| # | Polity | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | Edit | Desc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
"The alphabet seems to have been invented in Egypt by Semites living there (Hamilton 2006). Some suggest it reached the southern Levant during the Middle Bronze Age (Hamilton 2006); others think this only occurred in the Late Bronze Age (Sass 2005). The exact period is of little importance to this discussion, since very few (if any) alphabetic inscriptions can be dated to this period. Again, this suggests that writing was not common during this period. Even if alphabetic script appears in the Middle Bronze Age, it is only at the end of this period, and does not represent an integral part of the culture."
[1]
[1]: Shai/Uziel (2010:73). |
||||||
|
"The alphabet seems to have been invented in Egypt by Semites living there (Hamilton 2006). Some suggest it reached the southern Levant during the Middle Bronze Age (Hamilton 2006); others think this only occurred in the Late Bronze Age (Sass 2005). The exact period is of little importance to this discussion, since very few (if any) alphabetic inscriptions can be dated to this period. Again, this suggests that writing was not common during this period. Even if alphabetic script appears in the Middle Bronze Age, it is only at the end of this period, and does not represent an integral part of the culture."
[1]
[1]: Shai/Uziel (2010:73). |
||||||
|
"The alphabet seems to have been invented in Egypt by Semites living there (Hamilton 2006). Some suggest it reached the southern Levant during the Middle Bronze Age (Hamilton 2006); others think this only occurred in the Late Bronze Age (Sass 2005). The exact period is of little importance to this discussion, since very few (if any) alphabetic inscriptions can be dated to this period. Again, this suggests that writing was not common during this period. Even if alphabetic script appears in the Middle Bronze Age, it is only at the end of this period, and does not represent an integral part of the culture."
[1]
[1]: Shai/Uziel (2010:73). |
||||||
|
"The alphabet seems to have been invented in Egypt by Semites living there (Hamilton 2006). Some suggest it reached the southern Levant during the Middle Bronze Age (Hamilton 2006); others think this only occurred in the Late Bronze Age (Sass 2005). The exact period is of little importance to this discussion, since very few (if any) alphabetic inscriptions can be dated to this period. Again, this suggests that writing was not common during this period. Even if alphabetic script appears in the Middle Bronze Age, it is only at the end of this period, and does not represent an integral part of the culture."
[1]
[1]: Shai/Uziel (2010:73). |
||||||
|
The following quote suggests that Ajami script (see second quote) was used by a high-ranking minority; being derived from Arabic, Ajami is alphabetic. "In southern Senegambia, where non-Manding populations predominated, Manding was a prestigious language of the pagan aristocracy and, on the other hand, the language of the Muslim merchant network of Jakhanke. The existence of Manding Ajami in that area was already attested in the first half of the 18th century (Labat 1728; cited by Giesing & Costa-Dias 2007: 63), long before the pagan rule of the ñàncoo elite of the Kaabu was definitely smashed by Muslim Fulbe troops from Fuuta Jalon. In any case, the emergence of Ajami is not related to the establishment of a Muslim political power in this area: the main holders of Islamic writing in the area, the Jakhanke merchants, were for centuries integrated into the social system of the Kaabu confederation and often served as advisers and intermediates for the political elites."
[1]
"A number of terms have been used in this volume to refer to the usage of Arabic script for languages other than Arabic. Crosslinguistically, such writing systems are often termed ‘Arabic literature’, ‘Islamic literature’ or ‘Islamic writings’, and locally they are known by a large number of names, such as Wolofal, or Kiarabu. The term Ajami in particular (or variations, such as Äjam, Ajamiya, etc.), derived from the Arabic word ʿaǧam ‘non-Arab; Persian’, has gained some degree of popularity in academic literature and is also encountered as a self-denomination for these writing systems in some languages, such as Hausa."
[2]
[1]: (Vydrin 2014: 201-202) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/E8Z57DNC/collection. [2]: (Mumin and Verstegh 2014: 1) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/PVIK4HGV/collection. |
||||||
|
Distant ancestors of the Sakha may have been familiar with writing, but lost that knowledge during past migrations: ’Spindle whorls were made of a kind of hard stone coal (slate?). Of particular interest was one spindle, found in Kurumchinakh, which was covered with writing (letters). In comparing these characters with those of various alphabets, it may readily be observed that many of them are similar, as far as they can be deciphered, to the characters of the Orkhon alphabet. There were thirty-seven symbols of which twenty-one are letters and sixteen indistinct, effaced signs, including perhaps mere scratches. The twenty-one letters appear to be an exact reproduction of the Yenisei-Orkhon characters. There are eighteen consonants and three vowels. Some of the characters are repeated and in all there are ten different symbols. The discovery of these writings so far to the north is of great interest. The ancestors of the Yakut, who, in remote times, emigrated from northern Mongolia, undoubtedly knew the Orkhon alphabet and this may explain the Yakut traditions as to the loss of their writings on the way to Yakutsk Province.’
