Writing: The Story of Alphabets and Scripts

by Georges Jean

Looks at the origins of writing, discusses cuniform and hieroglyphics, and traces the development of typography and printing

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Language, Reference, Linguistics, Art, Writing

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

"So, first man's house and his architecture, then its body, its structure and its weaknesses, the justice, music, the church; war, harvest and geometry; the mountains, nomadic life, cloistered life; astronomy; work and rest; the horse and the serpent; the hammer and the urn that can be upturned and strung up to make a bell; trees, rivers, roads; and finally destiny and God: that is what the alphabet contains."

Victor Hugo, Travel Notebooks, 1839

I thoroughly enjoy the New Horizons series. Always well researched and richly illustrated, with art and technical drawings, as well as artefacts and portraits, it also contains a large section of primary source excerpts and documents for further reading. That is where I found the Victor Hugo quote above, along with reflections by Roland Barthes on the importance of writing, examples of calligraphy and on the special case of writing music, on ancient Roman advertisement, propaganda and graffiti.

This short introduction into the history of writing offers an overview of the multiple revolutions in human society that were the effect of the new form of communication, from cuneiform and hieroglyphs and Chinese pictograms to our own alphabet, and from papyrus rolls and Medieval manuscripts stored in monasteries to the invention of the printing press and the mass communication of writing that started in the second half of the 15th century in Europe.

Of course it also tells the exciting story of the language specialists of the 19th century who embarked on the adventure to decipher long forgotten languages, with the Rosetta stone as a symbol for human history and its various facets: found in Egypt during the Napoleonic era, part of the stormy political developments of that time, it ended up in the British Museum, where it is now admired for its role in deciphering the hieroglyphs. Why was it possible? Because of the multilingual message carved into the stone, an early case of global citizenship which required propaganda texts to be written in three different text forms. Ancient multilingualism made it possible to regain lost knowledge of the Ancient Egyptian world through an international linguistic effort in the 19th century. What a thriller!

From deciphering Mesopotamian clay tablets to typing Goodreads book reviews on computer tablets, there is a straight line of improving communication, in order to document, and influence the world through words that can be stored.

It is a rewarding journey to have a look at the developments that led to our text overflow today, as it seems to satisfy so many human needs, and ultimately define us as a species.

The stories people tell, carved in stone or posted on a social media platform, are a crucial part of what makes us special. And the most fascinating detail of all, to be found in another favourite book on the power of reading, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, our brain was never wired to learn how to read and to write, but it happened anyway. Maryanne Wolf tells the unbelievable story of what actually happens in our brain during that process that we now take for granted. Reading and writing are true wonders, in every respect!

Highly recommended!

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

What serendipity that I found this book in mint condition at a tiny diner in an off the grid town in Louisiana. It was going for 2 dollars and is worth twenty.

This concise book provides the earliest records of writing and how it developed throughout the ages around the world.

Provides lots of photographs and fascinating facts about the different countries, cultures and individuals who contributed to writing and printing.

[zeynep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kitap oldukça güzel, fakat hem baskısı felaket, hem de çevirisi oldukça kötü. YKY'den çıkan bir kitapta bu kadar çok yazım ve baskı hatası olması gerçekten üzücü. Aynı zamanda sinir bozucu çünkü elimdeki 10. baskısı, yani bu zamana kadar bu hataların fark edilmemiş olması gerçekten inanılmaz. Bazı kısımlarda resimlerin altındaki notlar bile karıştırılmış, farklı resimlerin altına alakasız notlar yazılmış. Çeviri konusunda da şunu söyleyeyim sadece, anadilimde basılmış bir kitabı okurken sürekli İngilizce çevirisine bakmak zorunda kaldım. Bilsem satın almaz kütüphaneden ödünç alarak okurdum. İngilizce versiyonu ise gayet iyi, o konuda başka bir şey söylemeye gerek yok. Eğer iyi derecede İngilizce veya Fransızca biliyorsanız o basımları okumanızı tavsiye ederim.

[verbava · Rating 3 out of 5]

щедро проілюстрована стисла історія письма, від шумерської бухгалтерії до авторучок; позаяк книжка вперше видана 1987 року, ніяких вам комп'ютерних шрифтів чи роздумів про остаточний занепад писання від руки. переклад із французької, тому добірка цитованих авторів відповідна: дідро з аламбером, анрі мішо, віктор гюго, гійом аполлінер, ролан барт (із барта – гарна прикінцева цитата про те, що писання – це не тільки технічний процес, а ще й приємний фізичний досвід. цілковито згодна). трохи шкода, що рунічне письмо побіжно згадане аж один раз за весь текст; зате є чимало про арабську й китайську каліграфії.

