From the simple representative shapes used to record transactions of goods and services in ancient Mesopotamia, to the sophisticated typographical resources available to the twenty-first-century users of desktop computers, the story of writing is the story of human civilization itself. Calligraphy expert Ewan Clayton traces the history of an invention which--ever since our ancestors made the transition from a nomadic to an agrarian way of life in the eighth century BC--has been the method of codification and dissemination of ideas in every field of human endeavour, and a motor of cultural, scientific and political progress. He explores the social and cultural impact of, among other stages, the invention of the alphabet; the replacement of the papyrus scroll with the codex in the late Roman period; the perfecting of printing using moveable type in the fifteenth century and the ensuing spread of literacy; the industrialization of printing during the Industrial Revolution; the impact of artistic Modernism on the written word in the early twentieth century--and of the digital switchover at the century's close. The Golden Thread also raises issues of urgent interest for a society living in an era of unprecedented change to the tools and technologies of written communication.

At the first meeting of his class in Northwest Semitic Epigraphy at Harvard, Frank Cross would inform students that one of the things each of them needed was an "eye for form." By this, he meant the ability to recognize typological or evolutionary change in letters and scripts. Frank, like his teacher William Foxwell Albright, was a master of typological method. In fact, typology was the dominant feature of his epigraphic work, from the origins of the alphabet to the development of the scripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Indeed, he has written about the importance of typology itself. Because Frank Cross has so dominated the study of the ancient Near East in the last 60 years, Aufrecht once asked him what he considered his primary field of study to be. Without hesitation, he said, "Epigraphy." It seems, therefore, that the field that he loved and to which he contributed so much is an appropriate subject for this Festschrift in his honor, which is being presented by his colleagues, friends, and former students. Included are an appreciation by Peter Machinist and a contribution by the late Pierre Bordreuil.

A vivid and superbly written account of the unravelling of one of the great intellectual puzzles, set against the backdop of Europe in the Napoleonic era. When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, his troops were astonished to discover ancient temples, tombs and statues, all covered with hieroglyphs - the last remnants of an unreadable script and a language lost in time. On their return Egyptomania spread rapidly and the quest to decipher hieroglyphs began in earnest. Jean-Francois Champollion was obsessed with ancient languages from a very young age, and once he heard of the unreadable ancient Egyptian text he had found the challenge to which he would dedicate his life: the decipherment of hieroglyphs. Despite poverty he made gradual progress, although he had to fight against jealous enemies, both professional and political, every step of the way - a dangerous task when in post-Revolutionary France a slip of the tongue could mean ruin, exile or even death. Failure threatened, as he was only one of many attempting to read the hieroglyphs, and his main rival, the English Thomas Young, claimed that decipherment was imminent, but Champollion refused to be distracted and finally, in 1822, he made the decisive breakthrough: he was the first person able to read the ancient Egyptian language in well over a thousand years.

The Gambler paints a stark picture of the attractions--and addictions--of gambling. Using skillful characterization, Dostoevsky faithfully depicts life among the gambling set in old Germany. This probing psychological novel explores the tangled love affairs and complicated lives of Alexey Ivanovitch, a young gambler, and Polina Alexandrovna, the woman he loves.

The tale of a girl whose fall down a rabbit hole pulls her into a world of irresistible strangeness - of talking caterpillars, vanishing cats, and mad hatters. It is printed in the Ewellic alphabet devised by Doug Ewell.

