Chirography
Encyclopedia
Chirography is the study of penmanship
Penmanship
Penmanship is the technique of writing with the hand using a writing instrument. The various generic and formal historical styles of writing are called hands, whilst an individual personal style of penmanship is referred to as handwriting....

 and handwriting
Handwriting
Handwriting is a person's particular & individual style of writing with pen or pencil, which contrasts with "Hand" which is an impersonal and formalised writing style in several historical varieties...

 in all of its aspects (script
Writing system
A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...

, calligraphy
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...

, etc.).

Brief history

According to Georges Jean (1992, p. 12), standardised writing 'cannot be said to exist until there is an agreed upon repertoire of formal signs or symbols that can be used to reproduce clearly the thoughts and feelings' that those utilising them hope to put forth.

Ancient printing

Although writing's origins may be traced back to the renowned French cave paintings (said to be about 20,000 years old)in Lascaux
Lascaux
Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne. They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be...

 it would be, ostensibly, the passing of nearly 17 millennia which would be required for a formal system of writing to be borne.

The Sumerians are regarded as the first everyday users (in agricultural applications) of pictographs(of which scholars have catalogued some 15,000 individual symbols).

Contextual handwriting/cuneiform

Contextual handwriting is said to have begun with the development of Cuneiform (from the Latin Cuneus and referring to the stylus
Stylus
A stylus is a writing utensil, or a small tool for some other form of marking or shaping, for example in pottery. The word is also used for a computer accessory . It usually refers to a narrow elongated staff, similar to a modern ballpoint pen. Many styli are heavily curved to be held more easily...

es used in creating the pictographs of the aforesaid). Cuneiform
Cuneiform
Cuneiform can refer to:*Cuneiform script, an ancient writing system originating in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC*Cuneiform , three bones in the human foot*Cuneiform Records, a music record label...

 would be applied in the recording of the Akkadian language
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...

 and several other languages of Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...

 as the usage of Sumerian began to fade as a spoken language.

Convergence in Mesopotamia and Egypt

As both Mesopotamians and Egyptians
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

 began to regard writing as an indicator of one's privilege/rung in societal hierarchy, instructors of the times were given rein to develop drilling (reading/identification, and so on) and memorisation techniques still in operation in modern language instruction. This may have also been assisted by the eventual availability of papyrus
Papyrus
Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....

 as well as the evolution of the hieroglyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...

 into the more comprehensible forms of Hieratic
Hieratic
Hieratic refers to a cursive writing system that was used in the provenance of the pharaohs in Egypt and Nubia that developed alongside the hieroglyphic system, to which it is intimately related...

(from the Greek 'hieros' meaning 'sacred' and coined by Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

(c. 484-424 BCE)) and Demotic
Demotic
Demotic may refer to:*Demotic Greek, a variety of the Greek language*Demotic , a script and stage of the Egyptian language...

. These would diminish one another in their own swiftness and would be key elements in the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek...

 by Jean-François Champollion
Jean-François Champollion
Jean-François Champollion was a French classical scholar, philologist and orientalist, decipherer of the Egyptian hieroglyphs....

.

Initial alphabets

While it is thought that the Phoenician alphabet
Phoenician alphabet
The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, was a non-pictographic consonantal alphabet, or abjad. It was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia...

 is the first veritable alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...

, it contained only consonants (an abjad
Abjad
An abjad is a type of writing system in which each symbol always or usually stands for a consonant; the reader must supply the appropriate vowel....

). Upon reaching the shores of Greece via sailing merchants, it is proposed that the Greek alphabet was developed by a combination of the Phoenician form and the Egyptian Demotic. Although it would fall out of common usage in or around 1100 BCE (except for, or almost exclusively in the university/scholarly realm, as well as in its mother country), its presence would be felt in more modern languages such as Latin and later English.

Aramaic and the worth of Biblical texts

As a great number of Biblical texts were transcribed in Aramaic (arising in Aram
Aram
-Bible:* Aram, son of Shem, according to the "Table of Nations" in Genesis 10* Aram-Naharaim , the land in which the city of Haran lay* Aram , an ancient region containing the state of Aram Damascus...

 (modern day Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

) in or near 800 BCE), along with the rising popularity of the Gospels, teachings of both the language and theological aspects therein became more prevalent in society. This would be furthered by the eventual translations of the Aramaic into Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 and/or Yiddish which began to flourish in the Arabic peninsula and the surrounding areas along with the established language found in Qur'anic texts. And although there are spotty connections with their Phoenician systems, it is clear that the transcription of the 'scriptures' mentioned into dialects still spoken, to some degree, today allowed for written as well as verbal language to reach a larger portion of the masses.

