Do you like writing?
My name is oliver and i'm the host of the easy english podcast, and welcome to the best place to learn and practice your english listening skills while learning new vocabulary and phrases.
If you're new here, welcome.
And if you've been listening for a while, it's wonderful to have you with me again.
Today we are going on a fascinating journey back in time.
And in reality, we are going back to the very beginning of how we communicate.
If you haven't read the title, you may have already guessed that we are going to look at writing.
The history of writing.
But don't click away yet, it's not boring at all.
This history is very interesting and it explains why we have come so far, from drawings in caves right up to designing alphabets and being able to write complicated stories, books and everything that we see in written communication today.
Writing is such an important part of the English language.
And of course we do it a lot less nowadays.
Well, at least we think that we do it a lot less, but in reality we write in different ways and we produce English through text all the time.
So get ready and come along for the journey to understand the history of writing.
I'm so glad that you're here with me.
Before we look at our key vocabulary for today.
We have had a lot of new listeners join the podcast over the last few weeks, which is really exciting.
First, I want to welcome you.
It's so good to have you here.
But I'd also like to remind you to make sure that you are following or subscribed to the podcast, wherever you are listening.
This allows us to continue to grow.
And it's the best thing that you can do for free to help our podcast to grow.
Because Easy English is for everyone.
And I want to keep making these and grow it into the largest English language podcast in the world.
That is my dream.
And if you can, leave a rating on Spotify or wherever you listen.
Five stars or a positive review.
That really, really helps.
Okay, let's look at the key vocabulary for today.
This is the section where I'm going to read you five key pieces of vocabulary or words and phrases which I would like you to actively listen for in the episode.
So you want to keep your ears open and keep listening for these words.
Don't worry if you know some of them, that's absolutely fine.
You can practice the pronunciation and the sound of these words today.
And if you don't know many of them, don't worry either because we will hear these words in context.
Okay.
Our first word that we are going to hear as we journey through time.
And this is, of course, writing.
Writing.
And the verb of this is to write.
To write.
Writing is the activity or skill of making letters or words, usually on a surface.
But I do believe that digital writing typing on a computer or a text is almost a modern form of writing in the 21st century.
Okay, the second word that I would like you to listen for is symbol.
Symbol.
And this is a noun and it means a shape or a sign that is used to represent something else.
For example, we could say that the different letters like A, B, C in a word are symbols.
They're symbols that we use to make words.
You got me?
Perfect.
Okay, the third word for today is alphabet.
Alphabet.
And this is a noun as well.
And it means a set of letters in a fixed order.
And these are used for writing in a language.
We use them for making words, for forming them into our writing.
That is the alphabet.
No matter what your native language is, it probably, more than likely or not, has an alphabet of some kind.
Our fourth word today is civilization.
Civilization.
And this is a noun that means a group of people who live together in a developed, organized way.
So you live in a civilization, I'm sure.
Most listeners here live in a civilization of some kind.
And our final word today that I want you to listen for is innovation innovation, and that is a new idea, method or invention.
So keep these words in mind as we explore one of the greatest human innovations.
Okay, Let's go back long, long ago, before people even had letters like A B C, D.
They still wanted to tell stories and keep records.
If you've listened to this podcast for a while, you know that I love talking about how important stories are with language learning.
Not only with language, but also as humans.
We communicate so much through stories.
You can think about most of your conversations that you probably have with your friends or family.
So much of this communication consists or is made up of stories.
Stories that we tell ourselves and our friends and family.
Stories about our day, stories about something that we have seen.
And, of course, humans that existed before letters and alphabet had to find a way to stay, to tell their stories, the stories that they had.
And the very first form of writing was with pictures.
Imagine ancient people, that's people from a long time ago, drawing pictures on a cave wall.
And it was very simple, very straightforward, we could say.
That means simple, direct.
For example, when they drew a picture of, let's say, a pig, it meant a pig.
When they drew a picture of a sun, it meant sun.
And we call these pictograms.
Pictograms.
That is when a picture directly represents what it is meant to be.
They were very easy to understand but they had a little bit of a problem.
And what do you think that problem might be?
Think about the limits of pictures, right?
Think about when you're drawing something directly, what is the limit?
You can only really draw what you can see or maybe imagine.
How do you draw the idea of love or feeling cold?
Of course we might find some creative ways to do this, but for ancient people this was quite difficult.
So early drawings were very basic and they usually showed us exactly what they meant.
To solve this, people started to use pictures to represent ideas.
What I mean by represent is a picture is showing an idea.
It means a different idea.
For example, a picture of a sun might mean heat or warmth, Or it may mean daytime.
And these are called ideograms.
And that comes from the word idea.
They are an idea.
They represent an idea, something else.
This was a huge step towards writing.
And if you're from Egypt and you're listening, you definitely know that Egyptian hieroglyphics, or hieroglyphics, and Chinese characters, if you're from China, were great examples of this, representing ideas and complex words, writing forms through symbols and pictures.
It's very, very amazing that people were able to create this so long ago.
And this system really helped some early civilizations.
So let's go through to the middle stage of writing.
We're traveling a little bit forward in time, a little bit further, I wanted to say.
And the next great innovation in the history of writing came when people had an incredible idea.
That idea hit.
Perhaps serendipity, if you've listened to the other episode of the podcast.
If you haven't, you need to check that one out.
