LING 408
Writing Systems

Credit:  3 or 4 hours.


Introductory survey of writing systems, with emphasis on what kind of linguistic information is encoded; historical development and adaptation of writing systems to new languages; computational models of writing systems; decipherment; the effect of properties of writing systems on human reading, and linguistic awareness; implications of writing systems for linguistic theory. Prerequisite: LING 400 or equivalent general introduction to linguistics, or LING 302 or equivalent introduction to phonology. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours.