Among all the achievements of human beings, the
invention of writing is one of the greatest. But perhaps the time will come
during our lives when reading and writing become out of date.
Writing was not invented once, but perhaps, six different
times, in places as far apart as China and America. Each time it started with
simple pictures and lines or dots – these were good enough to record objects or
numbers. But something more flexible was needed to record language.
A kind of writing which had this flexibility was invented
in Mesopotamia, in about 3000 ВС. The writing
was made of triangular shapes* and we now call it "cuneiform"**
writing. Like picture writing, it was used in trade, but it was also important
for recording ideas about religion and philosophy. Though we don't know what
the language these people spoke sounded like, we know a lot about them from
their writing.
Meanwhile the Egyptians had developed another kind of
writing – "hieroglyphics." These were a mixture of pictures and signs
which were used by the kings and priests, Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is one
of the most beautiful and complicated ways of writing that has been invented.
But it was too complicated to become as widely used as cuneiform writing.
Around 1200 ВС writing began
to make the last and most important step in its development; the beginning of
the alphabet, signs which stand for sounds and which can be used to write any
of the words we speak. Nobody knows when, where or by whom the first alphabet
was invented. But by 1000 ВС Phoenician
traders, from the area we now call Lebanon, were spreading their alphabet
writing throughout the Mediterranean world. The Greeks, and later the Romans,
changed it, and it grew into the alphabet of letters you can see on this page.
With the alphabet it was possible to write down anything
that was said. There were all sorts of stories, myths and traditions waiting to
be written down. The invention of paper and ink helped the alphabet to spread
quickly, and many more people learned to read and write, though trie vast majority of people were
illiterate until long after printing was invented. However, there was one great
problem that lasted from Greek and Roman times until the Middle Ages–
everything was written by hand. So it was slow and expensive to produce copies
of books.
Assignments:
1. In a few sentences
give a short survey of the history of writing.
2. Translate the text
using a dictionary.
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