magazines and on-line publications for elt teachers

The excellent "It's for teachers" magazine has gone very quiet:

http://www.its-teachers.com/activities

iT's for Teachers — Robert Campbell

iT's for Teachers Magazine | Facebook

However, there are still many publications out there for the English teacher - with a list here from International House Barcelona:

English Language Teaching (ELT) publications

EL Gazette
News, agenda, reviews and more from the profession's leading trade paper.

ELT Journal
For subscribers, the full text of ELT Journal is available online, as are the 50 most-read articles in the archives.

ET Professional
The website of an excellent print magazine for English language teachers.

Humanising Language Teaching
Stimulating "food for thought", in articles short and long, from this online journal.

IATEFL Issues
A number of interesting articles from back numbers of IATEFL's main print publication.

Internet TESL Journal
A monthly online journal carrying articles, research papers, lessons plans, materials, and teaching ideas.

IT's for Teachers
Lots for teachers - particularly for subscribers - on this site.

IT's online
The main IT's site - for teachers and learners of English.

Modern English Teacher
MET is available online to subscribers only.

The Teacher Trainer
A journal of particular interest to teacher trainers.

ELT resources | ELT (TEFL) publications

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walter benjamin on the radio in english

It's 80 years ago when the writer and philosopher Walter Benjamin took his life on the French-Spanish border:

Walter Benjamin zum 80. Todestag - Musikalisches Porträt eines Grenzgängers

80 years on: Walter Benjamin's death in Catalonia while fleeing Gestapo

Here, the BBC recreates his Berlin radio talks to children:

The Benjamin Broadcasts

AVAILABILITY:

The German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin is best known as the author of seminal texts such as "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and for his influence on Theodor Adorno and the "Frankfurt School" of philosophy. But behind the much-mythologised figure of Benjamin the philosopher, there lies the little-known historical reality of Benjamin the broadcaster...

When the Gestapo stormed Walter Benjamin's last apartment in 1940, they stumbled upon a cache of papers which the fleeing philosopher had abandoned in his hurry to escape Paris. Amongst these papers were the scripts for an extraordinary series of radio broadcasts for children covering everything from toy collecting to the politics of tenement housing, from the psychology of witch hunts to human responses to natural catastrophes. Designed to encourage young listeners to think critically, to question sources and to challenge clichés, Benjamin's broadcasts stand in stark contrast to the fascist propaganda which would come to take their place.

Benjamin committed suicide in 1940, when his flight out of Europe was blocked at the Spanish border. He died believing that most - if not all - of his writings were lost.

Here Radio4 listeners have an exclusive chance to discover them in this Archive on Four documentary presented by Michael Rosen, and with Henry Goodman as the voice of Walter Benjamin. It's the first ever English recreation of his pre-war broadcasts to children.

Producer: Kate Schneider
A Made in Manchester Production for BBC Radio 4.

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, The Benjamin Broadcasts
Pre-war German radio broadcasts to children recreated by Made in Manchester - Prolific North
Hear Walter Benjamin’s Radio Broadcasts for Children : Harriet Staff : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation

And people are still writing about him as very relevant today:

Histories of Violence: Why We Should All Read Walter Benjamin Today - Los Angeles Review of Books
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how to send children back to school and students back to university during a pandemic: comparing countries

In the UK and elsewhere, there's the problem of 'how to get the kids back to school/university'.

There does seem to be some desperation about it - because it's very much about us all returning to 'normal':

Jay Doubleyou: is the purpose of education 'social uplift' - or 'social control'?

Jay Doubleyou: school is just a place to park your kids

CNN reports on the US president: 

He desperately wants to kickstart the economy and needs people to feel as though they are returning to "normal," and getting kids back to school is, he believes, one of the best ways to do just that.

Donald Trump's push to reopen schools has very clear dangers - CNNPolitics

And in the US, the return to school/university has become very politicised:

Why are the Trump administration and GOP senators playing politics with school reopening? - Education Votes

In Europe, things are going much better:

Why U.S. kids can’t go back to school and German kids can | Trudy Rubin

The manner in which schools open, and other measures across society, appear relevant. Virologist Christian Drosten believes the lack of school-based Covid clusters in Germany is more down to there being relatively little virus transmission happening in the country, thanks to an early response and effective testing and tracing. If so, keeping schools open may be more challenging in countries where the infection rate is rising such as Spain, Italy and France. 

In May, Israel inflamed its just-tamed epidemic by racing to open classrooms before there were proper social-distancing measures in place and without a robust contact-tracing system. By contrast, Denmark has been seen as a model for implementing reduced class sizes, near-hourly hand-washing and a blend of online and on-site learning to avoid overcrowding.

