Writing was first invented by the Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia before 3,000 BC.
It was also independently invented in Meso-America before 600 BC and probably
independently invented in China before 1,300 BC. It may have been independently
invented in Egypt around 3,000 BC although given the geographical proximity between
Egypt and Mesopotamia the Egyptians may have learnt writing from the Sumerians.
There are three basic types of writing systems. The written signs used by the
writing system could represent either a whole word, a syllable or an individual sound.
Where the written sign represents a word the system is known as logographic as it uses
logograms which are written signs that represent a word. The earliest writing systems
such as the Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Mayan glyphs are predominantly
logographics as are modern Chinese and Japanese writing systems. Where the written
sign represents a syllable the writing system is known as syllabic.
Syllabic writing systems were more common in the ancient world than they are today.
The Linear A and B writing systems of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece are syllabic.
The most common writing systems today are alphabetical. These involve the written sign
(a letter) representing a single sound (known as a phoneme). The earliest known
alphabetical systems were developed by speakers of semetic languages around 1700 BC
in the area of modern day Israel and Palestine. All written languages will predominately
use one or other of the above systems. They may however partly use the other systems.
No written language is purely alphabetic, syllabic
or logographic but may use elements from any or all systems.
Such fully developed writing only emerged after development from simplier systems.
Talley sticks with notches on them to represent a number of sheep or to record
a debt have been used in the past. Knotted strings have been used as a form of
record keeping particularly in the area around the Pacific rim. They reached their
greatest development with the Inca quipus where they were used to record payment of
tribute and to record commercial transactions. A specially trained group of quipu makers
and readers managed the whole system. The use of pictures for the purpose of communication
was used by native Americans and by the Ashanti and Ewe people in Africa. Pictures can show
qualities and characteristics which can not be shown by tally sticks and knot records.
They do not however amount to writing as they do not bear a conventional relationship to language.
Even so, the Gelb dictum (from its originator Ignace Gelb), that “At the basis of
all writing stands the picture” has been widely accepted.