Internal and External Influence on Writing Systems

Linguistic, cultural, and environmental considerations

when developing a constructed writing system

Carl Buck

• Understanding how language typology can influence script development is an important aspect in creating a naturalistic neography that aligns with the goals of the conlanger. An outline of types of scripts, methods of writing such as epigraphic, paper and brush, etc. The means of writing can and does influence the type of system that eventually succeeds in conveying the language in the most efficient and effective way possible.

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• These considerations are directly related to not only the language, but also the culture in question. This presentation will cover from a mid-to-high level the types of writing systems that tend to develop in various environments and with consideration of certain environmental, religious, political, and even economic influences.

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• The above can be broadly categorized as internal and external influences, respectively. These ideas are intended to afford the conlanger with a perspective that will hopefully assist them in creating systems that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but linguistically realistic, functionally sound, and useful in their projects.

Why make a writing system (neography)? What’s its purpose?

• Journaling, personal use?
• Tabletop gaming, Dungeons & Dragons, RPGs?
• Code between friends or family?
• Artistic endeavor?
• Constructed language?
• For scholarly pursuit?
• Novel, movie, other media?
• World domination?

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• If you’re making this for personal use (gaming, journaling, code, artistic), there are basically no rules, do what feels right, and it only needs be a logical as you decide.
• Adding depth to a table-top game, most probably won’t require linguistic rigor and will likely only need to be as logical or orthographically sound as the participants of the game need it to be for in-game use.
• When creating a code for friends and/or family, the goal should be to make sure that everyone can read the system, this usually means that it will be fairly simple and avoids complexity.
• Artistic endeavors are – of course – a very open category. Asemic writing is typically – by definition – not given any meaning, but exists solely as an artistic expression. These types of scripts tend to have fairly short shelf-lives and are different altogether from scripts created for calligraphy or “illumination”.
• If the script is for a conlang associated with a people (book, movie, show; narrative) consider a few things: economy, social stratification, literacy rates, and materials available…is the script one of many, are they related, descended from a common ancestor?
• If your goal is world domination, you might want to research a little-known alphabet for a dead language called “Latin”.

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When considering the type of script…

• How many symbols (or characters) does the script need?
• Are they alphabetic, syllabic, logographic?
• Do characters have differing shapes (cursive, majuscule vs miniscule)?
• How are numerals written?
• What type of punctuation – if any – is used?
• What tools are used to write it?
• What material is it written on?
• Which direction is it written/read?

Purpose of a Writing System

Important note: “Literate Population” throughout most of human history that included a developed system of written language hovered around 10-20% of the overall population. Only after the early industrial revolution did this number increase in any significant way. Even today the literacy rate fluctuates in various regions due to a myriad of reasons.

While theories have persisted that certain writing systems were created for specific – often ceremonial – purposes, it has been theorized that pieces recovered as a apart of the archeological record were simply made of more durable materials based on their use, and that the writing systems used were not restricted in use to ceremonies or rituals, but rather the objects they were written on.

This means that the earliest scripts may have been initially developed for a specific purpose, but they cannot be thought of as predominately or strictly relegated to those purposes. Consequently, when developing a script, focusing on one type of usage is an unnecessary limitation as early scripts were likely used for all manner of purposes across the literate population.

Fewer Number of Characters More�Simpler Character Complexity Higher

SEGMENTAL

Alphabet

Abjad

SYLLABIC

Abugida

Syllabary

LOGOGRAPHIC

Logography

PHONETIC

Alphasyllabary

Alphabetic Syllabary

Semisyllabary

IDEOGRAPHIC

Logosyllabary

Developmental Stages

• Picture Writing
• Mnemonic, used mostly as a reminder of an objects purpose
• Pictographic, glyphs that represent an object or concept
• Ideographic, graphemes/symbols that represent abstract ideas or concepts
• Transitional
• Graphemes refer to the name of the object, not only the idea it represents
• Phonetic
• Symbols refer to specific sounds or spoken words and the shape or form may be unrelated to its meaning

Major Shifts of Type through Time

Prior to 1000 BCE

Mostly Logographies or Logosyllabaries

• Egyptian
• Sumerian
• Akkadian
• Indus Script
• Old Chinese

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Post Bronze Age Collapse

Abjads and early Alphabets

• Phoenician
• Aramaic
• Hebrew
• Etruscan
• Latin

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~100-1000 CE

Various Types

• Mayan
• Arabic
• Tocharian B
• Armenian
• Old Turkic

Influences, Internal and External

• Internal:
• Linguistic (phonology, phonotactics)
• Economic (Cuneiform, Sumerian) (Neolithic)
• Technological, Environmental
• Political/Social (Hieroglyphs, Egyptian/Mayan)
• Spiritual (Oracle Bone Script, Chinese) (Bronze Age)
• External:
• Available Materials [key factor]
• Proselytization (spreading of belief, passive & active)
• Trade (internally and externally)
• Diplomacy (cross-linguistic & orthographic)
• Sumerian > Akkadian > Aramaic / Old Persian

