite large. Note that some of the clustersoccuronly across syllable or word boundaries (word boundaries were not indicated inearly texts). Selectedexamples are given below to show the various merhods offorming ligatures. In some cases,more than one form is found in free variation forthe samecluster: e.g.,E or 9 <cc>.

(a) Horizontal combination:

ct <gv>

€ <cch>

(b) vertical combination.The symbolsmay be adjustedn shapeorsmaller ertical pace:

g 'ji'

4 or ?f;' kk>g <[Pg <ddh>

to fit the

q + q

4 + 4e + e

A + e {




(c ) \[hen <r> occurs as the first consonant of a cluster, it is not written 25 {, but

as a diacritic'

above the final consonant; this allograph of <r> is known as

repba:

f <rr>

d <rih'

(d) It/hen <r> occurs as a non-initial consonant of a cluster, t is not written xs {,

bu t as a diagonal stroke <,> below the first consonant:

q <gr>q <nr>

(e) \rith some ligatures, he shapeof the free allograph is altered slightly:

fi <kt>

f, <tt>g <dd>

(f ) Diphones.Two symbols,<jfr> and .kst, have diphones,whereone symbol

representswo phonemes:

n <ifr>

fl <ks>

Ligatures made of more than two consonants are constructed according to the

sameprinciples as setout above for two-consonant ligatures.Note that many of the

clusters occur onlv acrosssvllable or word boundaries.

rq .gdhyttW <nsmy>q <nkhy>q <cchv>

S <flcm>

rat <ttv>ql

. <stry>

€ <rrsny>

11.4.2.3 AI($ARA: THE ORTHOGRAPHIC SYLLABLE

The term aksara is used to define an orthographic syllable in Sanskrit. Each initial

vowel symbol alone or eachconsonant symbol with its vowel diacritic plus any final

modifier constitutes an akparAor orthographic syllable. Consonant clusters are com-

bined orthographically into ligatures. A ligature counts as a single consonant, and

thus a ligature with its vowel diacrit ic also formsanakpara. Anakgara consistsof

any number of init ial consonants or none)+ a vowel (= (C)V).

?T?T

a

q

rt

ef + zt

{ T + r T + qs + t { ) qq ( . 6 + u [ )

q + 1 + qi T + d ) + e tq + q + { + qi t + { T + ; T + q



Indian Abugida and Other Asian Writing 21 9

Frequently, n akgara s also a phonologicalsyllable.For example, he word/bahumana\l 'esteem'is written c|.$rtl;T:.Divided into phonologicalsyilables, hisword hasexactly he samedivisionaswhen t is divided nto akgira. (Theuisarga sconsideredo be the codaof a syllable.) o dividea word intoakga1as,

heoir.t,a.re bsolutelymaximized, venoverword boundaries; nly uisarga syllable-final[h]) andanusuaravowelnasalization) repermitted n the coda.

phonological yllables /ba-hu-ma-na\/ak;aras orthographicyllables) <ba-hu-md-nah> q -g -rTT n:

However,with a word suchas kurmah/ 'tortoise'qdt, .orrtaininga consonantcluster, he phonological yllables o not correspondo the akgarai.In linguisticterms' he maximizationof onsets or aksara.siolates he phonotactic onstraints

of thesyllables.

phonological yllables /kur-mah/ak;aras orthographic yllables) .k[-rmah, T - d,

11.4.2.4 \r/oRD DTVISION

In earlywriting,word divisionswerenot indicated.Today,word divisionsn Sanskritare ndicatedwhere his doesnot changehe way the eitersarewritten. Textspre-pated or learners ometimeshowal l word divisionsby usinga uirama S11.4.2.1)

under inalconsonants.The ollowing ines rom a well-knownSanskrit toryabouta KingNala llusrrate

word division.First he transliteration nd translation regiven, hen he text withall words divided using the uirama if necessary, nd finally the rexr as writtenwithout word divisions.

asidraja,nalo nama,virasenasutoal iupapanno uqair stai, flpavan,a6vakovidallatisthanmanujendralarhmtrdhni devapatir atha

'Therewasa king, Nala by name, he strongsonof the army of heroes, ndowedwith desired irtues,handsome,killedwittr horses. e stoodsuperior o princes,justas ndra o gods.'

Iflith word divisions

snfr( rr{r rd;rq ft+{g* {dsqcriRq}

Without word divisions

sTFdstrgilqrqT$S ffiq vw w

Note the differencesbetweenthe versionswith and without word divisions:



220 lndian Abugida and Other Asian Writing

Line 1( IT = qr ldral

Line 2

Line3

1rT = =T lnmal

Tq = { fua l

11.4.2.5 ALTERNATIVE FORMS

Over time, a few graphemes avedeveloped eographic llographs, nown as theBombayandNorthern(or Calcutta) orms.Currentgovernment olicy avours he

Bombay ariants.The moreobviousdifferencesre shownbelow.Sanskrit ndHindi

havebeenwritten with both variantsdepending n the locationand preferencef

the author or printer.The Maraqhi anguages written with Bombayvariants,and

the Nepali anguage ith the Northern variants.

Bombay Northern Bombay Northern

initial<a> 3il q <ih> A $

initial <a> 3ilT qI <q> uT {T

< k g > f l ? . k $ y t H A. tkq t f f i G [ . ihy t f l tR

. jjht W eF <nm> urT {FT

<qq> wT {I

II.4.2.6 NUMERALS

The numeralshavespecial orms. Thereare also specialBombayand Northern

alternative orms for somenumerals. t is interesting o note that what are called'Arabicnumerals'n the.West rereally ndian n originand n theArabic anguage

arecalledlndiannumerals'.

1 , 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 0Bombayforms: t a ? 8 q E I C q o

Northernforms: t a A 8 q q t9 E t o

71.4.2.7 OTHER SYMBOLS

Anusuara vowelnasalization)swritten asa diacriticdot above hemaingrapheme:

4 lkaml. A dotted-half-moondiacritic is sometimes sed nsteadof anusuara o

show nasalizatio.t . The syllable orh/, sacredq Hinduismand in Buddhism,snormallywritten as3b.Thii is an older orm of fr bil.

Theuisargasyllable-finalh]) s written as wo dots; t is transcribed slbl.

Tg = fr hi l13T = ;T lnal




Table 11.7 The phonemes of Burmese

221

Consonants

k k h g r . lc c h i nt t h d np p h b m

y r l w s

h l z

Vowels

i

e

a

u

o-!

Tones

l o w t - l high t' l

11.5 Southeast sianWriting

Buddhism ravelled rom India to Southeast sia via Sanskritor a later anguage

known as Pali.Buddhismhus broughtboth the Sanskrit anguage nd the grahmiabugidao Southeast sia.Largenumbers f Sanskrit nd Paliwords,both religiousand secular, ereborrowed nto the ndigenous outheast sian anguages.here, heBrahmiabugidadevelopednto the Burmese, hai, Laotian,CambodLn,and otherwriting systems.We will not go into thesewriting sysremsn detail,but we willpoint out an nteresting spect f the conservatismf theborrowing,usingBurmeseas an example.Note that Sanskrit nd Burmese re not related anguages.

Burmese as he phonemenventoryshown n table 11.7.The romanizationsvery close o that used or the Indic languages. ote that the Burmese rder ofconsonantsollowsthe Indic tradition.

The basicBurmese ymbols re shown n table 11.8.The basic nventory s quite similar to the Indian systems; owever, here s a

major differencen the relationship f the consonant ymbols nd the anguage. swe haveseenabove,Sanskrithad a series f retroflexstopswith its own sytnbols rtthe Brahmiscript.The symbolsor these onsonanrs t !h d dh n> were etainednthe Burmese riting system lthough he soundswerenor presentn Burmese. orexample,n Burmese,he retroflexseries f stops s keptdistinct n writing from theseries t th d dh n> even houghbothseries repronounced sdentals Roop1g7Z).The so-calledetroflexstops n Burmese re usedprimarily for words of Sanskritorigin.

Similarly, he etters or the breathy oicedstopsof Sanskrit represervedgh ihdh dh bh>, even hough n Burmesehey are phoneticallydentical o the voiceds t o p s . g i d d b > .

c r e aky t ' I



222 Indian Abugidaand Other Asian Vriting

Table 11.8 The symbols of the Burmeseabugida

Voiceless stop Voicedstop Nasal

Unaspirated Aspirated Unaspirated Aspirated

? D g h c n

q i h e n

? ) d h c t D q

o d h E n

J ) b h e m

c n k o k h o g

o c o c h e t

c t c t h ) d1 c j ' - t

@ t c o t h 3 d

o p c l p h o b

Velar

Palatal

Retro

Dental

Labial

w

7

o

3A

crJ

g

r

h

6t

LD

Table 11.9 The writing of the Burmese vowels lt a ul

Initial uith <k> Initial uith <k> Initial witb <k>

creaky

low

high

e o ? fe

e o ? u

f : c ? : i ,

a

eL

ai

oCD CY) Irn-

Q Ec n l m le-rl

,r3: i:

3> Cr)

ffv)

crv)?

In these two examples,we see hat the cultural importance of the original lan-

guage favoured retention of the original inventory. A large number of Sanskrit

words were borrowed into Burmese,and this conservatismallowed distinctions made

in Sanskrit to be written in Burmese even though no such phonemic distinction

existed in Burmese. When a writing system is borrowed, there is a tendency for the

inventory of symbols to be considered a single object, and for the entire inventory

to be borrowed regardless of how well it fits the new language. Because he entire

inventory is borrowed, complex relationsbetweenphonemeand written symbol are

often introduced at the beginning.

Like the Indian abugidas, he Burmeseabugida writes vowels as diacritics unless

they occur at the beginningof a word (table 11.9).The vowel la l is not written. The

Burmese system is different from the Indian systems in using vowel diacritics to

indicate not only vowel quality, but tone as well. The entire vowel system s not

shown here, but the examples n table 11.9 indicate the basic structure. There are

separatesymbols when the vowel occurs word-initially. For the non-initial vowels

li a ul, diacritics derived from the Brahmr short vowel diacritics are used o indicate




vowelswith creaky one;diacriticsderived rom the Brahmi ong vowel symbolsareused o indicatevowelswith low tone;and the high tonevowelsare ndicatedwiththe creakydiacritics ogetherwith an additionaldiacriticresemblinghe Romancolon.Othervowelsarewritten in a somewhat

imilar way. For a -ot. completediscussion f Burmese riting, seeRoop (1972)and wheril.y (1996).

11.6 The Tibetan Abugida

Tibetan sa member f theTibeto-Burmananguageamily,which s tselfa memberof the Sino-Tibetanamily. It is spoken n Tibei and neighbouring reas China,India,Nepal,andBhutan)by about our million people.Tibethaspoliticallybeenapart of Chinasince1951.

According o Buddhist radition, the TibetanKing SrongBtsanSgamPo (earlyseventh enturyNew)senthis son Thon Mi Sambhotan 6,32 o Kashmir o learnthe art of writing in order that the Buddhist extscould be translated nd writrendown in Tibetan.This account s sometimes isputed,but Tibetanwriting is ulti-matelybased n an Indianmodeland was establishedy thesevenrh.nt*y NEw.A grammaticalreatisewaswritten by Thon Mi Sambhoga,f which only portionssurvive.

The earliest xistingTibetan extsare from the eighthand ninth centuriesNEw.The iterary anguage erivesrom Tibetanof the ifteenth o theeighteenth enruries.The moderndialects ifferconsiderablyrom literaryTibetan; he dialectof Lhasa

of centralTibet is considered tandard. n the twentiethcentury,written Tibetanchangedo reflectmoreclosely he spoken anguage.A largenumberof unpronounced onsonants re written in Tibetan.possibly

someof these onsonants erepronouncedat earlierstagesn the historyof Tibetan,but very ikely someof thesewereneverpronounced ut wereused o distinguishhomophonousmorphemes. or modernTibetan, he relationship etweenhewiittenand spoken orms is complex,and the one cannotbe compGtelypredicted romtheother.

_The Libraryof CongressLC) romanization chemes usedhereexcept hat<zha

sha> s used nstead f <z,as,2).The romanization resent one-to-one apping

between ibetanorthography nd Roman etters,without regard o pronunciation-.Because f the considerable ifferencen Tibetanbetweenwriting and ptonunci-ation, it is important to bear n mind that the romanizations simply a device orshowingTibetanspelling n Roman ettersand doesnot necesr"rilv ndicate hepronunciation xactly.

77.6.7 Tibetanpbonemic naentoty

The phonemicnvenroryof Tibetan s given n table 1,r.1,0.Tibetan has a generalsyllableshapeof (C)V(C)+ tone. Generally,an initial

consonantspresent.n nativeTibetanwords hereareno consonant lusters ithinthe syllable.The only final consonants re /p k m n g ll . Words borrowed romSanskrit ftendo haveconsonant lusters.



224 lndian Abugida and Other Asian Writing

Table 11.10 The phonemes of Tibetan

Consonants

p tph th

l s

w l

m

Vowels

ie

Table 11..11 The basicgraphemesof the Tibetan abugida

in the traditional order

y ug o

a

t l k ?rIn kh

h

t s t ctsh th cn

T Ir y

n I

Tones

high

low

"1 <ka>

6 <ca>

5 <ta>t'J <pa>5 <tsa>

q <zha>{ <ra>

1 <ha>

F <kha>

ab <cha>

{ <tha>r{ .pha>

6 <tsha>

t <za>al <la>(fl <a>

1 <ga>E <ja>( <da>{ <ba>( <dza>

A {a>q <sha>4 <fa>

( <na>

9 <fla>q <na>d'l <ma>q <wa>u' l

<ya>s <sa>d <va>

77.6.2 The Tibetan abugida

The Tibetanabugida raditionallyconsists f thirty basicetters lNa'35'<gsalbyed>

lset[elwhich are orderedas shown n table ll.ll; the romanized ranscriptions

also given.The letters or <f v> have been addedat the end recently or foreignwords.

The structuralsimilarity between he Tibetan and Indian abugidass obvious.

\(hen a consonantswritten alone, hevowel<a> sassumedo follow the consonant

as shown in the romanization.The simplestorthographicsyllableconsistsof a single consonantgrapheme,

possiblyaccompanied y a vowel grapheme:€.g.,nl' 4{ '5' <ka se ngu>.A raised

dot is written at the endof everysyllable.Complexsyllablesnvolve he additionof

one or more graphemeso the basicsyllable.The mostcomplicated rthographic

syllable onsists f seven raphemes six consonants nd a vowel- although t is

pronounced s a simpleCVC syllable.

{fl{dr' <bsgrubs> /dnp/ 'completed'




The vowels 5!<s' <dbyangs>yaql) are written aboveor belowrhe consonantgrapheme.Only one vowel occursper syllable.Threevowels are writtenabove he consonant,and is written below. The vowel <a> is not written;a syllablgwith no written vowel conrains he vowel al : n)<ka>,

'.kit,

t.ket,

n1<ku>, .kor.In the rarecaseswherea voweloccursat the beginningof a syllable, t is written

with thegrapheme 6{>.For <d), (w > is writtenalone; heotheivowelsarewrittenwith <w> as though it were a consonant, .e., ars{ plus the appropriatevoweldiacritic.Thisway of writing vowelsojher than lalis Jdepartur. fro- the Brahmisystem:fl '<2>r f' ,G <e>,S' ,6' .ot.

77.6.3 Complexorthographicsyllables

Figure1L.3 shows he structureof the Tibetanorthographicsyllable.The num-bersabove he names ndicate he sequencen which the elements re written.

Only the radical s presentn everysyllable.Only onegrapheme an occur n anyone box; i.e., a syllablecan be written with only one subscriptconsonant.Thevowelof a syllables written in oneof the boxes abelled5. bur nor in both.Each

5Vowel

2

Superscript

1

Prescript

3Radical

6

Postscript1

7

Postscript2

4

Subscript

5Vowel

Figure 17.3 The structure of the Tibetan orthographic syllable



225 Indian Abugidn and Other Asian.Writing

orthographicsyllableconsistsof a radical (box 3) and one or more adscript

graphemes.n adscript onsonantswritten o the ef t (box L),right (boxes or 7),

above box2) , or below(box 4) the radical box 3). A vowel diacritic s written n

box 5, either at the top or at the bottom, depending n the vowel. Figure11.3showsal l possibilities.

The following examples how a variety of forms. Note the lack of simplerela-

tionshipbetweenhe writing andthe pronunciation:{' <thap> thipll'oven'/, {<t<t'

<thaps> thiryl*ry, means'.Threegraphemes nJ {<r I s> occur as superscript raphemes ritten above he

radical n position2: H'<lb> be/,9' <lt> t5l,W <ldz> tfdl,H <lng> gdl.

Four graphemesr, l4 { a .y w r l> are written under he radical n position4.

Subscript <y> appears s a loop .r attochedunder the radical:5' .by"t ltfdl,

5' .pyat lt[61,3'<phya>r[h61.

Subscript <w> appears s a triangle o attached nder he radical.This is notpronounced ut is usedonly to distinguish omophonous yllables. ubscript qr>

appears s a horizontalstroke ^rat the bottom of the radical.Subscript J<l> is

written below the radical. ts shape s not changed, lthoughwritten smaller:5'<dw> lti,l,1' ti/, fl ' <bl> hl.

Superscripts/ occursn box 2, andsubscript l in box 4: {' <spra>t6l,A' <smr>

lm6l.Thegraphemes ( 41 a occur n theprescript osition; hat is, they

are written asa separate rapheme recedinghe radicalwithin the samesyllable.

Prescript raphemes re not pronouncedas such,but they sometimes ffect the

toneof the syllable r distinguish omophonousyllables:1'yut ly6,l,al$'<gyu>lyil;5' <da> di, l , \ '<bda> ldi l .

Thesyllable tructure llowsa maximumof two postscript onsonants,nown aspostscript-landpostscript-2. ostscript-Lllowsavafietyof consonants:q'<khab>

lkhipl, n' <dam> timl, {q' .golt /k&/.The postscript-2position may be filled only by N asl and only if the postscript-l

position s filled; t is not pronouncedr qs ' <khebs> khepl.In writing, the consonants ppear o hang from an imaginary ine. A superscript

consonants written at this line; the radical,any subscript onsonant, nd an 

are oweredaccordingly. lo ' <grub>, he <g> and the both hang rom the

imaginary op line. The <r> is subscript o the <g>. n fl { <sgrub>,he superscript<s>hangs rom the same ine as he and <gru> s ldwered.The vowels

arewritten above he imaginary ine,as shown n i. <gron>.

The raiseddot <' > ltflkl Bol' s placedafter everysyllable.U(ord oundaries re

not indicated.A verticalstroke<l > [e l {5 ' is writtenat the endof longergrammat-

icalunits; t is doubledat the end of the ongest rammatical nits. At the end

of a chaprer,t may bewritten four times<llll>.At theendof a largeportionof text

the following symbolmay appear: PThe Tibetanabugidahas beenpresentedn somedetail althoughmany details

were omitted. t is obvious hat both the internalstructureand the relationship

of writing and languagen Tibetanarequitecomplex.Further, hereare differentcalligraphic tylesn usewhich do not resemble achother verymuch.



Indian Abugida and Otber Asian Writing

rd o

e r

i

227

dt

rdo

rj

Figure 11.4 Two syllables rdo rie/ writtenin Devanagari and 'Phags-pa (from Bright 1999)

ll.7 The 'Phags-paScript

The 'Phags-pa(/'pogz,po/) criptwascreatedby a Tibetanmonk in the thirteenthcentury under instructions rom the Mongolian king Kublai Khan who wantedto devisea unifiedscript for writing the most imporrant anguages f his empire:Mongolian, Chinese, ibetan,and Uighur. The scriptwas basedon the Tibetanmodel; he symbolshavea generally quare hape.

The structure f the Phags-paabugida s verysimilar o the Tibetanand Indian

scriptsexcept hat it is written in vertical ines rom the top left of the page(cf.Mongolian n

$11.8).Symbols or the sounds n al l four languagesre ncluJed.. The 'Phags-pascriptwasusedonly sporadically uring Kublai Khan's eignand

then.generally isappeared.t lingeredsomewhatn the Mongolian area,w-heretis still usedoccasionallyor ornamentalpurposes. omescholars Ledyard 9971havesuggestedhat the Phags-pa

scriptmayhavebeen, t leastpartially, he modeifor Koreanhankul.

In contrast o the Tibetan and Indian models, he non-initial vowel symbolsin'Phags-paare not diacritics figure11.4).Eachsyllable s written asa connectedglyph with the elementsproceeding rom top ro bottom. Consonantclustersaresimplywritten oneon top of the other. Thus, the 'Phags-pasysrem s typologically

intermediate etweenan abugidaand an alphabet.Like an abugida, t doesnoiwrite one vowel, namely al. However,as with an alphabet,both consonants ndvowelsarewritten with freegraphemes,ot diacritics.

11.8 The Mongolian andManchu Alphabets

77.8.7 Mongolian

We saw in chapter 7 that the Aramaic abjad was used in medirval Persia.One

variety, known as Sogdian, was used by Persianspeakers iving in western Chinafrom the third century NEw. The script spread"nd

in the eighth century NEw was




Table11.12 Thesymbolsf Mongolian

Initial Medial Final

J

e

i

o r U

6 r I

n

ng

q

Y

b

(p)

S

I

t ' d

I

m

r.l

(ds)

i

k , g

r

V t W

(h)

I

{

t.4

+:f

,?

)

):

D

+

trf

4

4

?

4

4

I

I

4

4

4 q

. 1 q

t(

.{{

bI

+

f:

4

I

trrf

,.f

4

t

4

41

J

o

,

q

J

I

_4

{

1:

(

I

A-

o

_4

r5



Indian Abugidaand Otber Asian'Writing 229

borrowedand adapted or writing Old Uighur (/'wi,guull, a Turkic language fCentralAsia. Subsequently,he Uighur directionof writing changedand Uighurwas written in verticalcolumnsstartingat the top left of the page.Vowelsweremorefully written than n theAramaic radition,especiallyn initial position.

Uighuriscurrentlywrittenwith the Arabicabjad;Uighur sunusual mong anguagessingthe Arabic abjad in that it has respelledArabic words according o the Uighuipronunciation Kaye19961.

In the twelfth century NEw,the Mongolians borrowed the Uighur script fromwhich a distinctiveMongolian script emerged.Mongolian is an Altaic lang.rage,related o the Turkic languagesndpossiblyo KoreanandJapanese.he Mongolian-speakingarea s divided into Inner Mongolia, a provinceof China, and OuterMongolia,which s the MongolianPeople's epublic.n Inner Mongolia, he tradi-tionalMongolianalphabetsusedalthough he anguagetself sunderconsiderablepressure

rom the Chineseanguage.n Outer Mongolia, rhere s less nfluencefrom Chinese, ut under he nfluenceof the former SovietUnion, the anguage asbeenwritten there n the Cyrillic alphabetsince 1946.Since he breakupof tn.SovietUnion, herehavebeendiscussionsf reverting o the traditionalMongolianalphabetn outer Mongolia,but so far this hasnor happened.'$7hen

the traditional Mongolian alphabet s used, he situation s somewhatdiglossic incean older Middle Mongoliandialect s used.The modern anguagesusedwhenwriting with the Cyrillic alphabet.

In the process f borrowing the abjad rom Uighur into Mongolian,vowelscameto be written fully, thusproducingan alphabetic ysrem f wriring from the earlier

abiad.Visually,Mongolianwriting hasa strongvertical ine forming a backbonewith the ndividual etters ppearing sdistinctivemarkson rhesideof thebackbone(6gure11.5).Therearepositional ariants or initial,medial,and final positions(table11.12\.

<enemode tere modun-atJayeke.>

Figure 1L.5 An example sentence n Mongolian

{

{_

3

{

{

{-





Indian Abugidaand Other Asian'Writing 231

ll.7l Exercises

1 Write your own name and city in the Devandgari cript,payingattention o the

sound,notEnglish pelling.2 fn $11 4.2.4, shortpassage f Sanskrit asgiven n he Devandgarlscript.elow,

the sameSanskrit assages given n the Bengali cript.AlthoughodaySanskritis usuallywritten n Devandgarlhroughoutndia, n the past t waswritten n thelocalscripl,as hasbeendonehere.Notice hat he anguage ere s stillSanskrit;only he script s Bengali.

qrnq: Trqt-dc,;Trm fucq-qqcor<-ftg'e1a[6ff

Cor{ tt" s'er<{ {ir+rkraqfub{ t-gow.vr"nrS cn<"n-sqen

(a) write the Bengali ymbolsor the following onsonants:

(b) In one case, a merger n Bengaliof two soundswhich were distinct nSanskrited to the use of one symbof or both sounds n Bengafi.Whatarethe sanskritsoundsand what s the commonBengali ymbol?

SoundA in Sanskrit Roman ymbol)SoundB in Sanskrit Roman ymbol)

(c) For the followingvowels show the bound and free forms found in theBengali assage.For he bound orms,show hemwith he consonant k>.Not al l free ormsoccur.Bound ong dl is given or you.

Bound Free Bound Free

sT

g

nthnb

v

rhI

kj

tdp

mS

h

aI

aiu

eo





12 Maya

l2.l BackgroundandHistoryDuring the middle of the last millennium oLD, writing was invented in Meso-America, an arca of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Hondurasand El Salvador. This is one of the three clear caseswhere writing was inventedwith no prior knowledge of writing. Scholars have identified

"rru-b., of scripts in

this area; most of them, however, have very little textual material. Recent ,tt.*pt,at decipherment appear to be hopeful for the Zapotec and Epi-Olmec writing(Macri 1995). Quite possibly, some of the other scripts are nor *iiting proper, bu iincipient writing, that is, graphic represenration which did not fully d.u.tp inro

writing. One Meso-American society, he Maya, however, clearly developed fulyfledged_writing system leaving thousands of texts. Some Maya texts are written onsmall objects,but the majority of material is found on stone monuments, which areunfortunately now subject to weathering and looting. Four texts written on barksurvived the Spanishconquest and the humid tropical climate.

