Earliest writing in Mesopotamia (Middle East).

Invented independently in India and China

Invented independently in the Americas too

Development of Writing

Sumerian Pictographs Egyptian Hieroglyphics
Chinese Logographs Persian Cuneiform
Latin Alphabet Indian Devanagari

Types of Writing

Symbols represent entire words or ideas. May or may not have sounds.
represents "duck" (Egyptian Hieroglyph)
鸭 represents "duck" (Chinese character)

Logographic Writing

Symbols represent sounds
A represents an "ah" sound.
くrepresents a "ku" sound.

Latin Alphabet, Japanese Hiragana

Alphabets and Syllabaries

What makes these forms of writing different?

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Manu and Script are both roots.
German "hantschrift" was translated root-by-root into "manuscript".
German words can put roots together, unlike Latin roots.

Manuscript v Hantschrift

Sometimes, translations are... literal!

A calque is when a word is translated bit-by-bit, so may have an unusual structure.

Calque? Huh?????

Script is often in "calques"