History of the alphabet | Journey into information theory | Computer Science | Khan Academy
Summary
TLDRThis script explores the evolution of writing systems from ancient hieroglyphics and cuneiform to the Phoenician alphabet. It highlights the transition from complex symbols to simplified phonetic scripts, driven by the need for efficient communication across spaces. The development of mediums like papyrus facilitated this shift, leading to the emergence of alphabets that could adapt to various languages, laying the foundation for global literacy.
Takeaways
- 📜 Information is a message that can be stored or transmitted using various mediums, with painting representing a continuous pattern of expression.
- 🔠 The development of writing systems involved dividing the world into a finite number of atomic units represented by symbols, forming messages through specific patterns.
- 🏛 Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics were a priestly form of communication used for governmental, fiscal, magical, and religious purposes, mainly by scribes and unintelligible to common people.
- 📘 Hieroglyphics were divided into word signs representing single concepts and sound signs representing chunks of sound, with a total of over 1,500 symbols in use.
- 🌾 The emergence of Papyrus as a writing medium allowed for more portable and less durable inscriptions, facilitating the spread of writing to more people for various purposes.
- 📝 The evolution of symbols on Papyrus led to the development of the Hieratic script, a cursive script with simplified pictures and around 700 common symbols.
- 📜 The shift from stone to lighter mediums like Papyrus coincided with the secularization of writing, leading to the creation of the Demotic script with a further reduction in symbols.
- 📚 Cuneiform, the writing system of Mesopotamia, was initially used for fiscal purposes and evolved to include various types of documents, with over 2,000 symbols reduced to around 600 by the Akkadians.
- 🔠 The Phoenician Alphabet, dating to around 1,000 BC, was based on one sign representing one consonant, with 22 symbols total, and was adaptable to various languages.
- 🌐 The Phoenician Alphabet laid the foundation for the Greek and Roman alphabets, demonstrating the power of an alphabet in transmitting and storing information across different languages and cultures.
- 🚀 The quest for faster and more efficient ways of transporting information has always driven the evolution of writing systems and mediums, leading to modern engineering challenges in information transmission.
Q & A
What is the informal definition of information mentioned in the script?
-Information is defined as some message, stored or transmitted, using some medium.
How does painting represent a message in comparison to written language?
-Painting represents a message using a continuous pattern with a seemingly endless number of possible forms, allowing for free self-expression, unlike written language which uses a finite number of atomic units or symbols.
What were the two main purposes of ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics?
-Hieroglyphics were used for governmental, fiscal, magical, and religious purposes and were a form of communication reserved for scribes.
How many different symbols were in common use in ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics?
-Over 1,500 different symbols were in common use in ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
What was the significance of the shift from rock to papyrus as a medium for writing in ancient Egypt?
-The shift to papyrus allowed for messages to be sent across greater spaces more easily, as it was lightweight and portable, and it coincided with the spread of writing to more people for various purposes.
What is Hieratic script and how did it evolve?
-Hieratic script is a cursive form of writing that evolved to suit more rapid writing on papyrus. It simplified the pictures from Hieroglyphics and reduced the number of common symbols to around 700.
What writing system emerged around 650 BC in Egypt to facilitate ease of rapid writing?
-Demotic script emerged around 650 BC in Egypt to facilitate ease of rapid writing and used primarily phonetic symbols or sound signs.
What was the original purpose of Cuneiform in Mesopotamia?
-Cuneiform was originally used for fiscal purposes, as a method of tracking debt and surplus commodities.
How did the Phoenician Alphabet revolutionize writing?
-The Phoenician Alphabet revolutionized writing by using one sign to represent one consonant, simplifying the system to only 22 symbols, and being adaptable to various languages, not just Semitic.
What is the significance of the Sinai inscriptions found around 1700 BC?
-The Sinai inscriptions are significant because they represent an early form of alphabetic writing, using only consonant sounds with no word signs, and laid the groundwork for the development of later alphabets.
How did the evolution of writing systems reflect changes in society and technology?
-The evolution of writing systems, such as from Hieroglyphics to Hieratic and Demotic in Egypt, and from complex symbols to phonetic alphabets, reflects changes in society towards greater literacy and the need for more efficient communication methods, as well as technological advancements in writing mediums like papyrus.
Outlines
📜 Evolution of Writing Systems: From Hieroglyphics to Alphabets
This paragraph explores the concept of information and its representation through writing systems, starting from ancient Egypt's Hieroglyphics used by scribes for governmental and religious purposes. It discusses the evolution of symbols into a system of word signs and sound signs, with a significant reduction in the number of symbols as writing systems adapted to new mediums like Papyrus. The paragraph also covers the emergence of cursive scripts like Hieratic and the further simplification with the Demotic script, highlighting the shift towards phonetic symbols and the spread of writing to the masses.
