prev. | next


  Language shifts and the development of syllabic writing: Akkad and Sumer

  When the kingdom of Akkad conquered Sumer some four and a half thousand years ago,

Akkadian (a Semitic language) replaced Sumerian. Yet Sumerian survived, at least among the

specialist scribes. Knowledge of the language was preserved in order to read the earlier records

of transactions still of living relevance; hence it became the first 'dead' language to be

preserved3. The problem of representing Akkadian in a writing system devised by Sumerians

for Sumerians is probably one of the reasons why syllabic cuneiform was developed. The

rebus principle, focusing on sounds, was used and developed. Symbols were invented for

sounds, and were used in combination to form words. Compromises are found in many

languages between logographic and syllabic systems. Japanese has already been mentioned .

Another example is ancient Persian which was a cuneiform syllabic system with four additional

logographic symbols:








1Driver (1948:3) quoted in Goody (1987:30).

2Goody (1987: 30).

3Goody (1987: 32).



  51






  Early Persian Syllabary. Fifth Century B.C.1

  a gu iu la mula king


  i k a da pa yasa

  land
  u ka di na wa za

  ka ga du nu wi sha earth

  ku gi ta ma ra. god

  ga ta pa mi ru ha word divider


  Syllabic systems developed at the periphery of major civilizations, or where two civilizations

meet. They arise when a logographic system is adapted to write other languages (Goody (1987:

39).).

Syllabic writing systems are more powerful than logographic ones; they are easy to learn and to

use. Indeed, they seem quite as good as alphabetic systems which are phonemic rather than

syllabic. Syllabic systems employ about a hundred characters, while alphabetic systems use

only about twenty. The question of why alphabetic systems should have developed at all

remains a puzzle. Possible reasons may lie in the widespread use of Aramaic as a lingua franca

throughout the region where the ancestors of our alphabet were developed. This again posed

scribes with the problem of having to write one language in a notation devised for writing

another just as before the conquered Sumerians had to write Akkadian. Different languages

have differing phonetic structures and hence different syllables. Syllabic graphemes adequate

for one language may not work for another. Just as multi-lingualism appears sometimes to

contribute to the development of syllabic writing, so a greater degree of multi-lingualism may in

turn encourage the development of phonetic symbols. Another case that may throw light on the

development of the alphabet is the invention of the Korean alphabet in 1446. This may, of

course, have been influenced by Islamic or Buddhist writings using  alphabetic systems from

the Indian sub-continent.
  Scribal élite controlling the technology

  Both cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics were logographic and phonetic. Scribes could

represent sounds if they wanted to, but it seems that they chose not to promote this feature of


1Hooke (1954: 752).


  52







  the system. In this way they probably sought to preserve their own specialities, at a time when

others were promoting syllabic innovations. Nonetheless, the 'new technology' of syllabic

writing did eventually bring about the demise of the small and influential group of craft scribes.

Technology and politics: syllables and democracy

A connection between the type of writing system employed by a society and its political

development has been proposed by at least one author. Hence, for China: 'the logographic

script inhibited the development of a democratic culture; it did not prevent the use of writing for

achieving remarkable ends in the spheres of science, learning and literature'(Goody (1987:

64)). This is, however, an overstatement. It is misleading to make a direct link between an

alphabet and the development of Western democracy which occurred so much more recently. It

may be that the printing press, by contrast, did have some real effect upon political

development (q.v. Eisenstein (1979)).

It must be the case that logographic systems militate against simple printing technologies: there

are obvious technological reasons why one cannot print with thousands of signs (for all that the

Chinese are credited with the invention of printing). But this argument does not hold of syllabic

systems which employ only a few hundred characters.
  Part Two: a technological history

  I now wish to distinguish between properties of the script, properties of the scriptal medium

and those of the type of presentation. For example, one may write in hieroglyphics or alphabet

(the script) on paper (the scriptal medium). The paper may be in a scroll or bound into a codex

that may or may not have a table of contents and numbered pages (the presentation). The book

as we know it today results from a continuous development of all three different and

distinguishable aspects.  This means there are (at least) three different histories to be given. To

elaborate on this one could consider firstly, the history of the  Coding - the writing system or

script itself. Secondly, the history of the Binding of the scriptal medium and its presentation -

the materials used for writing; the medium that takes the imprint and thirdly history of the

Indexing - the means by which a reader can navigate through the written material.

Obviously, these three issues are closely connected. For example, although page numbers may

be written on a scroll, this will not greatly facilitate a search for a given page number, by

contrast with the leaves of a book. Moreover, a book can be instantly opened at any page. With


  53







  a scroll, in order to turn from the beginning to the end, more physical manipulation of the

document is necessary. Computer files also demonstrate this difference.

Different features are associated with each aspect:

1) Coding - learnability, flexibility - sensitivity to neologisms, proper names, foreign words,

archaisms etcetera. Possibilities of reflexivity increase as writing moves away from pure

logographic systems towards syllabic and alphabtetic writings.

2) Binding - Features of the medium of writing such as ease of reference, ease of duplication

and of correction, and durability, also ease of transport and of sharing which is itself linked to:-

3) Indexing - affording access to the material that has been written.
  Effects of the Medium

  'In Hellenistic times (c.300 B.C. to c. 300 A.D.), official records were enscribed on stone or

metal tablets. Literary works and detailed letters on parchment on papyrus. Pot shards (ostraca)

and wax were used for short notes and drafts.' (Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol. 2 941b).

'Cuneiform on clay was not suited to long documents' (Goody 1987: 45, citing Powell 1981:

435). There is a direct relation between the medium used and the type of text written. We may

even go as far as to suggest that different genres of writing have their own physical genres.
  Some popular writing media

  I list below various writing media, with some of the implications of the use of each medium.