The classic Maya period is dated 250-900 NEw; it was a robust, sophisticatedculture, organized in interdependent city states with magnificent architicture andart. Maya culture experienced a major reorganization in the tenth century NEw,strong enough that it has often been described as a cultural collapse. Ifritin g afterthis time was severelycurtailed although it survived to the time of the Sfanish

conquest in the fifteenth century.In

'1,549,a severeRoman Catholic priest from Spain, Diego de Landa, arrived

in the Yucat6n peninsula of Mexico. As part of his mission^ty work to convert theMaya to his religion, he burnt several Maya books becausehe considered them'pagan'.

Even the Inquisition considered some of Landa's methods a bit extremeand recalled him to Spain. As part of his defenceand rehabilitation Landa wrotea document describing Maya life, which included information on the calendarand the writing system(Tozzer 1,941).The documenr was lost for many years butresurfaced n 1853. After elevenyears in Spain, Landa was sent back as a bishopto Mexico where he died. Shortly after the Spanishconquestof Meso-America, the

Maya writing sysremwas abandoned and forgotten..

Landa attempted to establish Maya equivalents for the Roman alphabet; thishas come to be known as Landa's alphabet. This has provided May.nirt, wiih an



234 Maya

invaluable, although for many years puzzhng, tool for the task of deciphering the

Maya script. Landa's main consultant was a Yucatec speaker,Antonio Gaspar Chi,

who knew some Spanish. The problem with Landa's alphabet is that the Maya

symbols representmorc, i.e., CV sequences, ut Landa expected he symbols to bealphabetic. For example, he described the Maya way of writing , but this is

in fact the symbol for the CV-sequence bel. Probably, Landa asked Chi how he

would write the letter which Landa pronounced in Spanishas lbel; thus, Ch i

wrote down the symbol for the mora lbel, not an alphabetic symbol for lb l which

Landa expected.An interesting example showing this confusion is Landa's report of

the Maya writing fo r'water'.

PresumablyLanda knew the Maya word for'water'

lhal.'lfhat we acrually find is a nonsensesequenceof Maya symbols representing

the sounds la-t[e-al.Landa's question to Ch i was apparently not'How

do you write

lhal?', bu t rather'How do you write <h> <a>?' Landa spelled he word; in Spanish

<h> is pronounced latlel, and <a> lal.Scholarly interest in the ancient Maya began in the nineteenth century. Early

archaologistswere able to uncover entire citiesabandonedand coveredby centuries

of tropical growth. This interest grew with new discoveriesand continues strong

today. Although the area is still populated by Maya-speaking peoples, the lan-

guageand culture have changedsince he time of the ancient Maya. Modern Maya

speakershave little or no detailed oral tradition of historical eventsof the ancient

period. Today, there are some 28 Maya languagesspoken by four million people

in the area.

In the mid-twentieth century, the leading Maya scholar was Sir Eric Thompson.

Thompson was a giant in the field, and any modern Maya scholar stands on hisshoulders;however, about certain important aspectsof Maya culture and writing,

Thompson was dead wrong. Thompson believed that the Maya texts were not writ-

ing in the sense hat they representedanguage(i.e.,phonemesand morphemes),but

rather semantic deas.He also believed hat they did not representhistoric events.

He conceived of the ancient Maya as a peaceful and gentle folk whose priests

contemplated he motions of heavenly bodiesand constructedan intricate calendar,

occasionallymaking monuments about calendricalobservations.'Wenow know that

the writing expressed he Maya language, that the ancient Maya were frequently at

war with eachother, and that the monuments document historic events.Coe (1992)

has an interesting discussionof how Thompson with his strong beliefs,persuasiveelegance, nd control of the pursestringsof Maya researchdelayed he decipherment

of the Maya texts.

The key to the decipherment camewhen a Russian,Yuri Knorosov (1952), showed

that Maya writing representedsomewords phonetically. Thompson strongly attacked

Knorosov's theory, but it has ultimately proved correct. Shortly thereafter,another

Russian,Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1.960),showed hat Maya texts documented historic

facts. Again, Thompson criticized her work, but in the end, even he admitted that

Proskouriakoff was right. From the 1970s on, enormous strides have been made

and continue to be made in deciphering the Maya texts to the point now where

we can understand most of them. Researchhas reached he point where different

dialects can be identified in the texts (Vail and Macri 2000).



Maya 235

Figure 72.1 The order of reading a Maya rext

72.2 Structureof the Maya Writing System

72.2.1 Intemal structure

Y^y^ writing is organized graphicallyas a seriesof squarish iguresknown asglyphs.A glyph may consistof only one grapheme, ur com-only, two or moregraphemes re combined nto one Slyph.Two graphemesmay be conjoinedbyreducing ach n sizeor by usingonly a part of eachgrapheme. raphemes rraybecombinedby attaching ne o another; n thiscase,he main symboi s graphicallythe more prominentone,and the diacritic is the lessprominentsymbol.Dtiacriticsmay be positionedo the eft, right, top, or bottomof the main symbol.More thanonediacriticmay occur n a singleglyph.Occasionally, negraphemes infixedor

included n the orher.In generala text goes rom the top left corner to the bottom right. A typicaltext is written in double columnsand is read in a zigzagmotion downwards] henumbered lyphs n figure12.1show he orderof readinghe rext. n an nscripiiorr,glyphsareusuallyof equalsizealthough he ntroductoiyglyphsmay be of doublewidth, i.e.,occupyinghe space ormallyusedby glyphs aid z.

The novicereaderof Maya text typically finds the correct nterpretationof thesymbols erydifficultand frustrating.Often he distinguishing"ttbf two differentsymbols s a relativelysmall portion; and conversely,*o rrih.r different-lookingelementsmay in fact be variantsof the same ymboi.

Plate5 is an inscription rom around 765 rqnv depicting he presentation fcaptiveso a ruler.Note particularly he integration f the several hort extswiththe picture.

72.2.2 Relation to language

Maya writing hasfour typesof symbols:morphograms,moraic symbols,semanticcomplements' ndphonologicalcomplements.Morphograms epresentmorphemes;moraic symbolsare phonographic,epresenting V sequences.he comp1.-.nt,provideadditional nformation o securehe properreadingwhere t mightoiherwise

beambiguous. emanticomplementsre ather are,burphonologicaliomplementsarequitecommon.



236 Maya

Plate 6 Maya inscription, ca. 785 Nnw. Presentation of captives to a Maya ruler,

UsamacintaRiver Valley. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Reproduced courtesy

of the Kimbell Art Museum



237aya

tr&fftrBalam

( 1 )

Ba Balam

Ma

Ba Balam

Ba [a

Ma

,r,ffiBalam

Ma

"rffi ,rff i

,r,mFigure 2.2 Differentwaysof writing balaml

Theword lbalaml'jaguar'canbewritten n anumberof differentways(figure Z.Z).One way is simply o use he morphographic ymbolalone(1). Alternaiively, hismorphographic ymbolcould be accompaniedy a phonological omplemenisbal

written as a prefix (2). Or, a phonological omplement malcould be written as asuffix (3). Note that the vowel la l is chosen or the suffix since he last vowel oflbalam/ is an lal; the al of the suffix lmal in this case s a dummy vowel and notintendedo bepronounced it is theresimplybecausehe scriptonly hasCV-sizedphonographic nits.A furtherpossiblewriting of the word is that boin a prefixanda suffixcouldbewritten (4).Or, theword couldbewrittenenrirely honemically slba-la-mal(againwith the al of lmal beinga dummy vowel) (s).

Note how the alternativewritings of Maya resemblehepossibilitiesn Egyptian.Egyptian, owever,ended o pick onealternarive nd use t regularly.Maya,-on heother hand,seemedo enjoy using the available ariation.

Aside rom the differentwaysof constructing lyphs ust discussed,rherkindsof vatiation occur.Not infrequently, wo unrelatedgraphsare simply two waysofwriting the sameelement; or example, igure 12.3showsalternativewaysof writ-ing 'zero'.Many morphographsavespecial eadvariants,which end o beused nmore prominentpositions.Thesehavesomepart of the normal variant attachedas a diacritic to a human head.For somegraphs, here s alsoa full-figurevariantinvolvingan entirehuman body.Theseare usuallydouble-widthglyphs ound inintroductorymaterial.

Maya scribesended o exploitdifferentpossiblewaysof writing the same hing.In a text, one frequentlyseeshe sameword written differently. Even the namJs

of Maya kingsand citiesshow variation n writing. Perhapso the Maya, o usethe samewriting too close ogetherwasastheticallyunpleasing,ust

",in English

we tendto avoidusing he sameword twice too close ogether.



238 Maya

Numeral Head variant Ful l igurevar iant

Figure 72.3 Alternative ways of writing'zero'

Palenque

Figure 12.4 Emblem glyphs for three Maya cities

Certainkinds of glyphshave received pecialattention n Maya studies.The

verbal glyphsfound on monumentsprovide information about 'birth', 'death','accession',matriage',wagingwar', 'bloodletting',etc. Somemark the end of a

calendrical eriod.Many verbalaffixeshavebeen dentified.

Otherglyphsgive henames nd itlesof rulers.A common itle isahaw, he king

of eachmajorsite,although hawcouldalsobepart of the itle of a lesser ignitary.

Namesof dignitariesare commonly ollowed by the namesof their parents.

Emblemglyphs figure1.2.4)wererecognizedn the 1950s.Each s peculiar o a

particularcity. Typically, hey have lch'ull'holy' (appearing s a stringof blood

droplets) refixed,a superfixedorm of abaw,and a main symbolwhich identifies

the ocality.The Palenque mblemglyphmeansthe Holy Lord of Palenque'.

12.3 The Maya Calendar

Dates are a prominent feature of Maya inscriptions; frequently every sentence f a

texr begins with a date. The Maya had a very complicated calendar which was a

part of the generalMeso-American culture. In few other ancientcultures do we have

the precisedating that we have for Maya history. Rather than saying that something

happened between500 and 550, as we often do for other cultures, fo r Maya events

we can often say, for example, that it happened on2 August 521.

First, le t us consider our own calendar for a moment.'We

have two independ-

en t cycles.One cycle is a weekly cycle of sevendays with each day named in turn,

Monday, Tuesday, etc.This seven-day yclecontinues ndefinitely with no variation

-7*- -vl}lfr -l

N - t - - , a t , a

I . - I I I I I I I I \ I

l t- l t

t g

Y E I t t ' t t t l , r

PiedrasNegras

ffiTikal



Maya 239

whatsoever.The other cycle s a yearlyone of'1,2

months:January,February,etc.Again this cyclecontinuesndefinitely.Eachmonth consists f Zd,30, or:i daysaccordingo a set ormula.This givesa yearof 365 days.Actually, a'year s a bitless han 365-25days ong. The

Julian calendar"su-Ld that a yearwas exacrly365.25days ong and addedone day to the yearlycycleevery our years a leapyear); he seven-day eeklycycle reats he eapday asan ordina y d,ay nd is notalteredby leap years.To distinguishyears rom eachother, we needan arbitraryreferenceoint.For us, hat ismidnightbetween 1 December orn and January1 Nnw.Yearsarenumbered onsecutivelyeforeand after his point. Datesbeforethis arbitrarypoint we call oro and datesafter his as Nnw (see oreon datesonp. xvii).

Over ime, heslightdeviationrom the 355.25-day earhadaccumulated,nd bytheeighteenthenturyNEw, heJuliancalendarwaseleven ays ate.TheGiegorian

calendarattempts o fix this problem:yearsdivisibleby 400 are leapyears"(ass2000)'but otheryears ivisible y 100arenot (1900,2100).Most wesrern uropeancountries doptedhe revisedGregorian alendarn the ateeighteenth nd nineteenthcenturies. thercountries doptedhe Gregorian alendarn the twentiethcentury.You may be familiarwith datedifferencesetweenhe Westernand the OrthodoxChurches;his s becausehe OrthodoxChurch etainedheJuliancalendar.n thefollowingdiscussion, regoriandatesare used.

Next, let's review he Maya numberingsystem figureL2.5)which is vigesimal,i.e.,based n thenumber20. One s written as one dot; *oras two dots; hrrr, ^,threedots; ndfour ,asfourdots. iueiswr i r tenasabar.Srr is barunjon. jot ,

and so on up to ten which is two bars.Nineteen s threebarsand four dots.Forlargernumbers positional ystemwasused imilar o our decimal ystem. orone,we write 1; for ten,we write 1 but oneposition o the eft,adding azero- 10; fora hu.ndred,we ut the 1 in the third columnto the left - tOO. he Maya ur.d

"imilarsystem ut based n twenty (figure12.5).To write 20, oneputsonedot inthesecondow from the bottom.Two dotswould be40, andso on. Since umbersin anyonerow extend rom 0 to 19, a singledot in the third row would be 400.Asingledot in thefourth row would be 8000,etc.Therewasa special ymbol for zero.

Now let's ook at the Maya calendar.A day s a k'in. K'iis rr . orgrrrizednto anumberof largerunits table Z.I).

The arbitrary irst day of the Maya calendars 13 August 3t14 oro (Mathews1996). ITedo not know why this datewas selected.t appearso be animaginarydate n Maya historysince t predates y far any known Mrya sertlementn t4eso-America.Although there s somedisagreement, ost scholars se he Goodman-Martinez-ThompsonGMT) correlationof Maya and Gregorian ates.

Table 12.1 Calendar units

20 k'ins'1.8

winals20 tuns20 k'atuns

u.,inal

tunk'atun

bak'tun

20 days

350 days7200 days

144,000days



240

8000

400

@0

oI T

5 5

oI TI T

1 0' 1 1

oI II T

I I

1 5 1 6

o o

@

20

Maya

o o

2

o aI

-,

o oI

I

1 2

o oI

--

1 7

o

I

o o o3

o o o o4

o o o o o o or I

8 9

o o o o o o or I- -

1 3 1 4

o o o o o o oI -

- -I -

1 8 1 9

o

o

o0

I

o

o-I

o o o-

16,628

Figure 12.5 Maya numbers

A datecan be specified s a certainperiodof time from the arbitrary irst day.

For example, he Gregorian ateof 25 February607 NEwwould be 9 bak'tuns,8

knt'uns,13 uns, 2 winals,78k'insafter hearbitrary irstday.Mayanists bbreviate

this as 9.8.1,3.1,2.18.he followingdaywould be 9.8.13.1.2.1.9,nd the dayafter

that would be9.8.13.13.0 ince 0 k'insequalonewinal. Maya dates ecordedike

this in referenceo the arbitrary first day areknown as ong counts.The systemof

using ong countswas a Maya invention. It lasteduntil the reorganizationof the



Maya 241

Figure 12.6 Maya calendar showing the tz'olkinz the number of the day is determined bythe left wheel and the name of the day by the right wheel. The day shown is 1 Imix; thenext day will be 2Ik', and the day after that will be 3 Ak,bal

classical Maya world in the tenth century NEw. The earliesr recorded long counr isa decorative endantdated8.4.0.0.0 120NEw); he lasrrecordedong *orrt *" ,10.4.0.0.0909Nnw)at Tonind(Schelend Freidel 990).

Independentrom the ongcounts, he Maya, alongwith otherpeoples f Meso-America,alsohad a complexcyclicalcalendar, nown as a calendar ound, con-sistingof two parts.One part is known as he tz'olkin,which can be portrayedastwo interlocking wheels (figure 12.6) turning in oppositedirections.One wheel(left)has L3 numbers;he otherwheel(right)has20 nameddays.The orderof thedays s shown in the figure from Imix to Ahaw. Everyday, both wheels advance

one notch.For example, he first day is I Imix; the following day is 2 Ik'; the thirdday is 3 Ak'bal; the fourth 4 K'An,etc. until 13 Ben.The diy following L3 Ben sI Ix; the numberwheelhas returned o L, but the namewheelstill has furthernames.The twentieth day is 7 Ahaw; the day following this is I Imix; and then9 Ik', etc.Theentirecycle akes260 dayso complete. he 259thday s lZ Kawak,the 250th is 13 Abaw, and thecyclestartsoverwith 1 Imix.The tz'olkin cyclecon-tinues ndefinitely, epeating very260 days. n texts, the z'olkin date s representedby a numberprefixed o a morphographof the day name.

Thesecond art of thecalendaround s the haab.The haabcanbe houghtof asanother argewheel notshown)of 365 days in Maya studies,his s oftencalleda

vague earsince t is about tl4 dayshortof the solaryear).On thiswheel, heyearis divided nto'l'9 namedmonths.The first 18 monthshave20 dayseach,andthelastmonth Wayebhas5 days. Tithin the months, he consecuriveaysaresimply



242 Maya

numbered.The first day is t Pohp, the seconds 2 Pohp. The last day of Pohp

is, however,not called20 Pohp,but rather he'seatingof Wo', usuallywritten as'0 Wo'. The next day s then L Wo, and hen2 Wo, until 0 Zip. The secondastday

of the year is 4

'Wayeb;

the last day is 0 Pohp; and the haab cycle beginsagainwith 1 Pohp.Like the tz'olkin thehaabcyclecontinuesndefinitely, epeating very

355 days. n texrs, hehaabdate s representedy a numberprefixed o a morpho-

graphof the nameof the month.

The calendar oundconsists f the nteraction f the two cycles,he tz'olkin and

thehaab.For example,we know that the arbitraryfirst day of the Maya calendar

was 4 Ahaw 8 Kumk'u. The next day after his was 5 Imix 9 Kumk'u. The tenth

day after his was2 Chuuten19 Kumk'u. The following day would havebeen3 Eb

0 Vayeb. Together,he tz'olkin and the haabdescribe periodof L8,980daysor

52 years.At theendof 52 years,he calendar oundstartsover.Thecalendaround

was nor limited to the Maya, but was used hroughoutMeso-America.n fact, tcontinues ven oday n manyMayacommunities ith a localpersondesignateds

responsibleor keeping rack of the dateaccurately.

In Maya texts,datesarewritten in differentways.The fullestversion s the nitial

seriesoundat the beginning f the ext: first the ongcountdate, hen hecalendar

round date.This was often followedby othercalendricalnformationsuchas the

numberof dayssince he astnew moon.Later n a text, datesweregivenas a dis-

tancenumbershowinga dateas a distancerom someother date,e.g.,'4238days

earlier'or '382 days ater'. Distance atesarewritten in the reverse rder of long

counts,startingwith the smallest nit.

The Maya celebratedhe completionof a larger round' period, hat is the endof a tun, k'Atun, or bak'tun, much as we might celebratehe end of centuryor

millennium. f suchan endof a periodoccurswithin the imeframe f the ext,such

a datemight bementioned, .g., 8 Altaw'1.3Keh,endof a bak'tun'.

12.4 Example Text

I7e will now examine a short passageof a text from Palenque (/pa'lerlkejl), an

ancient Maya city in the modern state of Chiapas in Mexico. Palenque is a city of

magnificent architecture, and it also contains many records of its important history.In one building, an inscription was found with a designof a cross n the centre.This

tablet is known as the Tablet of the Cross. It records a number of important events

about various rulers of Palenque.The deciphermentof this text was the combined

work of severalpeople; I am following the analysisgiven by Mathews (1995).

Maya scholars use letters to identify the columns and numbers for the rows.

I7e will examine the text S13-S17. Recall that we read a text zigzagging down a

double set of columns; the columns relevant for this text are R and S. The syntax

in this sentence s distancemarker - verbl - subject - verb2 date. Roughly this is

equivalent to English'A

certain period of time (distance marker) after the date

when the subject did verb1,he/shedid verb2'.The easiestplace to start a Maya text is with the dates; they are usually quite

obvious because hey contain numbers, which are easy o recognize.The first three

glyphs (S13-514) contain numbers giving information about a date.



Maya

R l 4

243

s 1 3

,6 '

,rrffi-,winar,,-ts,-

s 1 4

Figure12.7 The first threeglyphsof Text s13-17 showing he date:1.19.6.15(in reverse rder) (from Dr. Merle GreeneRobertson,TheSculptureof Palenque, ol.Iy,S13ll7 (includingR14-R17).Princeton: rincetonUniversityPress,19gl.A ble AyMerle GreeneRobertson.Reproducedwith permission)

Table12.2 Calculation f the distance umber1.19.6.16

k'atuns tuns tuinals k'ins

= 2 0

t9= 360= 342

6

= 7200= 6480= 120

76

'1.3,8"16Total

Thefirst glyph(S13),n fact,has wo numbers figure12.7):the irst s L6 wrimenverticallyat the left. Eachof the threebarsrepresents, and the centralball is 1.The two handle-likeobjectsat the top left and bottom left simply fill the spacearoundthe ball. \7e will leaveaside or the momenrwhat is beingcounred.Thesecondhalf of the glyph has the number 5 written hofizontallyatlhe top, and acircularelementwith threeballs at the bottom. By consultinga list of ialendarunits,we can find that the circular element s the symbol for winaL Thus,we have'15){

and5 winals'.

_The next glyph (R14)givesus 19 tuns. Finally,S14shows1 k'atun So ar, our

date eads15 X, 6 utinals,lg tuns,1.h'atun.This s not a longcountsincewe haveno indicationof bak'tun.Rather, t is a distancemarkershowinga certainperiodoftime distant rom anotherdate, ratheras we might say two y."rr, threemonths,and four daysafter X'. Now, let'sreturn o rhe irst number16. fle have he unitswinal, tun, andk'atun explicitly expressedn the order of increasing ize.

Sfecan

seehat.thedayunit of k'in would ogicallyoccurbeforewinal;rhus, he numb r !6implicitly refers o k'ins. The entiredistancemarker s 15 k'ins,6 tuinals,L9 tuns,and 1 k'atun. Recall hat distance umbersare alwayswritten in this order, thereverse f theway theywould bewritten at the beginning f an inscriprion.Modernscholars bbreviate oth types he sameway, startingwiih the argesiunit; thusour

distance umber s 1.19.6.16.1{ e do thearithmetic table 2.4,we cansee harthis s equivalento 13,815daysor almost38 years.

The glyph R15 gives he first verb (figure 2.8\. Although t may be difficult forneophyteso see, cholarsecognizehe mainelement sa frog'shead acingupwards.



244

lsihl 'be born'

thitphoneticomplementredundanti/

Maya

lk'an/'yellow,

precious'

- lhok'l 'knot'

-lchitaml 'peccary'

-/ma/

phonetic omplement

redundanta/

s 1 5R l 5

FigureL2.8 Theverband subject f Text 513-17 (fromDr. Merle GreeneRobertson,

Tbe Sculptureof Palenque, ol. IV, Sl3l17 (includingR14-R17). Princeton:Princeton

UniversityPress,7991,.@ 7976 by Merle GreeneRobertson.Reproducedwith permission)

R 1 6

lhunl bark cloth'

liwall'and

then' l tul-

Itubal'on him'

Figure 72.9 The second verbal phrase of Text Sl3-17 (from Dr. Merle Greene

Robertson, The Sculpture of Palenque,Vol. IV, 513/17 (including R14-R17). Princeton:

Princeton University Press,1,991.@ 1976 by Merle Greene Robertson. Reproduced with

permission)

It has been identified as meaning'he/she was born' and had the sound /sih/. The

phonetic element hi/ is suffixed to the main elementas a phonological complement.

Morphograms are shown in italics, and phonograms in regular type.

The subject of the text is given by the glyph 515. Mathews (19961identifiesthis

person as rhe king K'an-Hok'-Chitam I. The prefix at the left with the cross is

lk'anlmeaning'yellow' or'precious' (the latter alternativeprobably more appropri-

ate here). The main elementshows a headwith a vertical cloth band tied at the top.

The cloth band was a symbol of kingship. Mathews identifies his as hok'/ meaning'knot' (metaphorically ascendingthe throne). The head appears to be that of a

peccary lchitaml (a peccary is a pig-like mammal of Central and South America).

Finally, the phonological complement lmalis suffixed at the bottom; only the con-

sonanr /m/ is intended to be pronounced. Together this gives he name K'an-Hok'-

Chitam. So far our rexr readssomething ike'13,816 days after K'an-Hok'-Chitam

was born'.

The secondverb is given in two glyphs R15-S15 (figure I2.9). R15 meansand

then, he acceded o the throne', literally'and

then, he tied the white bark cloth',

although not al l details are clear. The main glyph presumably means 'tie' but a

clear reading has not yet been made. Three superfixes are found here: from left

to right, tiwall'and

then'; this shows clearly that the activity of the second verb

s 1 6

- lsak/ white'

--? tie'



Maya 245

R17 s' \7

W-*avab'Figure 12.10 Calendar round of the accessiondate af Text S13-17 (from Dr. MerleGreene Robertson, Th e Sculpture of Palenque,Vol. lV, 5"1,3117including R14-R17).Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. @ 1976 by Merle Greene Robertson.Reproduced with permission)

follows hat of the first.The other wo prefixes tate he object: sak/'white', lhunl'barkcloth'.Thewholeglyphwould read iwal . . . sak hun/'and then he [tied] he

white barkcloth'.The second lyphof the second erb S15 s simply tu-bal 'on him'; i.e., he

tied,the cloth on himself. This is written phonetically: tul is on the left, and lbal onthe right.

-The inal wo glyphsR17-517(figure12.10)givea calendaround giving he dayof the accessiono the throne.The tz'olkin is 5 K'dn, and the haabls tf X'ayab.Rememberhat a calendar ound date recursevery52 years. rom other datesonthe text,however,we canbe airly sure hat thisoccurrence f S K'an 12 K'ayab sthe day with the ongcounrof 9.4.14.10.4.

Our text now can be translatedn full: '\7hen 16 k'ins,5 uinals, !9 tuns,and 1

k'atun had passed fterK'an-Hok'-Cbitam wasborn, he then ied thewhite bandon himself 1= became ing] on 5 K'An 12 K'ayab 19.4.14.10.41.,ccording oMathews (1996), his would havebeenpronoun.edas /waklahun,wak winf,-hibolonlahun un-i hun k'atum sih-i k'an-hok'-chitamwal . . . -hi sak hun tu-ba ho?k'an lahchaz 'anasi/.

Weknow that K'an-Hok'-Chitam was 1 19.6.16old when

he accededo the hroneon 9.4.14.10.4. herefore,f we subtract .lg.6.lG from9.4.14.10.4, e get rhe day of his birth - 9.2.15.3.8 =Wednesday,2lFebruary529, n Gregorian).

9. 14. 1,0. 4

19. 6. 16

9 . 2 . 1 5 . 3 . 8

12.5 Further Reading

Mayastudieshas not evolved o the pointwhere here s a gooddealof secondaryliterature hich s easifyaccessibleo the uninitiated. oe (1ggg)and Sharer 19g4)are introductionso Mayaculturegenerally.MontgomeryQOO2)s the mostgeneral

treatment f the script.Other nformation n Mayawriting s to be found n HarrisandStearns1992), ouston1989),Macri 1996), ounsbury1989),Mathews1996),J. Thompson1950), nd Vaifand Macri 2000).Coe (1992) s a fascinating ccount



246 Maya

of the historyof the Maya decipherment.he late LindaSchelewas central n the

deciphermentnd hasa numberof workswhichconsider pecificextsand provide

information n both Mayawritingand art: Scheleand Freidel 1990),Scheleand

Miller 1986), ndSchele ndMathews1998).

12.6 Terms

calendar ound

diacritic

distance umber

emblem lyph

full-figure ariant

glyphhaab

headvariant

initialseries

Landa's lphabet

longcountmainsymbolMaya

moraicmorphogram

phonologicalomplementsemantic omplement

tz'olkinvagueyear

12.7 Exercises

1 Whatare he structural imilarities nddifferences etweenhe MayaandEgyptian

writingsystems?

2 Assume hat he longcount or 1 January 000was 12.19.6.15.2.alculatehelong count or today'sdate.

3 Expresshe distance etweenodayand1 January 000as a series f Mayaunits:

e.9.,XX funs,YY winals,ZZ k'ins.



13 Other\Tritirg Sysrems

This chapterdescribes even nterestingwriting systemswhich do not fit neatly ntoother chapters.Although most nativeNorth American anguages avebeenwrittenby borrowingandadapting he Romanalphabet hrough.ontr.t with theSpanish,French,and English,a numberof indigenous criptshavebeen nvented. ilrewillexaminehree:Cherokee, ree,and nuktitut (seeJfl.Walker 1,995or details boutother North Americanwriting systems). ater,we discusswo European ystems:runic and ogham.Thenwe look at PahawhHmong from Southeast iia, oneof theworld'smostrecently eveloped riting sysrems. inally,we look at Bliss,perhapsthe only semantically asedwriting sysrem.

73.1 Cherokee


Cherokeesan Iroquois anguage poken n the UnitedStatesn North CarolinaandOklahoma.Around 1820,Sequoyahca.1770-1843),a previouslylliteratenativespeaker f Cherokee, eveloped moraicscript or his anguage. isually,manyofthe Cherokee ymbols redrawnfrom upper-case oman itteis. Others'are ltera-tionsof Roman ettersor invented ymbols. lthough he Cherokee ymbolsmay npart resembleRoman etters n their shape,he system iffers n two importantwaysfrom

theRomanalphabet:irst, he Cherokee ysrems moraic,not alphabetic; ndsecond,he valuesof the Cherokee ymbolshaveno relation o their oidin^ryyaluesin the Romanalphabet. heseactsareconsistent ith the reports hat Sequoyah aspreviouslylliterateand unfamiliarwith Roman ettersexceptasgraphicsymbols.

By 1821, Sequoyah ad publicizedhis writing system,and it spread apidlyamongsthe Cherokee.t hasbeen sed or a largevarietyof personal ndpublishedwriting, particularly or record-keepingf nativemedical r."t*etrts and or Christianpublications,ncludinga New Testament nd a hymnal.

Shortly after the development f the Cherokeescript, an Americanmiss onary,Samuel

Sforcester,arranged o have a rype font cast for printing. \Torcesteralso

devisedhe transliteration chememostoftenused or Cheiokee. .rn.", elli 1996)reports hat reading ronunciations,ased n'Worcester'sransliteration. resome-t imesheard.



248 Other Writing Systems

Table 13.1, The phonemes of Cherokee

? i u

e 5 oa

k*

tstlsI

m nw i

Table 13.2 The symbols f Cherokee

Da, ?a

$ka

+ha

wla , hla

d'ma

ena

0kwa, khwa

oO

s

tta

Vtna

frtla

Gtsa, tsha

G

wa, hwaoja, hia

Rer Te

?ke, kne

?he

d'le, hle

3.Ane, hne

(l

kwe, khwe

i$

te

Tthe

Lt le, thle

Ttse, tshe

il9we, hwe

0ie,hie

Ti , ?i

vki, khi

.0hi

fl i , hli

Hmi

hni, hni

Tkwi, khwi

bsi

J

ti

x. h .

t " l

Ct l i , thl i

h

tsi, tshi

owi, hwi

{,

ii, hji

d5o, ?o

Ako, kho

lho

clo , hlo

1"nno, hno

"trkwo, khwo

l"Vto, tho

stlo, thlo

Ktso, tsho

e,wo, hwo

6jo, hjo

0u,2u

Jku , khu

Ihu

Mlu, hlu

r,q

nu,hnu

(okwu, khwu

I

i' ?5

Dk5, kh5

&h5

fl

15, l5

0n5, hn5

Ekw5, khw5

0kh a

t'hna

f,th la

V Rsu s5

s 0 "L

-h -tu , t "u ta, t "a

C Ptlu, thlu tl5, thlS

d Gtsu, tshu ts5, tshS

. 9 6wu, hwu w5,hw5

G Bju,hju i5,hi5



Other Writing Systems 249

Although he numberof speakersf Cherokees small today, he scriptconrinuesto beused n newslettersnd other publications.

73.7.2 Phonologyof CherokeeThe phonemes f Cherokee re shown n table 13.1.

73.7.3 The Cherokee cript

Thesymbols f the Cherokee criptaccordingo'Worcester'srrangementregivenin table 13.2with a phonetic ranscription.

The Cherokeewriting systems essentiallymoraicexcepr or fi <s>which is usedfot lslin onset lusters nd n codaposition. n CV sequences,s/ swrittenmoraically:U 4b* 6"

R /sasesi so su si/.In relation o the phonology, heorthographicsystem sunderdifferentiatedsomephonemic ontrasts re not representedn the writing system)n variousways. Anull onset s not distinguished rom one with a glotial- rop: e.g., D la, zal. T]heonsets l,hll, /kry, khw/, /ts, tsh/,/w, hw/, lj,hjt are not diitinguishedn writing.The onsets k, kh/, /n, hnl, /tl, thl/ aredistinguished efore lal, but not befoiethe othervowels.The onsetst, th l are distinguished efore a,e, /, but not beforelu ,o,5/. Scancarelli1992)says hat the pointsof underdifferentiation ith respectto the aspirated nd unaspirated topshaverelatively ittle role in distinguishingmorphemes. heargues hat placeswhereSequoyah id maintainplain-a-spiratel

contrastsare thosewhosefrequent

appearance imply made them perceptuallysignificanto him'.Codal lhl or ltl is not written, nor is vowel lengthnor tone.The symbolG is

shown n someversions or nahl, but Walker (1996)says hat it is not used.To indicateonsetclusters r codal consonants ot otherwiseprovided or, the

consonants written with a dummyvowel.For example,kthot?al it is hanging' swritten asD VD <k5-to-a>.

13.2 Cree

73.2.7 Backgroundand bistory

In Canada,around 1840, John Evans,a Methodist missionary rom England,developedhe writing systemwidely known as Creesyllabics.Evansbegan Jrkittgon writing systemsor Ojibwa when he was in Ontario, usingboth the Romanalphabet nd scriptshe devised imself.After moving o Norway-Hour. n Ruperr,sLand (now Manitoba) n 1840,he developedhe cree writing iyrt.*.

The Creesystem pread apidly. Reports rom the atenineteenth enturysay hatvirtually everyadult Cree speakerwas literare;evenallowing for someexaggera-

tion, Creemay havehad oneof the highest iteracy ates n the world at the time.At first, the churches pposedhe useof Evans'system, swell as he useof Creeitself.Thesuccessfulpread f Creewriting,without nstitutional upport,however,



250 Other Writing SYstems

led hechurches ventuallyo support he Creescript. n 1851,an entireBiblewas

publishedn London n Creewriting.

Some mallgeographicseehe east-west ifferencesn writing codalconsonants

in table 13.4)and evensectarian ariantsof the Creesystem avearisen.Until themid-twentieth entury,publishedmaterial ended o be imited o religiousmaterial.

Since hen,however,an increasing mountof secularmaterialhasbeenpublished

using the Creesystem,suchas schoolbooks, opular magazines, nd government

publications.

TheCreesysrem asbeenused or other anguagest times,suchas heAthapaskan

languages hippeweyan nd Carrier; he mostsuccessfulf these orrowings, ow-

ever,hasbeen nto Inuktitut (S13.3).

Evans was familiar with Sequoyah'swriting for Cherokee,with Deuandgari

(chapter1L) from India,and alsowith Pitmanshorthand.He apparently rew on

shorthand or the shapes f the symbols.PossiblyEvans'use of rotation of theconsonanrso showdifferentvowelswas inspiredby suchmodels.He might also

have been nfluencedby his knowledgeof Deuanagartwhich treats he consonant

as basicand writesvowelsas diacriticsymbolsbefore,after,above,or under he

consonantdepending n the particularvowel).

73.2.2 Phonologyof Cree

Cree is an Algonquian language, closely related to Ojibwa and Montagnais. It

is spoken in central Canada, from northern Qu6bec acrossnorthern Ontario into

Manitoba. The phonemesof Cree are given in table I3.3.The phonoractic structure of the Cree syllable s quite simple: (C) V (C). Thus a

mora is either a syllable-initial CV sequenceor a codal (final) consonant.

73.2.3 Sttucture of the Creeutriting systetn

In the Cree writing system, he symbols epresentmor&, i.e., either initial CV

sequencestable13.4)or a codalconsonant.With the nitial CV symbols,he shape

of the symboldetermineshe consonant, nd ts orientationdetermineshe vowel.

For example,whenthe symbolpointsdown,the vowel s el; when t points o the

right, the vowel is /o/; etc.Thereare alsospecialsymbols or codal mors withdifferentwesternand eastern ersions lthough<h> s thesamen both.Thewestern

codalsymbols redistinct rom therestof the system;he eastern ersionof theses

a smallversionof themain symbol with the lalvowel).The first row of table13.4

Table L3.3 Thephonemes f Cree

t

n

S

r l

t!m



Other'WritingSystems

Table13.4 Thesymbolsf Cree

251

Final

West East

c

t

b

L

c

L

I

ct

b

Lo-

\

r/l

(-

q

)

J

d

J-o

)

ru

J

?

A

nnf'

P

ra/

.r

.a

)

C

n-

V

V

U

1g

-'l

a

\

t. V

I

-)

'!t

g

p

t

L-

k

m

n

S

I

w

'

I

r

h

gives the symbols for a null onset; i.e., a vowel with no precedingconsonant. Anonset /d is written as the null onset symbol with a precedingdiacritic dot. Vowellength can be indicated by a superscriptdot: A lpfi/, L tkart.

Let us now examine the symbol orientation more closely. In all cases, he formsfor the vowels /o/ and la/ arc mirror images of each other; i.e., one is formed byflipping the other over (however, the dot for lwlis always at the left). Beyond this,

there are three different orientational patterns. For <O p t w r>, the <e> symbolspoint down; theseare rotated 180" to give the series.A further 90" clockwiserotation produces the symbols for <o>.

The symbols for <c k m n s j l>, however, follow a differenr pattern of orienta-tion. Startingwith the symbols for <e>, hey are flipped on a vertical axis to give thesymbols for . The symbols are then tot"t.d L80" to give the symbols for<o>. The third pattern is usedonly for <J> which is similar t; the secondpattern,bu t the symbol for <Je> s rotated 135' clockwise to give </o>.

McCarthy (1995) points ou t different styles of writing Cree. In more informalwriting' vowel length and codal consonants are usually not marked although con-

siderablepersonaland dialectal variation exists. n formal writing, and in publishedmaterial, the vowel length and syllable-finalconsonanrsare usually indicated.




The classification of the Cree writing system is not completely straightforward.

McCarthy (1995) points out that writers of Cree learn the symbols as distinct

entities and think of them as equivalent to individual spoken syllables. In dis-

cussionsabout other so-calledsyllabaries e.g.,Japanese ana, Cherokee),we havepointed our rhat the systemsare not really syllabaries,bu t moraic systems.Thus,

we can argue that Cree is a moraic writing system.Note, however, that when we

organize kana and Cherokeesymbols so that the oneswith the same consonant arc

in the samerow and those with the samevowel are in the samecolumn, we do not

find any recurring graphic pattern in either rows or columns. For Cree, however,

the situation is different; the rows and columns each share a certain pattern. The

shapeof the symbol showsthe consonant,and the orientation is a diacritic showing

the vowel; the strucrure of the symbol is transparent, and we can identify the con-

sonant and the vowel componentsseparately.To some degree, hen, Cree s like an

abugida where the vowels are written as diacritics; however, it is different froma typical abugida in that al l vowels are written and there are no consonantclusters.

In my view, the Cree writing system is basically moraic with some attributes of

an abugida.

Walker (1996) argues that the different orientation patterns used to indicate

vowels'can

only have caused great difficulty for the many thousands of people

who have struggled o become iterate in Cree-Ojibwa syllabics'.Walker's objection

seems ll-founded; Cree speakers eport instead that the system s remarkably easy

to learn. One part of the explanation of'Walker's

problem is McCarthy's observa-

tion, mentionedabove, hat speakersearn the individual symbolsas distinct entities.

Although they may be aware cognitively of the orientational pattern of the system'

they do not make extensiveuse of this structure in learning or using the system.

Further, coping with three slightly different patterns of orientation seemstrivial

when compared with the capability of the human mind for dealing with anomalies

and irregularities of language and writing.

One drawback to the use of orientation that is occasionally mentioned is that

children do not acquire a clear senseof geometric orientation until an agesometime

after they have usually started writing. Consider, for example, the confusion that

children who use the Roman alphabet often have with the letters and .

Children thus might find a writing system hat dependsso crucially on orientation

confusing. No hard evidenceon this point seems o exist.

The Cree script is an example of the developmentof a script, as opposed to the

invention or borrowing of writing. Clearly, Evans was literate, in fact, familar with

several anguagesand scripts.'S7hat

is new in the Cree script is the shapesof the

symbols,and especially he use of orientation as a diacritic to indicate vowels.

13.3 Inuktitut

13.3.7 Backgroundand historyInuktitut is spoken across he North American arctic from Greenland to Alaska. In

Canada, the terms Inuit and Inuktitut have come to replace the older word Eskimo'



Other'Writing Systems 253

a pejorativeerm from Algonquian,meaningmeateater'.The nuit are hepeople,and nuktitut is the language.

By the mid-nineteenthentury, he AnglicanmissionariesohnHordenandE. A.Watkins,working in JamesBaywith Creespeakers, daptedhe Creewriting sysremfor writing Inuktitut. Another missionary,Edmund Peik, who is often incorrectlygivencredit for creating he Inuktitut script (Harper 1983),was insrrumentalnspreadinghe system fter1876,publishingranslations f portionsof the Bibleandothermaterials. lthough he Inuktitut systemwassometimesaught n missionaryor otherschools,t wasmoreoften earnedrom parents r other users.Many first-handreportsdescribehe systemas extremelyeasy o learn.The Inuktitut script hasbeenwidelyusedby the Inuit in mostof Canada xcepr n Labrador.Roman-basedsystems re used n Alaskaand Greenland.

The Inuktitut borrowingshowed onsiderableonservatismntil recenrly, eep-ing closely o the original Cree model. Many

symbols rom the Creesysrem .i.used or Inuktitut with no difficulty. Although nor representing xactly the samephoneticsound, he Creesymbol or <c>was reassignedo Inuktitut lgl (f etc.),and_theCreesymbol for lrl was reassignedo Inuktitut lv l (ru erc.);similarly, hesymbolsor Cree o/ werereassignedo Inuktitut lu l (t r etc.).The resulting ystemwas still underdifferentiated y not providing for the Inuktitut sounds q q v I/.It was also overdifferentiatedby retaining the Cree four-vowel system,whereasInuktitut only neededhree.Certaindialectalvariations n the script had arisen,particularlyalongsectarianines; or example,he Anglicans seda superscript otto indicatevowel lengthwhereashe RomanCatholics epeatedhe vowel (usingthe null consonant

orm).However,despitehese malldifferences,he Creesystemwas used o write Inuktitut for over a century; n addition,many areasusedavarietyof Roman-basedcripts.

In 1950, the CanadiangovernmentappointedRaymond Gagn6 o establishone writing system or al l Canadian nuit. Gagn6cameto the conclusion hatthe moraic (syllabic)systemshould be abandonedn favour of a Roman-basedalphabet.However,as Harper (1983)says, Gagn6,and throughhim the Depart-ment [of Northern Affairs], seriouslymisjudged nuit attachmenr o syliabicorthography'.

Althoughthe attempt o replace nuit writing with the Romanalphabet ailed,

the effort did initiate an orthographic reform of the syllabic writing system.Adual syllabic-Romanrthographywas establishedn 1976 by the Inuit Languagecommission.t is shown based n Nichols1996\ n table13.5.

73.3.2 The modernInuktitut script

The symbols f Inuktitut aregiven n table13.S.Since nuktitut has only three vowels,only three vowel orientationsare used

. Long vowelsare shownas a superscript ot : A <pii>. The sounds q r1lwereprovidedfor by usingdiacritics:writing /qi/ as

qP,/qi/ as $1. For /v/ and

/{/, newsymbolsweredevelopedtr lvil , q l*al . The soun lh l only occurs inally.In the Roman-basedcript, ongvowelsaregeminated pii>; gl iswritten2s<ng>;l*l is writteneitheras<{> or as<6c>.




Table 13.5 The symbolsof Inuktitut. The standard

romanization s given with additionalphonetic nformation

in squarebrackets;note that <6c> s a symbol or a lateral

fricative

u a Final

g

p

t

k

g [v ]

m

n

s

I

iv

r [rl

q

nehl

{ 6. t{l

h

A

nnP

l"

ra

(

C

c\t\

s P

$r '

(-

)

d

J

J

-0

)

J

{

7s d

cb

t

L

o-

\

(-

q

q b

c

b

L

L

c

(-

,

s

s b

$

q

lt

$ L

t

$ J

J

13.4 Runic


Therunic alphabetwasused o write inscriptions uring heMiddle Agesn Germanic

languages, rimarily in Scandinavia nd Britain. The Germanic anguages re a

branchof Indo-European.The earliest unic writingsare found in Denmarkand adjacent reasand dated

from the first centuryNEw.Shortly hereafter,Germanicpeoplesbrought the runic

writing system o the continent.When the Anglo-SaxonsnvadedBritain in the

fifth centuryNEv, they took runic writing with them. Becausehe Norse travelled

so widely, runic inscriptions ave been ound occasionally utside he Germanicarea.One inscription s even ound in Istanbulon the floor of the GreatMosque

(the ormerHagL Sophia athedral). omewhat urprisingly,celand as ather ew




runic inscriptions,and they are found mainly in churches, ll datedafter 1200.Greenland asabout40 inscriptions. laimsof runic nscriptionsn North Americaaregenerallyegarded y runologisrs s unsubstantiated.

The earliestwritingsare on smallportableobjects,uchas spear-blades,hieldbosses,ewellery, ombs,buckles,igurines, tc. From raresurvivingexamples, e

know that runicwriting wasalsodoneon wooden ablets; owever,mostsurvivinginscriptions re on stonestela. During a twelfth-centurywinter storm, groopo?Vikings became trandedn the Orkneysand took shelter n a tomb where"thei .ftabout thirty inscriptions n the walls. 7ith the introductionof Christianity,unicwriting was gradually eplaced y the Romanalphabet.The ChrisrianCtrurch nScandinaviaeemso have olerated unic writing in viewof the many nscriptionswith crossesand other Christian symbols.Runic writing never completetyaieaout, althoughby the late Middle Ages t had become n antiquarian nterest.Thesurvivingexamples

f runic writing arealmostall cur or scratchednto the writingsurface;examples f runic writing on parchmentor paperare mostly from latemedifval times. It has beensuggestedHaugen1g76i, iro*.u.r, rhat the reasonfor the smallamountof runic writing in Iceland s that the writing was on easilyavailable heepskinwhich hassincedisintegrated.

Theoriginof the runicalphabetsdebated.f theearliestexrsdate rom about hefirstcenturyNEuz, e can reasonably ssumehat the runic alphabetwasdevelopedsometime round he ime0, or shonlybefore.TheRoman,Greek,and northern talicalphabets avebeensuggestedspossible ources.We must, however,be carefulaboutchronologicallyappropriate orms.The lettetr K N.<f r> (table 13.71likely

come rom the Romanalphabet.The ettersX Y .g z> couldpossiblybe related oearlyGreek hi andpsi<X Yt. The etters $ l'"t B11X f ri <k n i s t b e m I o>could (with a bit of imagination) ome rom eitherGreekor Latin.North Italic offersparallelsor someof the distorted

ones'<a u s>.Some f the etters<w r p rJ>maybe originalcreations.

The mixture of likely sourcessuggestshat stimulus diffusion may havebeenat work here.

$7ecanenvisiona Norsespeakerwho travelledn soutirernEurope

and became cquaintedwith writing from Roman,Greek,or perhapsother rour.ir.This personcamehome, perhapsnot remembering ccuraiely u.ry detail, andcreatedan alphabetwith elements rawn from u rîirty of souices.Moltke (igSs)

has argued hat the actual ocationof the development f the early runic scripiwas Denmark; his is plausibleon the basisof the largenumberoi earlyDanishinscriptions.

Runic lettersare quite angular with no strictly horizontal strokes.The bestexplanationor this shapes that the runic alphabeiwasdesignedo be written onwooden ablets. f the grain of the wood runs horizontally,-verticalnd diagonalstrokeswould be clear,but horizontalstrokeswould be hard ro seeagainst hegrain.

73.4.2 Proto-Scandinauianphonology

Haugen 1976) econstructs roto-Scandinavianhonology,whichwould beappro-priate or early nscriptionsrom Denmark,asgiven n ta-ble13.6.




Table 13.5 The phonemes of Proto-Scandinavian

73.4.3 The tanic alphabets

The order of the runic alphabet s known from the many existingabecedaries:. f , rh ar kgw h n i j r p zs t b em I j d o>;notethat 0/ isnormal lyomanized

as<h>as n Old English. he 24 letters redivided nto threegroupsof eight etters

each, nown as ettir'families'.We haveno ideawhy the ettersareorderedn this

way. In modern imes, heword futbark hasbeenusedasa name or the alphabet,'futhark' beingsimply he first six letterspronounced s a word.

The ndividual uneswereusually ivenacrophonic ames. he names arysome-

what, but table I3.7 givescommon names n their earlyGermanic econstructed

form.The runic alphabetwent throughvariousphasestable13.7), he best-known

being he Germanic elder) uthark, the Danish (younger) uthark, and the Rok

(short-twie)uthark.The svmbolN s transcribe as lal in the Germanic uthark; however, n later

versrons,r s a nasal owelusually ranscribe as lVl.The symbol$ in the Germanic

futhark is transcribedas 'il; inthe later versions,ire correipondingsymbolN n the

Danish uthark, and I in the Rok futhark, represent non-nasalizedowel and are

transcribed s al .The Germanicuthark is the oldestversion,probablydatingback o the time 0.

As you can see, t fits the reconstructed roto-Scandinavianhonologyquite well.

Thedeveloper f the runicalphabethad workedout a verycarefulphonemicanalysis

of the anguage nd developed n alphabetwell suited o that analysis.

The Danishfuthark, which emergedn the eighthcentury n Denmark,was aradical reyision of the Germanic uthark. The olde Z4-Iettersystemwas reduced

ro sixreenetters. he anguage ad changed, nd he Danish uthark allowed hose

changeso berepresentedn thewriting systemmoreclearly.But more nterestingly

from a linguistic iewpoint, he one-to-oneelationship etweenetterandphoneme

changed o that one letter represented ore than one phoneme.Frequently,we

find that over time a language hanges, ut the writing systemdoesnot. A society

then sometimesnstitutesa spelling eform to bring the writing systemback into

line with the phonology.Many examples f this sort of spelling eform exist.The

Danish futhark, however, epresents spelling eform in the oppositedirection.

'!flherepreviously herewasa fairly clearone-to-oneelationshipbetween honemesand symbols,now many symbolsambiguouslyepresentwo or more phonemes.

IThy this happeneds not clear.

k

gh

!

p t

b df em n

l r

s z

u

oo




Table 13.7 Three stagesof runic symbols (note: an aurochs is the extinct large Europeanox Bos primageniusl

Phoneme GermanicDanisb Ro& Germanic name

A

N

t

B

rh

F

N

R

XP

N

$

I<>

J

rYV1

f

B

f1

P1

I

o

X

i

f

u

e

a r ?

r

k

gw

h

n

i

ii la

p

Z

S

t

b

e

m

I

D

d

o

Y

h

P

N

R

Y

r1\

I

F

RY

"fehu'cattle,

wealth'

olruz 'aurochs'

opurisaz'giant, monster'

oansuz'god'

"raidd'r iding'

"kaunaz'ulcer'

ogeb6'gif t 'owunio ' ioy '

ohagalaz'hail'

onaudiz 'need'

olsa- ice'

"jera-'year'

oeihwaz'yew'

"perp-

'?'

