The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet

Couverture
John Wiley & Sons, 13 sept. 2011 - 336 pages
In a world of rapid technological advancements, it can be easy to forget that writing is the original Information Technology, created to transcend the limitations of human memory and to defy time and space. The Writing Revolution picks apart the development of this communication tool to show how it has conquered the world.
  • Explores how writing has liberated the world, making possible everything from complex bureaucracy, literature, and science, to instruction manuals and love letters
  • Draws on an engaging range of examples, from the first cuneiform clay tablet, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Japanese syllabaries, to the printing press and the text messaging
  • Weaves together ideas from a number of fields, including history, cultural studies and archaeology, as well as linguistics and literature, to create an interdisciplinary volume
  • Traces the origins of each of the world’s major written traditions, along with their applications, adaptations, and cultural influences
 

Pages sélectionnées

Table des matières

The First IT Revolution
1
Forgotten Legacy of a Forgotten People
13
Egyptian Hieroglyphs and the Quest for Eternity
33
A Love of Paperwork
56
Calendars of Kings
79
The Clerks of Agamemnon
95
Three Scripts are Better than One
113
Sequoyah ReverseEngineers
133
The Empire of Sanskrit
169
King Sejongs OneMan Renaissance
191
Greek Serendipity
208
The Age of Latin
229
The Alphabet Meets the Machine
249
Figures A 1A 7
273
Further Reading
281
Index
297

Egypt to Manchuria in 3400 Years
143
Droits d'auteur

Autres éditions - Tout afficher

The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet
Amalia E. Gnanadesikan
Aperçu limité - 2008
The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet
Amalia E. Gnanadesikan
Aucun aperçu disponible - 2009
The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet
Amalia E. Gnanadesikan
Aucun aperçu disponible - 2008

Expressions et termes fréquents

adapted Akkadian ancient Arabic Aramaic Aramaic alphabet Asia became began Bible Brahmi century Cherokee China Chinese characters Christian civilization classical clay tablets consonants context Coptic Crete culture cuneiform cursive decipherment demotic developed diacritics dialects distinct dynasty early Egypt Egyptian hieroglyphs Empire English Etruscan eventually example figure glyphs Greek alphabet Hebrew hiragana India inscriptions invented Japanese kana kanji katakana king Knossos known Korean later Latin letters Linear linguistic literacy logograms logographic man’yogana Maya Maya script meaning Minuscule modern morphemes Mycenaean names native occur original paper period Persian Phoenician phonemes phonological pinyin plosives printing pronounced pronunciation proto-cuneiform record represent Roman alphabet Sanskrit scholars scribes script Sejong Semitic Sequoyah Shang signs sound speakers spelling spoken language style suffixes Sumerian syllabary syllables syllabograms symbols Tamil texts tion tradition typewriter Ugaritic uniconsonantal University Press vernacular vowel words writing system written language

À propos de l'auteur (2011)

AMALIA E. GNANADESIKAN teaches writing at Holy Family University, USA and has taught linguistics at West Chester and Rutgers universities. Her theoretical publications include works in phonology and language acquisition. Her column on language, "Postcards from Babel", appears in The Vocabula Review.

Informations bibliographiques

TitreThe Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet
The Language Library
AuteurAmalia E. Gnanadesikan
ÉditeurJohn Wiley & Sons, 2011
ISBN1444359851, 9781444359855
Longueur336 pages
  
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