[1]
The first recent script for the Sakha language was developed by 19th century Russian missionaries: ’The Yakut speak Yakut, a Northeast Turkic language of the Altaic Language Family. It is one of the most divergent of the Turkic languages, closely related to Dolgan (a mixture of Evenk and Yakut sometimes described as a Yakut dialect). The Yakut, over 90 percent of whom speak Yakut as their mother tongue, call their language "Sakha-tyla." Their current written language, developed in the 1930s, is a modified Cyrillic script. Before this, they had several written forms, including a Latin script developed in the 1920s and a Cyrillic script introduced by missionaries in the nineteenth century. Yakut lore includes legends of a written language lost after they traveled north to the Lena valley.’
[2]
’Such was the culture of the Yakut people up to the October Revolution. Particularly important was the cultural assistance which the Yakuts obtained from the fraternal Russian people during the prerevolutionary years. In the 19th century it was mainly the political exiles, beginning with the Decembrists, who spread culture through Yakutiya. There were also other progressive Russian people who diffused the beginnings of a cultivated way of life among the Yakuts. In particular, they laid the foundations of the Yakut written language.’
[3]
Russian administrators communicated in writing and composed clerical documents: ’The people became rapidly impoverished, and the order of the voivode to the clerk Evdokim Kurdiukov in 1685 already mentions the arrears in the treasury and orders the yassak gatherers to treat the people in arrears in the following way: from them who have no cattle take, because of their povetry and extreme need one cherno-cherevyya and one sivodushatyya fox from each, and for a sable, two red foxes from each. This same document orders him to make a census of the people, and their goods and cattle: collect the taxes for the current year, 193 (1685) in full, and collect the arrears for the past years, from each as much as possible. Similar censuses were taken earlier also, and their character may be judged by the census of Grishka Krivogornitsyn in 170 (1671) “for the Meginsk volosts” There we find mentioned not only the taxes and the amounts in arrears, but also the houses, wives, number of workers in the family. There is information about those who have died and those who have run away. Moreover the name and clan of every person is given. The personal and clan nicknames, of course are very much corrupted in these notes, and changed to conform with the Russian style, but it is not hard to determine what they actually are. The yassak books and these censuses were the materials out of which was later created the present system of Yakut self-government.’
[4]
But most of the Sakha population remained illiterate until the 20th century: ’In 1942 Yakutiya celebrated the end of illiteracy among the adult population. Over the years of the Soviet regime more than 155,000 illiterate people have been taught to read and write. Work continues with those who are only partially literate in the network of adult schools.’
[5]
We have selected 1800 as a provisional date of transition.
[1]: Jochelson, Waldemar 1933. “Yakut”, 62 [2]: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yakut [3]: Tokarev, S. A., and Gurvich I. S. 1964. “Yakuts”, 283 [4]: Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 780 [5]: Tokarev, S. A., and Gurvich I. S. 1964. “Yakuts”, 298 |
||||||
|
The following quote implies that indigenous writing emerged in the region in the 19th century. "The first documented autochthonous, Mande script to appear in West Africa was the one created by Duala Bukere from Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia who created a Vai syllabary in 1833, which has been standardized to 212 characters (Dalby, 1967: 14-18). [...] Appearing first in the region, the Vai syllabary became the prototype for other writing systems that were created in the inter-wars among indigenous peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Speakers of southern Mande languages such as the Mende (1921) and the Kpelle (1935), and speakers of the Kru languages such as the Bassa (1920-25) have based their writing systems on the syllabary (Dalby, 1967: 2-4)."
[1]
[1]: (Oyler 2001: 75) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/X7HQWWH9/collection. |
||||||
|
"Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
The following quote suggests that Ajami script (see second quote) was used by a high-ranking minority; being derived from Arabic, Ajami is alphabetic. "In southern Senegambia, where non-Manding populations predominated, Manding was a prestigious language of the pagan aristocracy and, on the other hand, the language of the Muslim merchant network of Jakhanke. The existence of Manding Ajami in that area was already attested in the first half of the 18th century (Labat 1728; cited by Giesing & Costa-Dias 2007: 63), long before the pagan rule of the ñàncoo elite of the Kaabu was definitely smashed by Muslim Fulbe troops from Fuuta Jalon. In any case, the emergence of Ajami is not related to the establishment of a Muslim political power in this area: the main holders of Islamic writing in the area, the Jakhanke merchants, were for centuries integrated into the social system of the Kaabu confederation and often served as advisers and intermediates for the political elites."
