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WRITING TIMELINE
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 3300 B.C.: The oldest testimony of writing known: Surmerian tablet in pictographic writing, Mesopotamia
3300 B.C.: Egyptian Hieroglyphs
2800 B.C. Sumerian pictographic signs became cunforme
2000 B.C. Proof of Olmec writings, South America
1760 B.C. Hammurabi code, Babylon: first judicial code, diorite stele, Suse(Iran)
1400 B.C. Divinatory scriptures on cervid bones/shells oe turtoise scales, China
1300 B.C. Phoenician alphabet with 22 consonants
1000 B.C. The Phoenician alphabet spread around the Mediterranean and in Asia.
Paleo-hebraic and aramean alphabets. Sub-arabic writings
800 B.C. Greek alphabet: invention of vowels
700 B.C. Etruscan alphabet, adaptation of Gree alphabet
600 B.C. Hebraic alphabet, called square hebrew
400 B.C. Latin alphabet, adaptation of etruscan alphabet
300 B.C. Brahmi and Kharosti writings, India
200 B.C. Libyco-Berber and Punic writings in North Africa
100 B.C. Coptic writings in Egypt
100 A.D. Syriac writings
200 A.D. Grooves(Glyphs) on Maya steles in Central America
300 A.D. Runic writings in Northern Europe
400 A.D. Amenian and Geogean alphabets; Ethiopean syllabary
500 A.D. Arabic writing derived from Aramean(Aramaic) alphabet.
Gaelic writing
600 A.D. Coding(codification) of arabic alphabet, following the coranic revelation: 28 signs
700 A.D. Japanese alphabet adapted from Chinese writing
800 A.D. Cyrillic writing
1200 A.D. The Aztecs adopted Nahuati writing
1985 A.D. Digital writing appears
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AFRICA.SOCIETY
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WRITING SYSTEMS
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Longtime, and up till today, it has been assumed, by sheer and meaningless greed, that Africa, I mean black Africa, the birthplace of humanity,
had no writing system(s) of its own, apart of Ethiopian and Egyptian systems.
VAI
NIGER-SENEGALESE. Written by means of syllabic signs of local invention
whose origin can be trced to end 18th/begining 19th century.
MENDE
NIGER-SENEGALESE. Written by means of 190 simple syllabic signs invented by a "muslim" tailor. This is the only African
syllabics written from right to left.
BASSA
EBURNEO-LIBERIAN. Syllabic system invented by a "black who came from america".
MENDE and BASSA were said to have been created under the influence of the VAI writing system.
MOM, BAMOM, BAMUM
NIGER-CAMEROUNIAN. The sultan of NJOYA of the BAMOUN county of present-day Cameroon invented a writing used at
the palace and throughout the the sultanate in schools. French administration banned its used in 1916.By means of signs invented
towards 1900 by Njoma, king of Foumban, and modified since by its inventor. Initially ideographic,these signs later became phonetic
(mainly syllabic). It was extended to others speaking similar languages, the Bajams for example.
NUBA, NOUBA
Uses coptic characters in religious domains for the transcription of ancient nouba. Modern NUBA is written from Korosko to Mahas by means of signs
that are closer both to the arabic alphabet and that of ancient semitic.
TOMA
NIGER-SENEGALESE. Like VAI.
HAUSA(NIGER-CHADIAN), FULANI(SENEGALESE-GUINEAN)and KANURI(NILO-CHADIAN) are written in arabic,
which is not the case of other muslim populations. Lettered black muslims write in arabic, but with rare exceptions, don't speak it, but adopted it
as languages for learning and correspondences. It has been said that YORUBA was initially written in arabic
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Encoding the Tifinagh script
TIFINAGH ABJAD
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AFRICA.SOCIETY
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TRANS-NATIONAL LANGUAGES
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| LANGUAGE |
POPULATION |
COUNTRIES & POPULATIONS Speakers of the language |
| SWAHILI |
59 million |
TANZANIA (25 million), KENYA (16 million), UGANDA (6 million), CONGO, Democratic Republic (6 million), MOZAMBIQUE (1 million), Elsewhere (5 million)
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| HAUSA |
34 million |
NIGERIA (25 million), NIGER (5.7 million), Elsewhere (3.3 million)
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| FULANI** |
19.4 million |
NIGERIA (10.7 million), GUINEA (2.9 million), MALI (1.6 million), SENEGAL (1.5 million), BURKINA-FASO (894 000), CAMEROON (778 000), NIGER (615 000), BENIN (290 000), GUINEA-BISSAU (230 000), GAMBIA (131 000)
also called FULA, FUFULDE, FULBE
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