Utente:Bukkia/sandbox XII

La storia della scrittura segue l'arte di esprimere la lingua per mezzo di lettere o altri segni. Nella storia di come si sono evoluti sistemi di rappresentazion della lingua attraverso mezzi grafici nelle differenti civiltà umane, i sistemi di scrittura più complessi sono stati preceduti da una proto-scrittura, composta da sistemi di simboli ideografici e/o semplicemente mnemonici. Una forma reale di scrittura, o scrittura fonetica, è stata sviluppata indipendentemente da cinque diverse civiltà nel mondo, dai sumeri, in Egitto, in India, in Cina, ed in America centrale.

Sistemi di scrittura

I sistemi di scrittura si distinguono da altri possibili sistemi di comunicazione simbolica poiché bisogna solitamente comprendere qualcosa della lingua parlata a cui sono associati per comprendere il testo. In contrasto, altri sistemi simbolici possibili come i segni informatici, la pittura, le mappe e la matematica spesso non richiedono una conoscenza a priori di una lingua parlata. Ogni comunità umana possiede una lingua, una caratteristica considerata da molti come una condizione innata e significativa della condizione di "umano" (si veda Origine della lingua). Ad ogni modo lo sviluppo dei sistemi di scrittura, ed il processo con il quale hanno soppiantato i tradizionali sistemi di comunicazione orlae, sono stati sporadici, irregolari e lenti. Una volta stabiliti, i sistemi di scrittura nel loro insieme cambiano ad un ritmo minore delle loro controparti parlate, e spesso mantengono caratteristiche ed espressioni che non vengono più utlizzate nella lingua parlata. Il grande beneficio dei sistemi di scrittura è la capacità di mantenere una registrazione durevole dell'informazione espressa da una lingua, che può essere recuperata indipendentemente dall'atto iniziale di formulazione.

Storia documentata

Gli studiosi distinguono tra preistoria e storia a seconda della scrittura. Vari studiosi si sono trovati in disaccordo riguardo al momento in cui la preistoria divenne storia e quando la proto-scrittura divenne una "vera scrittura"; la definizione è sostanzialmente soggettiva. La scrittura, in termini generali, è solo uno strumento grafico per indicare un messaggio ed è composto di glifi.

La comparsa della scrittura in una data area viene seguita generalmente da svariati secoli di iscrizioni frammentarie. Con la presenza di testi coerenti, gli storici demarcano la "storicità" di quella cultura.

Stadi di evoluzione

Il sistema di sviluppo convenzionale da una "proto-scrittura" ad una scrittura reale segue una serie generale di stadi evolutivi:

• Sistema di scrittura pittorico: i glifi rappresentano direttamente oggetti, idee o situazioni. In connessione a ciò si possono distinguere i seguenti substadi:
  1. Substadio mnemonico: i glifi sono funzionano come promemoria;
  2. Substadio pittografico (pittografia): i glifi rappresentano direttamente un oggetto o una situazione oggettiva come (A) elenchi cronologici, (B) avvisi, (C) comunicazioni, (D) totem, titoli e nomi, (E) religioni, (F) tradizioni, (G) situazioni storiche e (H) biografiche;
  3. Substadio ideografico (ideografia): i glifi rappresentano direttamente un'idea o una situazione anche non reale.
• Sistema di transizione: i glifi si riferiscono non solamente all'oggetto od all'idea che rappresentano ma anche al loro nome.
• Sistema fonetico: i glifi si riferiscono ai suoni od ai simboli parlati senza relazione con il significato. Questo sistema si suddivide nei seguenti substadi:
  1. Substadio verbale: i glifi rappresentano un'intera parola;
  2. Substadio sillabico: i glifi rappresentano una sillaba;
  3. Substadio alfabetico: i glifi rappresentano un semplice suono.

I sistemi di scrittura pittorica più conosciuti di simboli ideografici o mnemonici sono:

• i simboli Jiahu, incisi su gusci di tartaruga a Jiahu, all'incirca nel 6600 a.C.;
• la scrittura Vinča (tavolette di Tărtăria), all'incirca nel 5300 a.C.
• la prima scrittura della valle dell'Indo, all'incirca nel 3500 a.C.

