home Diets and weight loss The history of the invention of writing and its phased formation. Origin and development of writing - abstract

The history of the invention of writing and its phased formation. Origin and development of writing - abstract

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

Federal Agency for Education

Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Education vocational education

"Russian State University of Service and Tourism"

(FSOUVPO "RGUTiS")

Branch of the federal state educational institution of higher professional education "Russian State University of Service and Tourism" in Samara (Branch of the Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "RGUTiS" in Samara)

Faculty of Social and Cultural Service and Tourism

Department of Social Sciences

TEST

Discipline: “Russian language in professional communication”

On the topic: “The history of the emergence of writing”

Completed by: 2nd year student

correspondence department

group Tz-201 Matyunina E.A.

Checked: Art. teacher

Stepukhina N.A.

Samara, 2011

Introduction

1. Subject letter

2. Pictographic writing

3. Ideographic writing (Sumerian)

4. Syllabic writing. Cuneiform

5. First alphabets

6. The birth of Slavic writing

7. Cursive writing

Conclusion

List of used literature

Applications

Introduction

To live in this world, you need to be able to read and write, otherwise you will find yourself on the sidelines of modernity. And yet, the fate of one person, if he did not know writing, would not have changed as dramatically as the fate of all humanity. For almost a million years, generations of people were connected only by threads of myths and rituals, and different tribes - only by bizarre rumors. The invention of alphabetic writing was the great step that led humanity from barbarism to civilization. The moment the name of a chief, or a god, or a tribe - we will never know for sure - was first carved, scratched, then history began. The times when there was no written language are called prehistoric. Previously, there were two realities for a person: the everyday, momentary, events in which occurred insofar as they can be seen, heard or remembered, and the unchanging reality of myths, which reigned over time. Myths and rituals were then the only repository of human achievements. Now a third reality has appeared - historical, which is also informational. Man has found himself included in the flow of history; thanks to the media, he now knows about events that he has never seen; with the help of other means that have developed on the basis of writing, he can communicate about himself to descendants with whom he will never speak. Previously, only divine phenomena were timeless; now human affairs also stand the test of time. What a person does today will be remembered not only by his contemporaries, but also by distant descendants. Science could not have received any significant development without relying on the work of its predecessors.

At the beginning of the 21st century, it is unthinkable to imagine modern life without books, newspapers, indexes, and the flow of information. The appearance of writing became one of the most important, fundamental discoveries on the long path of human evolution. In terms of significance, this step can perhaps be compared with making fire or with the transition to growing plants instead of a long period of gathering. The formation of writing is a very difficult process that lasted thousands of years. Slavic writing, the heir of which is our modern writing, joined this series more than a thousand years ago, in the 9th century AD.

1. Subject letter

Initially, people did not have any writing. Therefore, it was quite difficult to transmit information over long distances. Sometimes people sent each other various objects instead of letters.

“Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century. BC e., talks about the “letter” of the Scythians to the Persian king Darius. A Scythian messenger came to the Persian camp and placed gifts before the king, “consisting of a bird, a mouse, a frog and five arrows.” The Scythians did not know how to write, so their message looked like this. Darius asked what these gifts meant. The messenger replied that he was ordered to hand them over to the king and immediately return back. And the Persians themselves must figure out the meaning of the “letter.” Darius conferred with his soldiers for a long time and finally said how he understood the message: the mouse lives in the earth, the frog lives in the water, the bird is like a horse, and arrows are the military courage of the Scythians. Thus, Darius decided, the Scythians give him their water and land and submit to the Persians, giving up their military courage. But the Persian commander Gobryas interpreted the “letter” differently: “If you, Persians, do not fly away like birds into the sky, or like mice do not hide in the ground, or like frogs do not gallop into the lakes, then you will not return back and will fall under the blows of our arrows.” ".

As you can see, subject writing can be interpreted in different ways. The history of Darius's war with the Scythians showed that Gobryas was right. The Persians were unable to defeat the elusive Scythians who roamed the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, Darius left the Scythian lands with his army." http://inyazservice.narod.ru/pismennost.html

The retold legend reveals the fact that initially people tried to transmit information using various objects. Famous historical examples of object writing also include wampum (Iroquoian letter, represented by multi-colored shells strung on a rope) and quipu (Peruvian letter, in which information was conveyed by color and number of knots on the ropes). Certainly, subject letter was not the most convenient means of transmitting information and over time people came up with more universal tools.

2. Pictographic letter

The oldest and simplest way of writing is believed to have appeared in the Paleolithic - “story in pictures”, the so-called pictographic letter (from the Latin pictus - drawn and from the Greek grapho - writing). That is, “I draw and write” (some American Indians still use pictographic writing in our time). This letter is, of course, very imperfect, because you can read the story in pictures in different ways. Therefore, by the way, not all experts recognize pictography as a form of writing as the beginning of writing. Moreover, for the most ancient people, any such image was animated. So the “story in pictures,” on the one hand, inherited these traditions, on the other, it required a certain abstraction from the image.

3. Sumerian writing (ideographic)

In the IV-III millennia BC. e. in Ancient Sumer (Foreign Asia), in Ancient Egypt, and then, in II, and in Ancient China A different way of writing arose: each word was conveyed by a picture, sometimes concrete, sometimes conventional. For example, when talking about a hand, a hand was drawn, and water was depicted as a wavy line. A certain symbol also denoted a house, a city, a boat... The Greeks called such Egyptian drawings hieroglyphs: “hiero” - “sacred”, “glyphs” - “carved on stone”. The text, composed in hieroglyphs, looks like a series of drawings. This letter can be called: “I’m writing a concept” or “I’m writing an idea” (hence the scientific name for such writing - “ideographic”). However, how many hieroglyphs had to be remembered! The Frenchman Francois Champollion (19th century) revealed the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphics. He suggested that hieroglyphs are not writing-drawings (which they are so similar in form), but designations of letters and syllables. Based on his guess, Champollion managed to decipher the inscriptions on Egyptian monuments and tombs. (Annex 1)

4. Syllabic writing. Cuneiform

An extraordinary achievement of human civilization was the so-called syllabic writing, the invention of which took place during the 3rd-2nd millennia BC. e. Each stage in the development of writing recorded a certain result in the advancement of humanity along the path of logical abstract thinking. First is the division of the phrase into words, then the free use of pictures-words, the next step is the division of the word into syllables. We speak in syllables, and children are taught to read in syllables. It would seem that it could be more natural to organize the recording by syllables! And there are many fewer syllables than the words composed with their help. But it took many centuries to come to such a decision. Syllabic writing was used already in the 3rd-2nd millennia BC. e. in the Eastern Mediterranean. (this letter is called syllabary; its classic examples are the Cretan (Minoan) letter and the Mayan letter). The famous cuneiform script is predominantly syllabary. Kleemmanuscript-- the earliest known writing system. The form of the letter was largely determined by the writing material - a clay tablet, on which, while the clay was still soft, signs were squeezed out with a wooden writing stick or a pointed reed; hence the “wedge-shaped” strokes. The most ancient monument Sumerian writing is a tablet from Kish (Appendix 2) (about 3500 BC). It is followed in time by documents found at excavations. ancient city Uruk, dating back to 3300 BC. e. The appearance of writing coincides with the development of cities and the accompanying complete restructuring of society.

The syllabic method is still written in India and Ethiopia.

5. The first alphabets.

The next stage on the path to simplifying writing was the so-called sound writing, when each speech sound has its own sign. But to think of something so simple and natural way It turned out to be the most difficult. First of all, it was necessary to figure out how to divide the word and syllables into individual sounds. But when this finally happened, the new method demonstrated undoubted advantages. It was necessary to remember only two or three dozen letters, and the accuracy in reproducing speech in writing is incomparable with any other method. Over time, it was the alphabetic letter that began to be used almost everywhere.

