Writing is the act of creating a persistent, usually visual representation oflanguage on a surface.[1][2] As a structured system of communication, writing is also known aswritten language. Historically, written languages have emerged as a way to record correspondingspoken languages. While the use of language is universal across human societies, most spoken languages are not written.[3] A particular set of symbols, called ascript, as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language, is known as awriting system. In some rare cases, writing may betactile rather than visual.
In general, writing systems do not constitute languages in and of themselves, but rather a durable means of representing language such that it can be understood by people at a later time.[6][7] While not all languages use a writing system, those that do can complement and extend the capacities ofspoken language, transmitting it across space (e.g.written correspondence) and storing it for future reading (e.g.libraries).[8] Writing can also change people's relationships with the knowledge they acquire, since it allows humans to externalize their thinking in forms that are easier to reflect on, process more slowly, elaborate on, reconsider, and revise.[9][10][11][12]
Thetypewriter, as well as the digitalword processor, allow individual writers to produce visually consistent text mechanically via akeyboard.[15]
Advancements innatural language processing andnatural language generation have resulted in software capable of producing certain forms of formulaic writing (e.g. weather forecasts and sports reporting) without the direct involvement of humans[16] after initial configuration or, more commonly, to be used to support writing processes such as generating initial drafts, producing feedback with the help of a rubric, copy-editing, andhelping translation.[17]
Historically, writing emerged to address the needs of societies growing in economic and social complexity. Once developed, potential applications included tracking produce and other wealth, recordinghistory, maintainingculture, codifying knowledge throughcurricula as well as lists of texts deemed to contain foundational knowledge (e.g.The Canon of Medicine) or artistic value (e.g. theliterary canon). Aids to administration includedlegal codes,census records,contracts,deeds of ownership,taxation,trade agreements, andtreaties. AsCharles Bazerman explains, the "marking of signs on stones, clay, paper, and now digital memories—each more portable and rapidly traveling than the previous—provided means for increasingly coordinated and extended action as well as memory across larger groups of people over time and space."[18] Further innovations included more uniform, predictable, and widely dispersed legal systems, the distribution of accessible versions ofsacred texts, and furthering practices ofscientific inquiry andknowledge management, all of which were largely reliant on portable and easily reproducible forms of inscribed language. Thehistory of writing is co-extensive with uses of writing and the elaboration ofactivity systems that give rise to and circulate writing.[19]
The global spread of digitalcommunication systems such asemail andsocial media has made writing an increasingly important feature of daily life, where these systems mix with older technologies like paper, pencils, whiteboards, printers, and copiers.[23] Substantial amounts of everyday writing characterize most workplaces indeveloped countries.[24] In many occupations (e.g. law,accounting,software design,human resources), written documentation is not only the main deliverable but also the mode of work itself.[25] Even in occupations not typically associated with writing, routinerecords management has most employees writing at least some of the time.[26]
Some professions are typically associated with writing, such as literary authors, journalists, and technical writers, but writing is pervasive in most modern forms of work, civic participation, household management, and leisure activities.[27]
Writing permeates everyday commerce. For example, in the course of an afternoon, a wholesaler might receive a written inquiry about the availability of a product line, then communicate with suppliers and fabricators through work orders and purchase agreements, correspond via email to affirm shipping availability with adrayage company, write an invoice, and request proof of receipt in the form of a written signature. At a larger scale, modern systems of finances, banking, and business rest on written documents – including regulations, policies, and procedures; the creation of reports and other monitoring documents to make, evaluate, and provide accountability for decisions and operations; the creation and maintenance of records; internal written communications within departments to coordinate work; written communications that comprise work products presented to other departments and to clients; and external communications to clients and the public.[28][page needed][29][page needed] Business and financial organizations also rely on many written legal documents, such as contracts, reports to government agencies, tax records, and accounting reports.[30] Financial institutions and markets that hold, transmit, trade, insure, or regulate holdings for clients or other institutions are particularly dependent on written records (though now often in digital form) to maintain the integrity of their roles.[31][page needed]
