DOCSLIB.ORG

The Evolution of Graphic Complexity in Writing Systems Helena Miton, Hans

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Evolution of Graphic Complexity in Writing Systems Helena Miton, Hans The evolution of graphic complexity in writing systems Helena Miton, Hans-Jörg Bibiko, Olivier Morin Table of Contents A. General summary ................................................................................................................. 3 B. First registration (2018-02-22) ........................................................................................... 4 B. 1. Rationale for the study – Background - Introduction ....................................................... 4 B.2. Materials and Sources ............................................................................................................... 6 B.2.1. Inclusion criteria at the level of [scripts]: .................................................................................... 6 B.2.2. Inclusion criteria at the level of characters ............................................................................... 6 B.3. Measures ....................................................................................................................................... 7 B.3.1. Complexity ............................................................................................................................................. 7 B.3.2. Other characteristics of scripts ...................................................................................................... 8 B.4. Hypotheses and Tests ................................................................................................................. 8 B.4.1. Relationship between scripts’ size and visual complexity ..................................................... 9 B.4.2. Impact of time / invention .............................................................................................................. 10 B.4.3. Stylistic homogeneity ...................................................................................................................... 11 B.4.4. Directionality of Change – addressing Galton’s problem ................................................... 11 B.5. Data Analysis Plan – additional details ............................................................................... 12 C. Second registration — June 4th, 2019 .......................................................................... 12 C.1. Inventory constitution ............................................................................................................. 13 C.1.1. Inventory of scripts ........................................................................................................................... 13 C.1.2. Inventory of characters: special cases ........................................................................................ 13 C.1.3. Changes in Unicode versions ........................................................................................................ 14 C.1.4. Exclusions from the inventory ...................................................................................................... 14 C.2. Generating and processing pictures ..................................................................................... 17 C.2.1. Generating the pictures ................................................................................................................... 17 C.2.2 Image processing ................................................................................................................................ 17 C.3. Change to data collection on scripts’ characteristics and phylogeny ........................... 21 C.3.1. Sources .................................................................................................................................................. 21 C.3.2. Recoding for families ...................................................................................................................... 21 C.3.3. Types of scripts .................................................................................................................................. 21 C.4. Registration of an additional analysis: The shape of complexity distributions .......... 22 C.5. Referencing Chang et al. 2018 ............................................................................................... 23 D. Report and results – April 2020 ..................................................................................... 23 D.1. Erratum ...................................................................................................................................... 24 D.2. Composition of the final dataset and correlation between complexity measures ...... 24 D.3. Results ......................................................................................................................................... 26 D.3.1. Size ........................................................................................................................................................ 26 D.3.2. Invention .............................................................................................................................................. 31 D.3.3. Homogeneity ...................................................................................................................................... 32 D.3.4. Descendants ........................................................................................................................................ 33 D.3.5. Distribution ......................................................................................................................................... 36 References ................................................................................................................................. 