Coronavirus: Are Schools Safe to Reopen? Norway and Germany Offer a Clue - Bloomberg

Because Scotland has slowly eased out of lockdown, the government has been able to closely monitor how reopening schools impacts the spread of COVID-19. In contrast, schools in England are reopening at the same time as businesses are encouraged to return to workplaces, which may make it more difficult to monitor where and how the virus is spreading.

How Children Are Returning to School in 3 European Countries | Time

There are also large differences within countries:

As the debate around reopening New York City schools rages on, across the South and Midwest, some schools have already reopened, offering few protections to teachers and students and issuing punishments to those bold enough to speak out about crowded conditions in their hallways and classrooms. Meanwhile, in the country’s wealthiest enclaves, well-heeled parents seek private alternatives to traditional schools, forming expensive, exclusive learning pods so that the children of those who can pay for the privilege might learn in safety and comfort. In other words, our government continues to neglect and endanger its most vulnerable citizens.

$25,000 Pod Schools: How Well-to-Do Children Will Weather the Pandemic - The New York Times

And now students have returned to university, we are seeing a further rise in cases:

Coronavirus in Europe: UK and France record most daily cases since start of pandemic, as university outbreaks linked to parties - CNN

And again, it's being politicised - in this instance in the UK:

Covid: Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden defends students' university return - BBC News

Labour Has Criticised Gavin Williamson For His "Silence" On The University Covid Crisis

But it's happening everywhere:

Coronavirus: Parties blamed for outbreak as elite Swiss university orders 2,500 students to quarantine | World News | Sky News

Virus Clusters at French Universities Give Europe a Lesson | Voice of America - English

And different countries are responding differently:

Dorm snitches and party bans: how universities around the world are tackling Covid | Coronavirus outbreak | The Guardian

As Covid cases rise again, how are countries in Europe reacting? | World news | The Guardian

Suddenly, it feels like 'prison' for many:

Thousands of freshers imprisoned in halls as Covid-hit universities face calls to close | thesun.co.uk  

Piers Morgan calls for students to be set free after coronavirus sweeps through universities | thesun.co.uk

As authorities sought to contain Covid-19 outbreaks at British universities on Sunday, some students complained they were being "imprisoned" in their dormitories and politicians debated whether young people should be allowed to go home for Christmas.

Students at universities in Glasgow, Manchester and Edinburgh - who have returned to campus in the past few weeks - are being asked to self-isolate in their residence halls, with security guards at some schools preventing young people from leaving their buildings.

While students at Glasgow University greeted the lockdown with humor, posting signs asking passersby to "send beer," those in Manchester had a darker message, taping "HMP MMU" in their windows, suggesting the dormitory had become "Her Majesty's Prison Manchester Metropolitan University."

UK university students furious over virus restrictions - News | Khaleej Times

And don't forget the money:

As a UK academic, I think there is one key thing missing from your coverage of the safety of campuses opening up again: universities cannot survive without the revenue generated by students living on campus (Universities should be two-thirds empty to avoid Covid spikes, says expert, 25 September). This is not just about tuition fees; it includes accommodation fees and revenue from student bars, shops and sports centres. Since there is no longer comprehensive government funding for higher education, this is the only way that universities can survive.

For most institutions, cancelling face-to-face teaching would be financial suicide because so many students would not live on campus. The blame for this should be directed at the party currently in government, which is responsible for designing this funding system in the first place and for refusing a comprehensive bail-out of universities that would allow them to cancel face-to-face teaching for the year and allow students to stay at home.

The dilemmas faced by students and campuses | Universities | The Guardian

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common sense and the british

[This post, published on 26th September 2020, was 'unpublished' by Blogger on 18th March 2023 - and then republished on 19th March! Thanks very much!]

The British like freedom quite a lot:

Jay Doubleyou: freedom-loving britons

And so they declare that they never, never, never shall be slaves:

Jay Doubleyou: rule britannia?

The British are also a very practical and reasonable people:

COMMON SENSE | Bedeutung im Cambridge Englisch Wörterbuch

This is 'common sense':

sound practical judgement concerning everyday matters, or a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge that is shared by ("common to") nearly all people.

The first type of common sense, good sense, can be described as "the knack for seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done". The second type is sometimes described as folk wisdom, "signifying unreflective knowledge not reliant on specialized training or deliberative thought."

Common sense - Wikipedia

And it does indeed seem to 'make sense':

Jay Doubleyou: informal learning > learning from experience

It's connected to 'heuristics' too:

Jay Doubleyou: heuristics in language learning

However, in Britain, the idea of 'common sense' has become highly politicised.

