Short History of Libraries, Printing and Language: Short History Series, #4

​Origin of Language

Before there could be the written word, books and libraries, oral language had to develop among humans. The origin of language remains one of history's deep-set mysteries. Linguists, psychologists, and biologists researching the origin of language have few clues to aid them in their quest. Obviously, no fossilized remains of spoken words remain, however scientists do have fossilized human remains to study. From this evidence, researchers can study the changes of human brain size, vocal cord development and other key factors in language development. Most researchers agree that sometime around 50,000 - 100,000 years ago something important happened because during that period art, ritualized objects and certain aspects of a civilized culture begin appearing. Around that time the vocal tract, which includes the mouth, tongue, and throat, changed shape. This permitted humans to use language like we know it. Many scientists think that language developed during that time, though it could have existed earlier in some form. Some think people learned to speak over a short period of time, however others believe it developed over a longer time, possibly arising out of sign language. They believe this system still exists among humans on certain levels. Others believe the ability to speak derived from a 'proto language' that arose, allowing individuals to string individual words together to form a cogent thought. A form of protolanguage still survives in young children learning to speak and in many people that try to communicate when they do not speak each other’s language. Scientists continue to research the origins of language and someday may discover how humans learned to master this important ingredient to human civilization.

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Picture Writing Systems

Sometime around 3500 BC the Sumerians, a people that lived in Mesopotamia, began using pictures to depict words. This system was only useful for depicting nouns and Sumerian civilization was becoming more complex. Thus, a better form of written communication evolved out of this simple picture writing system, the cuneiform system of writing.

Cuneiform

The Sumerians developed the cuneiform writing system sometime around 3500 BC. The word cuneiform derives from the Latin word "cuneus, which means wedge shaped." This refers to the wedge style of the characters used in the language. The shape came from the stylus the writer used to impress the characters into the soft clay tablets used at the time.

Early Cuneiform

The earliest cuneiform writing consisted of word signs called pictographs, a form scholars call proto cuneiform. This form of writing depicted visible objects like a king, a battle or other object. The form eventually consisted of over 1500 characters.

Evolving Cuneiform

Over time, cuneiform evolved from a language that expressed objects to one that could also convey ideas and even emotion. By 2000 BC, cuneiform writers had begun to create literary works. These works included Atrahasis, The Descent of Inanna, The Myth of Etana, The Enuma Elish and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Later Cuneiform

By 2600 BC the number of characters had shrunk to around 600. Schools appeared to teach scribes to write the language. Cuneiform found use in the temples and bureaucracies to record events, laws, and religious dogma. Merchants also used cuneiform to record business records, contracts, and transactions. Libraries became established to store the hundreds of clay tablets that the scribes produced.

Other Cultures Used It

Other cultures found cuneiform useful and adopted it. These included:

Sumerians

Akkadians

Babylonians

Elamites

Hatti

Hittites

Assyrians

Hurrians

Died Out

By around 100 BC cuneiform as a form of writing and communication had run it course and died out. A newer form of writing, the 22-character Aramaic alphabet, appeared.

Translation in the Nineteenth Century

Travelers had found caches of these cuneiform tablets during the 1300's. Later European explorers found others in the 1500's. The earliest attempts to decipher them soon followed, however they were not successful. Later attempts by British scientists Henry Rawlinson and George Smith were successful and completely changed the way scholars looked at history.

Henry Rawlinson (April 5, 1810 – March 5, 1895)

The son of Abram Tyack and Eliza Creswicke Rawlinson, Henry was native to Chadlington, Oxfordshire, England. Rawlinson enlisted as a cadet in the British East India Company in 1827. He received a posting to India, where he served for six years. During this time he learned the Persian language. His proficiency in the language led the government to send him to Persia to help train the Shah's army. During his time in Persia, he learned of, and became interested in, the Behistun inscription.

Behistun Inscription

The town of Behistun is in east central Iran, southeast of Tehran. The inscription that drew Rawlinson's attention was on the side of a mountain about 320 feet off the ground. The Persian name for the village, Bagastâna, meant place where the gods dwell. The road that went through the village connected three great ancient cities, Babylonia and Media, Babylon and Cabaña. Travelers along this road were numerous and it was an important trade route. Darius the Great, who reigned from 522 - 486 BC, decided to record his military victories on the side of a mountain near the village along this road. The monument has four parts, a relief carving, and cuneiform text in Old Persian, the identical text in Babylonian and another text, identical to the first two, in Elamite. After the artisans that carved the monument finished, Darius had them remove the ledge they had worked on. The removal of this ledge made the monument virtually inaccessible, thus saving it from vandalism. The Behistun inscription had intrigued travelers and scholars for centuries and the many attempts to decipher it had failed. It was Rawlinson's self-appointed task to decipher the inscription.

Copying the Inscription

Rawlinson climbed up the rock face many times, beginning in late May 1836, during his stay in Persia to copy the texts. As he copied them, he realized that they were identical texts written in three different languages. He managed to decipher the Old Persian text, which then made translations of the other two possible. A change in political arrangement between Persia and the British Empire necessitated the removal of the British Army in 1839, thus halting Rawlinson's work.

Deployment to Afghanistan

The British government next sent him to Afghanistan in 1841, where he organized the defense of Kanawha against rebels that had risen in revolt against the British backed government. Successful in this endeavor, the British government next sent him to Baghdad, capital of Persia, as an agent. An unfortunate boating accident during this journey resulted in the loss of much of his property and papers, thus many of his exploits are based upon fragmentary records he had previously sent to England. He remained there until 1854. The posting enabled him to resume his work on cuneiform translations. During this time, he focused on the Assyrian and Babylonian languages, a much more difficult task that the Old Persian had been.

Return to England

Rawlinson returned to England in 1854 he received a knighthood for his service. His work on cuneiforms had mostly ended by this time as the remainder of his life was spent in politics, science and diplomacy. He served as a trustee for the British Museum from 1876 until 1895. During this time he the Museum published several of his works, The Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun (1846–51) and Outline of the History of Assyria (1852), both reprinted from the Asiatic Society's journals; A Commentary on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Babylon and Assyria (1850); Notes