The First Glyphs

 THE FIRST GLYPHS 

#glyphs #hieroglyphs #egyptianwriting #earlywriting 

For thousands of years the mode of writing for literate societies was based on pictograms or ideographs with sound being a secondary consideration.

The example above is one of the oldest of not the lowest examples of Egyptian (hiero)glyphs. 

Glyphs symbols were carved stratched engraved into clay or rock or onto tortoise shells or bones! 

For contrast here's an example of "Oracle Bone" with the modern kaishu forms 

 

 Egyptian hieroglyphs can be generated with a computer for specialized usage and so can Sinitic based characters however Sinitic characters whether its kaishu have a wider and far longer usage, perhaps because the Chinese created compound characters with one part of the character being a hint to the pronunciation.

However both Egyptian and Chinese glyphs have had to compete with alphabetic systems.

In the case of Egyptian with Greek and Arabic and in China pinyin Chinese written with Roman letters is taught along with characters to introduce students to the concept of an ABC.

SOUND VERSUS SYMBOL

and sound won?