As I sat down in class today, still having the reading fresh in my mind, I was somewhat excited to go over what we all had read in the first chapter. I blew through that practice quiz like it was nothing, yet only got a 71% on it. Looks like I should highlight more. We started the actual discussion by creating a timeline on the board, trying to map out the beginning of both written and spoken language. Not only did we accomplish that, but we also learned something new from Laura about a new discovery that could set the beginning of symbols and ideographs back to about 3 million B.C. I sat there pondering about what the man/woman/it was trying to convey after looking at that picture. Possibly some kind of ritual? Or it very well could be something that deals with early math? Only time will tell what it could have possibly meant. I'm excited to find out. From there, we went over the beginnings of spoken language, then delving into the history of written text from very early to well known hieroglyphics from Egypt. Towards the end, the main focus was on the Rosetta Stone and cuneiform.
In my eyes, the most intriguing part about today's class was at the very end, under the subject of cuneiform. Cuneiform is the type of writing where symbols slowly but surely formed into more abstract symbols, and ultimately turning into letters. It was mind blowing to me that the symbol for and ox slowly but surely turned into the letter A. To see that list of the genealogy of symbols to letters really opened my eyes to how far written language has come. It is truly, in my eyes, the greatest invention to ever have occurred on this earth. Without it, almost every day tasks would be difficult, if not impossible.
Food for thought: Certain objects can be looked and drawn in certain ways, i.e. the ox. If it were depicted/drawn differently, then could the alphabet have changed totally? Would we have the same letters we have today? Ponder that one for a bit...
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