ANCIENT ILLITERACY?
Ancient writing is conventionally approached as a counterpart of speech, as in the dyad orality/literacy. Alphabetical writing systems are often regarded as superior precisely because they are better able to record speech. This paper takes inspiration from the work on ancient Near Eastern writing sy...
| Publicado en: | Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Vol. 58; no. 2; pp. 31 - 43 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Dec2015
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=111868916&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 111868916 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00760730 6EYU jtl: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies issn: 00760730 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2015 vid: 58 iid: 2 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 111868916 10.1111/j.2041-5370.2015.12010.x ppf: 31 ppct: 12 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 274KB tig: atl: ANCIENT ILLITERACY? aug: au: WOOLF, GREG affil: Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, London su: History of writing History of alphabets Literacy Oral communication Illiterate persons Greece sug: subj: Greece History of writing History of alphabets Literacy Oral communication Illiterate persons ab: Ancient writing is conventionally approached as a counterpart of speech, as in the dyad orality/literacy. Alphabetical writing systems are often regarded as superior precisely because they are better able to record speech. This paper takes inspiration from the work on ancient Near Eastern writing systems and considers ancient literacy as a general competence in handling sign systems that are often as much about numbers and quantities as about phonetic transcription. Means of recording proper names assume a special importance in transactions between strangers, and in documents that circulate without much context. But judged in terms of a capacity to handle numbers, signs, diagrams, and other symbols the debate over ancient literacy, and illiteracy, looks rather different. The paper argues that relative to their need to handle sign systems of this kind, very few members of the ancient world can be considered as functionally illiterate. Moving away from orality/literacy also raises questions about the widespread (but incomplete) spread of alphabets and abjads in the last and first millennia. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: © 2020 Institute of Classical Studies. item: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies holder: Oxford University Press / USA dt: @attributes: year: 2015 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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