The words used in modern times we can divide into
2 kinds....Character
words
It
was invented by Eygptians, so Mesopotamians
didn't use this kind of words. The distinguishing
feature of this form is that it just has some
basic word elements, and then these elements can
become words with some different combinations.
For example, English and German. English has 26
basic letters for forming words...but it can make
so many words!!
Pictograph
words
At
first, people just could use pictures to tell
others what they wanted to say. It is the earlist
form of words. After a long development....now,
it has become one of the most important words
around the word....like Chinese AND Cuneiform.
|
Mesopotamian created one writing system. Before
writing, surely we need words for writing. They
used cuneiform. The words were like
pictures....In ancient worlds, at first people
always used pictures to stand for something they
wanted to tell others. After a long time, the
pictures has become words....the pictures the
ancients used called "pictograph."
It is the origin of words.
Do you notice that?
Cuneiform
differs from our own alphabet, although both are
abstract representations. Our own alphabet
is only a representation of sounds. The
cuneiform alphabet, however, is divided
into four functions;
- A phonogram represents a
speech-sound combination.
- A logogram or ideogram
represents an entire word or concept.
- A phonetic complement
selects the choice of logogram and
indicates grammatical form.
- A determinative determines
whether or not the word represents a man
or deity and is not pronounced
The
ability to translate cuneiform was lost until
1835, when Henry Rawlinson, an
English army officer, found inscriptions on a
cliff in Persia. Carved in the reign of
King Darius of Persia, they consisted
of identical texts in three languages:
Old Persian, Babylonian and Elamite. After
translating the Persian, Rawlinson began to
decipher the others. This story of course
brings to mind the discovery of the Rosetta Stone
and the methods used to translate Ancient
Egyptian's hieroglyphics.
Only
the elite in Mesopotamia were literate and could
read and write in cuneiform. Generally, the
priests had this knowledge. Priests ruled
Mesopotamia at that time. Information was
normally passed word-of-mouth and only the
information the priests thought important was
written in clay slabs.
The recording of
literature, science, society and history is a
lasting legacy of the Sumerians. Tens of
thousands of cuneiform texts have given us
Sumerian lullabies, poetry, ledgers, codes of
law, administration, property records, and lists
of astronomical occurrences, animals and
medicinal plants.
In
fact, the Ancient Sumerian change from the
pictogram to cuneiform reflects the way we write
today. They, too, looked for a simpler way
to express their written thoughts, hence the
simpler cuneiform alphabet. We could spend
our time writing with a pen on paper, but the
ease of using our computers and word processors
can outweigh the beauty of the handwritten text.
Till
1st sentury, the cunieform was replaced by Character
words. The people in
Mesopotamia also started having their
"heros." Because they live in one
unstable world...nobody could know what would
happen at the next second. They had to worried
about the wars, diseases, etc...So the heros in
their dreams appeard...they also made them nito
articles...
|
