Writing Practices in El-Lahun Papyri during the Middle Kingdom

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 96-116
Author(s):  
Mohamed A. Nassar
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Blank Space ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Scribal Habits

El-Lahun papyri have fixed writing systems concerning their form, layout, formulae, orthography, and paleography. Reasons for this are the cultural identity of the scribe, writing practices, scribal habits, and the level of the scribe’s education. In this paper, we discuss the writing practices and scribal habits during the Middle Kingdom in El-Lahun society through the hieratic and the cursive hieroglyphic papyri by studying writing materials, the reuse of papyrus, and traces of palimpsest, layout, traditions of corrections and additions, verse points, blank space, guidelines and borderlines, and check marks.

Local dialects, supralocal writing systems

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gijsbert Rutten ◽  
Marijke J. van der Wal
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Historical Phonology ◽  
Historical Sociolinguistics ◽  
The Past ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Local Dialect ◽  
Clear Cases

In historical sociolinguistics, it is often assumed that ego-documents such as private letters represent the spoken language of the past as closely as possible. In this paper, we will try to determine the degree of orality of seventeenth-century Dutch private letters: the degree to which the spoken local dialect is represented in these texts, and at the same time, the extent to which scribes possibly converged towards supralocal writing systems. We study the orthographical representation of four phonemes in a corpus of letters from the provinces of Holland and Zeeland. Clear cases of local writing practices are revealed, contributing to our knowledge of the spoken language in the past, as well as to the different ways in which it was represented in written language. However, the degree to which local features appear in the corpus is remarkably low. Only a minority of the letters contains localizable features, and if a letter contains these, it is usually only in a minority of the positions which, historically, were phonologically possible. We conclude that, in general, scribes did not aim to write their local dialect, but employed an intended supraregional variety instead. Keywords: Historical sociolinguistics; Dutch, seventeenth century; ego-documents; letters; writing systems; historical phonology; language from below; orality

scholarly journals Digital reading for teaching and learning

2019 ◽  
pp. 76-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu. P. Melenteva
Keyword(s):  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
The Other ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Digital Reading ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Civilizing Process

The term “digital reading” is defined. The author proves that digital reading is a natural stage of reading evolution as a civilizing process. Being “the other side” of writing, reading has been reflecting the changes of 5 thousand years of its history. The reading practices have been changing with changing writing practices. Today, as soon as the writing systems has been increasingly digitized and obtained some media features, the reading has been modifying itself, too.Digital reading has become introduced into the sphere of learning and education. Firstly, it is due to the education sector being intensively digitized, and secondly, because the text (which means reading, too) forms the basis for education.The author examines both advantages and risks of digital reading, in particular that of the hypertexts. She argues that student’s mastering digital reading requires to be supported by “a competent adult”. That is why the role of the libraries, and in particular, children’s, school, or academic libraries working in the digital environment, has been significantly increasing.

scholarly journals Material Entanglements of Writing Practices in the Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10671
Author(s):  
Philippa M. Steele
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
The People ◽  
The One ◽  
Writing Practice ◽  
The Bronze Age

The present paper explores theoretical aspects of the study of writing systems and practices. It approaches the mesh that constitutes writing practice through one type of agent: the writing instrument used to write clay documents in the Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus. On the one hand, this investigation will use types of writing implements and their distribution to think through wider issues concerning the development of writing practices across the Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus. On the other, it will attempt to establish the place of writing implements within a broader conceptual framework of the people, things and actions that constitute writing practices in this area and period.

scholarly journals THINKING ABOUT “MINGCHINA” ANEW: THE ETHNOCULTURAL SPACE IN A DIVERSE EMPIRE —WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE “MIAO TERRITORY”

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonglin Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Ming Dynasty ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Modern Identity ◽  
Chinese Empire

AbstractBy examining the cultural identity of China's Ming dynasty, this essay challenges two prevalent perceptions of the Ming in existing literature: to presume a monolithic socio-ethno-cultural Chinese empire and to equate the Ming Empire withChina(Zhongguo, the “middle kingdom”). It shows that the Ming constructedChinaas an ethnocultural space rather than a political entity. In essence,Chinawas defined as a Han domain that the Han people inhabited and where Han values were produced, practiced, and preserved in contrast to those of non-Han “barbarians,” be they domestic or foreign. The “Great Ming”—the dynastic title—cannot be confused withChina, the ethnocultural space. For the Ming ruling elite, the “Miao territory” in western Huguang and eastern Guizhou provinces represented a land “beyond the pale of civilization” (huawai), which was outside and different fromChina. The Ming construction of the ethnoculturalChinaconnects the imperial heritage to China's modern identity.

Do Writing Directions Influence How People Map Space onto Time?

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
Wenxing Yang ◽  
Ying Sun
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Horizontal Axis ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Temporal Cognition ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Psychological Experiments ◽  
Vertical Up

Abstract. The causal role of a unidirectional orthography in shaping speakers’ mental representations of time seems to be well established by many psychological experiments. However, the question of whether bidirectional writing systems in some languages can also produce such an impact on temporal cognition remains unresolved. To address this issue, the present study focused on Japanese and Taiwanese, both of which have a similar mix of texts written horizontally from left to right (HLR) and vertically from top to bottom (VTB). Two experiments were performed which recruited Japanese and Taiwanese speakers as participants. Experiment 1 used an explicit temporal arrangement design, and Experiment 2 measured implicit space-time associations in participants along the horizontal (left/right) and the vertical (up/down) axis. Converging evidence gathered from the two experiments demonstrate that neither Japanese speakers nor Taiwanese speakers aligned their vertical representations of time with the VTB writing orientation. Along the horizontal axis, only Japanese speakers encoded elapsing time into a left-to-right linear layout, which was commensurate with the HLR writing direction. Therefore, two distinct writing orientations of a language could not bring about two coexisting mental time lines. Possible theoretical implications underlying the findings are discussed.

Marital Stability Among Jewish and Mixed Couples Following Immigration to Israel From the Former Soviet Union

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoav Lavee ◽  
Ludmila Krivosh
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Social Adjustment ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Marital Stability ◽  
Marital Instability ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Mixed Marriages ◽  
Marital Outcomes ◽  
Jewish Immigrants

This research aims to identify factors associated with marital instability among Jewish and mixed (Jewish and non-Jewish) couples following immigration from the former Soviet Union. Based on the Strangeness Theory and the Model of Acculturation, we predicted that non-Jewish immigrants would be less well adjusted personally and socially to Israeli society than Jewish immigrants and that endogamous Jewish couples would have better interpersonal congruence than mixed couples in terms of personal and social adjustment. The sample included 92 Jewish couples and 92 ethnically-mixed couples, of which 82 couples (40 Jewish, 42 mixed) divorced or separated after immigration and 102 couples (52 Jewish, 50 ethnically mixed) remained married. Significant differences were found between Jewish and non-Jewish immigrants in personal adjustment, and between endogamous and ethnically-mixed couples in the congruence between spouses in their personal and social adjustment. Marital instability was best explained by interpersonal disparity in cultural identity and in adjustment to life in Israel. The findings expand the knowledge on marital outcomes of immigration, in general, and immigration of mixed marriages, in particular.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document