What is the origin of Scripture? and its evolution

There are many historical data that suggest that the origin of writing occurred in different periods and civilizations; It is believed that it was in Ancient Mesopotamia, in Greece, in China, and even in India. For this reason, it is useful to have precise knowledge of what the origin of writing and how was its evolution throughout human history.   

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origin of writing

Around the years 100.000 to 40.000 BC, the human being managed to develop a kind of quite primitive language through guttural sounds. A few years later, specifically in 30.000 BC, they began to communicate through more complex techniques, such as the pictographs that can be seen in the different caves of Western Europe.  

Despite this, the first writing system recorded in the world was made in Ancient Mesopotamia by the Sumerian people at the end of the fourth millennium BC, in the year 3.500. For a greater understanding of the theme, the birth of writing could be segmented into several points.  

Early writing systems 

As we briefly explained to you, the origin of writing dates back to approximately 3.500 and 3.000 BC Ancient Mesopotamia, what we know today as the Middle East, was divided into two regions; to the south Sumeria and to the north the Akkadian Empire. This part of the world is considered to be one of the earliest civilizations.  

In it, the populations were made up of shepherds and villagers, who needed to consolidate their bills and debts in writing. There, writing was created with the help of small clay tablets and chisels, where simple matters were placed, such as the relationships between grain sacks and cattle heads. 

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In other words, through marks, strokes and drawings, the inhabitants represented objects, animals or specific people to have a backup of what was being talked about at the time. Even with this simple model of language, they could express a specific idea with the use of various images, this is called an ideogram.  

However, the communicative process became quite complicated, because information was only transmitted through basic nouns. For this reason, cuneiform writing was later originated, in which people were given the opportunity to express more Abstract and complex.  

This owes its name to the way in which the procedure was carried out, since the characters or words were represented with symbols that had a shape similar to that of the wedges and nails.   

Little by little, as civilization developed more and more, so did its writing. Therefore, cuneiform writing became a spoken language, it could express terms both phonetically and semantically.  

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Hymns, formulas and even ancient literature were written with it. Cuneiform became so popular that it was adapted into other languages, such as; the Akkadian, the Hittite, the Elamite and the Lluvite. It was even inspiration for the creation of the alphabets Persians and ugaritic 

egyptian writing 

It is believed that Egyptian writing comes from the idea of ​​the Sumerian people, and the theory makes a lot of sense, because at an exact moment in history there was contact between the two cultures. However, both differ in much. 

La dissimilarity more prominent, as You know it well, is that the Sumerians captured their symbols on clay tablets while the Egyptians did it mainly on their monuments, caves and vessels. 

The writing of this civilization emerged a few years after cuneiform, in the third millennium BC, and was then and even today one of the most distinctive features of Egyptian culture.  

These symbols are called hieroglyphics, and they were extremely complex. In fact, several of them were ideographic signs, that is, they represented specific concepts or words; planets, constellations, feelings, etc. Instead, there were others that represented more than one sound and meaning.  

Although the Sumerians had already begun to cover the subject of phonetics in writing, the Egyptians achieved it in all its splendor. These incorporated into their language the emission of the different hieroglyphs that they recorded in their daily lives.  

In itself, the symbols shaped by the Egyptians could be divided into three types; the pictograms, which represent beings or things; phonograms, which represent sounds; and the determinatives: which are signs that allow knowing which category belongs each thing or being.  

As a result of how complicated this language was, the scribes chose to simplify the practice with the implementation of the usual use of papyrus paper. This paper was made from the fibers of the stems of a plant.anta that grew on the banks of the Nile River.  

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However, this idea did not work for them for a long time either, because they considered that even this writing process required a lot of energy and meticulousness. Therefore, they decided to create a new typeface that was faster to draw and looked similar to cursive. It was called hieratic writing and was a hybrid between the hieroglyphic and this. 

In the year 650 BC, a few centuries later, they succeeded in inventing an even clearer and easier to write cursive, called demotic. This quickly became the favorite writing of the entire civilization and pushed away to previous. 

Although there is no precise knowledge about the meanings of each of the symbols of ancient Egyptian writing, it is known that it contributed to the creación of the Phoenician alphabet. Like other Semitic peoples that were under their rule.  

phoenician alphabet 

Although the Phoenician people designed the first prototype of the phonetic alphabet, it was not really an alphabetic system at all. For an alphabet to be considered as such, it must have a sound for each symbol involved.  

