Writing systems and manuscripts

The other day I came across an interesting article about writing systems and manuscripts in which the author divides writing systems into a number of different types such as bilinear, trilinear and quadrilinear, and equates different characteristics to the cultures using each type.

Bilinear scripts occupy all the space between notional upper and lower limits, as do CAPITAL LETTERS in the Latin alphabet. Other examples include such ancient scripts as Etruscan, Roman, Egyptian and Babylonian, and modern scripts like Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The author suggests that the main aim of such scripts is “to confine and constrain the written word” in order to fix words and to “to preserve the magical power of the word and to control people and things”, and that societies orientated towards magic and mysticism tend to choose such scripts.

Trilinear scripts occupy the same space as bilinear ones, but the letters can be positioned with their tops snug either with the upper or lower limits. Letters such as p, b, d and q have these characteristics. The author suggests that such scripts are “practical and dynamic”, that they are indended “to record speech as-spoken” and were used by practical societies. The Sumerian and Akkadian cuneiform scripts are trilinear.

Quattrolinear scripts, which include lower case versions of the modern Latin and Greek alphabets, have letters than can occupy the whole of the space, extend only to the upper of lower limits, or sit in the middle of the space.

The article also explains how different sizes and formats of written documents were used for different purposes in the ancient world, and that the influence of such practices is still with us. In ancient Sumeria, for example, the largest clay tablets were used for writing legal documents issued by the government – the law. The size of such tablets was limited by the weight of the clay though and they tend to be 14-15 inches high by 8-9 inches wide – the largest size one person could lift. Over time this size became fixed.

Clay tablets didn’t need margins as they were baked hard to preserve them and their edges didn’t crumble and they were completely covered in writing. However when people started to write on parchment, which did need margins, they had to use larger pieces to preserve the standard dimensions of the writing area. Meanwhile the Egyptian were finding it difficult to make papyrus rolls big enough to conform to the standard measurements for legal documents. After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, the Greeks came up with a simple solution to this problem – they rotated the direction of writing by ninety degrees, after which Greek legal documents were 9-10 inches wide by 14 inches high. The Romans adopted the same practice and made their legal documents wider.

Standard written form of Cornish

At a meeting of the Cornish Language Partnership last month, a new standard written form (SWF) of Cornish was ratified after much discussion, according to a report on maga.

A specification of the SWF, which is also available on that site, states that:

“The SWF is not meant to replace other spelling systems, but rather to provide public bodies and the educational system with a universally acceptable, inclusive, and neutral orthography. As such, it incorporates features drawn from a number of different Cornish orthographies, including Unified Cornish, Kernewek Kemmyn, Modern Cornish, Unified Cornish Revised, Kernowak Standard, and Kernewek Dasunys.”

The SWF is designed so that speakers of all forms of Revived Cornish will be able to learn it quicly and easily, and so that even those without any formal instruction in it will find it fairly easy to read.

Here’s an example of Cornish in the SWF:

Lyther Wella Bodinar
Bloodh vy ew trei ugens ha pymp. Th ero’vy den bohojek an puskes. My rug dyski Kernowek y’n termyn my veu maw. My veu dhe mor gen sira vy ha pymp den moy y’n kok. My rug skant lowr klowes udn ger Sowsnek kowsys y’n kok rag seythen warbar’. Na rug evy byskath gweles lyver Kernowek. My [rug] dyski Kernowek o’ mos dhe mor gen tus koth. Nag eus moy ’vel pajar po pymp y’n drev nei ’ell klappya Kernowek lebmyn, pobel koth pajar ugens bloodh. Kernowek ew oll nakevys gen pobel younk.

The same text in Kernewek Kemmyn:

[Ow] bloedh vy [yw] tri ugens ha pymp. Yth ezov vy den boghozek an puskez. My a wrug dyski Kernewek [y’n] termyn [ha] my a veu maw. My a veu dhe’n mor gans [ow] sira vy ha pymp den moy y’n kog. My a wrug skantlowr klywez unn ger Sowsnek y’n kog rag seythun warbarth. Ny wruga vy bythkweyth gwelez lyver Kernewek. My a wrug dyski Kernewek ow moz dhe’n mor gans tuz koth. Nynz eus moy ez pezwar po pymp y’n trev ni a yll klappye Kernewek lemmyn, pobel goth pezwar ugens bloedh. Kernewek yw oll ankevyz gans pobel yowynk.

Translation
I’m sixty-five years old. I’m a poor fisherman. I learnt Cornish when I was a boy. I was at sea with my father and five more men in a fishing boat. I hardly heard a single word of English in the boat for a week at a time. I’ve never seen a Cornish book. I learnt Cornish going to sea with the old fellows. There’s no more than four or five in our village who can talk Cornish now, old folk eighty years old. Cornish had been entirely forgotten by the young.

