1. Chapter 16
Written Language

2. Writing
Writing is the symbolic representation of language through the use of graphic signs - Writing as a system is not acquired but learned consciously - Not all languages have a writing system - There are large numbers of individuals who cannot use the system in their native languages - Writing is a recent phenomenon: - cave drawings (20,000 years ago) - clay tokens (10,000 years ago) - cuneiform writing ( 5,000 years ago) - ancient writing system (3,000 years ago) ( found in east Georgia)

3. Pictograms, or picture- - Early form of writing, in modern times- pictorial symbols that represents words or phrases - writing, are language independent and have the same conventional meaning in different places where different languages are spoken - these images are interpreted as symbols of objects

4. Ideograms are more abstract or conceptual, also considered as derived forms from pictures
-More picture like forms are pictograms and more idea like forms are Ideograms

5. Logograms
Logograms depict an arbitrary relationship between the written form and the object it represents
It is hard to identify what they refer to
Chinese characters are logographic in nature; symbols represent syllables, thus they are also called ‘morphographic’.

6. Phonographic Writing
Rebus Principle
A principle found in some writing systems whereby a picture of a particular object is used to represent the sounds (but not the meaning) of the name of that object. (

7. - Alphabetic writing combines single sounds or morphemes to form words
Syllabic writing
- employs a set of symbols, each representing the pronunciation of a syllable (
- Alphabet is a system of written symbols, each representing a single type of sound or phoneme
- Alphabetic writing combines single sounds or morphemes to form words

8. Alphabetic Writing
English writing is alphabetic in a loose sense
- irregular correspondence between sound and symbolic representation
due to historical influences on the form of written English
-written conventions in French and Latin (/qu/ instead of /cw/)
-influence from Flemish printers (ghost from gheest)
-changes in pronunciation but not in written form (knight)
-pronunciation of final –e and how it influences previous vowels
(hat/hate, not/note)
-preserve words’ Latin origin (‘dette’ became ‘debt’. ‘iland’ became ‘island’)

9. English Orthography