Linguistics & Language · Writing Systems & Decipherment
A topic within Writing Systems & Decipherment, itself one of 9 topics in that field and part of Linguistics & Language.
2 works
Denise Schmandt-Besserat
Summarises the token-to-writing argument for a general readership, tracing how three-dimensional clay tokens used for accounting gradually flattened into the two-dimensional signs of the earliest Mesopotamian script.
I. J. Gelb
Proposes a general theory that every writing system evolves along one path, from picture-writing through word-signs and syllables toward an alphabet, and ranks scripts by how far along that path they have travelled.