What is writing?
Humans seem to have
long felt the need to express themselves. Cave paintings from
thousands of years ago show the habitat and experiences of the
earliest humans. But as humans began to live in larger and larger
settlements and communities the need to record and manage
information, rather than just express it, grew.
Origins of writing
The origins of writing are largely unclear. Writing systems were
created independently all over the world. The earliest we know of
were developed in the Middle East around 5,000 years ago. But other
scripts were invented in India, Egypt, China and Central
America. It has been suggested that some of these systems may have
influenced others, but this has not been proved.
These forms of writing look completely different, follow
different rules and are often read in completely different ways.
But they all perform the same basic function. Th
ey are all a visual means of recording
language.
Knowledge of some early scripts invented in certain regions was
picked up by peoples living in surrounding areas. They would then
adopt and adapt them to their own needs and language. Chinese, for
example, was adopted in Japan and Korea, though it had to be
altered to apply to the languages spoken there.
Recording information
Methods of recording information have varied over time and
place. Not all sophisticated societies have developed writing
systems and not all methods of recording information require
writing.
The Inca empire of South America was at its height in the
sixteenth century AD and held power over a huge area that stretched
from modern Equador and Peru, to areas of Bolivia and Chile. It was
a complex civilisation, but did not develop a writing system.
Instead information was
stored using quipu. These were groups of strings of
different colours that were knotted to register census statistics,
economic records and taxation. It has also been suggested that
quipu recorded mythology and history.
They were read by the quipu-masters who tied the knots.
In some parts of Peru and Bolivia, similar recording devices are
still used.
The power of writing
Today, the scripts we use bear little resemblance to each other
if we look at them on a page. Arabic looks nothing like the
Latin alphabet, for example, but as systems of recording
information, neither of them requires the aut
hor to be with us, or
a very good memory, if we want to understand the message recorded
in them. If we can read the script we can understand the
message.
Writing is therefore among the most powerful tools we have. Some
ancient peoples considered it so important and so powerful that
they believed it was invented by gods, deities or mythical heroes.
Some ancient Egyptians, for example, believed that writing was the
creation of the god Thoth.
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