[1]
"A number of terms have been used in this volume to refer to the usage of Arabic script for languages other than Arabic. Crosslinguistically, such writing systems are often termed ‘Arabic literature’, ‘Islamic literature’ or ‘Islamic writings’, and locally they are known by a large number of names, such as Wolofal, or Kiarabu. The term Ajami in particular (or variations, such as Äjam, Ajamiya, etc.), derived from the Arabic word ʿaǧam ‘non-Arab; Persian’, has gained some degree of popularity in academic literature and is also encountered as a self-denomination for these writing systems in some languages, such as Hausa."
[2]
[1]: (Vydrin 2014: 201-202) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/E8Z57DNC/collection. [2]: (Mumin and Verstegh 2014: 1) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/PVIK4HGV/collection. |
||||||
|
See above.
|
||||||
|
Spanish is a phonetic language.
|
||||||
|
"Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
Based on the literature consulted, it remains unclear whether literacy spread from Buganda to Nkore at this time. Note that both Arabic an Kiswahili feature phonetic alphabets.
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
||||||
|
Distant ancestors of the Sakha may have been familiar with writing, but lost that knowledge during past migrations: ’Spindle whorls were made of a kind of hard stone coal (slate?). Of particular interest was one spindle, found in Kurumchinakh, which was covered with writing (letters). In comparing these characters with those of various alphabets, it may readily be observed that many of them are similar, as far as they can be deciphered, to the characters of the Orkhon alphabet. There were thirty-seven symbols of which twenty-one are letters and sixteen indistinct, effaced signs, including perhaps mere scratches. The twenty-one letters appear to be an exact reproduction of the Yenisei-Orkhon characters. There are eighteen consonants and three vowels. Some of the characters are repeated and in all there are ten different symbols. The discovery of these writings so far to the north is of great interest. The ancestors of the Yakut, who, in remote times, emigrated from northern Mongolia, undoubtedly knew the Orkhon alphabet and this may explain the Yakut traditions as to the loss of their writings on the way to Yakutsk Province.’
[1]
The first recent script for the Sakha language was developed by 19th century Russian missionaries: ’The Yakut speak Yakut, a Northeast Turkic language of the Altaic Language Family. It is one of the most divergent of the Turkic languages, closely related to Dolgan (a mixture of Evenk and Yakut sometimes described as a Yakut dialect). The Yakut, over 90 percent of whom speak Yakut as their mother tongue, call their language "Sakha-tyla." Their current written language, developed in the 1930s, is a modified Cyrillic script. Before this, they had several written forms, including a Latin script developed in the 1920s and a Cyrillic script introduced by missionaries in the nineteenth century. Yakut lore includes legends of a written language lost after they traveled north to the Lena valley.’
[2]
’Such was the culture of the Yakut people up to the October Revolution. Particularly important was the cultural assistance which the Yakuts obtained from the fraternal Russian people during the prerevolutionary years. In the 19th century it was mainly the political exiles, beginning with the Decembrists, who spread culture through Yakutiya. There were also other progressive Russian people who diffused the beginnings of a cultivated way of life among the Yakuts. In particular, they laid the foundations of the Yakut written language.’
[3]
Russian administrators communicated in writing and composed clerical documents: ’The people became rapidly impoverished, and the order of the voivode to the clerk Evdokim Kurdiukov in 1685 already mentions the arrears in the treasury and orders the yassak gatherers to treat the people in arrears in the following way: from them who have no cattle take, because of their povetry and extreme need one cherno-cherevyya and one sivodushatyya fox from each, and for a sable, two red foxes from each. This same document orders him to make a census of the people, and their goods and cattle: collect the taxes for the current year, 193 (1685) in full, and collect the arrears for the past years, from each as much as possible. Similar censuses were taken earlier also, and their character may be judged by the census of Grishka Krivogornitsyn in 170 (1671) “for the Meginsk volosts” There we find mentioned not only the taxes and the amounts in arrears, but also the houses, wives, number of workers in the family. There is information about those who have died and those who have run away. Moreover the name and clan of every person is given. The personal and clan nicknames, of course are very much corrupted in these notes, and changed to conform with the Russian style, but it is not hard to determine what they actually are. The yassak books and these censuses were the materials out of which was later created the present system of Yakut self-government.’
[4]
But most of the Sakha population remained illiterate until the 20th century: ’In 1942 Yakutiya celebrated the end of illiteracy among the adult population. Over the years of the Soviet regime more than 155,000 illiterate people have been taught to read and write. Work continues with those who are only partially literate in the network of adult schools.’
[5]
We have selected 1800 as a provisional date of transition.