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In the Phoenician model, only consonant sounds were represented (vowels were exempt), something similar to what happens in the current Hebrew and Arabic alphabets. This type of writing has a separate name, they are called adjad. 

This writing emerged in the year 1.200 BC, had a total number of 22 phonograms and was written from right to left, like many of its derivatives. On back then, these worked for them to communicate concisely and precisely.  

For this reason, this system was adopted and adapted by other cultures when this civilization made commercial voyages around the Mediterranean Sea. It can be said that three more were specifically derived from the Phoenician alphabet: 

  • Hebrew, an alphabet that currently has twenty-two characters whose origin It dates back to the year 700 BC. In found remains, philologists affirm that this ancient Semitic people did not transcribe the vowels and read from right to left.  
  • Arabic, and all its other later styles; thuluthnash y dewani, which managed to spread rapidly due to the expansion of Islam throughout the world, in various regions of Asia and Africa. These emerged approximately in the year 512 BC and by that time counted with more than a thousand characters unlike today.  
  • The Greek, which initially only had 18 signs before the vowels were incorporated. The early Greek alphabet appeared in 900 B.C and was subdivided into two, to give rise to the Cyrillic alphabet and indirectly to the Latin and Ulfilan alphabets.  

In parallel, in what is now Syria, a similar alphabet was born, the Aramaic, with which a few books of the Old Testament were written. This was also expanding around various territories generating its variants. 

First formal alphabet  

The Phoenician civilization, also called peoples of the sea, in the past traveled throughout the Mediterranean until they were considered its owners. On these trips they shared their culture and knowledge with other peoples, one of them being the Greeks. 

Although they found the Phoenician system interesting, the Greek population spoke a very different language and could not correctly transcribe the existing alphabets. To solve this problem, they modified some symbols according to their own guidelines to express the vowel sounds that were lacking in the Phoenician. 

Furthermore, these adopted some other signs from Aramaic for the representation of these vowels; from there were born the Alpha, the Omicron, the Epsilon and the Ipsilon. In the middle of the XNUMXth century BC they incorporated the Iota.  

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We are all aware of the great contributions that this civilization has given to humanity. The The Greek alphabet is considered the first in history, due to its formality, in this even uppercase and lowercase letters are used. No matter how many years have passed, more than 3 thousand years later, it has not been modified in any way.  

Other ancient writing systems 

The Phoenician did not give rise to all the alphabets of the old world, there are others such as Chinese, Japanese or Indian, which were born in a different way. Ideography also spread to other regions of the globe. However, many conjecture that its origin lies in the island of Crete, Greece.  

Since its creation in the second millennium BC, Chinese writing has advanced considerably when it comes to ideography. Currently, this writing system is called Sinogram, but in ancient times they were a set of characters similar to those of the Egyptian culture. 

Both consisted of a pictorial and geometric representation that served to transmit the messages of everyday life in their cultures, such as the sun or the moon. In archaeological sites in this region it was observed that the Chinese captured many of their ideas in turtle shells and bones. 

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In these shells it could be perceived that curved lines were hardly made, the shapes made were usually straight, due to the complexity involved in writing on these hard utensils.  

Over the years, the appearance of silk displaced bones and, later, paper replaced silk. Also, it was obsolete to use an awl as it would tear the paper, which is why it was replaced by a brush 

The strokes with the brush had to be harmonic, uniform and fluid, trying as much as possible to avoid discontinuities. For this reason, the scribes were given excellent Chinese calligraphy; considerable rhythm, order, balance, body position and proportions were essential for a favorable result.  

Most sinograms share simple and similar strokes that do not exceed three lines, however, Chinese writing can be considered very diverse. In fact, you will be able to find some characters with more than fifty strokes, all in the same graphic space.  

writing in america 

Within the first American civilizations, the Incas were the only ones who managed to develop their empire without the help of writing, they simply used more primitive and outdated mechanisms.  

An example of this is that to have a record of the population census they used a knotted rope system that often performed the function of "writing" and other times that of the necessary calculations for the advancement of the local economy.  

The Mayan civilization was one of the precursors that gave to denote the importance of this aspect for the growth of a prosperous society. Around the years 300 and 200 BC, they saw the need to create their own method to leave records of astronomical, numerical data, places, dates, events historical, laws and art. 

However, this was a privilege that in this civilization only the priests possessed, they were the only ones with the possibility and ability to read and write. In addition, they were the ones who elaborated the codices and designed the regulations of your community. With the arrival of the Spaniards in America, only a few copies of these sacred books remained.  