This is from the Financial Times a year after the Brexit vote:

Almost every system is more complex than it looks. Most people can’t describe the workings of a toilet, writes Steven Sloman, cognitive scientist at Brown University. The EU is even more complicated, and so leaving it has countless unforeseen ramifications. Most Britons had no idea last year that voting Leave could mean closing the Irish border, or giving ministers dictatorial powers to rewrite law. Because of complexity, so-called common sense is a bad guide to policy making. Complexity is also an argument against direct democracy.

Jay Doubleyou: the uk is now experimenting on itself for the benefit of humanity

When it comes to dealing with Covid, there are lots of political opinions.

In Scotland:

Nicola Sturgeon defended the new restrictions being imposed on students this weekend as “common sense measures” designed to curb the spread of accelerating outbreaks in universities. The First Minister has come under fierce criticism for the restrictions, which include asking students to not socialise in pubs, restaurants and cafes, as well as not within their halls of residences, over the weekend.

Nicola Sturgeon defends 'common sense' student restrictions as all students face socialising ban | The Scotsman

In the USA:

For six months, experts have given the American public contradictory and weaponized election-year directives on masks, social distancing, lockdowns, school closures, and workplace policies. All of these matters of public health reveal the disasters that follow when common sense is ignored and ideology reigns.

Most Americans know that only the police can protect the vulnerable in times of social chaos. Most people instinctively sense that when vast swaths of dead trees are not removed from dense forests, they will eventually serve as kindling for raging firestorms.

And when scientific expertise offers ever-changing, inconsistent, and occasionally absurd public health advice, then people turn to their own instincts and innate common sense to protect themselves and their livelihoods. Experts, not commonsense citizens, have been failing America.

Common Sense Is Required of the Collective for Civilization to Continue

Common Sense - Do We Ever Need It Now!

And in England:

Mr Johnson said: "And I know that faced with that risk, the British people will want their government to continue to fight to protect them, you, and that is what we are doing, night and day. And yet the single greatest weapon we bring to this fight is the common sense of the people themselves - the joint resolve of this country to work together to suppress Covid now."

Coronavirus map LIVE: Boris issues ultimatum - Use common sense or face new rules! | UK | News | Express.co.uk

Coronavirus: Boris Johnson says common sense is 'single greatest weapon' | The National

In the UK, it's very much a matter of political arguments over 'natural character':

When, just under six months ago, we as a people had to get used suddenly to a restriction of our civil liberties not experienced in peacetime since the rule of Lord Liverpool 200 years ago, it presented a test of our national character. Indeed, it threatened to challenge the very idea of whether we still had one. I wrote then how, for all the formidable threats the pandemic posed, including to human life, it presented a rare opportunity to show what we believed to be the best about the British people: kindness, decency, neighbourliness, courage and determination....

Common sense? Decency? We can't allow that in Covid Britain, I'm afraid...

• Boris Johnson has again stated that we should rely on our common sense to slow the increase in infections of Covid-19. But common sense is highly subjective. Mine tells me that the government’s initial response in March should have exploited our natural advantage as an island nation by immediately closing the borders to non-UK residents, quarantining residents returning from overseas, and beginning testing in the community. Perhaps if common sense looked more like decisive action, we wouldn’t now be in such a quandary over whether to protect public health or the economy. It seems increasingly impossible to protect both.

We won't beat Covid by channelling Churchill | Coronavirus outbreak | The Guardian

This is the Prime Minister back in May:

Coronavirus: Johnson on 'good solid British common sense' - BBC News

And this is the British showing common sense in June;

Digested week: good old British common sense has people besieging the beaches | Politics | The Guardian

Here's an excellent essay with a long look at the themes:

Why Boris Johnson must stop talking about ‘good British common sense’

June 18, 2020 Peter West Lecturer in Philosophy, Trinity College Dublin

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has lately made a habit of appealing to “good British common sense” as a solution to any problem or controversy...

Encouraging the public to follow “good British common sense” may seem a harmless piece of advice. Philosophical debates about common sense, however, reveal that there is no consensus about what the phrase means. Even worse, it often turns out that seemingly innocent appeals to common sense are actually masking controversial ideas or viewpoints. This suggests that asking the public to rely on common sense is an irresponsible thing for a politician to do...

Why Boris Johnson must stop talking about 'good British common sense'

Perhaps we can finish with an advert for the UK's most popular TV show at the moment:

telling baking enthusiasts to use "common sense" over their hundreds and thousands use.

Matt Lucas as Boris Johnson | The Great British Bake Off - YouTube

Great British Bake Off - Matt Lucas as Boris Johnson - British Comedy Guide

Which has also caused a bit of controversy!