This book presents a new, universal script, denoted NAVLIPI, capable of expressing all the world's languages, from English and Arabic, to tonal languages such as Mandarin, to click languages such as Xo Bushman. Based on the Roman script, NAVLIPI uses just five new or transformed letters (glyphs) in addition to the 26 letters of the Roman script; it uses no diacritics, rather making heavy use of "post-ops," post-positional operators. Its expression is very facile and intuitive and highly amenable to cursive writing as well as keyboarding and voice transcription. More scientifically and systematically organized than even Hangul, NAVLIPI incorporates essential features of a universal script, thus far present in no world script to date, such as universality, completeness, distinctiveness, and practical phonemic application. It addresses the serious deficiencies of the alphabet of the International Phonetic Association. Most importantly, NAVLIPI addresses phonemic idiosyncrasy, for the first time ever in any world script; among other things, phonemic idiosyncrasy makes transcription, in the same script, of, e.g. Mandarin and English, or Hindi/Urdu and Tamil, extremely difficult. It is felt that NAVLIPI is introduced at an appropriate time for a globalized world, which needs a single script in which it is easy and intuitive to transcribe all of the world's languages; it may also assist in the preservation of endangered languages. Apart from presenting the new script, the book also presents a thorough review of nearly all prior art through five millennia to the present, a basic discussion of phonetic and phonemic classification, "exercises" in coming up with new scripts, a glossary of terms, and more than 620 detailed references in linguistics and related fields. Nicholas Ostler makes the following observation: "NAVLIPI is a systematic extension of Roman script with a number of aims in view: To be a practical (legible and writable) script for all the world's languages, but at the same time to represent the languages' sounds exactly and consistently, making no compromises on the phonemic principle. In this ambitious goal, it goes beyond existing scripts: Beyond ordinary Roman scripts, because it requires that its symbols are interpreted the same way everywhere; beyond phonetic scripts such as the International Phonetic Alphabet, by representing phonemes singly, rather than as a set of phones; and beyond all the other scripts, by attempting to replace every single one of them without loss of significant phonetic detail. This is a stupendous aim for a single system created by a single scholar. "The main obstacle to Chandrasekhar's achievement is the phenomenon of "phonemic idiosyncrasy," whereby the actual speech sounds are organized into different, and cross-cutting, significant sets in various languages: For example, p, whether aspirated or un-aspirated, is the same phoneme in English, but the two versions belong to contrasting phonemes in Hindi, where (however) f is heard as the same sound as aspirated-p. By juxtaposing letters, Chandrasekhar conjures up new symbols that represent directly the complex phonemic reality. The attempt to have all the possible virtues of a phonetic writing system at once - on the basis of a single man's ideal - is what makes this a heroic endeavor." Dr. Chandrasekhar was born in India and lives and works in America. He is a chemist and business owner active in the U.S. defense contracting industry, but his ethnic background places him in a multilingual, multiscriptal society. An idea like Navlipi was most likely to arise in India, where numerous scripts compete for the eye's attention in everyday life, and an inquiring mind such as the author's was moved to try to distil them into a single uniform writing system.

While investigating endangered languages, many researchers become interested in developing literacy for these languages. However, often their linguistic training has not provided practical guidance in this area. This book, with contributions by experienced practitioners, helps fill this gap. Both foundational theory and specific case studies are addressed in this work. Non-linguistic factors are described, particularly sociolinguistic issues that determine acceptability of orthographies. A principled approach to the level of phonological representation for orthographies is proposed, applying recent phonological theory. The thorny issues of how to determine word breaks and how to mark tone in an orthography are explored. "Overly hasty orthographies" and the benefits of allowing time for an orthography to settle are discussed. Principles of the foundational chapters are further exemplified by detailed case studies from Mexico, Peru, California, Nepal, and Southeast Asia, which vividly illustrate the variety of local conditions that must be taken into account. The combination of theoretical and practical makes this book unique. It will benefit those involved in helping establish orthographies for hitherto-unwritten languages, and provide concrete guidance through crucial issues. Michael Cahill (Ph.D. 1999, Ohio State University) developed the Konni orthography in Ghana. He was SIL's International Linguistics Coordinator for eleven years, and is on the LSA's Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation. Keren Rice (Ph.D. 1976, University of Toronto) helped standardize the orthography of Slavey, and has taught on orthography development at InField/CoLang. She was LSA President in 2012 and is currently University Professor at the University of Toronto.

Navlipi, Volume 2, A New, Universal, Script (Alphabet) Accommodating the Phonemic Idiosyncrasies of All the World's Languages. Volume 2, Another Look At Phonic and Phonemic Classification: Navlipi, By Prasanna Chandrasekhar. This book presents a new, universal script, denoted NAVLIPI, capable of expressing all the world's languages, from English and Arabic, to tonal languages such as Mandarin, to click languages such as Xo Bushman. Based on the Roman script, NAVLIPI uses just five new or transformed letters (glyphs) in addition to the 26 letters of the Roman script; it uses no diacritics, rather making heavy use of post-ops, post-positional operators. Its expression is very facile and intuitive and highly amenable to cursive writing as well as keyboarding and voice transcription. More scientifically and systematically organized than even Hangul, NAVLIPI incorporates essential features of a universal script, thus far present in no world script to date, such as universality, completeness, distinctiveness, and practical phonemic application. It addresses the serious deficiencies of the alphabet of the International Phonetic Association. Most importantly, NAVLIPI addresses phonemic idiosyncrasy, for the first time ever in any world script; among other things, phonemic idiosyncrasy makes transcription, in the same script, of, e.g. Mandarin and English, or Hindi/Urdu and Tamil, extremely difficult. It is felt that NAVLIPI is introduced at an appropriate time for a globalized world, which needs a single script in which it is easy and intuitive to transcribe all of the world's languages; it may also assist in the preservation of endangered languages. Apart from presenting the new script, the book also presents a thorough review of nearly all prior art through five millennia to the present, a basic discussion of phonetic and phonemic classification, exercises in coming up with new scripts, a glossary of terms, and more than 620 detailed references in linguistics...

