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Cave painting
A Zippy on art and writing: (Earlier Zippy on cave painting here.) The cave paintings tell a story — every picture tells a story, as they say — but not in words. As Griffy notes, the extraordinary cave...
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cursive
Over on Language Log, Victor Mair ignited some passionate discussion with a posting about the tattoos on the face of a young man (in a mug shot). The largest tattoo was on his forehead: A reporter for...
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Early writing
In the latest (October 31st) New Yorker, a cartoon by Robert Leighton about early writing systems: When I teach about writing systems, the students are always fascinated with the idea that we can learn...
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Language news in the NYT
Two recent items in the New York Times: “Everyone Speaks Text Message” by Tina Rosenberg in the 12/11 Magazine; “Athhilezar? Watch Your Fantasy World Language” by Amy Chozick in the 12/12 paper. The...
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The frugal typographer
Annals of silliness: from the Medford [Oregon] Daily News, June 23, 1929, a story about one man’s quest to save space by replacing the word the by a single symbol: Note the wry conclusion to the...
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Thorny days
The Old English letter þ (known as thorn) played a central role in my posting on a “frugal typographer” who proposed in 1929 to save space by replacing the word the by þ. Now thorn is the subject of a...
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Wooden Hebrew magnets
My friend Max Vasilatos has been creating wooden fridge magnets for various alphabets. She’s a woodworker, and the project is an exercise in art and craft. Yes, you can get plastic fridge magnets for a...
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Ed Fisher cartoons
Passed on from the Archaeosoup site (via Facebook), this New Yorker cartoon (1/26/63) by Ed Fisher: This tickles archaeologists’ funny bones. And epigraphers’, of course. Another inscription cartoon...
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Two Big Happies
A few weeks ago, from Benita Bendon Campbell, two cartoons from the strip One Big Happy (information on the strip here), with little kids coping with English. Ruthie plays with alphabetical ordering:...
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Hangul Day
Today is Hangul Day, a holiday to celebrate the Korean writing system. Here’s a video from some years ago with the great linguist Jim McCawley explaining why this is an important day in the calendar:...
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Two linguistics cartoons
… in the latest (9/29/14) New Yorker: a Zach Kanin on writing systems and a Joe Dator with a snow cone snowclone: (#1) (#2) In #1, we confront the expectation that examples of early writing are...
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Set of three
A crop of three comics for today, on three very different topics: a One Big Happy with an inventive reinterpretation of an expression; a Zits on the evolution of writing systems; and a Zippy with...
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No vowels
In the April 13th New Yorker, a Talk of the Town piece “The Musical Life: New Translation” by Alec Wilkinson about Cassandra Wilson: The title of the Egyptian funerary papyrus “Book of the Dead” is...
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Three morning names
(Some sexual topics to come.) They’ve been piling up while other things happen. But here’s the recent crop: Futhark, eructation, sex sling. Definitely a mixed bag. Futhark. From Wikipedia: The Elder...
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Two word-play cartoons
.Yesterday’s Bizarro, and a Liam Walsh cartoon from the May 30th New Yorker: (#1) (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbol in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there’s one in this strip — see this Page.) (#2)...
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Emoji days
Emoji(s) are hot news these days. In the NYT yesterday, “Look Who’s Smiley Now: MoMA Acquires Original Emoji” by Amanda Hess. And just a bit earlier, two cartoons linking emoji to hieroglyphics, one by...
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Emoji are the hieroglyphs of the future
Today’s Bizarro: (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 4 in this strip — see this Page.) Another bash at the hieroglyph-emoji relationship. For discussion,...
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Atypical Seuss
Two atypical books by Dr. Seuss — one for children, but about alphabets (On Beyond Zebra!); and one for adults, though in Geisel’s usual children’s-book format (You’re Only Old Once! A Book for...
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Cave painting
On Facebook, Tony Woodbury has passed on this favorite cartoon of his, from the old Saturday Review (of Literature): Cave painting is usually thought of as a precursor to a writing system: the telling...
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