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A rare, isolated script invented from scratch holds clues to the evolution of writing

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https://www.sciencealert.com/rare-script...of-writing

EXCERPTS: A rare script from a language in Liberia has provided some new insights into how written languages evolve. "The Vai script of Liberia was created from scratch in about 1834 by eight completely illiterate men who wrote in ink made from crushed berries," says linguistic anthropologist Piers Kelly, now at the University of New England, Australia.

[...] Even the earliest writing systems [circa 5,000 years ago] are thought to have been formed by small groups of people within a single generation, just like the Vai script. However, as they moved through generations, the team suggests these systems became simpler over time.

[...] The eight Vai creators set out to design symbols for each of their language's syllables, inspired by a dream. Their chosen symbols represented physical things like a pregnant woman, water, and bullets, as well as more abstract traditional emblems.

It was then taught informally by a literate teacher passing their knowledge of the script to an apprentice student (with 200 individual letters that must have been a challenge to remember!). This practice is still used today to teach the written language, which is now even used to communicate pandemic health messages.

Kelly and colleagues from the Max Planck Institute analyzed the 200-syllabic alphabet of the Vai people from 1834 onwards using archives across several countries. Below is an animation of what they observed for three of the Vai letters: ꔫ 'bhi' , ꗌ 'tho', and ꔱ 'fi'.

Over the first 171 years of its history, the Vai script did indeed become increasingly compressed. The simplification occurred over generations of users; symbols with the highest complexity were simplified the most.

[...] "Visual complexity is helpful if you're creating a new writing system. You generate more clues and greater contrasts between signs, which helps illiterate learners. This complexity later gets in the way of efficient reading and reproduction, so it fades away," says Kelly.

As the letters became less complex, Kelly and team found they also became more uniform. This is despite the language never having been adopted for mass production or for bureaucratic needs. These uses are what seemed to help standardize other languages – for example, Mesopotamia's writing standardization coincided with the implementation of state-wide systems.

Changes in tools, from new writing implements and the invention of paper to use with computers also likely play a role in simplifying languages. "However the fact that Vai continued to compress over the entire length of the 19th century, at a time when there was little change in writing media, indicates that shifts in writing technology cannot be the full story," the researchers write... (MORE - missing details) ..... PAPER: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/717779


https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/8BEcdyFO72s
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