This is 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' printed in the Shaw alphabet devised by Ronald Kingsley Read.

This book describes meaning, stages and methods of writing a successful research project proposal and a thesis from the first draft proposal to the final version of the thesis. As a manual, this book follows a simple approach that beginners can use without complications and many terminologies and technical terms have been translated into Arabic. The book explains the structure of a thesis and proposal including title, abstract, introduction, literature review, materials and methods, results, discussion, biography and appendix (if there is any). These parts of the thesis are often mixed up without emphasizing the purpose of each part and often without limiting oneself to the specific chapter.

When modern discussions of technology arise in rhetoric and composition studies, the topic is almost always related to computers-despite their comparatively recent development and deployment in this millennia-old profession. Computers themselves are new; composition's rush to emergent technologies is not. New teachers face expectations that they will master everything from word processing to the multi-modal essay, from Aristotle's Rhetoric to the classroom whiteboard. While little can be done immediately to change such unrealistic and unreasonable expectations, teachers and scholars can benefit greatly from considering the place such expectations and technologies have in the larger and longer flow of rhetoric and composition studies-from the technology of road building in the ancient world, which allowed students to travel to school from afar, to the technology of handwriting, now largely falling by the wayside. From this past emerge fresh perspectives on the future of writing technologies in the digital age. The story of technology in composition's history and pedagogy is one of stability and change, of short-term success and long-term failure. The essays in ON THE BLUNT EDGE: TECHNOLOGY IN COMPOSITION'S HISTORY AND PEDAGOGY tell the story of rhetoric and composition's long and intriguing relationship with writing technologies, revealing the ways that they have transformed the teaching and understanding of writing throughout history. Contributors include SHANE BORROWMAN, RICHARD LEO ENOS, DANIEL R. FREDRICK, RICHARD W. RAWNSLEY, SHAWN FULLMER, KATHLEEN BLAKE YANCEY, JOSEPH JONES, SHERRY RANKINS ROBERTSON, DUANE ROEN, MARCIA KMETZ, ROBERT LIVELY, CRYSTAL BROCH-COLOMBINI, THOMAS BLACK, JASON THOMPSON, and THERESA ENOS. SHANE BORROWMAN is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Montana Western, where he teaches composition and creative nonfiction. He is editor or co-editor of numerous collections, including Trauma and the Teaching of Writing (SUNY, 2005), The Promise and Perils of Writing Program Administration (Parlor Press, 2008), and Rhetoric in the Rest of the West (Cambridge Scholars, 2010). Additionally, he is editor/co-editor of multiple first-year composition textbooks and readers. His nonfiction has appeared in publications ranging from Brevity and Conclave: A Journal of Character to Whitefish Review and Rhetoric Review.

Throughout the East, writing is held to be a gift from the gods, and the divinely inspired letters and characters are objects of the highest veneration. The religious significance of calligraphy has thus led to a unique development of the art of brush and ink in Japan, China, India, and Tibet. This beautifully illustrated book covers such topics as the history and spirit of Eastern calligraphy, the art of copying religious texts, the biographies of important Zen calligraphers, and practical instructions on materials and techniques for the contemporary student. No knowledge of the languages discussed is required for the reader to appreciate the study of this ancient practice.

John Stevens lived in Japan for thirty-five years, where he was a professor of Buddhist studies at Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai. Stevens is a widely respected translator, an ordained Buddhist priest, a curator of several major exhibitions of Zen art, and an aikido instructor. He has authored over thirty books and is one of the foremost Western experts on Aikido, holding a ranking of 7th dan Aikikai. Stevens has also studied calligraphy for decades, authoring this classic "Sacred Calligraphy of the East." Other John Stevens titles that are likely to be of interest include "The Philosophy of Aikido, Extraordinary Zen Masters, " and "The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei."

