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Early-Alphabets-3.Pdf Early Alphabets Alphabetic characteristics 1 Cretan Pictographs 11 Hieroglyphics 16 The Phoenician Alphabet 24 The Greek Alphabet 31 The Latin Alphabet 39 Summary 53 GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 1 / 53 Alphabetic characteristics 3,000 BCE Basic building blocks of written language GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 2 / 53 Early visual language systems were disparate and decentralized 3,000 BCE Protowriting, Cuneiform, Heiroglyphs and far Eastern writing all functioned differently Rebuses, ideographs, logograms, and syllabaries · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 3 / 53 HIEROGLYPHICS REPRESENTING THE REBUS PRINCIPAL · BEE & LEAF · SEA & SUN · BELIEF AND SEASON GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 4 / 53 PETROGLYPHIC PICTOGRAMS AND IDEOGRAPHS · CIRCA 200 BCE · UTAH, UNITED STATES GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 5 / 53 LUWIAN LOGOGRAMS · CIRCA 1400 AND 1200 BCE · TURKEY GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 6 / 53 OLD PERSIAN SYLLABARY · 600 BCE GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 7 / 53 Alphabetic structure marked an enormous societal leap 3,000 BCE Power was reserved for those who could read and write · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 8 / 53 What is an alphabet? Definition An alphabet is a set of visual symbols or characters used to represent the elementary sounds of a spoken language. –PM · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 9 / 53 What is an alphabet? Definition They can be connected and combined to make visual configurations signifying sounds, syllables, and words uttered by the human mouth. –PM · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 10 / 53 What is an alphabet? Definition • An alphabet is a commonly recognized set of letters used to write one or more languages • It has separate glyphs for individual sounds, rather than larger units, like syllables or words • A true alphabet has letters to represent the vowels of a language as well as the consonants. • Standard ordering (alphabetical order) provide structure · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 11 / 53 Cretan Pictographs 2,800 BCE Early Minoan pictorial mark-making GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Cretan Pictographs 12 / 53 A possible basis for later alphabetic forms because of its visual similarities CRETAN PICTOGRAPHS COMPARED TO THE LANGUAGES THEY INFLUENCED GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Cretan Pictographs 13 / 53 • Figures, arms, body parts, animals, plants, geometric shapes • About 135 pictographs survive CRETAN PICTOGRAPHS · LINEAR B SYLLABARY · MYCENAEAN GREEK · 1,700 BCE GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Cretan Pictographs 14 / 53 Phaistos Disk • 241 hieroglyphic tokens • Hatchet, eagle, carpenter’s square, animal skin, vase • Relief impressions in terra cotta • Origin of movable type? PHAISTOS DISK · MINOAN CIVILIZATION · EXCAVATED IN 1908, CRETE GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Cretan Pictographs 15 / 53 PHAISTOS DISK AND SYMBOL KEY GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 16 / 53 Hieroglyphics 2,700 BCE Three varieties of proto-alphabetic expression GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 17 / 53 Three types of writing 1. Hieroglyphics—The classic pictographic Egyptian writing 2. Hieratic script—Developed around the same time as the hieroglyphic script and was used for official tasks (record keeping, accounting, and writing letters) 3. Demotic script—The popular script, a name given to it by Herodotus, developed from a northern variant of the Hieratic script in around 660 BC · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 18 / 53 CLASSIC EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 19 / 53 THE EVOLUTION OF HIERATIC SCRIPT GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 20 / 53 DEMOTIC SCRIPT, CONTRACT, PTOLEMAIC ERA GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 21 / 53 THE ROSETTA STONE · EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS, EGYPTIAN DEMOTIC SCRIPT AND CLASSICAL GREEK GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 22 / 53 Hieroglyphics were made from three different parts 1. Ideograms—Pictorial denotation of an object 2. Phonograms—Denote a sound or sequence of sounds 3. Determinatives—Provide clues to meaning and sounds · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 23 / 53 • Vowel sounds existed but were unwritten • Consonantal alphabet (abjad) • Requires cultural knowledge · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 24 / 53 The Phoenician Alphabet 1,500 BCE Cuneiform, Hieroglyphs, and Cretan pictographs come together to form the seeds of the modern alphabet GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Phoenician Alphabet 25 / 53 The Phoenicians • Modern day Lebanon, Syria and Israel • Seafaring merchants and ship builders • Needed an alphabet for their native tongue · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Phoenician Alphabet 26 / 53 Distillation of Cuneiform, Hieroglyphs, and Cretan pictographs · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Phoenician Alphabet 27 / 53 THE PHOENICIAN ALPHABET · CIRCA 1,500 BCE · 22 CHARACTERS GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Phoenician Alphabet 28 / 53 PHOENICIAN PETROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTION GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Phoenician Alphabet 29 / 53 • Unprecedented use of alphabetical order • 22 letters, each representing a single sound • Read from right-to-left • Democratized writing for Phoenicians • Simple for non-Phoenician people to learn • Consonantal alphabet (abjad) · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Phoenician Alphabet 30 / 53 Since vowels sounds were not specified, a two-syllable word like drama could have at least nine different pronunciations. 1. drama 4. drima 7. druma 2. dramu 5. drimu 8. drumu 3. drami 6. drimi 9. drumi · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 31 / 53 The Greek Alphabet 1,000 BC Greece, an epicenture of science, philosophy, democracy, art, architecture, literature, and alphabetic evolution GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 32 / 53 The Phoenician alphabet was brought to Greece by mythic hero Cadmus • Invented history, created prose, designed some Greek letters • His use of writing allowed him to raise and control armies quickly · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 33 / 53 THE GREEK ALPHABET GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 34 / 53 • Early Greek used Phoenician characters, arranged the same • Anyone who could read ancient Phoenician could also read Greek • Five were changed to vowels, making it a true alphabet • All capital letters • No punctuation, paragraphs, or word spacing • The direction of reading changed several times EARLY GREEK INSCRIPTION · THE ROSETTA STONE GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 35 / 53 Greek was often read in a format known as boustrophedon or as the ox plows One row would read left-to-right and then switch from right-to-left BOUSTROPHEDON GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 36 / 53 EARLY GREEK PETROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTION WRITTEN IN BOUSTROPHEDON GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 37 / 53 REVERSE BOUSTROPHEDON GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 38 / 53 Centralized by Athens 400 BCE • Classical Greek settled on right- to-left orientation • Letterforms became monumental and some letters were reversed • Based on formal geometric ideals, lack of scripted-details · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 39 / 53 The Latin Alphabet 200 BCE – 1,400 CE The ultimate expression of our modern written language GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 40 / 53 A brief timeline 750 BCE Rome was a village on the Tiber River 200 BCE Rome conquered Greece in the second century BCE 100 BCE By the end of the first century CE the Roman Empire stretched from the British Isles in the north, to Egypt in the south, and from the Iberian Peninsula in the West to the Persian Gulf at the base of the ancient land of Mesopotamia –PM · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 41 / 53 Greek influence The Romoans modeled their art, literature, religion and philosophy from the Greeks • Greek scholars and libraries were taken to Rome • The Latin Alphabet came to the Romans from Greece · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 42 / 53 The Latin Alphabet shows heavy influence from the Etruscan alphabet of 700 BCE · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 43 / 53 250 BCE • The Latin Alphabet is formed • 20 letters · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 44 / 53 250 BCE • Spurius Carvilius designed G to replace Z (zeta) • 21 letters · GDT-101
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