Many modern systems of government are organized and sanctified through writtenconstitutions at the national and sometimes state or other organizational levels. Written rules and procedures typically guide the operations of the various branches, departments, and other bodies of government, which regularly produce reports and other documents as work products and to account for their actions. In addition tolegislatures that draft and pass laws, these laws are administered by anexecutive branch, which can present further written regulations specifying the laws and how they are carried out.[32] Governments at different levels also typically maintain written records on citizens concerning identities, life events such as births, deaths, marriages, and divorces, the granting of licenses for controlled activities, criminal charges, traffic offences, and other penalties small and large, and tax liability and payments.[33]
Research undertaken inacademic disciplines is typically published as articles in journals or within book-lengthmonographs. Arguments, experiments, observational data, and other evidence collated in the course of research is represented in writing, and serves as the basis for later work. Data collection and drafting ofmanuscripts may be supported by grants, which usually require proposals establishing the value of such work and the need for funding.[34] The data and procedures are also typically collected inlab notebooks or other preliminary files.[35][page needed]Preprints of potential publications may also be presented at academic or disciplinary conferences or on publicly accessible web servers to gain peer feedback and build interest in the work. Prior to official publication, these documents are typically read and evaluated bypeer review from appropriate experts, who determine whether the work is of sufficient value and quality to be published.[36]
Publication does not establish the claims or findings of work as being authoritatively true, only that they are worth the attention of other specialists. As the work appears in review articles, handbooks, textbooks, or other aggregations, and others cite it in the advancement of their own research, does it become codified as contingently reliable knowledge.[37]
News and news reporting are central to citizen engagement and knowledge of many spheres of activity people may be interested in about the state of their community, including the actions and integrity of their governments and government officials, economic trends, natural disasters and responses to them, international geopolitical events, including conflicts, but also sports, entertainment, books, and other leisure activities. While news and newspapers have grown rapidly from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, the changing economics and ability to produce and distribute news have brought about radical and rapid challenges to journalism and the consequent organization of citizen knowledge and engagement.[38][39][page needed] These changes have also created challenges forjournalism ethics that have been developed over the past century.[40]
Formal education is the social context most strongly associated with the learning of writing, and students may carry these particular associations long after leaving school.[41] Alongside the writing that students read (in the forms of textbooks, assigned books, and other instructional materials as well as self-selected books) students do much writing within schools at all levels, on subject exams, in essays, in taking notes, in doing homework, and informative and summative assessments. Some of this is explicitly directed toward the learning of writing, but much is focused more on subject learning.[42][43]
The relationship between spoken, written, and signed modes of language, as modeled by Beatrice Primus et al.[44] While many spoken or signed languages are not written, there are no written languages without a spoken counterpart that they originally emerged to record.
Writing,speech, andsigning are three distinct modalities oflanguage; each has unique characteristics and conventions.[45] When discussing properties common to the modes of language, the individual speaking, signing, or writing will be referred to as thesender, and the individual listening, viewing, or reading as thereceiver; senders and receivers together will be collectively termedagents. The spoken, signed, and written modes of language mutually influence one another, with the boundaries between conventions for each being fluid – particularly in informal written contexts like taking quick notes or posting onsocial media.[46]
Spoken and signed language is typically more immediate, reflecting the local context of the conversation and the emotions of the agents, often via paralinguistic cues likebody language. Utterances are typically less premeditated, and are more likely to feature informal vocabulary and shorter sentences.[47] They are also primarily used in dialogue, and as such include elements that facilitateturn-taking; these includingprosodic features such as trailing off andfillers that indicate the sender has not yet finished their turn. Errors encountered in spoken and signed language includedisfluencies and hesitation.[48]
By contrast, written language is typically more structured and formal. While speech and signing are transient, writing is permanent. It allows for planning, revision, and editing, which can lead to more complex sentences and a more extensive vocabulary. Written language also has to convey meaning without the aid of tone of voice, facial expressions, or body language, which often results in more explicit and detailed descriptions.[49]
While a speaker can typically be identified by the quality of their voice, the author of a written text is often not obvious to a reader only analyzing the text itself. Writers may nevertheless indicate their identity via the graphical characteristics of theirhandwriting.[50]
Written languages generally change more slowly than their spoken or signed counterparts. As a result, the written form of a language may retain archaic features or spellings that no longer reflect contemporary speech.[51] Over time, this divergence may contribute to a dynamic ofdiglossia.
