An Introduction to Reading the World’s Scripts

Abstract

A script or writing system represents spoken language in visible form. Scripts are diverse in their origin and history, in the linguistic units they code or represent, in the shape and number of signs they use, and in the rules relating signs to their spoken forms. They are conventionally classified into two main types, logographic and phonetic, on the basis of the ways they represent language. A logograph (logo = word; graph = written sign) represents primarily the meaning of a word or morpheme and secondarily its sound. A sign of a phonetic script represents primarily a sound unit, either a syllable or phoneme, and through a sequence of sounds and signs, the meaning of a word or morpheme. Not all scholars agree on this classification, as can be seen in this volume.