Theory

Terterian tablets (rum.Tgbliüele de la Tgrtgria) --three unfired clay tablets discovered in 1961 by Romanian archaeologists near the village of Terteria (Romanian.Tartaria) in the Romanian county of Alba, around 30 km from the city of Alba Iulia. The finds were accompanied by 26 clay and limestone figurines, as well as the charred skeleton of an adult male.

Two rectangular signs, one --round, with holes drilled in two of them. The diameter of the round plate does not exceed 6 cm, the rest are even smaller. On one side of the tablets there are images of a horned animal, a tree branch and a number of relatively abstract symbols (possibly a hunting scene).

The Terterian inscriptions became an archaeological sensation, especially after the authoritative archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, working on the restoration of the culture and religion of pre-Indo-European Europe, declared the pictograms on them to be the oldest form of writing in the world. If Gimbutas’s assumption is correct, then the so-called “ancient European writing” existed on the continent long before not only the Minoan (which is traditionally considered the first written language of Europe), but also before the Proto-Sumerian and Proto-Chinese writing systems. According to Gimbutas's 1991 book, this system emerges in the first half of the 6th millennium BC. BC, widespread between 5300-4300 and disappearing by 4000 BC. e.

Researcher S. Winn (1973) identified 210 writing signs, consisting of 5 basic elements and representing a modification of approximately 30 basic characters. The number of characters indicates that the writing was syllabic. X. Haarmann (1990) found about 50 parallels between this system and the Cretan and Cypriot script. Maria Gimbutas. Slavs: Sons of Perun. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007.

Most researchers do not share Gimbutas' views. At first, after the publication of the finds in Terteria, the prevailing opinion in science was that the pictograms indicated the ownership of a particular object (usually ceramics) to a certain person. However, the widespread distribution of pictograms throughout different countries over many centuries has cast doubt on the validity of this hypothesis.

According to another theory, the Terterian type pictographs can be explained by comparison with the first examples of Minoan and Sumerian writing. As with cuneiform, the original function of pictograms may have been to record property and indicate its value. This theory is supported by the fact that pictograms were often painted on the bottom of pots. About a sixth of the pictograms are made up of signs resembling a comb or brush, --these could be primitive numbers.

At present, the most generally accepted explanation of the pictograms from Terteria is as signs of a ritual and cult nature, which were used in the performance of religious rites, after which they lost their meaning. The person in whose burial the tablets were found could be a shaman. Proponents of this theory point to the lack of evolution of pictograms throughout the entire existence of the Vinca culture, which would be difficult to explain if they were related to the fixation of trade turnover.

None of the writing systems has practically ever existed in its pure form and does not exist even now. For example, most of the letters of our alphabet, like a, b, c and others, correspond to one specific sound, but in the letter-signs i, yu, e there are already several sounds. We cannot do without elements of ideographic writing, say, in mathematics. Instead of writing with the words “two plus two equals four,” we use symbols to get a very short form: 2+2=4. The same applies to chemical and physical formulas.

The earliest alphabetic texts were discovered in Byblos (Lebanon). Among the first to use alphabetic sound writing were those peoples in whose language vowel sounds turned out to be not as important as consonants. So, at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The alphabet originated among the Phoenicians, ancient Jews, and Arameans. For example, in the Hebrew language, when different vowels are added to the consonants K - T - L, a family of cognate words is obtained: KeToL - kill, KoTeL - killer, KaTuL - killed, etc. It is always clear by ear that we are talking about murder. Therefore, only consonants were written in the letter - the semantic meaning of the word was clear from the context. By the way, the ancient Jews and Phoenicians wrote lines from right to left, as if left-handed people had invented such a letter. This ancient method of writing is preserved by the Jews to this day; all nations using the Arabic alphabet write in the same way today.

One of the first alphabets on Earth - Phoenician.

From the Phoenicians - residents of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, sea traders and travelers - alphabetic writing passed to the Greeks. From the Greeks, this principle of writing came to Europe. And, according to researchers, almost all letter-sound writing systems of the peoples of Asia originate from the Aramaic letter.

A researcher who paid attention to this notes: among the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet, there is not a single one whose name would be associated with the sea, ships or maritime trade. It was this circumstance that prompted him to think that the letters of the first alphabet were not created by the Phoenicians, recognized as seafarers, but, most likely, by the ancient Jews, from whom the Phoenicians borrowed this alphabet. But be that as it may, the order of the letters, starting with `alef, was given.

Greek writing, as already mentioned, comes from Phoenician. In the Greek alphabet, there are more letters that convey all the sound shades of speech. But their order and names, which often no longer had any meaning in the Greek language, were preserved, although in a slightly modified form: alpha, beta, gamma, delta... At first, in ancient Greek monuments, the letters in the inscriptions, as in Semitic languages, were located on the right - to the left, and then, without interruption, the line “winded” from left to right and again from right to left. Time passed until the left-to-right writing option was finally established, which has now spread over most of the globe. (Appendix 3)

Latin letters originated from Greek letters, and their alphabetical order has not fundamentally changed. At the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. e. Greek and Latin became the main languages of the vast Roman Empire. All the ancient classics, to which we still turn with trepidation and respect, were written in these languages. Greek is the language of Plato, Homer, Sophocles, Archimedes, John Chrysostom... Cicero, Ovid, Horace, Virgil, St. Augustine and others wrote in Latin.

Meanwhile, even before the Latin alphabet spread in Europe, some European barbarians already had their own written language in one form or another. A rather original script developed, for example, among the Germanic tribes. This is the so-called "runic" ("rune" in Germanic language means "secret") letter. It arose not without the influence of pre-existing writing. Here, too, each sound of speech corresponds to a certain sign, but these signs received a very simple, slender and strict outline - only from vertical and diagonal lines. (Appendix 4)

6. The birth of Slavic writing.

Cultural scientists, both domestic and foreign, in relation to writing, often divide peoples into two categories: written and non-literate. A.A. Formozov believed that some kind of writing consisting of conventional signs arranged in lines existed in the steppe zone of Russia already in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. A.S. Lvov and N.A. Konstantinov dated the origin of Slavic writing to the end of the 1st millennium BC. e., and the first derived it from cuneiform, the second through the Black Sea signs from the Cypriot syllabary. What are these statements based on? There is a whole group of archaeological sites containing signs and scraps of text from an ancient, unread letter. These are primarily the monuments of the Russian Black Sea region (Chersonese, Kerch, Olbia) - stone slabs, tombstones, amphorae, coins, etc. Indications of Slavic writing that existed before Constantine and Methodius are contained in chronicles and other literary sources of the 9th-10th centuries. The most important of them is the legend of Chernorizets Khrabra “On Tribes,” which concerns a number of Slavic tribes, including, possibly, eastern ones. It is indicated here that the Slavs did not have books before they adopted Christianity, but used “lines and cuts” for fortune telling and counting. The accuracy of this observation is confirmed by the fact that traces of fortune telling by “cuts” (cutting known signs) survived at a later time, for example, they are mentioned in epics. After the adoption of Christianity, continues the Brave, the Slavs wrote down their speech in Latin and Greek letters, however, inaccurately, since Latin and Greek letters could not convey many Slavic sounds.

It is significant that Khrabr attributes the initiative to master the ancient alphabets to the Slavs themselves, and not to the Christian missionaries who came to the Slavic countries. One of the early Russian chronicles, “The Tale of Bygone Years,” documents that Kievan Rus at the beginning of the 10th century. had writing. According to Academician B.A. Rybakov, the first real traces of the Kyiv chronicles date back to the 60s of the 9th century. and are associated with activities Prince of Kyiv Oskolda.

Vivid evidence of the presence of writing in Rus' even before the adoption of Christianity are the texts of treaties between Russian princes and Byzantium in the 10th century.