La vera scrittura, o scrittura fonetica, fu sviluppata indipendentemente in quattro civiltà diverse nel mondo. I sistemi di scrittura si svilupparono dalle scritture neolitiche della prima età del bronzo (IV millennio a.C.). L'invenzione dei sistemi di scrittura fonetici è contemporanea all'incirca con l'inizio dell'età del bronzo, nel tardo neolitico, alla fine del IV millennio a.C.. Generalmente si ritiene che la scrittura cuneiforme arcaica della lingua sumera od i geroglifici egizi siano i primi sistemi di scrittura, entrambi provenienti dai sistemi simbolici pre-letterali datati 3400–3200 a.C., con i primi veri testi scritti nel XXVI secolo a.C..

Letteratura e scrittura

La letteratura e la scrittura, anche se ovviamente correlate, non sono sinonimi. I primi esempi scritti degli antichi sumeri non costituiscono una letteratura - e lo stesso vale per alcuni dei primi geroglifici egiziani o per le migliaia di registri degli antichi governi cinesi. La storia della letteratura comincia con la storia della scrittura e la nozione di "letteratura" ha significati differenti a seconda di chi la usa. Gli studiosi non sono d'accordo sul momento storico in cui la registrazione scritta di documenti sia diventata una "letteratura" piuttosto che qualcos'altro e la questione rimane largamente soggettiva. Il termine può essere applicato in linea di massima a qualsiasi scritto simbolico, includendo qualsiasi cosa dalle immagini alle sculture alle lettere. I testi letterari più antichi che ci sono pervenuti paiono essere datati almeno un millennio dopo l'invenzione della scrittura, intorno al tardo III millennio a.C.. I primi autori letterari noti con il proprio nome sono Ptahhotep and Enheduanna, rispettivamente nel XIV e nel XXIII secolo a.C.. Nelle prime società che svilupparono la scrittura, passarono all'incirca 600 anni dalle prime iscrizioni alle prime foonti testuali coerenti (dal 3200 al 2600 a.C.).

Luoghi e periodi

Primi esempi

I marchi della tavoletta di Dispilio (detti charagmata) datati al periodo finale del neolitico medio Un esempio dei simboli Jiahu, marchi simili ad un sistema di scrittura, ritrovati su gusci di tartaruga datati all'incirca al 6000 a.C.

Proto-scrittura

I primi sistemi di scrittura del tardo IV millennio a.C. non furono un'invenzione improvvisa. Piuttosto, furono il risultato di uno sviluppo basato su precedenti tradizioni di sistemi di simboli che non possono essere classificati come sistemi di scrittura veri e propri, ma che possiedono caratteristiche estremamente simili alla scrittura. Questi sistemi possono essere chiamati "proto-scritture". Utilizzavano simboli ideografici o mnemonici per veicolare l'informazione anche se probabilmente non possedevano ancora un contenuto linguistico diretto. Questi sistemi emersero nel tardo periodo neolitico, all'incirca nel VII millennio a.C..

Anche dopo la fine del Neolitico, svariate culture sono passate attraverso un periodo in cui utilizzavano dei sistemi di proto-scrittura come uno stadio intermediario prima di adottare una scrittura vera e propria. Le "rune slave" (VII/VIII secolo d.C.), menzionate da alcuni autori medievali sembrano essere state un sistema di questo tipo. I quipu degli Incas (XV secolo), a volte chiamati "nodi parlanti", avevano probabilmente una natura simile. Un altro esempio è il sistema di pittogrammi inventato dagli Uyaquk prima dello sviluppo del sillabario Yugtun (all'incirca nel 1900).

Europa e medioriente

I segni di Vinča mostrano un'evoluzione da semplici simboli a partire dal VII millennio a.C., che aumentò gradualmente di complessità attraverso il VI millennio e culminò nelle tavolette di Tărtăria all'incirca nel 5300 a.C. con le loro file di simboli attentamente allineati, che danno l'impressione di un "testo".

