Abel João Martinho

Aminodin Abdul

Brigilo João Gil

Inácio Edviro Eduardo

Marquiola Felisberto

Osvaldo Bernardo Chico

THE HISTORY OF WRITING SYSTEM

Universidade Rovuma Monpepuez

Extensão de Cabo Delgado

2024
 Abel João Martinho

Aminodin Abdul

Brigilo João Gil

Inácio Edviro Eduardo

Marquiola Felisberto

Osvaldo Bernardo Chico

THE HISTORY OF WRITING SYSTEM

Presented to the department of letters and

Lec: Saide Aligora

Universidade Rovuma Monpepuez

Extensão de Cabo Delgado

2024

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 Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................4
THE HISTORY OF WRITING SYSTEM.......................................................................... 5
THE REBUS PRINCIPLE.................................................................................................5
SYLLABIC WRITING..................................................................................................... 5
ALPHABETIC WRITING................................................................................................ 5
WRITTEN ENGLISH.......................................................................................................6
Conclusion....................................................................................................................... 7
References....................................................................................................................... 8

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Introduction
In this present essay is addressing about “the history of writing system” where it
discusses about the Rebus principle, Syllabic, Alphabetic and written English. In the
history of how systems of representation of language through graphic means have
involved in different human civilizations, more complete writing system.

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THE HISTORY OF WRITING SYSTEM
An ancient script that has a more obvious connection to writing systems in use today
can be identified in inscriptions dated around 3,000 years ago the development of writing,
as we know it, is a relatively recent phenomenon,

THE REBUS PRINCIPLE

We can imagine how the pictographic representation could have developed into the
logogram.

Ex; This logogram is pronounced as eye.

Ex: “Crosseye”.

SYLLABIC WRITING
According to (Yule, 1996:12) when a writing system employs a set of symbols which
represent the pronunciations of syllables. However, it is not until the time of the
Phoenicians, inhabiting what is modern Lebanon between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago,
that we find the full use of a syllabic writing system. Many of the symbols that the
Phoenicians used were taken from earlier Egyptian writing.

Ex; The Egyptian form (meaning “house”)

Ex; The word pronounced baba (meaning 'father')

Ex; The Egyptian form (Meaning 'water')

ALPHABETIC WRITING
According to Yule (1996:12) a set of written symbols which each represent a single type
of sound. It is, when you write Portuguese or English you employ a set of symbols (a, b,
c, d, etc.), which represent sounds in Portuguese or English.

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Modified versions can be traced to the East into Iranian, Indian and South-East Asian
writing systems and to the West through Greek. The basic order of letter symbols in the
first “A-B-C-D … ” was created about three thousand years ago by the Phoenicians and
continues to be used as our primary ordering device for lists in everything from
dictionaries to telephone directories to grades for academic performance.

For example; from these set of symbols p, t, o and s, you can produce the words spot,
stop; and each letter represents a single type of sound like p /p/; t /t/, etc.

WRITTEN ENGLISH
According to Yule (2014:232)The English writing system is alphabetic in a very loose
sense. If indeed the origins of the alphabetic writing system were based on a
correspondence between a single symbol and a single sound type, then one might
reasonably ask why there is such a frequent mismatch between the forms of written
English. The vowel sound represented by /i/ is written in various ways, as shown in the
first two columns on the left below, and the consonant sound represented by /ʃ/ has
various spellings, as in the other two columns.

Ex; s(sugar), ss (tissue), ssi (mission)

Ex; “you know” and the sounds of spoken English (“yu no” or /ju noʊ/).

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Conclusion
Ending the work, we concluded that the topics are very important and give knowledge
to the reader about the history of writing system, it is, we got that the old civilizations as
Egyptians, Japanese etc. In this approach you will get some information about and in
your attention

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References
Gelb, I. (1963) A Study of Writing University of Chicago Press Geschwind, N. (1991)
“Specializations of the human brain” In W. Wang (ed.) The Emergence of Language
(72–87) W. H. Freeman.

Daniels, P. and W. Bright (1996) The World’s Writing Systems Oxford University Press.

Coulmas, F. (2003) Writing Systems Cambridge University Press.

Cook, V. (2004) The English Writing System Hodder Arnold.

Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (2nd edition) MIT Press.

Yule, G.(1996). The Study of Language, 2nd Edition, Cambridge: CUP