There are too many grammatical differences to address, but here is a sample. In terms ofclause types, written language is predominantly declarative (e.g.It's red.) and typically contains fewerimperatives (e.g.Make it red.),interrogatives (e.g.Is it red?), and exclamatives (e.g.How red it is!) than spoken or signed language.Noun phrases are generally predominantlythird person, but they are even more so in written language.Verb phrases in spoken English are more likely to be insimple aspect than in perfect or progressive aspect, and almost all of the past perfect verbs appear in written fiction.[52]
Information packaging is the way that information is packaged within a sentence, that is the linear order in which information is presented. For example,On the hill, there was a tree has a different informational structure thanThere was a tree on the hill. While, in English, at least, the second structure is more common, the first example is relatively much more common in written language than in spoken language. Another example is that a construction likeit was difficult to follow him is relatively more common in written language than in spoken language, compared to the alternative packagingto follow him was difficult.[53] A final example, again from English, is that thepassive voice is relatively more common when writing than when speaking.[54]
Written language typically has higherlexical density than spoken or signed language, meaning there is a wider range of vocabulary used and individual words are less likely to be repeated. It also includes fewer first and second-person pronouns and fewer interjections. Written English has fewer verbs and more nouns than spoken English, but even accounting for that, verbs likethink,say,know, andguess appear relatively less commonly with a content clause complement (e.g.I thinkthat it's OK.) in written English than in spoken English.[55]
Logographies represent a language's units of meaning (words ormorphemes), though still associated by readers with their given pronunciations in the corresponding spoken language.
Asyllabary is a set of written symbols that representsyllables,[56] typically a consonant followed by a vowel, or just a vowel alone. In some scripts more complex syllables (e.g. consonant–vowel–consonant or consonant–consonant–vowel) may have dedicated glyphs. Phonetically similar syllables are not written similarly.[56]
Syllabaries are best suited to languages with a relatively simple syllable structure, such as Japanese. Other syllabic scripts includeLinear B and theCherokee syllabary.[60]
Alphabets that generally only have letters for consonants are calledabjads orconsonantaries; though optional, abjads may also use diacritical marks to specify which vowels follow each consonant. The earliest alphabets were abjads, influenced by symbols representing specific consonants that originated in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Most abjads are likewise native to the Middle East, reflecting the relatively limited variation of vowels in themorphology of theSemitic languages spoken in the region.[56]
In most of the alphabets of India andSoutheast Asia, vowels are indicated through diacritics or modification of the shape of the consonant. These are calledabugidas oralphasyllabaries.[56] The termabugida is derived from the names of the initial letters in theGeʽez script, another prominent abugida used to write several languages in Ethiopia and Eritrea.[61]
Writing developed independently in a handful of different locations in theEarly Bronze Age, namelyMesopotamia andAncient Egypt (c. 3200 – c. 3100 BCE),Ancient China (c. 1250 BCE), andMesoamerica (c. 1 CE).[62] Scholars mark the difference betweenprehistory andhistory (recorded history) with the invention of the first written languages.[63] The first writing can be dated back to theNeolithic era, with clay tablets being used to keep track of livestock and commodities. The first example of written language can be dated to the Sumerian city ofUruk, at the end of the 4th millennium BCE.[6] An ancient Mesopotamian poem tells a tale about the invention of writing:
Because the messenger's mouth was heavy and he couldn't repeat, the Lord of Kulaba patted some clay and put words on it, like a tablet. Until then, there had been no putting words on clay.