Reflecting on the evolution of Slavic writing, L.V. Cherepnin suggested that it went “a path common to all peoples - from a drawing depicting a certain image or concept, through images corresponding to words, to syllabic and, finally, sound (or phonetic) writing” - i.e. at the first his steps were characterized by both pictographic and ideographic (symbolic) signs. V.A. Istrin expressed doubt that one people could go through all these stages independently, without borrowing from neighbors, since in this case the history of writing would have to stretch over centuries and even millennia 3L Recent studies by B.A. Rybakov remove this objection: clear traces of Proto-Slavic culture can be seen from the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e., Proto-Slavic - mid-2nd millennium BC. So, an unconditional historical fact is that on the eve of the activities of Constantine and Methodius, the Slavs had and simultaneously used three types of writing. It follows that the feat of Constantine and Methodius, consisting in the “creation of Slavic writing,” cannot be understood in such a way that they created it from scratch, “from scratch,” turning the Slavs from an unliterate people into a written people. But they really “created writing” - one that immediately entered the cultural fund of the majority Slavic peoples, the one we now use a developed version of ( Slavic alphabet).

The oldest Slavic written monuments that have come down to us are written in two significantly different alphabets - Glagolitic and Cyrillic. (Appendix 5). The history of their origin is complex and not completely clear. The name “Glagolitic” is derived from the verb - “word”, “speech”. In terms of alphabetical composition, the Glagolitic alphabet almost completely coincided with the Cyrillic alphabet, but differed sharply from it in the shape of the letters. It has been established that, by origin, the letters of the Glagolitic alphabet are mostly associated with the Greek minuscule alphabet, some letters are based on the Samaritan and Hebrew letters. There is an assumption that this alphabet was created by Constantine the Philosopher.

The Glagolitic alphabet was widely used in the 60s of the 9th century in Moravia, from where it penetrated into Bulgaria and Croatia, where it existed until the end of the 18th century. It was also occasionally used in Ancient Rus'.

Glagolitic corresponded well to the phonemic composition of the Old Church Slavonic language. In addition to the newly invented letters, it included correspondence with Greek letters, including those that, in principle, were not needed for the Slavic language. This fact suggests that the Slavic alphabet, according to the conviction of its creators, should have been fully consistent with the Greek one.

Based on the shape of the letters, two types of Glagolitic alphabet can be noted. In the first of them, the so-called Bulgarian Glagolitic, the letters are rounded, and in the Croatian, also called Illyrian or Dalmatian Glagolitic, the shape of the letters is angular. Neither type of Glagolitic alphabet has sharply defined boundaries of distribution. In its later development, the Glagolitic alphabet adopted many characters from the Cyrillic alphabet. The Glagolitic alphabet of the Western Slavs (Czechs, Poles and others) lasted relatively short-lived and was replaced by the Latin script, and the rest of the Slavs later switched to a Cyrillic-type script. But the Glagolitic alphabet has not completely disappeared to this day. Thus, it is used, or at least was used, before the outbreak of the Second World War in the Croatian settlements of Italy. Even newspapers were printed in Glagolitic script. The name of another Slavic alphabet - Cyrillic - comes from the name of the Slavic enlightener of the 9th century, Constantine (Kirill) the Philosopher. There is an assumption that he is its creator, but there is no exact information about the origin of the Cyrillic alphabet.

The emergence of Slavic writing originates in the 9th century, it was at that time that the alphabet was compiled. Story compilation of the Slavic alphabet is this: Moravian Prince Rostislav asked the Byzantine Emperor Michael III to translate Christian liturgical books from Greek into Slavic. Michael III entrusted this difficult task to the Greek monksCyril and Methodius . Cyril and Methodius and compiled the first Slavic alphabet, it was first compiledGlagolitic , and thenCyrillic .

BasedCyrillic alphabet Not only Russian writing arose, but the writing of other Slavic peoples - Serbs and Bulgarians.Cyrillic was much simpler than the Glagolitic alphabet in writing letters, and that is why it became more widespread. Subsequently Cyrillic completely replaced the Glagolitic alphabet.

For his activitiesCyril and Methodius , were considered Russian Orthodox Church to the saints. The creation of the Slavic alphabet was of great importance for the cultural and scientific development of our people.Cyril and Methodius did a great job.

The spread of writing in Rus' was facilitated by the adoption of Christianity. Holy books were translated and rewritten at monasteries and churches, and the first schools were opened.

Levelliteracyin Rus' in the 11th - 12th centuries it was quite high. Moreover, even ordinary people were literate. The level of literacy of that time can be judged by birch bark letters found by archaeologists in Novgorod. These were personal correspondence, contracts and letters from masters to their servants. And since the gentlemen wrote letters to the servants, Means, the servants could read! It is amazing! ON THE. History of writing / N.A. Pavlenko. Mn.: Higher School, 1987. P. 22.: slavic writing alphabet drawing

In Rus', the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced in the 10th and 11th centuries in connection with Christianization. Of the Slavic peoples, the Bulgarians have preserved the Cyrillic alphabet the longest, but at present their writing, like that of the Serbs, is the same as Russian, with the exception of some signs intended to indicate phonetic features.

The oldest form of the Cyrillic alphabet is called ustav. A distinctive feature of the charter is the sufficient clarity and straightforwardness of the outline. Most of the letters are angular, broad and heavy in nature. Exceptions are narrow rounded letters with almond-shaped curves (O, S, E, R, etc.), among other letters they seem to be compressed. This letter is characterized by thin lower extensions of some letters (P, U, 3). These extensions can be seen in other types of Cyrillic. They act as light decorative elements in the overall picture of the letter. Diacritics are not yet known. The letters of the charter are large in size and stand separately from each other. The old charter does not know spaces between words.

Starting from the 13th century, a second type of writing developed - semi-ustav, which subsequently replaced the charter. Due to the increased need for books, it appears as a business letter from scribes who worked to order and for sale. Semi-ustav combines the goals of convenience and speed of writing, is simpler than ustav, has significantly more abbreviations, is often slanted - towards the beginning or end of the line, and lacks calligraphic rigor.

In Rus', semi-ustav appears at the end of the 14th century on the basis of the Russian charter; like him, it is a straight handwriting (vertical letters). Preserving the latest spelling of the charter and its outlines, it gives them an extremely simple and less clear appearance, since the measured craft pressures are replaced by a freer movement of the pen. Poluustav was used in the 14th-18th centuries along with other types of writing, mainly cursive and ligature.

7. Cursive

Cursive writing roughly corresponds to the concept of Latin italic. The ancient Greeks used cursive writing in wide use at the early stage of the development of writing, and it was also partially used by the southwestern Slavs. In Russia, cursive writing as an independent type of writing arose in the 15th century. Cursive letters, partially related to each other, differ from letters of other types of writing in their light style. But since the letters were equipped with many different symbols, hooks and additions, it was quite difficult to read what was written.

Although the cursive writing of the 15th century, in general, still reflects the character of the half-shape and the strokes connecting the letters, but in comparison with the half-shape this letter is more fluent.

Cursive letters were largely made with extensions. At the beginning, the signs were composed mainly of straight lines, as is typical for the charter and semi-charter. In the second half of the 16th century, and especially at the beginning of the 17th century, semicircular strokes became the main lines of writing, and some elements of Greek italics were noticeable in the overall picture of the writing. In the second half of the 17th century, when many different writing options spread, cursive writing also showed features characteristic of that time - less ligature and more roundness. The cursive writing of that time is gradually freed from the elements of Greek italics and moves away from the forms of semi-character. In the later period, straight and curved lines acquired balance, and letters became more symmetrical and rounded.

At the beginning of the 18th century, in connection with the strengthening of the Russian nation state, in conditions when the church was subordinated to secular power, science and education became especially important. And the development of these areas is simply unthinkable without the development of printing.

Since books of mainly ecclesiastical content were printed in the 17th century, the publication of books with secular content had to begin almost all over again. A big event was the publication in 1708 of Geometry, which in handwritten form had long been known in Russia.

