Writing Systems - Second edition - Geoffrey Sampson
The earliest writing
Writing Systems - 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).
Description
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.