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.

Ever wished for a resource to look up Chinese characters from their shape alone? Mandarin Chinese Characters Fast Finder is a study aid that lets you look up Chinese characters quickly and intuitively from their appearance alone, without knowing their pronunciation, radical or stroke count. This reference book has been designed for dedicated learners of Chinese, as well as general readers with interest in the written Chinese language. Mandarin Chinese Characters Fast Finder features: A thumb-index allowing rapid access to all of the characters by shape rather than etymological radical Clear and easy-to-read layout to facilitate speedy scanning Covers 3,200 characters, including those prescribed for all levels of the HSK Proficiency test Comprehensive information for each character, including: traditional forms, pronunciation, core English meaning, radical, stroke count, HSK grade

This is a study of the books of Salisbury Cathedral, and their scribes, in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. These manuscripts form the largest collection to have survived from any English centre in the period following the Norman Conquest, and they bear witness to the energetic scribal and scholarly activities of a community of intelligent and able men. Teresa Webber traces the interests and activities of the canons of Salisbury Cathedral from the evidence of their books. She reveals to us a lively Anglo-Norman centre of scholarship and religious devotion. This is a scholarly and original study, which combines detailed palaeographic research with an intelligent understanding of medieval cultural and intellectual life. It is a distinguished contribution to medieval studies.

The Chinese Writing System in Asia: An Interdisciplinary Perspective integrates a diverse range of disciplinary approaches in examining how the Chinese script represents and actively shapes personal and social identities in and beyond Asia. It is an ideal read for students and scholars interested in a broad and culturally rich introduction to research on the Chinese writing system. It can also serve as the main text of an undergraduate course on the subject. Key features of this volume include: Insights from studies of the Chinese writing system in linguistics, script reform and technology, gender, identity, literature, and the visual arts; Examples embedded in inquiries of the cultural history and contemporary society of Asia; Rigorous yet accessible discussions of complex concepts and phenomena that assume no prior knowledge of Asian languages or linguistics; Supplementary multimedia materials and resources, including instructional support, available online.

The shaky handwriting of the thirteenth-century scribe known as `the tremulous hand of Worcester' appears in at least twenty manuscripts dating from the late ninth to the twelfth century, glossing perhaps 50,000 Old English words, sometimes into Middle English, but much more often into Latin. This book examines the full range of the scribe's work and addresses some important questions, such as which of the Worcester glosses may be attributed to him, why he glossed the words he did, what the purpose of the glossing may have been, and how well he knew or came to know Old English. Christine Franzen argues that the scribe went through a methodical learning process, one step of which was the preparation of a first-letter alphabetical English-Latin word list, the earliest known in the English language. This first full-scale study of the Worcester glosses is important for the wealth of information it provides about the work methods of the tremulous scribe, the English language at a transitional point in its history, and about the ability to read Old English in the thirteenth century.

What has fifteenth-century England to do with the Renaissance? By challenging accepted notions of 'medieval' and 'early modern' David Rundle proposes a new understanding of English engagement with the Renaissance. He does so by focussing on one central element of the humanist agenda - the reform of the script and of the book more generally - to demonstrate a tradition of engagement from the 1430s into the early sixteenth century. Introducing a cast-list of scribes and collectors who are not only English and Italian but also Scottish, Dutch and German, this study sheds light on the cosmopolitanism central to the success of the humanist agenda. Questioning accepted narratives of the slow spread of the Renaissance from Italy to other parts of Europe, Rundle suggests new possibilities for the fields of manuscript studies and the study of Renaissance humanism.

This collection of 243 letters, only a handful of which have previously appeared in print, illustrates the full range of Humfrey Wanley's interests as Anglo-Saxonist, palaeographer, and the greatest librarian of his age. Covering the years from his arrival in Oxford in 1694 to his death in 1726, they show the genesis and growth of Wanley's great Catalogus, his comprehensive account of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts published in 1705. They also chart his formulation of palaeography as a discipline for English scholarship from an immense range of ancient materials, and illustrate the skill and energy with which Wanley, as library-keeper to Robert Harley, built up the Harleian collection (subsequently one of the foundation collections of the British Museum).

