Writing

Question 1

Pictogram

Answer 1

Looks like something

Question 2

Ideogram

Answer 2

More abstract, can hold several meanings

Question 3

Three types of writing systems

Answer 3

logography, syllabary, alphabet

Question 4

Logography

Answer 4

Each word or morpheme is represented by one written character called a logogram

Question 5

Logographic system advantage

Answer 5

Ability to communicate across dialects or even languages

Question 6

Logographic system disadvantage

Answer 6

Need to memorize thousands of characters for basic literacy

Question 7

Syllabary

Answer 7

Each syllable is represented by one character

Question 8

Syllabary advantage

Answer 8

Requires far less characters than a logographic writing system

Question 9

Syllabary disadvantage

Answer 9

Difficult to devise a language with complex syllable structures

Question 10

Alphabets

Answer 10

Generally an alphabet represents each phoneme with one character

Question 11

Vowel-less alphabets

Answer 11

individual consonants are represented by letters, but vowels are ignored

Question 12

Vowel-less alphabet examples

Answer 12

Hebrew, Arabic

Question 13

English’s alphabetic writing often violates what writing principle

Answer 13

One phoneme = one letter

Question 14

Chinese writing

Answer 14

Earliest clear examples of Chinese writing are from the Oracle Bone Scripts from approximately 1200 BCE

Question 15

How is modern Chinese writing different from the original Chinese writing?

Answer 15

Original Chinese writing had a clear pictographic origin, whereas modern Chinese characters are more abstract

Question 16

Cuneiform

Answer 16

Earliest known writing system that originated in Mesopotamia. Means wedge shaped. Used from 3200BCE to 100CE

Question 17

Mayan

Answer 17

Contains logographic and syllabic characters, used from 300BCE to 1600CE

Question 18

Cherokee syllabary

Answer 18

Not entirely derived from the Latin alphabet but definitely was inspired by it

Question 19

Quipus

Answer 19

“talking knots” used by Incans and other Andean cultures to record data, 3rd Millennium BCE to 17th century CE

Question 20

Phaistos Disc

Answer 20

2nd Millennium, Minoan language, related to Cretan Hieroglyphs (?)