The creation of books that were new in content required a new approach to their publication. Concern for the readability of the book and the simplicity of its design was characteristic of all publishing activities in the first quarter of the 18th century.

One of the most important events was the reform in 1708 of the Kirill printed semi-charter and the introduction of new editions of the civil type. Of the 650 book titles published under Peter I, about 400 were printed in the newly introduced civil font.

Under Peter I, a reform of the Cyrillic alphabet was carried out in Russia, eliminating a number of letters unnecessary for the Russian language and simplifying the style of the rest. This is how the Russian “citizen” arose (“civil alphabet” as opposed to the “church alphabet”). In the “citizen code” some letters were legalized that were not part of the original Cyrillic alphabet - “e”, “ya”, later “y” and then “``е”, and in 1918 the letters “i” were removed from the Russian alphabet , “ ” (“yat”), “” (“fita”) and “” (“izhitsa”), and at the same time the use of a “hard sign” at the end of words was abolished.

The Latin letter also underwent various changes over the centuries: “i” and “j”, “u” and “v” were differentiated, and separate letters were added (different for different languages).

A more significant change, affecting all modern systems, consisted in the gradual introduction of a mandatory word division, and then punctuation marks, in the functional distinction (starting from the era of the invention of printing) of uppercase and lowercase letters (however, the latter distinction is absent in some modern systems, for example, in Georgian letter).

Conclusion

Now a person has found himself included in the flow of history, thanks to the media he now knows about events that he has never seen, with the help of other means that have developed on the basis of writing, he can communicate about himself to descendants with whom he will never speak. What a person does today will be remembered not only by his contemporaries, but also by distant descendants. Science could not have received any significant development without relying on the work of its predecessors. The good tradition of scientific work - the careful re-chewing of previous research and the subsequent isolating of crumbs of new knowledge - was formed on the basis of the opportunity to delve into rich libraries and receive an education with the help of textbooks in which, perhaps, long-dead luminaries left their accumulated knowledge.

James G. Breasted, the famous Chicago historian and orientalist, once said: “The invention of writing and a convenient system for recording on paper was more important for the further development of the human race than any other intellectual achievement in the history of man.” I also agree with this statement. This kind of view received the support of ethnographers, who repeatedly asserted that, just as language distinguishes a person from an animal, so writing distinguishes a civilized person from a barbarian.

How do these provisions look in the light of history? Is it true that it is to writing that we mainly owe the decisive changes that led man to civilization? Everywhere in ancient world writing appears at a period of sudden growth of all those various elements, the totality of which we usually call civilization. Whenever it occurs, the appearance of writing coincides in time with such a surge in the development of the state, crafts, trade, industry, metallurgy, means and means of communication, agriculture and animal domestication, in comparison with which the cultures of all previous periods that were unliterate seem extremely primitive. However, there is no need to argue that the advent of writing was the only factor to which we owe the emergence of civilization. It seems to me that the combination of factors - geographical, social and economic - leading to the emergence of a developed civilization, simultaneously created a set of conditions under which it was impossible to do without writing. Or, to put it another way, “writing exists only in the conditions of civilization, and civilization cannot exist without writing.” Gelb I.E. Experience in studying writing M.: Raduga, 1982.p.211

Writing is, of course, a phenomenon; writing connects us with centuries, preserves in its memory the history of peoples, civilizations and individuals. How to evaluate the importance of writing in human culture? I think it’s impossible to estimate, but it’s impossible to underestimate for sure...

List of used literature

1. Gelb I.E. Experience in studying writing M.: Raduga, 1982. - p. 30 - 223.

2. Zhirinovsky V., Sinitsin E. History of Russian culture of the 9th - 19th centuries, 2004. - pp. 92 - 191.

3. Vlasov V.G. Slavic alphabet and Slavic enlighteners. M.: Knowledge, 1989. - p. 6 - 62.

4. http://savelaleksandr.narod.ru/IZOB/page11.html

5. The emergence and development of writing / V.A. Istrin. M.: Nauka, 1965. P. 36 - 46.:

6. N.A. History of writing / N.A. Pavlenko. Mn.: Higher School, 1987. P. 22.:

7. Ivantsov V.P. From drawing to the alphabet. Rostov n/d: Rostov book publishing house, 1957. - 36 p.

8. Gimbutas M. Slavs: Sons of Perun. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007.

Applications

Annex 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

Appendix 5

Posted on Allbest.ru

Similar documents

The significance of the invention of writing for the development of culture in general and for office work in particular. The main stages of the development of writing. Ideographic, verbal-syllabic, syllabic and alphabetic types of writing. The origin of Slavic writing.

course work, added 03/15/2014

The beginning of Slavic writing, the history of the creation of the alphabet, writing and books by Cyril and Methodius. The importance of the Church Slavonic language for Russian culture. Linguo-graphic and ethnohistorical problem of “Russian writings” and its place in Slavic studies.

test, added 10/15/2010

The importance of writing in the history of the development of civilization. The emergence of Slavic writing, the creation of the alphabet of Cyril and Methodius. The difference between the concepts "alphabet" and "alphabet". Distribution of the Cyrillic alphabet in Slavic countries. The path to the modern Russian alphabet.

presentation, added 05/17/2012

Stages of development of Sumerian writing. Logographic and verbal-syllabic writing, their features, characteristic features. Dynamics of development of phonetic writing in the early stages of writing. The influence of cuneiform on the formation of other writing systems.

abstract, added 06/02/2014

Writing is a system of descriptive signs used to convey speech information, its significance as a means of preserving and accumulating the spiritual wealth of humanity. The emergence and process of development of writing, its relationship with living languages.

abstract, added 01/10/2012

Old Church Slavonic as a common language literary language Slavic peoples, the oldest recording of Slavic speech. History of the emergence and development of Old Church Slavonic writing. Alphabet, preserved and unpreserved monuments of Old Church Slavonic writing.

abstract, added 11/23/2014

Mesopotamia in antiquity, stages of state development. Sumerian writing system, cuneiform. Areas of knowledge known to the Sumerians. Mesopotamian seal cylinders. Ancient Elamite writing: the form of signs and the nature of writing. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.

presentation, added 12/06/2013

Characteristic features of hieroglyphic writing as a complex sign system. Study of the origin of Chinese written characters, their structure and differentiation. Study of the issue of reform of hieroglyphic writing. Creation of the Chinese alphabet in 1913.

course work, added 01/13/2013

The importance of writing in the history of the development of civilization. The origin of writing, stages of the evolution of writing. Slavic book language. ABC of Constantine and Cyrillic letters. Slavic writing and elementary prayer. Origin and digital system of the Glagolitic alphabet.

abstract, added 10/21/2010

Cyrillic as one of the two ancient Slavic alphabets, which formed the basis of the Russian and some other Slavic alphabets: analysis of the reasons for the appearance and development, consideration of adjectival features. Acquaintance with the peculiarities of the adoption of Cyrillic writing.

FIRST ALPHABETIES

In the IV-III millennia BC. e. in Ancient Sumer (Forward Asia), in Ancient Egypt, and then, in II, and in Ancient China, a different way of writing arose: each word was conveyed by a picture, sometimes specific, sometimes conventional. For example, when talking about a hand, a hand was drawn, and water was depicted as a wavy line. A certain symbol also denoted a house, a city, a boat... The Greeks called such Egyptian drawings hieroglyphs: “hiero” - “sacred”, “glyphs” - “carved on stone”. The text, composed in hieroglyphs, looks like a series of drawings. This letter can be called: “I’m writing a concept” or “I’m writing an idea” (hence the scientific name for such writing - “ideographic”). However, how many hieroglyphs had to be remembered!

The history of writing

The next stage on the path to simplifying writing was the so-called sound writing, when each speech sound has its own sign. But coming up with such a simple and natural method turned out to be the most difficult thing. First of all, it was necessary to figure out how to divide the word and syllables into individual sounds. But when this finally happened, the new method demonstrated undoubted advantages. It was necessary to remember only two or three dozen letters, and the accuracy in reproducing speech in writing is incomparable with any other method. Over time, it was the alphabetic letter that began to be used almost everywhere.

