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Definition: writing systems from The Macmillan Encyclopedia

The recording of human communication using signs or symbols to represent spoken words or concepts. The earliest known writing systems were all originally pictographic; if they survived at all they developed into ideographic writing systems (See also Chinese). True alphabetic writing, representing the sounds of the language, developed around the E Mediterranean about 2000  BC (See Semitic alphabets). An intermediate stage is the use of syllabaries.

writing

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
the visible recording of language peculiar to the human species. Writing enables the transmission of ideas over vast distances of time and space and is a prerequisite of complex civilization. Where, and by whom writing was first developed remains unknown, but scholars place the beginning of writing at 6,000 B.C. The norm of writing is phonemic; i.e., it attempts to symbolize all significant sounds of the language and no others (see phonetics ). When the goal is established as one letter for one phoneme (and vice versa), the result is a complete alphabet . Few alphabets attain this phonemic ideal, but some ancient ones (e.g., Sanskrit) and some modern new ones (e.g., Finnish) have been very successful. The contemporary important writing not of alphabetic type is that in Chinese characters, in which thousands of symbols are used, each representing a word or concept, and Japanese, where each character represents a syllable. The Chinese system is distant enough from the spoken language…
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Full text Article Writing

From Key Concepts in Ethnography
Ethnography literally means 'writing about peoples'. Here we consider what is generally labelled 'writing-up'. Outline: When and where to start writing up. Retaining links with the field. Selecting what to write while avoiding reductionism. Thinking about writing. Presenting an argument and…
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Full text Article WRITING

From Dictionary of Visual Discourse: A Dialectical Lexicon of Terms
‘I write because I need to write, I write to see. Through words I see’ John McGahern, 2009: 9 The first thing we must say is also the most obvious: writing is a visual technology. It is what German philosophers would call an ‘objectification’ of the mind and spirit. And in its visual origins it…
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Full text Article Writing

From The Sage Dictionary of Cultural Studies
A commitment to writing is important to cultural studies because this is the prime activity of most of its practitioners and also the form in which most of what we call cultural studies actually appears. As such, there is something of a tension within cultural studies between its populist rhetoric…
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Full text Article writing

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Process or result of making a visual record for the purpose of communication by using symbols to represent the sounds or words of a language. Writing systems fall into the following categories: ideographic (using signs or symbols that represent concepts or ideas directly rather than the sound of…
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Full text Article writing

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
the visible recording of language peculiar to the human species. Writing enables the transmission of ideas over vast distances of time and space and is a prerequisite of complex civilization. Where, and by whom writing was first developed remains unknown, but scholars place the beginning of writing…
| 366 words
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Full text Article Writing

From International Encyclopedia of Human Geography
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Glossary Blog A regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style. Epistemology The theory of knowledge, especially with regard to method, validity, and scope. …
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From The Classical Tradition
Although the invention and history of writing intrigued ancient thinkers and continued to fascinate the inheritors of the classical tradition, modern conceptions of this history, based on archaeology, scientific epigraphy, and historical linguistics, did not exist until about 1800. Instead of a…
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Full text Article WRITING

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
Inspiration is the act of drawing up a chair to the writing desk. Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. AUSTEN, Jane Mansfield Park (1814). He who does not know how to limit himself does not know how to write. BOILEAU-DESPRÉAUX, Nicolas L’Art Poétique (1674). …
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From The Macquarie Dictionary
the act of someone or something that writes. Plural: writings the state of being written; written form to commit one's thoughts to writing., writings that which is written; characters or matter written with a pen or the like. Plural: writings such characters or matter with respect to style, kind, …
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Full text Article writing

From Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Medieval World
Ostracon with Coptic inscription, Egypt, ca....
Writing is a system for recording human speech through symbols drawn on paper (or similar material). In the Middle Ages writing was much nearer its origin in speech than it is now, since texts generally were read aloud even during private study, when reading letters, and in most other circumstances. …
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