Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction

• An appetizing first taste of the subject of writing and languages
• Explains the origins of writing and how it developed, along with how it has been used over five millennia
• Focuses on specific examples including the Roman alphabet and Chinese characters

Readership: General readers interested in language and linguistics and students of anthropology, archaeology, computing/IT, cultural studies, languages, and literature.

Andrew Robinson, Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge

"User-friendly survey." - Steven Poole, The Guardian

1: Writing and its emergence
2: Development and diffusion of writing
3: Disappearance of scripts
4: Decipherment and undeciphered scripts
5: How writing systems work
6: Alphabets
7: Chinese and Japanese writing
8: Scribes and materials
9: Writing goes electronic
Chronology: 3300 BC to AD 2000
References
Further reading
Index