1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910815604203321

Autore

Gnanadesikan Amalia E

Titolo

The writing revolution : cuneiform to the Internet / / Amalia E. Gnanadesikan

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chichester, U.K. ; ; Malden, MA, : Wiley-Blackwell, 2009

ISBN

1-4443-0467-4

9786612115882

1-4443-0468-2

1-282-11588-X

1-4443-5985-1

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (532 p.)

Collana

The language library

Disciplina

411.09

Soggetti

Writing - History

Alphabet - History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-296) and index.

Nota di contenuto

The first IT revolution -- Cuneiform: forgotten legacy of a forgotten people -- Egyptian hieroglyphs and the quest for eternity -- Chinese: a love of paperwork -- Maya glyphs: calendars of kings -- Linear B: the clerks of Agamemnon -- Japanese: three scripts are better than one -- Cherokee: Sequoyah reverse-engineers -- The Semitic alphabet: Egypt to Manchuria in 3,400 years -- The empire of Sanskrit -- King Sejong's one-man renaissance -- Greek serendipity -- The age of Latin -- The alphabet meets the machine.

Sommario/riassunto

In a world of rapid technological advancements, it can be easy to forget that writing is the original Information Technology, created to transcend the limitations of human memory and to defy time and space. The Writing Revolution picks apart the development of this communication tool to show how it has conquered the world.Explores how writing has liberated the world, making possible everything from complex bureaucracy, literature, and science, to instruction manuals and love lettersDraws on an engaging range of examples, from the first cuneiform clay tablet, Egyptian