The evolution of writing

Before the emergence of writing, people used alternative systems to record information, such as drawing pictures and using tallies. Likewise, alternative methods like musical notation and mathematical symbols remain in use today.

The evolution of writing is a fascinating aspect of history. One of the earliest recording devices was a system of clay tokens that served as counters for goods tracking. These tokens had specific shapes that represented different units of merchandise, and each token stood for one concept. Although the system did not have syntax or phonetics, it was similar to spoken language in that a token stood for one idea.

The use of tokens eventually led to writing when tokens were stored in clay envelopes to keep track of debts. To verify the tokens held inside, accountants impressed their shapes on the surface of the envelope before enclosing them. The impressed signs on the envelopes eventually evolved into ideograms representing one concept. Later, around 3100 BC, pictographs representing tokens were traced with a stylus, marking an important step in the evolution of writing.

The shift from visual to aural communication, known as logography, was driven by new regulations that required personal names recorded on tablets for state formation. Logograms, simple drawings of words with a sound similar to that intended, were used to transcribe personal names. In addition, the introduction of phonetic signs allowed writing to break free from accounting and paved the way for the alphabet, representing individual sounds rather than whole words.

The first alphabet, the Proto-Sinaitic or Proto-Canaanite, consisted of 22 consonantal letters and was based on acrophony. The Greeks refined the alphabet by adding vowels, resulting in a 27-letter system accurately representing all sounds. All modern alphabets, including the Latin alphabet used in the western world, derive from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet. Charlemagne played a significant role in developing the Latin script, establishing standards and devising a clear and legible minuscule cursive script that evolved into modern-day lowercase letters.

The evolution of writing allowed it to shift from a representative to a conceptual, linguistic system. Phonetics enabled writing to move away from tangible goods and into the world of words and the ideas they represent. This process began with ideograms expressing concepts and phonetic signs representing the sound of monosyllabic words and ultimately led to the segmentation of meaning with letters. As defined by Marshall McLuhan, the alphabet consists of semantically meaningless letters corresponding to semantically meaningless sounds. The development of the alphabet has been ongoing for 3500 years and continues to play a vital role in data handling, particularly with the advent of the Internet.

Editor’s note
Updated on Thursday 16th March 2023