ABSTRACT
THOUGHtheproblemoftheoriginoflanguagedoesnot admitofanysatisfactorysolution,suchisnotthecase
withtheproblemoftheoriginofwriting.Thiscanbedirectly attackedandviewedfromeveryangleandinallitsbearings, fortheoriginofwritingiscomparativelyrecent.Theancient languagesareknowntousonlyfromthetimewhentheywere writtendown;butmanyareknowntousfromthatvery moment,andoftenthefirsttextthatcomesintoourpossession isalsothefirstonewhichenshrinedthisancienttonguein writing.Ontheotherhand,therearequiterecentlanguages whichhavenotbeenwrittendownuntilourowntime,and almostunderourveryeyes.Thus,wecanstudylivingexamples oftheprocessesbywhichaspokentonguebecameawritten one,andjudgeoftheresultsofthemechanism.
