Origins of human language: Ancient history of written language | Irving Finkel and Lex Fridman

Quick Overview

The origins of human language development are complex, evidenced by the earliest known writing system, Sumerian proto-cuneiform (c. 3500–3200 BC), which began as pictographic signs recording administrative data like rations, evolving later (c. 2900 BC onward) into true cuneiform that represented phonetic sounds, a process that took millennia before the development of the alphabet, which is seen as a more flexible and natural system for recording language fully.

Key Points: The earliest evidence of writing, proto-cuneiform pictographic script from the Late Uruk period (c. 3500–3200 BC), originated in Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, initially used for recording administrative data like beer rations. Cuneiform writing evolved in a second phase around 2900 BC into true cuneiform, where symbols became abstract and phonetic, representing sounds rather than just objects, as shown by the Old Babylonian cuneiform tablet of the Ur-Isin King List (1813–1812 BC). The Sumerian language, one of the native tongues of ancient Iraq, was recorded using cuneiform, which was structurally complex, utilizing wedges pressed into clay, and its development took approximately 3,000 years before the invention of the alphabet. The expert suggests that the pictographic system was limited because each sign represented an object, making it difficult to record grammar, verbs, and abstract concepts without complex conventions. The development of the alphabet, which represents sounds rather than pictures, represents a more flexible and natural system for recording language fully, which the Sumerians did not achieve in their initial writing phase. The speaker finds it paradoxical that the Sumerians developed such a complex, enduring (lasting over three millennia) system for recording concrete things before developing a system that naturally recorded language phonetically. The earliest writing was highly systematic, featuring signs that were often pictorial representations of the object itself, such as a foot for the word 'foot'.