[1]: Jochelson, Waldemar 1933. “Yakut”, 62 [2]: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yakut [3]: Tokarev, S. A., and Gurvich I. S. 1964. “Yakuts”, 283 [4]: Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 780 [5]: Tokarev, S. A., and Gurvich I. S. 1964. “Yakuts”, 298 |
||||||
|
See above.
|
||||||
|
The following quote implies that indigenous writing emerged in the region in the 19th century. "The first documented autochthonous, Mande script to appear in West Africa was the one created by Duala Bukere from Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia who created a Vai syllabary in 1833, which has been standardized to 212 characters (Dalby, 1967: 14-18). [...] Appearing first in the region, the Vai syllabary became the prototype for other writing systems that were created in the inter-wars among indigenous peoples in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Speakers of southern Mande languages such as the Mende (1921) and the Kpelle (1935), and speakers of the Kru languages such as the Bassa (1920-25) have based their writing systems on the syllabary (Dalby, 1967: 2-4)."
[1]
[1]: (Oyler 2001: 75) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/X7HQWWH9/collection. |
||||||
|
SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ lists no mnemonic devices or nonwritten records or ’True writing, no writing’ Christian missionaries introduced Latinized characters: ’The Malays before their conversion to Mahomedanism may be presumed to have had no letters of their own. What they have now are made up out of the Arabic alphabet. To suit the tone of their language the letters are named accordingly. With reference to the Sea Dyaks, since the gospel of Christ has been preached to them, letters of the Roman character are used and pronounced accordingly to suit the tones of their pronunciation.’
[1]
The first true mission schools were established in the 1920s (see above). In the 1950s, Freeman claimed no written calendars for the ’pre-literate’ Iban: ’The Iban still attach great importance to their stellar lore. Tungku, a tuai rumah of the Mujong headwaters, put it in these words:“If there were no stars we Iban would be lost, not knowing when to plant; we live by the stars.”(“ Enti nadai bintang tesat ati kami Iban, enda nemu maia nugal; kami idup ari bintang. ”) It must not be thought however that there is any dogma that rituals, etc. should be held on the exact dates given. The Iban are a pre-literate people without a calendar, and the movements of the Pleiades, Orion and Sirius are taken as no more than general indications of the time when the major operations of felling and planting should be embarked upon.’
[2]
Komanyi claims written calendars following the European pattern and literacy in the 1970s: ’Since most people now have western calendars, they know during which month the sowing, weeding or harvesting is to be done. Their “new year” begins after the harvest is completed, which may be some time in May or June. However, June 1st is “Dayak Day,” proclaimed by the government as the official Dayak New Year’s Day.’
[3]
These figures are entirely contradictory. We have chosen to go with the 1921 figure as it is coherent with the establishment of mission schools, but expert feedback is absolutely essential on this matter. Regional variation may explain the difference, but this is in need of confirmation.
[1]: Howell, William 1908-1910. “Sea Dyak”, 3 [2]: Freeman, Derek 1955. “Iban Agriculture: A Report On The Shifting Cultivation Of Hill Rice By The Iban Of Sarawak”, 40 [3]: Komanyi, Margit Ilona 1973. “Real And Ideal Participation In Decision-Making Of Iban Women: A Study Of A Longhouse Community In Sarawak, East Malaysia”, 15 |
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-
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||||||
|
"Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
||||||
|
"Literacy entered Uganda for the first time with the introduction of Islam in the late 1860’s and for nearly a decade instruction in Islam was progressing and flourishing at the royal court. When literacy was introduced into the kingdom of Buganda, it was confined to speakers of Arabic and Kiswahili. "
[1]
Based on the literature consulted, it remains unclear whether literacy spread from Buganda to Nkore at this time. Note that both Arabic an Kiswahili feature phonetic alphabets.
[1]: (Pawliková-Vilhanová 2014: 145) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/T7IMKZJJ. |
||||||
|
SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ lists no mnemonic devices or nonwritten records or ’True writing, no writing’ Christian missionaries introduced Latinized characters: ’The Malays before their conversion to Mahomedanism may be presumed to have had no letters of their own. What they have now are made up out of the Arabic alphabet. To suit the tone of their language the letters are named accordingly. With reference to the Sea Dyaks, since the gospel of Christ has been preached to them, letters of the Roman character are used and pronounced accordingly to suit the tones of their pronunciation.’
[1]
The first true mission schools were established in the 1920s (see above). In the 1950s, Freeman claimed no written calendars for the ’pre-literate’ Iban: ’The Iban still attach great importance to their stellar lore. Tungku, a tuai rumah of the Mujong headwaters, put it in these words:“If there were no stars we Iban would be lost, not knowing when to plant; we live by the stars.”(“ Enti nadai bintang tesat ati kami Iban, enda nemu maia nugal; kami idup ari bintang. ”) It must not be thought however that there is any dogma that rituals, etc. should be held on the exact dates given. The Iban are a pre-literate people without a calendar, and the movements of the Pleiades, Orion and Sirius are taken as no more than general indications of the time when the major operations of felling and planting should be embarked upon.’
