Fluxus Editions

Zusammenfassung. Sind manche Schriftsysteme besser (intelligenter) als andere? Gibt es sinnvolle und verlässliche Kriterien zur Bewertung von Schriftsystemen? Vor dem Hintergrund dieser Fragen vergleicht dieser Beitrag verschiedene Schriften. Ausgangpunkt ist das in der Überschrift zitierte Verdikt des deutschen Philosophen Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, das eine positive Beantwortung der Frage nach einer möglichen qualitativen Bewertung von Schriftsystemen nahelegt. Kritisch zu untersuchen sind jedoch die Maßstäbe, die angelegt wurden, um zu dem darin ausgedrückten Urteil zu kommen. Einer der zu diskutierenden Maßstäbe ist das Verhältnis von Schrift und Sprache, das in diesem Zusammenhang näher betrachtet werden soll.

Abstract. Are some writing systems better (more intelligent) than others? Are there any criteria for the evaluation of writing systems that are both reasonable and robust? Against the background of these questions, this paper looks at several different writing systems. The point of departure is the verdict by German philosopher George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel quoted in the title of the paper, which suggests that a qualitative evaluation of writing systems is possible. However, the yardsticks that were applied in order to arrive at the judgement expressed in it are to be critically examined. An important factor to be taken into consideration in this connection is the relationship between writing and language.

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   AUTHOR = {Udias, Agustín},
   TITLE = {{Jesuit Astronomers in Beijing, 1601--1805}},
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   AUTHOR = {Schneider, Albrecht},
   TITLE = {{Sound, Sprache, Schrift: Transkription und Notation in der vergleichenden
   Musikwissenschaft und Musikethnologie}},
   JOURNAL = {Zeitschrift für Semiotik},
   YEAR = {1987},
   VOLUME = {9},
   NUMBER = {3--4},
   PAGES = {317--343},
}

@BOOK{richards,
   AUTHOR = {Richards, E. G.},
   TITLE = {{Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History}},
   PUBLISHER = {Oxford University Press.},
   ADDRESS = {Oxford},
   YEAR = {1998},
}

@BOOK{olson,
   AUTHOR = {Olson, David},
   TITLE = {{The World on Paper}},
   PUBLISHER = {Cambridge University Press},
   ADDRESS = {Cambridge},
   YEAR = {1994},
}

@BOOK{ong,
   AUTHOR = {Ong, Walter S.},
   TITLE = {{Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the World}},
   PUBLISHER = {Methuen},
   ADDRESS = {London},
   YEAR = {1982},
}

@BOOK{needham,
   AUTHOR = {Needham, Joseph},
   TITLE = {{The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China}},
   PUBLISHER = {Cambridge University Press},
   ADDRESS = {Cambridge},
   YEAR = {1981},
   VOLUME = {2},
}

@ARTICLE{leong,
   AUTHOR = {Leong, Che Kan and Tamaoka, Katsuo},
   TITLE = {{Cognitive Processing of Chinese Characters, Words, Sentences and Japanese
   Kanji and Kana: An Introduction}},
   JOURNAL = {Reading and Writing},
   YEAR = {1998},
   VOLUME = {10},
   PAGES = {155--164},
}

@ARTICLE{kahneman,
   AUTHOR = {Kahneman, Daniel},
   TITLE = {{Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics}},
   JOURNAL = {The American Economic Review},
   YEAR = {2003},
   VOLUME = {93},
   NUMBER = {5},
   PAGES = {1449--1475},
}

@BOOK{ifrah,
   AUTHOR = {Ifrah, Georges},
   TITLE = {{Universalgeschichte der Zahlen}},
   PUBLISHER = {Campus-Verlag},
   ADDRESS = {Frankfurt a. M.},
   YEAR = {1987},
}

@BOOK{hegel,
   AUTHOR = {Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich},
   TITLE = {{Enzyklopädie der Philosophischen Wissenschaften}},
   PUBLISHER = {Oßwald},
   ADDRESS = {Heidelberg},
   YEAR = {1830},
}

