El101

    Cards (79)

    • Writing
      Customarily permanent, written texts cannot usually be altered once printed
    • Speech
      Normally transient unless recorded, speakers can correct themselves as they continue to speak
    • Written text

      Can communicate across ages and space as long as the language and writing system is still understood
    • Speech
      Usually used for immediate interactions
    • Written language
      Tends to be more complicated and intricate compared to speech with longer sentences and greater subordinate clauses
    • Written texts
      Have mechanics that do not have spoken counterparts
    • Some kinds of written language, such as instant messages and email, are more alike to oral language
    • Oral language
      Tends to be full of repetitions, incomplete sentences, corrections and interruptions, except for formal speeches and other scripted forms of speech
    • Writers
      Do not receive immediate feedback from their readers, except in computer-based communication
    • Writers
      Cannot rely on context to make things clear, so there is more need to explain things clearly and unambiguously than in speech, except in written correspondence between persons who know each other well
    • Speech
      Usually a productive interaction between two or more people, context and shared information play a major function, so it is probable to leave much unsaid or indirectly implied
    • Writers
      Can use punctuation, headings, layout, colors and other graphical effects in their written texts, which are not present in speech
    • Speech
      Can include timing, volume, timbre, and tone to add emotional element
    • Written material
      Can be read repeatedly and carefully analyzed, and notes can be made on the writing surface. Only recorded speech can be used in this way
    • Some grammatical constructions are only used in writing, as are some kinds of vocabulary, such as some complex chemical and legal terms
    • Some types of vocabulary are used only or mainly in speech, including slang expressions, and tags like y'know, like, etc.
    • Main classes of writing systems
      • Those that represent consonants and vowels (alphabets)
      • Those that represent syllables (syllabaries)
    • Abjads / Consonant Alphabets
      Have independent letters for consonants and may indicate vowels utilizing some of the consonant letters and/or with diacritics. In Abjads such as Arabic and Hebrew, full vowel indication (vocalization) is only employed in specific contexts, such as in religious books and children's books.
    • Alphabets
      Sets of letters that represent consonants and vowels. In some languages, each letter or combination of letters represents one sound, while in others, letters might represent a variety of sounds, or the same sounds can be written in different ways.
    • Syllabic Alphabets / Abugidas
      Writing systems in which the main element is the syllable. Syllables are built up of consonants, each of which has an inherent vowel, e.g., ka, kha, ga, gha. Diacritic symbols are used to change or mute the inherent vowel, and separate vowel letters may be used when vowels occur at the beginning of a syllable or on their own.
    • Syllabaries
      Phonetic writing systems composed of symbols depicting syllables. A syllable is often made up of a consonant plus a vowel or a single vowel.
    • Semanto-phonetic Writing Systems

      The symbols used often represent both sound and meaning. As a consequence, such scripts commonly comprise a large number of symbols. There is no theoretical upper limit to the number of symbols in some scripts, such as Chinese.
    • Varieties of symbols in semanto-phonetic writing systems
      • Pictograms or logograms
      • Logograms
      • Ideograms
    • Compound Characters

      Majority of characters in the Chinese script are phonetic compound; they include a semantic factor, which represents or hints at their meaning, and a phonetic factor, which reveals or hints at their pronunciation.
    • Undeciphered Writing Systems

      Writing systems that have yet to be deciphered or have only been partially deciphered.
    • Other Writing and Communication Systems
      • Alternative scripts
      • Phonetic alphabets
      • Other notation systems (Braille, Shorthand, etc.)
      • Language-based communication systems (Morse Code, Semaphore, etc.)
      • Magical alphabets (Enochian, Theban, etc.)
      • Fictional scripts
    • Only five independent writing systems have been produced and established in the entire human history - Sumerian, Egyptian, Harappan, Mayan, and Chinese. Among them, only Chinese has remained and survived into contemporary age.
    • From Egyptian and Sumerian, the proto-Canaanite was formed in 1750 BC and became precursor of all the alphabetic languages.
    • Sumerian
      The earliest known written language in human history, spoken in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and peripheral regions) throughout the third millennium BC and survived as an esoteric written language until the death of the cuneiform tradition around the time of Christ.
    • Sumerian
      • The most significant words had their own cuneiform signs, whose origins were pictographic, making an initial collection of about a thousand signs or logograms.
      • An agglutinative language not just in its verb construction, but also in its noun or morpheme construction.
    • The earliest known writing originates from Uruk and has been dated to about 3,300BC. It took the form of 'word-pictures' drawn with a stylus on tablets of damp clay.
    • Cuneiform
      A syllabic script with hundreds of wedge-shaped signs that emerged from the 'word-pictures' from Uruk.
    • Cuneiform was the language of politics until the fifth century BC. It died out and was replaced by the 22-letter Aramaic in about 900BC.
    • Egyptian
      • The language is composed of approximately 121 bi-literals, 75 tri-literals, and various determinants and phonetic complements.
      • Special attention was given to the Aesthetics of the language.
      • The majority of the language was written from right to left except for occasional specific purposes.
      • The determinants were symbols which had no sound value and were used at the end of the word to decipher the meaning between two words with the same symbols.
    • Archaeological and linguistic evidence shows that the Dravidians were the founders of the Harappan culture which extended from the Indus Valley through northeastern Afghanistan, on into Turkestan.
    • Determinant
      Came at the end of the word and demonstrated the meaning of the entire word
    • Many of the determinants added to the words (sometimes more than one per word) did not seem to be relevant to the meaning of the word to most European scholars, but it is shown that there is a connection with the language to the spiritual beliefs of the people who spoke the language
    • "Medu Netcher" [Mdw Ntr]

      These symbols cannot be understood without understanding African spirituality
    • African spirituality cannot be understood without understanding Medu Netcher
    • Interpreting the language

      1. Transliterate from symbols to orthographic text
      2. Translate into English
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