
A written language is the representation of a spoken or gestural
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
by means of a
writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable for ...
. Written language is an
invention in that it must be taught to children, who will pick up
spoken language or
sign language
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...
by exposure even if they are not formally instructed. Written languages can be formed by an
alphabet
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a s ...
, or using other writing systems to give words and graphical counterpart.
History
The first writing can be dated back to the
Neolithic era
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
, with clay tablets being used to keep track of livestock and commodities. However, the first example of written language can be dated to
Uruk, at the end of the 4th millennium BCE. An ancient Mesopotamian poem tells a tale about the invention of writing.
"Because the messenger's mouth was heavy and he couldn't repeat, the Lord of Kulaba patted some clay and put words on it, like a tablet. Until then, there had been no putting words on clay."
—'' Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,'' circa 1800 BCE.
Scholars mark the difference between
prehistory
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...
and
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
with the invention of the first written language. However, that leaves the argument of what is and isn't a written language. An argument over the transition of history to pre-history being whether a piece of writing in proto-writing, or genuine writing, making the matter largely subjective. Leaving the line in a gray-area. A general consensus is that writing is a method of recording information, composed of
graphemes, which also may be
glyphs, and it should represent some form of spoken language as well, falling hand in hand with containing information. Allowing
numbers to be counted as writing as well.
Origins of Writing
Many thought writing originated in one civilization, the theory being called, "
monogenesis." Scholars believing that all writing originated in ancient Mesopotamia, specifically in ancient
Sumer, and then spread throughout the world from there.
Compared to spoken language
Written languages change more slowly than corresponding spoken languages. When at least one
register of a language is strongly divergent from spoken language, the resulting situation is called
diglossia
In linguistics, diglossia () is a situation in which two dialects or languages are used (in fairly strict compartmentalization) by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labeled " ...
. However, that is still often considered one language between
literary language and other registers, especially if the
writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable for ...
reflects its
pronunciation.
Native readers and writers of
English are often unaware that the complexities of
English spelling make written English a somewhat artificial construct. The traditional spelling of English, at least for inherited words, preserves a late
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
that is never used as a speech dialect. The artificial preservation of that form of the language, in writing, might make much of what is now written intelligible to
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400) even if the medieval writer's speech could no longer be understood.
See also
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Graphocentrism Graphocentrism or scriptism is a typically unconscious interpretative bias in which writing is privileged over speech.
Biases in favor of the written or printed word are closely associated with the ranking of sight above sound, the eye above the e ...
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Foreign language writing aid
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History of writing
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History of writing ancient numbers
Number systems have progressed from the use of fingers and tally marks, perhaps more than 40,000 years ago, to the use of sets of glyphs able to represent any conceivable number efficiently. The earliest known unambiguous notations for numbers ...
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List of languages by first written accounts
This is a list of language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be ...
*
List of language disorders
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List of writing systems
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Literary language
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Standard language
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Text linguistics
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Writing
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically Epigraphy, inscribed, Printing press, mechanically transferred, or Word processor, digitally represented Symbols (semiot ...
References
Further reading
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{{Authority control
Writing
Language varieties and styles