@BOOK{hearn,
   AUTHOR = {Hearn, Lafcadio},
   TITLE = {{Das Japanbuch. Eine Auswahl aus den Werken von Lafcadio Hearn}},
   PUBLISHER = {Literarische Anstalt Rütten \& Loening},
   ADDRESS = {Frankfurt a. M.},
   YEAR = {1823},
}

@BOOK{harris,
   AUTHOR = {Harris, Roy},
   TITLE = {{Rethinking Writing}},
   PUBLISHER = {Athlone},
   ADDRESS = {London},
   YEAR = {2000},
}

@BOOK{gould,
   AUTHOR = {Gould, Elaine},
   TITLE = {{Behind Bars---The Definitive Guide to Music Notation}},
   PUBLISHER = {Faber Music},
   ADDRESS = {London},
   YEAR = {2011},
}

@BOOK{gnandesikan,
   AUTHOR = {Gnandesikan, Amalia E},
   TITLE = {{The Writing Revolution}},
   PUBLISHER = {Wiley-Blackwell},
   ADDRESS = {Oxford},
   YEAR = {2009},
}

@BOOK{goody,
   AUTHOR = {Goody, Jack},
   TITLE = {{The Domestication of the Savage Mind}},
   PUBLISHER = {Cambridge University Press},
   ADDRESS = {Cambridge},
   YEAR = {1977},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{faber,
   AUTHOR = {Faber, Alice},
   EDITOR = {Downing, P. and Lima, S.D. and Noonan, M.},
   TITLE = {{Phonemic segmentation as epiphenomenon: evidence from the history of
   alphabetic writing}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{The Linguistics of Literacy}},
   PUBLISHER = {Benjamins},
   ADDRESS = {Amsterdam},
   YEAR = {1992},
   PAGES = {111--134},
}

@BOOK{duncan,
   AUTHOR = {Duncan, David E.},
   TITLE = {{Calendar. Humanity's Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year}},
   PUBLISHER = {Avon Books},
   ADDRESS = {New York},
   YEAR = {1998},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{coulmas18,
   AUTHOR = {Coulmas, Florian},
   EDITOR = {Weth, Costanze and Juffermans, Kasper},
   TITLE = {{Revisiting the `Tyranny of Writing}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{The Tyranny of Writing. Ideologies of the Written Word}},
   PUBLISHER = {Bloomsbury},
   ADDRESS = {London},
   YEAR = {2018},
   PAGES = {19--29},
}

@BOOK{coulmas,
   AUTHOR = {Coulmas, Florian},
   TITLE = {{Writing Systems. An Introduction to their Linguistic Analysis}},
   PUBLISHER = {Cambridge University Press},
   ADDRESS = {Cambridge},
   YEAR = {2003},
}

@BOOK{cajori,
   AUTHOR = {Cajori, Florian},
   TITLE = {{A History of Mathematical Notation}},
   PUBLISHER = {Dover Publications},
   ADDRESS = {Mineola},
   YEAR = {1929},
   VOLUME = {1},
}

@ARTICLE{changizi,
   AUTHOR = {Changizi, Mark A. and Shinsuke, Shimojo},
   TITLE = {{Character Complexity and Redundancy in Writing Systems over Human History}},
   JOURNAL = {Proceedings Biological Sciences},
   PUBLISHER = {Dover Publications},
   YEAR = {2005},
   VOLUME = {272},
   PAGES = {267--275},
}

Florian Coulmas (2019), „Die Buchstabenschrift ist an und für sich die intelligentere.“ Überlegungen zur Bewertung von Schriftsystemen, in Proceedings of Graphemics in the 21st Century, Brest 2018 (Yannis Haralambous, Ed.), Brest: Fluxus Editions, 1–16

@INPROCEEDINGS{gla1-coul,
   AUTHOR = {Coulmas, Florian},
   EDITOR = {Haralambous, Yannis},
   TITLE = {{„Die Buchstabenschrift ist an und für sich die intelligentere.“
Überlegungen zur Bewertung von Schriftsystemen}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{Proceedings of Graphemics in the 21st Century, Brest 2018}},
   PUBLISHER = {Fluxus Editions},
   ADDRESS = {Brest},
   YEAR = {2019},
   PAGES = {1--16},
   DOI = {https://doi.org/10.36824/2018-graf-coul},
}