Jal328 Quiz 1 PDF

WEEK 1: Introduction to Writing Systems What is writing? -​ Writing is not the same as language Language is -​ Universal to all cultures but writing is NOT Writing is -​ A technology that represents language, particularly utterances (sounds) -​ Not the underlying meaning or concepts...

WEEK 1: Introduction to Writing Systems What is writing? -​ Writing is not the same as language Language is -​ Universal to all cultures but writing is NOT Writing is -​ A technology that represents language, particularly utterances (sounds) -​ Not the underlying meaning or concepts Picture writing is not considered true writing because -​ It lacks systematic linguistic structure -​ Its often ambiguous and cannot easily convey abstract concepts or reproduce any linguistic utterance Linearity -​ Writing and speech are both linear, but they differ in flow -​ Speech progresses over time -​ Writing flows along a surface, with variability in direction → horizontal, left-to-right (e.g., Latin, Greek) → horizontal, right to left (e.g., Arabic, Hebrew) → Boustrophedon (alternating directions, e.g., Ancient Greek) → Vertical, such as in Chinese and Mongolian -​ Some systems are flexible, like chinese, which can vary between vertical and horizontal orientations Graphemes -​ A grapheme is the smallest unit of a writing system (like a phoneme in speech) Phoneme: -​ A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another in a language. Examples of phonemes -​ The "p" in "pat" is a phoneme that distinguishes it from "bat" -​ The "a" in "pat" is a phoneme that distinguishes it from "pet" Types of graphemes: -​ Free graphemes (stand alone, e.g., English letters) -​ Bound graphemes (require another, e.g., diacritics like accents) Diacritics modify graphemes and can disrupt linearity -​ For example, Devanāgarī uses diacritics around its graphemes Allographs and non-contrastive variations of a grapheme, often determine by context (e.g., uppercase vs. lowercase in english) -​ In greek, σ appears word-initially, while ς is word-final Ligatures are combinations of graphemes into a single unit -​ Non-structural ligatures are aesthetic -​ Structural ligatures (like Danish, norwegian, swedish æ) function as distinct graphemes Orthography and Transliteration -​ Orthography refers to the conventions of writing a language, including how graphemes combine to represent sound -​ Orthographies vary in regularity 1)​ Systematic (e.g., Finnish, where writing matches their pronunciation) 2)​ Less systematic (e.g., english where orthography reflects older pronunciations or etymologies -​ Transliteration covers text from one writing system to another (e.g., cyrillic to roman script) -​ Transcription (e.g., IPA) provides a consistent way to represent spoken language phonetically Chapter 1 - introduction -​ Chapter 2 - Theoretical Preliminaries -​ We might mention the word toque /tuk/ ‘a knit hat, especially in Canada’ -​ The use of italics shows that we are talking about the word as such -​ In this situation, we use the ordinary spelling of a word -​ Phonemic transcriptions are traditionally enclosed in slant lines: /tuk/. -​ A gloss, or short definition, is put in single quotation marks -​ We use angled brackets to talk specifically about graphemes -​ E.g., ‘in English, the sound/k/ is sometimes written as in words borrowed from French -​ Or in toque, the vowel /u/ has an unusual spelling of Arrangement of Symbols -​ All writing has an underlying linear organization -​ That is, symbols follow each other in some sort of predictable order -​ English is written in horizontal lines of symbols from left to right with the lines ordered from top to bottom -​ We are so used to this arrangement that we might think its universal -​ Hebrew and arabic are written in horizontal lines from left to right  -​ Chinese was traditionally written vertically in columns starting at the upper right -​ Mongolian is written vertically in column starting at the upper left -​ Although writing systems have an overall linear organization -​ We also encounter non-linear elements in writing -​ In arabic, writing is written in horizontal lines from right to left -​ However this description applies only to consonants and long vowels -​ Short vowels aren't normally written in arabic -​ If they are written -​ They are written as symbols above or below the phonologically preceding consonant i'm going to assume the ticks are the and the Graphemes and allographs -​ We define grapheme as a contrastive unit in a writing system -​ Parallel to phoneme or morpheme -​ For example: there is a grapheme in English which contrasts with other graphemes such as -​ This collection of graphemes for segmental units in English, i.e., for consonants and vowels, is traditionally known as the English alphabet -​ Non-segmental graphemes for punctuation, numbers, wordspace, etc. are not usually considered part of an alphabet -​ Each grapheme in a language is different from the others; each grapheme contrasts with other graphemes -​ For example: the graphemic unit in Chinese is the character; each Chinese character contrasts with the other characters just as the letters of an alphabet contrast with each other. -​ Phonemes are classes of allophones -​ Which are non-contrastive variants occurring in complementary distribution or in free variation -​ Graphemes are classes of allographs  -​ A grapheme often has a good deal of allographic variation related to style of handwriting or printing -​ We can distinguish cursive and printed letters as classes of allographs -​ We can also distinguish upper-case and lower-case letters -​ In printed English we distinguish different typefaces such as Palatino, Times New Roman, Helvetica, etc. -​ As well as style variations such as roman, italic, and bold. -​ These classes overlap so that, for example, we can speak of an italic, upper-case Helvetica - Q -​ In some cases the use of an allographic category is determined by the internal rules of the writing system -​ In english we capitalize the first letter of the first word of a sentence and the first letter of a proper name -​ To some degree, uppercase and lowercase letters ae in complementary distribution -​ For example: Toronto and not *toronTo; the two allographs of are in complementary distribution here -​ On further examination, however, the situation is not quite so straightforward, since we occasionally write using only uppercase letters - TORONTO -​ Since writing is much more varied in its structure than speech, and also because it is a more conscious process, Daniels, has argued that a graphemic analysis of writing is impossible -​ His objections are essentially that the term “grapheme” has not been defined carefully and that writing, being a conscious phenomenon is fundamentally different from language which is unconscious Free and bound graphemes -​ A free grapheme is one which occurs independently -​ In english cat, for example, each of the graphemes , , is a free grapheme -​ Since each occurs freely in other contexts -​ Diacritics are bound graphemes which occur only in combination with other graphemes -​ In french fro example, there are diacritics such as