39 A. General summary This is our research diary for a study that considers, in an evolutionary light, the visual complexity of the characters that compose the scripts of the world’s writing systems. A script (following the ISO 15924 definition) is "a set of graphic characters used for the written form of one or more languages". Some scripts are used by a variety of writing systems (e.g., the letters of the Latin script are used by the English, Vietnamese, Latin, etc. systems), but many scripts are used by one system only, and individual writing systems are typically compatible with one or a few scripts only. A script, then, is a collection of templates, used to form images which, when combined with a particular writing system, may encode the sound of a natural language. These standardised images go by various names: letters, glyphs, graphemes, signs… here they are called “characters”, following the term used by both ISO 15924 and Unicode. A script, i.e., a series of characters, does not determine what writing encodes, but it determines what writing looks like. Like languages and other cultural traditions, scripts can be transmitted, and they can be transformed, forming lineages shaped by descent, modification, and borrowing. In the course of this evolution some of their visual characteristics may be lost, others strengthened. This study investigates the nature and evolution of visual complexity in the characters of the scripts used by most of the world’s major writing systems. Visual complexity, the amount of information present in an image, can be assessed automatically using two robustly correlated measures (see section B.3.1). We use these two measures to put five hypotheses to the test. A script’s size should influence its letters’ complexity (H1); Idiosyncratic scripts emerging de novo with no clear influence from one single ancestor, should be more complex than scripts continuously derived from another script (H2); A letter’s complexity should be predicted first and foremost by the script that it belongs to (H3); Descendant scripts branching out from an ancestor script should tend to have less complex letters, compared to their ancestor (H4); Within a script, the distribution of complexity values should be skewed towards the low-complexity range: we expect a relatively high number of low-complexity letters, accompanied by fewer complex letters. This research diary will be registered, in its entirety, at each important step of the project, on the Open Science framework (https://osf.io/9dnj3/). This section was created in June 2019, and entered into the second registration. It was appended in April 2020 with a report of the data collection and the results of the pre-registered analyses. B. First registration (2018-02-22) This section constitutes the project’s original registration. It was registered on 2018-02- 22, under the title “Evolution of writing systems and visual complexity”, and can be consulted at https://osf.io/dh4wg. It was authored by Helena Miton, Hans-Jorg Bibikó, and Olivier Morin. The changes made in June 2019, between the first ad the second registration, are signaled in blue and between brackets and the reason for the changes is given in the next section (C). Section numbers have been changed. We also harmonized the vocabulary to remove potential sources of confusion. The original text used “writing system” and “script” interchangeably: “script” was substituted for “writing system” whenever warranted. We also use the same word, “character”, to refer to what the original named letters, glyphs, characters, etc. Typos and incorrect references were corrected too. B. 1. Rationale for the study – Background - Introduction Human visual signs, including written communication, have evolved to satisfy evolutionary pressures for easy processing by the human visual system. Pelli et al.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Quantitative Linguistic Computing with Perl
    Kelih, E. et al. (eds.), Issues in Quantitative Linguistics, Vol. 2, 117-128 Complexity of the Vai script revisited: A frequency study of the syllabary Andrij Rovenchak Charles Riley Tombekai Sherman 0. Introduction The present paper is a continuation of the quantitative studies of writing systems, in particular in the domain of African indigenous scripts. We analyze the statistical behavior of the script complexity defined accord- ing to the composition method suggested by Altmann (2004). The analysis of the Vai script complexity was made in a recent paper (Rovenchak , Mačutek, Riley 2009). To recall briefly, the idea of this approach is to decompose a letter into some simplest components (a point is given the weight 1, a straight line is given the weight 2, and an arc not exceeding 180 degrees has the weight of 3 units). The connections of such components are: a crossing (like in X) with weight 3, a crisp (like in T, V or L) with weight 2, and the continuous connection (like in O or S) with weight 1. For the Vai script, we also suggested that filled areas are given the weight of 2. With this method, a number of scripts had been analyzed: Latin (Altmann 2004), Cyrillic (Buk, Mačutek, Rovenchak 2008), several types of runes (Mačutek 2008), Nko (Rovenchak, Vydrin 2010). The uniformity hypothesis for the distribution of complexity was confirmed for all the scripts but the Vai syllabary. The failure in the latter case can be caused by the fact that syllabaries require some modification of this hypothesis as all the other scripts analyzed so far are alphabets.
    [Show full text]
  • Vai (Also Vei, Vy, Gallinas, Gallines) Is a Western Mande Langu
    Distribution of complexities in the Vai script Andrij Rovenchak1, Lviv Ján Mačutek2, Bratislava Charles Riley3, New Haven, Connecticut Abstract. In the paper, we analyze the distribution of complexities in the Vai script, an indigenous syllabic writing system from Liberia. It is found that the uniformity hypothesis for complexities fails for this script. The models using Poisson distribution for the number of components and hyper-Poisson distribution for connections provide good fits in the case of the Vai script. Keywords: Vai script, syllabary, script analysis, complexity. 1. Introduction Our study concentrates mainly on the complexity of the Vai script. We use the composition method suggested by Altmann (2004). It has some drawbacks (e. g., as mentioned by Köhler 2008, letter components are not weighted by their lengths, hence a short straight line in the letter G contributes to the letter complexity by 2 points, the same score is attributed to each of four longer lines of the letter M), but they are overshadowed by several important advantages (it is applicable to all scripts, it can be done relatively easily without a special software). And, of course, there is no perfect method in empirical science. Some alternative methods are mentioned in Altmann (2008). Applying the Altmann’s composition method, a letter is decomposed into its components (points with complexity 1, straight lines with complexity 2, arches not exceeding 180 degrees with complexity 3, filled areas4 with complexity 2) and connections (continuous with complexity 1, crisp with complexity 2, crossing with complexity 3). Then, the letter complexity is the sum of its components and connections complexities.