La tavoletta di Dispilio del tardo VI millennio a.C. è di tipo simile. Le scritture geroglifiche dell'antico Medio Oriente (geroglifici egiziani, scrittura cuneiforme sumera e geroglifici cretesi) emergono direttamente da sistemi simbolici simili, così che rimane difficile stabilire il momento preciso in cui la scrittura si è sviluppata completamente dalla proto-scrittura. Oltre a questa difficoltà rimane il fatto che si sa veramente poco del significato dei simboli.

Cina

Nel 2003 vennero scoperti vari gusci di tartaruga in Cina su cui erano stati incisi i simboli Jiahu. Questi gusci sono stati datati al VI millennio a.C. con il metodo del carbonio-14. I gusci furono ritrovati insieme a resti umani in 24 tombe neolitiche, dissotterate a Jiahu, nella provincia di Henan, nella Cina settentrionale. Secondo alcuni archeologi, i segni sui gusci hanno delle similarità con i simboli di scrittura ritrovati sugli ossi oracolari del II millennio a.C.. Altri invece hanno scartato questo dichiarazione giudicandola insufficientemente supportata da prove certe, affermando che i semplici segni geometrici, come quelli scoperti sui gusci di Jiahu, non possono essere collegati ad un primitivo sistema di scrittura.

Southeastern Nigeria

The Nsibidi ideographic writing system (argued to be a logogram system) is indigenous to what is now southeastern Nigeria and dates back to between 4000 and 5000 BC or at least as old as the Ikom monoliths in the Cross River valley which date back to AD 170. Logoraphic use of Nsibidi is evident in the practice of the Aro people who wrote messages on the bodies of their messengers. Nsibidi's exact origins are unknown but it is traditionally said to have come from the Uguakima, Ebe or Uyanga sub-group of the Igbo people of which legend says that they were taught the script by baboons. There are thousands of Nsibidi symbols which were used on anything from calabashes to tattoos and to wall designs. The symbols are used for the Ekoid and Igboid languages

Bronze Age writing

Writing emerged in a variety of different cultures in the Bronze age. Examples include the cuneiform writing of the Sumerians, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese logographs, and the Olmec script of Mesoamerica. The Chinese script likely developed independently of the Middle Eastern scripts, around 1600 BC. The pre-Columbian Mesoamerican writing systems (including among others Olmec and Maya scripts) are also generally believed to have had independent origins. It is thought that the first true alphabetic writing appeared around 2000 BC, as a representation of language developed for Semitic slaves in Egypt by Egyptians (see History of the alphabet). The Ge'ez writing system of Ethiopia is considered Semitic. It is likely to be of semi-independent origin, having roots in the Meroitic Sudanese ideogram system. Most other alphabets in the world today either descended from this one innovation, many via the Phoenician alphabet, or were directly inspired by its design. In the case of Italy, about 500 years passed from the early Old Italic alphabet to Plautus (750 to 250 BC), and in the case of the Germanic peoples, the corresponding time span is again similar, from the first Elder Futhark inscriptions to early texts like the Abrogans (ca. 200 to 750 CE).

Cuneiform script

Middle Babylonian legal tablet from Alalah in its envelope

The original Sumerian writing system derives from a system of clay tokens used to represent commodities. By the end of the 4th millennium BC, this had evolved into a method of keeping accounts, using a round-shaped stylus impressed into soft clay at different angles for recording numbers. This was gradually augmented with pictographic writing using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted. Round-stylus and sharp-stylus writing were gradually replaced around 2700-2500 BC by writing using a wedge-shaped stylus (hence the term cuneiform), at first only for logograms, but developed to include phonetic elements by the 29th century BC. About 2600 BC cuneiform began to represent syllables of the Sumerian language. Finally, cuneiform writing became a general purpose writing system for logograms, syllables, and numbers. From the 26th century BC, this script was adapted to the Akkadian language, and from there to others such as Hurrian, and Hittite. Scripts similar in appearance to this writing system include those for Ugaritic and Old Persian.

