Writing Systems; A Linguistic Introduction; Second Edition; Geoffrey Sampson

Geoffrey Sampson [+–]

University of South Africa

Geoffrey Sampson is Professor Emeritus at Sussex University and a Research Fellow in the Linguistics Department at the University of South Africa. His most recent book is Grammar Without Grammaticality (2014, with Anna Babarczy).

The cultures of the world have chosen different ways to make spoken language visible and permanent. The original edition of Writing Systems represented the first time that modern linguistic principles were brought to bear on a study of this. Now this new edition brings the story up to date; it incorporates topics which have emerged since the first edition (such as electronic techniques for encoding the world’s scripts), together with new findings about established topics, including the ultimate historical origin of our alphabet. Featuring a series of detailed case studies of scripts of diverse types, and giving due attention to the psychology of reading and learning to read, the book is written so as to be accessible to those with no prior knowledge of any writing systems other than our own.

Listen to Geoffrey Sampson’s podcast interview with New Books in Language

Preliminaries

Acknowledgements [+–] ix-x

The original edition of Writing Systems represented the first time that modern linguistic principles were brought to bear on an investigation of the various ways in which the world's cultures have made spoken language visible and permanent. This new edition brings the story up to date; it incorporates topics which have emerged since the first edition (such as electronic techniques for encoding the world's scripts), together with new findings about established topics, including the ultimate historical origin of our alphabet. Featuring a series of detailed case studies of scripts of diverse types, and giving due attention to the psychology of reading and learning to read, the book is written so as to be accessible to those with no prior knowledge of any writing systems other than our own.

Introduction [+–] 1-17

The author explains the scope and rationale underlying the second edition of his book. The premise of the book being that the study of writing systems should be treated as a standard branch of linguistics. The structure of the book is laid out — organized around a series of 7 case studies.

Theoretical preliminaries [+–] 18-39

This chapter aims at a definition of writing and explores various approaches that may be taken to achieve this.

The earliest writing [+–] 40-59

This chapter examines the development of one early writing system, the Sumerian system, whose later stages were known as “Cuneiform” and which appears to be the oldest writing system in the world. The chapter also introduces ideas that will be examined in subsequent chapters particularly concerning how and why writing systems arise.

A syllabic system: Linear B [+–] 60-72

This chapter looks at an orthography that was used in the 2nd millenium BCE by the Mycenaeans in southern Greece for record keeping purposes.

Consonantal writing [+–] 73-103

This chapter discusses the properties of scripts that have graphs for consonants but no vowel letters, commonly known as ‘Semitic scrpits’ using Biblical Hebrew as the exemplar of a type of writing that is still in wide use today.

European alphabetic writing [+–] 104-119

This chapter explores those scripts where vowel sounds have been given the same status as consonant sounds, being assigned letters of their own.

Influences on graph-shape evolution [+–] 120-142

This chapter takes a look at the outward forms of scripts and how this is affected by the choice of writing materials (what kind of surface is marked, and what instruments do the marking), including discussion of web typography.

A featural system: Korean Hangul [+–] 143-166

This chapter covers the phonographic script, nowadays known as Hangul, which was created in Korea during the 15th century. Now consisting of 24 (from an original 28) letters, these have an internal structure correlated with the phonetic-feature composition of the phonemes a feature not unlike Pitman’s shorthand and unline any other script used as the ordinary writing system of a society.

A logographic system: Chinese writing [+–] 167-191

This chapter explores one of the most pervasive of all the world’s systems of writing — Chinese script — in which graphs stand not for a unit of pronunciation but for a morpheme, the minimal meaningful unit of the language.

Pros and cons of logography [+–] 192-207

This chapter examines recent language-reform movements in China and then moves on to a general consideration of the pros and cons of Chinese-style writing.

A mixed system: Japanese writing [+–] 208-232

This chapter examines how the Japanese, having adopted Chinese script during their encounter with Chinese civilization, then made a shift to adapt it to a language that was unrelated to Chinese. However, unlike the Koreans, the Japanese never made a clean break to a different kind of script with the result that Japanese is complex, mixed system, partly logographic and partly phonographic.

Writing systems and information technology [+–] 233-248

This chapter looks at the way information technology has evolved in order to serve established written-language conventions.

English Spelling [+–] 249-264

The cultures of the world have chosen different ways to make spoken language visible and permanent. The original edition of Writing Systems represented the first time that modern linguistic principles were brought to bear on a study of this. Now this new edition brings the story up to date; it incorporates topics which have emerged since the first edition (such as electronic techniques for encoding the world’s scripts), together with new findings about established topics, including the ultimate historical origin of our alphabet. Featuring a series of detailed case studies of scripts of diverse types, and giving due attention to the psychology of reading and learning to read, the book is written so as to be accessible to those with no prior knowledge of any writing systems other than our own.

Conclusion [+–] 265-266

This chapter summarizes the themes that have emerged throughout the earlier chapters and suggests, as one implication, that English spelling may suit English-speaking societies better than is often supposed.

End Matter

References [+–] 267-276

Index [+–] 277-283

Reviews

Reviews of the Second Edition

This book remains one of the most interesting, useful and balanced works on the typology, history and psychology of written language, and the revisions made for the second edition bring it nicely up to date.
Journal of Linguistics

The book is quite readable, is clearly written, and the bulk of it is a pleasure to read. The reader does need a basic knowledge of phonology to follow the totality of the book, and what a morpheme is, but not more than that. Thus the potential audience is fairly broad. Even those with no linguistic background could benefit to some degree.

By choosing key examples and representative orthographies, this volume quite nicely achieves its main goal of providing a typology of the main writing systems of the world’s languages.
LinguistList

Praise for the first edition

This is a splendid book ... of outstanding interest to professional linguists and students of linguistics, and also to the large number of lay readers who are fascinated by facts about human language.
British Book News

A refreshing and rigorous contemporary scientific examination of writing ... Linguists on all fronts should welcome this.
Choice

An incredible tour de force, covering both Western and East Asian scripts, their historical development and their linguistic features. The treatment of Chinese, Japanese and Korean scripts is particularly fascinating for a Western reader.
ASI Newsletter

I have found Sampson’s book invaluable as a source of descriptive information ... it is written in a straightforward and approachable manner which makes it very engaging as general reading matter ... shows an acquaintance with recent psychological work that is seldom to be found in linguistic writing.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

The best linguistic introduction to the study of writing systems now available.
Language

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Writing Systems

(Second Edition)

Geoffrey Sampson [+–]

University of South Africa

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