" algiz '?'

osdwild'sun'

oteiwas 'god Tiw' (cf. Eng. Tuesdayl

oberkanan'birch-twig'

oehwaz horse'

omannaz tman'

"laguz'water'

oingwaz'god Ing'

"dagaz 'day '

*opila'hereditary land'

I

\

I

ttI

In Norway and southernSweden, revised lphabet, nown asRdk runes, r short-twig runes,was usedwith symbolsof slightlydifferentshape, ut with essentiallythe same trucure as the Danish uthark.

. The Anglo-Saxonsame o Britain in the mid-fifth cenruryNEw,bringingwiththem the Germanic uthark. Somewhat ater, he Norse nvaded he norri'eait partof England, lsobringingwith them runicwriting. Rather handecreasinghe number




of lettersas with the Danish uthark, the Anglo-Saxonsncreasedhe numberof

letters n their futhorc; he British name uthorc reflects ertainsoundchanges hich

had takenplace here.Eventually, herewere some31 letters n the Anglo-Saxon

futhorc.Runicwriting endedn Britainduring he tenthcentury.Most British unicinscriptions re n the Norse anguage, ut about fifty are n Old English.

73.4.4 Mysticis?n nd ruagic

Sometimespeople, usually non-specialists n runology, becomefascinatedwith the

supposed magical lore or powers of the runes. The fact that the word rune derives

from Old English run, Old Norse rfin'secret,mystery', hascertainly encouraged his

approach. In late mediaval Scandinavia, uneswere used or fortune-telling and for

writing magical sayings. n recentNazi times, mystical Aryan powers were attributed

to the runes. From a linguistic perspective,any magical properties in runic writingare irrelevant. Runic writing is an ordinary, although interesting,writing system.As

Page 1987) says,'if [the Germanic peopte]wanted to cut a religious or magical tex,

if they wished to produce a charm word, they would userunic, the only script they

had, for it, just as a modern wizard would be likely to write his magic . . . in Roman

characters.But that would not confer upon runes the status of a magical script.'

In this context, it is interesting o note that Christianity did not disapproveof runic

inscriptions; indeed, many stoneswith runic writing also have a Christian cross.

13.5

73.5.7

Ogham

Background and histoty

Ogham nscriptions re Old lrish texts found in lreland,Britain, and the Isleof

Man, dating from the fifth to the seventhcenturiesnnw (McManus 1991',7996).

The ogham nscriptions re the oldestsurviving rish texts.Manuscriptuseof the

ogham alphabet, nown asscholastic gham, s attestedn later texts,notably n

The Scholar'sPrimer (Auraiceptna nEces).

Inscriptions utside reland are ocated n areas olonized r heavily nfluenced

by the rish.Ogham nscriptionsn Britain,but not in Ireland,aresometimesccom-paniedby a Latin translation.Some ndecipherednscriptionswritten n this alphabet,

known as Pictishoghams,are found in easternScotland.Modern Irish spells he

word ogbam,andOld Irishspelledt ogaln;bothspellings re ound n English. he

oghamalphabet s alsoknown as beithe-luis-fernrom the namesof the first three

letters.The Romanalphabetater replaced gham or writing lrish.

Irish is a Celtic language,a family itself descendedrom Indo-European.The

oghamscriptwas usedonly for Old Irish.Al l the otherCeltic anguages nd later

formsof Irish usedadaptations f the Romanalphabet.

The oghamalphabet s unusual n its graphicshape table 13.S).The letters

consist f notches nd strokes,ypically nscribed t the edge f a stonemonument.Each etter s formed by 1-5 repetitions f thenotches for vowels)or strokepatterns

(for consonants). otchesare on the edge;somestrokepatternsare on the left

of the edge,someon the right, and somecross he edge.Unfortunately or later



Other.WritingSystems 2s9

generations f readers f ogham, he edge s the part of a monumentmost likelyto be broken off or damagedby weathering.The later manuscript exrsare oftenwritten horizontally.

In terms of shape, here is no other writing sysrem ike ogham.The symbolsthemselvesiveusno clue o theirorigin.Onetenuous xplanriion or the shapes

that they developedrom the useof the fingers n counting. n structure,howiver,ogham s a perfectlyordinaryalphabet,well suited o the languaget was used owrite. Irelandwas not part of the Roman Empire,but the Irish neverthelessadcontactwith the Romans,and they werecertainly awarcof Romanwriting. Thebestguesss that someone evised n originalalphabet n Ireland nspired6y theRomanalphabethroughstimulusdiffusion.

73.5.2 Tbe oghamalphabet

Theogham ettersareusuallyarrangedn four groups,eachgrouphaving he samekind of stroke,but differing n the numberof strokes.Many lettetsareassociatedwith variousobjects, speciallyrees.

A star-shapedetterwas used or kl or lelin the stone nscriptions, ur in latermanuscriptshis symbolwasused or the diphthong eal:

k/e (ea) X 6bad,?,

In addition,a few othersymbols re ound only in the atermanuscriptradition

for the diphthongswhich had developedater:

oi + 6r'goId'

ia Til p{n, phin'pine'

Table 13.8 The oghamalphabet

u i X

s-ae

uilen'elbow'

emanchol/'double'

l-

FFFF

++++*

b

If

s

n

m

g

D

z

r

beithe'birtch'

luis'blaze, herb'

fern'alder'

sail'wlllow'

nin 'fork,loft'

muin'neck'

gort'field'

(n)gdtal wounding?'

straif 'sulphur'

rz ls ' red(ness) '

h

d

t

k

kw

a

o

u

e

i

I{+++

(h )ua th '? '

dair'oak'

tinne'metal od '

coll'hazel'

cert,queirt'bush'

i l r 'earth'

eded '? '



260 Other Writing Systerns

I

+I

--1

+-]--1

-t

.--1

:-r+:l-

g

o

O

(J

F

F

o

F

F

o

F

Figure 13.L An ogham inscription from Kerry, Ireland:'Of Toictheach son of Sagi Rettos'

73.5.3 Example text

Ogham texts are very short, typically one or two nouns in the genitive case. The

stoneswere likely grave markers or possibly boundary markers.

The text in the inscription in figure 13.1 starts at the lower left corner of the

stone and proceeds upwards around the top. Note that the romanization is given in

upper-case etters, as is common in ogham studies;also /k / is transcribed as <C>,

and /k*/ as <Q>.

13.6 PahawhHmong

73.6.7 Backgroundand history.We

rarely know much about the emergence f a script. I7ith PahawhHmong,

however,we are fortunate n having a greatdeal of first-handknowledge Smalley

et al. 1990). Between7959 and 1977, ShongLue Yang developed script for his

languageHmong, spokenon the Laotian-Vietnamese order.Previously lliterate,

ShongLue Yang devised he script and revised t in four versions, ach ime bring-

ing it closer o an unambiguous honemic epresentationf Hmong. \(zitha long

familiarity with writing systemsn southeastAsia, Smalley elt that the PahawhHmong writing sysrems uniqueand bearsno obvious elationshipo anywriting

sysremhat ShongLueYangmight possiblyhavecome nto contactwith.



Other Writing Systems

Table 13.9 The phonemes of Hmong

261

qh

q

k

kh

ua

ia

tL

r

FhT

ai

ai

au

c

c"

tlt L

U "

I3

TSk

ts "

t

th

ddh

nh' ,n

php '

fv

mnm

i

e

e

Tones

Ahigh levellow glottalizedIow risinghigh falling

Bmid risingmid levellow levelfalling breathy

The Hmonghavea traditionof the sacrednessf writing asa glftof God.Shong

LueYangbelievedhat hewasdivineand that hisscripthadbeendivinely nspired.He was known amongsthis followers as the 'Mother of Writing'. He taught thescriptwith greatsuccessntil his assassinationn l97I by the governmeniwhichfearedhis growing nfluence.

. Although ShongLue Yang's fourth and last versionof the script appeals olinguistsbecausef itsclearer elation o thephonemes f the anguage nd ts lackof ambiguity,mostHmongspeakerssing he scriptprefer he hird revision, hownhere.Although the PahawhHmong script is highly valued and widely respectedamongst he Hmong)a romanization,he RomanizedPopularAlphabet,deviiedbyChristianmissionaries,s morewidelyused.

73.6.2 Phonologyof Hmong

Hmong is a memberof the Miao-Yao anguageamily.Hmong s an isolating an-guagewith monosyllabicmorphemes. he phonemic ysrems shown n table13.9.

There are eight tones.The significance f the column labelsA and B will beexplainedn $13.6.3.Hmong hasa largenumberof onsets, ut the only codalconsonants gl .

73.6.3 Structureof PahauthHmongscriptSomeof the symbolsof PahawhHmong are shown n table 13.10.The script s

written linearly from left to right. The rhyme s written firsr, followed by the onr.t.




Table 1.3.L0 Some symbols of the Pahawh Hmong writing system

mr ml ll fb

d a a t ta - a a

Jr tt It lt

6 u o 6 x 6 tn n n f l

a - a a

I . J H H H

u t i t m u

lg lr hfa l

v v \ 7i L an n nf i d t t n

a l

U U U

H A F

hl

\7

L

nttl

U

H

Some rhymes

l-tgl

t-il

l-aul

l-ul

l-el

l-ail

Tones

mr

ml

ll

fb

ht

lg

lr

hf

high level

low glottalized

low rising

high falling

mid rising

mid level

low level

falling breathy

Some onsets

lvl

lskl

ls l

lhll

thl

lml

tgl

G

n

TLl

FR

i

tft

ttnl

lnl

G

n

AnrR

tr

G

nAr-.1

trR

tr

lr\tl

/nts/

lu

Isl

Ithl

Itsh

lndll

/ntsh/

lpll

lq,l

lndhll

t l

1

Numerals

The rhyme is written as a combination of the VC-symbol and tone diacritic. The

tones are divided into two groups, A and B, as shown in table 1.3.9.Each rhyme has

two symbols: one is used when the tone is from the A-group and the other when

the tone is from the B-group. The tones in eachgroup are then indicated by one of

four diacritics (including the absenceof a diacritic). Three of the four diacritics are

the same n the two groups, but one is different. There is no relation in the shapesof

the symbols for the same rhyme in the two groups. Many onsets share the same

basicsymbol with different diacritics; there is no significance o the diacritics other

than in distinguishing the different onsets.




As exampleof the writing of PahawhHmong syllables,veq-hl/ (where hl /

in.dic_a1eshigh evel one) s written as Vg; lve\-mri(mid rising) s written asElG.hki-hf lis written as Ah; and ?au-mr/ s written as60A.

13.7 Bliss

73.7.7 charles Blissand the origin of Btisssymbols

Karl Blitz was born in 1897 in Austria, near the Russianborderwhere severaldifferentethnicgroups ived.As a youngman, he notedthe animosity he differentgroupsshowed owardseachother and felt this was in largemeasure ue to thefact that they spokedifferent anguages. s a Jew,he was t"L.r, prisonerwhen theNazisoverranAustria

n 1938.He managedo escape nd fled o Englandwherehe changed is name o CharlesBliss.He went o Shanghaio rejoinhis-wife;here,he was nternedby theJapanesen 1943until theendo] thewarwhen hemoved oAustraliawith hiswife. In Shanghai, lisshad becomenterestedn Chinesecharuc-tersandwas ascinated y the fact that al l Chinese ouldcommunicaten the samewritten language ven f they spokemutuallyunintelligible ialects.

In Australia,althoughBlisswas a chemicalengineer, e developed passionateinterest n creatinga semantically asedwriting sysremwhich all peiple in theworldcould use o communicatewith eachother. His aim was not to'cr ^t, ^n artificiallanguage,ike Esperanto, ut to createa universalwriting system hat could be'read

in all languages'.n

'1.949,

he publishedhis systemt *t*antography witha secondedition n 1,965.He then wrote thousands f letters n rtr .Jfoit io findsupport o publicizehiswork, but with very ittle success.

13.7-2 Bliss symbols As An aug?nentatiue co?nftrunication syste?n

1y.t971,,ShirleyMcNaughton,a special ducationeacher t theOntario CrippledChildren'sCentre now the Hugh MacMillan MedicalCentre) n Toronto, be-c-ar.reawareof Bliss'swork. Shewas ooking for asystemo helpchildrencommunicate hohad physicaldifficulties, uchascerebral alsy,which preventedhem rom speaking,

especiallyounger hildrenwho could not yet read.Her previouswork hads,rggeste;that pictureswere helpful, but that by themselvesheyJid not allow thechildrenroexpressomplex houghts r emotions.fith thediscovery f Bliss ymbols,work atthe Centrebeganon developing setof the symbolswhicir would beuseful or theirchildren's eeds. he methodwas mmediately uccessful,nd by 1975Bliss ymbolswerebeingused n a numberof centres. ypicallya boardof abouta hundredsymbolswas used,and a message as createdby pointing to the appropriate ymbok inturn. Additionalsymbols ouldbe madeavailable s equired. u"ri. ty of differentdeviceshave been nvented to accommodate he needsof peoplewith differingmotor difficulties,suchas not beingableto point preciselywith ihelr finger.

Families ndprofessionalslikewereextremely leased ith the resul6.With th.^r99f Bliss ymbols,ndividuals, othchildrenandrdultr, who hadbeen argely hutoff from many ypesof interactionwith their families, uddenlycame

to life;.




Blissymbolicsas beenparticularlypopular n Canada,Scandinavia,nd Israel.

Committees avebeenestablishedo createdictionaries ndregulate he development

of new signs much he way the national academiesf Europewere envisioned).

Blisshimselfwaspleased t the usefulnesshat his systeminally ound,but at thesame ime disappointedhat his originalgoalof bettercommunicationor theworld

had been ost.Theadventof computers asmeant hat a varietyof other echniquesndsystems

havebecome vailable or peoplewith speech roductiondifficulties, nd the use

of Blissymbolicsas allen off in the pastyears,but it clearlypointed he way in a

dramatic ashion.

73.7.3 The sttactureof Blisssymbols

Let us look now at how the Blisssystemworks. Most of the work on Blisshasfocused n developing ymbols or lexical tems. U(ewill look at theseandreturn to

syntaxand other ssuesater.

Some ymbolsarepictograms:

A.house' 6$ 'caf \-/

'container'

Some ymbolsare abstract ictograms:

A'feeling' n 'protection' ^' / 'water,liquid'

Some symbols are arbitrary, with no logical connection to their meaning:

tr 'thing' n 'mind' / 'this'

Somearbrtrarysymbolsare borrowedfrom ordinary writing:

g 'three'+

'addition'!

'intensity'

Some symbols are semanticcompounds:

ae tcloud'

0oparent'

dG|'taxi'

= L' 'water' +'sky'

= 1 ' p e r s o n ' + n ' p r o t e c t i o n '

= 6 'car' + G|'[mited time'

Al l of this is very much ike the way Chinese haracters ere developedchap-

ter 3), excepthat thereareno phonetic xtensionsr semantic-phoneticompounds.

Semanticallyaseddiacriticsare common:

I'room'

f'ceiling'

]t'wall'



Other'Writing Systems 265

Symbols alled ndicatorsare often used o specify hingssuchas the syntacticcategory f the term,suchasverb enseor number:

O 'mouth'

I

'food'

'ate,eat (past)' 'eat (future)'

(pastcondit ional) '

'minds'A .brain'

'think (verb)'

The small cross indicatesplural; the small square a thing; rhe arrowheaddown, an adjective;and the arrowhead pointing up, ? u.rb.

A combination of pictograms and compounding is a common way oflexical items:

(q

t

o

?,

o

x

A

'eat (present)'

'mighthave eaten

'mind'

'thoughtful'

polntlng

deriving

o

'say'

od

o ! !

'shout'

r$,

'opinion'

€

oe

'discussion'

R'nonsense'

o€

oe''argument'

E'secret'

A

o/6\'describe'knowledge' 'understand' 'explain'

Theexclamationmark shows ntensity.Discussions'talkgoing n bothdirections'.Song s mouth'+'a musical ote'.Opinion s mind'+'mouthl.

Secrets held n anenclosureKnou',ledges'mind' + 'storehouse';understands 'knowledge'+ 'into'='to enterone'sstoreof knowledge'; xplain s'say'+'understand '.bescribe s'think'+ 'say'+ 'be'= 'to saywhat somethings, .

73.7.4 Sentencesn Bliss

The materialsavailable o me primarily derive rom the attemptro creareBlisssymbolsn an English-speakingnvironment.Helfman(1981)hasa small sectionon syntaxwith directions or formingquestions, egative entences,ndcommands,aswell assuggestionsor simplifyitg statements.hesynrax n the morecomplicatedsentenceseemsmoreor less o follow Englishpatterns.




The following showsa possible entence ritten in Bliss: will go utith you if you

are afraid.

I , l+ ++ I" ?> I , ; $ tC '

+ I will go with you if you are afratd.

The first symbol s f, written as person'+'1' for firstperson.The second ymbol s

go with the future diacritic. With is expressed s a sequencef two plussigns.You

is like /, but with a number2 for secondperson. f is written as a questionmark

togetherwith 'eirher'.The next symbol s you again.Be is a smallversionof 'live'

(note he absence f verbal nflection).Finally,afraid is 'sad'+ future+ question

mark + modifiersad

about he future because f its uncertainties).To demonstratehe flexibility of Bliss, he next sentences a famousnonsense

sentencen Englishgoing back to Noam Chomsky:Colourlessgreen deassleep

furiously.

- 9 9 r

colourless green ideas sleep furiously

Colourles.sswrittenas'withoutcolour'; colour' is'eye'+'earth' (what he eyesees

from theearth) Green s a compoundof ocolour'+ grass'.Blissdefineshe coloursin termsof commonobjects.There s an alternative ystemor namingcoloursby

giving he numbersn theorder hey appear n a rainbow;greenwould be colour'

+'4'in that system.dea s 'mind' + 'down' (a thought ssuing rom themind); he

plural marker s addedhere.Sleeps 'eye'+ 'close'+ action ndicator.Furiously s

written here he sameas angrily' sincedifferentsymbols or synonyms re avoided:'much'+'feeling'+'opposition'+ modifier ndicator having trong eelings gainst

someone r something).As we will seeurther n chapter 4,the Bliss ystemsstructurallynteresting. ll

the other writing systemswe have studiedhave large phonologicalcomponents;

however,Bliss s completely emantic.t is unclear o me how personal amesarerepresentedn Blisswithout the useof somesort of phoneticextension. suspect

that the symbol or a family membernamedGeorgemight well be <G> using he

Romanalphabet; owever, uchusagewould be quite imited.

Because liss s suchan unusualsystem,we need o asksomebasicquestions.s

Blissa writing system?Our definitionof writing as the useof graphicmarksto

represenrpecificinguisticutteranceslearlyencompassesliss. U(e ave ust seen

rwo examplesentenceshat fit this definition.By changinga symbol n Bliss,we

systematicallyhange he meaningof the utterance, nd a changen the utterance

systematicallyhangeshe representationn Bliss.A secondquestion s: can any-

thing be written in Bliss?Our own observationshat both meaningfuland non-

sensical entencesan be written in Blissansweryes o this question; urther, he

testimony f Blissusers learlyagrees.

'i. tr x0<<




Is Bliss ndependent f language?his wasoneof CharlesBliss's oals.Here heevidencesuggests ot. Rather than a writing sysremcompletely ndependentoflanguage, liss n fact seemso be ike the Romanalphabeti t can be used or anylanguagewith

a bit of adaptation.Can a sentence ritten in Blissby a Hebrewspeakerbe understoodby an Englishspeaker?Obviously,a sentence ritten inPolish n the Romanalphabets not understandabley an-English peaker;he useof the Roman alphabetmight allow the Englishspeaket Jmaki ^ uriy roughapproximationof the Polishpronunciation, ut it would not allow undersianding.Bliss,however,by beingsemantically ased,might allow somemutualunderstand-ing betweendifferent anguageso a very limited exrent.

Is Blissa writing system or a distinct anguageBliss?Clearly, he Blisswritingsystem ouldbe usedstrictly or writing English or someother "ngurg.), but in ifamily situation, t is likely that dialecivariationsand shortcutswould arise.The

resulting anguagemight be English-like, ut nor exactlyEnglish.Note that thepersonwith motor difficultycould useBlisssymbols o .*pt.rr himselfor herself,but other familymembers ould reply n spokenEnglish; his situationwould tendto keep he Blissuser'sanguage lose o English.

Is Blisssemanticallybasedor morphologicallybased?7hat linguistic unirs arerepresentedy the symbols? he answerseems learly o be that ii is semanricallybased. or example,Englishhasa morpheme axi. This morphemen Englishhas

no possiblenternaldivision nto smallermeaningful nits.The Blisssymbol6}p|for 'taxi', however, learlyhas nternalstructure.And indeed,we had manycases

of singlemorphemeswritten with complex,analysable ymbolsie.g.,+ .cloud,,

t 'parent ' , and od

morphemsargu-and

symbolO;) ! .

Blisssometimes akessemantic istinctionswhich do not exist exically n Eng-lis.h: or-ex_ample,herearesix differentwaysof writing 'I', explicitly set out in tlieBlissymbolReferenceGuide ('vt/ood, rorr, and Reichtggzl,

1 ' A , A , 8 , R , ? ,' f ' ' I ' ' I ' . f ' . f ' , I '

(general) (female) (male) (girl) (boy) (child)

. Clearly, he Blisssymbols orrespondo unitsof meaning, ot morphemes, ndthus the systems semantically ased.n chapte 14,*. *iil examine urtherhowBliss its nto thegeneral lassificationf writing sysrems.'Vfe

conclude henthat Blisssymbolsaresemantically ased,hat anything hatcanbesaid n any anguage anbewrittendown n Blisssymbols, ndanythin! thatcan be written down in Blisscan be read in any language. inally, the crJationprocessor symbolsused or Blissusesno devices ot otherwiseknown in creatingtraditionalwriting sysrems.

The English word 'argument'consists of two

but neithercorrespondso any of the parts of the




13.8 FurtherReading

Danielsand Bright(1996) have chapterson most of these writingsystems.ForCherokee,eealsoScancarelli1992). orCreeand nuktitut: urnaby1985),Harper

(1983),McCarthy1995),W. Walker1981, 996). or unic: ntonsen1989), augen

(1976),Moltke 1985), nd Page(1973,1987;especiallyor runes n Britain). or

ogham: ehmann1989) ndMcManus1991). malley, ang,andYang 1990)sa

fascinatingtoryof the developmentf PahawhHmong.For Blissymbolics,ee Bliss

(1965), elfman1981),McDonald1980), ndMcNaughton1985).

t3.9 Terms

futhark

overdifferentiated

underdifferentiated

13.10 Exercises

1 Writeyourownnameand city n the scriptsof this chapter exceptBliss), aying

attentiono the sound,not English pelling.

2 What evidencedoes the Cherokee criptprovide o show that Sequoyahwasilliteraten English?

3 Howdid the historical evelopment f the Cree and Inuktitut criptsdiffer rom

thatof Cherokee?

Howdoes the Cree scriptdiffer rom an abiad? roma typicalabugida?

What internalevidencedo the runic and oghamscriptsprovide hat they were

the productof stimulus iffusion nd not completely riginalnventions?

ThePahawhHmong ystem iolates principlehat he phonemes f a language

and hegraphemes f its writing ystemgenerally ccur n the sameorder.Could

either he onsetsor rhymesbe considered iacritics f the other?

4

5



14 class fication f \ilfritingsysrems

Now that we haveexamineda largenumberof writing systemsn somedetail,wecanprofitably survey hem again o seehow they can-bestbe classified. he mosr

productiveway of organizingwriting systems asbeen o considerwhat linguisticlevel s representgdy thegrapheme. xamining heclassification f writing ,irr.-,will alsogiveus heopportunity o review heciucialstructural ointsof thevariouswriting systems e havesurveyed.

14.7 Phonetic,semantic,and Glottographicwriting

Languages a relationshipbetween oundand meaning,and it contacts he realworld at two interfaces: honeticand semantic. n priniiple, we can represenr nutterance y writing at anyof thesehree evels: honetic, inguistic, r iemantic.

I7e are amiliar with the notion of a phoneticwriting ryrt.- *hich could be usedto transcribe he soundsof any ufterance n any languagen the world; such asystemwould be similar o the InternationalPhoneticAlphabet IPA;seeAppendixB and InternationalPhoneticAssociation1.999),which providesan inventoy ofsymbols or a wide varietyof phoneticphenomena hich occur n humanspeechwith certain ules or using hese ymbols.The symbols epresent ure so,rndandarenot associated ith anyparticular anguage. hat is, the IPA piovidessymbolssufficiento represent ll thosephoneticdistinctionswhich areconrrastiven somelanguage omewhere. owever,asMacMahon (1,996notes: strictly

speaking,hen,the IPA is not a universal honeticalphabet n the sense f an alphabet liat willprovidea notation or everyconceivableoundused n a natural anguage. ather,it is a selective honeticalphabetwhich s constrained y therequirc-r* of phon-emiccontrastivity.'Even hough he IPA may not be a completely honeticwritingsystem,t is cleadya closeapproximation.'We

can also maginea semanticwriting scheme sed o transcribe deasdirectly,that is, the meaningof any utterance f any languagen the world, although,euertin linguistics, ucha notion is unusual.Sampson t98S,1,994) rg-uesotlhe pos-sibleexistence f a semanticwriting system hi useshe termsemasiigraphic):Tirere

would appear n principle o be no reasonwhy a society ould notfuu.expandeda semasiographicystem,by adding further graphicconventions, ntil it was as

complexand rich in expressiveotentialas heirspoken anguage' Sampson 985,



270 Classificationof Writing Systems

p.30).As part of hisevidenceor a semantic ystem,Sampson nfortunately sed

ih. 'Y.tkaghirLoue Letter'as an exampleof semanticwriting. This documenthas

been requentlydescribed sa messagerom a Yukaghirwoman n Siberia o her

boyfriend; t is a rathercomplicated rawingwith no words. n a fascinating it ofacademic leuthing,DeFrancis1989)showed hat the natureof this drawinghad

beenmisunderstood.t was not a genuinecommunication, ut rather part of a

parlour gameplayedby Yukaghir girls;one girl would makea drawingand the

otherswould take turnsguessing t the storybehind t.

