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.

Reading original documents is the only way to achieve a sound basis in historical studies and to acquire a true perspective on cultural evolution. Much modern research has been applied to Scotland's history, but until this volume there has been no comprehensive study of the country's handwriting for nearly 250 years. The main body of this book consists of facsimile texts, each facing a detailed transcript and commentary. The historical background of handwriting usage is surveyed in the introduction, with emphasis on changing fashions. There is also guidance on how to deal with early language and abbreviations. The principal aim is to assist research students, local historians, genealogists and calligraphers in their studies; but this work also recovers a lost chapter in the history of Scottish studies.

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.

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

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.

This is the very first 'teach yourself' book on palaeography, covering all the skills that the genealogist needs to read any document that might be found at any date in English archives. Using a series of graded exercises in transcription, Teach Yourself Palaeography works backwards in time in easy stages from the modern handwriting of the nineteenth century to the court hands of the medieval period, focusing on records that are of particular interest to family and local historians. The book provides a unique, self-contained reference guide to palaeography, and to all the different letter forms, symbols and abbreviations that have ever been used in English records.

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.

This book is an exploratory adventure to defamiliarize calligraphy, especially Persian Nastaliq calligraphic letterforms, and to look beyond the tradition that has always considered calligraphy as pursuant to and subordinate to linguistic practices. Calligraphy can be considered a visual communicative system with different means of meaning-making or as a medium through which meaning is made and expression is conveyed via a complex grammar. This study looks at calligraphy as a systematic means in the field of visual communication, rather than as a one-dimensional and ad hoc means of providing visual beauty and aesthetic enjoyment. Revolving around different insights of multimodal social semiotics, the volume relies on the findings of a corpus study of Persian Nastaliq calligraphy. The research emphasizes the way in which letterforms, regardless of conventions in language, are applied as graphically meaningful forms that convey individual distinct meanings. This volume on Persian Nastaliq calligraphy will be inspirational to visual artists, designers, calligraphers, writers, linguists, and visual communicators. With an introduction to social semiotics, this work will be of interest to students and scholars interested in visual arts, media and communication, and semiotics.

Tuttle Pocket Thai Dictionary is the most up-to-date Thai pocket dictionary available. It contains a comprehensive range of contemporary Thai words and expressions, including the latest Internet and social media vocabulary. This dictionary is specifically designed to meet the needs of English speakers who are studying or using Thai on a daily basis. It contains over 15,000 entries including all the vocabulary (in both directions) needed for everyday use. All headwords are in bold for easy look-up, and the Thai-English section is organized alphabetically using the standard Thai Romanization system. All words are given in romanized forms as well as in the traditional script.

With contributions by: Barns, J. W. B.; Unknown function: Carswell, J.

An accessible account of Norwegian runic inscriptions from their first appearance around AD200 until their demise around 1400. Runes, a unique functional writing system, exclusive to northern and eastern Europe, were used for some 1300 years in Scandinavia, from about AD 200 till around the end of the fourteenth century, when the runic alphabet, called futhark after the six first characters, finally gave way to the modern writing system. Runes were not written, but carved - in stone, and on jewellery, weapons, utensils and wood. The content of the inscriptions is very varied, from owner and carpenter attributions on artefacts to memorials to the deceased on erected stones; contrary to popular belief, they are not necessarily magical or mystical, and the post-it notes of today have their forerunners in such runic reminders as: "Buy salt, and don't forget gloves for Sigrid." The typical medieval runic inscription varies from the deeply religious to the highly trivial [or perhaps crucial], such as "I slept with Vigdis when I wasin Stavanger." This book presents an accessible account of the Norwegian examples throughout the period of their use. The runic inscriptions are discussed not only from a linguistic point of view but also as sources of information on Norwegian history and culture. TERJE SPURKLAND is Associate Professor of Nordic Medieval Studies at the University of Oslo.

Of outstanding value to both runologist and Anglo-Saxonist alike. EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE Discussion of the forms of the runic alphabet and interpretations of individual inscriptions, with consideration of wider matters on which runes throw light - magic, paganism and literacy. How, where and why runes were used is still often mysterious; they continue to set puzzles for those who study them, among whom few are better known than the author of this book. Here he investigates evidence from Anglo-Saxon runic coins to Manx inscribed stones, including many of the known Anglo-Saxon runic inscriptions (notably the Ruthwell cross and the Franks casket) and manuscripts, and looks in passing at some Scandinavian material, both in Great Britain and elsewhere. In addition to these detailed descriptions of inscriptions, and of the runic futhorc, or alphabet, on which they are based, Page also considers wider issues on which runes throw light: magic, paganism and literacy. Archaeologists, historians and others will find this a uniquely useful and authoritative volume on Anglo-Saxon runes. The late R.I. PAGE was a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Emeritus Professor ofAnglo-Saxon, Cambridge University.

Singapore boasts a complex mix of languages and is therefore a rich site for the study of multilingualism and multilingual society. In particular, writing is a key medium in the production of the nation's multilingual order - one that is often used to organize language relations for public consumption. In Choreographies of Multilingualism, Tong King Lee examines the linguistic landscape of written language in Singapore - from street signage and advertisements, to institutional anthologies and text-based memorabilia, to language primers and social media-based poetry - to reveal the underpinning language ideologies and how those ideologies figure in political tensions. The book analyzes the competing official and grassroots narratives around multilingualism and takes a nuanced approach to discuss the marginalization, celebration, or appropriation of Singlish. Bringing together theoretical perspectives from sociolinguistics, multimodal semiotics, translation, and cultural studies, Lee demonstrates that multilingualism in Singapore is an emergent and evolving construct through which identities and ideologies are negotiated and articulated. Broad-ranging and cross-disciplinary, this book offers a significant contribution to our understanding of language in Singapore, and more broadly to our understanding of multilingualism and the sociolinguistics of writing.

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.

"Cultural Graphology" could be the name of a new human science: this was Derrida's speculation when, in the late 1960s, he imagined a discipline that combined psychoanalysis, deconstruction, and a commitment to the topic of writing. He never undertook the project himself, but he did leave two brief sketches of how he thought cultural graphology might proceed. In this book, Juliet Fleming picks up where Derrida left off. Using his early thought and the psychoanalytic texts to which it is addressed to examine the print culture of early modern England, she drastically unsettles our knowledge of the key vehicle of modern writing: the book. Fleming shows that the single most important lesson to survive from Derrida's early work is that we do not know what writing is. Channeling Derrida's thought into places it has not been seen before, she takes on topics such as errors, spaces, and print ornaments that have hitherto been marginal to our accounts of print culture and excavates the long-forgotten reading practice of cutting printed books. Proposing radical deformations to the meanings of fundamental and apparently simple terms such as "error," "letter," "surface," and "cut," Fleming opens up exciting new pathways into our understanding of the book as a material and cultural object.