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. Allan Hobson BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright DRUGS Leslie Iversen BUDDHA Michael Carrithers THE EARTH Martin Redfern BUDDHISM Damien Keown ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta BUDDHIST ETHICS Damien Keown EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch CAPITALISM James Fulcher EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN CATHOLICISM Gerald O’Collins Paul Langford THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball CHAOS Leonard Smith EMOTION Dylan Evans CHOICE THEORY Michael Allingham EMPIRE Stephen Howe ENGELS Terrell Carver INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton ETHICS Simon Blackburn INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary THE EUROPEAN UNION INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION John Pinder and Simon Usherwood Khalid Koser EVOLUTION INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Brian and Deborah Charlesworth Paul Wilkinson EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn ISLAM Malise Ruthven FASCISM Kevin Passmore JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves FEMINISM Margaret Walters JUDAISM Norman Solomon THE FIRST WORLD WAR JUNG Anthony Stevens Michael Howard KABBALAH Joseph Dan FOSSILS Keith Thomson KAFKA Ritchie Robertson FOUCAULT Gary Gutting KANT Roger Scruton FREE WILL Thomas Pink KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner FREE SPEECH Nigel Warburton THE KORAN Michael Cook THE FRENCH REVOLUTION LAW Raymond Wacks William Doyle LINCOLN Allen C. Guelzo FREUD Anthony Storr LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler GALAXIES John Gribbin LOCKE John Dunn GALILEO Stillman Drake LOGIC Graham Priest GAME THEORY Ken Binmore MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh THE MARQUIS DE SADE GEOGRAPHY John Phillips John Matthews and David Herbert MARX Peter Singer GEOPOLITICS Klaus Dodds MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers GERMAN LITERATURE THE MEANING OF LIFE Nicholas Boyle Terry Eagleton GLOBAL CATASTROPHES MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope Bill McGuire MEDIEVAL BRITAIN GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger MEMORY Jonathan K. Foster THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE MODERN ART David Cottington NEW DEAL Eric Rauchway MODERN CHINA Rana Mitter HABERMAS James Gordon Finlayson MODERN IRELAND Senia Pasˇeta HEGEL Peter Singer MODERN JAPAN HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood Christopher Goto-Jones HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson MOLECULES Philip Ball HINDUISM Kim Knott MORMONISM HISTORY John H. Arnold Richard Lyman Bushman THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY MUSIC Nicholas Cook Michael Hoskin MYTH Robert A. Segal THE HISTORY OF LIFE Michael Benton NATIONALISM Steven Grosby THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE NELSON MANDELA Elleke Boehmer William Bynum THE NEW TESTAMENT AS THE HISTORY OF TIME LITERATURE Kyle Keefer Leofranc Holford-Strevens NEWTON Robert Iliffe HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner HOBBES Richard Tuck NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN HUMAN EVOLUTION Bernard Wood Christopher Harvie and HUMAN RIGHTS Andrew Clapham H. C. G. Matthew HUME A. J. Ayer NORTHERN IRELAND IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden Marc Mulholland NOTHING Frank Close THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION NUCLEAR WEAPONS S. A. Smith Joseph M. Siracusa SCHIZOPHRENIA THE OLD TESTAMENT Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone Michael D. Coogan SCHOPENHAUER PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close Christopher Janaway PAUL E. P. Sanders SCIENCE AND RELIGION PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig Thomas Dixon PHILOSOPHY OF LAW SCOTLAND Rab Houston Raymond Wacks SEXUALITY Ve´ronique Mottier PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer Samir Okasha SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PLATO Julia Annas ANTHROPOLOGY POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY John Monaghan and Peter Just David Miller SOCIALISM Michael Newman POLITICS Kenneth Minogue SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor POSTMODERNISM Christopher The SOVIET UNION Butler Stephen Lovell POSTSTRUCTURALISM THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Catherine Belsey Helen Graham PREHISTORY Chris Gosden SPINOZA Roger Scruton PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY STATISTICS David J. Hand Catherine Osborne STUART BRITAIN John Morrill PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns SUPERCONDUCTIVITY PSYCHOLOGY Stephen Blundell Gillian Butler and Freda McManus TERRORISM Charles Townshend THE QUAKERS Pink Dandelion THEOLOGY David F. Ford QUANTUM THEORY TRAGEDY Adrian Poole John Polkinghorne THE TUDORS John Guy RACISM Ali Rattansi TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN RELATIVITY Russell Stannard Kenneth O. Morgan RELIGION IN AMERICA Timothy Beal THE UNITED NATIONS THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton Jussi M. Hanhima¨ki RENAISSANCE ART THE VIKINGS Julian Richards Geraldine A. Johnson WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman THE ROMAN EMPIRE Christopher Kelly THE WORLD TRADE ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler ORGANIZATION Amrita Narlikar RUSSELL A. C. Grayling WRITING AND SCRIPT RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catriona Kelly Andrew Robinson Available soon: Puritanism Francis J. Bremer Thomas Aquinas Fergus Kerr Communism Leslie Holmes The Reformation Peter Marshall Fashion Rebecca Arnold Deserts Nick Middleton For more information visit our web site www.oup.co.uk/general/vsi/ Andrew Robinson Writing and script A Very Short Introduction 3 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York # Andrew Robinson 2009 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire ISBN 978–0–19–956778–2 13579108642 Contents Acknowledgements ix List of illustrations xi 1 Writing and its emergence 1 2 Development and diffusion of writing 17 3 Disappearance of scripts 36 4 Decipherment and undeciphered scripts 52 5 How writing systems work 74 6 Alphabets 92 7 Chinese and Japanese writing 110 8 Scribes and materials 123 9 Writing goes electronic 135 Chronology 145 Further reading 149 Index 153 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements This is the fourth book I have written on writing and scripts. The first was a highly illustrated survey of the subject, the second was on undeciphered scripts, and the third was a biography of Michael Ventris, who deciphered Europe’s earliest readable writing, Linear B. I have also written a biography of the polymath Thomas Young, a key figure in the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone and Egyptian hieroglyphic. On the way, I have accumulated many