    [Show full text]
  • Paths Into Script Formation in the Ancient Mediterranean Edited by Silvia Ferrara and Miguel Valério
    STUDI MICENEI ED EGEO-ANATOLICI NUOVA SERIE SUPPLEMENTO 1 Paths into Script Formation in the Ancient Mediterranean edited by Silvia Ferrara and Miguel Valério Edizioni Quasar STUDI MICENEI ED EGEO-ANATOLICI NUOVA SERIE SUPPLEMENTO 1 è una pubblicazione del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Roma ISBN 978-88-7140-898-9 Direttore / Editor-in-chief Anna D’Agata (CNR, Roma) Undertaken with the assistance of Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP), Philadelphia * Printed with the support of Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Düsseldorf * The editors are grateful to Judith Weingarten for revising the English of the original manuscript Immagine di copertina / Cover illustration Writing Travels the Sea, drawing by Miguel Valério based on signs from the Cretan Hieroglyphic, Byblos and Anatolian Hieroglyphic scripts Stampa e distribuzione / Printing and distribution Edizioni Quasar di Severino Tognon s.r.l. Via Ajaccio 41-43 – 00198 Roma tel. +39 0685358444, fax +39 0685833591 email: [email protected] www.edizioniquasar.it © 2018 CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Autorizzazione Tribunale di Roma nr. 288/2014 del 31.12.2014 SOMMARIO Anna Lucia D’Agata Preface 7 Silvia Ferrara, Miguel Valério Introduction 9 Image-Bound Scripts at the Inception of Writing 1. Roeland P.-J.E. Decorte The Origins of Bronze Age Aegean Writing: Linear A, Cretan Hieroglyphic and a New Proposed Pathway of Script Formation 13 2. Mark Weeden Hieroglyphic Writing on Old Hittite Seals and Sealings? Towards a Material Basis for Further Research 51 Adaptations: Between Pictorialism and Schematism 3. Juan Pablo Vita, José Ángel Zamora The Byblos Script 75 4. Miguel Valério Cypro-Minoan: An Aegean-derived Syllabary on Cyprus (and Elsewhere) 103 5.
    [Show full text]
  • A Diachronic Comparison of the Vai Script of Liberia (1834–2005)
    Tykhostup, O and Kelly, P. A Diachronic Comparison of the Vai Script of Liberia (1834–2005). Journal of Open Humanities Data, 2018; 4: 2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.10 DATA PAPER A Diachronic Comparison of the Vai Script of Liberia (1834–2005) Olena Tykhostup1 and Piers Kelly2 1 Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, DE 2 The Mint research group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, DE Corresponding author: Olena Tykhostup ([email protected]) This dataset provides the first comprehensive diachronic comparison of the Vai script of Liberia, as derived from sixteen sources dated between 1834 and 2005. The Vai syllabary was invented by non-literate speakers of a Mande language and is of interest to scholars in the fields of writing and cultural transmission as an emergent writing system. Script samples that entered the dataset were retrieved from a wide variety of published manuscripts. The compiled dataset tracks the evolution of the Vai script via archival records and has reuse potential across various fields of research. Keywords: Vai script; writing systems Context periods [13, 14, 15, 3]. However, their comparison charts The Vai writing system is a syllabary representing selected only a handful of historical sources, or they syllables and morphemes of Vai, a Mande language compared a small subset of the syllabary. Svend Holsoe, spoken by approximately 167,000 people in Liberia late professor emeritus of anthropology at the University and neighbouring Sierra Leone [1]. What makes the Vai of Delaware and scholar of Liberia, began compiling a script especially interesting for scholars of both writing more expansive comparative chart but was unable to and cultural transmission is that it was invented by non- complete the work before he passed away [Charles Riley, literates and has been continuously transmitted to the pers.