🌐 The Spread of Writing: Cuneiform to the Phoenician Alphabet
The second paragraph delves into the history of Cuneiform in Mesopotamia, initially used for fiscal purposes and later adapted for various needs including recipes and legal documents. It outlines the reduction of symbols as the system evolved and was adapted by different languages, such as Akkadian. The paragraph culminates in the discussion of the Phoenician Alphabet, which simplified the representation of consonants and had a profound impact on the development of writing systems across different cultures, including the Greek and Roman alphabets. The summary emphasizes the universality of the alphabet as a method for information transmission and the continuous search for more efficient ways to convey information over greater distances.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Information
💡Writing Systems
💡Hieroglyphics
💡Papyrus
💡Cursive Script
💡Demotic
💡Cuneiform
💡Phoenician Alphabet
💡Sound Signs
💡Medium
💡Simplification
Highlights
Information is defined as a message stored or transmitted using a medium.
Painting represents messages through continuous patterns with endless forms.
Writing systems divide the world into finite atomic units expressed by symbols.
Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics were used for governmental, fiscal, magical, and religious purposes.
Hieroglyphic writing was unintelligible to common people and practiced by select scribes.
Hieroglyphic symbols are categorized into word signs representing concepts and sound signs representing chunks of sound.
There were over 1,500 different symbols in common use in Hieroglyphics, with a smaller portion being sound signs.
The primary medium for storing Hieroglyphics was rock, ideal for durable inscriptions.
The emergence of Papyrus as a medium allowed for more portable and lightweight messages.
The shift to Papyrus coincided with the spread of writing to more people for various purposes.
Symbols evolved into a cursive script called Hieratic to suit rapid writing on Papyrus.
The number of common symbols in Hieratic was reduced to around 700.
The new writing system Demotic emerged around 650 BC for ease of rapid writing.
Demotic script reduced the total number of symbols to roughly 10 percent of the previous total.
The Phoenician Alphabet, dating to around 1000 BC, represented one sign for one consonant, with 22 symbols total.
The Phoenician Alphabet's symbols were often borrowed from Hieroglyphic pictures, with the letter's name starting with the letter's sound.
The Alphabet's adaptability allowed it to be fitted to diverse languages across Europe, India, and Southeast Asia.
The Alphabet is a powerful method for transmitting and storing information, regardless of symbol choice or language.
Transcripts
(piano music)
Brit: Informally, we can think of information
as some message, stored or transmitted, using some medium.
When you paint you are representing your
message using a continuous pattern with a
seemingly endless number of possible forms.
You are free to express yourself.
When humans began developing writing systems,
we naturally had to divide our world
into a finite number of atomic units
which we express using symbols.
Any written language can be thought of in this way.
Messages are formed by arranging symbols
in specific patterns.
Let's return to 3,000 BC
and explore two ancient writing systems.
First, in ancient Egypt, we had Hieroglyphics,
a priestly form of communication reserved for
governmental, fiscal, magical,
and religious purposes.
It was practiced by a select few writers
known as scribes, and writing was generally
unintelligible to the common people.
The symbols themselves broadly fall
into two categories, word signs, which are symbols
that represent a single meaningful concept...
Woman showing mouth: Back.
Apple.
Brit: ...and sound signs.
These symbols represent chunks of sound.
Dark haired woman: Be.
Boy in red shirt: Ze.
Girl in black shirt: Ton.
Boy in green shirt: Ca.
Brit: Now, the total number of different symbols
in common use was over 1,500,
and if you divide all of these symbols into
word signs versus sound signs,
we find a much smaller portion of sound signs.
There were around 140 sound signs, and of these,
only 33 represented distinct consonants,
a tiny fraction of all of the symbols in use.
At the time, the medium used to store the symbols
was primarily rock, and this was ideal for
durable inscriptions, allowing messages
to travel into the future.
Mobility was not a main concern when
communicating messages in this way.
However, a new physical medium for storing symbols
was emerging at the time.
Along the Nile, silt deposits left from flooding
made the surrounding land extremely fertile,
and one of the many crops they grew
was Papyrus.
It could be sliced into strips,
and these strips were then soaked,
(bell tones)
Brit: and weaved together and finally pressed,
allowing the natural sugars to act as glue.
(bell tones)
Brit: After several days, it dried and formed
an almost weightless tablet.
(bell tones)
Brit: This medium was ideal for sending messages
across greater spaces, rather than the more
durable inscriptions focused on time.