Sampson lsorefers o the CheyennendianLetterwhich we examinedn chap-

ter 1 (figure1.1.).Recall hat this s a drawingpurportedly ent rom a father o his

son with money and instructionso return home. Sampson onsidershis as an

exampleof pre-writing on the way to becominga fully fledgedwriting system.

Aparr from theseexamples, e notes hat we occasionally ncounternstructions

with no words:modern rafficsigns, r assemblynstructionsntendedor interna-tional usewith no words.

DeFrancis1989)andDeFrancis ndUnger 1994\argue trongly hat al l writing

is phonologicallybasedand that semantically asedwriting is an impossibility.

They dismissnot only the Yukaghir letter, but also other types of evidence or

semanticwriting that Sampson dvanced. hey stxt€: thereis no possibilitywhat-

soeverhat pictographs ased n the nonphonetic rincipleunderlyingheir usage

by theYukaghirandthe North Americanndianscouldevolvento a full system f

nonphoneticwriting'.The problemwith the proposed xamplesor semanticwriting is that either he

examples renot concrete r systematicn theirmeaning r that the system nderlyingthem s not general n its scope.U7e ight beable o draw quitea numberof pictures,

like the Cheyenneetter, o communicate considerableangeof our activities.

However, t would be very difficult to do so in a way that reliably communicated

what we intended. n the absence f backgroundnformation,we might give the

Cheyenneetter a wide varietyof interpretations:Turtle-Following-His-Iilifewants

Little Man to send$53','Little Man wantsTurtle-Following-His-\7ifeo send$53','a man who knows Turtle-Following-His-Wifewants Little Man to sendhis chil-

dren to him', etc.As DeFrancispointsout, it seemsmpossibleo find a systematic

basisinking he drawingand ts meanitrB, system hichcouldbe used o interpret

othermaterial.If we rurn to signswith no words, suchas highwaysigns, he informationpro-

vided s, by contrast, uiteclear 'no entry', left-turnonly', yield',but therangeof

expressions quite imited. No signsexist or 'While you're out, would you mind

gertingsomeof that special ind of bread hat Marge likes'or 'I dreamt was a

robin last night'. Obviously,we could invent signs or thesemessages,ut there

would alwaysbe further messagesithout signs.

Sproat 2000,p. 135)says:Nobodyhasshown he existencef a writing system

that is entirelysemasiographic,elyingon no linguisticbasiso communicatedeas,

and which allowspeople o write to one anotheron any topic theychoose.t seems

fair to say hat the burdenof proof son thosewho would claim hat semasiographicwriting is possibleo demonstratehe existencef sucha system.'f we want to test

for a semantic riting system i.e.,Sampson'snd Sproat's emtsiographic),e can



Classificationof'Writing

Systems 271

semantic glottographichonetic

Figure 4.1 Basic lassificationf writingsysrems

set wo criteria: a) hat t be based ntirelyon semanticallynalysablenitsand noton pronunciation; nd (b) that any inguisticutterance e ranslatablento a corres-pondingsemantic epresentationnd viceversa.Any attempt o describeChinesewriting assemanticails

o satisfy he irstcriterionsinceChinese asa largephono-graphiccomponent.Both picturewriting and the assemblynstructionsltoai signspicturesai l to satisfy he second riterion.However, he Bliss ystemchapter 3] sindeed ust sucha semantic otationalsystem;t meetsboth these riteriaand thusconstitutes semantically asedwriting systemwithout phonological ontent.Theexamples rovided n chapter13 clearlyshow hat any inguisticutt.r"n.. couldbetranslatednto a semantically quivalentext in Blissand that any Bliss ext couldbe translatednto_a emanticallyquivalentinguisticutterance. ndoubtedly,Blisshas aultsand deficiencies,ut, by and arge, iis successful t accomplishingwhatit setsout to do; in any case, ur point here s that sucha system s possible-.

A basicclassificationor writing systems figure 14.1)distinguishesemantic,glottographic, nd phoneticwriting systems. he semanric ranih seemso haveonly one member,Bliss; he phoneticbranchhasonly the IPA and other similaruniversalphonetic ranscriptionschemes. he glottographic ranchcontainsall theotherordinarywriting systems e havediscussedn thii book.From thispoint on,we will setsemantic nd phoneticwriting asideand focusentirelyon glottographiiwriting systems.

The term ideographic s commonly found in works on writing with a varietyofmeanings,often poorly thought out, sometimes eferring to morphogramsandsometimeso semantic nits.Becausef thevery highchance f confusion, would

stronglyurge hat this term not be used.

14.2 GlottographicWriting

Glottographicwriting systems re he kind of writing systemswe havebeen ookingat in this book,except or Blissand PA.The ntentionof sucha sysrems to recorJthe linguisticutterances f a specificanguage.n the next secrion,we will discussthe considerableypologicalvarietyof glottographicwriting systems, ut they al lhave he purpose f giving eaders ufficientnformation hat theycanconstrucan

appropriatesemanticand phonological epresentationor any wriften utterance.Many scholars aveproposedmanydifferentclassification chemesor glottographicwriting sysrems. any of these avea basicsrrucrureike figure 14.2.

Writing




Morphographic Phonographic

Moraic Phonemic:

Figure 14.2 Traditional classification scheme of glottographic writing systems

In this scheme, hree basic types of writing systemsare distinguished. Uflith

morphographic ystems,he graphemeelateso morphemes: hinese nd Sumerian

areusually itedas he bestexamples f morphographicystems.he phonographicsysremselate o phonological nits in the language, ithermoraic or phonemic.

\7ith moraicsystems,he grapheme epresents mora:Japaneseanaor Cherokee

aregoodexamples f moraic systemstheproblems f syllabicvs.moraic aredis-

cussed elow in $14.5).And with phonemicsystems,he grapheme epresents

phonological egment,.e., a consonant r vowel;Finnishand classicalGreekare

goodexamples f phonemicwriting systems.This taxonomicscheme as a certainamount of validity to it , but on closer

examination, t is problematic.First,writing systems re taxonomically messy'.

Writing systems re mixtures of somesort or other. Sometimes,he mixture is

relatively malland can be setaside.Finnish s oftencited or its simpleone-to-onerelationshipbetweengraphemeand segment.

S7esaw in chapter9 that there are

threeminor exceptionso this relationship, nd also, ike most modernwriting

systems, innishusesArabic numerals,as well as symbolssuchas <U o/" *) ,

which areclearlymorphemically ased.f Finnishwereour worst caseof typological

mixture,we probablywould not worry a greatdeal.

Egyptianwriting presenrs much more seriouscaseof mixture, regularlyusing

bothmorphographic ndphonographic ymbols.Triting a word phonographically

and hen addinga semantic eterminativesnormal.Many wordsarc alwayswritten

morphographically;many are alwayswritten phonographically.n Maya, the mix-

ture of phonographic nd morphographics similarly horoughgoing, ndvariationis so common hat it would be difficult o specify usualor typicalway of writing

a word in Maya.Japaneseriting is themost obviouslymixedsystem f all today,

with its useof morphographickanii and the two types of phonographickana.To

account or these ystems, e needa way to describemixed systems.

Aside rom mixture,a second ointhasbeen rgued trongly y DeFrancis1989)'

who insists hat hereareno truemorphographicwriting systems,hat all truewriting

sysrems rephonographicallyased.DeFranciss speaking ereof the basic,over-

riding natureof a system,ecognizingthatmorphographic lements ay bepresent.

In particular, he refers o Chinese,wherehe estimateshe phoneticcomponentof

characterso be 66 percent. n hisview, he mportance f thepurelymorphographiccharactersn Chinesehasbeengreatly exaggerated,artly becausehey are often

thecharacters hich are aught irstand hus akeon a prominencen our mind, and



Moraic

Classificationof Writing Systems

Consonantal

273

Morpho-phonemic

Engl ish

French

Korean

Pure

consonantalMorpho- Pure

consonantal phonemic

Creek

Latin

F inn i sh

)ap. kana Chinese West Semit ic EgyptianCherokee Sumerian

Figure 14.3 DeFrancis' classification of writing systems

partly becauseh_e riting system rose rom pictographic and husmorphographic)writing

historically. haveargued bove hat the Blid system ontradicts elrancis'general laimaboutal l writing systems,ut the somewhatweakerclaim hatglotto-graphlcwriting systems re nevercompletelymorphographic eems alid.

A third problemariseswith writing systemr u.h"r

Ettglirh.Basically, nglish sa phonemicsystem,but its orthographyoftencontainsmJrphological nforriation.As we saw n chapter10, t is verycommon n Englishspelling o diitinguishdifferenthomophonousmorphemes: .g., ou,yera, J,eui. rfle itill needa -ry io incorporatethis sort of information n the classificationcheme.

DeFrancis'1989)solution s o removemorphographic sa separateategory ndto addmixedcategories: orphomoraic,morphophonemic,.t..A slightly roiin.a

versionof thechart n DeFrancis 1989) s shown n figure 14.3 l havesubstitutedmoraic for his syllabic).Note DeFrancis' erm consonnntal ar the SflestSemiticabjadsand for Egyptian.

Sproat 2000)argueshat DeFrancis rred n equating hedifference etween ureconsonantaland morphoconsonAntAl ith the differencebetweenpure phonemicandmorpbophonemic. ather,Sproatsays, hemorphophonemic ysiems ff.t fromthe,purephonemicsystems, ot by what is represetu.dby the basicsymbols,butratherwith respecto the phonological epthof -hrt is represented;t is a mistake'to equatehe exicalorthographic e.g.,he markedspelling f lnl in knit) with thelogographic[= our morphographicJ omponenrsof

-Chineiewriring, an equation

that is implicit in DeFrancis's lassification'. his distinction s the sameas thesecond nd third problemsof the traditionalclassificationcheme iscussedbove(figure14.2).

Alphabetic



3o

=

t

.l

1C

0q

D,E


fype of PhonograPhy

Consonantal Polyconsonantal Alphabetic

W. Semit ic Engl ish,Pahawh LinearB

Creek, Hmong

Korean,

Devanagari

Perso-Aramaic

Sumer ian,

Mayan,

Japanese

Figure .4.4 Sproat'slassificationf writingsystemsthe ermphonemicasbeen

substitutedor hisalphabetic)

Further,Sproatargueshat callingEgyptianconsonantal bscureshe existence

of bi- and triliteral symbols; ather,he viewsEgyptianaspolyconsonantal. proat

ultimately abandonsDeFrancis'hierarchicalclassificationn favour of a two-

dimensional nalysis figure14.4).The dimensions re rypeof phonographyandamounr of morphography.Perso-Aramaicefers o the Middle Persian 57.3.3)

writing with its frequentuseof Aramaicmorphograms.

I believehat Sproat's istinctionof two dimensions,honography ndmorpho-

graphy, s an improvement ver earlierclassificationchemes. proatsuggestshat

other dimensionsmight be added, n particular orthographicdepth which would

distinguish eep English, orean,Russian)rom shallow Greek,Finnish,Belorusian).

He alsomentionshe possibility f graphicarrangementsa significant lassificat-

ory feature; his would distinguish he very differentpatterningof Deuandgariand

Korean.

In my view, Sproat's imension f phonographys too unstructured. e presentsthevariousphonographicypessimplyasa list,going rom smallest r simplest ni t

to the largestor mostcomplex. n particular, umping a phonemicwriting system

like Greekwith an abugidasuchasDeuanagari eems dd. Further, do not see he

differencebetween he consonantaland polyconsonantal ystems s an important

organizingprinciple or writing systemsn general.TheEgyptianuseof polyconson-

antalgtrphi-.s is uniqueandseems ot to occurelsewhere.proat's istinction f

consonyntal ndphonemicscompatiblewith Daniels' 1995a)distinctionof abiad

andalphabet,but would addabugida.lwould proposehe classificationchemen

figure74.5.

The dimensionof orthographicdepth s also included:shallowsystems re inregular ypeanddeepsystems re n upper-case.innish,Greek,andBelorusian re

examples f shallow phonemicsystems,whereasEnglish,Korean, Russian,and



Classificationof'Writing

Systems

Typeof Phonography

Alphabetic Abugida

Finnish Pahawh Devandgari LinearB

Creek Hmong BURMESE CHEROKEEBelorusian TIBETAN

KOREAN

RUSSIAN

SCOTS AELIC

ENCLISH

275

o

-E'

oe-Itt

W. Semi t i c

Perso-Aramaic

Egyptian

Chinese

Mayan Sumerian

Japanese

Figure 14.5 Revised classification of writing systems (capitals show deep systems; regulartype, shallow)

ScotsGaelicareexamples f deepphonemic ystems. urmese nd Tibetanaredeepabugidasn conrrasro the shallow ndianabugidas.

14.3 Note: Amount of Morphography andOrthographicDepth

The notionsof amount of morphographyand orthographicdepthshould be care-fr{ly-distinguished. he amountof morphographyi gieate, i thereare symbols

which representmorphemes r, in a phonographi. yrt.-, if the spellingdistin-guishes ifferentmorphemes.Orthographicdipth is gieater f differentailJmorphsof the samemorpheme re written the ame. thur in English, he useof numeralssuchas <7 8 9> adds o the amountof morphography,l, do., the fact that thespellingdistinguishesomophonousmorphernes uchasby, bye,buy. Orthographicdepth in English s greaterbecause f the many heteropho"oui aliomorphs"*irichare spelled he same:e.g.,soutb-southern, hild-children,sign-signal.

l4-4 Gelb'sunilinear Theory of Development

In 7964,IgnaceGelb,a renownedSemiticist, ublished n mportantbookon writingsystems hich influencedmuchof the subsequentiscussion bout he typologyoT



276 Classificationof Writing SYstems

writing sysrems. elbargued hat writing systems nderwent naturalprogression

from fii.,ogt"phic to rytt.Ui. to phonemic; urther, he felt that no step in this

,.qu.n.. .ouli be skipped. f we examine he three placeswhere we are sure

that writing was irruerried, e seeclearevidencen Mesopotamiaand China thatwriting beglanwith pictogiaphs.With Maya writing, although here s little direct

evidenie or the .rtiy denelopment f writing, an early pictographicstage s quite

plausible. Gelb himselfbelieved hat writing had only beencreatedonce. He

ihought that Chinesewriting was borrowed from the Middle East, and he wrote

befoie the decipherment f Maya.) Thus, we haveno reason o differ with his

notion that all writing starts with pictographs.His secondpoint, that writing

moves rom pictograpLt o an alphabetvia a syllabary,hasprovedmuch more

contentious.Gelb claimed hat the Semiticscript was syllabic(the term syllabichas other

problemswhich are discussedn 514.5).His motivation or doing this was influ-inced by his notion of progression nd was rathercircular.AlthoughGglbrecog-

nized hat the Semitic .iipti werequitedifferent rom a more ypicalsyllabarysuch

asJapaneseana,his view was that eachconsonantal ymbol n the Semitic cript

r.*"lly represented syllable;or example, consonant ymboldid not represent

merely<pr, but <pv> where<v> could be anyvowel, .e., pi , P€,P2,po, pu/, etc.

Most-scholarsoday eel hat Gelbwaswrong n these laims: irst, hat there s no

invariantdrive owardsalphabetization;nd second,hat theSemitic cripts renot

syllabariesDaniels 990,Justesonnd Stephens993)'

!4.5 SyllabicversusMoraic

\friting systems uchasJapaneseana,Cherokee, inear B, etc.have raditionally

beenreferred o as syilaLii systems.Poser 1992) drew attention to the fact that

most of these ystems renot in fact syllabic,but moraic.Mora in this sense an be

takenasa partof a syllable qualeither o theOnset+ Nucleus r to the Coda; hus

a typicalsimplemorawould have he shape itherof (C)V or -C.

i1 chapte,4, *, pointedout that Japaneseanarepresents or&' not syllables.

Most kana symbols epresent (C)V ,iqo.n.., but thereare separate ymbols 9r

representinghe t*o .od"l morc. Thus n kana,a syllable uchas kun/ would be,.pr.rrnr.iUy two symbols<ku.n>. Cherokeehas a very similar system'with CV

,y-bolr plusone or codal lst.lfJapaneseanaandCherokee ere ruesyllabaries,

therewould be separate ymboli or the closedsyllables, nd a syllablesuchas

/kun/ would be representedy a single ymbol.

GreekLinearB writing (chapter ) is moraic n a slightlydifferentway.EachLinear

B symbolnormally .pr.i..rt, a mora.To write a word suchas tripos/'tripod', Linear

B writes <ti-ri-po>. tttir writing is moraic and not strictly syllabic n two ways.

First, a single ytt"bt. with an iiitial consonant luster tri/ has o be written with

two moraii symbols<ti-ri> (duplicating he vowel) with theconvention hat the

vowelof the first symbol s not ptottounced.Second, codalconsonants simplynot written. If LinearB weresyllabic,herewould be separate ymbolsor writing

syllables ith consonant lusters nd with codalconsonants.



Classificationof.Writing

Systems 277

In Sumerian uneiformwriting (chapter5), aside rom the morphographicwriting,three ypesof phonographic ymbols xistwith theshapesC)V,VC, andCVC. Longvowelsare sometimeswritten simply as CV (ignoring ength)and sometimes yrepeating he vowel with a separate ymbol

CV-V. Cloied ryllrbl.r weresomerimeswritten moraicallyas CV-VC, but therewerealsosome eal syllabicsymbols orcertainCVC combinations. he phonographic ortionof Sumer-ianriting appearsto be basicallymoraic,with somesyilalic writing.

Modern Yi writing has beendescribed r rrrly syllabic Poser1.992,Shi 1.995,Sproat 000).Yi (Lolo) s a Tibeto-Burmananguage'spokenn southwesiern hina.A traditional Yi script exists which appears

-tohru. a logographicorigin. The

Chinese overnment asproposed t.ulr.d scriptwith 819cTraIa.i.rr,based olelyon phonology.From the information availableo me,Yi has44 onsets,en vowels,and our tones;as ar as candeterminehereareno codas. he proposed cripthassymbols

or al l occurringphonological ossibilities. hereare istinct symbols orthree of the tones; he fourth tone is written by using the symbols or one of theother toneswith a superscript rch diacritic. flithouicodal consonants,r is diffi-cult to distinguishhe difference f a simpleCV syllablerom a mora.However, hepresence f the complexonsets, uchas mb nd ish ndz tqh/ etc.,written with onesymbol asopposedo the moraicway LinearB would havewrittenthese nsets),ssome ndication hat the writing may be syllabic,nor moraic.

As Sproat 2000)pointsout, Chineses a syllabicscript n the sensehat eachsyllablehasa separate ymbol.The Chin.r. *iitirrg ,yrt.*, of course,hasa largeamgulltof morphographyn that differenthomophonousmorphemes re written

with differentsymbols.

14.6 KoreanHankul asa FeaturalSystem

Sampson 1985)described oreanhankulas eatural,positinga typolog cal categoryof featuralwriting systems. s we saw in SS4.2.4-5, y*Lok in hankul for thedifferentplaces f articulation hare ertain hrp.r, ,, do he symbolsor thediffer-ent manners.Sampson iews heseas the graphemes f the writing system.Sincethey relate_o phonological featuresof the language,he describes-the ystemas

featural.The overall hankul inventory,howeu.i irlofficiently unsysrematic s tothe relationshipbetween eatures nd shapeshar Sampson's nalysis eemsorced.

To apply Sampson's nalysis see able 4.24), he letters<m r s g g> would betakenasbasic.This s abeady roblematic ince heydo not sharea commonmannerof articulation.To form theplain stopsby Sampson'sules,a line s added,but thelabialsymbol sexceptionaln shapend .gt is aiready n thiscaregory. heaspiratedstopsare ormedby addinga further ineor dot; again,theabial f,rp. isexceptional.The- ense topsand tense<s>are formed by Sampson y reduplicatinghe plainsymbol; his works well. The liquid <l> *ouid havi to be addedasan exceprion.

. Somg eoplehavearguedagainsthe featuralanalysis n thegrounds hat Koreans

learn he system y memorizing ntiresyllabic lyphs.Althougi I reject he featuralanalysis'hisarguments unpersuasiveinceinguiitic yrt.*r-rnd humanconsciousawarenessf themareoftenquitedifferent.



278 Classification f Writing Systems

In all, Sampson'snalysiseems xaggeratedDeFrancis989,Kim-Reynaudl'997,

Sproat2000, Taylor andTaylor 7995;however, eeKim 1997 for a view agreeing

with Sampson).he exceptionseem splentifulas heregularities. eatural harac-

teristicsareobviouslypresent.We havealreadyseen hat originalsymboldesignswere basedon articulatorypositions.However, he presence f features oesnot

mean hat they orm the basicstruffureof the system. analyse ankul asa segmental

writing system,with the ndividual etters ombinednto syllable-sizedlyphs.

14.7 Conclusion

The importance f writing in our public and private ives s immense. or much

of the world today ife salmostunimaginable ithout writing.For 1999,UNESCO

reporrsover 8000 daily newspapers ublishedwith a circulationof about275*illiott, and over300,000books;andvastnumbers f unpublished ersonal otes,

lelers, and diariescould be considered s well in the total amount of writing.

The rate of literacy n a societyhas becomea benchmark or measuring ocial

development.

Surprisingly, riting hasbeen nvented eryrarely,perhaps s ew as hree imes

in the historyof the world. The usefulnessf writing, however,s such hat, once

known, it has spreadvigorously o other languages. ll writing now in use s

derived,ar leasr ndirectly, rom only two writing systems: emiticand Chinese.

Today, here s likely no language hich has not been ouchedby writing to some

extent.Oncewe humanspossess riting, we regularly urn it into a socialobject.Most

often t hasbeenassociated ith education nd the ntellectuallyoftierportionsof

society.Not infrequently,societies avespokenonedialector language ndwritten

another.Major struggles ave esultedor andagainst hangesn the waywriting is

done n a language.\ilfehaveexaminedmany of the historicallyand linguistically mportant writing

sysrems f the world.'We

haveseengreatvariation and intricacy n the way differ-

ent writing systems ork. But much of that variation s related o detail;overall,

writing t.pr.r.ttts language y puttingdown symbols epresentinghe morphemes

andphonemesn the syntactic rderof the languagenvolved.

14.8 Further Reading

Daniels 1996a) rovides goodgeneralntroductiono the ield,especially p.8-10.

Gelb(1963), lthough utdated nd sometimes rongheaded,s still mportantead-

ing for this area. Sampson 1985,chapter2), DeFrancis1989),and Sproat 2000,

chapter ) presenthe standard iew.The debate n Sampson 1994)and DeFrancis

and Unger (1994) s useful,althougha bit polemic;Sproat(2000) s particularly

good n comparingheirviews.Coulmas 1989)presents moresemiotic pproach.

DeFrancis' istory f the interpretationf theYukaghir oveLetter 1989,pp.24-39)

is fascinating.



Classificationof.Writing

Systems

14.9 Terms

amountof morphography

featural ystemglottographic ritingsystemlanguage

orthographicepthphoneticwritingsystemsemanticwritingsystem semasiographic)typeof phonography

279



AppendixA SomeBasicLinguisticTerms

Communication s a very general erm for the exchangeof information. In thisbook,we areparticularly nterestedn linguisticcommunication,hat is, communica-

tion via the useof language. languages a specific ognitivesystemwhich human

beingsuse o communicatewith eachother. When we speak,we use anguage o

encodeour thoughts nto sound which can be heard by others;when we listen,we

use anguageo decode oundsproducedby others nto meaningfulmessages.

Structurally, anguage an be definedas a complexrelationshipexistingbetween

soundand meaning.Many different anguages xist n the world. A major role of

linguisticss o discoverhenatureof languagen general, nd of languagespecifically.

Since his is a book on writing, you may wonderwhere writing fits in. Linguists

considerwriting to be secondary o sound.All languages re spoken;only somearewritten.Al l children earn o speak; omechildren earn o readand write, but

only after heyhave earned o speak.Learning o speak s a natural,unconscious

phenomenon;children learn to speakwith no special nstruction. Reading and

writing, however, equirespecial, onsciousraining.'We

havesaid hat anguagesa relationship etweenmeaning ndsound.Language

is normally manifestedas sound. If, however, anguage s manifested nsteadas

graphicmarks, henwe cancall thosemarkswriting (figureA.1).

MrnNrruc

1 Semantics The structure of meaning.

2 Syntax- The structureof sentences.

3 Morphologt - The structureof words.

4 PhonoloW . The structure of the internal soundsystemof a hnguage.

q Phonetics The structureof the details of the

manifestedsoundsof a language.

SouNo

Figure A.7 The relationship between writing and language

WRrnNc



SomeBasicLinguistic Terms 2gI

Linguistics suallydivides anguagento various evels. n FigureA.1, meaning,sound,and writing areconsidere partof the outsideworld, not p"rt oi hngurg..I anguages thecognitivestructure inking meaningand sound. fe can seero- t[isfigure hat semanticssthepart of languagemosrclosely elated

o meaning, nd hatphoneticss the partof languagemostclosely elated o sound. Vflritingti"r"

morecomplicated elationshipo languagen that unitsof writing arecommonly elated obothmorphologyandphonology,but not generallyo semantics,yntax,oi phonetics.To illustrate he different evels,we will analysehe senreneMary purchiseda neutbookcase;his analysiswill be followedby otherexamplesor each evel.

Semantics

Semantic elationsarethoseof meaning. n our examplesentene (Mary purchasedA new bookcasel,purcha.ses the eventor action; this event s connectld to t*o

semantic nits:Mary andbookcase.In he sentence, ary performs he actionandis known as he 'agent';

bookcaseeceiveshe actionand s ktto*., as he'goal'. Thetime of the event s specified sprior to the expressing f the utterancetself.A andnew giveus nformationabout he bookcase.

