5.9 Writing

Vocabulary

• Cunieform- Writing that uses wedged shaped charecters
• Pictograph- A symbol that stands for an object

The first written language

• Cunieform was a language that the Sumerians created
• Cunieform was the first written language
• The name comes from a Latin word wedge
• Sumerians used a stylus to carve the symbols in the clay tablets
• Cunieform was developed at about around 2400 B.C.E.

first written LANGUAGE continued

• at first the language had 2000 symbols
• as they got more complex they reduced this number to only 700 characters

Pictograph

• symbols that stand for an object.
• for an example: SNAKE water gods and animals.
• Sumerians used a sharpened reed to draw the pictographs on the wet clay.
• When the clay dried the pictographs on the clay were permanent.

thank you for LIStening

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