Language and orthography Relation of writing to language.

Language and orthography

Relation of writing to language

Functions of writing

1. Extends memory and makes possible history


2. expands the range of communication beyond those present within earshot


3. endures as a means of communication

Characteristics of writing

1. Consists of graphical* marks on a durable surface

(* < Gr. grafein, ‘to carve’)


2. Purpose to communicate something


3. Writing must be conventional in its relation to language

Invention of writing

• Writing was invented perhaps two times only in human history


• 1. Alphabetic writingSumerian via Phoenician a. to Greek to Latin —now used in European lgs:- e.g., English, German, Russian, Romance languages- later, in Vietnamese, Malasian- in Turkish since 1927- as an aid to Japanese, Korean, and Chinese


via Phoenician

b. 1. to Arabic

2. throughout the Near East and India


• This development resulted in:

• All of the alphabetic scripts used for Semitic languages,

• Script used for Persian and Turkish

• the more than 200 scripts used in India

• All the scripts of Central Asia


• All of these modern alphabet scripts descend from the primary invention of the alphabetic system


2. Chinese character systemThis writing spread over continental East Asia and toKoreaJapanVietnamMalaysia

Chinese character

• Chinese characters consist of a grapheme the represents a word

人 ren 　 ‘ person’; 月 yue ‘moon’; 日 ri ‘sun’

• Originally these were iconic representations of the word’s meaning:

Iconic written signs

• Written signs can be iconic

• 人 ‘ person’

• 日 ‘ sun’

• 月 ‘ moon’

• 內 ‘ inside’

• 肉 ‘ meat’

• 坐 ‘ sit’


3. Korean alphabet (Han’gul — from hun min jong um)

invented by order of King Sejong in the fourteenth century

Elements of Chinese graphemes were used to represent the speech sounds of Korean

Korean Han’gul

Some scholars call Han’gul the most scientific and elegant writing system in general use in any country


• Cherokee syllabary by Sequoyah, 1820.

Evidently based on roman alphabet graphemes, but letters represent Cherokee syllables

• A go

• B yi

• C tli

• D a

Types of writing

• 1. Logographic (iconic) Graphic signs represent meanings

• 人 ‘ person’ ren• 日 ‘ sun’ ri• 月 ‘ moon’ yue• 內 ‘ inside’ nei• 坐 ‘ sit’ zuo• 無 ‘ negative (absence of)’ wu

Principles of orthography

• Orthography: the representation of words according to an accepted standard

Iconographic / logographic

1. thought-image represented by a graphical character) e.g., ‘man’

• These write the relevant word in the specific lg

• 人 = Ch. ren

Shanghainese ning;

Jp. jin; nin; hito

Logographic

• As the system expands to represent more of the vocabulary, forms are borrowed from words with the same sound.

• 方 fang1 - ‘place, direction’

• 放 fang4 - ‘release, put’

• 房 fang2 - ‘house, room’

• 紡 fang3 - ‘spin; a silk cloth’

• 妨 fang2 - ‘hinder, hamper’

Forms of writing

• 2. Syllabary (Sign – syllable)

• a. Sumerian (→ ) = image of object (arrow);

b. → = sound [ti] as word for ‘arrow’

thus a conventional relation of written sign and spoken word-sound is established

Syllabary

• c. Next (→) is used to write sound [ti]

A readable graphical sign used to represent sound of the syllable [ti]

In any word in which [ti] occurs

Progression to syllabary

1. → = Icon of arrow

2. → = word [ti] for arrow

3. → = sound of syllable [ti] in any word

Syllabary

• Japanese (most well known at present) ~

ko-re wa hon de-su

Literacy in Japan

Japanese uses • Chinese characters (kenji)• 2 syllabaries (katagana, hiragana)• and alphabetic (romanized transliterations)

All are standardized and conventionalLiterate adults must be able to handle all the three systems (4 scripts)

Forms of writing

• Alphabetic writing

Phoenician → Greek →Roman

≯� -- al(e)ph ‘ox’ alpha A a

-- beth ‘house’ beta B b

-- gimel ‘throw’ γ gamma G g

Development of Roman alphabet from Phoenician

Alphabetic writing

• Phoenician letter names initially had meaning as words in the language

Γ gimel ‘throw’

Alphabetic writing

• Those words then were used as the names of the letters:

letter was called ‘gimel’

Alphabetic writing

• The Greeks stripped the letter names of their meaning:

letter gimmel ‘throw’

In Greek, Γ called gamma

Alphabetic writing

• Letters then indicated the first sound of their names:

• Γ γ (gamma) orthographically represented speech sound /g/

Alphabetic writing

• This is the essential invention:

In an alphabetic system, a grapheme is conventionally associated with a speech sound in the language

Alphabetic writing

• This process is *phoneticization

• the decisive step in the development of writing — results in a written unit (graphical mark) corresponding conventionally to a language sound

Alphabetic writing

• The ultimate consequence of phonetization is the alphabet

Writing systems

• Every orthography is language-specific

Writing systems

• Only in alphabetic writing do the graphical marks (graphemes) used to write a language correspond to individual language sounds

• (phoneticization)

Deep orthography

• Such orthographies reflect the etymology of the word, e.g.

medicine, medicinal, medication

through, threw

Shallow orthography

• Orthographies that are primarily phonetic (relatively high consistency of grapheme to language sound)

Writing systems

• In a syllabary a grapheme is associated with a string of sounds that occur as a syllable in the language

Writing systems

• Logographic / Iconographic systems associate a grapheme with a word associated with the meaning it writes


• Writing links visual symbols with language

• Writing must show linguistic intervention in the graphic sign and its meaning

Comparison of systems

Compare these points for each of the three systems (alphabetic, syllabary, character)

• Number of units to learn

• Time required for learning

• Memory load

• Unique representation


• “Writing is deprived of stress, intonation, and the possibility of immediate feedback from speakers.”


• “Written language provides the opportunity to plan the language-thought process exactly and subject it to critical control.” --Feldbusch

Advantages of Speech, Writing

• Based on our discussions and notes, work these out

Language and orthography Relation of writing to language.

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