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The writing structure of the Mayan peoples is quite similar to the Egyptian, which is why they are called glyphs. However, it is extremely different from that of other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, due to the complex characteristics of its illustrations.  

Currently, the Mayan script is considered one of the most complete ancient systems due to its high phonetic value. It worked with a system logosyllabic, each individual sign could represent a single word (usually a morpheme) or a specific syllable, although sometimes it could mean both.  

Therefore, it was a bit difficult to read, even today there are several untranslated ancient writings. The reason for this is that the words used by the Mayans give the capacity of an interpretation for more than eight hundred combinations.  

To capture their ideas and thoughts, they used plant-based paints and tree bark leaves or parchment made from animal skin. In the carving area, they decorated their walls, ceilings, bones, stones, and vessels with personal ornaments, but mostly with religious motifs.  

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The alphabet that took over the world 

In Italy, between the regions of Tuscany, Lazio and Umbria, there was a small town called Etruria. Its inhabitants were extremely enchanted with Greek culture, so they decided to adopt the Greek alphabet that was used in the Hellenic colonies of southern italy and modify it as you see fit. 

This was carried throughout the nation's territory, expanding little by little, without having the slightest idea of ​​the scope it would have a few thousand years later. In this way, it was that he came to one of the best known civilizations in Europe and the West, Rome.  

This alphabet became the most widely used in western societies and many other places that were colonized by European countries, ademas of lands where English is a secondary language because, although there are adaptations depending on each language, most of them use the same letters.  

From this alphabet, other languages ​​that derive from Latin, known as Romance languages, were born, these are Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, Romanian, among others. The most widely used Romance language today is Spanish, which is spoken by more than 400 million people.  

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In the beginning, around the XNUMXth century BC, the Latin alphabet was written from right to left, just like the first primitive languages ​​or non-Latin scripts. As the Romans colonized regions, they imposed their culture on the locals; art, religion, customs, etc.  

Therefore, these also imposed the use of their language and, consequently, the alphabet. Otherwise, they would not be able to understand each other, preventing prosperous business relationships from happening. Latin in a short time became the language Church official.  

In ancient times, the Roman alphabet was composed of twenty-two letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, Z, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T , V and X. At that time, phonetics was very different, for example: the letter C had the same sound as the G in “drop”, and represented the same value as the K, that is, it expressed both the sound of the K as of the G.  

After a while, a line was added to the C to differentiate it from the sound produced by the K, which resulted in the birth of the usual G. This took the place of the Z that had been eliminated due to its disuse. For its part, the V was what the U is now for us.  

origin of writing

After the conquest of Greece by the Roman Empire, the Greek language began to invade Latin, for this reason the letter Z was reintroduced. It was added back to the alphabet so that it had a sound similar to the S in French. and to the same Z in English. In other words, this one would have the same sonority as that one. Spanish, International 

A curious fact is that the letter Y originally represented the same complex sound as the French U, since it also came from the Greek. However, the people were not really interested in the correct pronunciation of words, only the nobility took the time to speak properly.  

Additionally, Roman culture provided us with the uppercase and lowercase letters of our language. The letters used in the capital script gave rise to the current capitals, while the Roman cursive used by merchants and officials for their texts contributed to the creación of the lowercase.   

Evolution

Since the beginning of human history, about 300 thousand years ago, human beings have been looking for ways to communicate, even visually through paintings. cave houses. For this reason, primitive men can be considered as the precursors of language and writing.  

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The evolution of writing went from completely mnemonic representations, with the memorization of simple codes that were used to make sequences of names, numbers or data, to more complex structures that represented sounds and graphemes with a certain ambiguity.  

According to the Aristotelian tradition, writing is nothing more than a set of symbols that come from other symbols. In addition, this states that what is written is not directly representing the concepts with which it is related, but the words with which these concepts are designated.  

These statements back then and even today led many people to practice the phonocentrism. On many occasions, this even prevented the linguistic study of writing from developing a little more, and favored the growth of phonology.  

At the end of the XNUMXth century, the French philosopher Jacques Derrida strongly criticized this, emphasizing the importance of writing in all aspects of human life. To achieve the relevance it has in our daily lives, writing has had to evolve over time. This evolution is based on two principles: 

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Principle ideographic 

In this principle, people, animals, objects and even places are usually represented with pictographic signs that simulate the real or exalted aspect of what is being expressed. The conceptualization is carried out through the use of both pictograms and ideograms.  