From maybe one or two weeks ago, serendipity.
So what is serendipity?
If you haven't listened, go and listen.
So perhaps people had serendipity, a moment of serendipity.
What if a symbol didn't represent an object or an idea, but instead a sound like a for a, right?
We're so used to it.
A for a, a.
So if a symbol could represent a sign.
But before we look at this section of writing history, I want to remind you that if you're not a Patreon supporter, what are you doing?
You should go over and check the link in the description below.
There you can sign up and subscribe to the Easy English Patreon page and you can get access to the full transcripts of every episode that is published.
So you can read along with the episode as well as getting the vocabulary lists and the end.
That is usually about 20 keywords and definitions from each episode.
The episodes also do not have um advertisements in them, so from um companies uh, they're advertisement free And as well as that, you get at least one bonus podcast episode every week.
And I try to create these regularly, as well as extra content for you guys, for the Patreon subscribers.
I couldn't do this show without the Patreon.
It is the best.
I suppose it is, you know, a really great support for Easy English.
In the future, I'm hoping to start a conversation club on the Patreon as well.
So if you sign up early now, you will get to join for the lower price and still get access to that club once it starts later.
So you can check that out in the description below.
Thank you.
Now back to writing.
So people have discovered perhaps we can use symbols to represent signs like a b c, d.
That sounds more like Russian.
This was a bit of a revolution with language.
Instead of drawing a picture, So a detailed picture that takes a long time.
Maybe let's say you were drawing a picture of a bee, a bumblebee, right?
The little flies that land on flowers.
They're not really flies, but they go buzz, buzz, buzz, and they make honey.
So if you could draw a picture of a bee and a leaf, which gives the idea of bumblebee Belief, for example, to make that sound you could use a symbol for the signs instead.
A symbol of b and a symbol which sounds like leaf as well.
Belief.
And this made writing so much simpler, because there are only a limited number of signs in any language.
So any language around the world, there is a limited amount of signs.
And ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, like we mentioned earlier, were one of the first systems to use some of these signs.
But it was still a very complex, complicated system.
It needed to become simpler, right?
And over time, this happened.
So this led to our final innovation, the alphabet.
And it's what we use today.
It's structure with language.
And the ones to do it were called, it was a civilization, and they were called the Phoenicians.
The Phoenicians.
Don't worry too much about, I guess about the name of the civilization, but you may have heard of phonetics.
And this is where that comes from.
So the Phoenicians were great traders.
They loved to sell stuff all around the world.
But they needed a very fast and a simple way for them to keep records.
So to write about their activities, to keep their accounts and to keep track of essentially their trade, what they were selling.
So they created a system with only about 22 symbols and each symbol stood for a single sound.
For example, one symbol was for the a sound, another for the b sound, the b, b sound, and so on.
And then, of course, the Greeks, which we all know.
The Greeks, they saw this system and they improved upon it.
They added vowels A E I O, U and they called the system the alphabet from the Greek letters alpha and beta, or beta.
And this is where we get our modern word of alphabet as well, alphabet.
And this simple innovation, this simple alphabet, was the perfect innovation for writing.
It was amazing.
So amazing that we still use these systems today.
Of course, we have refined them over time.
Perhaps even your native language has become shorter.
The alphabet perhaps has becomes smaller over time and language tends to become more efficient with time.
It takes a shorter route to get to the best outcome.
So that was a lot of information on the history of writing.
So let's take a very quick look at our listener spotlight.
So this is the segment, if you're new, where I read some of your comments and answers to different questions.
Every week I ask questions in the section and I like you to answer.
So for this week, I would like you to comment and to answer, telling me about your alphabet, your writing system.
Is it similar to English?
Is it different?
How many letters are there or symbols if you have symbols or pictures in your alphabet or language?
So tell me about your native languages writing system.
I think it's very interesting and i'll read out some of your answers in the next episode, okay.
So in one of the previous episodes, i asked you what is your favorite form of transport, so i'm going to read some of these answers.
So Felipe, he answered, and he said my favorite kind of transportation is the bus, because where I've been living does not have metro or subways.
But by the way, I have been using my bicycle.
I consider that is great.
That is a great way, Felipe, to get around.
And I've replied to him and said that it's a great method of transportation because it also counts as exercise.
So while you're traveling, you're also exercising, which I think is great.
Then we had another answer from Yervin, who said my favorite kind of transportation is the train, especially when I am in Europe.
I love it.
I love traveling by train and seeing the beautiful views and places.
I think that's a great answer.
Travelling by train and being able to look around at the scenery is a very nice benefit.
A good positive of train travel.
Okay, so for next episode or the next week, I want you to tell me about writing in your language.
A little bit about the alphabet, if it's different.
Just tell me, I guess, about your native language.
That would be great.
So thank you very much for listening today about the story, the history of writing.
A little bit about how it has changed over time.
Of course, this is a very simplified history of writing, a short version, I guess.
But I hope that you learned something new along the way.
Remember to check out the Patreon if you would like to support the show.
And, if you would like, you can also find the link in the description below, where you can find my new book as well, to purchase a copy.
It's an e-book and it helps teach you English phrasal verbs through short stories.
So check that out and get a copy if you would like as well.
Thank you so much for listening and I will see you in the next episode of the Easy English Podcast.
Keep on learning and you will continue to improve.
Goodbye.