Architectural inscriptions are a fascinating aspect of Islamic cultural heritage because of their rich and diverse historical contents and artistic merits. These inscriptions help us understand the advent of Islam and its gradual diffusion in Bengal, which eventually resulted in a Muslim majority region, making the Bengali Muslims the second largest linguistic group in the Islamic world. This book is an interpretive study of the Arabic and Persian epigraphic texts of Bengal in the wider context of a rich epigraphic tradition in the Islamic world. While focusing on previously untapped sources, it takes a fresh look into the Islamic inscriptions of Bengal and examines the inner dynamics of the social, intellectual and religious transformations of this eastern region of South Asia. It explores many new inscriptions including Persian epigraphs that appeared immediately after the Muslim conquest of Bengal indicating an early introduction of Persian language in the region through a cultural interaction with Khurasan and Central Asia. In addition to deciphering and editing the epigraphic texts, the information derived from them has been analyzed to construct the political, administrative, social, religious and cultural scenario of the period. The first survey of the Muslim inscriptions in India ever to be attempted on this scale, the book reveals the significance of epigraphy as a source for Islamic history and culture. As such, it will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian Studies, Asian History and Islamic Studies.

This handy Japanese dictionary allows you to look up words quickly and easily and be understood while speaking. Intended for use by tourists, students, and business people traveling to Japan, the Pocket Japanese Dictionary is an essential tool for communicating in Japanese. It features all the essential Japanese vocabulary appropriate for beginning to intermediate speakers. Its handy pocket format and user-friendly, two-colour layout will make any future language class or trip to Japan much easier. All entries are in Romanized form as well as Japanese script (Kanji and Kana) so that, in case of difficulties, the book can simply be shown to the person the user is trying to communicate with. This dictionary includes the following key features: Over 18,000 words and expressions in the Japanese language. Japanese English and English Japanese sections. Fully updated with recent vocabulary and commonly used Japanese slang. Clear, user-friendly layout with headwords in blue. Romanized script and Japanese script (hiragana and katakana) and characters (kanji) for every entry. Other books from this best-selling series you might enjoy include: Pocket Korean Dictionary, Pocket Vietnamese Dictionary, Pocket Mandarin Chinese Dictionary, and Pocket Cantonese Dictionary.

From its first adoption of writing at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, ancient Cyprus was home to distinctive scripts and writing habits, often setting it apart from other areas of the Mediterranean and Near East. This well-illustrated volume is the first to explore the development and importance of Cypriot writing over a period of more than 1,500 years in the second and first millennia BC. Five themed chapters deal with issues ranging from the acquisition of literacy and the adaptation of new writing systems to the visibility of writing and its role in the marking of identities. The agency of Cypriots in shaping the island's literate landscape is given prominence, and an extended consideration of the social context of writing leads to new insights on Cypriot scripts and their users. Cyprus provides a stimulating case to demonstrate the importance of contextualised approaches to the development of writing systems.

The field of text technologies is a capacious analytical framework that focuses on all textual records throughout human history, from the earliest periods of traceable communication—perhaps as early as 60,000 BCE—to the present day. At its core, it examines the material history of communication: what constitutes a text, the purposes for which it is intended, how it functions, and the social ends that it serves. This coursebook can be used to support any pedagogical or research activities in text technologies, the history of the book, the history of information, and textually based work in the digital humanities. Through careful explanations of the field, examinations of terminology and themes, and illustrated case studies of diverse texts—from the Cyrus cylinder to the Eagles' "Hotel California"—Elaine Treharne and Claude Willan offer a clear yet nuanced overview of how humans convey meaning. Text Technologies will enable students and teachers to generate multiple lines of inquiry into how communication—its production, form and materiality, and reception—is crucial to any interpretation of culture, history, and society.