[2]
Komanyi claims written calendars following the European pattern and literacy in the 1970s: ’Since most people now have western calendars, they know during which month the sowing, weeding or harvesting is to be done. Their “new year” begins after the harvest is completed, which may be some time in May or June. However, June 1st is “Dayak Day,” proclaimed by the government as the official Dayak New Year’s Day.’
[3]
These figures are entirely contradictory. We have chosen to go with the 1921 figure as it is coherent with the establishment of mission schools, but expert feedback is absolutely essential on this matter. Regional variation may explain the difference, but this is in need of confirmation.
[1]: Howell, William 1908-1910. “Sea Dyak”, 3 [2]: Freeman, Derek 1955. “Iban Agriculture: A Report On The Shifting Cultivation Of Hill Rice By The Iban Of Sarawak”, 40 [3]: Komanyi, Margit Ilona 1973. “Real And Ideal Participation In Decision-Making Of Iban Women: A Study Of A Longhouse Community In Sarawak, East Malaysia”, 15 |
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The English alphabet.
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“Although the ancient people of the Southwest didn’t have a written language, they had effective ways to communicate. Cultures worldwide have used rock art to transmit ideas and beliefs. There are two types of rock art, petroglyphs and pictographs.”
[1]
[1]: (“Chaco Culture - Communication”) “Chaco Culture” NPS Museum Collections, accessed May 8, 2023, https://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/chcu/index6.html. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NMRVDA5I |
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The English alphabet.
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The Arabic alphabet.
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The English alphabet.
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French alphabet.
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The English alphabet.
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ is coded as ‘1’ or ‘None’, not ‘Mnemonic devices’, or ‘Nonwritten records’, or ’True writing, no records’, or ‘True writing; records’
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Arabic.
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The Coptic alphabet is the script used for writing the Coptic language. The repertoire of glyphs is based on the Greek alphabet augmented by letters borrowed from the Egyptian Demotic and is the first alphabetic script used for the Egyptian language.
[1]
[1]: Ritner, Robert Kriech. 1996. "The Coptic Alphabet". In The World’s Writing Systems, edited by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 1994:287-290. |
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|
The Coptic alphabet is the script used for writing the Coptic language. The repertoire of glyphs is based on the Greek alphabet augmented by letters borrowed from the Egyptian Demotic and is the first alphabetic script used for the Egyptian language.
[1]
[1]: Ritner, Robert Kriech. 1996. "The Coptic Alphabet". In The World’s Writing Systems, edited by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 1994:287-290. |
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“The sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries were a golden age in theology and devotional writing as well as politics.”
[1]
[1]: (Maltby 2009, 91) Maltby, William S. 2009. The Rise and Fall of the Spanish Empire. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SUSVXWVH |
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No information found in sources so far.
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French language.
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French language.
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French language.
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Written records in Arabic have a long scholarly tradition in Yemen.
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French language.
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Sanskrit is phonetic - the spoken and the written always match. (EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://www.sanskritsounds.com/about-sanskrit/46/index.html )
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Both the "square script" (also called ashurit, "Assyrian") and the older Phoenician-style scripts of Hebrew.
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ lists no mnemonic devices or nonwritten records or ’True writing, no writing’ See above.
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Sanskrit is an Indo-European language
[1]
[1]: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sanskrit.htm |
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Sanskrit.
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Greek alphabet.
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Literacy existed before latinization, but was associated with social authority: ’It is usually forgotten that literacy had existed in Norse culture, of which Icelandic culture was a late offshoot, long before the year 1000. Actually, literacy was introduced with the runic alphabet as early as the second or third century A.D. Literacy seems, however, to have been the prerogative of the aristocratic class. It seems that the secrets were jealously guarded by the leading social stratum. Runic inscriptions are generally short, and mainly commemorate family relationships. The Tune stone runic inscription from Østfold in eastern Norway (from around A.D. 200) may serve as an example. Although there is some disagreement regarding interpretation, it is commonly believed that the inscription relates a number of inheritors to an ancestor (Grønvik 1981), and that it was connected to the inheritors’ claims to exclusive rights to property. Runes were shrouded in magic and sorcery, imbuing the text with sacrality. Writing constituted authority. That writing of runes was associated with people of authority is also manifested in Norse mythology. In the poem Rígsþula, written in Iceland in the thirteenth century, but commonly [Page 126] believed to belong to the Viking period, the god Heimdallr teaches the prince Jarl (Earl) to write runes. In some of the stanzas of Hávamál the high god Óðinn sacrifices himself in order to obtain the powerful knowledge of the runes (138-141). Óðinn was above all the god of the aristocratic warriors. In these and similar cases the basic message is that rune writing was an exclusive right of the aristocratic class.’