[Edith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated history of just what it says! The translation from the French is not always the happiest, but very readable. If it's about writing or printing, it's in here. Very dense.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se você gosta de escrita e história, esse livro é perfeito e abrange muito da evolução e tecnologia da escrita, desde as placas cuneiformes até os papiros e a imprensa.

[Sahra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love all the fun facts

[Melek Guler]

Ödev olarak okudum kitabı, yazının 6 bin yıllık tarihsel gelişim sürecini anlatıyor, bence faydalı da bir başlangıç kitabı ancak gel gelelim Türkçesi gerçekten sorunlu. Yazıya ve evrimleşip bugünlere nasıl geldiğine dair merakınız varsa ve nereden başlasam ki diyorsanız burası olabilir.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty fun book, even if it was written by someone with a highly suspect name. (You know what they say about never trusting someone with two last names)

[Birkan AYDIN · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sayfa tasarımı okumayı ciddi anlamda zorlaştırdı. Yazının gelişimi vasıtasıyla geçmişe güzel bir yolculuğa çıkarıyor, yeni bilgiler ediniyorsunuz.

[Jamie Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not sure who this book was written for. I ordered it from my library’s online catalog and was expecting a more traditional book. This one is physically small, only 5x7 inches, and around 200 pages. The first 128 pages cover the history of writing and are printed on glossy paper with about 50% of the page space taken up with illustrations. After that, the rest of the book consists of writings about writing and is printed on standard book paper with black and white images.

The pictures and photos in the first section are nice, and in full color, and the text itself is at an adult level, but who would be the intended audience for a book like this? If a reader is interested enough in the subject to get a book on it, who would be satisfied with each topic being handled with a couple of paragraphs and a few pretty pictures? Looking online I found that it is part of the New Horizons series, and there are dozens of titles in this format, so there must be a market for books like this (People with short attention spans? People who only have five minutes at a time to read? People who want just enough superficial knowledge on a subject to sound educated at a cocktail party?) Very strange.

It proceeds in roughly chronological order, starting with cuneiform and moving to hieroglyphics and other writing systems such as the Cretan linear systems. It then jumps to China and India and tracks the development of their systems, and then advances through the invention of movable type and up to the Linotype era. The writing is not bad and can serve as a primer to whet your appetite for books that actually delve into the topics. The bibliography pointed me toward some other books that look like they will provide a deeper exposure to aspects of the history of writing.

The last part of the book, the writings about writing, is a jumble of mismatched little essays, each a couple of hundred words long. Some are written by typographers and graphic designer for other typographers and graphic designers, and to the casual reader can border on the nonsensical, e.g., “The shape of the paper forms another rhythmic element: it might be the symmetry of an equilateral square or the stressed rhythm of the short and long edges of a rectangle….The rhythm of the composition can be in harmony with the format of the paper or in contrast to it.” Umm, okay….

So who is it for? If you’re heading off to a party and want to know just enough about the history of writing to impress people who don’t know anything at all about it, I guess this is the book for you. If you want to have the subject explored in depth you should look elsewhere.

[Ted Landrum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this little book up many years ago in the gift shop at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I found it fascinating then, that an individual (a poet, by the way) was capable of telling the entire history of writing in a single, beautifully illustrated, and profoundly wise book! Georges Jean was an eminent French scholar, and poet, who wrote also on poetics, and created books for children. Marvelling at the genius of human beings, from all around the world, who - somehow - invented ways of communicating complex ideas, stories, and facts though simple marks made in clay and stone, on plant and animal skins - keeps the mind alive to the possibility of further inventions in how and what we are able to communicate, and record, about the fragile but enduring human universe. It is also simply fun to read, giving one simultaneously a sense of great wisdom past, and the joy of childlike wonder at the intelligence, and artful diligence, of those who learned, and bothered to write things down. A timeless classic! I return to it often. Lately, it is helpful to appreciate the depths of human history, and meaning, that arose at the special place where three continents still connect, and where people have struggled for so long to make sense of seemingly endless wars no one should ever have had to suffer or fight. My wish is that if only more people read about the earliest cultures, and how similar they all were - and are - while equally admiring the remarkable differences, then it would be a far more peaceful world, where new stories could be told that are not about war, but about the splendid art of being alive and living well in a world where difference is celebrated as the source of meaning, and where children can be taught to love reading and writing, and not be targeted and sacrificed as mere numbers to pile upon the scales of hate.

[Jenny Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a small but comprehensive introduction to the 6000-year history of writing . I appreciate the author's efforts to look at this long history in both the Western and Eastern world, comparing and raising hypotheses on the connection and co-existence of different languages and their writing. The abundance of illustrations is a great and necessary feature of this book. Indeed, one may feel the need to research further if wanting to truly grab the essence of each writing. There are some places where the captions (for illustrations) are obscure, some places where these images are not directly related to the texts. Still, this is a pleasure non-fiction read I truly enjoyed.