First of all, let us define what a pictogram is: a graphic and not a linguistic sign, which is materially linked to the representation of a real or emblematic object. Many ancient alphabets are based on the use of this tool.  

In fact, in prehistory the human being reflected the situations that occurred with the help of pictograms. The drawings that we can observe in the cave paintings are pictograms. If these had not existed, writing as we know it today could not have been created. 

In modern times, they continue to have the same function, but are no longer used as frequently. Traffic signs can be considered pictograms due to their clarity and simplicity when expressing a message. This kind of communication overcomes all language barriers, they are highly understandable worldwide.  

On the other hand, there are ideograms, whose purpose is to represent abstract ideas without the support of any sound. These are still used in many cultures around the world, such as in the south of Nigeria, in Japan or in China, it is even claimed that it is one of the methods of humanity's oldest writing.   

 In some languages, ideograms can symbolize lexemes or words, but they do not express phonemes or sounds. This means that, for example, current Chinese civilizations have the ability to read ideographic texts that they do not know how to pronounce. The difference between both concepts lies in the fact that ideograms are more elaborate than pictograms. 

phonetic principle 

In the phonetic principle, the signs began to have the sounds that corresponded to them, which facilitated a better understanding for the speakers. However, not everything was so simple and fast, there was still confusion in relation to the concepts and their respective pronunciations.  

An example of these confusions is that of the Sumerian sign that was used to name the word arrow, which was later also used to give meaning to the word life, because both were heard in a similar way.  

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 Some signs gradually began to represent several objects that shared the same sound or at least similar, thus emerging systems that are based on the phonetic principle. Little by little, the compression and pronunciation method was improved, in order to avoid mistakes. 

In hieroglyphic systems, both Egyptian and Sumerian, symbols were used that represented sounds of words. in these tongues the ideographic principle goes hand in hand with the phonetic 

Neither in antiquity nor now, is there a single writing system that is entirely ideographic. Although many consider Mandarin as the clear example of a completely ideographic language, this is not at all accurate, since many of its signs also they are phonemes and do not literally represent the pictographic sign.  

A similar phenomenon happens in Egyptian writing, in it certain words are written with signs monoliters, biliteral or triliteral and also carry semantic complements. The signs follow the phonetic principle and the complements ideographic principles 

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Conclusion

The journey towards the creation of the current writing that we all know has been extensive and with influences from many regions of the world; Mesopotamia, Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece, Italy, among others.  

We can see all these contributions reflected when we write in our daily lives. An example of this is the way in which children and even ourselves draw the sea.  

The usual way we do the wave symbology comes specifically from the Egyptians. These spelled out the word water similar to how an average child or adult would. 

Any way As we see it, the invention of writing meant a great advance for the history of humanity. This was a revolutionary contribution in which many collaborated and served so that we could communicate to places that we would never imagine reaching. In addition, it led to the foundation of much more complex societies.  

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In fact, if we don't think carefully, there is no point on planet earth that does not have a method own or acquired language, because everyone needs a means to express themselves and have an appropriate and healthy communication.   

The reproduction of oral language into written language made a great number of things easier, such as separating and identifying words, changing their order, and developing models of syllogistic reasoning.  

Additionally, I make it possible both at a symbolic level and at a more formal writing level, to express their beliefs, knowledge, feelings and emotions. Language, whether spoken or written, makes us feel that we belong to a community.  

And, indeed, the ability to communicate our ideas has not given us the power to create immense cultural systems regardless of the region in which the group of people is located.  

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Giovanni Sartori, a political science researcher of Italian origin, took up the thought expressed by the English philologist Erin A. Havelock in one of his works, many decades ago. This said that civilizations are developed through writing, it is the communicational transition between oral and written that allows a society to progress significantly.  

Said author also affirms that the invention of the printing press favored the foundation of today's society, because from then on there was a greater and better dissemination of knowledge.  

Until the XNUMXth century, only a small part of the world's population had the privilege of knowing how to read and write. For this reason, today we have to appreciate the rights that we each have to educate ourselves and grow as people.  

Having knowledge will never hurt. That the evolution of writing allows us to value and respect language of any kind, since without it we could not live. Knowing how to write gives us the ability to communicate, but also the ability to transgress and express our beliefs to assert ourselves as human beings.  

If this article was to your liking, do not leave before without reading:

Origin of pre-Columbian cultures

Origin of Roman culture

Social organization of Greece


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