Author Archives: ducky

About ducky

I'm a computer programmer professionally, currently working on mapping applications. I have been interested non-professionally for a long time in the effect on society on advances in communications technology -- things like writing, vowels, spaces between words, paper, etc.

Hebrew — 300 BC, Israel

Posted on February 18, 2011 by ducky

Hebrew is a difficult writing system to shoehorn into this blog format.  For starters, when did the Hebrew script come into existence?  Unlike Cree and Cherokee, which had very distinct release dates, the Hebrew script evolved over thousands of years.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Abjad, Rating: 4 "Huh, interesting!" | 2 Comments

Cree — ~1840 AD, Canada

Posted on February 17, 2011 by ducky

Missionary James Evans developed a romanization for the Ojibwe language in around 1830 AD, but found that Ojibwe students had difficulty switching between the two very different mappings of Latin characters to pronunciation.  Inspired by the stunning success of Cherokee … Continue reading →

Posted in Abugida, inventor known, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!", Syllabaries | 3 Comments

Shorthands — <300 BC, Greece?

Posted on February 16, 2011 by ducky

Shorthands — forms of writing that sacrifices accuracy and/or shared orthography for speed — are very old.  The earliest example of shorthand comes from Greece, and was sort of an inverse abugida: the vowels were primary, and consonants were noted … Continue reading →

Posted in Abjad, Abugida, Alphabet, inventor known, Logograms, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!" | 3 Comments

Cherokee — 1819 AD, USA

Posted on February 15, 2011 by ducky

The development and adoption of Cherokee are two hugely impressive accomplishments.  Chief Sequoyah, who was illiterate himself, single-handedly created a script for his language, and within eleven years, 90% of Cherokee were literate in their language.  Stop and marvel about … Continue reading →

Posted in developed by illiterate(s), inventor known, National pride, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!", Syllabaries | 4 Comments

Ge’ez — 400 BC, Ethiopia

Posted on February 14, 2011 by ducky

Ge’ez, aslo called Ethiopic, is the only Old World abugida outside of Southest Asia and the only abugida that is not clearly derived from Brahmi.  (Aside from Kharosthi, of course, which maybe spawned Brahmi.) However, it took a long time … Continue reading →

Posted in Abjad, Abugida, Rating: 4 "Huh, interesting!" | Leave a comment

Brahmi — 400 BC, India

Posted on February 13, 2011 by ducky

Brahmi is sort of the Phoenician of East Asia: almost all the non-logographic scripts in East Asia come from Brahmi, including almost all of the scripts used in India, Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Laos.  Brahmi was a … Continue reading →

Posted in Abugida, previous script didn't quite work, Rating: 4 "Huh, interesting!" | 12 Comments

Kharosthi — 350 BC, Pakistan

Posted on February 12, 2011 by ducky

The Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered huge tracts of Asia in around 500 BC, and held it until about 330 BC.  They spread the use of their official language, Aramaic, and with it the Aramaic writing system.  Near the end of … Continue reading →

Posted in Abugida, previous script didn't quite work, Rating: 5 "Whoa!!" | 2 Comments

South Arabian — 800 BC, Yemen

Posted on February 11, 2011 by ducky

Proto-Sinaitic split into two branches: a northern one which spawned almost all the writing systems of the modern world, and a southern one that did not.  Perhaps it is fairer to say that one branch of the script went to … Continue reading →

Posted in Abjad, Evolved slowly from parent, Rating: 3 "I did not know that" | Leave a comment

Paleohispanic scripts — 450 BC, Spain

Posted on February 10, 2011 by ducky

One of the places the Phoenicians colonized was the Mediterranean side of Spain, and their writing system spread around that peninsula.  Like in Italy, there were quite a few different, mostly related scripts.  Unlike in Italy, there wasn’t a hugely … Continue reading →

Posted in Alphabet, Rating: 4 "Huh, interesting!", Syllabaries | Leave a comment

Tifinagh — 400 BC, Tunisia or Libya

Posted on February 9, 2011 by ducky

Nobody is quite sure where the Berber script, used by the nomads of Northern Africa, came from.  English sources are pretty certain that Tifinagh evolved from the Phoenician script that settlers brought with them when they founded Carthage in about … Continue reading →

Posted in Abjad, Rating: 4 "Huh, interesting!" | 1 Comment