The Writing Revolution

An exploration of the original Information Technology – the writing systems of history

The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet explores the origins, historical development, adaptations, linguistic properties, cultural context, and social impact of one of humankind's greatest inventions: writing systems. Now in its second edition, this popular book traces the history of writing from the earliest proto-cuneiform tablet to the latest AI-generated text. Author Amalia E. Gnanadesikan offers an engaging, highly readable narrative account of how different writing systems originated, how they evolved over time, and how they have represented languages around the world.

Concise, easy-to-digest chapters cover each of the world's major written traditions across time and space, including Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese characters, Bronze-Age Linear B, New World writing systems, the Roman alphabet, and many others. Updated throughout, The Writing Revolution features new and expanded coverage of the Digital Age, including Unicode, the World Wide Web, emojis, generative AI, and more.

Investigating how the creation of writing made the modern world possible, The Writing Revolution:

• Covers the world's major writing systems as well as a selection of lesser-known scripts
• Discusses papyrus, paper, the printing press, digital writing, and other associated technologies
• Features engaging examples throughout, including Egyptian funerary texts, Maya calendars, Arabic calligraphy, Morse code, and modern text messaging
• Interweaves ideas from cultural studies, archaeology, linguistics, literature, anthropology, and information science

The Writing Revolution is a must-read for students of writing systems, linguistics, information science, and intellectual history, as well as general readers with an interest in the history of written language.

List of Illustrations vii

Preface xi

1 The First IT Revolution 1

2 Cuneiform: Forgotten Legacy of a Forgotten People 17

3 Egyptian Hieroglyphs and the Quest for Eternity 39

4 Chinese: A Love of Paperwork 63

5 Maya Glyphs: Calendars and Kings 89

6 Linear B: The Clerks of Agamemnon 107

7 Japanese: Three Scripts Are Better than One 127

8 Cherokee: Sequoyah Reverse- Engineers 149

9 The Semitic ʼĀlep- Bēt: Egypt to Manchuria in 3,500 Years 163

10 The Empire of Sanskrit 191

11 King Sejong’s One- Man Renaissance 215

12 Greek Serendipity 233

13 The Age of Latin 255

14 The Alphabet Meets the Machine 277

15 Writing Goes to Bits 299

Appendix: Figures A.1–A.9 321

Further Reading 331

Index 361

Amalia E. Gnanadesikan was the Technical Director for Language Analysis at the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language. Now retired, she has taught writing, linguistics, and writing systems at the University of Maryland, West Chester University, and Rutgers University, and published works on writing systems, phonology, and language description. She is the author of Dhivehi: The Language of the Maldives.

Now in its second edition, The Writing Revolution takes readers on a journey through the origins, historical development, adaptations, linguistic properties, cultural context, and social impact of the world’s major written traditions. Demonstrating how the creation of writing transcended the limitations of human memory and made the modern world possible, linguist Amalia E. Gnanadesikan offers an engaging, easy-to-read historical narrative of written language that covers everything from the earliest proto-cuneiform tablet to the latest AI-generated text.

Concise chapters describe how different writing systems originated, how they evolved over time, and how they represent the thoughts and sounds expressed in spoken language. Throughout the book, Gnanadesikan interweaves ideas from cultural studies, archaeology, linguistics, literature, anthropology, and information science—complemented by illustrative examples of Egyptian hieroglyphs, Japanese syllabaries, Chinese characters, New World writing systems, the Roman alphabet, and many others.

Featuring new and expanded coverage of the Digital Age, including Unicode, the internet, emojis, and generative AI, The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet is essential reading for students of writing systems, linguistics, information science, and intellectual history, as well as general readers with an interest in the remarkable history of written language.