? Cultural origin
Western scholars believe that Sumerians invented this kind of writing.
This is an ancient script that originated from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It was invented by Sumerians around 3200 BC and is one of the earliest characters in the world.
Cuneiform is used by many ancient civilizations to write their languages, but these languages do not necessarily belong to the same related language family. For example, the Hittites and the Persian Empire also used cuneiform, but both languages are Indo-European languages and have nothing to do with Sumerian. In addition, Akkadians also use cuneiform as a writing tool, but Akkadians are very different from Sumerians.
Related legends
The King of Enmeka and Alata: In Sumerian epic The King of Enmeka and Alata, it is recorded that Enmeka, the king of uruk, was the one who created cuneiform characters. The book was written in the Third Ur Dynasty (265438 BC+065438 BC+02 BC-2004 BC). So far, western scholars have identified Enmeka as the creator of cuneiform through this poem. However, the poem does not explicitly explain or imply whether King Enmeka had written before, but only emphasizes that "the king wrote words on the clay tablet" and "such a thing has never happened". Moreover, there are also illogical places: King Enmeka wrote his words on the clay tablet and asked the messenger to show them to King Alata. It is obviously illogical for King Alata to understand the newly created words. Therefore, it can only be said that the creation of cuneiform by King Enmeka is a legend.
Inanna and Keane This is a myth about Inanna, the patron saint of uruk, who went to the residence of Keane, the god of wisdom of her father, to defraud "cultural property (me)" and returned to uruk to celebrate. There is a saying "Nam-dub-sarma"-but because the historical records are unknown, the original text is incomplete, the writing date is controversial, and no early figures of Eli have been found in reality. [4] Other legends: In the Babylonian Card written by Belloso, an ancient Greek priest, the Aoanni people came out of the sea in the morning to teach the Babylonians writing, farming and architecture, and returned to the sea at night. According to Assyrian legend, Naboo, son of Marduk, educated fools, including writing.
? Evolution process?
BC 1: 3000, early graphic characters.
2. Graphic characters in late 2800 BC. Turn left 90 degrees. ?
3. The inscription in 2600 BC simplified the strokes.
4: Mud board. Early cuneiform writing.
5. The second half of the third millennium BC.
6. The first half of the second millennium BC.
7. BC 1 the first half of the Millennium, classical Assyrian cuneiform.
Formation and development of concrete
cuneiform characters
Around 3000 BC, Sumerians in the Bronze Age used clay tablets to record accounts in the form of pictures. Gradually, these symbols have evolved into ideographic symbols, and those things that cannot be described are expressed in any specified way. At first, this kind of writing was hieroglyphics. Gradually, this kind of hieroglyphics developed into Sumerian ideographs, which were combined by one or several symbols to express a new meaning. For example, "mouth" is the action "speaking"; Use symbols representing "eyes" and "water" to express "crying" and so on. With the popularization of writing, Sumerians simply used a symbol to represent a sound. For example, "arrow" and "life" are the same word in Sumerian, so they are represented by the same symbol "arrow". Later, some restrictive radical symbols were added, such as adding an "inverted triangle" before a person's name to indicate that it is a man's name. In this way, this writing system is basically completed. [5] Moreover, Sumerians also used it to express sound. Several ideograms together can represent a complex word or phrase, which makes many symbols redundant. Cuneiform was originally written straight from top to bottom, and later it was written from left to right.
Wedge pronunciation
Write horizontally, so all the wedge symbols are turned 90, from vertical to horizontal. Because the right hand holds the pen and writes horizontally from left to right, the thick end of the wedge-shaped stroke is on the left and the thin end (nail tail) is on the right. Sumerian cuneiform intentional consonant. After being used and reformed by Babylonians, Assyrians and Alamaians, it became a semi -[6] syllable writing. There are about 500 kinds of cuneiform symbols * * *, many of which have multiple meanings, and their "exact meanings" can only be determined according to the upper and lower contents, which makes the cuneiform writing system more difficult to master than the later pinyin writing system. However, for two thousand years, cuneiform was the only writing system in Mesopotamia. [7] By about 500 BC, this kind of writing even became a common commercial communication medium in most parts of West Asia. Archaeologists have discovered a large number of cuneiform tablets or inscriptions, which have been translated since the19th century, thus forming a new discipline to study ancient history-Assyrian studies.
? The spread of words
The spread of cuneiform characters is mainly in West Asia and Southwest Asia. During the reign of Babylon and Assyria, cuneiform characters developed greatly, vocabulary was enlarged and complete, and calligraphy was more exquisite and beautiful. With the spread of culture, other ethnic groups in the two river basins also adopted this writing method. Around 1500 BC, cuneiform characters invented by Sumerians had become a common writing system for ethnic exchanges at that time, and even cuneiform characters were used in diplomatic exchanges or treaties between Egypt and countries in the two river basins. Later, due to the development of commerce, Persians in the Iranian plateau improved the cuneiform in Mesopotamia and gradually turned it into an advanced alphabet.