Comments on: Who invented writing?

By: The Scholars Deciphering a Lost Writing System – The Atlantic – Sebastian Gogola's Interests

Mon, 26 May 2025 12:36:11 +0000

[…] bigger question is at stake here too. Over time, writing arose in multiple locations in Asia and Africa. Yet because those continents were in constant contact with one another, exchanging goods and […]

By: Unraveling the Secrets of the Inca Empire | Parlour News

Unraveling the Secrets of the Inca Empire | Parlour News — Mon, 26 May 2025 12:18:02 +0000

By: বিশ্বের ১৫টি বিস্ময়কর বিজ্ঞানের আবিষ্কার

বিশ্বের ১৫টি বিস্ময়কর বিজ্ঞানের আবিষ্কার — Wed, 07 May 2025 07:22:28 +0000

[…] আবিষ্কারের নাম: লেখার পদ্ধতি (Writing System) […]

By: L’écriture : pourquoi un tel succès ? - Avec Un Grain De Sel

L’écriture : pourquoi un tel succès ? - Avec Un Grain De Sel — Sat, 31 Aug 2024 08:21:29 +0000

[…] 6 ↑ https://languageonthemove.com/who-invented-writing/ […]

By: What can Australian Message Sticks teach us about literacy? – Language on the Move

Fri, 23 Feb 2024 07:53:38 +0000

[…] form of visual communication used by Indigenous Australians: message sticks. When I teach about the invention of writing, I usually mention them in a little side note to illustrate the complexity of the question who […]

By: Đánh đu với chữ nghĩa – Phần III: Chữ viết ra đời | Trần Thị Nguyệt Mai

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 03:17:59 +0000

[…] Who invented writing? […]

By: How did the Biblical writers make use of ancient Near Eastern mythology in their accounts of creation? – Site Wrenthoughts

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 00:01:57 +0000

[…] Piller, Ingrid. “Who Invented Writing?” https://languageonthemove.com/who-invented-writing/ […]

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 05:40:56 +0000

In reply to Libba. Thank you for your interest, Libba! The New Testament is commonly dated to late 1st century (ca. 80-100 AD) and was probably revised for quite a while longer. It is also interesting that most of the New Testament was first written in Greek - rather than Aramaic, the language of Jesus and his disciples. You can find a very readable history of early (and later) Christianity in this book: MacCulloch, Diarmaid. (2010). Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. London: Penguin.

By: Libba

Libba — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 22:09:55 +0000

I have been reading some information on the writings in the Bible. I never thought to wonder how the Bible was written. However I have read that the writing of the New Testament was not written by the apostles of Jesus Christ. I am a Christian and I own several Bibles. I am afraid i never thought to compare one with the other. Now I am told that they were not written until long after the Crucifition. Also that the people credited with the writiings most likely did not know how to write and only orally passed the stories down. Can you tell me if the people who followed Jesus were not literate and uneducated in writing in any language. If so who did write them? Thank you

By: Arakah

Arakah — Sun, 29 Aug 2021 02:54:45 +0000

Hello Ingrid
Thanks a lot for this precious article. I like to read any thing that related to the history and linguistics and the article just a piece of art.
In the Islamic culture, before 1400 years ago, the Muslims has the Holy Book “Quran”, in the beginning there was a specific group that read and repeat the Quran so they will not lose it. After about 30 years of that time, their leader decided to write the Quran before all this group died and lose the Quran so they wrote it and put all of it in one book. Writing keeps everything organized and keep everything that we had so it will continue through the generations.

By: Megan

Megan — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 12:59:33 +0000

Hi Ingrid,
I personally find this blog post utterly intriguing. This post coupled with your video on YouTube supposedly provides an in-depth and comprehensible insight of the advent of writing. I am impressed with how our ancestors had undergone a lot of hardship and managed to create a range of scripts that are still accessible up to now, the whole process would require much patience, resilience and sacrifice. I am grateful that these days, in spite of our different cultural backgrounds, we do have different scripts in common, eventually universal scripts that can be used to write any language. Overall, your lecture and tutoring is of great value to me since I can have more understanding about the history of our language, specifically our writing systems.

Best,
Megan.

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 22:46:46 +0000

In reply to Jenny (Trang). Thank you so much, Jenny, for appreciating the blog! It makes me happy to hear the posts are inspiring your interest :-)

By: Vatnak

Vatnak — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 15:14:08 +0000

In reply to Ingrid Piller. By making the world less chaotic here, I just want to refer to the important contract which can be the valid evidence if any problems happen. But, yeah, you make me start thinking of a bigger picture of writing systems as some writing may confuse to people.

By: Jenny (Trang)

Jenny (Trang) — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 10:50:40 +0000

Thanks Dr. Ingrid for sharing these interesting blogs. In fact, I would like to share some information about the appearance and development of my native language, Vietnamese language. However, I also read comments below your blogs, I saw that another your student has already shared it. Thus, I comment differently.

Thanks to these blogs, I get precious knowledge about the appearance and development of writing systems through thousands of years ago. They have been invented, improved, and developed by different periods of time and associated by the people who invented them. Getting to know knowledge of writing systems’ history is as important and interesting as human beings’ history. When I read these, there are key words or phrases (they seem new to me) that encourage me to find out more related information. By doing that, this helps me gain and discover more knowledge not only the appearance of writing systems but also their history, history of ancient people or our ancestor such as Sumerians, Ancient Egypt people and Chinese people. It is amazing how ancestors invented and developed writing systems although not all ancient writing systems might not be existed and studied until now.

Jenny

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Sat, 07 Aug 2021 20:30:05 +0000

In reply to Vatnak. Thank you, Vatnak! I share your deep admiration for the inventors of writing, but I'm not sure it has done much to make the world less messy and chaotic

By: Vatnak

Vatnak — Sat, 07 Aug 2021 16:37:59 +0000

Hi Ingrid and everyone,
The history of writing’s development in this week’s reading is quite interesting. Also, the reading makes me admire the effort of the inventors of writing systems because it must be a complicated process to transform the spoken words to the systems which represent the meaning of those spoken words. Without the writing system, the world would have been very messy and chaotic as the population is growing. Thus, the writing systems seem like a very essential tool to reduce some social problems. For example, it provides a visual and valid evidence to protect people’s interest.

Thanks
Vatnak