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Linguistic Influences

• Phonology:
• Phonotactics: Syllable structure can (and often does) instruct script type
• Cuneiform began as logographic, was later adapted as a syllabary
• Egyptian was fluid as a phonogram (phonetic reading), as a logogram, or as an ideogram (semagram; "determinative") (semantic reading)
• Chinese is essentially “one character ≈ one syllable” but not always one “word” or “idea”
• Further borrowed by Korean (a more complex phonotactical structure), Japanese as both logograms and as inspiration for syllabaries, Vietnamese as primarily logographic but like Japanese, inspired Quốc Âm Tân Tự, literally 'new script of national sound (language)‘, and others
• Mayan, with varying syllable structures, the dialects of Maya fit well with the (C)V+ (C)V echo vowel deletion method of the glyphs.

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Economic Influences

• Trade and commerce:
• Inventories and bartering: One theory concerning the development of Sumerian cuneiform is that it was initially used as a way to mark goods by the owner, and/or used to take inventory of agricultural goods for the purpose of storage and portioning
• Material gain: An extension of the above is that privileged members of society wanted to ensure legal ownership my having easily recognizable symbols to mark their belongings, meaning that symbols were often based on flora and fauna that were native to the immediate surrounding region and easily identifiable even to the population at-large.
• International / Cross-cultural trade: Another suggests that writing developed as a means to account for and distinguish trade goods that would be sent to other regions or out-groups from those goods that would remain and be portioned for the local populous.
• An expression of wealth: There is a notion too, that writing was seeded in the pre-existing art that often adorned ceremonial objects, of both the religious and prestigious nature. Meaning, when your King is also considered a deity, and his extended family are afforded the highest quality goods, the decorations will match their status, and perhaps lead to common symbols that develop relative semantic or even phonological significance.

Here we see that through time symbols tend to simplify, resulting in a more abstract connection to the meaning.

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This is prominent across all logographies that developed over millennia. By contrast, Mayan glyphs seems mostly stable given that we only have a few centuries of extant examples.

Here we see the Han character 秋 being simplified and stylized from each stage of development, so much so that it no longer resembles its original form.

The intermediate stages of logographic development tend to favor simplification and therefore lead to the more abstract forms. This, in turn, means that the rebus principle becomes less prevalent in favor of phonemic association, i.e., alphabetic representation.

Political/Social Influence

• Government and Social Structure
• Agrarian societies developed writing primarily to keep inventories of produce and livestock.
• Hunter-Gatherer groups often had no complex writing, if any. Symbols marking territory or used to denote types of animals.
• Urban settlements often developed complex writing systems in order to encode laws and perform rituals
• Pastoralist societies were a mixture of agrarian and hunter-gatherer in that their systems were primarily used for counting livestock and for trade.
• Social ramifications
• Scribes in antiquity could elevate their social standing and by extension the quality of life of their families.
• Writing was not explicitly kept from the general populous, but formal and general education was not practiced in most regions until well into the Iron age, and even then, only in a few places.

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Spiritual Influences

• Deities
• Nisaba was the Sumerian goddess of writing, considered “scribe of the gods.” The demonstrates that writing was seen as at least semi-divine, and scribes were commonly viewed as prestigious.
• Nabu was the Akkadian god of literacy, considered the patron of scribes and wisdom.
• Thoth was an Egyptian deity of the moon, knowledge, and writing.
• Seshat was an Egyptian goddess of writing and wisdom, her name is translated as “female scribe.”
• Metatron is an angel in the Abrahamic faiths, thought to be one of the highest angels and as the “celestial scribe”

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The above demonstrates that scribes and their work of record keeping/writing was considered sacred, and a practice to be honored by everyone, even the kings and nobles. This reinforced traditions and the need for accuracy, which in-turn compelled many of the ancient scripts to persist for hundreds of years.

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This map shows that the daughter scripts of only two of the first four mother systems have diffused and spread to cover almost every spoken language, including having displaced the other two. There is no naturally developed writing system in use today that cannot be traced back (or at least influenced by) Egyptian Hieroglyphs, or Old Chinese Characters.

Final Thoughts

• The best way to develop a script is to ask yourself some very basic questions:
• Why? What’s the purpose of this script?
• Who? Which group of people will use this system?
• When? What is the time period of relative development I want to place this in?
• Where? Where is this system used and how does that affect the development?
• What? What materials are likely used based on the answers above?
• How? Is this an abjad, alphabet, logography, etc?