This shift toward cheap portable mediums
for storing symbols coincided with the spread
of writing into the hands of more people
for new purposes.
Gradually, as people began to write more
on Papyrus, the symbols evolved
to suit more rapid writing.
This lead to a cursive script, known as Hieratic.
For example, here is the world's oldest
surviving surgical document.
It's written in Hieratic script,
dated to around 1600 BC.
These symbols were based on Hieroglyphics,
however the pictures were simplified
to match the swiftness of writing in ancient shorthand.
Also, the number of common symbols in use
began to shrink down to around 700.
By escaping from the heavy medium of stone,
thought gained lightness.
A marked increase in writing by hand was
accompanied by the secularization
of writing, thought, and activity.
This lead to a new writing system called Demotic
around 650 BC, which was devised specifically to
facilitate the ease of rapid writing.
For example, this text is known as
a marriage contract, and is one of the earliest
known examples of Demotic script.
It's interesting to notice that there was a
dramatic reduction again in the total number
of symbols with this new system,
roughly 10 percent of the total number of
symbols used before.
This was due to a shift towards the use of
phonetic symbols, or sound signs...
Dark haired woman: Be.
Boy in red shirt: Ze.
Girl in black shirt: Ton.
Boy in green shirt: Ca.
Brit: over word symbols, or meaning signs.
And the new simplicity meant that children
could be taught to write at a young age.
We see this same pattern in other cultures.
Let's return back to 3,000 BC and visit Mesopotamia,
where Cuneiform was the writing system
originally used for fiscal purposes, as it was a
powerful method of tracking debt
and surplus commodities
before the invention of coins.
For example, here is a document recording
someone's stock of animal hides, and this type of
writing evolved to suit other needs.
For example, this tablet contains a recipe for
bread and beer, and here's another tablet
which contains a legal document.
Originally, the writing system was used
by the Sumerians, and there were over
2,000 different symbols in use,
which could also be divided into
word signs and sound signs.
Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian
as the spoken language, and here is
the earliest known dictionary from 2,300 BC.
It contains word lists in Sumerian and Akkadian,
and this was discovered in modern Syria.
When it was adapted by the Akkadians
and fitted to their language, they reduced the
number of symbols to around 600,
and they did this again by moving towards
sound signs.
Again, we see both Hieroglyphics and Cuneiform
using several hundred sound symbols in their
more evolved forms, and as writing systems escaped
their formal usage and spread to
more and more people, the soil was ripe for the
invention of a brand new writing system
for the people.
One of the great discoveries in the history of writing
is dated to around 1700 BC.
The Sinai inscriptions were found in the
Sinai peninsula, and they were about 20 feet apart.
This was important because each picture denotes
a consonant sound, and no word signs are used.
When sounded out correctly, the letters
would produce words in ancient Semitic.
Although not fully deciphered, this message
appears to be of the form,
"name, rank and prayer".
The two words deciphered are "Chief" and "God".
This innocent example was part of a
writing revolution, creating meaning by merging
sound signs only.
Woman showing mouth: A.
Ack.
Back.
Ba.
Pl.
Apple.
Brit: By 1,000 BC, we arrive at
the Phoenician Alphabet, which emerges along
the Mediterranean used by the Phoenicians
who are a maritime trading culture.
The Phoenician writing system was based on
the principle that one sign represents
one consonant, and it was used to write a
northern Semitic language,
containing only 22 symbols total.
The symbols chosen to represent these sounds
were often borrowed from Hieroglyphic pictures,
so that the letter's name began with
the letter's sound.
For example, mem, which stood for water,
became what we know of as the letter M.
Aleph, which stood for ox, became what we know of
as the letter A, but the secret power of this alphabet,
unknown to it's inventors, was that it did not need
Semitic speech in order to work.
Dark haired woman: D.
Boy in green shirt: Ah, eh, i, ou, oo.
Brit: With modest adjustments, these miraculous
letters would be fitted to diverse tongues of
Europe, India, and southeast Asia,
Boy in red shirt: Za.
Brit: carrying literacy around the globe.
Boy in red shirt: Ma.
Da.
Brit: This was the source of the Greek
and later Roman alphabet forms we know today.
The idea of an alphabet is a powerful method
for transmitting and storing information.
Realize, it doesn't really matter what the symbols are
or how you choose them, or even what language
it's in, information is just a selection
from a collection of possible symbols.
And, over time, we have always looked for faster,
more efficient ways of transporting information
across greater and greater spaces,
and when we try doing this using new mediums,
which travel faster than any human or animal,
an engineering problem presents itself.
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