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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 ...
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.
Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of human language. A writing system uses a set of symbols and rules to encode aspects of spoken language, such as its lexicon and syntax. However, written language may take on characteristics distinct from those of any spoken language. [1]
A writing system is a type of symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language The main article for this category is Writing system . See also: List of writing systems
Written Chinese is one of the oldest continuously used writing systems. [26] The earliest examples universally accepted as Chinese writing are the oracle bone inscriptions made during the reign of the Shang king Wu Ding (c. 1250 – c. 1192 BCE). These inscriptions were made primarily on ox scapulae and turtle shells in order to record the ...
By the 29th century BC, writing used a wedge-shaped stylus and included phonetic elements representing syllables of the Sumerian language, and gradually replaced round-stylus and sharp-stylus markings during the 27th and 26th centuries BC. [36] Finally, cuneiform became a general-purpose writing system with logograms, syllables, and numerals.
The modern Japanese writing system uses a combination of logographic kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters, and syllabic kana.Kana itself consists of a pair of syllabaries: hiragana, used primarily for native or naturalized Japanese words and grammatical elements; and katakana, used primarily for foreign words and names, loanwords, onomatopoeia, scientific names, and sometimes for emphasis.
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] At roughly the same time, the system of Egyptian hieroglyphs was developing in the Nile valley, also evolving from pictographic proto-writing to include phonemic elements. [19]