    [Show full text]
  • Writing in Indigenous African Scripts: from Satzschrift to Alphabet
    Writing in Indigenous African Scripts: from Satzschrift to Alphabet Andrij Rovenchak (Lviv) New inventions of writing within indigenous societies constitute an interesting phenomenon. In most cases new scripts can be classified as “individual writing systems” rarely expanding beyond a closed circle of friends and relatives. However, even such scripts can show non-standard approaches to the way the language is reduced to writing, as the one-to-one mapping with an existing official orthography is practically never observed. An overview of scripts used in the Sub-Saharan Africa is planned. This region is known for numerous attempts to introduce new orthographies in modern times, starting from the Vai script which originated in the 1820s (Dalby 1967). All the script types are attested here, from the so called sentence (phrase) writing or Satzschrift (Meinhof 1911) to alphabets. Majority of scripts are syllabaries, which can be in particular explained by phonotactics of the respective languages. Numerous graphical systems can be classified as sentence writing, where a symbols corresponds to some proverb, statement, or even a short story. Such (in fact, proto-writings) include Adinkra, Nsibidi, Nlo (Ewe proverbs), Sona, etc. (cf. Kubik 1986, Tuchscheree 2007). Often, they are linked to some secret societies and the meaning of signs is not fully known by non-initiates. , Ge‘ez ,أبجد Indigenous naming of scripts either reflects some standard recitation order (cf. Arabic Greek αλφάβητο, English ABC, Polish abecadło, Ukrainian абетка, etc.) or a special name is given based on various considerations. Examples of the first group include: A-ja-ma-na for the Vai syllabary, Ki-ka-ku-i for the Mende syllabary, Ma-sa-ba for the Bambara syllabary (Galtier 1987), A-ka-u-ku for the Bamum script.
    [Show full text]
  • A Brief Summary of Liberian Indigenous Scripts
    A Brief Summary of Liberian Indigenous Scripts “The normal way for a society to acquire its own script is by evolving, adapting, or adopting an existing writing system. Once in a while, though, some visionary, aware simply of the existence of writing among nearby peoples (often missionaries), sets out to devise his own system that will set his people apart from all others.” So says Peter Daniels in his book The World's Writing Systems (Daniels 1996, 579). No place in the world has been home to more such visionaries than Liberia. In addition to the well- known Vai script and to me the more familiar Bassa script, the Kpelle and the Loma also had their own scripts. The Mende, mostly located in Sierra Leone, have yet another, and the Gola yet one more (Dalby 1970, 6) (though little is known about this script, and I do not include it in this summary). This means that for the relatively small country of Liberia, there are no fewer than six original scripts. No other country in Africa can boast the same. Perhaps no place in the world has a similar phenomenon. Scripts typically have been borrowed. The Greek alphabet developed from Phoenician (Swiggers 1996), as did the so-called Roman script and other early Italian alphabets. Versions of the Roman script changed considerably, both through gradual evolution as well as for specific purposes of accommodating the sounds of each language. The Roman script continued to develop through the centuries and is now used throughout the world for languages of all types (Tuttle 1996).
