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Writing systems typically satisfy three criteria. Firstly, the writing must have some purpose or meaning to it, and a point must be communicated by the text. Secondly, writing systems make use of specific symbols which may be recorded on some writing medium. Thirdly, the symbols used in writing generally correspond to elements of spoken ...
Writing systems are used to record human language, and may be classified according to certain common features.. The usual name of the script is given first; the name of the languages in which the script is written follows (in brackets), particularly in the case where the language name differs from the script name.
Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, [1] is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems.
For broader coverage of this topic, see Writing. A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a script, as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing was invented during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each writing system invented without prior knowledge of writing gradually evolved from a system of proto-writing that ...
Phonetic writing systems, which include alphabets and syllabaries, use graphemes that correspond to sounds in the corresponding spoken language. Alphabets use graphemes called letters that correspond to spoken phonemes —with abjads only having letters for consonants , and pure alphabets having them for both consonants and vowels .
Linear Elamite is a writing system attested in a few monumental inscriptions in Iran. It was used for a very brief period during the last quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. It is often claimed that Linear Elamite is a syllabic writing system derived from Proto-Elamite, although this cannot be proven since Linear-Elamite has not been deciphered.
The first known true writing systems were developed during the early Bronze Age (late 4th millennium BCE) in ancient Sumer, present-day southern Iraq. This system, known as cuneiform, was pictographic at first, but later evolved into an alphabet, a series of wedge-shaped signs used to represent language phonemically. [18]
Cuneiform [note 1] is a logo-syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. [4] The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. [5] Cuneiform scripts are marked by and named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions (Latin: cuneus) which form their ...