1. The Invention of Writing
WORLD HISTORY READERS
Level 1-⑥
The Invention of Writing

2. Writing is an important part of our daily life.
What do people write? s
Blogs
Notes
Text messages
Letters
Diaries
Poems
Writing is an important part of our daily life.

3. The beginning of writing
Why did people start writing?
They wanted to record the number of things they had, such as animals or fruit trees.
How did marks for numbers become marks of language?
People did not just want to count. They wanted to write their ideas, remember events, and learn from each other.

4. The earliest writing systems
What are these?
These are pictures on the stone that tell a story.
What were hieroglyphics?
They were pictures that Egyptians used to represent things or sounds in their language.

5. The earliest writing systems
What was the problem with these systems?
The earliest writing systems were pictures of things and events.
These systems were hard to learn. There were too many pictures for people to remember.
What was cuneiform?
It was the writing system that Sumerians used for their languages. It developed to the point that poems were even written with this system of writing. It began as pictures but changed over time.

6. Writing systems used today
What are some writing systems used today?
Arabic is a writing system with 25 consonant and 3 vowels.
Thai is a writing system with 44 consonants, 28 vowels or vowel combinations, and 5 tones.
Korean is a writing system with 19 consonants and 21 vowels or vowel combinations.
They are all saying “Hello”!

7. The same writing system
What are some languages that share the same writing system?
French
German
Spanish
English, French, Spanish, and German all share the same writing system. They all use the Roman alphabet, but in slightly different ways.

8. The same writing system
What are some languages that share the same writing system?
Chinese and Japanese share some characters, but Japanese uses other scripts (hiragana and katakana) with Chinese characters (kanji).
Chinese
Japanese

9. Will we have many languages in the future, or will there be only one?
We don’t know what will happen in the future. Today more than one billion people use Chinese as their first language. About 400 million people use English as their first language. But over 1.5 billion people learn English as a second language!

10. Vocabulary language n. symbol n.
a system of communication which consists of a set of sounds or written symbols
symbol n.
a letter, figure, character, or mark used to represent something

11. Vocabulary connect v. clay n. to join or put together
a kind of earth that is soft when it is wet and hard when it is dry

12. Vocabulary alphabet n. trade v.
a set of letters used for writing the words of a particular language
trade v.
to buy and sell things

13. Vocabulary tablet n. future n.
a flat piece of stone, clay, or wood with words written on it
future n.
the time after now