The Last Language on Earth is an ethnographic history of the disputed Eskayan language, spoken today by an isolated upland community living on the island of Bohol in the southern Philippines. After Eskaya people were first 'discovered' in 1980, visitors described the group as a lost tribe preserving a unique language and writing system. Others argued that the Eskaya were merely members of a utopian rural cult who had invented their own language and script. Rather than adjudicating outsider polemics, this book engages directly with the language itself as well as the direct perspectives of those who use it today. Through written and oral accounts, Eskaya people have represented their language as an ancestral creation derived from a human body. Reinforcing this traditional view, Piers Kelly's linguistic analysis shows how a complex new register was brought into being by fusing new vocabulary onto a modified local grammar. In a synthesis of linguistic, ethnographic, and historical evidence, a picture emerges of a coastal community that fled the ravages of the U.S. invasion of the island in 1901 in order to build a utopian society in the hills. Here they predicted that the world's languages would decline leaving Eskayan as the last language on earth. Marshalling anthropological theories of nationalism, authenticity, and language ideology, along with comparisons to similar events across highland Southeast Asia, Kelly offers a convincing account of this linguistic mystery and also shows its broader relevance to linguistic anthropology. Although the Eskayan situation is unusual, it has the power to illuminate the pivotal role that language plays in the pursuit of identity-building and political resistance.

The languages of the ancient world and the mysterious scripts, long undeciphered, in which they were encoded have represented one of the most intriguing problems of classical archaeology in modern times. This celebrated account of the decipherment of Linear B in the 1950s by Michael Ventris was written by his close collaborator in the momentous discovery. In revealing the secrets of Linear B it offers a valuable survey of late Minoan and Mycenaean archaeology, uncovering fascinating details of the religion and economic history of an ancient civilisation.

'Punctuation is not only an important part of our language code; an advanced system of punctuation has been a driving force in our entire Western Civilisation. Nothing less.' With the invention of printing, reading books moved from being an act only performed by priests and aristocrats into an individual, even private, activity. This change helped spark the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution - in which punctuation played a crucial role. As long as texts were read out loud only by an educated elite there was no need for punctuation to mark pauses, full stops or questions. So punctuation - the full stop, the comma, the exclamation mark, the question mark and the semicolon - helped shape modern-day Europe as we know it.

Elementary Mandarin Chinese Textbook is a new beginner Mandarin Chinese course which enables you to quickly learn the basics of the language. The 24 lessons in this book are meant to be used in 3 hours per week of class instruction over one academic year. Students will need another 2-3 hours of outside practice and review for every hour of class time, using the materials in the accompanying Elementary Mandarin Chinese Workbook. These books can also be used by self-study learners due to the extensive explanations and free supplementary materials available -- including online audio and video recordings and flash cards. The entire course can be completed in 25 to 35 weeks and teaches you the basic skills of speaking, reading and writing Mandarin Chinese at a conversational level. Each lesson starts with a dialogue and includes a list of new and supplementary Chinese vocabulary along with questions and grammar notes about the dialogue, a reading section and extensive exercises (that are in the Workbook). Elementary Mandarin Chinese Textbook offers the following significant advantages over other similar textbooks: Common, everyday Chinese dialogues are used--complete with vocabulary lists and questions and storylines based on actual everyday experiences in China Chinese grammar is explained in simple, non-technical terms with useful notes and tips given Reading exercises are provided for all new words and phrases in each lesson Free online audio recordings by native speakers from different regions of China help you not only acquire correct pronunciation, but also to understand Chinese speakers who have different accents Illustrations and supplementary video clips add authenticity to the materials in the book A Chinese-English dictionary, downloadable flash cards and supplementary exercises are all provided Both Chinese characters and Pinyin Romanized forms are given throughout the book (except for the reading exercises), so this book can be used by students who wish to focus on learning the spoken language, as well as those who are learning to read and write the Chinese characters simultaneously. This textbook should be used in conjunction with Elementary Mandarin Chinese Workbook and the included audio files, which can be downloaded free directly from the Tuttle website.