Chinese language/East-Asian calligraphy/handwriting

The intricate system of characters defined by their radicals
Radical (Chinese character)
A Chinese radical is a component of a Chinese character. The term may variously refer to the original semantic element of a character, or to any semantic element, or, loosely, to any element whatever its origin or purpose...

 (214 in the Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 system, with an alternative 79 radical system in the later developed Japanese
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 interpretation known as Kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

 (漢字)) is believed to have come to use around 2000 BCE. It was furthermore codified about 1500 BCE and finally systemised between 200 BCE-400 CE. It is considered one of the most consistently unchanged systems of writing and is held in high regard in its influence of nearby languages. Its forms, when written, may range from bloc (the most visible form generally not using brushes) to semi- and fully cursive styles which require a certain degree of skill and devotion (through constant practice and memorisation) and remain in wide use.

English/European development of script

In the words of Philip Hofer
Philip Höfer
Philip Höfer is a fictional character on the German soap opera Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten portrayed by actor and singer Jörn Schlönvoigt since December 1, 2004.-Introduction:...

 (1941, p. 2), in the latter portion of the Seventh century CE 'English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 calligraphy became important and influential on the course of writing styles for the first time' (often credited in part to Alcuin
Alcuin
Alcuin of York or Ealhwine, nicknamed Albinus or Flaccus was an English scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York...

 of York). Eventually a form of English handwriting would form to follow the function of the daily business affairs of merchants, clerks and professional scribes
Scribes
Scribes is a minimalist and extensible text editor for GNOME that combines simplicity with power. Scribes focuses on ways workflow and productivity can be intelligently automated and radically improved...

 for a more masterful and consistent means of correspondence.

During the same period (around the 17th-18th centuries), as English trade came more to the forefront of mainland Europe and the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...

, a significant amount of copy books came about which made use of the finery of English script of the time. In some time a more common system of joined/cursive
Cursive
Cursive, also known as joined-up writing, joint writing, or running writing, is any style of handwriting in which the symbols of the language are written in a simplified and/or flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing easier or faster...

 handwriting would be developed for usage in the same vein along with its promotion in the education system.

Some key figures of chirography

  • Herodotus
    Herodotus
    Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

  • Qin Shi Huang
    Qin Shi Huang
    Qin Shi Huang , personal name Ying Zheng , was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 246 BC to 221 BC during the Warring States Period. He became the first emperor of a unified China in 221 BC...

    (秦始皇)(260-210 BCE)
  • Alcuin
    Alcuin
    Alcuin of York or Ealhwine, nicknamed Albinus or Flaccus was an English scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York...

     (735-804 CE)
  • Johann Gutenberg (1398-1468 CE)
  • Ludovico Arrighihttp://www.infoamerica.org/museo/tipografos/paginas/arrighi.htm (1475-1527 CE)
  • Samuel Pepys
    Samuel Pepys
    Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

     (1633-1703 CE)
  • Jean-François Champollion
    Jean-François Champollion
    Jean-François Champollion was a French classical scholar, philologist and orientalist, decipherer of the Egyptian hieroglyphs....

     (1790-1832 CE)

Modern chirography

Although, to a certain degree, modern widespread and efficient means of printing coupled with computer technology have pushed stylistic and complex handwriting techniques to the backdrop of linguistic aspects, the aforementioned practices remain in use often in the fields of academia for study. Calligraphy remains a commonplace facet of many modern East Asian languages as well as forms of cursive Arabic. However dated they may seem, they are necessary in order to grasp archaic or other older forms of current languages in the field of linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

, as there are still mysteries to resolve (such as the near indecipherable Indus Script
Indus script
The term Indus script refers to short strings of symbols associated with the Indus Valley Civilization, in use during the Early Harappan and Mature Harappan period, between the 35th and 20th centuries BC. In spite of many attempts at decipherments and claims, it is as yet undeciphered...

).

Sources

  • Bickham, George and Philip Hofer (1941). The Universal Penman. New York: Dover. ISBN 0-486-20616-5
  • Harries, Rhonda (1981). Elements of Handwriting: A Teacher's Guide. Novato: Academic Therapy Publications. ISBN 0-87879-282-1
  • Jean, Georges (1992). Writing: The Story of Alphabets and Scripts. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-2893-0

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK