The Story of Writing

An excellent introduction for people looking for a good overview of writing systems. The content is succinct and the large number of illustrations and pictures make it easy to understand and grasp the concepts.

This extensively illustrated book tells general, interested readers as much about the origins and nature of different types of writing as most will want to know. The short, concise chapters, typically two pages long, range over subjects as diverse as Sumerian cuneiform and modern standardized signs for travelers. The author devotes particular attention to Egyptian hieroglyphs and Chinese characters, though he provides less adequate coverage of writing systems used on the Indian subcontinent. Throughout, he emphasizes the distinction between writing systems based on sounds (alphabets) and those using symbols to represent things or concepts. He makes the intriguing point that some written languages have mixed the two together.

This book is a marvel. It should be read in conjunction with Sampson's 'Writing Systems'. Sampson's book is a bit heavier on the linguistics of writing systems, whereas Robinson's book is stronger on historic details. Unlike Sampson's, the Robinson book is also a lovely production that does NOT necessarily have to be read in a mostly linear way. It has the many 'hypertext' details--photos, illustrations, timelines, etc--that make (by way of comparison) Crystal's 'Encyclopedia of English' and 'Encyclopedia of Language' so wonderful to navigate through in various ways.If you read Sampson's book along with Robinson's book, at least two things will most likely happen: (1) you will know more about writing systems as linguistic and cultural phenomena than most of the population and (2) you may well know more about writing systems than most professional linguists do. This also is another one of those accessible titles (like Sampson, like much of what Crystal writes and edits) that will go a long way to help produce more enlightened language awareness in education. I highly recommend it to teachers of language or literacy since it can only add to their professional knowledge.

My major reading interest these days concerns ancient history (co-incidentally) recorded in writing at the time. This era starts then with Sumeria and leads chronologically, but not directly, from there. Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, Mayas, Incas, Indus, and so on are all included. Excluded, to some extent (because they're better known) are Greece and Rome.I have read books by David Rohl, Graham Hancock, Zecharia Sitchin, Robert Bauval, Michael Coe, Philip Graham, Alan Alford, D.S.Allan, Christopher Dunn, Mark Lehner, Von Daniken, Adrian Gilbert. Some of these my be considered by "fringe" authors (don't forget Velikovsky!), Others are very definitely "establishment". I do not (necessarily ) agree with their conclusions and extract only their facts!But ... "The Story of Writing", WOW, what a book! It ties in so absolutely perfectly with where my interests lie! I thought that it would but be a child's story of writing (it was bought sight unseen). Far from it. It is an excellent thorough primer for a serious student. The book leads in with an extensive examination of what writing must do; i.e. transfer spoken word and ideas to another person. The writing is but the medium. The explanations throughout are clear and easily understood. Small translation exercises are sneaked in at odd places to keep the reader's involvement.Developments of the different writing schemes are outlined (there is not space for much more!) Their interrelation, or lack thereof, is illustrated. Egyptian hieroglyphics are meticulously explained. The Japanese written language is analysed; how difficult it must be to have to know three levels of writing in order to fully understand! The Mayan calendar wheels and picto- to syllabic translations and meaning are well illustrated and explained. Development of the writing schemes and alphabets into their use for different languages are shown. Counting methods and schemes in cuneiform for different product or produce show complications inherent in proto-systems including a lack of a zero!Lots and lots of fascinating detail! Stories of intrepid adventurers (Rawlinson) and scholars (Champollion and Ventris) who risked life, limb and/or reputation to discover and reveal the transliterations and meanings of hitherto unknown scripts. Chance finds and collaboration; scholars building on scholars' discoveries. Missing links found. "Insufficient data" for Phaistos and Indus and others; no Inca writing, destroyed libraries (Mayan and Alexandrian).Occasional breakthroughs in the development of writing occur where dictatorial or imperial decree forces a change for simplification. Sadly, from a pure ease of learning and use, alphabets (or, more correctly, writing systems) suffer from traditional conservative (or religious)interests. How easy would it not be to be able to read Japanese or Chinese or Arabic or Russian in Roman letters! ... and what a loss to the beauty of the languages! Writing

If nothing else mattered, the lush photography of this book would bring it to the forefront of efforts to describe the history of written communications. Unfortunately, while it is extremely well written by an informed author, it has more in common with a text book than a real history. I cannot argue with most of the facts in the book, but I could argue with some of the conclusions. When authors, no matter how talented, no matter how well-informed, speak ex cathedra (my spelling here may well indicate the part of alphabetic writing which is decidedly not phonetic, in English, at least), especially when relentlessly advocating a particular point of view in a controversy, generally I am inclined to ignore them. A glance through the bibliography, though, shows that Robinson is quite willing to give a casual reader enough sources to spend many hours learning what is known of the history of scripts, and writing.All in all, I would say this book is an excellent way to spark an interest in the subject.