In Mittani Palaeography, Zenobia Homan analyses cuneiform writing from the Late Bronze Age Mittani state, which was situated in the region between modern Aleppo, Erbil and Diyarbakir. The ancient communication network reveals a story of local scribal tradition blended with regional adaptation and international political change, reflecting the ways in which written knowledge travelled within the cuneiform culture of the Middle East. Mittani signs, their forms, and variants, are described and defined in detail utilising a large digital database and discussed in relation to other regional corpora (Assyro-Mittanian, Middle Assyrian, Nuzi and Tigunanum among others). The collected data indicate that Mittanian was comparatively standardised - an innovation for the period - signifying the existence of a centralised system of scribal training.

A handy resource for travel, classroom learning and international business! The Tuttle Pocket Korean Dictionary is the most up-to-date pocket Korean dictionary available; It covers the most up-to-date terms and expressions used daily in the Korean language. This comprehensive, portable reference has Korean-English and English-Korean sections. It contains over 15,000 entries, featuring words and phrases most useful for conversational Korean. Both Korean characters and easy-to-pronounce romanized versions are included. The two-color layout is user-friendly: Easy-to-read headwords are in blue, so words and phrases can be located with ease Useful notes throughout offer extra pointers on correct use of terms Also includes a concise guide to Korean grammar basics, pronunciation, and characters

The Chinese Writing System in Asia: An Interdisciplinary Perspective integrates a diverse range of disciplinary approaches in examining how the Chinese script represents and actively shapes personal and social identities in and beyond Asia. It is an ideal read for students and scholars interested in a broad and culturally rich introduction to research on the Chinese writing system. It can also serve as the main text of an undergraduate course on the subject. Key features of this volume include: Insights from studies of the Chinese writing system in linguistics, script reform and technology, gender, identity, literature, and the visual arts; Examples embedded in inquiries of the cultural history and contemporary society of Asia; Rigorous yet accessible discussions of complex concepts and phenomena that assume no prior knowledge of Asian languages or linguistics; Supplementary multimedia materials and resources, including instructional support, available online.

Albinia de la Mare (1932-2001), OBE, FBA, Professor of Palaeography at King's College London, was one of the last century's outstanding palaeographers and the world's leading authority on Italian Renaissance manuscripts. In November 2011 a conference was held at King's College and the Warburg Institute to honour her memory, and this volume offers revised versions of most of the papers read on that occasion, as well as three additional contributions. Tilly de la Mare had exceptionally wide interests, including key individuals involved in manuscript and literary production, as represented here by studies on Vespasiano da Bisticci, Sozomeno da Pistoia, Matteo Contugi da Volterra, Lorenzo di Francesco Guidetti, Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, Bartolomeo Sanvito, Bartolomeo Varnucci, Francesco Petrarca, Pier Candido Decembrio, Leonardo Bruni and Marsilio Ficino. Important themes in the history of palaeography - the emergence of humanist script; the relationship between script and illumination; the competing methods of palaeography and philology; the social, political, academic, geographical and cultural contexts of manuscript copying and production; and the role of palaeography in the transmission of classical texts - were also in the compass of her scholarship and are treated in this collection. The volume concludes with sixteen colour plates and indices of manuscripts, incunabula and names.

Users requiring a quick and handy reference work for Indonesian, particularly when they are out and about, need look no further than the Tuttle Pocket Indonesian Dictionary. This dictionary has been specially designed for foreigners working or traveling in Indonesia. It is equally useful for Indonesians who live abroad or in an English-speaking environment. No knowledge of Indonesian grammar or word formation is necessary to use this helpful dictionary--simply look up the word as you hear or read it, and you'll quickly find it's meaning. This is a revolutionary feature that most other Indonesian dictionaries are lacking. Special features of this Indonesian dictionary include: Covers the 15,000 most common Indonesian and English words. A useful pronunciation guide. A small, compact size makes it portable and lightweight. Both Indonesian-English and English-Indonesian sections. Special emphasis is given to words vital in daily use, important in business and cultural settings, and useful to travelers. The entries in both sections contain common idioms and expressions, as well as up-to-date IT and Internet vocabulary. There are no other authoritative pocket dictionaries of Indonesian. The Oxford Starter's Indonesian-English Dictionary and the Tuttle Concise Indonesian Dictionary are larger dictionaries with more entries, but these are aimed at students rather than general users.