Egyptian hieroglyphs

Writing was very important in maintaining the Egyptian empire, and literacy was concentrated among an educated elite of scribes. Only people from certain backgrounds were allowed to train to become scribes, in the service of temple, pharisaic, and military authorities. The hieroglyph system was always difficult to learn, but in later centuries may have been intentionally made even more difficult, as this preserved the scribes' position.

Various scholars believe that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence a little after Sumerian script, and ... probably [were]... invented under the influence of the latter ...", although it is pointed out and held that "the evidence for such direct influence remains flimsy” and that “a very credible argument can also be made for the independent development of writing in Egypt..." See further Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Elamite scripts

The undeciphered Proto-Elamite script emerges from as early as 3200 BC and evolves into Linear Elamite by the later 3rd millennium, which is then replaced by Elamite Cuneiform adopted from Akkadian.

Indus scripts

Sequence of ten Indus signs discovered near the northern gate of the Indus site Dholavira

The Middle Bronze Age Indus script which dates back to the early Harrapan phase of around 3000 BC in ancient north western India and what is now Pakistan, has not yet been deciphered. It is unclear whether it should be considered an example of proto-writing (a system of symbols or similar), or if it is actual writing of the logographic-syllabic type of the other Bronze Age writing systems. Mortimer Wheeler recognises the style of writing as boustrophedon, where "this stability suggests a precarious maturity".

Anatolian hieroglyphs

Anatolian hieroglyphs are an indigenous hieroglyphic script native to western Anatolia first appears on Luwian royal seals, from ca. the 20th century BC, used to record the Hieroglyphic Luwian language.

Cretan and Greek scripts

Cretan hieroglyphs are found on artifacts of Crete (early-to-mid-2nd millennium BC, MM I to MM III, overlapping with Linear A from MM IIA at the earliest). Linear B, the writing system of the Mycenaean Greeks, has been deciphered while Linear A has yet to be deciphered. The sequence and the geographical spread of the three overlapping, but distinct writing systems can be summarized as follows:

Writing system	Geographical area	Time span
Cretan Hieroglyphic	Crete	ca. 16250−1500 BC
Linear A	Aegean islands (Kea, Kythera, Melos, Thera), and Greek mainland (Laconia)	ca. 18th century−1450 BC
Linear B	Crete (Knossos), and mainland (Pylos, Mycenae, Thebes, Tiryns)	ca. 13750−1200 BC

Early Semitic alphabets

The first pure alphabets (properly, "abjads", mapping single symbols to single phonemes, but not necessarily each phoneme to a symbol) emerged around 1800 BC in Ancient Egypt, as a representation of language developed by Semitic workers in Egypt, but by then alphabetic principles had a slight possibility of being inculcated into Egyptian hieroglyphs for upwards of a millennium. These early abjads remained of marginal importance for several centuries, and it is only towards the end of the Bronze Age that the Proto-Sinaitic script splits into the Proto-Canaanite alphabet (ca. 1400 BC) Byblos syllabary and the South Arabian alphabet (ca. 1200 BC). The Proto-Canaanite was probably somehow influenced by the undeciphered Byblos syllabary and in turn inspired the Ugaritic alphabet (ca. 1300 BC).

Chinese writing

In China, historians have learned much about the early Chinese dynasties from the written documents left behind. From the Shang Dynasty most of this writing has survived on bones or on bronze. Markings on turtle shells, or jiaguwen, are attested from the late Shang (1200–1050 BC). The writings from the Shang Dynasty are the direct ancestor of modern Chinese characters used throughout East Asia.

Mesoamerica

A stone slab with 3,000-year-old writing was discovered in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and is an example of the oldest script in the Western Hemisphere preceding the oldest Zapotec writing dated to about 500 BC.

Of several pre-Columbian scripts in Mesoamerica, the one that appears to have been best developed, and fully deciphered, is the Maya script. The earliest inscriptions which are identifiably Maya date to the 3rd century BC, and writing was in continuous use until shortly after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century AD. Maya writing used logograms complemented by a set of syllabic glyphs, somewhat similar in function to modern Japanese writing.

