ABSTRACT
In the epilogue to his essay on the origin and development of writing systems, Roy Harris declares: ‘;It says a great deal about Western culture that the question of the origin of writing could be posed clearly for the first time only after the traditional dogmas about the relationship between speech and writing had been subjected both to the brash counterpropaganda of a McLuhan and to the inquisitorial scepticism of a Derrida. But it says even more that the question could not be posed clearly until writing itself had dwindled to microchip dimensions. Only with this…did it become obvious that the origin of writing must be linked to the future of writing in ways which bypass speech altogether. (Harris, 1986, p. 158) 1
