People can be interested in language, writing and scripts. They may wonder how, when and where did writing evolve? Do alphabets function better than hieroglyphs? And are we today, in the computer age, moving towards a "universal language" of signs and symbols? This text aims to demystify writing for the general reader. It explains the interconnection between sound, symbol and script for each of the major writing systems in turn, and discovers and deciphers writing forms from cuneiform and Egyptian and Maya hieroglyphs to alphabets and the scripts of China and Japan today. Throughout, the reader is guided by step-by-step graphic analysis of the way each script works, with illustrated examples.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A readable, informative overview,
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This review is from: The Story of Writing: With over 350 Illustrations, 50 in Color (Hardcover)
This extensively illustrated book tells general, interested readers as much about the origins and nature of different types of writing as most will want to know. The short, concise chapters, typically two pages long, range over subjects as diverse as Sumerian cuneiform and modern standardized signs for travelers. The author devotes particular attention to Egyptian hieroglyphs and Chinese characters, though he provides less adequate coverage of writing systems used on the Indian subcontinent. Throughout, he emphasizes the distinction between writing systems based on sounds (alphabets) and those using symbols to represent things or concepts. He makes the intriguing point that some written languages have mixed the two together.
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