Writing Systems of the World

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course is about how humans have written language from ancient to modern times. Students will be introduced to the origins, evolutions, and adaptations of writing and explore various types of writing systems, including hieroglyphic, logographic, alphabetic, and syllabic, from around the world. The course will examine topics such as the invention of writing in ancient Mesopotamia, China, and Mesoamerica, the development of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt, the evolution of the alphabet, the spread of Semitic scripts like Aramaic and Arabic, the invention of modern scripts such as Cherokee and Adlam, and even Emoji. Students will be encouraged to learn about additional scripts not covered in class as part of their assignments.