[Ozan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kitapta (8. baskı) bazı tarihler yanlış, bu da ister istemez genel olarak kitaptaki tüm tarihlerden insanın şüphe duymasına neden oluyor. Kitap adına bu büyük bir eksi.

Kitap iki ana bölümden oluşuyor. Yazının hikayesinin objektif bir şekilde anlatıldığı ilk bölüm ve çeşitli yazarların yazılarının bulunduğu "Tanıklıklar ve Belgeler" isimli ikinci bölüm.

Kitabın birinci bölümünde, tarihler dışında, bence fena bir iş çıkarılmamış. Bu bölüm nesnel açıklamalarla dolu ve bu bölümden bazı şeyler öğrendim. Ama ikinci bölümün öznel tarzı birinci bölümde yaratılan havaya hiç uymuyor, ayrıca seçilen yazılar oldukça vasat. Bence bu bölüm kitaba konmasaymış da olurmuş.

[Mick Travel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Erinnerte mich tatsächlich an einen Wikipedia Beitrag. Dafür war es schon recht ausführlich. Aber dafür wie prominent ein chinesisches Schriftzeichen auf dem Cover ist, war die chinesisch Schrift mit ein paar Absätze wirklich unterrepräsentiert. Es war aber auch fast das einzige nicht europäische oder mediterrane Schriftsystem, das erwähnt wird. Selbst Arabisch wird nur gestreift. Alles in allem bin ich enttäuscht.

[arserene · Rating 4 out of 5]

öğretmenimin tavsiyesi (daha doğrusu ödev vermesiyle) üzerine okudum ve yazıya ilgisi olanlar için gerçekten çok güzel bir kitap. sanırsam son 100 sayfası favori kısmım ama her sayfası gayet güzel olan bilgilendirici bir kitap.

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated, this is basically two books. The first, on glossy paper, is a brief survey of the history of writing across cultures. The second, on something a shade better than newsprint, is a series of essays about aspects of writing, some of it quite technical.

[Sofia Ophelia 🍉 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant little book! This book is very rich in detail and beautifully coloured images of manuscripts.

[paula ☾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una lectura súper sencilla, informativa y agradable. Uno de los pocos manuales de la carrera que no se me ha hecho pesado. Además, cuenta con una selección documental y gráfica excelente.

[Levent Şenol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yazının gelişimi hakkında ilgi çekici bir kitap, yer yer okumak zor gelebilse de bitirilmeye değer.

[Rex Libris · Rating 3 out of 5]

An OK book book about the history of writing, going over the different alphabets and ways of printing. time would be better spent reading The alphabet Effect instead.

[Kate Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and abundantly illustrated small book about how we as a species learned to write and reproduce our writing. The earliest writing--dating from 4,000 BCE in Sumer--was developed as a way to keep track of agricultural commodities. We can thank the Phoenicians for the idea of the alphabet; before that, writing corresponded to words or syllables instead of sounds. With an alphabet, the number of symbols a person needed to memorize in order to read and write was drastically reduced and simplified. A final chapter introduces us to the leading scholars of the 19th and 20th centuries who were first able to decipher ancient scripts.

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was curious about how cuneiform morph into hieroglyphics. I found this book at the Nelson Art Gallery...it's small and very readable. It's amazing so far.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about writing. I wouldn't expect to learn so much from such a little book. It's fun to read, has tons of amazing facts along the way and just a blast.

[Daphnée Kwong Waye · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know that you can find of the information about the history of writing on the internet, but this small book, with its glossy pages, sweet perfume, smooth surface, and amazing illustrations simply beats the digital way of reading. Moreover, since it's small and very easy, light-headed to read, I'm no doubt going to browse through it endlessly until the end of my time.

[Özlem Güzelharcan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yazinin bulunusu ve evrimine dair harika bilgiler harika fotogaflarla, kuse kagitta bu kitapta canlaniyor. Hiyerogliflerden magara resimlerine ve cesitli alfabelere dair ayrintili bilgiler iceren Georges Jean'in bu derlemesi benim gibi yazi muptelalarinin basini dondurecektir.

[Suryadi van Batavia]

Saya percaya bahwa alfabet yang kita pake adalah hasil evolusi.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mostly just love looking at the pictures of all the writing systems throughout the ages! A fun book to pick up and look at occasionally.

[Bengi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book on how writing evolved and developed.

[E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the historical information is a little dodgy.

[Natalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm pleased with this book. Nice and enjoyable reading with good graphics, nothing too profound.