Writing evolves to become simpler and more efficient, according to a new study based on the analysis of an isolated West African writing system.
But despite its impact on daily life, we know little about how writing evolved in its earliest years. With so few sites of origin, the first traces of writing are fragmentary or missing altogether.
In a study just published in Current Anthropology, a team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, showed that writing very quickly becomes ‘compressed’ for efficient reading and writing.
To arrive at this insight they turned to a rare African writing system that has fascinated outsiders since the early 19th century.
«The Vai script of Liberia was created from scratch in about 1834 by eight completely illiterate men who wrote in ink made from crushed berries,» says lead author Dr Piers Kelly, now at the University of New England, Australia. The Vai language had never before been written down.
According to Vai teacher Bai Leesor Sherman, the script was always taught informally from a literate teacher to a single apprentice student. It remains so successful that today it is even used to communicate pandemic health messages.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.