From the earliest scratches on stone and bone to the languages of computers and the internet, A History of Writing offers an investigation into the origin and development of writing throughout the world. Illustrated with numerous examples, this book offers a global overview in a format that everyone can follow. Steven Roger Fischer also reveals his own discoveries made since the early 1980s, making it a useful reference for students and specialists as well as a delightful read for lovers of the written word everywhere.

ARABIC CALLIGRAPHY MADE EASY

'Arabic Calligraphy Made Easy' is the first of the 7-book children s series 'Medinah Arabic Course for Children'. The others being three textbooks, and three workbooks.

It has been developed, modified, improved and tested over a period of several years to make it as suitable as possible for elementary school children.

'Arabic Calligraphy Made Easy', in English, was made with Dr V. Abdur Rahim's famous adults 'Medinah Arabic Course' series in mind. It will get you started on your way to writing proper Arabic calligraphy, even by yourself. It is an excellent hands-on, practical, and basic calligraphy book with plenty of space for practice.

An A-4 sized book, it contains ample room to be put into practice, and is very suitable for the classroom. It was originally designed for adults who wish to learn practically and independent of a teacher, it was then modified to be more suitable for children. The book makes use of large, clear Arabic fonts and the design accommodates generous spacing for the required writing practice. Additionally, it has been printed on non-glossy paper and therefore can be written on in pencil, and allows for easy erasing.

'Arabic Calligraphy Made Easy' deals with the most basic of fonts, Traditional Arabic, which is the most common computer font, as well as the easiest to read and write.

CONTENTS: Preface The Arabic Alphabet The Fundamental Arabic Letter Shapes The Fundamental Arabic Letter Shapes (Outline) Part One: The Letters in Their Isolated Forms Part Two: The Letters in Their Connected Forms Part Three: Difficult Letters Part Four: Various Exercises Oral Exercise (1): Isolated Letters Oral Exercise (2): Connected Letters The book is 56 pages long, and is in black and white.

PLEASE SEE MY WEBSITE: WWW.TAHA-ARABIC.COM FOR THE FOLLOWING: Discounts for large orders of this series (the children s set) of 'Medinah Arabic Course for Children'. A complete teacher's module. Highly effective PowerPoint downloads (in flash format) for the months preceding the children's books. Additional material and tips relating to calligraphy, the Arabic language, and overall teaching methodology. Samples of the other books in this series. Samples of the latest new-edition printing of Dr V. Abdur Rahim's adult 'Medinah Arabic Course'.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Muhammad Taha Abdullah is an American convert to Islam since 1989. He studied at the Islamic University of Medinah, Saudi Arabia in the early 1990's and has been teaching Arabic for almost 20 years. He has written over 25 books related to Arabic and Dr V. Abdur Rahim's revolutionary books and methodology. Muhammad Taha resides in Malaysia.

His website is: WWW.TAHA-ARABIC.COM

ABOUT THE REVISER:

Dr V. Abdur Rahim, a scholar of the Arabic language, has revolutionized the way non-native speakers throughout the world perceive, learn, and master the Arabic language. He has 50 years of experience teaching Arabic to non-native speakers as well as Arabs themselves. For 30 years he was Professor of Arabic at the world-renowned Islamic University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia. With his knowledge of foreign languages he is acutely aware of the learning needs of non-native speakers, particularly first-time learners.

Based on precise teaching methods, a crisp writing style, and techniques that ensure that students are grounded on the fundamentals first before the details, Dr V. Abdur Rahim has authored many books teaching classical and modern Arabic to a range of audiences; children, students, teachers, professionals and laymen. His books are currently being used in schools, colleges and universities all over the world.

Dr V. s website is: WWW.DRVANIYA.COM

Thank you Shukran

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a.k.a Lewis Carroll, invented a special writing instrument he called "the Nyctograph" on 24 September 1891, in frustration at the process of "getting out of bed at 2 a.m. in a winter night, lighting a candle, and recording some happy thought which would probably be otherwise forgotten." This edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is written entirely in the author's unique night-time alphabet.

