| The development of writing was one of
the great human inventions. It is difficult {{U}}(36) {{/U}} many
people to imagine language without writing; the spoken word seems intricately
tied to the written {{U}}(37) {{/U}}. But children speak {{U}}(38)
{{/U}} they learn to write. And millions of people in the world speak
languages with {{U}}(39) {{/U}} written form. Among these people
oral literature abounds, and crucial knowledge {{U}}(40) {{/U}}
memorized and passed {{U}}(41) {{/U}} generations. But human memory is
short-lived, and the brain's storage capacity is finite. {{U}}(42)
{{/U}} overcame such problems and allowed communication across the miles
{{U}}(43) {{/U}} through the years and centuries. Writing permits a
society {{U}}(44) {{/U}} permanently record its poetry, its history and
its technology. It might be argued {{U}}(45) {{/U}} today we have electronic means of recording sound and {{U}}(46) {{/U}} to produce films and television, and thus writing is becoming obsolete. {{U}}(47) {{/U}} writing became extinct, there would be no knowledge of electronics {{U}}(48) {{/U}} TV technicians to study; there would be, in fact, little technology in years to {{U}}(49) {{/U}} There would be no film or TV scripts, no literature, no books, no mail, no newspapers, no science. There would be {{U}}(50) {{/U}} advantages: no bad novels, junk mail, poison-pen letters, or "unreadable" income-tax forms, but the losses would outweigh the {{U}}(51) {{/U}}. There are almost as {{U}}(52) {{/U}} legends and stories on the invention of writing as there are {{U}}(53) {{/U}} the origin of language. Legend has it that Cadmus, Prince of Phoenicia and founder of the city of Thebes, {{U}}(54) {{/U}} the alphabet and brought it with him to Greece. In one Chinese fable the four-eyed dragon-god T'sang Chien invented writing. In {{U}}(55) {{/U}} myths, the Babylonian god Nebo and the Egyptian god Thoth gave humans writing as well as speech. |