The history of writing

FIRST ALPHABETIES

The earliest alphabetic texts were discovered in Byblos (Lebanon).

The history of writing

Among the first to use alphabetic sound writing were those peoples in whose language vowel sounds turned out to be not as important as consonants. So, at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. The alphabet originated among the Phoenicians, ancient Jews, and Arameans. For example, in the Hebrew language, when different vowels are added to the consonants K - T - L, a family of cognate words is obtained: KeToL - kill, KoTeL - killer, KaTuL - killed, etc. It is always clear by ear that we are talking about murder. Therefore, only consonants were written in the letter - the semantic meaning of the word was clear from the context. By the way, the ancient Jews and Phoenicians wrote lines from right to left, as if left-handed people had invented such a letter. This ancient method of writing is preserved by the Jews to this day; all nations using the Arabic alphabet write in the same way today.

One of the first alphabets on Earth is Phoenician.

The history of writing

The Phoenician alphabet had 22 letters. They were arranged in a certain order from `alef, bet, gimel, dalet... to tav. Each letter had a meaningful name: 'alef - ox, bet - house, gimel - camel, and so on. The names of the words seem to tell about the people who created the alphabet, telling the most important thing about it: the people lived in houses (bet) with doors (dalet), in the construction of which nails (vav) were used. He was engaged in agriculture using the power of oxen (`alef), cattle breeding, fishing (mem - water, nun - fish) or nomads (gimel - camel). He traded (tet - cargo) and fought (zain - weapon).
A researcher who paid attention to this notes: among the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet, there is not a single one whose name would be associated with the sea, ships or maritime trade. It was this circumstance that prompted him to think that the letters of the first alphabet were not created by the Phoenicians, recognized as seafarers, but, most likely, by the ancient Jews, from whom the Phoenicians borrowed this alphabet. But be that as it may, the order of the letters, starting with `alef, was given.

The history of writing

Meanwhile, even before the Latin alphabet spread in Europe, some European barbarians already had their own written language in one form or another. A rather original script developed, for example, among the Germanic tribes. This is the so-called "runic" ("rune" in German means "secret") letter. It arose not without the influence of pre-existing writing. Here, too, each sound of speech corresponds to a certain sign, but these signs received a very simple, slender and strict outline - only from vertical and diagonal lines.

The history of writing

THE BIRTH OF SLAVIC WRITING

In the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. The Slavs settled vast territories in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe. Their neighbors in the south were Greece, Italy, Byzantium - a kind of cultural standards of human civilization.

The oldest Slavic written monuments that have come down to us are written in two significantly different alphabets - Glagolitic and Cyrillic. The history of their origin is complex and not completely clear.
The name “Glagolitic” is derived from the verb – “word”, “speech”. In terms of alphabetical composition, the Glagolitic alphabet almost completely coincided with the Cyrillic alphabet, but differed sharply from it in the shape of the letters. It has been established that, by origin, the letters of the Glagolitic alphabet are mostly associated with the Greek minuscule alphabet, some letters are based on the Samaritan and Hebrew letters. There is an assumption that this alphabet was created by Constantine the Philosopher.
The Glagolitic alphabet was widely used in the 60s of the 9th century in Moravia, from where it penetrated into Bulgaria and Croatia, where it existed until the end of the 18th century. It was also occasionally used in Ancient Rus'.
Glagolitic corresponded well to the phonemic composition of the Old Church Slavonic language. In addition to the newly invented letters, it included correspondence with Greek letters, including those that, in principle, were not needed for the Slavic language. This fact suggests that the Slavic alphabet, according to the conviction of its creators, should have been fully consistent with the Greek one.

The history of writing

Based on the shape of the letters, two types of Glagolitic alphabet can be noted. In the first of them, the so-called Bulgarian Glagolitic, the letters are rounded, and in the Croatian, also called Illyrian or Dalmatian Glagolitic, the shape of the letters is angular. Neither type of Glagolitic alphabet has sharply defined boundaries of distribution. In its later development, the Glagolitic alphabet adopted many characters from the Cyrillic alphabet. The Glagolitic alphabet of the Western Slavs (Czechs, Poles and others) lasted relatively short-lived and was replaced by the Latin script, and the rest of the Slavs later switched to a Cyrillic-type script. But the Glagolitic alphabet has not completely disappeared to this day. Thus, it is used, or at least was used, before the outbreak of the Second World War in the Croatian settlements of Italy. Even newspapers were printed in Glagolitic script.
The name of another Slavic alphabet - Cyrillic - comes from the name of the Slavic enlightener of the 9th century, Constantine (Kirill) the Philosopher. There is an assumption that he is its creator, but there is no exact information about the origin of the Cyrillic alphabet.

There are 43 letters in the Cyrillic alphabet. Of these, 24 were borrowed from the Byzantine charter letter, the remaining 19 were reinvented, but in graphic design they were similar to the first. Not all borrowed letters retained the designation of the same sound as in the Greek language - some received new meanings in accordance with the peculiarities of Slavic phonetics.
In Rus', the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced in the 10th and 11th centuries in connection with Christianization. Of the Slavic peoples, the Bulgarians have preserved the Cyrillic alphabet the longest, but at present their writing, like that of the Serbs, is the same as Russian, with the exception of some signs intended to indicate phonetic features.

The history of writing

Starting from the 13th century, a second type of writing developed - semi-ustav, which subsequently replaced the charter. Due to the increased need for books, it appears as a business letter from scribes who worked to order and for sale. The semi-ustav combines the goals of convenience and speed of writing, is simpler than the charter, has significantly more abbreviations, is often slanted - towards the beginning or end of the line, and lacks calligraphic rigor.

The history of writing

In the 15th century, under the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III, when the unification of Russian lands ended, Moscow turned not only into the political, but also the cultural center of the country. The previously regional culture of Moscow begins to acquire the character of an all-Russian one. Along with the increasing demands of everyday life, the need for a new, simplified, more convenient writing style arose. Cursive writing became it.
Cursive writing roughly corresponds to the concept of Latin italic. The ancient Greeks used cursive writing in wide use at the early stage of the development of writing, and it was also partially used by the southwestern Slavs. In Russia, cursive writing as an independent type of writing arose in the 15th century. Cursive letters, partially related to each other, differ from letters of other types of writing in their light style. But since the letters were equipped with many different symbols, hooks and additions, it was quite difficult to read what was written.
Although the cursive writing of the 15th century, in general, still reflects the character of the half-shape and the strokes connecting the letters, but in comparison with the half-shape this letter is more fluent.
Cursive letters were largely made with extensions. At the beginning, the signs were composed mainly of straight lines, as is typical for the charter and semi-charter. In the second half of the 16th century, and especially at the beginning of the 17th century, semicircular strokes became the main lines of writing, and some elements of Greek italics were noticeable in the overall picture of the writing. In the second half of the 17th century, when many different writing options spread, cursive writing also showed features characteristic of that time - less ligature and more roundness. The cursive writing of that time is gradually freed from the elements of Greek italics and moves away from the forms of semi-character. In the later period, straight and curved lines acquired balance, and letters became more symmetrical and rounded.
At the beginning of the 18th century, in connection with the strengthening of the Russian national state, in conditions when the church was subordinated to secular power, science and education became especially important. And the development of these areas is simply unthinkable without the development of printing.
Since books of mainly ecclesiastical content were printed in the 17th century, the publication of books with secular content had to begin almost all over again. A big event was the publication in 1708 of Geometry, which in handwritten form had long been known in Russia.
The creation of books that were new in content required a new approach to their publication. Concern for the readability of the book and the simplicity of its design was characteristic of all publishing activities in the first quarter of the 18th century.
One of the most important events was the reform in 1708 of the Kirill printed semi-charter and the introduction of new editions of the civil type. Of the 650 book titles published under Peter I, about 400 were printed in the newly introduced civil font.