For other examples,hot and cold are semanticopposites;a tulip is a kind offlower, which, in turn, is a kind of plant. The sentences be ball was kicked byMary andMary kicked he ball haveverysimilarmeanings.n both,Mary perforrnsthe kicking and s the agent,and the ball receiveshe attion and is the goal. The

semantic tructureof these wo sentencess the same,or at leastverysimilar.

Syntax

Syntaxdescribeshestructureof thesentencen termsof subjects, erbs,andobjects.In English, he normal order of theseelemenrss subiect-uerb-otbiectSVO). n ourexample entence,heagents realized s he subject nd hegoalas he object: hus,we get a basicstructureof Mary purchasebookcase SVO).The time sequencesrealized spast ense.Boththe subjectandobjectare noun phraseswhich have fairly

fixed word order in English.Mary is a singleword and creates o problem.For th!object.,he typical word order of a noun phrase s used:article-aiiectiue-noun.In the sentenceshe ball uas kickedby Mary andMary kicked heball, ball is the

subject f the first sentence,ut the directobject n the second entence. ote thatthe syntacticstructures re quite different,but that the semantic tructures re verysimilar,as notedabove.

Morphology

Morphology discusseshe structureof words.Severalwords n our samplesentencehaveno internalstructure:Mary, q new.S(e

say hat eachconsistof oniy one mor-pheme.Bookcase bviously onsists f two parrs,book andcAse,which o togetherto form a compound:eachpart is a separutemorpheme.



282 AppendixA

The word foreigners an be broken nto threemorphemes:foreign'not native',-er a person',and -s plural'. These hreepartsare minimum meaningful arts nthe sense hat they are meaningful, ut theycannot be further brokendown into

meaningfulunits. Minimum meaningfulparts form morphemes. urchasedalsoconsists f two morphemesi urchaseand-ed, where ed is a suffix indicating hepast ense. f we listencarefully o the soundof purchased, e notice hat the pasttense ar t is pronouncedtl , not dl as he writing suggeststhis s discussedurtherbelow).

Other examples:

1 basketball basket+ ball2 foolishness fool + ish + ness3 books book + plural

4 men- man+ pluralanalyzed n the modelof books

5 broke- break+ pasr enseanalyzed n the modelof purchase

Morphemesrequently re ealized y more han oneshape. he different ealiza-tions of a morpheme recalledallomorphs.

IJ[eeasilydivide ioness nto rwo morphemes s ion + ess,where esss a femininesuffix.Similarly,we analyze uchess s duke+ ess.Here, he situation s morecom-plicatedhanwith lioness.When hemorpheme ukeappears lone, t has he shape

duke; however,when it occursbefore he morpheme ess, t has the form duch-.Thuswe can say hat Englishhasa morpheme uke and hat themorpheme uke hastwo allomorphsduke andduch-.Duch- alsooccursbefore y 'territory' as n ducby.'We

say hat theseallomorphsduke and duch- are n complementary istributionwhich meanshat oneallomorphoccurs n onesetof environm nts dukeby itselfand the other occurs n anotherset of environments duch-before-ess r -yl.

'S7emustbesure o think in termsof sounds, ot in termsof writing. In our example

aboveof purchased, e saw hat the allomorphof the past ensemarker s /t/. In adifferentword, however,suchas rolled, the allomorph of the past tensemarker isldl.fi we were o examinemany ormsof thepast ensen English,we would discover

that the choiceof lt l or ld l is predictable nd depends n the astconsonant f theverb: hus, after s/ in purchase, e get t/, but after lll in roll,we getdt. Thewritingsystem,however, gnores his allomorphic variation and alwayswrites -ed. I haveenclosed ymbols n slant ineshere o emphasizehat I am talkingabout sounds.

In another example,with the plural forms cats and dogs,although the pluralmorphemes written -s, t is pronounceds/ in cats and zl in dogs. hus he pluralmorpheme as wo allomorphsn English:sl (afterhl) and z/ (after g/). Again,hewriting system gnoreshe allomorphic ariationand alwayswrites-s.

Phonology

Every anguage asa basic etof sounds alledphonemes. ny utterance anberep-resentedn termsof thephonemes f the anguage. or example,he representation



I

SomeBasicLinguistic Terms 283

of our example sentence s /,meri ,partJasta ,nu'buk,kejs/ (or something similar in

other accentsof English).

English has the sounds lp t kl. These sounds all contrast with each other in the

sense hat by interchanging them, we createnew words: lpot, tot, kot/ pot, tot, cot.

(Note that we are talking about sounds here, not letters; hus we always use lkl to

represent he phonemeno matter how it is spelled:cat, queen)kick.) The phonemes

of English are given in Appendix C.

Like morphemes, phonemesoften have different realizations,known as allophones.

For example, in English when lp t kl come at the beginning of a word, there is a

little puff of air afterwards: [phct, ttop, khul] pot, top, cool. The allophones [pn n kn]

have been written in square brackets to emphasize that we are talking about

allophones here, not phonemes.Now note that when an ls l precedes p t kl at the

beginning of a word, there is no puff of air: [spot stop skul] spot, stop, school.

Thus, we can say that English has the phonemes p t k/ and each of thesehas twoallophones in complementary distribution: [p phJ, t th], [k kh].

The term segment is used to cover both consonants and vowels. Syllables are

divided into constituent parts. The vowel is the central part of the syllable, called

the nucleus. Any consonants preceding the nucleus are known as the onset. Con-

sonants following the nucleus are known as the coda. The nucleus and the coda

taken together form the rhyme.

Phonetics

.Vfecoulddescribehe phoneticdetailof our sample entence,ut thiswould not be

very useful n this book. One examplewould be the sounds pn n kh],which are

calledaspirated tops;aspiratedmeans hat they havea little puff of air, and stopmeans hat while theyarebeingproducedhe airflow through hemouth s cut off.'We

couldalsonote hat both FrenchandEnglishhave he unaspirated tops p t k],

but that only English,and not French, as he aspirated tops pn nknJ.This book assumeshat the readerhasa basic amiliaritywith phoneticsymbols

and terminology.Appendix B contains he IPA (InternationalPhoneticAlphabet)chartwhich explains he symbols. f you are unfamiliarwith the descriptions,ou

might want to review hem n the phonetics hapterof an elementaryext on lin-guistics.A more horoughdiscussionan be found n Rogers 2000).

Bracketing

As we have just seen,a linguistic utterance can be analyzed at many different levels.

Linguists use certain notational conventions to help keep the levels straight. Slant

lines /top arc used to indicate a phonemic transcription; square brackets are used

to indicate an allophonic or phonetic notation [thop]. In this book we use talics top

to write a word generallywithout focusing on the pronunciation.'\Ufhenwe want todraw special attention to the fact that we are talking about an orthographic symbol,

we useangledbrackets<t>. Thus, we could write: In English, <c q k> are al l used o

write the phoneme lkl, as in the word quick.



284 Appendix A

LinguisticLevel

A linguisticepresentation ay relate o different inguistic evels. t can be describedby ts positionon a continuumbetween eepand shallow.A transcriptionsshallower

if it is closer o thephoneticend;a representations deeperf it givesmoremorpho-logical nformation. A morphophonemic epresentations one related o linguisticunits betweenmorphologyandphonology.n the examples boveof thepast ense,thewriting system f English egularly epresentshe past ensemorphemehe sameway: <-ed>,except or irregularverbssuchas kept,sent, ode,sang thissimplifiesthe situation somewhat),even hough the past tensemorphemehas two differentsoundingallomorphst/ and dl.In this case,English s usinga deep ranscription.If Englishwrote <-t> or <-d> n strict accordance ith the sound, t would usea

shallow ranscription.

LanguageChangeand Dialects

Languagesare constantly changing. A simple way of looking at the effect of lan-guagechange s that if a language s spoken in two areas,and one area undergoesa

linguistic change, but the other area doesnot, the result is that the two areascome

to speak different dialects. If thesedialectal differences accumulate, they may become

so great that the dialects are no longer mutually intelligible, and we can then call

them different languages. Two languages related in this way are said to form alanguage family descended rom the older language. A well-known example is that

Latin changed in various ways in different places, giving rise to several different

languages:Portuguese,Spanish,French, Italian, and Romanian.

Variation in languageextends beyond dialectal or geographicvariation to include

also social variations basedon variablessuch as age,social class,education,gender,

or sexualorientation.



AppendixB The InternationalPhoneticAlphabet

The InternationalPhoneticAlphabet IPA) s the standard ystem or transcribinglinguisticutterances. he chart of IPA symbols s given n figure8.1. A detaileidescriptionof the system s given in the Handbooft of the Iniernational PhoneticAssociation1999).

The IPAwasdevelopedn the early wentiethcenturyand becameairly standardin Europe.n North America, everal ariantsymbols rose rimarilybecausef thedifficulty of typing the IPA symbols n the daysof typewrirers.At present, he useof the North Americanalternativess very slowly turning towards the .rie of thestandardPA symbols. he majoralternatives reshown n tableB.1.Occasionally,scholarlyareas e.g.,Assyriology,Egyptology)havecertainspecialusesof theii

own. The normal_transcriptionf many languagesaries rom strict IPA usageptnytn, or example,n Chinese.

Table 8.1 common North American alternatives to IpA usage

IPA North American

I3tI

dgj

v

S

Z

L

ivii



THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETICALPHABET (revisedo 1993, pdated 996)coNSoNANTSpr.JLMONtC) o 1996pA

Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.

coNSoNANTS (NON-PIILMONIC) vowEl-s

ClicksVoiced mplosives Ejectives

O Bilabial

I o'o,"t

! leost;alveotr

+Palatoatveotar

ll etu-t. ","-r

b Bilabial

d DerraVatveotu

JPatatal

dvelar

d uvuts

Exmples:

p

t

B itabid

t' D$tallalveotil

kt velr

St Alveolufricativc

e

c \ q

Front

i . .C;ntrat

Close r 1 U - U I

\ I Y \ U\ \

*\o- e\e- r

u

o

c

Close-mid

Open-mid

Open

e

.G- {u -nreTHERSYMBOLS

A\ Voicelesslabial-velarfricarrve

W Voi".d lubial-vela approximml

q Voicedlabial-patatalapproximmt

H Voiceless epiglotral fricative

$ Voiced epigloual fricarive

? Epiglotral ptosive

Q 7 n"*lo-paatal fricarives

TJ Voiced alvmlar lateral flap

e l - *Il Simultanrcus I and AJ

Affricates md double articulations

can be rcEesented by two symbols

joined by a tie bar if neessary.

Wheresynbols appear n pairs, }Ie oneto theright represents roundedvowel.

SUPRASEGMENTALS

I

a o

6 { e I

I

I

Itl

Primary sftess

Secondary tress

,foune'trJentong el

HalfJong e'

Extra-short d

Minor (foot)group

Major (intonation) roup

Syllablebrcak Ji.Ekt

Linking (absence f a break)

DIACRTTICS Diacriticsmaybeplacedabovea symbolwith a descender,.g.{l

Voiceless n C Brcathy oicedb 4 Denrat t d

Voiced S - Creakyvoiced b 4 Apical t ch

arpirut"d th dh - Linguotabi" ! d Lminal t d

More rounded C

w

rabiatized t* d* easalized

Lessrounded C J Pulutuli""o tj dln

Nmal release dn

Advanced u Y t",.,r* tY dY Laterat eleas dl

Retracted I Pharyngalized 1r d\ No audible release d'

x

Centralized ex

Mid<enralized €

-Velrized or ptrryrgealized t

. Raised I 1J =voicedalveolarficative)

Syllabic 4 trwercd I tS ='oiceObilabiatappmximanr)

^Non-syllabic

I Advmed Tmgrrc Rmt I

!Rhoticiry + T RetrrctedTmgue Rml I

TONES AND WORD ACCENTSLEVEL CONTOUR

6* t n:f eo, A Rising

e-l Higr, C \ Farring

C J ruria 6, 4 Hfl

C -l ,o* E ) l#;c l i # " 6 1 f f i i l i .J **","0 / Global ise

t ,o.r.o \ Global arl

Figure 8.1 The IPA chart (from International Phonetic Association. @ 1993 bv theInternational Phonetic Association. Reproduced with permission.httg//www.arts. gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html )

Bilabial -abiodental oenra I Alveolar lPostalveola Reroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal

Plosive p b r d r 4 c t k q q G ?Nasal m ITJ n 4 F l N

Trill B r R

Tap or Flap r rFricative 0 p f v 0 d s z l s $ 1 9 J x Y x B h t h Rrnreralfricative t hApproximant U J { .l rqLateral

approximant I t f L



AppendixC EnglishTrunscription

Englishexamples reoccasionally iven n thisbook n transcription, nd he Glossarygives he pronunciationof many less amiliar terms.The uirg. followed n thesltranscriptionss givenbelow.

Table C.1 Key to English transcription

Consonants:

lpl pot

It l tot

ltf / chin

lkl cotlfl fought

utth/ln// l /Iwl

thin

seal

shot

hot

not

lot

wit

tellsl

tbttdl/$/

lsllvl

t6lIz l

lsllml

ht/t /

tj l

beat

do t

gin

got

uote

then

zealpleasure

medt

hang

rot

yacht

Vowels:

li l beatlt l pit

lejl hate

lel pet

/a/ pat

lajl ride

lawl loud

/tj/ choice

lel

Ittl

lu l

lul

lowl

lt l

/s/

boot

Putboatdoorpot, pdw

Stress marked at beginning of syllable):

Primary l ' l

Secondary l, l

Unstressed unmarked

/'slpor/

I'dtt,nobl

/a'pit/



288 Appendix C

Thepronunciation ivenespeciallyor borrowedwords s ntended o represent

standardEnglishpronunciation, ot necessarily hat a nativespeaker f the anguage

would say. n manycases, lternative ronunciations re o be heard.

Theaccent f the ranscriptionssthat of Toronto,where he author ives.Speakersof other accents il l probablybe able o adjust he pronunciation o fi t their own

accenr.For further nformationon this,seeRogers 2000),especiallyhapter5.)

Note that in this dialect, he vowelsof caugbt andcot are mergedas /o/; both

words arepronounced kstl. The vowel r/ only occursbefore il as n door I'dttl.

The vowrl ltl occurs stressedbefore tl; otherwise t occursonly in unstressed

syllablesincluding eforeil in unstressedyllables):ur r I'patl,upper I'rpeil, sofa

/'sowfa/.The wordsmerry,mlry, Mary areal l pronounced s I'mertl.



App.ndixD Glossary

abecedary /,eibi'sida:i/. A text showing the letters of an alphabet in their standard order.abiad/'abd3edl. A phonographic

writing system n which symbols correspond to consonanrsin the language, but vowels are not typically written: e.g., many Semitic systems.abstract pictogram. A pictogram which representsan abstract object by a conventional draw-

ing; e.g.,a single in e which represents he number one.abugida /,cbu'gida/. A phonographic writing system n which vowels are typically written as

diacritics on consonants and one vowel is not written: e.g., scripts of India, Eihiopic.Achamenid /o'kimerud/. Th e persian Empire during the period sj3-330 oro.acrophony /a'krofoni/. The principle by which a pictographic symbol takes a phonographic

value from the first sound of the name of the object it iepresents: e.g., a piciure of a tulipcould be used to represent the sound ltl in English since /t/ is the first stund of /,tjuhpi.Adj. acrophonic /,ekn'fonrkl.

acute accent. A diacritic [' ] of the Greek and Roman alphabets.Akkadian /o'kejdion/. An ancient Semitic language of Mesopotamia, particularly around the

ancient city of Akkad /,'r'knd/. see Assyrian and Babylonian.aksara I'okfotol.In Indian scripts, an orthographic syllable. An aksara is an open syllable

with maximal onset, consisting of a vowel and the entire preceding consonant ilurt.r, ..g.,<hi-ndi>, where the hyphen divides the aksaras.

allograph l'r'la,gt*.f/. A non-contrastive unit in a writing system; a member of a grapheme.In the Greek alphabet, <o> and <€> are allographs of the i"-" grapheme sigma.-Class", ofallographs - allographs which are defined by a feature such as opp.t case, lower case,roman, italic, bold.

allomorph I'a,le,mtsf/. A non-contrastive meaningful unit in a languaget a member of a

morpheme. In English /djuk/ and ld,rt[-lare allomorphs of the same morpheme duke.allophone /'a,la,[ownl. A non-contrastive unit of sound in alanguage; a member of a phoneme.

In English, [t ] and [th] are allophones of the same phoneme ltl.alphabet. A type of writing system in which each symbol typically corresponds to a segment

(consonant or vowel) in the language: e.g., the Roman, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets.amount of morphography. A dimension in the taxonomy of writing ,yri.*, arranging writ-

ing systemsby how much morphographic information is encoded in the writing ,yit.-.Anglo-Saxon. An alternative name for Old English.Arabic. An important version of the Semitic abjad, derived from the Aramaic abjad. The

Arabic language is the most widely spoken Semitic language today and is the fiturgicallanguage of Islam.

Aramaic /,cra'mejrk/. An important version of the Semitic abiad, giving rise to many otherversions. The Aramaic language is an historically important Semitic language, originallyspoken in Syria and later widely used as a chancery language and lingua iranca-in th !



290 AppendixD

Middle East.Aram€an /,e:a'mian/. A speakerof Aramaic, from Aram la'teml, the Biblical

name for Syria.

Armenian. An alphabet derived from Greek in the fifth century NEw for the fumenian language.

Assyrian /a'sirian/.An ancient Semitic language of Mesopotamia, particularly of the north.

SeeAkkadian and Babylonian.

ateii | ,o'tei$il.In Japanese,words of more than one characterwith the characterschosenby

phonetic extension.

aybuben. The name of the Armenian alphabet.

Babel /'bejbal/. Biblical name for Babylon, best known for its ziggurat in the phrase 'tower of

Babel ' .

Babylonian /,babr'lownian/. An ancient Semitic anguageof Mesopotamia, particularly around

Babylon (= Babel /'beibel/).

Babylonian Captivity. The captivity of the Israelites n Babylon (586-538 oro).

bd.ihud./'baj,hwo/.Plain speech';a tradition of writing in colloquial Chinese,coexistingwith

Classical Chinese. Btiihui formed the basis of Modern Standard Chinese.Bible. The name for the scriptures used by Jews and Christians. Christians commonly refer to

the Hebrew scriptures as the Old Testament and to the specifically Christian scriptures as

the New Testament, and use the term'Bible' to include both.

biconsonantal grapheme. A grapheme representing two consonants, as in Egyptian.

bold. In typography, letterforms with heavier weight: e.g., <a> as opposed to <a>.

borrowing-of a writing system. The adaptation of a writing system originally used for one

lattguage for a different language; e.g., the borrowing of the Semitic abiad to write Greek.

Cf. creation of a writing system and invention of writing.

bound grapheme. A grapheme which occurs only in combination with other graphemes,

often a diacritic. See ree grapheme.

boustrophedon /,bust:a'fidan/. Writing that alternates direction from right to left and leftto right in alternating lines. Greek Boootpoqn466v

'as an ox ploughs'. Adj. boustrophedal

/,bustra'fidal/.

breathings. Diacritic marks in Greek to indicate the presenceor absenceof /h/. The presence

of lhl is shown by a rough breathing above a vowel .i ot; its absence s shown by a

smooth breathing .

calendar round. In the Maya calendar, a repeating cycle of 52 years' consisting of a tz'olkin

and a haab.

calligraphy /ka'hgrafi/. Beautiful writing; writing as an aft form. Adi. calligraphic

l ,kxh'gt*frkl.Cantonese /'kente,nizt. A southern dialect of Chinese spoken in Guangdong (Canton) and

Hong Kong; also known as Yud.."rtoo.h" /,kor'tu/. An oval drawn around portions of an Egyptian king's name in hiero-

glyphic writing.

Champollion, Jean-Frangois (1,790-7832) tJept/^Jt The French decipherer of Egyptian hiero-

glyphics.

chancery language. The language or dialect used for administrative purposes by government

officials.

chfrn6m /'tJu,nom/. (Viet. 'southern script'). A type of early Vietnamese writing involving

invented characters modelled on Chinese.

circumflex accent. A diacritic <^> of the Greek and Roman alphabet; Greek. sometimes

appeaflng as < >.

Classical Chinese.The dialect of Chinese used for writing before 1900 Nrw.

ClassicalGreek. Ancient Greek of the period 500-300 oro.

clay tablet. The normal writing surface of cuneiform writing.



Glossary 291

coda. In a syllable, any consonants following the nucleus.communication. A general term for the transmission of messages.Language is one form of

communication.

complementary distribution. A distribution of objects, such that none occurs in the environ-

ment of the other, e.g., duke and duch-, or [t] and [th], as discussed n Appendix A. Se econtrastive distribution.

complex numeral. In Chinese, a complex form of a number grapheme, used to avoid fraud.complex symbol. A combination of a free grapheme (or basic symbol) and a diacritic: e.g.,

<fr>, where <n> is the free grapheme (o r basic symbol) and .tt i, the diacritic.contrast (verb). To form two distinct units. Two units contrast if they occur in the same

environment with different meanings.contrastive distribution. A distribution such that two obiects occur in the same environmenr.

e.g.,lsl and lzl as discussed n Appendix A. Seecomplementary distribution.Coptic /'koptrk/. 1. The name used for Egyptian language since tire third century New. (The

people are Copts /koptsi.) Z.The Greek-basedwriting sysremused or the Copiic language.cranberry grapheme. A grapheme occurring in only one environment; e.g., ir English, Jq>

typically occurs only before .cranberry morpheme. A morpheme occurring in only one environment; e.g., the morpheme

cran- only occurs before berry.creation of a writing system. The creation of a new writing system by stimulus diffusion; the

creator is aware of the existence of writing: €.g., Cree, Cherokee. Cf. borrowing of awriting system and invention of writing.

creative spelling. A non-standard spelling, intended to be amusing or eye-catching.cuneiform /,kju'nia,fr.rm/. An ancient type of Middle Eastern *ririrrg made witf, a wedge-

shaped stylus pressed nto clay.cursive writing. \ilfriting done

with minimal lifting of the writing tool; writing done quickly.Cypriot I'stpiatl. 'Writing of early Cyprus: Cypro-Minoan (1500-1200 orn, undeciihered)and Cypriot (800-200 oro, Greek).

Cyrillic /sr'-rilrk/. An alphabet, possibly created by St. Cyril, commonly used n Slavic anguagewhere the religion has been mainly Eastern Orthodox.

Dead Seascroll- Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts found near the Dead Sea n Israel, con-taining many of the oldest manuscripts of the Jewish scriptures.

decipherment. The successfulprocessof reading and understanding a previously unreadabletext.

deep. A deep writing system is more closely related to morphophonemic units in language,as-opposed to phonemic units. A deeper writing system will have more casesof different

allomorphs written the same. see shallow and orthographic depth.demotic /da'motIk/. The most cursive form of Egyptian wriiing. Seehieroglyphic and hieratic.dcmotike /dimoti'ki/. A more informal form of the modern Greek languagi. See atbareuousa.Deuandgati /deva'nagai/. An important modern script of India, us.d-fo. Hindi and other

languages.

diacritic /,daja'krrtlk/: A bound grapheme which modifies the value of the basic symbol towhich it is attached; e.g., in <6>, <'> is a diacritic, and <e> is the basic symbol.

dialect. A variety of a language, particularly a regional one.dialect character. In Chinese, a non-standard chaiacter used to represent a morpheme, found

in a certain dialect, but not in Modern standard chinese.differentiation. A method of creating a symbol: an ambiguous symbol used for two different

things is disambiguated by altering its shape in one of the uses. For example, if in aIanguage, he symbol X is ambiguously used to represent two different morph.-.r, differ-entiation might use X to represent one morpheme and { to represent the other.



292 Appendix D

diglossia /,daj'glosia/. A sociolinguistic situation in which two very different varieties of a

l"rrgrrrg. are both used, one for writing and the other for speech.Bilingual diglossia -_a

,yp. oiaiglossia in which one language is used for writing and another for speech.Adj.

diglossic ,daj'glosrk/.

digraph l'daj,gtaf L A sequenceof two graphemes which representsa linguistic unit normally

represented by one grapheme: e.g., in English, the grapheme sequence<sh> represents he

phoneme {/ which is normally representedby a single grapheme.

distance number. In Maya writing, a time period which is to be added to or subtracted from

a date in the text to give a new date.

Dravidian /d:e'vrdiian/. Th e maior language amily of southern India.

emblem glyph. A Maya glyph showing the name of a ciry.

-emic /'imrk/. A level of more abstract, contrastive units.

-etic /'etrk/. A level of more concrete, non-contrastive units.

Erruscan /a'trrrskan/. 1. A language formerly spoken in Italy to the north of Rome. 2. An

alphabet used for Etruscan borrowed from Greek and borrowed in turn by the Latin-speaking Romans.

featural ryrp-. A taxonomic term, used by Sampson (1985) to categorize Korean hankul;

the use of diacritic features in hankul is made a crucial taxonomic point. Generally rejected

by other scholars.

final. In Chinese, the part of the syllable except any initial consonant or the tone.

free grapheme. A grapheme which occurs independently. Seebound grapheme.

full-figure variant. In Maya writing, alarge allograph, usually occupying two writing spaces.

furiganal'fu:igona/. Small hiragana placed near a character to show its pronunciation.

futhark /'fu,Qo.rk/.The name of the runic alphabet; its Anglo-Saxon form is known as utborc.

Ge'ez I'gi,ezl. A Semitic language, of the South Arabian group; the traditional language of

learning and liturgy of Ethiopia.Georgian. An alphabet derived from Greek by the fifth century NEw for Georgian, a Caucasian

language.

