2021. március 25., csütörtök

The origins of Hunnish Runic Writing (4) The development of writing

 

The development of writing

 

Writing is the recording of thoughts by graphic means. That is possible both without referring to speech (with symbols or prewriting[1]) or with marking speech sounds (phonetic scripts). As it is generally known, the history of writing is a monotonous development from the complicated towards the simple, from pictorial hieroglyphs towards linear letters. However facts contradict this explanation, for in writing systems which have survived undisturbed, we notice the increase of the number of characters, or more precisely of hieroglyphs.

Studying the beginnings of any writing system, we find no convincing proof for how writing begun. On the basis of the relics, every nation seems to have obtained the idea of writing ready to use, and the scribes have not improved the principles of writing through the ages, they have only made its application more complicated. With an extrapolation backwards from these facts, we get an ancient writing that was simpler and far more phonetic than it has ever been thought (Pope/1966).

It must be stated, that the system, form and technology of that deducible ancient writing resemble those of Székely runic script.

General progress had been furthered by the creation of new writing systems on the ruins of old ones and making them widespread, but language and writing technology also played decisive roles. For existing writing systems certify that it was not important for every nation to develop a complete and advanced phonetic marking system. Due to Chinese language consisting of one-syllable words, Chinese script remained word-writing. Japanese with its regular sound arrangement caused Japanese writing to remain a syllable-writing. Also for linguistic reasons, Semitic scripts have not attained the independent, regular marking of vowels. Inflectional languages with irregular sound arrangement, like Hungarian, had to add phonetic elements to the ideographic root, and that gave rise to real letter-writing early.

Several conditions were necessary for the development of linear graphic forms as well. Farmers living at permanent settlements could also use stone and clay for writing, and these writing materials made the formation of even the most varied sign-forms possible.

However equestrian nomads were fairly restricted by the fact that the wood they had available as primary writing material was splintery, therefore they could use only simple linear characters. It follows from the foregoing that the greatest prospect to create a linear and phonetic writing was possessed by an equestrian people with an inflectional language and a founded state, such as the Hurrian in North-Mesopotamia or the Hungarians at the time the steppe was being populated.

These theoretical views in themselves would not prove the prominence of such a "migratory " writing - not even if we know that thousands-of-years-old writing culture carved in wood had been lost without any trace because of the decay of wood. However, based on some strikingly early relics similar to Székely runes, however, we can presume that a linear and phonetic "migratory" writing similar to Hungarian runes existed in about 4000 BC, somewhere between Portugal and China (Fig. 1).




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