Under Peter I, a reform of the Cyrillic alphabet was carried out in Russia, eliminating a number of letters unnecessary for the Russian language and simplifying the style of the rest. This is how the Russian “citizen” arose (“civil alphabet” as opposed to the “church alphabet”). In the “citizen code” some letters were legalized that were not part of the original Cyrillic alphabet - “e”, “ya”, later “y” and then “``е”, and in 1918 the letters “i” were removed from the Russian alphabet , “ ” (“yat”), “” (“fita”) and “” (“izhitsa”), and at the same time the use of a “hard sign” at the end of words was abolished.

The Latin letter also underwent various changes over the centuries: “i” and “j”, “u” and “v” were differentiated, and separate letters were added (different for different languages).

Ministry of General and Professional

Education Russian Federation

RGRTA

Department of History

Discipline "Cultural Studies"

Abstract on the topic:

"History of the development of writing"

Completed :

Art. gr. 070

Ruchkin G.V.

Checked:

Kupreev A.I.

Ryazan 2001

Introduction 3

1.Knot writing 3

2.Icon 4

3. Hieroglyph 6

4.Alphabet 7

Conclusion 9

References 10

WRITING

Introduction

Writing appeared around 3300 BC. in Sumer, by 3000 BC. in Egypt, by 2000 BC in China. In all regions, this process followed the same pattern: drawing - pictogram - hieroglyph - alphabet (the latter appeared among the Phoenicians in the 1st millennium BC). Hieroglyphic writing determined the peculiarities of thinking of the peoples of the East, the ability to think in symbols. The hieroglyph does not convey the sound of a word, but conventionally depicts an object or is an abstract sign - a symbol of a concept. A complex hieroglyph consists of simpler elements endowed with their own meaning. Moreover, there may be several of these values.

Inscriptions are found on the walls of tombs, on shards, clay tablets, and parchments. Egyptian papyri sometimes reach 30 - 40 m in length. Entire libraries are found in the ruins of ancient palaces. During excavations at Nineveh, 25,000 cuneiform tablets were discovered belonging to the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. These are collections of laws, reports of spies, decisions on judicial issues, medical prescriptions.

Let's consider each step in the development of writing separately.

1. Nodular writing

One of its first types was knotted writing. A certain number of knots tied on a rope conveyed one or another message. Simultaneously with knot writing, picture writing also emerged, in which notes were made using drawings.

Gradually, writing improved. Each sign and drawing acquired new meanings, the number of signs increased, their designs changed, less and less reminiscent of the images of objects.

2. PICTOGRAM

Pictogram - one of the types of prewriting, which is a pictorial letter, or painting - depicting objects, events and actions using conventional signs. For example, a sign depicting a leg can mean “walk”, “stand”, “bring”. Pictographic writing with hieroglyphic elements, used by the Aztecs, has been known since the 14th century. There was no specific system for the arrangement of pictograms: they could follow both horizontally and vertically, and using the boustrophedon method (the opposite direction of adjacent “lines,” i.e., series of pictograms). The main systems of Aztec writing: signs to convey the phonetic appearance of the word, for which the so-called rebus method was used (for example, to write the name Itzcoatl, an itz-tli arrow was depicted above a coatl snake); hieroglyphic signs conveying certain concepts; actual phonetic signs, especially for conveying the sound of affixes. By the time of the Spanish conquest, which interrupted the development of Aztec writing, all these systems existed in parallel, their use was not regulated. The material for writing was leather or paper strips folded into a screen.

Instead of images, arbitrary ones were also used graphic symbols. This writing was used in economic records, where the number of concepts is limited by the content of the letter itself, and in ritual records as an auxiliary tool. The earliest records date back to 3000 BC. IN ancient Egypt there were verbal - syllabic pictograms that denoted not only concepts, but also purely sound elements of a word or its part. Some types of cuneiform - small wedge-shaped characters - developed from Sumerian writing. Each icon of such a letter consists of wedges in various combinations and denotes a sound, syllable, or word and is written from left to right on clay tablets. The cuneiform of Mesopotamia is the most studied and deciphered.

Sumerian and Babylonian-Assyrian cultures differed in many ways from ancient Egyptian ones. It is enough to look at the Egyptian hieroglyphic or hieratic texts and compare them with any cuneiform system to feel the depth of the difference between the two cultural worlds.

Writing in Greek culture of the XXII-XII centuries. played a limited role. Like many peoples of the world, the inhabitants of Hellas first of all began to make pictorial notes, known already in the second half of the 3rd millennium. Each sign of this pictographic writing denoted an entire concept. The Cretans created some signs, albeit a few, under the influence of Egyptian hierographic writing, which arose back in the 4th millennium. Gradually, the shapes of the signs were simplified, and some began to denote only syllables. Such a syllabary (linear) letter, which had already been formed by 1700, is called letter A, which still remains unsolved.

After 1500, a more convenient form of writing was developed in Hellas - syllabary B. It included about half the characters of syllabic A, several dozen new characters, as well as some characters of the oldest picture writing. The counting system, as before, was based on decimal notation. Records in syllabic writing were still made from left to right, however, the rules of writing became more strict: words separated by a special sign or space were written along horizontal lines, individual texts were provided with headings and subheadings. Texts were drawn on clay tablets, scratched on stone, written with a brush or paint, or ink on vessels.

Achaean writing was accessible only to educated specialists. He was known to servants in the royal palaces and a certain layer of wealthy citizens. Sumerian pictograms also gave rise to hieroglyphs.

3. HIEROGLYPHS

The basis of ancient Egyptian writing was hieroglyphs (from the Greek “hieros” - “sacred” and “glyph” - “carved”) - figurative signs denoting entire concepts or individual syllables and sounds of speech, the name “hieroglyph” originally meant “sacred, hewn on letters". The main writing material was made from papyrus, a tropical aquatic plant similar to reeds. From the cut stems of papyrus, the core was isolated, dissected into thin long strips, laid out in two layers - lengthwise and crosswise, moistened with Nile water, leveled, compacted with blows of a wooden hammer and polished with an ivory tool. The resulting sheet did not wrinkle at the folds when folded and when unrolled it became smooth again. The sheets were combined into scrolls up to 40 meters long. However, hieroglyphic inscriptions were included in the paintings and reliefs. They were written on them from right to left with a thin reed stick. A new paragraph was started with red paint (hence the expression “ Red line"), and the rest of the text was black. The ancient Egyptians considered the god Thoth to be the creator of writing. As the moon god, Thoth is the viceroy of Ra; as time - he divided time into days and months, kept chronology and wrote chronicles; as the god of wisdom, he created writing and arithmetic, which he taught to people. He is the author of sacred books, the patron of scientists, scribes, archives, and libraries. Thoth was usually depicted as a man with the head of an ibis.

During the New Kingdom, color drawings appeared on scrolls, such as in the Book of the Dead.

Initially, the Chinese made their notes on skull shells and animal bones; later on bamboo planks and silk. Bound tablets were the first books.

Hieroglyphic writing has serious disadvantages: the large number of characters in the system (from several hundred to many thousands) and the difficulty of mastering reading. According to the calculations of Chinese scientists, only in the oldest inscriptions of the 14th - 11th centuries BC. There are about 2000 different hieroglyphs. This was an already developed writing system.

4. ALPHABET

All the types of writing described above could not withstand the competition alphabet.

The Phoenicians, who kept permanent trade records, needed something else, a simple and convenient letter. They came up with an alphabet in which each sign - a letter - means only one specific speech sound. They come from Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The Phoenician alphabet consists of 22 letters that are easy to write. All of them are consonants, because in the Phoenician language the main role was played by consonant sounds. To read a word, a Phoenician only had to see its backbone, which consisted of consonants.