ClagJitic /,gloga'htrk/. An early alphabet used for Slavic languages, possibly derived from

cursive Greek.

glottographic writing system ,glate'gta;frk/. A writing system used o transcribe the linguistic

units (e.g.,morphemes or phonemes) of a certain language;e.g.,most of the writing systems

discussedn this book.

glyph. A unit of organization in Maya writing.

boitti". An alphabet used for the Gothic language, derived from Greek in the fourth century

NEW.

graffito /gra'fitow/ (p1.graffiti /g.ra'fiti/). An informal writing, as on a wall or other public

surface.

grapheme l'gte,fimL A contrastive unit in a writing system;a classof allographs. The English

alphabet has 26 graphemes; each character in Chinese is a grapheme.

grave accent. A diacritic <'> of the Greek and Roman alphabets.

br.", English Vowel Shift. A major set of sound changes n English which took place around

1450 r'rew, affecting the long vowels of English.

gunul'gu,nu/. In cuneiform writing, a diacritic used o differentiate one symbol from another.

haab.In the Maya calendar, a repeating cycle of 35 5 days.

hamzah l'homzol. An Arabic symbol c for the glottal stop l?l-

hanca /'hondgo/. The Korean name for Chinese characters (= 61t. hdnzil.

hankull'ho4gal/. In Korean, the alphabet normally used fo r writing today.

hdnzi I'hqndzal. The Chinese name for characters.

head variant. In Maya writing, an allograph, particularly of a numeral, which incorporates a

human head.



Glossary 293

Hebrew. An important Semitic language. After dying out as a spoken language, Hebrew wasrevived and is spoken in Israel today; it is the liturgical lang,rageof JuJaism. Ota Hebrewabiad.

'\il7ritingsystem used for Hebrew before the Babylotriu"

-C"ptivity,derived from the

Phanician abiad. New Hebrew abjad. Writing system used for Hebrew since the Babylonian

Captivity, derived from the Aramaic abjad; also used for Yiddish, Ladino, and other lan-guages spoken by Jews.

heterography /,heta'rogrefi/. A situation in which two different linguistic units are wrirten

_differently, e.g., blue-blew, cat-dog. Adj. heterographic /,hetara,gia.fikl.

heterophony /,hete'rofani/. A situation in which t*o diff.rent linguistic units sound different

.e.9., cat-dog, bow'bend over'/'bow and arrow'. Adj. heteropLonic /,heta.ra'fonrk/.

hieratic l,haia'txtrk/. A form of Egyptian writing, more cursive than hieroglyphic, and moreformal than demotic.

hieroglyphic /,haira,ghfrk/. The earliest pictographic form of Egyptian writing.hiragana. Seekana.

homography /ha'mognfrl. A situation in which two different linguistic unitsare writtenthe same, e-g. bow 'bend over'/'bow and arrow', well'hole fo i water'/'not sick'. Adj.

homographic /,homa' gta;frkl .homophones /,homa'fown/. Two different words in a language with the same pronunciation.homophony /he'mofeni/. A situation in which two different-iinguistic units sound the same,

e.g.' well'hole for water'/'not sick', blue-bleu. Adj. homophonic /,homa'fcnrk/.hyangchal l'hioqtfoll. In Korean, an historic fype of writing of poetry using phonetic extension

of characters.

ideogram. A term found in some literature on writing systemswith a variety of meanings,best avoided.

Indian grammarians. Scholars of the fourth century olo who developed a sophisticatedanalysis of certain

aspectsof Sanskrit grammar.Indo-Aryan /,rndow'e-rijan/.A branch of Indo-European; the maior language amily of northernIndia, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

Indus valley /'rndes/. In Pakistan, an early society with an undecipheredinitial. In Chinese, the first consonant of a svllable.initial series. n Maya writing, a date at the beginning of the text, often written with special

doubly wide glyphs.

internal structure of writing. Rules of the writing sysrem ndependent of the language beingwritten; e.g., the Roman alphabet is always written left to right, ,ro *"tt., *hat ttt.language.

invention of writing. The invention of writing, with no previous knowledge of writing at all;

e.g., cuneiform, Chinese, Maya. See borrowing of a writing system and creation of awriting system.

italic. In typography, a slanted style of letterforms.itutu l'rdui. In Korean, an historic type of character-based writing, used until 1900.Johnson, Samuel (1709-54). An importanr English lexicographer, aurhor of Dictionary of

the Englisb Language.

iukuiikun /,dzu'kud3i,kun/. In Japanese,words of more than one character with the charac-ters chosen for their semantic value.

kana /'kona/. Either_of two moraic systemsused in Japanesewriting: biraganal,hha,gona/, acursive form used especially for writing affixes, and katakoni /'kotJ,kone/,

"r'".rg,ri",orm used especially for writing borrowed words and other special uses.See alsofuigana

and kanii.kanbun /'kon,bun/. The writing of classical chinese in Japan (= ch. ut4ny6n).kanii /'kondSi/. The Japanesename for chinese characte^ 1= gh. hdnzi).katakana. Seekana.



294 Appendix D

katbarevousa l,ko0o'revu,so/. A more formal form of the modern Greek language. See

dcmotike.

kokuiil'kowku,dgi/. In Japanese,characters invented in Japan and not existing in Chinese.

kun-reading /kun/. A readingof a character in

Japaneseusing a native

Japanese

pronunci-

ation. A semantic kun uses he pronunciation of a native Japaneseword; a phonetic kun

extends the kun-reading of a native Japaneseword to other Japanese words having the

same pronunciation. Seeoz-reading.

ku,ukyei /'kugial/. In Korean, an historic type of writing, especially used for Buddhist texts'

employing phonetic extension for writing affixes.

Landa's alphabet. A portion of a sixteenth-century NEw document written by Bishop Diego

de Landa giving information about the Maya writing system.

language. A complex system residing in the human brain, relating meaning and sound; a

form of communication.

language academy. An institution, found in certain countries, usually charged with the re-

sponsibiliry of establishing standards with respect to language.Latin. The language of

"n.i..rtRome and a language of learning for western Europe for

centuriesl the Romance languagesare descended rom Latin. SeeRoman alphabet.

lenition lla'n{anl. A phonological process of weakening, in which a stop typically becomesa

fricative, and a friiative becomes lht or disappears. A phenomenon in Scots Gaelic and

other Celtic languages, affecting the writing system.

letter. A single grapheme of an alphabet.

Levant |la'va:ntl. ihe land of the eastern Mediterranean: Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine,

Jordan. Adj. Levantine /'levan,tajn -,tin/.

ligature /'hga,tjur/. Two graphemes which are joined and written as one unit; e.g., <a> for

<ae>. Structural ligature - a ligature which functions as a separategrapheme in the writing

system.Non-stnrctural ligature - a ligature which functions as a sequenceof two graphemesin the writing system. Quasi-ligafure

- a sequenceof two symbols which functions as a

single grapheme in the writing system; i.e., as though it were a structural ligature.

Linear A. An undeciphered script of ancient Crete.

Linear B. A mixed morphographic and moraic script of Mycenaan Greek.

linear organization. The way in which symbols in a writing system follow each other; e.g., in

the Roman alphabet, writing goes in horizontal lines from left to right with the next line

vertically below the last. Nonlinear elements - elements of a writing syst€m which-occur

outside its overal linear organization: e.g., accents in the Roman alphabet generally go

above the letter they are associatedwith.

lingua franca /,hggwe'f.ra:gkel. A language adopted as a common language by speakersof

different native languages.

linguistic. Relating to language.

linguistics. The scientific study of language.

literacy. The abiliry to read and write.

long count. In Maya writing, a count giving a precise date

point in time.

reference to an arbitrary

main symbol. The more prominent symbol to which diacritics

often free and can stand alone.

are added; a main symbol is

Mandarin l'm*ndannl. 1,. The dialect of Chinese historically used by civil servants.

2. Northern and western dialects of Chinese. 3. Equivalent to Modern Standard Chinese.

Masoretic text /,masa'.letrk/. The standard text of the Hebrew scriptures, edited by the

Masoretes /'maso,.rits/ in the seventh century NEv/ at Tiberias (in modern-day Israel).

mater lectionis /,mote: ,lekti'ownrs/ (Lat. literally'mother of reading'; pl. matres lectionis

/'motrejs/). In Semitic abjad writing, the use of a consonant symbol to representa vowel.



Glossary 295

Maya /'maia/. One of the sure casesof invention of writing; a people of Meso-America. Mayais used as the general adiective form; Mayan is used irreferring to language.

Mesopotamia /,mesowpa'tejmiiel.The land between the Tigris arrJEuphrares rivers; modern-day Iraq.

Middle English. English between 1100 an d 1500 Nnw.Modern English. English after 1500 Nr,w.Modern Standard Chinese. The standard written dialect of Chinese today, very similar to the

spoken Chinese of Beijing; also known as piltongbud.monoconsonantal

_grapheme. A grapheme representing a single consonant; common inalphabets, abjads, and abugidas, but in Egyptian distinct fiom bi- and riconsonantalgraphemes.

mora /'mtsa/ (pl. mora /'mci/). A phonological unit larger than a segment and smaller thana syllable, typically of the shape CV.

moraic system ,m-r'-rejtk/.A writing system n which the graphemes ypically represenrmor&.morpheme /'mr:,fim/. A contrastive meaningful unit in

"l"ng.r"g.;

a .l"rt of "llog."phs. InEnglish, book and table are different morphemes; bluenesi.o-nri.t, of two -or"ph.-., -blue and -ness.

morphogram /'mufo,gt*mr/. A single grapheme of a morphographic writing system. Agrapheme which represents a morpheme of the language.

morphographic writing system l,mttfa'gtrfrk/. A writing system in which the graphemesty pically represent morphemes.

morphophonemic /,mufafa'nimrk/. Having to do with linguistic units between the phono-logical and morphological levels of language.

mxedruli. The name of the Georgian alphabet.Mycenean /,majsa'nian/.An early Greek culture centered n Mycena /,maj'sini/.Nabatean l,nabe'tianL

A version of the Aramaic abiad which developed in the Sinai andnorthern Arabia; the Nabata.an abjad developed into the Arabic ab;ad.nucleus. The vowel of a syllable.numeric value. The use of a letter to represent a number.obverse. The front side of an inscription. See everse.Old English. English before 1100 Nuw.Old Persian. The language of the Persian cuneiform inscriptions, from the sixth to fourth

centuriesoto.

on-teading. A reading of a character in Japaneseusing a borrowed Chinesepronunciation. Asemantic ot, uses the pronunciation of a borrowed Chinese word; a phonetic oz extendsthe on-reading of a Chineseword to other Japanesewords having ih. ,"*. pronunciation.

Seekunteading.onset. In a syllable, any consonants preceding the vowel.oracle-bone writing. The earliest form of Chinese writing, found on bones and shells.orthographic depth. The relationship of language and writing, considered from the point of

abstractnessof the linguistic units involved. jee deep and shallow.orthographic dialect variation. Two recognized ways of writing the same anguage or cerrain

words of the same language. In English, there is a significait, although small, amount ofdialect variation between spellings used in the United Statesand thJrest of ih. English-speaking world.

overdifferentiated- Describing a relationship between writing and language in which someorthographic distinctions do not correspond to any phonological contrasts. See

underdifferentiated.palatalization. A phonetic process by which sounds come to be produced with the tongue

closer to the hard palate: e.g., tl -+ ltJl.



296 Appendix D

papyrus /pa'pajres/. 1. A paper-like writing surface made from the papyrus plant Cyperus

payrus.2. A text written on papyrus (pl. papyri).

Persian. An Indo-European language belonging to the Indo-Iranian family.

Phaistos disk /'fai,stows/. A clay diskfrom Crete with undeciphered writing.

Phenician lfe'nilenl. Early writing and people of the northern Levant.

phoneme /'fow,nim/. A contrastive unit of sound in a language; a class of allophones. In

English, ltl and ldl are different phonemes.

phonemic /fa'nimrk/. Having to do with the sound system of a language' especially with

regard to contrastive units.

phonetic. 1,. adj. Having to do with the sound systemof a language, especiallywithout regard

to contrast; allophonic. 2. n. In Chinese, the phonetic component of a semantic-phonetic

compound, .rp.ii"lly used n traditional systemsof ordering characters n a dictionary; see

radical.

phonetic extension. A method of creating a symbol by extending the use of a symbol to other

instancesof the same sound; ..g., if, in a certain language, the symbol # representstheword /ko/ in a certain morpheme, phonetic extension would lead to its use to representthe

phonological sequence kol in any situation.

phonetic trriting ryrt.-. A writing system ntended to be useful in transcribing the sounds of

any language, e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet.

phonogram. A ringl. grapheme of a phonographic writing system, representing a phonolo-

gical elementof the language: .e., a syllable, mora' or phoneme.

phonographic writing.'Writing

whose graphemes relate to phonological units (phonemes'

mor€, syllables)of a language.

phonological complement. A grapheme which repeatsphonological information already given

by another grapheme, as in Egyptian and Maya.

phonological extinsion. A method of creating a symbol: the use of a symbol is extended toother words having the samesound; e.g., n English, the extension of the useof a pictogram

of a bee to refer to the morpheme be.

pictogram. A grapheme created by pictography; a morphogram which graphically portrays

the object iirepresents; e.g., a picture of a flower to represent the morpheme flower.

pictography. A method of creating a symbol: a (stylized) picture is used as a morphogram for

the object pictured.

picture writing. Pictures which tell a story, but which are not related to specific linguistic utter-

ances;not considered eal writing although having someelementsof graphic communication.

ptnyin /,pin'yin/. The current standard romanization for Mandarin Chinese.

p"inti"g. The use of diacritics to indicate vowels in a Hebrew text; sometimes also used for

Arabic texts. Such a text is called a pointed text.

polygraph I'poh,gtrfl. A sequenceof graphemes which representsa linguistic unit normally-

represented by one grapheme: e.g., the grapheme sequence<sch> is used in German to

,.pr.r.rrt the phoneme ll , although a phoneme is usually written with one grapheme.

polyphone /'poli fown/. A single grapheme which represents wo or more phonological units

of a language:e.g., <x> in English for /ks/.

Prakrit /'p.rokrrt/. A later form of Sanskrit.

PRC. People's Republic of China.

Proto-Canaanite 7'pro*to*-'kejna,najtl. Early writing of the southern Levant, developed

from Egyptian and leading to the Semitic abiad.

Punic I'plunrkl. Referring to the African colonies of the Phanicians, particularly Carthage.

piltonghuA /putoq' hwc/. Modern Standard Chinese.

qudcngfr. The adaptation of the Roman alphabet for writing Vietnamese.-Quf

ai. The sacred ext of Islam. (The most common English pronunciations are lka'tanl or

l,kt't73nl, but /ka'.ron/ is occasionallyheard. A common alternative spelling s Koran.)



Glossary 297

radical. In Chinese, the semantic component of a semantic-phonetic compound, especiallyused in referring to traditional systemsof ordering characters in a dictionary. Seephonetic.

reading pronunciation. Seespelling pronunciation.rebus writing. Seephonetic extension.

relationship of language and writing. This relationship describes the level of linguistic unit(e.g., morpheme, phoneme) represented n the writing system of that larrguagel

reverse. The back side of an inscription. Seeobverse.rhyme. In a syllable, the nucleus and rhyme taken togerher.Roman. 1. Pertaining to Rome. 2. (lower-case)In rypography, the ordinary form of lemerforms,

not italic or bold.

Roman alphabet. The alphabet borrowed from Etruscan and Greek ro write Latin. TheRoman alphabet was borrowed for writing languages n western Europe and then to manylanguages throughout the world.

sanskrit /'senskrrt /. The earliest attested form of Indo-Aryan.schwa ffwol (i n Hebrew often [a'wal).1. A diacritic in Hebrew to indicate the vowel la l or

to show the absenceof a vowel. 2. In linguistics, a phonetic symbol [a] for a mid centralvowel.

script. A general term for a writing system without regard for its structural nature.seal. An engraved object used to make an impression on clay, wax, or paper.segment. A consonant or a vowel, but not the tone.semantic complement. A grapheme which gives addirional semantic information, as in

Egyptian.

semantic extension. A method of creating a symbol: the use of a symbol is extended to othermorphemes having the same or similar meaning; e.g., r pictogram of a leg used to refer tothe morpheme leg; semantic extension might further extend the use of this pictogram torepresent semantically related morphemes such as walk, run, go.

semantic-phonetic compound. A grapheme consisting of two parts, one semantic and onephonetic; for example, in Chinese, the grapheme for lmal 'mother'

consists of two parts,one meaning 'woman'

and the other representing he sound lmal.semantic-semanticcompound. A grapheme consisting of two parts, both semantic; for exam-

ple, in Chinese, the character for 'home'is said to consist of a pig under a roof.

semantic writing system.A writing system ntended to be useful in transcribing any utterancein any language n terms of its meaning, e.g., the Bliss system.

semasiographic writing. An alternative name for a semantic writing system.Semitic /sa'mrtrk/. A branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family; an important language

family for writing including Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, and Eihiopian.shallow. A shallow writing sysrem is related

to phonemic units in ianguagr, ", opposed tomorphophonemic units. A shallower writing system will have -or. cases of diff.r.ntallomorphs written differently. Seedeep and orthographic depth.

simplified character. In Chinese, a simplified form of cirtain traditional characters ntroducedin the PRC in the mid-twenrieth cenrury.

spelling pronunciation. A pronunciation which agrees with typical spelling conventions,but which goes against the traditional pronunciation. For example, ih. prorr.rnciation ofboatswain as /'bowt,swein/,instead of the traditional/'bowsan/. Also readiog prorr,rrrciation.

spelling reform. A proposal for revising the spelling system of a langu"g., oit.r, with a viewto making the system easier to learn.

Standard Arabic. The variety of Arabic used in writing and in formal speech.stele Greek /'stili/, pl . stele 'stili/).

An upright slab of itone or other haid substanceused orwriting or art (e.g., a tombstone). Sometimes he Latin form stella is used (/'stela/, pl. stelleisteli/).

stimulus diffusion- The borrowing of an idea without necessarily borrowing all the details.



298 AppendixD

stroke order. The order in which the strokes of a symbol are written, especially n Chinese. In

European contexts, the equivalent term is ductus.

stylus /'stajlas/. A pointed tool used for writing, as on clay or wax.

subscript.'\ilfritten

below the normal level of writing, as the <2> in.HrO, or the diacritic

in <h>.

Sumerian /,su'merijan/. Ancient language of Mesopotamia; the first language to be written.

superscript.'Written

above the normal level of writing, as the <2> in <xzt or the diacritic

in <6>.

syllabic. Refers to a writing system in which the graphemes typically represent syllables.

syllable. A phonological unit generally uttered without a break; typically syllables have a

vowel and may have consonants before or after the vowel.

symbol. A general term for a graphic mark without regard to its graphemic status.

tablet. A piece of clay or wax used for writing.

tanufin /,ton'win/. In Arabic, three special symbols to indicate the indefinite article:

lmanl",j, lminl.i, /mun/ L.

Tiberian /,taj'bi:iian/. The dialect of Hebrew used n the Bible, from the Israeli town Tiberias.

SeeMasoretic.

token. In the Middle East, small clay objects used for record-keeping.

tone. Contrastive pitch patterns in a language. In Chinese, each word has a specific tone

which may distinguish it from other words with the same consonants and vowels.

traditional character. In Chinese, he traditional form of certain characterswhich was replaced

by a simplified character in the PRC in the mid-twentieth century.

transcription. A representation of the pronunciation of a text.

transliteration. A representation of a text in which each grapheme is given in a romanizedform.

triconsonantal grapheme. A grapheme representing three consonants, as in Egyptian.

tughra /'tuyro/. Ornate signature of senior official in the Ottoman empire.

type of phonography. A dimension in the taxonomy of writing systems distinguishing the

ways in which phonological information is portrayed in a writing system.

tz'olkin /'tsolkrn/. In the Maya calendar, a repeating cycle of 260 days.

Ugaritic /,juga'rrtrk/. A cuneiform abjad used for the Semitic language Ugaritic; found at

Ugarit I'juganl (Ras Shamra lsaf'Jomro/).

umlaut /'um,lawt/. A diacritic used with the Roman alphabet, consisting of two superscript

dots <">.

underdifferentiated. Describing a relationship between writing and language in whichsome phonological contrasts are not indicated in the writing of that language. See

overdifferentiated.

unit discrepancy. A difference in the number of units in a specific linguistic-graphemic

relationship.

Uruk /'u,ruk/. An ancient Mesopotamian site of very early cuneiform writing.

vague year. In the Maya calendar, the haab.

Ventris, Michael (7922-56) /'vent.rrs/. The British architect who deciphered Linear B.

airiima /vr'roma/. In Indian scripts, a diacritic used to indicate the absence of a following

vowel.

vowel pointing. Seepointing.

vulgar Latin. The dialect of the common people in ancient Rome, as opposed to the formaldialect used by the upper classes,particularly in literature. The Romance languages are

generally derived from vulgar Latin, not formal Latin.



Glossary 299

Wade-Giles romanization. The most commonly used romanization for Chineseuntil replacedby plnytn in the mid-twentieth century.

Webster, Noah (17 58-1843). An important American lexicographer, author of the AmericanDictionary of the English Language.

winydn /'wcn,jon/. Classical Chinese.writing. The use of graphic marks to represent specific linguistic utterances.writing brush. In chinese writing, the normal writing tool.writing group. In Arabic, a group of letters which are connected to each other. Most letters

in a word are connected to each other, but certain Arabic letters cannot be connected to afollowing letter; thus, the next letter starts a new writing group. Every new word starts anew writing group.

writing system. A system for graphically representing the utterances of a language.Yiddish l'i]d'fl. A Germanic language commonly sfoken until recently by Jews in eastern

Europe, written with th e Hebrew abiad.



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Index

Note: Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

abecedary 70

abjads 15

Arabic 24, t35, 136,229

Aramaic123,1"24,,70,, 27,229

Hebrew727-9

New Hebrew123,,737

Old Hebrew1.21, 23, 131'

Palmyrene 25

Phanician 2l , 153-4, 156

Semiticl7-25, 120, 141,153

SouthArabian 120Syriac125

Ugaritic93,1.28

Abkhaz167

abugidas

Brahmi 205, 206, 2t0, 21.3,221

Burmese22,275

Ethiopic 15, 120,138-40

Indian21,3,275

Kharogghi 05

Tibetan 24-6,275

Abydos100

academies,anguage 87

AchemenidPersians 23, 124

acrophony L8

acuteaccents 51

Afro-Asiatic anguageamily 97,'l'!5

Akkadian 0-L, 86, 90,92, l5, " l '1 '6, ' l '17

diacritics88

gunu 88

morphographicwriting 717

phonemic nventory81phonographic omponent'l-'l'7

romanization L

Sumerian orrowings90

vowel length 90

seealsocuneiform

Akkadians123

aksara210, Zt8-79

Alaska253

Alexanderhe Great113,124,1'45

Algonquian anguages , 250

allographs0-11,1,77, 72,173

allographic ariation l, 77

classesf allographs 1

freeand boundallograPhs 6,215

full-figurevariants237, 238geographic llographs220

headvariants237, 238

allomorphs10,282

allophones,10'.283

alphabets 4, 115

Armenian1'64,L65

Cyril l ic5, 14,766,167,229

English5, 5, 10

Etruscan'1..70,7"1,,7L

Eubaian L70

Georgian 55

Glagolit ic '66,167

Gothic1,62,163

Greek ,1 ,4 ,128

Hebrew128

InternationalPhoneticAlphabet(IPA)

21,269,285-6

Ionic alphabetL59

Korean hankul)70-3, 71, 227

Landa'salphabet233-4

Mongolian 229ogham258,259

Roman -5,6 ,74,128

runic255,256-g

Zhityln zimfi 47



Altaic anguages 0, 68,229Americanorthographicusage192, lg3Amharic120,138-9

phonemic nventory 139

amountof morphography 74,275Anglo-Saxon eeOld Englishanusuara220Arabic6, 14, 99 , 116, 25, 132-8, 1.67

Arabicabjad124, 135, 136,229backgroundand history 1.32-3calligraphic tyles , 9-10, 133, 3Scases 38colloquialArabic133diacrit ics 33,135,138diglossia ,17, 133

directionof writing 135hamzab 137homography140

Judaeo-Arabic 37Modern StandardArabic 133non-linear lements -10numerals'1.31,38,272phonemic nventory 133phonology133pre-Islamic riting l3Z, 132Standard rabic7,1,33vowelsanddiphthongs 35, 137

Arameans l7, 127,123, 127Aramaic 1,716,120,121,123-5,'1.32,145

Aramaicabiad123, "l_24,270,227, 229and early ndic symbols207, ZOgmorphograms 24, 124Perso-Aramaic 74

Armenian 164-5alphabet 64,165dialects 55

Asianwriting systems 99-232A6oka,Emperor125,203-4A6okan nscription 203-4, 204, 207, 210Assyrian81Assyrianempire1,23at (@)sign194ateii 60Athapaska languages 50Attic dialect'1.59Avar167aybuben165

Azeri167

Babel79

Babylonian '1.,123

Index 3rl

BabylonianCaptivity 721, 123bSihui 22Bengle212Bangladesh99,212

Belorusian, 167,274'benefit

of clergy'7Bengali 21,2Bhutan 199Bliss , 263-7,273

diacritics254semantic istinction 267semantic otational system 71sentenceormation 265-7symbols 63-saswriting system 66-7

Bliss,Charles253Blitz, Karl seeBliss,CharlesBofhazkoy93book structure7, 1,5-'1.5BApomofoseeZhilyin zimftborrowing of a writing system4-5boustrophedon 54, 154, l5Sbracketing283Brahmi204,204,205-77

abugida205, 206,210, 227

directionof writing 206,211indigenous ypothes s209Indusorigin hypothesis 09Kharosthiorigin hypothesis 11later developmenr 11-13origin 207-1.1.Semiticorigin hypothesis 10-ll

