It’s sometimes challenging enough to understand other languages and cultures, let alone graphic representations of the sounds they carry and convey. I was disappointed that the useful world map in my copy is only black and white, the hardback version in the library was in colour, making it easier to see the divisions where each language is spoken. Good book for those interested in languages and writing systems. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. Its aim is to explore the complex ways in which writing systems relate to the language they depict. Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2004. This unique, ambitious, and entertaining book presents twenty-nine scripts in detail and offers examples of a hundred more. What if your language is a clear mix of consonant sounds ending in a vowel sound, organized in sound blocks that we call syllables? This thought motivated King Sejong the Great of Korea to create Hangul in 1444, a featural script, where each letter represents its phonetic expression and is grouped with similar ones. The character for “horse,” 媽 (mā), is the same for “mother.” In order to differentiate it, there needs to be a semantic component next to the phonetic one. So when did we first arrive at a purely phonetic alphabet, with one letter representing one sound? Only in the 21st century did it become Korean’s (almost) exclusive writing system. It turns out that the inconsistency of English spelling is a long, rambling history with many people to blame along the way. The other issues I have are: WRITING , THE FOUNDATION OF HISTORY/LANGUAGE/CULTURE, Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2019. With the Greeks, who took the Phoenician consonantal alphabet, adapted it and included vowels, triggering not only clarity but also economy in writing. Consonant letters have a vowel attached that can be changed or silenced using matra or diacritics written above, below, before or after the consonant. It's simple and acurate, not too much info about all those writings, some of them have over 3000 years and I really find it hard to believe that some of them were deciphered. Much scholarly work would require changes in the material. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Hebrew and Arabic did use diacritic marks around consonants to indicate vowels, but they were never consistently used to the point where they standardized. Excellent examples." For many languages he shows actual print samples, typically from a newspaper printed in that language. However, Chinese characters can be ambiguous, too. Emoji are a fast and fun way to add emotional nuance to emails, texts and chats — but can they be more than that? Writing, Coulmas contends, is not only the guide or garment of spoken language, but has a deep and lasting effect on the development of language itself. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. It is more a reference book to refer to the many different types of language found around the world. Well, consider how the different letters in the Latin alphabet say nothing about their phonology: the letter X does not represent the sound made with the mouth and tongue to say “X”; the phonetic similarities between B, P and V, are ignored in their symbolic representation. Sold by Procyon Star and ships from Amazon Fulfillment. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. The origin of writing is the story of religious myth, archaeological fact and academic dispute. excellent introduction to writing systems, Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2000. Its aim is to explore the complex ways in which writing systems relate to the language they depict.