[1]
The introduction of the Latin alphabet expanded the spectrum of written genres beyond the badly preserved runic tradition: ’At the time of settlement, the Icelanders spoke Old Norse (a Germanic language, in the large Indo-European group of languages), which was then common throughout Scandinavia. By the beginning of the twelfth century linguistic conservatism on the remote island society had introduced significant differences between Icelandic and its Scandinavian neighbors resulting in a distinct Icelandic. Prior to the conversion to Christianity in 1000 A.D., Old Norse was written in a runic alphabet. Runes had a restricted use and few runic inscriptions have survived from Iceland. With Christianity came the Roman alphabet and the expansion of written genres, which thrived in Iceland.’
[2]
Early Icelanders then developed a rich literary tradition: ’One of the remarkable legacies of early Iceland is its wealth of literary production. Icelandic literary production encompassed continental chivalrous, hagiographic, and historical traditions, in addition to the autochthonous development of the saga. Among other topics, Icelandic sagas depict events from the early years of Icelandic society, the colonization of Greenland and the discovery of North America, and the civil wars that characterized the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Iceland. The medieval manuscripts also preserve an artistic tradition in illumination. The literary levels achieved in Iceland, to some degree, developed from strong oral traditions of poetry and narrative. Much of the material culture of early Iceland has not been preserved but a strong tradition in artistic woodcarving is evident.’
[2]
The introduction of Christianity was an important factor in this process: ’By the end of the 10th century, the Norwegians were forced by their king, Olaf I Tryggvason, to accept Christianity. The king also sent missionaries to Iceland who, according to 12th-century sources, were highly successful in converting the Icelanders. In 999 or 1000 the Althing made a peaceful decision that all Icelanders should become Christians. In spite of this decision, the godar retained their political role, and many of them probably built their own churches. Some were ordained, and as a group they seem to have closely controlled the organization of the new religion. Two bishoprics were established, one at Skálholt in 1056 and the other at Hólar in 1106. Literate Christian culture also transformed lay life. Codification of the law was begun in 1117-18. Later the Icelanders began to write sagas, which were to reach their pinnacle of literary achievement in the next century.’
[3]
’While literacy became widespread in Iceland during the two centuries prior to the writing of the sagas, the evidence suggests that writing continued to be connected to chieftains and landowners. As literacy was taught by the Church, most chieftains had clerical training, and many of them were ordained priests (Sveinsson 1953). Although the international outlook of Christianity was inimical to the kin-based and locally-based Icelandic civilization, at that time it was probably not regarded as too radical. Actually, when Christianity was first introduced to Iceland, it was probably considered to be a resource which the chieftains could exploit [Page 127] to their own benefit, and literacy was part of it. At the turn of the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries, when they began to write sagas, relations between the lay and Church authorities became strained. The literature of the twelfth century is half-secular, half-ecclesiastic (Sveinsson 1953:103). The tension between the Church and the chieftains created an independent secular literature in Iceland in the thirteenth century (Lönnroth 1991). Increasingly, people turned to the oral literature which existed in the secular social environment. The context of literacy continued to be closely associated to the dominant social class.’
[4]
The Roman alphabet was adapted to the Norse vernacular: ’When they started writing, Icelanders wrote about secular as well as religious matters. They adapted the Roman alphabet to their own tongue and wrote in the vernacular because they had something to write for one another. This process of writing started just about a hundred years after seasonal labor became available, when landowners could expand their holdings and the distribution of wealth, land, and power began to shift in a continuous process of revaluing the social and political variables.’
[5]
This code refers to both Runes and the Latin alphabet.
[1]: Odner, Knut 1992. “Þógunna’S Testament: A Myth For Moral Contemplation And Social Apathy”, 125 [2]: Bolender, Douglas James and Beierle, John: eHRAF Cultural Summary for Early Icelanders [3]: http://www.britannica.com/place/Iceland/Government-and-society#toc10088 [4]: Odner, Knut 1992. “Þógunna’S Testament: A Myth For Moral Contemplation And Social Apathy”, 126 [5]: Durrenberger, E. Paul 1992. “Dynamics Of Medieval Iceland: Political Economy And Literature”, 106 |
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’No one knows for certain how long people have lived in what is now Cambodia, where they came from, or what languages they spoke before writing was introduced, using an Indian-style alphabet, around the third century CE.’