Brahui203breathings ,59,16ABuddhism ,25,'1.99,00, 201, 204,

213,221

Buddhistsutra 51Bulgarian167Burmese 00.221-3

abugida 22,275diacritics222-3phonemic nventory221retroflexstops221Sanskritborrowings222vowels222-3

ByzantineEmpire146

calendarcalendar ound 241-2Gregorian calendar239

Julian calendar239



312

calendar cont'd)

Maya 238-42,24L

seven-day nd yearlycycles238-9

vagueyears241calligraphyseeunder ndividualwriting

systems

Cambodian 21

Canaanite 16

Old Canaanite 15'Proto-Canaanite 78-1.9

Canada1, 192-3,250, 252,253

Cantonese0,22,23,39

capitalization11, 15

Carrier250

cartouches 13,114Caucasiananguages 65

Celtic anguages , 177, 258

Chadwick, ohn 148

Champollion, ean-Frangois13

Cherokee , 14, 247-9, 276

background nd history247,249

moraicscript247, 249,272

orthographicsystem 49

phonemic nventory248

symbols 47,248

transliteration247CheyennendianLetter2-3, 3,270

Chinese , 5, 6, 20-49, 200,27'l',276, 278

compounding 7, 33, 34-7

dialectgroups20,27

diglossia2,23

earlypronunciation 1-2

homophony 6,28-9

language eriods21

language-writingelationship , 26-9

Middle Chinese eriod21

Modern StandardChinese 2,23homophony 28-9phonology24-5

romanization25-6

morphographic lements 72, 277

neo-English riting of 54-6

numerals 8,39-40

Old Chinese 1, 28,29, 32

phonographic lements 72

punctuation 5,43

readingChinese 7

romanization 1, 26, 47, 285

spokenand written language eforms

4s-7

standardization of writing 23

syllabic script 277

syllable boundaries 15

syllablenitial, final and tone 24-5,25

word order 52

written Chinese2l-3, 26-8

oracle-bonewriting 29-31, 3L,43

seealso Chinese characters

Chinesecharacters"1.0,26, 27-8, 32-45

character simplification 45 , 46-7, 197

complex characters 37-8

dialect characters39

formation 32-4

frequency of types of characters 45

large and small seal characters 43number in use 44,45

structure 39-44

ca l l i g raphy ,9 ,42 ,43

complex numerals 39-40

ordering characters 43-4

shapes39

stroke order 4O-1..47

writing direction 41 , 43

traditional analysis34

traditional characters4 5, 46

writing of borrowed words 38-9Chinese civil service examinations 23-4

Chippeweyan250

chosenkul 70

Christ ian Bible 151, 162,785' 186

chft ndm script 74-6

Chuckchee 167

circumflex 16 1

ClassicalChinese27,22,23, 50

classification of writing systems269-79,

27 1

DeFrancis' classification 273, 273featural writing systems277

Gelb's unilinear theory of development

275-6

glottographic writing systems271-5

mixed writing systems272

phonetic writing systems259

revisedclassificati n 27 5

semantic writing systems269-71

Sproat's classification273-4, 274

syllabic versus moraic script 275-7

c lay ablets7,79,83, 84, 84 ' 1 ,47

accounting tablets 86-8, 87

envelopes85

Index



lndex 313

obverse 85

order of writing 85, 85

reverse85

Uruk tablets 86-8,87

commas 15communication 28 0

complementary disributio n "1,1,2t2computers

and creative spelling variations 194and Japanesewriten language 68

contrast 28 3

contrastive discrepanciesL6-17Coptic 97 , 98, 99, "1.61-2

Egyptian borrowings 161,,162Greek borrowings 161, 162

correspondence 16cranberry graphemes 28

cranberry morphemes 28

creation of a writing system 4-5

creative spellings 193-4

Cree5, 14,249-52,253

background and history 249-50

moraic writing system 252phonemic inventory 250phonotactic structure 250

symbols and symbol orientation 2Sl,

252writingsystem 50.-2

Crete 47, l5 l

cuneiform 9-96, L00,116,203,277internal structure88-91phonographic ymbols277proto-cuneiform85relationship o language 0-"1social ontext85-5symbol evelopment1-4,88-90, 89

seealsoAkkadian;clay ablets;OldPersian;Sumerian;Ugariticcursivestyles5

Arabic135

Chinese 2,43Latin 174,175

Cypriot script151, L53Cypro-Minoan script 151Cyprus 51,155Cyril l icalphabet , '1,4,,66,'1.67,ZZ9

dagesh129Danish12-13,192,256Dar ius94

de Rhodes.-Alexander76DeadSeaScrolls 21,722,723,131demoticwriting 100, 101, 709demotike'1.46-7

Denmark254,255Deuanagan 12, 213-21,227, 250,274

aksara218-19

consonants 17-18diacritics 16geographic llographs220ligatures 17, 21,8numerals 20symbols 15vowel nasalization220vowels215-77word division 21.9-20

diacritics 1Akkadian88Arabic133,135,138Bliss264

breathings ,59,'1.60Burmese 22-3

Deuanagart l,6Ethiopian139-40French 'J.,1.76

German176Greek160Hebrew127,129-30Indo-Aryan 210

Japanese2Maya 235

PahawhHmong 262Sanskrit12vowelpointing127,130

dialects , 284dictionaries 87

differentiation 2, 33, 36, 88diglossia 7,"1.24digraphs 5,17,197distance umbers 42Dravidiananguageroup17,199,

200-1, 200, 203, 206Dutch197dysgraphia58dyslexia 8

e-mail11

Ebla 92Eblaite 2-3,777Egypt98,99



374

Egyptian ,97-114

absencef writtenvowels103, 105

astheticrearrangement f graphemes

11. "1, l l2biconsonantalraphemes 05, 105

Coptic97, 98, 99

decipherment13

DemoticEgyptian97, 98, 1'61', 62

demoticwrit ing1.00, 01,109

directionof writing 109,L11,

exampleext 112-1,3

hieraticwriting "1,00,101,'1,09

hieroglyphic riting 100, L01,102

homonyms 09,110-11

internalstructureof writing 109-12LateEgyptian 7,98

literature102

Middle Egyptian97,,98

monoconsonantalraphemes 04' 105

morphographic riting 108, 117, l8 ,

272

Old Egyptian98,99

origin of Egyptianwriting 100

periods97, 98phonemic nventory(Old Egyptian)99

phonograms 18phonographic riting 103-7, 178' 272

phonological omplements 07-8

polyconsonantalgraphemes 74

scribes nd literacv102-3

semanticcomplements 109, 110

social context of writing 102-3

stylesof writing 100, 102

systemic similarities to the Semitic abjad

177,'1,"1.8

triconsonantal graphemes707, ll2

writing materials L02

Elam 92

Elamite 92-emic 10

emphatic consonants93-4, "1,26,13 3

Engl ish5, 6 , 16, t76,1 ,85-98,274

alphabet 5, 5, L0


calligraphic style 6, 9

capitalization 11,,1, 5

diglossia 17

homography 140

languageperiods 186

Latin abbreviations 124

Index

l igatures 13

Middle English'l'86, 189-90

French borrowings 1'89' 794

fricatives 189

Great English Vowel Shift 186, 191,

194Latin borrowings194

phonemicnventory189

spelling 94

trisyllabic hortening 90

vowels190

Modern English186, 190-4

borrowings192

creativespellings 93-4

orthographicdialectvariation 1'92-3spell ing 91

spelling ronunciations 92

morphological nformation 73, "l'4,

273

Old English185-5, 187-9

phonemic nventory187

spelling 94

vowel ength188

orthographicdepth275

paragraphs 5

phonemicsystem 73place-namepellings 95

punctuationgraphemes 5

runic writing 257-8

spell ing , 6,17,"1'87, 91

Middle English194

Modern English791,192

Old English1"94

reform1,95-7

and soundchanges '94-s

English ranscripti n 287 B

Epi-Olmec 33Erasmus 47

Eritrea 117Estrangelo 25

Ethiopia l7 , 139

Ethiopicabugida138-40

Ethiopicnumerals 40

Ethiopicscript 1.5,'1.20-etic10

Etruscan 70-2

abecedary170

allographs'1.71,72,773alphabet 70, 7l , 171, 73

calligraphic tyle170



directionof writing 170Greekborrowings ,171writing tablets171

Etruscans 70

Eubaianalphabet170Evans,John249,250exclamationmarks15

Falasha 39Faliscan 72featuralwriting systems 7T-gFinnish , 6,272,274

orthographicdepth 177,274phonemicnventory178

Finno-Ugric 77

Fraktur'1.82French 72,'1.76,77, 192

diacrit ics 1,176NormanFrench186,194soundchanges 94

funerary nscriptions 02

furigana 65futhark256,257futhorc258

Gaelic

IrishGaelic 78,180ScotsGaelicseeScorsGaelic

Gin 20Gandhari206,210Ge'ez 20,138,"1.39Gelb, gnace 75-6Georgian155German 4,16,"1,82

diac:.itics176Fraktur 1.82

StandardGerman17SwissGerman17

Germanic anguages 54Glagoliticalphabet1.66, ,67glottalstop81, 93,1,37,'1,58glottographicwriting systems 71-s

classificationcheme 71,272moraic systems 72morphographic ystems 72phonemic systems 72phonographic ystem 272

glyphs235,235, 238,243-5,243,244,245

emblemglyphs238

Index 31s

Gothic 162-3graffiti 700,1,73graphemes,70,13

biconsonantalraphemes05,L06,

t t 2cranberrygraphemes 8freeand boundgraphemes 1-12grapheme-morphemeelationships 4grapheme-phonemeelationships13,

1,7,160-1,,191Iigatures .2-13monoconsonantal raphemes 04, 105non-segmentalraphemes 0, 14,

t5-16phonologicalcomplemenrs

07-8, 235,237polyconsonantalgraphemes 74punctuationgraphemes 5triconsonantal raphemes 1, 1,07,712word boundarygraphemes 5

graphemicanalysisof writing 11graveaccents 5LGreatEnglishVowelShift185, 191,194Greek15, 124,'125,'1,73,74

accents 51

Attic dialect1.45boustrophedon54,154, SsClassical reek145,147,155, 60

phonemic nventory155voweldistinctions 58

Cypriotscript sL, 153Cypro-Minoanscript 151demotike146-7diacritics 60diglossia 7, 746-7directionof writing 754,174

HellenisticGreek145,1.46HomericGreek145,148kathareuousa46,147language eriods145language-writing elationship150-1

LinearA script15'1,, 51LinearB script145,147-51., 47,276Modern Greek145,'1,46-7MycenaanGreek145,147pitch accent ystem150pronunciation 1.47

sibilants 57socialcontextof writing 155syllable-finalonsonant lusters 57



316

Greekalphabet , 14, 128,145-69, 170

development53-5

dialectalvariation L59

Eubaian alphabet170Ionicalphabet 59

Phanicianborrowings153-5, "l '56,'l'57,

158

scripts erived rom 767-7

Greenland 53

Gregoriancalendar239

Gujarati script 212

gunu 88

gtu6yil u6mdzi25-6

haab247,242,245Hakka 20

Hammu-repi91

hamzah137

Hin 20

hanca73-4

hankul7'1.5,

53,70-3, 71 74, 227

featuralanalysis 77-8

shapes "1.,72

structure72-3

unique eatures 1

Hansard Ihdnyil 22

hdnziseeChinese haracters

Hatranscript124

Hausa132

Hebrew5, 14, 117,'1.20, '23,, 25-32

alphabet 28

backgroundand history 125-6

calligraphic tyles , 128, 130

diacritics127,,129 30

directionof writing 128, 130

Hebrewabiad127-9

language2

lenitionL29

New Hebrewabiad 1'23,731

numerals 28,131'

Old Hebrewabjad121,723' 73'l'

personal ames 30-1

sibilants .29

TiberianHebrew126-7, "l'29

vowelpointing130

vowels ,129-31writing system

HebrewBible121,123, 126,"1'31,145-6

reading131

Septuagint 45

Hepburnsystem54

heterography 6

heterophony 6

hieraticwrit ing100,1.01,109

hieroglyphic riting 700,L01, 702,

1,09

Hindi 200, 201,,272, 213

hiragana 'plainkana')6'1,, 2, 63,

54-5,65,67,205-6

Hittite 93

Homer L45

homography16

homonyms 09,110-11

homophones 5

homophony16Chinese6,28-9

HongKong 23,45,"1'97

Hurrians93

hyangchal69

Iceland 54-s

Icelandic 75

Iliad 145

illiteracy L

importanceof writing 1-2

India 125,'1,99, 12-1,3seealso Deuanagarl

Indian grammarians 07

Indo-Aryan anguage amlly t65,

799,204,200

Indo-Aryans209

Indo-Europeananguageamily 93,

145 ,1 .65 ,72 ,254

Indusscript2AI4,209

Brahmi and 209-10

decipherm nt201'-2,203

ligatures203morphemic-moraic ystem 03

symbols202-3

IndusValleyculture4,201

internalstructureof writing 6-7

InternationalPhoneticAlphabet(IPA)21,259,285-6

Inuktitut 14,252-4

backgroundand history

2s2-3Creeborrowings253

orthographic eform 253

symbols 53,254

inventionof writing 4*5' 81-4

Ionic alphabet 59

Index



Irish

Middle Irish 178ogham258-50Old Irish258

Islam125,132,1,33lsrael 126I ta l ian 72,176,177i ta l i cs ,16itwu 69

Japanese, 6, 5A-68, 200ateii 60calligraphic tyles50, 51,66character implification51Chinese orrowings ,20, 50, 52 ,

54, 56_7,5gcomputerwriting 68diacritics 2dialects 0inflection52

iindai moii ('god-age cript'l S2-3

iukuiikun 50kana seekanakokuii 60literacy 52, 67-8morphographic elements 72numerals 2phonemic nventory53phonographicelemens 272pitch accentstructure54psychology f writing 68romanizations 4siddham 213structure53-4verb orms53word order 52,53writing reform 67-8

Japaneseharacters eekanji

iindai moii 52-3

Johnson,Andrew1,97

Johnson,Samuel 87

Judao-Arabic131

iukuiikun 60

Julian calendar239

Kabardian157KacchT 12

kana5,14, 6 '1 . -6 , l18, SZ, 7Z,275

braillesystem 6

furigana 65

Index 317

hiragana'plainkana')61,62,63,64-5 ,56,67,205_6

historicaldevelopmentG1-2katakana 'sidekana') 60, 61 ,62 , 63,

5 4 , 6 5 , 6 6 , 6 7 , 6 9modern ana62,54-6

kanbun50

kan i i50 ,56 ,57 ,58-60,66,57,68,179,272

hun-readings7, 58, 59-60, 65on-readings7, 58 , 59,65

Kannada213katakana 'sidekana') 60 , 61, GZ,63,

64 , 65 ,66 , 67 , 69kathareuousa46,147Kazakh 1.57Ketie 0Kharosthi204,205-6

abugida205

directionof writing 206hypotheticalorigin of Brnhmi211origin207,211symbol inventory207

Khorazmian"l,24

Kirghiz 167Knossos

47Kober'sTriplets 147-8Kokugo Singikai 'National Language

Council'l 67kokuii 60Komi 157

Korean68-74,274calligraphic raditions50characters 3-4Chinese orrowings20, 68-9dialects 8

featuralwriting systems 77-8hanca73-4hankulseehankulhyangchal69itwu 69kwukyel69lexicon69obstruents70phonology69-70romanizations69-70syllable hapes 0

KublaiKhan71,227kun-readings7, 58 , 59-60,65Kunreisiki (CabinetOrdinanceSystem) 4kutukyel69



3 1 8

Landa, Diego de 233

Landa's alphabet 233-4

language ,269,280

acquisition2

language change 284

spoken language 2

writing-language relationship 3, 5-5,

280-1,280

languageacademies187

Laotian 200,221

Latin 1.5,172-3, 185, 1,86,194, 284


ClassicalLatin 172, 173

direction of writing 774

historical stages172inscript ions1,73,774-5, 175

palatal nasal L7 6

phonemic inventory 173

social context of writing 172,,173, 186

vulgar Latin 172

Latin alphabet seeRoman alphabet

lenition

Hebrew 129

Scots Gaelic 179

letters 14

Levant !L7,l l9.-12"1.lexical lists 85

Library of Congress romanization scheme

223ligatures2-13,203,205,206,217,2l'8

non-structural igatures12

quasi-ligatures2-13, L6

structural igaturesL2

LinearA script151,,151

LinearB script145,'1,47-57,47,276

Kober'sTriplets 147-8

moraicsymbols148, 150,275morphographic ymbols 48, L50

linguistic evels284

linguistics280,281

literacy 1,,7, 103,773

logograms14

long counts240-l

Lord'sPrayer188, 189

McCune-ReischauerM-R) system59,

74,73

Macedonian ,67Malayalam 21,3

Manchu 50,'1,25,230

Index

Mandaic script 124

Mandarin2A, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

M5o Ztdong 44

Maraghi '1.3,220

Masoretes26,129

Masoretic text 126

matres ectionis127 1'29 130, 1, 2' 158

Maya4, 5,233-46

backgroundand history 233-4

calendar 38-42,247

decipherment 34

inscriptions 35 ,236, 238,242-5,

243 , 244 , 245

Landa'salphabet 33-4

numbering ystem 39' 240pictographic stage276

writing system

alternativewritings 237, 237

diacritics 35

glyphs235,235, 238,238,243-5'

243 ,244 ,245

internalstructure235

moraicsymbols 35

morphograms 35, 237' 272

phonological omplements35 ,

237 ,272semantic omPlements 35

Meso-America ,233

Mesopotamia, 7, 79, 80, l7 , 1'21,'].,23,

t24,275

Mesrop,Bishop165

MiddleAges , t7,172,178, 1'85

Min 20

Mohammed732

Moldovan157

Mon-Khmer languages 4

Mongolian 50 ,125,1'67,227-9calligraphic tyle9,229, 229

symbols 28

monoconsonantal raphemes 05

Montagnais250

mora5 ,74 , 54,272,276

moraicwriting systems 4, 1'6,, 3, 1'48,

203,235,272,276

Cherokee47,249,272

Cree252

Indus script203

Japaneseana 272LinearB script

l'48,1'50,276

Maya 235



morphemes , 10,282

cranberry morphemes 28

disyllabic morphemes 27grapheme-morpheme relationships

1,4monosyllabic morph emes27

morphograms 14-15, 90,9I, 108,'1.12,

124, 124, 235, 237morphographic writing systems 14-lS,

203,272

Akkadian117Aramaic 124Chinese72,277Egyptian 08,117,118,272

Japanese72

LinearB script148,150Maya 235,237Sumefian272

morphology 281-2morphophonemic epresentations84morphophonemicwriting systems 73mxedruli 165Mycena 147Mycenaan exts145,147

Nabataan empire 724, 132Ndgari 213Narmer palette"1.02,103Nepal 199

Nepali 213,220Nestorian125Nestor's up 154,155non-linguistic ommunication2, 3North American anguages 47*54Norway 257numerals

Arabic1,31,138,272Chinese 8,39*40Deuanagarr220EthiopicL40Hebrew128,1.31.

Japanese 2letters sed snumerals 56,162,163,

164,1.65

Maya239,240

Odyssey145

ogham258-60alphabet 58,259calligraphicstyle 258-9

Index

inscriptions 58 , 260,260Pictishoghams258

Oiibwa 250Old Chinese 1,28,29, 32

Old English 85-5, 1,87-9Old Persian 1, 94-5,'1.23Old Uighu 229on-readings7, 58, 59,65oracle-bone riting 29-31, 37,43oral transmission f texts 201,2A7originsof writing 82-4Oriya 213

orthographicdepth 177-81, 274-sdeep177-81.

shallow 177

orthographicdialectvariation 192-3Oscan172overdifferentiatedorrhography 253

pagestructure15PahawhHmong 5,260-3

backgroundand history 260-Idiacritics262

directionof writing 261phonemic nventory261rhyme2671romanization261symbols 62tones 61,252

Pakistan199,212palatalnasal176-7palatalization 179 -81

Palenque242Peli 221.Palmyra'1,25Palmyrene 25, 125

Panini 204papyrus102paragraphs 5Parthian 124People's epublicof China(PRC)20,

4 3 , 4 5 , 4 6 , 1 9 7periods15Persian ,,132

Middle Persian724Old Persian L, 94-5,1,23

Perso-Aramaic74

Peter he Greatof Russia157P e t ra 17 , I 24 , 132'Phags-pa

script71,227,227

319



320

Phaistos isk 151,152

Phanician177,"1.7920, 121,121,1'23

boustrophedalexts 154

directionof writing 154

Phanicianabfad121',153-4

PhaniciansL53

phonemes ,6, 10 , 282-3

allophones,10,283

grapheme-phonemeelationships 3,

1,7,160-1, 191

phonemic ranscriptions

phonemicwriting systems 3,'t'4,203,

272 , 273 , 274

phonetic xtension 2,33,38, 58, 60,

88 ,90phonet ic un 58,59-60,75,90

phonetic n 58,90

phonetic ranscriptions9

phoneticwriting system 59

phonetics 83

phonograms .4, 0, 91, 108,112

phonographicwriting systems 3-14, 272

Akkadian117

Chinese272

Egyptian1.03-7,

108, 1'1.,8,72

lapanese272Maya 272

Semitic117-78

phonological omplementsl'07-8,235,

237

phonologicalextension108

phonology 282-3

Pictishoghams258

pictograms 2, 34,45, 88, 264

abstract ictograms 2, 33 , 45, 88

pictography 2, 43, 92, l"l'9,276

picture writing 3p iny ln t ,26,47,285

Pitmanshorthand250

pointed exts127, 130

Polish175

polygraphs6,28

polyphones4,16

Portuguese72, 176, 1.77

Prakrit 799, 200, 204, 207

Gandhari206

Proto-Canaanite 1,81,9

proto-cuneiform85Proto-Scandinavianhonology255 6

Proto-Semitic 7,126

Index

Pu Yi 230

punctuationgraphemes 5

Punic177, l2 l

Punjabi 12

piltonghud23,45

Pylos'147

questionmarks15

qu6c ngu 76

Qur'an1.32, 33,137,1.38

radicals44

Ras Shamra117

readingpronunciations1,92

rebuswriting seephoneticextension

Reformation 85

Renaissance86-7

rhyme26l-2,283

Rigveda200

Rok runes257

Romanalphabet -5, L2, L3,128,167,

173-84,185, 58

calligraphic arieties175

Etruscanborrowings173, "1.74

Greek-Etruscan rdering1'7

laterhistory'1,75-7Romanceanguages72,177

Romanian172

romanization

ga6yti lu6md.zi 5-6

Hepburnsystem54

Kunreisiki (CabinetOrdinanceSystem)

54

Library of Congress cheme 23

McCune-Reischauerystem 9, 70, 73

plnyIn21,26' 47' 285

RomanizedPopularAlphabet261rU7ade-Gilesomanization25, 26

Yale omanizations6, 69,70,73

RosettaStoneLL3

runic254-8

alphabets 55,256-g

backgroundand history 254-s

calligraphicstyle255

inscriptions 85,254-s

mysticismand magic258

Rcik unes257

symbols 57Russian , 167, 274

Rvukvuandialect50



Samaritans 12 3

sandbi 214

Sanskrit 12,199-200, 20L, 212, ZZ7borrowings from 200

classicalSanskrit 20 0diacritics 12

phonemic inventory 273-14phonology 273-14

retroflex stops 274, ZZIVedic Sanskrit 200

word divisions 21 9

schwa 130

ScotsGael ic 7,17

lenition 179

Modern Scots Gaelic 179

morphophonemic inventory l7g, 1,79orthographic depth 177-gI, 27 5palatalization 179-81phonemic inventory 178

scribes85-5, 100, 102-3script 10

seals82

Chinese43

Indus Valley 201,202

Mesopotamian 82segment28 3

semanticcomplements91, 109, 1lZ, Z35semanticcompounds 89 , 26 4semant ic xtension 2,33,38, 88, 90semantickun 57,75

semantic on 57, 75semantic writing system 269-71semantic-phoneticcompounds 34-6, 37,

4 3 - 4 , 4 5 , 7 6

radicals 44

semantic-semantic ompounds 36-7, 45semantics

281semasiographic writing system see semanticwriting system

Semit ic4, 5, 1L5- 44, 276, 278acrophony 118

Egyptian sourcesof Semitic etters 119,119and Indo-Aryan writing 210-11phonographic writing 117-IgProto-Semitic 81,'1.26

Semitic abiad'1.17-25, 120, l4l, IS3Semitic anguage amily 1,IS-17

Semitic morphology 140, 14 1see also'SfestSemitic

Sequoyah 47,250

Index 321

Serbo-Croatian67Serto125Seycong, ing 70ShongLue Yang 260,251

sibilants 29,757siddham 213Sinai118Singapore 0,46Sinhalese 00, 212,2"1.3Sino-Japanese8, 59Sino-Korean9,74Sino-Tibetanamily of languages 0,223Sino-Vietnamese5Slavicanguages, 167, T6

alphabets167sociolinguistics f writing 7Sogdian 24,'1.25,227SouthArabian anguagesl7,lZ0Southern'$fest emitic 20Spanish 3, 74, 15, 16, 172, 7G, T7,

'1.92

spellingcreative 93-4spellingpronunciations192spelling eform 795-7, 256

Sri Lanka 199,200,212, 213

stimulus iffusion5, 100stylus84Sumerian, 5,79-80, 81, 96,90,277

earliest ocuments 0lexical ists86phonemic inventory 79seealsocuneiform

SuomiseeFinnishSwahili132Sweden 57syllabaries52,276

syllabicwriting sysrems 4,276syllables 83

coda1,4,283

final 24initial24nucleus 4,283onset283rhyme261-2,283tone 24

symbols 0,14complex ymbols'1,1,2

syntax281Syria123Syriacabiad125