Iron Age writing

The Phoenician alphabet is simply the Proto-Canaanite alphabet as it was continued into the Iron Age (conventionally taken from a cut-off date of 1050 BC). This alphabet gave rise to the Aramaic and Greek, as well as, likely via Greek transmission, to various Anatolian and Old Italic (including the Latin) alphabets in the 8th century BC. The Greek alphabet for the first time introduces vowel signs. The Brahmic family of India originated independently. The Greek and Latin alphabets in the early centuries of the Common Era gave rise to several European scripts such as the Runes and the Gothic and Cyrillic alphabets while the Aramaic alphabet evolved into the Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic abjads and the South Arabian alphabet gave rise to the Ge'ez abugida.

Writing in Antiquity

Early Greek alphabet on pottery in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens

In history of the Greek alphabet, the Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet and adapted it to their own language. The letters of the Greek alphabet are the same as those of the Phoenician alphabet, and both alphabets are arranged in the same order. The adapter of the Phoenician system also added three letters to the end of the series, called the "supplementals." Several varieties of the Greek alphabet developed. One, known as Western Greek or Chalcidian, was west of Athens and in southern Italy. The other variation, known as Eastern Greek, was used in present-day Turkey and by the Athenians, and eventually the rest of the world that spoke Greek adopted this variation. After first writing right to left, the Greeks eventually chose to write from left to right, unlike the Phoenicians who wrote from right to left. Greek is in turn the source for all the modern scripts of Europe.

A tribe known as the Latins, who became known as the Romans, also lived in the Italian peninsula like the Western Greeks. From the Etruscans, a tribe living in the first millennium BCE in central Italy, and the Western Greeks, the Latins adopted writing in about the 5th century. The Anglo-Saxons began using Roman letters to write Old English as they converted to Christianity, following Augustine of Canterbury's mission to Britain in the 6th century.

Middle Ages writing

With the end of the Western Roman Empire and urban centers in decline, literacy decreased in the West. Education became the preserve of monasteries and cathedrals. A "Renaissance" of classical education would appear in Carolingian Empire in the 8th century. In the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), learning (in the sense of formal education involving literature) was maintained at a higher level than in the West. Further to the east, Islam conquered many of the Eastern Patriarchates, and it outstripped Christian lands in science, philosophy, and other intellectual endeavors in a "golden age".

Modern writing

The nature of writing has been constantly evolving, particularly due to the development of new technologies over the centuries. The pen, the printing press, the computer and the mobile phone are all technological developments which have altered what is written, and the medium through which the written word is produced. Particularly with the advent of digital technologies, namely the computer and the mobile phone, characters can be formed by the press of a button, rather than making the physical motion with the hand.

The nature of the written word had evolved over time to make way for an informal, colloquial written style, where an everyday conversation can occur through writing rather than speaking. Written communication can also be delivered with minimal time delay (e-mail, SMS), and in some cases, with an imperceptible time delay (instant messaging). Writing creates the possibility to break spatial boundaries and travel through time, since a word normally spoken could only exist in the time and space it is spoken in. It creates a certain immortality, that could not be experienced without writing. Socially, writing is seen as an authoritative means of communication, from legal documentation, law and the media all produced through the medium. The growth of multimedia literacy can be seen as the first steps toward a postliterate society.

Materials of writing

There is no very definite statement as to the material which was in most common use for the purposes of writing at start of the early writing systems. In all ages it has been customary to engrave on stone or metal, or other durable material, with the view of securing the permanency of the record; and accordingly, in the very commencement of the national history of Israel, it is read of the two tables of the law written in stone, and of a subsequent writing of the law on stone. In the latter case there is this peculiarity, that plaster (sic, lime or gypsum) was used along with stone, a combination of materials which is illustrated by comparison of the practice of the Egyptian engravers, who, having first carefully smoothed the stone, filled up the faulty places with gypsum or cement, in order to obtain a perfectly uniform surface on which to execute their engravings. Metals, such as stamped coins, are mentioned as a material of writing; they include lead, brass, and gold. To the engraving of gems there is reference also, such as with seals or signets.