[1]
’Probably a form of the Mon-Khmer language family using the Sanskrit writing system’
[2]
[1]: (Chandler 2008, p. 13) [2]: (West 2009, p. 222) |
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Classic Arabic of Koran. "There are no written records of any description to throw light on the history of West Africa before 900 A.D."
[1]
"The West Africans who laid the foundations of their medieval empires during the centuries before 900 C.E. did not develop a written language they could use to record historical events."
[2]
Oldest example of writing in West Africa c1100 CE tomb inscription at Gao.
[3]
[1]: (Bovill 1958, 51) Bovill, E W. 1958/1995. The Golden Trade of the Moors. Oxford University Press. Oxford. [2]: (Conrad 2010, 13) Conrad, D. C. 2010. Empires of Medieval West Africa. Revised Edition. Chelsea House Publishers. New York. [3]: (Davidson 1998, 44) Davidson, Basil. 1998. West Africa Before the Colonial Era. Routledge. London. |
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Indo-European.
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Ancient Chinese language.
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Chinese
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Probably no written records
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Oirat Mongolian is alphabetic, and so is the Tibetan script.
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Glyphs dating to this period have been deciphered as either calendrical dates or the names of prisoners. Sources do not suggest that evidence for other types of writing has been found.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
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SCCS variable 149 ’Writing and Records’ is coded as ‘1’ or ‘None’, not ‘Mnemonic devices’, or ‘Nonwritten records’, or ’True writing, no records’, or ‘True writing; records’ Written records were introduced by colonial authorities and missions, but Schwimmer’s later material suggests a significant time-lag in the spread of literacy: ’For the rest, the skills acquired by Orokaiva over the last 15 years are largely concerned not directly with village development but rather with an increase of understanding of the world outside. While before the war, only a small minority had school education, the Anglican Mission spread its operations to several new stations, including Sasembata, after the war. After the eruption, the scope of education was again greatly extended and it could be said that the eruption marked the beginning of universal school education in the majority of Orokaiva villages. The Sasembata station began to draw virtually the entire child population of the surrounding villages, and most students now follow a five or six year course. While this development had been planned ever since the war, it may be significant that regular school attendance of all the villages in the district was experienced for the first time at Ilimo, where a school was conducted for the whole evacuee child population, and adult classes as well. It is the objective of present school programmes, as far as I can see, to make the population literate and the increase of literacy is a major aspect of acculturation over the period. Literacy has certainly progressed to a point where letters written in Orokaiva to any family in Sivepe can be read and understood with the help of at least a junior member of the family; and can be replied to. While I could see no evidence that people have acquired mathematical knowledge of any sophistication, I was struck by a strong quantitative orientation. In the Orokaiva language, there are no numerals higher than 2; hence, it is the invariable practise to use English numerals when speaking the Orokaiva language. The numerals are, in fact, among the main English linquistic features that have been borrowed. They are used with remarkable frequency; the number of coffee trees, the value in pounds of trade goods included in a bride price, the calculation of money prices, even the number of brothers or men who together played some role in a mythological tale (a distinctly contemporary touch, this)-all these phenomena show that “numbers” have become an integral part of Orokaiva culture. The Orokaiva use the English word “number” for a variety of quantitative concepts, including price. Finally, one must regard as an aspect of acculturation, the introduction of many [Page 80] concepts drawn from the scene of world affairs. While among the Orokaiva, I heard talk about Vietnam, Indonesia, Africa, India. The political orientation displayed was a mild kind of nationalism, and a sense of closeness to newly independent non-white states. But the information, derived from radio broadcasts and speeches by councillors, introduced an acculturative kind of perspective. Its dissemination is being actively encouraged by the Australian authorities.’
