Writing Systems Flashcards W7

Flashcards of lecture notes on writing systems.

Symbol

A form that represents something other than itself, characterized by arbitrariness and abstractness.

Writing

Commits units of language to visual form using logographic and phonographic systems.

Technology

A set of skills and tools that humans create and use, with culture-specific details.

Ideograms

Images without symbolism.

Pictograms

Visual/iconic, non-lexical symbols.

Logograms

Symbols representing words.

Glyph

A unit of writing.

Phonographic systems

Writing systems where glyphs represent phonemes (alphabet), consonants (consonantary), or syllables (syllabary).

Alphabet

Glyphs represent phonemes.

Consonantary

Glyphs represent consonants.

Syllabary

Glyphs represent syllables.

Logographic systems

Earliest systems like hieroglyphs and cuneiforms (3000 BCE) where glyph = word.

Hieroglyphics

Ancient Egyptian writing system.

Cuneiform

Sumerian (later Akkadian & Hittite) writing system where glyph = word + homophones.

Consonantary (abjad)

Each glyph represents a consonant; vowels are spoken but unwritten.

Acrophonia

Glyph = 1st sound of word; logogram becomes phonogram.

Aramaic

Lingua franca of much of the Middle East in the 1st millennium BCE.

Greek alphabet

Adaptation of Phoenician script (1 M BCE) including vowels.

Roman alphabet

Adaptation of Greek script (via Etruscan in Italy) where each symbol represents one phoneme.

Cyrillic alphabet

Adapted from Greek alphabet for liturgical purposes.

Abugida

Consonant bases with vowel symbols are secondary, combined with consonants as ligature (e.g., Devanagari).

Hangul

Korean writing system where glyphs represent phonemes.

Rebus (Chinese Writing)

Similar sound, different semantics.

Polyphonia (Chinese Writing)

Different sound, similar semantics.

Ambiguity

Where a symbol or construction has multiple interpretations.

Kanji

Chinese glyphs borrowed from Chinese but used for Japanese words.

Onyomi

In Japanese writing, glyph and word borrowed (from Chinese).

Kana

Syllabary in Japanese writing, glyphs adapted from kanji.

Hiragana

Japanese writing system used for native forms without kanji.

Katakana

Japanese writing system used for borrowings, technical terms, trademarks.