Gnanadesikan The Writing Revolution

Cuneiform to the Internet
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4443-5985-5
Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 328 Seiten, E-Book

Reihe: The Language Library

In a world of rapid technological advancements, it can be easy toforget that writing is the original Information Technology,created to transcend the limitations of human memory and to defytime and space. The Writing Revolution picks apart thedevelopment of this communication tool to show how it has conqueredthe world.
* Explores how writing has liberated the world, making possibleeverything from complex bureaucracy, literature, and science, toinstruction manuals and love letters
* Draws on an engaging range of examples, from the firstcuneiform clay tablet, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Japanesesyllabaries, to the printing press and the text messaging
* Weaves together ideas from a number of fields, includinghistory, cultural studies and archaeology, as well as linguisticsand literature, to create an interdisciplinary volume
* Traces the origins of each of the world's major writtentraditions, along with their applications, adaptations, andcultural influences

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gnanadesikan, Amalia E.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations vii
Preface xi
1 The First IT Revolution 1
2 Cuneiform: Forgotten Legacy of a Forgotten People 13
3 Egyptian Hieroglyphs and the Quest for Eternity 33
4 Chinese: A Love of Paperwork 56
5 Maya Glyphs: Calendars of Kings 79
6 Linear B: The Clerks of Agamemnon 95
7 Japanese: Three Scripts are Better than One 113
8 Cherokee: Sequoyah Reverse-Engineers 133
9 The Semitic Alphabet: Egypt to Manchuria in 3,400 Years143
10 The Empire of Sanskrit 169
11 King Sejong's One-Man Renaissance 191
12 Greek Serendipity 208
13 The Age of Latin 229
14 The Alphabet Meets the Machine 249
Appendix: Figures A.1-A.7 273
Further Reading 281
Index 297

Über Autor(innen)

Amalia E. Gnanadesikan teaches writing at Holy Family University and has taught linguistics at West Chester and Rutgers universities. Her theoretical publications include works in phonology and language acquisition. Her column on language, "Postcards from Babel", appears in The Vocabula Review.