Stone: stone is heavy and is, by and large, not portable. It is not only hard to write on or

inscribe, but almost impossible to correct or amend, either during composition or later. Also, it

is hard to annotate. It is hard for the reader to mark their place in the text or to refer to it, except

by physical location. It is very durable. Although stone itself is (or was) a cheap medium

(unless it needs to be transported), it has always been expensive to inscribe writing on it.

Clay tablets: these are small, heavy, portable, brittle. Clay is easy to correct during

composition, but impossible later to alter or annotate. It is hard to mark your place or refer to it

(except by tablet number or index). It is both durable and cheap as well as being easy to write

on.

Metal tablets: these are small, heavy, portable, supple and strong. Hard to correct during

composition, and it is difficult if not impossible to alter, hard to annotate. Hard to mark your




  54



  place or refer to it (except by tablet number or index). It is durable. An expensive medium, it is

also expensive to use.

Wax tablets: these are small, quite heavy although portable, and supple. Easy to inscribe, and

also to correct during composition. Easy to alter and annotate. Easy to mark your place but

hard to refer to it (except by tablet number or index). Wax is not durable. As a medium it is

dearer than clay but cheaper than metal.

Leaves: papyrus, parchment, and paper: these share common properties, although there are

also some differences. For example, parchment and papyrus last longer than paper, and

parchment can be scraped clean which allows new writing to be made, and reduces its effective

cost.

Leaves can be easily bound or glued in a variety of formats, such as the scroll or codex,

making them highly suitable for printing and book production. Writing is easy, as is

annotation. The ease of correction depends on the type of ink used, but is usually hard and

involves the deletion and rewriting of mistakes, a process similar to annotation.

Finally, to conclude this chapter (and looking back to the discussion of computers and their

effects) let us compare scrolls, codices, printed books and computer files on disc. Although the

aspects brought out by this comparison are not usually considered when literacy is discussed,

they are nonetheless important, and their importance has been neglected. The aspects which I

wish to discuss are:-

Place-marking and discussability;

reproducibility;

size-limits and portability;

completeness.

Place-marking enables a reader to read part of a text, and then later to return easily to the place

where reading was interrupted. It also enables passages of particular interest to be marked.

This has clear advantages for the discussability of text. Two readers can discuss a text more

readily if each can refer the other to an identifiable section of the writing How can this be

achieved? If the readers are working from different texts, are the versions they are reading the

same?

Reproducibility For those dealing with printed media, the assumption will be that two copies of

an edition of a text are identical, but of course before the advent of printing this was not a safe

assumption: copyists make errors. As for computer users, the ease of correction of computer

files has revolutionized much clerical and administrative work. (Notwithstanding, this ease of

correction can itself engender problems, as anyone who has used several files containing a

series of revisions of the same text will know to their cost!) Computer files may be easy to

copy without error but they have a new problem - it is difficult to mark the final definitive

version of a text.




  55


  Size-limits and portability These two categories are linked, and concern the physical constraints

on the size of a text. Clay tablets are more portable than stone, but this very portability,

combined with their relative fragility, reduces their durability. Scrolls and books must be of a

size which is convenient to handle. Physical size constrains, in part, the portability of a text. It

seems that computer discs are the ultimate in portable texts, since an enormous amount of

writing can be stored on a very small piece of equipment. However, size is not the only

constraint: digital files, although extremely portable themselves, cannot be read without a

computer. Even the advent of the portable computer does not entirely remove this problem,

since most portables need regular access to mains electricity. So, for example, I cannot use

them during my regular trips to a relatively remote part of Africa. Also the machines are frail

and the screens hard to read in bright sunshine. Would you choose to take on holiday a

paperback book or a digital version of the same book with a computer?

Completeness This refers to the sense which the reader has of progression through a text, and

the relative place within the text that has been reached. When holding a book, the reader is

aware of how close they are to the end of the text. This sense of orientation is less clear for the

reader of a lengthy scroll. It is even less available to the reader of a computer file, who will not

immediately be aware either of the size of the text in hand, or of the reader's position within

that text.



  56




Property:


  Scroll Codex Printed Book Digital File
  on Disc

  Place 'paper clip' -place a Page mark, refer to Page mark, page ?? Type in a
  marking: mark on the side page numbers where numbermark and
  where one is. they exist subsequently
  Problems posed by 'find' it.
  multi-columnar Problem of
  format. scrolling
  windows



  Limitations on size?
  Yes - scroll gets too Yes - codex gets too Some -but multiple Some but
  big to handle. Scrolls big to handle - but volume formats increasingly
  are no more than 9 multi-volume formats offer a partial unconstraini
  metres in length. offer a partial solution solution ng



  DiscussabilityPoor Poor GoodPoor
  - common
reference to
same
passage1:

  Reproducab Poor - needs printing Poor - needs printing Good Good
  ility: to ensure identicalto ensure identical
  copies copies


  Portability Poor (heavy and Fair Good Very good
  bulky) (if computer
  is available!)

  Sense of Poor Good Good Poor
  completeness:
orientation to
one's place in
the whole
work:

  Limitations Yes - scroll gets too Yes - codex gets too Some -but multiple Some but
  on size? big to handle. Scrolls big to handle - but volume formatsincreasingly
  are no more than 9 multi-volume formats offer a partial unconstraini
  metres in length. offer a partial solution solution ng








  1Q.v. discussion of history of indexing and printing ensuring multiple identical copies.


  57


prev. | next


   Contents

Go to ERA | Go to CSAC Monographs