    [Show full text]
  • Languages by Date Before 1000 BC
    Languages by Date Before 1000 BC Further information: Bronze Age writing Writing first appeared in the Near East at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. A very limited number of languages are attested in the area from before the Bronze Age collapse and the rise of alphabetic writing: the Sumerian, Hurrian, Hattic and Elamite language isolates, Afro-Asiatic in the form of the Egyptian and Semitic languages and Indo-European (Anatolian languages and Mycenaean Greek). In East Asia towards the end of the second millennium BC, the Sino- Tibetan family was represented by Old Chinese. There are also a number of undeciphered Bronze Age records: Proto-Elamite script and Linear Elamite the Indus script (claimed to record a "Harappan language") Cretan hieroglyphs and Linear A (encoding a possible "Minoan language")[3][4] the Cypro-Minoan syllabary[5] Earlier symbols, such as the Jiahu symbols, Vinča symbols and the marks on the Dispilio tablet, are believed to be proto-writing, rather than representations of language. Date Language Attestation Notes "proto-hieroglyphic" Egyptian hieroglyphs inscriptions from in the tomb of Seth- about 3300 BC c. 2690 BC Egyptian Peribsen (2nd (Naqada III; see Dynasty), Umm el- Abydos, Egypt, Qa'ab[6] Narmer Palette) Instructions of "proto-literate" period Shuruppak, the Kesh from about 3500 BC 26th century BC Sumerian temple hymn and (see Kish tablet); other cuneiform texts administrative 1 | P a g e Languages by Date from Shuruppak and records at Uruk and Abu Salabikh (Fara Ur from c. 2900 BC. period)[7][8] Some proper names attested in Sumerian A few dozen pre- texts at Tell Harmal Sargonic texts from from about 2800 c.
    [Show full text]
  • Intersecting Symbols in Indigenous American and African Material Culture: Diffusion Or Independent Invention and Who Decides? Donna L
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 2013 Intersecting Symbols in Indigenous American and African Material Culture: Diffusion or Independent Invention and Who Decides? Donna L. Moody University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Moody, Donna L., "Intersecting Symbols in Indigenous American and African Material Culture: Diffusion or Independent Invention and Who Decides?" (2013). Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014. 1069. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/1069 This thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Intersecting Symbols in Indigenous American and African Material Culture: Diffusion or Independent Invention and Who Decides? A Thesis Presented by DONNA L. MOODY Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2013 Department of Anthropology Intersecting Symbols in Indigenous American and African Material Culture: Diffusion or Independent Invention and Who Decides? A Thesis Presented by DONNA L. MOODY Approved as to style and content by: ____________________________________________ Jean S. Forward, Chair ____________________________________________ Robert Paynter, Member ____________________________________________ Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Member ___________________________________ Thomas Leatherman, Department Head Department of Anthropology DEDICATION For John, whose love and support made it possible. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I began this journey in honor of my ancestors, especially those brave-hearted women who provided me with life, knowledge, and a rootedness in this world.
    [Show full text]
  • The Caroline Islands Script
    The Caroline Islands script A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAll IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN PACIFIC ISLAND STUDIES AUGUST 1993 By Alexander Johan de Voogt Thesis Committee: Robert C. Kiste, Chairperson Kenneth Rehg Donald M. Topping We certify that we have read this thesis and that, in our opinion, it is satisfactory in scope and quality as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in Pacific Island Studies. Thesis Committee Chairperson 11 Copyright by Alexander J. de Voogt 111 Acknowledgements I wish to express my gratitude to Karen Peacock of Hamilton Library, Terence Wesley-Smith, Constance G. Dickmeyer and Cornelia Moore for their assistance in preparing this manuscript. lowe particular thanks to Christy Harrington and Kathy Czar for providing an ideal study environment and the Fulbright foundation for their financial support. IV Abstract This thesis maintains that the Caroline Islands script has been unjustly dismissed as a preferable orthography for the Woleaian language. The reason for this dismissal were twofold: (l) the researchers compared the script with an inaccurate tentative orthography by Smith (1951) and (2) there are still many misconceptions about syllabaries in general. However, this thesis seeks to show that the script should be preferred to introduced Roman alphabets for the Woleaian language, since (l) it strengthens cultural practices, (2) enforces indigenous forms of education and (3) adds to cultural pride, whereas schooling with conventional Roman alphabet orthographies tend to influence these factors negatively. Three syllabaries, the Yi, the Vai and the Cherokee syllabary, with histories similar to the Caroline Islands script support the thesis that the script should be preferred for cultural reasons.
