The Writing Systems of the World

by Florian Coulmas

This book is an account of the writing systems of the world from earliest times to the present. Its aim is to explore the complex ways in which writing systems relate to the language they depict. Writing, Coulmas contends, is not only the guide or garment of spoken language, but has a deep and lasting effect on the development of language itself.

His study takes in Egyptian hieroglyphics and the cuneiform system of the ancient Near East; he describes Chinese writing, discussing why an apparently cumbersome system has been used continuously for more than 3,000 years; he ranges across the writing systems of western Asia and the Middle East, the Indian families and the various alphabetic traditions which had its origins in the multifarious world of Semitic writing and came to full bloom in pre-Classical Greece.

Genres: Linguistics, Language, Nonfiction, History

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[TRAN Cao Bang Trinh · Rating 5 out of 5]

#The Writing Systems of the World

This book is, first of all, very informative. I admire the author for his profound knowledge in the field. He indeed gave a very systematic summary of the world's writing systems.

However, I could not help to notice some mistakes. For example, on page 44, Coulmas mentioned that Vietnamese has five diacritical marks to represent its complex tones: ỏ, ồ, ố, õ, ọ. He must have mistaken between the two distinct letters in the Vietnamese language, which are o and ô respectively. Therefore, the example should have been either ỏ, ò, ó, õ, ọ or ổ, ồ, ố, ỗ, ộ.

For that reason, I suggest scholars who wish to dig deeper into the topics he mentions follow the references. I can see Coulmas did a very good job there. Not only that his use of words was very easy to follow, but also his style of listing references and notes lessen the burdens for readers.

Writing is a technology. When a writing system is used for a new language, it adapts with new characters or abolishment of old characters. It evolves. The take-home message is that no writing system is ideal. The right question is ideal for what? Therefore, there should be no fixed route for a writing system to follow.

#acrophonic_principle
#pleremic_cenemic_1983_Haas
#petitio_principii
#Sumerian
#Cuneiform
#Akkadian
#Assyrian
#Phonecian
#The_Rosetta_Stone

Coulmas, F. (1990). The writing systems of the world. UK: T.J Press Ltd.

Recommended reading:
https://jeenisbooksworming.wordpress....

[Carlos · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book certainly manages to expose the reader to most of the world’s scripts (what I was looking for), though it is squarely aimed at students of linguistics. Coulmas dedicates plenty of time to the history of the world’s most iconic scripts as well as following their evolution and adoption by cultures other than the ones which created them. While I found this quite interesting I was quite turned off by the seemingly endless minutia of linguistic classifications. Similarly, given his intention, as expressed in the introduction, to assess the extent to which a script is a reflection of the language which created it I was a little disappointed to see no discussion about the impact or origin of writing direction, i.e., left-to-right, top-down. While I was definitely pleased with many of his discussions on the histories of this or that script I still found the book quite a chore to finish.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, I found the book to very informational, if a little dry due to the time in which it was written. However, I was upset that Coulmas claims that the Maya script "never developed into a full-fledged writing system," which is probably why he neglects to include a chapter on Mesoamerican writing. Given that this book was written based on his lecture notes from a class he taught in 1987 and wasn't published until 1989, he should have been able to discuss advances work in the decipherment, including but limited to the initial success of Linda Schele and others at Palenque in 1973 and an exhbition organized by the Kimbell Art Museum and curated in part by Schele herself in 1986 that showcased the syllabic approach to decipherment.

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ultimately kind of frustrating.

While the author touches on some really interesting ideas and phenomena, he doesn't go into much depth (it's a pretty short book) and a huge range of subjects are left entirely untouched. What's here is pretty good and will be interesting to language students/nerds, but there's not enough here.

[Mark A.]

""

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Broad, but lacking style.

[Robert Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview. Not inspiring prose, but sufficient. Covers Japanese and Korean, which many books on writing systems strangely omit.