Source: http://corpus.kernewek.cymru247.net/wb.txt

This is the text of a letter written by William Bodinar in 1776.

Origins of the Celts

http://thetranslatorscafe.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/celts-are-from-spain-says-professor/”>An article I found recently questions the commonly-held belief that the original Celtic homeland was in central Europea around Hallstatt in what is now Switzerland.

In a theory based an extensive overview of the linguistic and archaeological evidence, Professor John Koch of the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies proposes that a Celtic civilisation and culture first developed in the west of Europe in the Bronze Age rather than in central Europe.

Inscriptions found on the Iberian peninsula and dating from 800 BC to 400 BC are in a Celtic language, Professor Koch believes. The language is known as Tartessian and is believed to be the oldest written language in western Europe.

There is also an Irish legend in Do Suidigud Tellaich Temra (The Yellow Book of Lecan) about the origins of the Gaelic Celts – “We are born of the children of Mile, of Spain.”

My favourite kanji

The author of a site offering online Japanese lessons has kindly offered one full account for free to Omniglot visitors. The site offers Japanese lessons for beginners, plus some material for more advanced learners. Some of the lessons are free, once you’ve registered, others are available after payment of an annual subscription. The account will give you access to all the material on the site.

The “My favourite kanji” competition is your chance to win an account. Entries can take the form of a explanation of which kanji you like the most and why; a piece of calligraphy or art featuring your favourite kanji; a story or poem about your favourite kanji; or anything else you can think of based around your favourite kanji. Let your imaginations run wild and get those creative juices flowing!

Please send entries by email to the usual address. The closing date is the end of this month (30th June). The best entries will be displayed in the Omniglot gallery.

The Nagari Alphabet

Today we have a guest post by Marcis Gasuns.

The Nāgarī (lit. ‘of the city’) or Devanāgarī (‘divine Nagari’) alphabet descended from the Brahmi script sometime around the 11th century AD. It was originally developed to write Sanksrit but was later adapted to write many other languages. The origin and meaning of devanāgarī (also written as devnagari, devanagari, deonagri) remains dubious. It comes from the Sanskrit words deva (god, celestial; brahman), and nāgarī (city, possibly from tamizh, where it means “temple”). Together they probably mean, literally, (the most popular explanation) “script of the city”, “heavenly or sacred script of the city” or “[script of the] city of the Gods or priests” in Buddhist texts.

At the End – a farewell from Elizarenkova:

elizarenkova-avtograf.jpg

Celtic connections

Apart from the odd word here and there, the vocabularies of the two living branches of the Celtic language family, Brythonic (British) and Goidelic (Gaelic), appear to bear little resemblance to each other. So far I’ve only found two words that are exactly the same in Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic: blas (taste/flavour) and glas (blue/green).

To some extent, differences in spelling disguise connections between the languages, but even taking those differences into account, only about 2% of the words appear to be related.

Here are a few other related words I’ve found:

Gaeilge
(Irish)
Gàidhlig
(Gaelic)
Gaelg
(Manx)
Cymraeg
(Welsh)
Kernewek
(Cornish)
Brezhoneg
(Breton)
English
capall (each) cabbyl ceffyl (margh) (marc’h) horse
gabhar gobhar goayr gafr gaver gavr goat
cath cat kayt cat kath kazh cat
coo cu ki ki dog
abhainn abhainn awin afon avon (stêr) river
muir muir mooir môr mor mor sea
agus agus as a/ac/ag hag ha/hag and
aimsir aimsir emshir amser amzer time
ainm ainm ennym enw hanow anv name
airgead airgead argid arian arghans arc’hant silver
anáil anail ennal anadl anal anal breath

Note: actually means hound in Irish – dog is madra. Sea is also farraige is Irish, fairge is Scottish Gaelic, and faarkey in Manx.

To find more connections between the Celtic languages, you need to go back to their earlier forms. For example, the word for true in Welsh is gwir, in Irish it’s fíor, and in Scottish Gaelic it’s fìor. These words are all thought to originate from the reconstructed form, wir or weri. Then at some point the initial w become gw in Welsh and f in the Gaelic languages.

A good place to find connections between the Celtic languages is McBain’s Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language.

Forvo

Forvo is a site I heard about recently which contains recordings of tens of thousands of words, phrases and names in over 70 languages. The site is free to use and anyone can submit recordings, which means that their quality varies quite a bit. It looks like it has potential to become a useful language learning tool.