The Timeline of Language and Writing

Language is unique to humans and our ancestors. It isn’t entirely clear from the skeletal evidence of early hominines whether they had the full vocal capability as we do but they did speak. Language is a way of communicating more effectively to members of our species, much more effectively than other species can. 

We can create infinite words and meaning grammatically. Semantically we can apply different meanings, opening up the abstract world. We can use symbols like the overarching ‘money’ to convey meaning and value. Symbolic language allows us to store and share accumulated information. This is one of the hallmarks of being human and one key to our thriving as a species. 

Rose Alphabet by Perveen Kaur

Writing 

Some of the first things written down were taxes and apparently, a recipe for beer. I think that demonstrates somewhat the priorities of those who were in charge at the time, for they had the power and ability to ensure things were noted in some way. 

The first types of writing systems were pictographic and symbolic. They lacked the ability to express a range of thought, but were likely used to start with to record things owed as accounting documents. These were not necessarily linked to a spoken language, they were just a way to record things. 

Language 

Language was around long before writing systems, but not all spoken languages necessarily have a writing system attached to it. Learning to read and write was a scholarly job, one that was not undertaken by the masses of ancient communities but only by the select few. 

There are several types of writing systems that have evolved that connect to spoken language. Abjads are consonant alphabets like Hebrew and Arabic. The vowels are missing in these types of writing systems. There are alphabets which is a standardised set of letters. English is the modern Latin alphabet which have their roots in Ancient Greek and Phoenician. There are syllabaries which is a set of written symbols like Japanese or Chinese. There is abugida where the vowels are like marks added to the consonants, like Indian languages today. 

Timeline

Below is a timeline with some moments through history relating to writing, paper, languages and innovations. 

35,000 years ago – pictograms – murals. Painted onto the walls of caves. Or carved into rock. 

9000 BCE – token system, recording system in early Mesopotamia 

6600 BCE – symbols carved on tortoise shells 

3300 BCE - Cuneiform. Indus valley alphabet. Etched onto clay tablets. Records of stock, taxes 

3200 BCE - Hieroglyphs. Egypt. Etched into clay and stone. 

Papyrus was used as far back as early Egypt, first dynasty. Made from papyrus plant. 

3100 – 2900 BCE – proto-elamite script, early Bronze Age writing system, Iranian plateau

2500 BCE – Indus valley script emerges 

2334 BCE – King Sargon created the first empire, Akkadian empire, and spoke Akkadian, replacing Sumerian as the official language of the empire. 

1900 BCE – Chinese writing appears

1150 BCE – in Levant, alphabets using only consonants include Phoenician alphabet which spread to Greeks through trade, who add vowels 

500 BCE – parchment, made from dried and processed animal skins. Took over from papyrus as the main medium for writing on. 

300 CE – codex or manuscript in book form, supersedes the roll of parchment 

600 CE – Arabic script 

600 – 800 CE – decorated manuscripts with ornate capital letters and marginal illustrations 

1040 CE – in china, Pi Sheng invented movable type

1450 CE – printing press Gutenberg 

1867 – The typewriter, Christopher Lathan Sholes American inventor. Patent is sold to Remington who puts out the first typewriters in 1874 for sale. 

1884 – The fountain pen, American inventory L.E. Waterman, replaces the quill pen. 

1940s – Biro pen, invented by Laszlo Biro. 

1971 – First electronic message is sent email, from one computer to another. 

1990 – Text, first texts are sent through phones