WRITING SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD FLORIAN COULMAS Księgarnia

The Writing Systems of the World

This book is an account of the writing systems of the world from earliest times to the present. Its aim is to explore the complex ways in which writing systems relate to the language they depict. Writing, Coulmas contends, is not only the guide or garment of spoken language, but has a deep and lasting effect on the development of language itself.

His study takes in Egyptian hieroglyphics and the cuneiform system of the ancient Near East; he describes Chinese writing, discussing why an apparently cumbersome system has been used continuously for more than 3,000 years; he ranges across the writing systems of western Asia and the Middle East, the Indian families and the various alphabetic traditions which had its origins in the multifarious world of Semitic writing and came to full bloom in pre-Classical Greece.

'This book gives the general reader insight into the major writing systems of the world, both as modes of expression and as factors in contemporary social change. More than that, it challenges the linguist (and the social scientist) not to take writing for granted, but to be aware of the ways in which it conditions their work. Not to take its effects and meaning as something known, but as something to be discovered, something variably shaped by diverse histories and emergent patterns of communicative conduct.' Dell Hymes, University of Virginia

Coulmas book is a useful textbook in a field that has often been neglected. There is so little available on writing systems that the heart of the aficionada springs on hearing of any new work. Fortunately, Coulmas' book is a reliable overview for the general reader.' Language

Florian Coulmas is Professor of Linguistics and Japanese studies at Gerhard Mercator University, Duisburg, Germany. He has written and edited several books in Linguistics and Sociolinguistics and is associate editor of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language.

Cover illustration: A page from a Japanese high school textbook of the Meiji period explaining the alphabet. In indicating the English pronunciation of the alphabet with Katalfana the student made a mistake, transcribing K as [pi:]. (Author's collection) Cover design by Miller, Craig & Cocking Design Partnership

302 pages

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