[1]
[1]: Schwimmer, Eric G. 1969. “Cultural Consequences Of A Volcanic Eruption Experienced By The Mount Lamington Orokaiva”, 79 |
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The following quote indicates that among the variety of decorated objects found, none had any markings that could be interpreted as inscriptions
At Çatalhöyük West, L-shaped clay objects were found, with geometric incised decorations. The same objects were found also in Çatalhöyük East [1] . In total, nearly 400 of these objects have been recorded at Çatalhöyük [2] . These are the so-called ’potstands’. Placed in pairs over the fire, they would support a cooking pot [3] . As they appear in the Late Neolithic, they may be an important indicator of a shift away from the use of interior fixed architectural fire installations for cooking, towards the use of ceramic vessels balanced on potstands [2] .Potstands have also been found at Can Hasan (mainly in levels II and I). [4] . "At Can Hasan is some evidence that walls were coated with white plaster, and fragment of red-on-white painted plaster suggest some rooms were ornamented with geometric patterns." [5] "Simple; geometrical decorated painted plaster pieces; recovered in the space deposit; on the floor; are observed to have come from the upper levels due to their lying position. A thin level of gray or light blue whitewash on white plaster was revealed in one of the rooms of a building (No:3). Red paint on white plaster was used on the walls and on the floor of another building (No:9)." [6] Here, decorated pottery should be mentioned. Some of the sherds reveal pointille, impressed, scratched, incised and channeled decoration. Triangles, zigzags, and wavy-lines are the frequent patterns in decoration [7] . Pottery in the Early Chalcolithic is mostly painted. The majority of the decorations are red or brown painted straight‐line geometric motifs, applied over a cream or yellowish‐buff slip, which is subsequently burnished. It is characteristic of the Konya Plain sites, such as Çatalhöyük West and Canhasan. For sites of Cappadocia, pottery is characterized by relief decorations (e.g. sites: Köşk Höyük and Tepecik / Çiftlik) [8] . "The fine wares decorated with high reliefs of Köşk Höyük Levels I and II are extraordinary. These depict the mother goddess; other deities; human figures; vegetation; and various animals such as bull; goat; donkey; antelope; deer; serpent; ram; tortoise; and birds. Some of these depictions are stylized like the goddess figures with her hair waving with the wind and the one with her hands on her waist or realistic like a chamois. Some are decorated with white incrustation and some (especially serpents’ eyes) with inlayed obsidian pieces." [9] PF: interpretation of the figurines as representations of the Goddess is nowadays considered universalistic and non-context dependent and, as such, rejected. [1]: Düring Bleda S., 2010. The prehistory of Asia Minor. From complex hunter-gatherers to early urban societies.,Cambridge University Press, p. 133 [2]: Ketchum S., “The Ovens and Hearths of Çatalhöyük: Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cooking and Pyrotechnology”. Catalhoyuk Archive Report 2013: 260 [3]: Mellaart, J., "Çatal Hüyük West." Anatolian Studies 15 (1965): 153, fig. 10 [4]: French, D. 2010. Canhasan Sites 3: Canhasan 1: The Small Finds. London: 43-44, fig. 39-40 [5]: Sagona Antonio, Zimansky Paul, 2009. Ancient Turkey. Routledge, London, New York, p.128 [6]: French D.H., 1968. Can Hasan 1966. Ankara, p.90 [7]: Tezcan B., 1958. Aksaray Çevresinden Derlenen Eserler. Ankara. [8]: Burcin ERDOGU, 2009. Ritual symbolism in the Early Chalcolithic period of Central Anatolia. Journal for Interdisciplinary Research on Religion and Science, p.134 [9]: http://www.tayproject.org/TAYages.fm$Retrieve?CagNo=1990&html=ages_detail_e.html&layout=web |
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Hittite was an Indo-European language
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Turkish
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Arabic.
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Unknown. "The emergence of writing is one of the indicators of civilization, and there is abundant evidence for this from early Shang sites. Inscribed symbols have been found mainly in phase III deposits at Zhengzhou (rank 1), Xiaoshuangqiao (rank 1), and Taixi (rank 2). Several symbols were found at Zhengzhou, as well as some resembling modern characters. These symbols were found mostly on dakou zun (大口尊 “large-mouthed” zun jars). In addition, some vessels from Xiaoshuangqiao have incised symbols under the rim. Some of these symbols seem similar to inscriptions on oracle bones from the late Shang period."
[1]
[1]: (Yuan 2013, 337) |
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Certain types of Hmong magical charms feature Chinese characters "as phonetic symbols",
[1]
but it is not entirely clear what that means. And of course the "Romanized" script introduced by Christian missionaries would have been phonetic,
[2]
but we are not counting it here.
[1]: Chen, Guojun, and Lien-en Tsao 1942. “Religious Beliefs Of The Miao And I Tribes In An-Shun Kweichow”, 3 [2]: Che-lin, Wu, Chen Kuo-chün, and Lien-en Tsao 1942. “Studies Of Miao-I Societies In Kweichow”, 15 |
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The A-Hmao language was first written by the Pollard script in apprx. 1905.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Duffy, John M. (2007). Writing from these roots: literacy in a Hmong-American community. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-3095-4. [2]: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/pollardMiao.htm |
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None of the native peoples developed a system of writing comparable to that of the Mayas, and much less would the Spaniards encounter a native empire such as that of either the Aztecs or Incas. By 1500 A.D., the most advanced of the indigenous peoples were two Chibcha groups: the Taironas and the Muiscas."
[1]
[1]: (Hudson 2010, 5) |
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Arabic, Persian
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Certainly absent.
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Arabic
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Arabic.
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Arabic.
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