Language/Multiple-languages/Culture/Introduction-to-Writing-Systems

Writing systems are visual carriers of languages. They are tools, so they can be evaluated as tools. Here are the important information about them.

In progress.

Logogram

It is the earliest form of writing systems. As what its name suggests, they are pictures (logo).

At this stage, the direction of text is various, even being zigzag in Mayan and others.

Its advantage is able to express the meaning easily, even without needing unified pronunciations. Its disadvantage is having too many glyphs to memorise.

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Anatolian	Luwian	Anatolia	14th to 13th century BC – 7th century BC
Aztec	Nahuatl	Mesoamerica	? – c. 1530
Cretan	Minoan	Crete	c. 2100 BC – 1700 BC	(Δίσκος της Φαιστού Dískos tis Phaistós)
Cuneiform	Sumerian, Akkadian, etc.	Mesopotamia	c. 35th century BC – 2nd century
Cypro-Minoan	Eteocypriot	Cyprus	c. 1550 BC – 1050 BC
Dongba	Naxi	Southeastern China	1000 –
Egyptian	Egyptian	Egypt	c. 3200 BC – 400
Han	Chinese, etc.	East Asia	2nd millennium BC –
Linear A	Minoan	Crete	c. 1800 BC – 1450 BC
Mayan	Chʼoltiʼ, Yucatec Maya, etc.	Mesoamerica	3rd century BC – 16th century
Mixtec	Mixtec languages	Mesoamerica	? – c. 1530
Yi logogram	Nuosu, etc.	Southwestern China	15th to 16th century –
Zapotec	Zapotec	Mesoamerica	5th century BC – 8th century

derivatives of Han

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Chữ Nôm	Vietnamese	Vietnam	15th century – 19th century
Jurchen	Jurchen	Northeastern China	12th century–16th century
Khitan large script	Khitan	Northeast Asia	920 – 1191
Sawndip	Zhuang	Southern China	7th century –
Sui	Sui	Southern China	? –
Tangut	Tangut	Northwestern China	1036–1502

Han

Han writing system is the one of the logograms that are still used today.

There are 6 ways of creating characters, concluded by scholars in Han dynasty.

It has several different scripts. There used to be many different writings of a characters. After the unification of China, Qin Shi Huang abolished other writings, only keeping Qin State's writing as the official one, written with the small seal script.

During its development, many modifications took place. Wrong characters and unorthodox character variants are plenty. For example, “肉” (flesh) became confused with “月” (moon) and as a result, many characters with meanings related to flesh have the radical 月.

The simplification of Han was also happening through history. For example, “爲” became “為” and finally “为”, like Picasso's bull. In People's Republic of China, there were two attempts of simplification of Han, one of which was successful and the other failed. In Japan, there was one simplification and it was successful.

The writing direction of Han was traditionally top-to-bottom, right-to-left. When writing, the left hand holds the roll of bamboo slips or other materials and the right hand writes. During the modernisation, It has been changed to left-to-right, top-to-bottom.

Currently, it is being used in China and Japan regularly; in Korea and Vietnam sporadically.

There have been some attempts to abolish Han. In China and Japan, they failed; in Korea and Vietnam, they were largely successful. In the Republic of Korea, some people call for having Han along with Hangul in textbooks; In Vietnam, some people call for having Han and Chữ Nôm as a compulsory course in liberal arts.

Related resources:

• Chinese Etymology 字源 https://etymology.azurewebsites.net/ | https://hanziyuan.net/

main scripts

script	example
oracle bone script
bronzeware script
seal script	(廿六年詔權量銘 Niànliù Nián Zhào Quànliàng Míng)
clerical script	(華山庙碑 Huà Shān Miào Bēi)
regular script	(九成宮醴泉銘 Jiǔchéng Gōng Lǐquán Míng)

other scripts

script	example
cursive script	(書論書 Shūlùn Shū)
semicursive script	(蘭亭集序 Lántíng Jí Xù)

Phonogram

Abjad

To avoid the disadvantages of the logogram, this new writing system was formed. In Abjad, the characters represent the consonants.

To show its vowels, there are two ways: add diacritics or become alphabetical.

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Ancient South Arabian	Old South Arabian, Ge'ez	South Arabia	2nd millennium BC – 6th century
Phoenician	Phoenician, Punic, etc.	Mediterranea	c. 1050 BC – 150 BC
Ugaritic	Ugaritic	Ugarit	c. 1400 BC – 1190 BC

derivatives of Phoenician

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Aramaic	Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, etc.	Mesopotamia	800 BC – 600
Greek	Greek	Greece	c. 800 BC –
Paleo-Hebrew	Ancient Hebrew	Southern Levant	c. 1000 BC – 135

derivatives of Paleo-Hebrew

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Samaritan	Samaritan	Levant	600 BC –

Phoenician

Phoenician was derived from Egyptian and is the ancestor of most writing systems in the current time.

The writing direction of Phoenician was right-to-left, top-to-bottom. When writing, the left hand presses the parchment or other materials and the right hand writes.

Syllabary

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Afaka	Eastern Maroon Creole	Suriname	1910 –
Cherokee	Cherokee	Southeastern Woodlands	1820s –
Linear B	Mycenaean Greek	Mycenae	c. 1450 BC – 1200 BC
Vai	Vai	Liberia	1830s –
Yi syllabary	Nuosu, etc.	Southwestern China	1974 –

derivatives of Han

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Kana	Japanese	Japan	c. 800 –

Semi-syllabary

writing system	language	region	timespan	example

Abugida

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Thaana	Dhivehi	Maldives	1970s –

derivatives of Ancient South Arabian

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Geʽez	Geʽez, Tigrinya, Amharic, etc.	Horn of Africa	c. 1st century – 4th century (as abjad), – (as abugida)

Alphabet

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Adlam	Fulah	Sahel	1989 –

derivatives of Phoenician

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Greek	Greek	Greece	c. 800 BC –

Featural writing system

This type of writing systems has phonological features. It is based on phonology, so it is the latest type of writing system. They are designed and thus often considered more precise than most other phonograms in use. Its disadvantage is leaving fewer clues on the evolution of the language.

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Ditema tsa Dinoko	Southern Bantu languages, Swazi	South Africa	2010s –
Duployan shorthand	multiple languages	world	1868 –
Gregg shorthand	multiple languages	world	1888 –
Quikscript	English	North America	c. 1966 –
Shavian	English, Esperanto	North America	1960s –
SignWriting	sign languages	world	1974 –
Visible Speech	multiple languages	world	1867 –

derivatives of Devanagari

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Canadian	Algonquian languages, Eskaleut languages, Athabaskan languages	Canada	1840s –

derivatives of Han

writing system	language	region	timespan	example
Hangul	Korean	Korea	1443 –