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Writing systems
A script is a set of graphic practices; a language is a system of speech and meaning. One script can record several languages, and one language can appear in several scripts. Begin with sign inventories and writing direction, then ask what each sign does in context.
Writing systems
Two different systems
A language is a structured system used in speech or signing; a script is a convention for representing language visually. The Rosetta Stone carries Egyptian in hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts and Greek in Greek script: two languages, three scripts. Linear B and the Greek alphabet record forms of Greek in very different ways. A script’s name therefore cannot be treated as a language name.
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A reading check
Worked question
The Rosetta Stone has hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek sections. How many languages and how many scripts?
Show the analysis
Two languages, Egyptian and Greek, in three scripts. Hieroglyphic and Demotic are two Egyptian writing forms.