Reflection 6

"Without knowing the force of words it is impossible to know men." -Confucius

It can be said that we use writing as a means of communication every day. Right now I am using writing to do my homework. Some people use writing as a channel for their emotions, which by the way can sometimes lead to great poems and lyrics. However, writing does not always have to consist of letters. It can be a mixture of characters, symbols, and even numbers.

The invention of writing alone played a vital role in the establishment of the ancient civilizations. It is believed that writing was invented twice independently and three times in various places and times in history. In 3200 B.C ancient Sumeria, Cuneiform (wedge writing) appeared, it also was used in ancient Mexico by the Olmecs prior to 400 B.C. Cuneiform did the same thing a preface in a novel does, it served as just an introduction. The novel or next form of writing was the Maya glyphs used in 200-1500 A.D. After glyphs, characters began to appear.

Cuneiform, which developed in Sumeria flourished between 3100 and 2000 B.C. It is said that the earliest form of writing however developed in Southeast Asia out of economic expediency. There were pictograms found in Mesopotamia of tokens with pictures to label farm produce. Overtime, they started putting these picture impressions onto clay tablets with a stylus (a blunt reed). The marks left were wedge shaped which gave way to the name cuneiform.

The switch to full writing occurred sometime around 3500 and 3000 B.C; this changed as signs started to be used mainly for sound value. They also started using Homonymy which is when pictures of concrete things are used as symbols that represent sound.

Soon after the Sumerians, the idea of writing spread to the people of Southwest Asia, and surrounding places such as the Egyptians, the Cretans, the Elamites, and those of the Indus Valley. So, because the people of these ancient civilizations used pictures as writing, many assume that their form of writing was primitive. On the contrary, their form of writing just represented sound in an irregular way. The form of writing was the stepping stone of writing as we know it today.