Six major historical writing systems (left to right, top to bottom): Sumerian pictographs, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese characters, Old Persian cuneiform, Latin alphabet, Devanagari
The history of writing traces the development of writing systems[1] and how their use transformed and was transformed by different societies. The use of writing prefigures various social and psychological consequences associated with literacy and literary culture.
With each historical invention of writing, true writing systems were preceded by systems of ideographic and mnemonic symbols called proto-writing, which were not fully capable of recording spoken language. True writing, where the content of linguistic utterances can be accurately reconstructed by later readers, is a later development. Proto-writing typically avoids encoding grammatical words and affixes, making it difficult or impossible to reconstruct the meaning intended by the writer without significant context being known in advance.
The earliest uses of writing were to document agricultural transactions and contracts in ancient Sumer, but it was soon used in the areas of finance, religion, government, and law. Writing allowed the spread of these social modalities and their associated knowledge, and ultimately the further centralization of political power.[2]
^Daniels 1996, p. 3.
^Goody, J. (1986). The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society. Cambridge University Press.
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