ANSWER KEY – THE ORIGIN OF WRITING (UNIT 16)

1. Approximately, when were clay tokens first used as a means of bookkeeping?

Clay tokens were first used as a means of bookkeeping approximately 10,000 years
ago.
2. What does it mean to say that pictograms are “language independent”?
That they can be understood in almost all the countries irrespective of the spoken
language
3. Why is one early writing system called “cuneiform”?
Because a wedge-shaped tool was used to create the symbols by pressing into soft
clay.
4. Who first developed Cuneiform writing?
a) Chinese b) Egyptians c) Greeks d) Phoenicians e) Sumerians

5. What is the basic difference between a logographic writing system and a

phonographic writing system?
The logographic writing system represents words, whereas a phonographic writing
system represents sounds.
Modern logogram @ represents the preposition at.
Joining together “eye, sea, ewe” might create the sentence “I see you” if we play
with the sounds of those words.
6. What happens in the process of change based on the rebus principle?
Existing symbols are used to represent the sounds of words in a language. This way,
the symbol for one entity (eye) is taken over as the symbol for the sound of the
spoken word /ˈaɪ/ to refer to that entity. Following this process, we can use the
image of an “eye” to refer to any word or part of a word containing the sound /ˈaɪ/.
7. What kind of writing was invented for Cherokee?
A syllabic writing system was invented for Cherokee.
8. Is the text message “cu@9” an example of logographic or alphabetic writing?
Basically, it is the example of logographic writing because each symbol represents a
word: “see you at nine”. However, there is also phonographic writing involved here
when using the sounds of c and u to represent the words see and you.
9. What is the name given to the writing system used for Russian?
The name given to the writing system used for Russian is Cyrillic alphabet.
10. Where will you find the writing system with the longest history of continuous
use?
In China.
11. What is the best way to describe the written symbols used in Chinese writing:
pictographic or phonographic or morphographic?
Morphographic, because the symbols have come to be used for morphemes rather
than words.
12. Which of these symbols ($, 8, ?, &) is not used as a logogram?
? is a question mark but does not represent a word. A question mark is used simply
to indicate that someone is asking a question. Therefore, ? represents the intonation
used to utter an interrogative sentence.
13. Which people created the basic order of letter symbols (A, B, C, D)?
The Phoenicians. But it was the Greek who included the vowels. However, the
modern shapes of the alphabet letters were created by the Romans.
14. What is a digraph?
A digraph is the combination of two letters representing a single sound. For
example: ph /f/, sh /ʃ/, or ey /i/.