    [Show full text]
  • Writing and Script: a Very Short Introduction VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS Are for Anyone Wanting a Stimulating and Accessible Way in to a New Subject
    Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. The VSI library now contains over 200 volumes — a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology—and will continue to grow to a library of around 300 titles. Very Short Introductions available now: AFRICAN HISTORY CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson John Parker and Richard Rathbone CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy AND ELECTIONS L. Sandy Maisel CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY Helen Morales Charles O. Jones CLASSICS ANARCHISM Colin Ward Mary Beard and John Henderson ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon ANCIENT WARFARE CONSCIOUSNESS Susan Blackmore Harry Sidebottom CONTEMPORARY ART ANGLICANISM Mark Chapman Julian Stallabrass THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Simon Critchley ANTISEMITISM Steven Beller COSMOLOGY Peter Coles The APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS THE CRUSADES Christopher Tyerman Paul Foster CRYPTOGRAPHY ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn Fred Piper and Sean Murphy ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne DADA AND SURREALISM ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes David Hopkins ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DARWIN Jonathan Howard ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS ATHEISM Julian Baggini Timothy Lim AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick AUTISM Uta Frith DESCARTES Tom Sorell BARTHES Jonathan Culler DESIGN John Heskett BESTSELLERS John Sutherland DINOSAURS David Norman THE BIBLE John Riches DOCUMENTARY FILM BIOGRAPHY Hermione Lee Patricia Aufderheide THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea DREAMING J.
    [Show full text]
  • African Writing Systems
    African Writing Systems Mandombe script Writing is a means by which people record, objectify, and organize their activities and thoughts through images and graphs . Writing is a means to inscribe meanings that are expressed through sounds. Further, writing provides an aspect of historicality. [1] This means that writing facilitates the proper recording and transmissions of events and deeds from one generation to another. Most of the worlds written script originated from the Semitic script. The Greeks converted the Semitic script into what was to become the 'English script' of the western world. Arabic and Hebrew retained the basic format of the Semitic script, employing vowel characters and not letters. Chinese script developed uniquely. It is rather interesting to note that no alphabet is known to have ever been formed by Europeans. We are very familiar with the African Egyptian hieroglyphic script and the African Ethiopian Geez script, which date as old as 3000 BC and 500 BC years respectively. However forgotten by no coincidence are many other ancient African scripts that are unique and expressive in their own ways. Scripts created and used for hundreds of years from Sudan to Nigeria. It appears that one of the main reasons why these great African script were lost in the sands of Historical time, is the direct mechanism of the colonial operation. Colonialism was internationally justified on a premise that the African was less than a human, this stamped by the infamous 1865 'Code Noir'. [2] To this goal, all evidence of African advanced skills would have been suppressed, books destroyed and higher skills silenced.
    [Show full text]
  • Acting out Culture Reading and Writing 1St Edition Ebook Free
    ACTING OUT CULTURE READING AND WRITING 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK James Miller | --- | --- | --- | 9780312454166 | --- | --- From Phonics to Reading | Grades K–3 | Sadlier School I know many thousands of other people do the same around the world: a true midwinter comfort. There was a comfort in that companionship. What writers are especially good on the natural world? Alive now, writing now? Richard Powers and Cormac McCarthy. A young Indian naturalist called Yuvan Aves whose Instagram posts are minor classics of that ultramodern form. Jemisin and M. John Harrison. Sebald, Nan Shepherd, and J. Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing? But no; the violence came to sicken me by halfway through, as did aspects of the politics. So I junked it. Do you prefer books that reach you emotionally, or intellectually? That seems a right rule to me. The brain only continues the spine: the wick really goes through the whole length of the candle. Which genres do you especially enjoy reading? And which do you avoid? How do you organize your books? Some systems have an uncertain origin, such as the Germanic orthography known as runes. Methods for getting this inventory of different kinds of symbols onto available surfaces have varied a great deal in strategy, in the time and energy required for the task, and in the permanence of the product. Until the invention of moveable type, writing was often the job of specialists who spent long periods generating singular, quite perishable texts. Paper books proved to be rapidly and easily replicable with the printing press, making possible mass readerships, but they too have faced problems of fragility, wear, and oxidation relieved by acid-free paper.
    [Show full text]