Blueprints and Borrowed letters

1. Blueprints and Borrowed letters Abhinav Golas 2003CS50466

2. Overview Current spread Why it is essential Development Requirements Problems Stages �copying� Indian languages

4. Value of Writing Writing � Knowledge � Power One of the most geographically restricted developments Uses Administrative Transfer of knowledge

5. Speech units denoted Single basic sound Alphabets and phonemes � English Syllable Linear B, Japanese kana Whole word Logograms � Chinese, Japanese kanji, hieroglyphs, cuneiform

6. Problems How to decompose speech? Recognize units in spite of variations Decision that system should ignore such variations Format

7. Initial Stages in development First � shorthand form for noting basic objects, e.g. bird, fish etc. Attaching phonemes to symbols � rebus principle Decomposing and writing words in terms of phonemes Extension to abstract terms, e.g. life Resolving ambiguities

8. Independently developed systems 3000 b.c. Sumerian cuneiform 600 b.c. Maya Egyptian hieroglyphs Chinese Easter Island Indian scripts??

9. Methods of �copying� writing Blueprint copying Copy almost exactly, modifying as required E.g. Cyrillic alphabets (Russia) Idea diffusion Knowledge that something has been achieved elsewhere stimulates development

10. Development of alphabets Ditching logograms for signs for single consonants Ordering of consonants and naming for easy memorisation Vowels

11. Development trees � by blueprint copying Aramaic -> Arabic Hebrew Indian Other South East Asian alphabets Phoenicians -> Greeks -> Romans -> most Western European languages

12. Idea diffusion Sequoyah�s script for Cherokee language Easter Island script � earliest writing 1851 A.D. - after they had been conquered Egyptian hieroglyphs � knowledge of sumerians Chinese � Fertile Crescent and Indus valley

13. Reasons for geographical spread Few people knew how to write Cryptic Languages lacked depth for prose Administrative usage mostly Required a certain complexity and scale of society, and a time lag with these conditions Geographical isolation

14. Sir William Jones� address to the Bengal Asiatic Society in 1786 The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs, and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists.

15. PIE � Proto Indo-European Postulated that all European and Asian languages arose from a common language the PIE � Grimm�s Law Basis lies in Sir William Jones�s study of languages. 2 sub-trees came out of these Satem languages Centum languages

16. PIE � origin chart � satem

17. PIE � origin chart � centum

18. The Indian context � Indus valley civilization A seal has been found from Harappa dated 3500B.C. But last records of these are till 1700B.C.

19. Story of origin of Indian scripts Claimed that South Indian languages originated as combination of Dravidian and Aryan influences Amazingly no script put in place for 1500 years Arrival of Alexander in 326 B.C. - brought scribes and Aramaic

20. Story of origin of Indian scripts Aramaic gave rise to Brahmi script Brahmi Devanagiri � North Indian group South Indian group Maurya�s and Buddhism promoted these

21. Similarities

22. References Guns, Germs and Steel � Jared Diamond Wikipedia ww.danshort.com ttp://www.colfa.utsa.edu/drinka/pie/