The common materials of writing were the tablet and the roll, the former probably having a Chaldean origin, the latter an Egyptian. The tablets of the Chaldeans are among the most remarkable of their remains. There are small pieces of clay, somewhat rudely shaped into a form resembling a pillow, and thickly inscribed with cuneiform characters. Similar use has been seen in hollow cylinders, or prisms of six or eight sides, formed of fine terra cotta, sometimes glazed, on which the characters were traced with a small stylus, in some specimens so minutely as to be capable of decipherment only with the aid of a magnifying-glass.

In Egypt the principal writing material was quite of a different sort. Wooden tablets are indeed found pictured on the monuments; but the material which was in common use, even from very ancient times, was the papyrus. This reed, found chiefly in Lower Egypt, had various economic means for writing, the pith was taken out, and divided by a pointed instrument into the thin pieces of which it is composed; it was then fattened by pressure, and the strips glued together, other strips being placed at right angles to them, so that a roll of any length might be manufactured. Writing seems to have become more widespread with the invention of papyrus in Egypt. That this material was in use in Egypt from a very early period is evidenced by still existing papyrus of the earliest Theban dynasties. As the papyrus, being in great demand, and exported to all parts of the world, became very costly, other materials were often used instead of it, among which is mentioned leather, a few leather mills of an early period having been found in the tombs. Parchment, using sheepskins left after the wool was removed for cloth, was sometimes cheaper than papyrus, which had to be imported outside Egypt. With the invention of wood-pulp paper, the cost of writing material began a steady decline.

See also

Main

Phonetics, Palaeography, logograms, logographic, Vinča signs, Asemic writing

General

Alphabet, Palaeography, Inscriptions, Book, Manuscript, Shorthand, Latin alphabet, writing system, ogham, Indus script, Mixtec, uncials, hanja, Zapotec, kanji, Aurignacian, Chinese characters, Ugarit, katakana, Acheulean, Ethnoarchaeology, Hoabinhian, Gravettian, Oldowan, Uruk, Etruscan, Cretan hieroglyphs, Hadza, Nabataean, Luwian, Olmec, Busra

Other

Oral literature, History of developmental dyslexia

Systems

References

• A. R. Millard, The Infancy of the Alphabet, in World Archaeology, vol. 17, n. 3, 1986, pp. 390–398, DOI:10.1080/00438243.1986.9979978.
• J.-P. Olivier, Cretan Writing in the Second Millennium B.C., in World Archaeology, vol. 17, n. 3, 1986, pp. 377–389, DOI:10.1080/00438243.1986.9979977.

Further reading

21st century sources

• Powell, Barry B. 2009. Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization, Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-14051-6256-2
• Steven R. Fischer A History of Writing, Reaktion Books 2005 CN136481
• Hoffman, Joel M. 2004. In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language. New York University Press. Chapter 3.

Late 20th century sources

• Andrew Robinson, The Story of Writing, Thames & Hudson 1995 (second edition: 1999). ISBN 0500281564
• Hans J. Nissen, P. Damerow, R. Englund, Archaic Bookkeeping, University of Chicago Press, 1993, ISBN 0500016658
• Denise Schmandt-Besserat    HomePage, How Writing Came About, University of Texas Press, 1992, ISBN 0-292-77704-3.
• Saggs, H., 1991. Civilization Before Greece and Rome Yale University Press. Chapter 4.
• Jack Goody, The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society, Cambridge University Press, 1986

Earlier 20th century sources

• Smith, William Anton. The Reading Process. New York: The Macmillan company, 1922.
• Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopedia Britannica; A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information. Cambridge, Eng: University Press, 1911. "Writing".
• Clodd, Edward. The Story of the Alphabet. Library of useful stories. New York: D. Appleton and Co, 1910.
• Rawlings, Gertrude Burford. The Story of Books. London: Newnes, 1901.

External links

• Cracking the Maya Code. NOVA, Public Broadcasting Service. (Timeline (flash))
• BBC on tortoise shells discovered in China
• Fragments of pottery discovered in modern Pakistan
• Egyptian hieroglyphs c. 3000 BC
• Denise Schmandt-Besserat  HomePage
• Children of the Code: A Brief History of Writing - Online Video
• Alphabet & protoalphabet the manifest of astrologic doctrine?
• The New Post-Literate