Writing first emerged to meet the growing economic needs of the city-states ofSumeria, located in southernMesopotamia. During this time, the complexity of trade and administration outgrew the power of memory, withSumerian cuneiform used to write theSumerian language serving as a reliable means for recording transactions, maintaining financial accounts, and keeping historical records, among similar activities.[65] Cuneiform waspictographic (based in representative pictures) at first, but later evolved into analphabet that used a series of wedge-shaped signs to represent languagephonemically.[66]
Cuneiform was followed relatively quickly byEgyptian hieroglyphs, with both emerging from proto-writing systems between 3400 and 3100 BC, with the earliest coherent texts fromc. 2600 BC.[67] TheIndus script (c. 2600 – c. 2000 BC), found on different types of artefacts produced by theIndus Valley Civilization on theIndian subcontinent, remains undeciphered, and whether it functioned as true writing is not agreed upon.[68] While its origins are not visually obvious, the opportunity for Mesopotamian cultural diffusion to have introduced the concept of writing to the Indus peoples is clear.[69]
Globular envelope with a cluster of accountancy tokens, Uruk period, fromSusa – Louvre Museum
In the 1970s, archaeologistDenise Schmandt-Besserat presented a theory establishing a link between cuneiform and previously uncategorized clay "tokens", the oldest of which have been found in the Zagros region of Iran. Around 8000 BC, Mesopotamians began using clay tokens to count their agricultural and manufactured goods. Later they began placing these tokens inside large, hollow clay containers (bulla, or globular envelopes) which were then sealed. The quantity of tokens in each container came to be expressed by impressing, on the container's surface, one picture for each instance of the token inside. They next dispensed with the tokens, relying solely on symbols for the tokens, drawn on clay surfaces. To avoid making a picture for each instance of the same object (for example: 100 pictures of a hat to represent 100 hats), they counted the objects by using various small marks.[70]
Cuneiform (from Latincunius,lit.'wedge') emergedc. 3200 BC in the context of this technology for keeping accounts. By the end of the 4th millennium BC,[71] the Mesopotamians were using a triangular-shaped stylus pressed into soft clay to record numbers. This system was gradually augmented with using a sharp stylus to indicate what was being counted by means ofpictographs. Round and sharp styluses were gradually replaced with wedge-shaped styluses, at first only recordinglogograms – with phonetic elements introduced by the 29th century BC to represent syllables in Sumerian, resulting in a general purpose writing system.[72][73]
From the 26th century BC, cuneiform was adapted to write the East SemiticAkkadian language (Assyrian andBabylonian) which had spread across southern Mesopotamia – and then to others such asElamite,Hattian,Hurrian andHittite. Scripts similar in appearance to this writing system include those forUgaritic andOld Persian. With the adoption ofAramaic as the lingua franca of theNeo-Assyrian Empire (911–609 BC), Old Aramaic was also adapted to Mesopotamian cuneiform. The latest cuneiform texts in Akkadian discovered thus far date from the 1st century AD.[74]
The earliest knownhieroglyphs (a word from Greek,lit.'sacred writing') are clay labels for thePredynastic ruler "Scorpion I", datedc. the 33nd century BC and recovered atAbydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) – or otherwise theNarmer Palette, datedc. 3100 BC.[78] The hieroglyphic script waslogographic, with phonetic adjuncts that included an effectivealphabet. The oldest deciphered sentence is attested on a seal impression from the tomb ofSeth-Peribsen at Abydos, dating to theSecond Dynasty (28th or 27th century BC). Around 800 hieroglyphs were used during the Old, Middle, and New Kingdom periods (2686–1077 BC); by the Greco-Roman period (30 BC – 642 AD), more than 5,000 distinct glyphs are attested.[79]
Writing was important in maintaining the Egyptian empire, and literacy in the difficult system of hieroglyphs was concentrated among an educated elite ofscribes serving temple, pharaonic, and military authorities.[80]
Of severalpre-Columbian scripts inMesoamerica, the one that appears to have been best developed, and the only one to be deciphered, is theMaya script. The earliest inscription identified as Maya dates to the 3rd century BC.[81] Maya writing used around 800 distinct symbols – mainly logograms, complemented by a set of syllabograms used for affixes, disambiguation between different readings of a logogram, or the substitution of certain logograms entirely.[82]
The earliest surviving examples of writing in China – inscriptions onoracle bones, usually tortoiseplastrons and oxscapulae which were used for divination – date fromc. 1200 BC, during theLate Shang period. A small number of bronze inscriptions from the same period have also survived.[83]
