We explain what writing is, its history, functions and the types that exist. Also, its importance to humanity.
What is writing?
Writing is defined as a system of communication human through graphic representations of the idiom verbal, that is, of signs drawn on a physical support of some kind. The interpretation of written characters is known as reading.
Every form of writing operates as a system, in which each specific sign corresponds to a concrete or imaginary referent, occupying in turn a place within the chain of prayer.
These signs, called graphemes, can represent sounds of the tongue (following the principle phonetic) or they can, on the contrary, represent ideas or concrete referents (following the ideographic principle). It all depends on the writing system in question.
At present there are many different forms of writing, some derived from the same previous language, as is the case of the Romance languages, from Latin, or from Chinese and Japanese, in which the same set of sinograms is used (which the japanese call kanji).
Each one has its own rules grammatical and their own notion of spelling (that is, the correct way to use the signs), as well as their own intonation or pronunciation marks, such as accents.
This is because writing, as well as language verbal itself, is a reflection of a logic and a particular way of thinking, as well as a history specific, since the writing modes and their representation rules usually change with the passage of the weather. So much so, that there is evidence today of ancient writings that are, despite the efforts of specialists, indecipherable.
Origin of writing
The writing arose in the most remote antiquity, but it did not arise in a single location, but was discovered by several ancient civilizations at different moments in their particular history, adapted from the beginning to their interests and to their vision of the world.
However, it is estimated that the first writing systems emerged at the end of the Bronze Age (around 4,000 BC), based on mnemonic systems (reminders) that used specific symbols but that had no relation yet to language.
That is why they are considered as proto-writing, that is, mere antecedents, born at some point in the Neolithic, to satisfy different logistical needs, such as herd accounting, property ownership or similar situations.
The first writing that is known was the cuneiform, which arose in the ancient Mesopotamia, in the Middle East. It comes from a Sumerian system of uncategorized clay tokens, through which tasks and goods were represented for exchange.
As it became more and more complex (which probably required carrying hundreds of chips), this writing ended up being replaced by something more practical: a series of marks on a clay tablet, with the shapes of the chips.
This first logographic writing system was used or copied by the residents of Sumer, through commercial or other exchanges, such as the Akkadians and the Eblaites, Hittites and Ugarites, especially when in the middle of the third millennium BC. A syllabic annex was developed that reflected the sounds and the sentence organization of the ancient Sumerian language.
Other writing systems also emerged at that time, such as hieroglyphs Egyptians, whose first indications are around the year 3,100 a. C. (like the Narmer palette), the Proto-Elamite script (around 3,200 BC), the Indus script (around 2,600 BC), or the Chinese script (around 1,600 BC), among many others.
Types of writing
Ideogramic writing, like hieroglyphs, can include phonetic signs.As we showed previously, writing can be classified into two major systems of spelling: that of phonetic writing and that of ideographic writing.
Phonetic scripts are those whose signs correspond to a specific sound in the language. In turn, they can be classified into:
- Alphabetic, in which each written sign (or combination of them) corresponds to a sound (a phoneme) of the language. All European languages and a significant number of American, African and Asian languages use this type of writing.
- Abyades, when only some of the phonemes of the language are represented graphically, that is, the language is not represented completely. In general, it is the consonant sounds that are written, and the vowels are established by the context, which gives them a certain margin of ambiguity. This is the case, for example, of the Hebrew script.
- Abugidas, also known as pseudosyllabic, can be understood as a step forward with respect to abyades, since in them the consonants are represented graphically together with graphic elements that clarify the ambiguity of the vowels, without becoming a sign of their own at all. This is the case of the Ethiopian writings.
- Syllabic, in which each written sign represents a combination of two (or more) sounds in the same unit: a consonant sound and a vowel sound, that is, a syllable from language. Such is the case with Mycenaean Greek writing, for example.
Ideographic writings are, for their part, those in which each written sign corresponds to a referent. That is, instead of representing sounds of the language, they directly represent things, actions or ideas. These signs are called ideograms or pictograms, and in general they are usually complemented by phonetic signs, resulting in mixed writing. Examples of this system are Chinese writing or Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Importance of writing
Writing is one of the most important technologies developed by the human being, to the extent that his invention is regarded as the formal starting point of History (and therefore the end of history). prehistory), since before her it was impossible to leave documentation that narrated or evidenced the events.
Seen this way, writing allowed the human being to overcome the barriers of time and mortality: a message Written may well outlive its writer; and also refer to many receivers at the same time, or at different times and circumstances. That is, writing separated for the first time in human history the sender from the receiver of a message in time and space.
On the other hand, writing made it possible to accumulate knowledge and pass it on to subsequent generations, which was key in the emergence of more complex civilizations and in the possibility of study and learning. learning, since before everything had to be transmitted orally and memorized, suffering distortions and forgetfulness in the process.
Last but not least, writing made possible the rise of the literature, an artistic form that still exists and that satisfies one of the most basic cultural needs of our species, which is to tell stories.
Writing functions
According to psychology (specifically to the approach of the writing of Gordon Wells of 1987), the writing always fulfills four levels of use, that is, it has four fundamental basic functions, which are:
- Executive or operational function, which is summarized in the ability to encode and decode graphic signs, that is, in the possibility of turning an idea into a text and a text on a series of ideas: reading-writing. This is the most basic function of all.
- Instrumental function, which considers writing as a tool or an instrument for the acquisition of knowledge or knowledge, as in the case of the study. In this sense, writing is nothing more than a vehicle of knowledge, a container.
- Interpersonal or functional function, one that allows the communication of two human beings through the exchange of written messages, something that we know very well today thanks to instant messaging services. This requires more than just the ability to read and write: the communicative contexts, a series of messages must be shared with the receiver. codes, etc.
- Epistemic or imaginative function, the most complex of all and the most cognitively demanding, is the one that allows the writer to create ideas directly through writing, generating knowledge and opinions that were not given beforehand in the receiver and considering writing as substance itself, just as writers, philosophers, or poets do.