LIN 345

Question 1

What is writing

Answer 1

a system or more or less permanent marks used to represent an utterance in a way that it can be recovered more or less exactly without the intervention of the utterer

Question 2

What is the difference between spoken and written language?

Answer 2

Spoken language is primary, natural, and all languages are spoken.
Writing is secondary, it must be consciously learned, writing represents language, not all languages are written

Question 3

Aspects that are crucial to writing

Answer 3

A systematic relationship to language (orthography)
A systematic internal organization

Question 4

Pictograms

Answer 4

graphic symbols that convey its meaning via visual resemblance to a physical object

Question 5

When was writing invented

Answer 5

Oldest forms are Egyptian hieroglphics and Sumerian cuneiform in 3200 BCE

Question 6

Segment (definition)

Answer 6

consonant or vowel sound

Question 7

Phoneme (definition)

Answer 7

a contrastive unit of sound in a language

Question 8

Syllable (definition)

Answer 8

a phonological unit typically uttered without a break

Question 9

Signary (definition)

Answer 9

the set of visual signs in a WS

Question 10

Orthography

Answer 10

the rules for using the signs to represent words

Question 11

Grapheme (definition)

Answer 11

a contrastic unit of a writing system (e.g. 26 English letters = 26 graphemes, one Chinese character = 1 grapheme)

Question 12

Allograph (definition)

Answer 12

a non-contrastive unit of a writing system

Question 13

Morphogram (definition)

Answer 13

grapheme which represents a morpheme in a morphographic writing system (e.g., Chinese characters; English dollar sign, etc.)

Question 14

How do languages get a writing system?

Answer 14

creation of a new writing system
borrowing

Question 15

Alphabet (definition)

Answer 15

vowel signs and consonant signs (e.g. English, Hangul)

Question 16

Abjad (definition)

Answer 16

only consonants (e.g. Arabic)

Question 17

Syllabary (definition)

Answer 17

a sign represents a vowel or a CV syllable (e.g., Japanese Kana)

Question 18

Abugida (definition)

Answer 18

a sign represents a consonant plus /a/ (e.g., Ethiopian, Devanagari)

Question 19

Morpho-Syllabary (logographic) (definition)

Answer 19

One sign is one morpheme (a linked sound and meaning) (e.g., Chinese)

Question 20

Features of Chinese Writing

Answer 20

Morpho-Syllabary
Use of semantic-phonetic compounds

Question 21

Semantic-phonetic compounds (definition)

Answer 21

one part of a compound is related to the meaning, and the other to the sound

Question 22

Features of Japanese Writing

Answer 22

Syllabary (mostly)
Borrowed Chinese (Kanji) + original characters (Kana)
Both Kun (Japanese) and On (Chinese) readings of borrowed characters
Hirigana (plain kana) and Katakana (side kana)
V and CV syllable structure
Shallow orthography

Question 23

Compare the use of Japanese Kanji to Chinese Hanzi

Answer 23

Chinese hanzi are morpho-syllabic, while Japanese kanji is truly logographic.
The phonetic component of Chinese hanzi are presented in kanji, but they are often no help in identifying words.

Question 24

Features of Korean Hangul

Answer 24

Alphabet (24 basic letters)
Adapted from borrowed Chinese (Sino-Korean)
V, CV, CVC syllable structures
Deep orthography

Question 25

Deep Orthography (definition)

Answer 25

matches the underlying representation

Question 26

Shallow Orthography (definition)

Answer 26

matches the phonetic representation; reflects the results of the phonological processes

Question 27

Underlying representation (definition)

Answer 27

the mental form of the morpheme or word; the way people imagine they say it

Question 28

Surface representation (definition)

Answer 28

The way the speaker actually says the word

Question 29

Orthographic depth (definition)

Answer 29

The relationship between writing and language, and how much orthography is predictable from pronunciation

Question 30

Features of Sumerian Cuneiform

Answer 30

First writing in the world - Engravings on stone tablets Pictographic --> Semantic and phonetic extensions --> became more abstract pictograms Mostly monosyllabic/mono-morphemic (like Chinese) Syllabic and Logographic

Question 31

Features of Egyptian Hieroglyphics

Answer 31

Abjad with logograms Use of phonetic extension and semantic complements Afroasiatic language (related to Arabic and Hebrew)

Question 32

Features of Semitic Hebrew

Answer 32

Syllabic and logographic Mostly monosyllabic Use of phonetic and semantic extensions Only known language that has died, revived, and is now spoken by many people Deep orthography (UR)

Question 33

Features of Arabic Writing

Answer 33

Abjad Different number systems Mixed orthography

Question 34

Features of Linear B

Answer 34

*developed from Linear A, which was never fully decoded Syllabary (and logographic) Open and Closed syllables (V, CV, CVC) The orthography represents the Greek language

Question 35

Features of Greek

Answer 35

Alphabet Influence from the Semitic (Hebrew) Abjad Letters borrowed from the Phoenicians based on the similarities of sounds

Question 36

Alphabets that were influenced by the Greek Alphabet

Answer 36

Coptic Armenian Cyrillic Gothic Georgian

Question 37

The Slavic Languages

Answer 37

East: Ukrainian, Russian (Cyrillic alphabet) West: Czech, Polish, Slovak (latin alphabet) South: Bosnia, Serbian, Croatian, etc. (mix of both)

Question 38

Russian orthography is [deep/shallow]

Answer 38

deep

Question 39

Other non-Slavic Cyrillic Alphabets

Answer 39

Kazakh Moldovan

Question 40

Features of Mongolian

Answer 40

Alphabet (Mongolian-Cyrillic & Traditional Mongolian) Both Cyrillic and Mongolian scripts are used for official documents