TheProto-Elamite script, in usec. 3200 – c. 2900 BC, is attested on clay tablets found at different sites across modern-day Iran, with the majority having been excavated atSusa, an ancient city located east of theTigris.[84] The script is thought to have been partlylogographic, to have developed from early cuneiform, and to have used more than 1,000 signs – though its inscriptions "have been, and will remain, highly problematic in a discussion of writing because they represent a very unclear period of literacy".[85]
TheElamite cuneiform script, usedc. 2500 – 331 BC, was adapted from cuneiform as was used to write Akkadian. At any given point during this period, Elamite cuneiform used around 130 symbols – with a total of 206 used across its entire lifespan, far fewer than in most other cuneiform scripts.[56]
The alphabet is only known to have been invented once in human history, by a community of Canaanite turquoise miners in theSinai Peninsulac. 1800 BC to writeWest Semitic languages,[88] "in the context of cultural exchanges between Semitic-speaking people from the Levant and communities in Egypt".[89] This earliest attested form is known as theProto-Sinaitic script, and it adapted concepts and at least some of its written letterforms from Egyptian hieroglyphic writing; it adopted wholly West Semitic sound values for its letters, as opposed to adapting existing Egyptian ones.[90] Precise dating of its origin, as well as the graphical origins of many letterforms (if any) remain unclear, and the script remains undeciphered.[91] Around 30 crude inscriptions have been found at a mountainous Egyptian mining site known as Serabit el-Khadem, with symbols that stood for single consonant sounds rather than whole words or concepts – the basis of an alphabetic system. It was not until between the 12th and 9th centuries BC that use of the alphabet became widespread.[88]
ThePhoenician alphabet (c. 1050 BC) is a direct descendant of Proto-Sinaitic. Proto-Sinaitic and Phoenician wereabjads which only had letters representing consonantal sounds; Phoenician was ultimately adapted into theGreek alphabet (c. 800 BC), the first to represent vowel sounds, which it did by re-purposing unused Phoenician consonantal signs.[92] TheCumae alphabet, a variant of the early Greek alphabet, gave rise to theEtruscan alphabet and its own descendants, such as theLatin alphabet.[93] Other descendants from the Greek alphabet includeCyrillic, used to write languages such asBulgarian andRussian.[94] The Phoenician alphabet was also adapted into theAramaic script, from which the West AsianSquare Hebrew,Arabic,[95] and South AsianBrahmic scripts are descended.[96]
In the history of writing,religious texts or writing have played a special role. For example, some religious text compilations have been some of the earliest popular texts, or even the only written texts in some languages, and in some cases are still highly popular around the world.[97][page needed][98][99]
The development and use of written language has had profound impacts on human societies, influencing everything from social organization and cultural identity to technology and the dissemination of knowledge.[6]Plato (c. 427 – 348 BCE), through the voice ofSocrates, expressed concerns in the dialoguePhaedrus that a reliance on writing would weaken one's ability to memorize and understand, as written words would "create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories". He further argued that written words, being unable to answer questions or clarify themselves, are inferior to the living, interactive discourse of oral communication.[100]
Written language facilitates the preservation and transmission of culture, history, and knowledge across time and space, allowing societies to develop complex systems of law, administration, and education.[64][page needed] For example, the invention of writing in ancient Mesopotamia enabled the creation of detailed legal codes, like theCode of Hammurabi.[63][page needed] The advent of digital technology has revolutionized written communication, leading to the emergence of new written genres and conventions, such as interactions viasocial media. This has implications for social relationships, education, and professional communication.[101][page needed]
Literacy is the ability to read and write. From a graphemic perspective, this ability requires the capability of correctly recognizing or reproducing graphemes, the smallest units of written language. Literacy is a key driver ofsocial mobility. Firstly, it underpins success in formal education, where the ability to comprehend textbooks, write essays, and interact with written instructional materials is fundamental. High literacy skills can lead to better academic performance, opening doors to higher education and specialized training opportunities.[102][better source needed]