The letters in the Phoenician alphabet were arranged in a certain order. This order was also borrowed by the Greeks, but in the Greek language, unlike Phoenician, vowel sounds played a large role.

Greek writing was the source for the development of all Western alphabets, the first of which was Latin.

For a long time there was an opinion that writing came to Rus' along with Christianity, with church books and prayers. A talented linguist, Kirill, when creating the Slavic letter, took the Greek alphabet, consisting of 24 letters, as a basis, supplemented it with characteristics characteristic of Slavic languages hissing (zh, sch, sh, h) and several other letters. Some of them have been preserved in the modern alphabet - b, ь, ъ, ы, others have long gone out of use - yat, yus, izhitsa, fita. So the Slavic alphabet originally consisted of 43 letters, similar in writing to Greek. Each of them had its own name: A - “az”, B - “beeches” (their combination formed the word “alphabet”), C - “lead”, G - “verb”, D - “good” and so on. The letters on the letter denoted not only sounds, but also numbers. “A” - number 1, “B” - 2, “P” - 100. In Rus' only in the 18th century. Arabic numerals replaced “letter” ones.

As is known, of the Slavic languages, the Church Slavonic language was the first to receive literary use. For some time, along with the Cyrillic alphabet, another Slavic alphabet was in use - the Glagolitic alphabet. It had the same composition of letters, but with a more complex, ornate spelling. Apparently, this feature predetermined future fate Glagolitic: to the 13th century. it has almost completely disappeared. This is not the place to dwell on which Slavic tribe this language belonged to, the Bulgarians or the Pannoians.

The graphics of the Cyrillic alphabet underwent changes as a result of which letters that were unnecessary for conveying the sounds of modern Russian speech were eliminated. The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters.

In the middle of the first millennium AD, the Turkic-speaking peoples already used their own writing system, called runic writing. The first information about runic inscriptions appears in Russia at the end of the 18th century. Russian and foreign scientists copied and published some examples of ancient Turkic runic inscriptions. According to recent research, runic writing originated before our era, possibly in Saka times. In the III-V centuries AD, there were two versions of runic writing - Hunnic and Eastern, which existed in the territory of Zhetysu and Mongolia. In the VI-VII centuries. on the basis of the latter, ancient Turkic writing developed, called Orkhon-Yenisei. The Hunnic runic writing served as the basis for the development of the Bulgar and Khazar writing, as well as the writing of the Kangars and Kipchaks. The main material for writing among the Turkic-speaking peoples was wooden tablets. This is what the Kipchak proverbs say: “I wrote, I wrote, I wrote on five trees,” “I wrote large inscription at the top of a tall tree." These sayings also indicate the widespread use of writing among the Kipchaks and other Turkic-speaking peoples. For example, the riddle “Raising my eyes, I read endlessly,” meaning the sky and stars, could have been invented by a people for whom reading was normal. . This riddle was widespread among the Kipchaks. Along with the use of the Sogdian language, the Turks used the Sogdian alphabet to convey their own speech. Later, this alphabet, after some modifications, received the name “Uyghur”, since the ancient Uyghurs used it especially widely in the 9th-15th centuries.

Conclusion

The basis of any ancient culture is writing. The birthplace of writing is rightfully the Ancient East. Its emergence was associated with the accumulation of knowledge, which was no longer possible to keep in memory, the growth of cultural ties between people, and then the needs of states. The invention of writing ensured the accumulation of knowledge and its reliable transmission to descendants. Various peoples of the Ancient East developed and improved writing in different ways, finally creating the first types of alphabetic writing. The Phoenician alphabetic letter, later revised by the Greeks, formed the basis of our modern alphabet.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Cultural studies. uch. allowance. Edited by Yuzhakova L.V. Ryazan 1999;

2. Verzhbitskaya A. Culturology. Cognition. M., 1996;

3. Zvegentsev V.A. History of linguistics 19 - 20 centuries, M., 1965;

4. Reformatsky A.A. Introduction to linguistics. M., 1967;

5. B.S.E. volume 19, pp. 571 - 576;

6. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 17th century / Ed. A.N. Sakharova, A.P. Novoseltsev. – M., 1996;

7. Latin America: encyclopedic reference book, vol. I - M., Soviet Encyclopedia, 1979;

People have always felt the need to communicate with each other and describe the world. Representatives different cultures They had their own special ways of communicating. Since time immemorial, people have accumulated knowledge in memory and transmitted it orally and with the help of certain symbols. The invention of writing was the greatest discovery in the history of civilizations, since it was then that the line between prehistoric times and, in fact, history was clearly defined.

Writing has allowed humanity to comprehend past experiences from the heights of the present. Thanks to written monuments that have come down to us from time immemorial, we have learned much more about ancient civilizations than from archaeological finds. Today, written information sources have become an integral part of our lives, and newspapers, magazines and the Internet are the main carriers of the written word.

Legislative acts, literary works and scientific works– all this is kept in written form. Written information is thrown at us in a torrent every single day, and a striking example of this is road signs, a kind of hieroglyphic symbols, but much simpler and understandable than the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. However, writing was not invented by the Egyptians, but by a completely different people who lived, however, not far from the Nile Valley.

The oldest form of writing was the so-called Sumerian letter, and it appeared 5,100 years ago. The Sumerian civilization arose in Mesopotamia, in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, on the territory of modern Iran and Iraq. This was a thriving civilization of farmers and herders, and the Sumerians needed writing to keep records of livestock and crops.

The first examples of writing were the so-called “accounting chips.” Little by little, the Sumerians discovered that by connecting several pictograms, they could express a certain thought. Over time, the images were simplified to the most common signs or symbols. They were carved on clay tablets with sharpened reeds, which gave The signs have a pointed shape, hence the name of the letter - cuneiform.

The English orientalist Henry Rawlinson managed to decipher it; he compared the same text carved on a rock on three various languages. Only several centuries later did writing finally come to Egypt and other ancient states. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is perhaps the most beautiful, and it was deciphered by the French scientist, founder of Egyptology, Charles Champollion.

In the town of Rosetta, he discovered a stone with three types of hieroglyphs, it was a rare example complex language, which combined individual letter characters, syllables, and sometimes entire words. Thanks to writing, the ancient Egyptians left us visual evidence of their history, customs and beliefs, and their writing can be spoken in all spoken languages.

The Egyptians also invented a writing medium - papyrus, something like paper or parchment scrolls. They made them from reeds that grew on the marshy banks of the valley and the Nile Delta. All kinds of household utensils were also made from papyrus. The Egyptians cut the stems of papyrus and then dried them. Then they cut them into thin strips and wove a kind of soft fabric on which they could write, but only on one side. At one time, the Egyptians even simplified hieroglyphic writing for everyday needs, replacing it with the so-called thematic writing or cursive writing. About 4 thousand years ago, Chinese writing arose. And here the first signs were depicted in the form of symbols - pictograms, which have remained virtually unchanged since then.

Mastering all forms of writing was not an easy task, since it required giving each character its own image, and with the help of the alphabet, the number of characters was reduced to approximately 30. As is known, the Phoenicians became the owners of the first alphabet. These great wanderers spread it throughout the Mediterranean.

The Phoenician alphabet consisted of only consonants, while the Arabic alphabet, for example, consisted only of vowels. The Phoenician alphabet was taken as a basis by the Greeks, although they had already been using vowels for a good 2.5 thousand years, since then the writing has remained virtually unchanged. The Greek alphabet consists of 24 consonant and vowel letters, lowercase and uppercase. Greek writing gave rise to the development of the Latin alphabet; it arose approximately 300 years before the birth of Christ, and spread throughout Europe.

In the Middle Ages, monks were the guardians of writing. No, they didn’t bring anything new to it; they simply rewrote ancient texts one after another. However, medieval monks developed a special alphabetic writing system, which was adopted by aristocrats and clergy.

