Writing Systems

A language is not its alphabet

A language has patterns for creating meaning; a script is a set of graphic signs used to write language. A writing system includes conventions for how those signs are used. Several languages can use related scripts, and a language may be represented in more than one script. Sharing letter shapes does not make two languages identical.

Writing is also not a requirement for a language to be complete. Spoken and signed languages have their own structures whether or not a widely used written representation exists.

Graphic signs can do different jobs

Some writing represents sound units; other signs can represent syllables or words and meaningful units. Real systems often combine principles rather than fitting a perfectly pure box. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, for example, included signs representing sounds; its pictorial appearance does not mean every sign was simply a picture-word.

A reader needs conventions about sequence, direction, grouping and context. Decorative resemblance alone cannot tell you how a script works. Avoid inventing meanings for unfamiliar cultural signs from their appearance.

Work through the Rosetta example

The Rosetta Stone records a decree using Egyptian hieroglyphic, Egyptian Demotic and Greek scripts. The Egyptian forms and Greek represent two languages in three scripts. Distinguishing those counts prevents the misleading statement that every different-looking writing style must be a different language.

Recognising related content across scripts helped researchers investigate the writing. A modern photograph is useful for noticing the bands, but decipherment required much more evidence and scholarship. Looking at one inscription does not make an observer able to read it.

Test a tiny invented system

For a fictional code, assign a circle to “robot” and a square to “door”. Those symbols alone do not say whether the robot opens the door or the door blocks the robot. Adding an order convention supplies a relationship. This invented demonstration shows why a collection of symbols is not yet a complete description of a writing system.