Writing system

A writing system is any conventional way of using symbols to represent a particular language. These symbols, called a script, follow specific rules to show words and ideas. The first writing systems appeared around the late 4th millennium BC. They developed from earlier systems called proto-writing, which used simple pictures called ideographs but could not fully express language.

Writing systems are grouped based on how their symbols relate to spoken language. Phonetic writing systems, such as alphabets and syllabaries, use symbols called graphemes that stand for sounds. Alphabets have symbols called letters that represent individual sounds, called phonemes. There are different kinds of alphabets: some represent both consonant and vowel sounds, while others focus mainly on consonants. Syllabaries use symbols that represent whole syllables of speech.

In contrast, logographic writing systems use symbols that stand for whole words or parts of words, called morphemes. Alphabets usually need fewer than 100 different symbols, while syllabaries and logographies can have hundreds or even thousands of symbols. Writing systems help us share ideas across time and space, making communication much easier.

Background: relationship with language

Further information: Written language

Writing is a way to use symbols to show language. These symbols are connected to either spoken or signed language. When people write something down, it is called writing, and when they look at it and understand it, it is called reading.

People have thought about how writing and language are related for a long time. While all people use spoken language, writing appeared much later and only in a few places. Every written language is based on a spoken language that already exists. Sometimes, one language can be written in different ways, and one writing system can be used for more than one language.

General terminology

Researchers who study writing systems use similar basic words, but their exact meanings can change depending on their approach.

A grapheme is the smallest part of a writing system that has meaning. Graphemes are the symbols used to build texts. All writing systems need a set of these symbols, called a script. The idea of a grapheme is like the phoneme in spoken languages. Just as different sounds (phones) can be the same phoneme depending on who is speaking, different looks of symbols (glyphs) can be the same grapheme. These different looks are called allographs. For example, the lowercase letter ⟨a⟩ can look different in various styles of writing.

Orthography means the rules for writing that a group of people follows. This includes how letters are ordered and related. For alphabets, orthography also includes spelling. For example, English orthography uses uppercase and lowercase forms for 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, along with punctuation and other symbols. A writing system is complete if it can show everything that can be said in the spoken language.

History

Main article: History of writing

Writing began a long time ago from simple symbols used to remember things. These early symbols could not fully show language. Examples include the Jiahu symbols from very old China, the Vinča symbols from Europe, and Quipu, a system of knotted cords used by the Inca Empire in South America.

Writing was created separately in different places. The first known writing, called cuneiform, started with the Sumerian language in a place called Mesopotamia. Soon after, Egyptian hieroglyphs began. Both were made without knowing about each other. Chinese characters also started on their own in China. Writing systems in Mesoamerica, like the Maya script, were also invented separately. Over time, these symbols began to stand for words, not just ideas, allowing more complex writing.

Classification by basic linguistic unit

Further information: List of writing systems

Writing systems are grouped based on how their symbols connect to parts of a language. At the simplest level, they can be either sound-based (where symbols stand for sounds) or meaning-based (where symbols stand for ideas or words). Some older writings use the term "word writing" to mean the same as meaning-based, but newer studies prefer "meaning-based" because it is clearer.

Many ways to group writing systems name three main types. Sound-based systems are split into syllabic and alphabetic types. Syllabaries have symbols for syllables. Alphabets have symbols for individual sounds, called letters. Alphabets can be further divided into three kinds: those with only symbols for consonants, those with symbols for both consonants and vowels, and those where each symbol stands for a pair of a consonant and a vowel. One scholar suggested five types of writing systems: picture-based, idea-based, partly idea-based and partly sound-based, sound-based, and alphabet-based.

In reality, writing systems are grouped by the main kind of symbols they use, and often include special cases where symbols work in different ways. For example, in English, some symbols represent whole words rather than sounds. Most writing systems mix elements of sound-based and meaning-based writing.

Logographic systems

A logogram is a symbol that stands for a meaning in a language. Chinese characters are the main logographic writing system still used today. They have been used for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and other languages in East and Southeast Asia. Since each character stands for one meaning, thousands are needed to write all the words of a language. If the symbols do not cover all meanings, reading can be confusing.

Syllabaries

A syllabary is a group of written symbols that stand for syllables. Syllabaries work best for languages with simple syllable structures because each syllable needs its own symbol. For example, Japanese has two syllabaries called hiragana and katakana, each with symbols for about 100 sounds in Japanese. English, however, has more complex syllables with many vowels and consonant clusters, leading to thousands of possible syllables. Some syllabaries, like the Yi script, have over 750 symbols.

Alphabets

An alphabet uses symbols called letters to stand for the sounds in a language, like vowels and consonants. However, the way letters are used in writing can be influenced by more than just the sounds a speaker makes. The word "alphabet" comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. An abjad is a type of alphabet where letters only stand for consonant sounds. These were the first alphabets and were mainly used for Semitic languages. Some abjads can show vowels with extra marks, but this is mostly for learning purposes. Many pure alphabets came from abjads by adding special letters for vowels, like how the Greek alphabet came from the Phoenician alphabet around 800 BC.

An abugida is a kind of alphabet where symbols stand for pairs of consonants and vowels. Each basic symbol stands for a consonant with a default vowel, and other vowels are shown by changing the basic symbol in a predictable way. In many abugidas, this change is done by adding signs for vowels, but sometimes the symbol is turned or small marks are added. The largest group of abugidas is the Brahmic family, used in India and Southeast Asia. The name "abugida" comes from the first four letters of the Geʽez script, used in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Featural systems

A featural system uses symbols for very small parts of sounds, like whether a sound is voiced or where it is made in the mouth. The main example is the Hangul script for Korean, where small symbols are combined into letters and then into blocks for syllables. Some scholars argue that Hangul is not truly a featural system, noting that Korean writers do not think in these small sound parts when they write. Other examples of designed writing systems include shorthands and made-up scripts, like the Tengwar script created by J. R. R. Tolkien for his Elven languages. These systems can have very detailed designs linked to sound features. Even the normal Latin alphabet has small features in its lowercase letters.

Classification by graphical properties

Writing systems can be described by how their symbols are arranged and read. All writing is linear because the way symbols are placed shows the order they should be read. Some writing uses connected lines, like the Phoenician alphabet, while others use separate marks, like cuneiform.

Writing can also be different depending on its direction. Some scripts read from left to right, like the Greek alphabet, while others read from right to left, like the Arabic alphabet and Hebrew. Some scripts, like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, could even switch directions depending on the picture. Over time, most scripts settled into one direction to make writing easier and more consistent.

Orthographic regularity and depth

Writing systems, like alphabets, sometimes have letters that can make more than one sound, or sounds that can be spelled in different ways. This is called polyvalence. Systems with less of this mixing are called shallow, while those with more are called deep. Even though this might seem like a problem, it helps us tell apart words that sound the same but have different meanings, like "sign" and "signal," or "child" and "children."

Researchers study how well different spelling patterns match the sounds of spoken language. While some spellings follow sound rules closely, others help show word meanings more clearly, making it easier for us to understand and use words correctly.