In 1445, Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press with replaceable metal type. Special paint was applied to them, applied to paper, and pressed with a hand press. Paper, the oldest invention of the Chinese, was brought to Europe by the Arabs, through Spain. The first prints were made from abstruse church manuscripts.

The first full-length book Gutenberg printed was the Bible. Modern high-speed printing devices use paper rolls, such as newspapers and magazines. Modern technologies greatly facilitate the process of typing and printing.

Using a computer, you can not only change the font, but also layout the pages in different ways. And writing instruments have improved significantly; the antediluvian brushes and quills have been replaced by ballpoint pens and felt-tip pens. And the seal itself has changed beyond recognition, not only in terms of lettering, but also in size, i.e. print media format.

Every year, about a million different printed publications are published around the world, not to mention electronic Internet publications. Thanks to the written word, we can read the thoughts of the greatest thinkers of the past and the most amazing stories the human mind has ever produced.

The article was prepared specifically for the site "Family Surname".

The first writing appeared on Earth 5000 years ago. This was the writing of the Sumerians.
The writing was called cuneiform after its later form. Writing was done with a special reed stick on clay tablets. These tablets were then dried and fired in a kiln, so they have survived to this day.

There are 2 hypotheses about the origin of writing:

monogenesis (invented in one place)
polygenesis (in several foci).

Writing is represented in 3 primary foci, the connection of which has not been proven:

Mesopotamian (Sumerians)
Egyptian (according to the theory of monogenesis, introduced from the Sumerians)
writing Far East(Chinese, according to the theory of monogenesis, introduced from the Sumerians).

Writing develops uniformly everywhere - from drawings to written signs. Pictography turns into graphics system. Picture writing turns into language graphics not when pictures disappear (for example, in Egypt pictures were used, but this is not picture writing), but when we can guess what language the text is written in.
Sometimes people sent each other various objects instead of letters.
Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century. BC e., talks about the “letter” of the Scythians to the Persian king Darius. A Scythian messenger came to the Persian camp and laid gifts before the king, “consisting of a bird, a mouse, a frog and five arrows.” The Scythians did not know how to write, so their message looked like this. Darius asked what these gifts meant. The messenger replied that he was ordered to hand them over to the king and immediately return back. And the Persians must figure out the meaning of the “letter” themselves. Darius conferred with his soldiers for a long time and finally said how he understood the message: the mouse lives in the earth, the frog lives in the water, the bird is like a horse, and the arrows are the military courage of the Scythians. Thus, Darius decided, the Scythians give him their water and land and submit to the Persians, giving up their military courage.
But the Persian military leader Gobryas interpreted the “letter” differently: “If you, Persians, do not fly away like birds into the sky, or like mice do not hide in the ground, or like frogs do not gallop into the lakes, then you will not return back and will fall under the blows of our arrows.” "
As you can see, subject writing can be interpreted in different ways. The history of Darius's war with the Scythians showed that Gobryas was right. The Persians were unable to defeat the elusive Scythians, who roamed the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, Darius left the Scythian lands with his army.
Writing itself, descriptive writing, began with drawings. Writing with drawings is called pictography (from the Latin pictus - pictorial and Greek grapho - I write). In pictography, art and writing are inseparable, so archaeologists, ethnographers, art historians, and literary historians study rock paintings. Everyone is interested in their own area. For a historian of writing, the information contained in the drawing is important. A pictogram usually means some life situation, for example, hunting, or animals and people, or various objects - a boat, a house, etc.
The first inscriptions were about household concerns - food, weapons, supplies - objects were simply depicted. Gradually, there is a violation of the principle of isomorphism (i.e., a reliable representation of the number of objects - how many vases there are, so many we draw). The image loses connection with the subject. Instead of 3 vases, there is now a vase and 3 dashes that indicate the number of vases, i.e. quantitative and qualitative information are given separately. The first scribes had to separate and understand the difference between qualitative and quantitative signs. Then iconicity develops, and its own grammar appears.
At the turn of the IV - III millennium BC. e. Pharaoh Narmer conquered Lower Egypt and ordered his victory to be immortalized. The relief design depicts this event. And in the upper right corner there is a pictogram that serves as a signature to the reliefs. The falcon holds a rope threaded through the nostrils of a human head, which seems to emerge from a strip of earth with six stalks of papyrus. The falcon is a symbol of the victorious king; he holds on a leash the head of the defeated king of the North; the land with papyri is Lower Egypt, papyrus is its symbol. Its six stalks are six thousand captives, since the papyrus sign means a thousand. But was it possible to convey the name of the king in a drawing? How do we know that his name was Narmer?
It turns out that at this time the Egyptians had already begun to isolate signs from their drawings that denoted not the drawn object, but the sounds that made up its name. The drawing of a dung beetle meant three sounds KhPR, and the drawing of a basket meant two sounds NB. And although such sounds remained drawings, they had already become phonetic signs. The ancient Egyptian language had words with one-, two-, and three-letter syllables. And since the Egyptians did not write vowels, monosyllabic words represented one sound. When the Egyptians needed to write a name, they used single-letter hieroglyphs.
The transition from concrete to abstract objects that do not correspond to a visual image. Chinese characters arose from drawings (13th century BC). Until now, the hieroglyphs have changed little, but the grammar of the language has changed (modern Chinese can read texts written BC, recognize the symbols, but will not catch the meaning). The drawing is stylized, simplified, standardized.
Eventually, in all places on the globe, signs begin to reflect sounds. The signs were linked to the sound of the whole word. It was very difficult to use such a letter - it is an art. A very complex writing system, but it satisfied the ancients because... it could only be used by a limited caste of people for whom this knowledge was a means of subsistence.
The need to quickly write down complex and long texts led to the fact that the drawings were simplified and became conventional icons - hieroglyphs (from the Greek hieroglyphoi - sacred writing).
In the 12th-13th centuries. BC. in the Middle East - the time of the appearance of the Sinai inscriptions. This is a step towards a sharp reduction in the number of written characters. Signs were developed that denoted a syllable. Writing has become syllabic. For different words The combination of consonant and vowel is different.
Thanks to the presence of such single-syllable signs denoting one sound, alphabet. The Phoenicians, having become acquainted with these letters, created their own alphabetic writing based on them, simplifying the signs of syllabic writing. Each sign of this writing was assigned an indifferent vowel. Arabs and Jews used a letter without vowels. There was a complex guessing system, which nevertheless gave constant failures. Later, a system of vowels appeared, but nevertheless, in everyday life, Jews and Arabs used writing without vowels.
The Greeks adopted the Phoenician system. Greek is an Indo-European language. The Greeks introduce signs for vowels - this is a revolution. The Greeks invented a complete writing system. All vowels were depicted. Later they began to depict stress (place and type), aspiration. We also introduced an image of prosody (analogous to notes), which is impossible in the case of Russian writing and therefore is not used by us.
Is it possible to answer the question: who, what person invented the writing system? Who was the first to use alphabetic writing? There is no answer to these questions. The emergence of writing was caused by the demands of the life of society and the state, the economic activity of people - and writing appeared. But alphabets were created later, in our era, new era educated people of their time. Thus, Cyril and Methodius created a letter for the Slavic languages. Mesrop Mashtots created an alphabetic letter for the Armenian language. Together with his students, Mashtots went to different countries study writing. It was “a real scientific, perhaps the world’s first linguistic expedition, which set as its goal the development of an alphabet,” wrote corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences D. A. Olderogge.
Among the peoples of the Far North and Siberia up to October revolution there was no writing. Now researchers from the Institute of Northern Peoples have created an alphabetical letter for them.
There were many illiterates in the Tajik Republic, since the Arabic script, which the Tajiks once used, is very complex. Now Tajiks write Tajik in Russian letters.
Writing systems are also being created in the countries of modern Africa.

Diagnostics and diseases. Medicines from A to Z

The history of the invention of writing and its phased formation. Origin and development of writing - abstract

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

List of used literature

Applications

Annex 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 4

Appendix 5

Similar documents