Abstract
This paper discusses three issues concerning the evolution of writing systems [8]. First, the paper critically examines Gelb’s [10] hypothesis which characterizes the development of writing systems as an evolution from primitive to advanced, with the most advanced system being alphabetic. Second, this paper discusses some possible reasons why the evolution of writing systems often deviates from the simplistic path proposed by Gelb. Finally, this paper compares three major writing systems, Maya, Egyptian, and Chinese, with a view to examining why, unlike Maya, both the Egyptian hieroglyphic and Chinese logographic writing systems developed extremely large inventories of symbols.
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Miyamoto, T. (2007). The Evolution of Writing Systems: Against the Gelbian Hypothesis. In: Sakurai, A., Hasida, K., Nitta, K. (eds) New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. JSAI JSAI 2003 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3609. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71009-7_31
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-71009-7_31
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