In the job market, proficiency in written language is often a determinant of employment opportunities. Many professions require a high level of literacy, from drafting reports and proposals to interpreting technical manuals. The ability to effectively use written language can lead to higher paying jobs and upward career progression.[103][better source needed]
Literacy enables additional ways for individuals to participate in civic life, including understanding news articles and political debates to navigating legal documents.[104][better source needed] However, disparities in literacy rates and proficiency with written language can contribute tosocial inequalities. Socio-economic status, race, gender, and geographic location can all influence an individual's access to quality literacy instruction. Addressing these disparities through inclusive and equitable education policies is crucial for promoting social mobility and reducing inequality.[105]
The Canadian philosopherMarshall McLuhan (1911–1980) primarily presented his ideas about written language inThe Gutenberg Galaxy (1962). Therein, McLuhan argued that the invention and spread of theprinting press, and the shift fromoral tradition to written culture that it spurred, fundamentally changed the nature of human society. This change, he suggested, led to the rise ofindividualism,nationalism, and other aspects of modernity.[106]
McLuhan proposed that written language, especially as reproduced in large quantities by the printing press, contributed to a linear and sequential mode of thinking, as opposed to the more holistic and contextual thinking fostered by oral cultures. He associated this linear mode of thought with a shift towards more detached and objective forms of reasoning, which he saw as characteristic of the modern age. Furthermore, he theorized about the effects of different media on human consciousness and society. He famously asserted that "the medium is the message", meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in any message it would transmit or convey, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.
While McLuhan's ideas are influential, they have also been critiqued and debated. Some scholars argue that he overemphasized the role of the medium (in this case, written language) at the expense of the content of communication.[107] It has also been suggested that his theories are overly deterministic, not sufficiently accounting for the ways in which people can use and interpret media in varied ways.[108]
Diglossia is a sociolinguistic phenomenon where two distinct varieties of a language – often one spoken and one written – are used by a single language community in different social contexts.[109]
The "high variety", often the written language, is used in formal contexts, such as literature, formal education, or official communications. This variety tends to be more standardized and conservative, and may incorporate older or more formal vocabulary and grammar.[110] The "low variety", often the spoken language, is used in everyday conversation and informal contexts. It is typically more dynamic and innovative, and may incorporate regional dialects, slang, and other informal language features.[111]
Diglossic situations are common in many parts of the world, including theArab world, where the highModern Standard Arabic variety coexists with other, lowvarieties of Arabic local to specific regions.[112] Diglossia can have significant implications for language education, literacy, and sociolinguistic dynamics within a language community.[113]
Writing systems can be broadly classified into several types based on the units of language they correspond with: namely logographic, syllabic, and alphabetic.[115] They are distinct fromphonetic transcriptions with technical applications, which are not used as writing as such. For example, notation systems for signed languages likeSignWriting been developed,[116] but it is not universally agreed that these constitute a written form of the sign language in themselves.[117]
Orthography comprises the rules and conventions for writing a given language,[118] including how its graphemes are understood to correspond with speech. In some orthographies, there is a one-to-one correspondence between phonemes and graphemes, as inSerbian andFinnish.[119] These are known asshallow orthographies. In contrast, orthographies like that of English and French are considereddeep orthographies due to the complex relationships between sounds and symbols.[120] For instance, in English, the phoneme/f/ can be represented by the graphemes⟨f⟩ as in⟨fish⟩,⟨ph⟩ as in⟨phone⟩, or⟨gh⟩ as in⟨enough⟩.[121]
Orthographies also include rules about punctuation, capitalization, word breaks, and emphasis. They may also include specific conventions for representing foreign words and names, and for handling spelling changes to reflect changes in pronunciation or meaning over time.[122]
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