Idioms and Cliches... is a supplementary text for advanced ESL/EFL students and professionals who want to read and better understand business publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, etc. Gleaned from these sources, this book contains 250 idioms, explanations and example usage. This simple text relies on the instructor to further provide explanation and discussion. Some pages may be copied limitedly.

Read the Bldg Blog interview with Mary Beard about the Wonders of the World series(Part I and Part II) The Rosetta Stone is one of the world's great wonders, attracting awed pilgrims by the tens of thousands each year. This book tells the Stone's story, from its discovery by Napoleon's expedition to Egypt to its current--and controversial-- status as the single most visited object on display in the British Museum. A pharaoh's forgotten decree, cut in granite in three scripts--Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian demotic, and ancient Greek--the Rosetta Stone promised to unlock the door to the language of ancient Egypt and its 3,000 years of civilization, if only it could be deciphered. Capturing the drama of the race to decode this key to the ancient past, John Ray traces the paths pursued by the British polymath Thomas Young and Jean-Francois Champollion, the "father of Egyptology" ultimately credited with deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. He shows how Champollion "broke the code" and explains more generally how such deciphering is done, as well as its critical role in the history of Egyptology. Concluding with a chapter on the political and cultural controversy surrounding the Stone, the book also includes an appendix with a full translation of the Stone's text. Rich in anecdote and curious lore, The Rosetta Stone and the Rebirth of Ancient Egypt is a brilliant and frequently amusing guide to one of history's great mysteries and marvels.

Mashayekhi collects more than 2,000 idioms and expressions that are used in the English language daily, yet are not found in dictionaries. Recommended for both native and non-native English speakers.

Week 3 out of 3. Actually Learn Arabic Letters: A Fun Course That Works--In 3 Weeks offers THE definitive course on learning the Arabic letters and their pronunciations. For servicemen, executives, interfaith initiatives, housewives, and children of all ages, this gentle book takes you by the hand and gives an advanced step-by-step system for actually learning the letters. Each letter gets its own distinctive pictures. Recall is increased to close to 100% after only a couple minutes of playful exercises per letter. The non-threatening, fun approach guarantees that people of all ages will want more, instead of running away in fear and frustration. Reading, writing, and pronunciation are all covered.

--This book is Week 3 of a 3-week course. It requires Weeks 1 and 2 in order to cover the entire alphabet. This book offers around 3-6 hours of learning material for one university week or two gradeschool weeks. Suitable for self-study in the home or out in the field as well. If you've bought other courses and failed, you'll want to come back to this one. Or if this is your first time learning Arabic, you'll want to go ahead and get this course right away--it's worth it. Even if you never thought you could, YOU can ACTUALLY LEARN ARABIC LETTERS

Week 2 out of 3. Actually Learn Arabic Letters: A Fun Course That Works--In 3 Weeks offers THE definitive course on learning the Arabic letters and their pronunciations. For servicemen, executives, interfaith initiatives, housewives, and children of all ages, this gentle book takes you by the hand and gives an advanced step-by-step system for actually learning the letters. Each letter gets its own distinctive pictures. Recall is increased to close to 100% after only a couple minutes of playful exercises per letter. The non-threatening, fun approach guarantees that people of all ages will want more, instead of running away in fear and frustration. Reading, writing, and pronunciation are all covered.

This book is Week 2 of a 3-week course. It requires Weeks 1 and 3 in order to cover the entire alphabet. This book offers around 3-6 hours of learning material for one university week or two gradeschool weeks. Suitable for self-study in the home or out in the field as well. If you've bought other courses and failed, you'll want to come back to this one. Or if this is your first time learning Arabic, you'll want to go ahead and get this course right away--it's worth it. Even if you never thought you could, YOU can ACTUALLY LEARN ARABIC LETTERS

A book for anyone teaching English spelling, particularly those working with English language learners. This essential manual answers three challenging questions about teaching spelling: Why is there a problem with teaching and learning spelling? What can be done about it? How can this be accomplished? The first part of the book helps teachers understand the systems of English spelling and the regularities, which are not necessarily phonological. It explores the errors that learners really make and the challenges faced by teachers. The second part outlines a fresh, new, multi-dimensional approach to teaching spelling which recognises the need for learner engagement and strategy training as well as work on the patterns found in English orthography. The final part of the book presents over seventy engaging and effective activities which are designed to develop a range of strategies and knowledge about English spelling.