MMW 11 Chapter Notes - Chapter Hammurabi's Code, Writing: Trans-Cultural Diffusion, Syllabary, Egyptian Biliteral Signs

• School: UCSD
• Department: Making of the Modern World
• Course: MMW 11
• Professor: David Jordan

Document Summary

Lecture: triumph of the nerds (or their employers) Logographs pictures standing for an idea in a certain language. Ideographs pictures standing for an idea in many languages -> many pronunciations. Syllabary writing system made up of symbols for syllables ie. japanese. In mesopotamia, symbols were read for both the ideas they represented and their sound value. If it was confusing, ideographs and syllable signs represented same word -> linked writing to speaking: mark of a writing system being able to write what you can say. Spread of sumerian writing: other people (2300 bc) borrowed sumerian system -> changed it to fit their languages, or were inspired to create their own, changes reduces number of ideographs and increased the number of syllable signs. Phoenicians trading people ancestral to ~all modern european and neat. Easter alphabets ranging from greek and latin to hebrew and arabic: moving westward, these symbols were used with other languages using more vowels ie english.