Bake Off: Matt Lucas’s Boris Johnson impression draws more than 200 complaints | The Independent

Bake Off Ofcom complaints soar to 339 after Matt Lucas mocked Boris Johnson in show opener

Bake Off 2020: Matt Lucas Boris Johnson sketch cut from US Netflix | Metro News

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freedom-loving britons

Apparently, the Brits love freedom more than most - and this is why the UK has got the highest infection and death rates during the Covid crisis:

Are Britons too 'freedom-loving' to follow Covid rules? | UK news | The Guardian

Coronavirus: Boris Johnson suggests high coronavirus infection rates are due to UK’s ‘love of freedom’ | The Independent

Boris Johnson has blamed coronavirus on the British people, for loving freedom too much
The Germans and Italians are too timid to die in the kind of numbers we are, explains the prime minister
Tom Peck
Political Sketch Writer@tompeck
1 day ago

Labour’s Ben Bradshaw had asked the prime minister whether the fact that Germany and Italy had far lower death rates and far less severe lifestyle restrictions in place might be because “they have test and trace systems that actually work?” 

“Actually,” came the reply. “There is an important difference between our country and many other countries around the world: our country is a freedom-loving country. If we look at the history of this country over the past 300 years, virtually every advance, from free speech to democracy, has come from this country. It is very difficult to ask the British population uniformly to obey guidelines in the way that is necessary.” 

So there you have it. That really is the end of it. The Germans, the Italians, they are all so cowed, so timid, that they choose to live. It is only the freedom-loving Brits that have done their bit, not just for their own sake but for the greatness of mankind, and died entirely preventable deaths in their tens of thousands.
It turns out that, actually, the “world-beating” test and trace system that’s five months and counting behind schedule – well, you don’t even need it. Not over here anyway. We’re too good for it. Test and trace? Maybe Johnny Foreigner wants test and trace but not the Brits. Oh no. No, thanks. Not in the home of free speech, democracy and rampant Covid-19, thank you very much.

Boris Johnson has blamed coronavirus on the British people, for loving freedom too much | The Independent

The Italians and Germans are not impressed:

Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, said its citizens “also love freedom, but we also care about seriousness”, responding to Boris Johnson’s suggestion that the UK’s rate of coronavirus infection was worse than both Italy and Germany’s because Britons loved their freedom more.

Italian president rebuts Johnson's 'freedom' remarks over restrictions | World news | The Guardian

Britain's pandemic response 'shocking', top Italian coronavirus advisor says

The UK is currently reporting around 4,000 new cases a day, while the figure in Germany is between 1,000 and 2,000. Germany has had more success in suppressing the virus, partly thanks to mass testing and rigorous contact tracing, although numbers are also climbing again.

Boris Johnson contrasts Germany's lower Covid infection rates with 'freedom-loving' UK - The Local

Coronavirus: Germany offering free coronavirus tests at train stations | Metro News

The government-friendly Daily Telegraph also asks:

How Germany avoided Covid catastrophe - with 'luck and tests'

What can we learn from Germany?

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we are by nature multilingual

We all have different registers - depending on who we're speaking to:

What Is Register in Linguistics?

Register (sociolinguistics) - Wikipedia

And 'metaphor' is all about being able to think in an abstract way:

Abstract Thinking

Images as metaphors. How to convey abstract concepts with images. - isEazy blog

There's also biology and anthropology: respecting different people living in the natural world:

Culture and Society | Boundless Sociology

Culture and Sustainability: Environmental Anthropology in the Anthropocene – Perspectives: An Open Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition

In German, 'Wissenschaft' is not just 'science' but also takes on the arts and humanities:

One, Two, or Three Cultures? Humanities Versus the Natural and Social Sciences in Modern Germany

But English is now 'controlling' science - and so imposes its own mental framework:

Postcolonialism - Wikipedia

'Argument is war' is a metaphor according to Lakoff and Johnson:

- but 'argument' is about presenting a logical sequence - not about getting aggressive

Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson | The Literary Link

Dancing over dueling: How English metaphors make arguments a matter of war - ALTA Language Services

Metaphors We Live By - Wikipedia

The Creative Multilingual Manifesto:

Creative Multilingualism: A Manifesto | Creative Multilingualism

Creative Multilingualism: A Manifesto - YouTube

- it needs curiosity about one's own language:

50+ Fascinating Language Facts You Didn't Know [Infographic]

Language Learning: The Importance of Curiosity | Street Smart Brazil

Curious Kids: why do people in different countries speak different languages?

The Effects of Curiosity on Second Language: Learning in terms ofLinguistic, Social-cultural and Pragmatic Development 

- and other languages - including animal languages:

Animal language - Wikipedia

When Will We Learn To Speak Animal Languages? | Live Science

The problem for the British is that they see themselves as linguistic failures:

Why native English speakers fail to be understood in English – and lose out in global business

Politics and the English Language | plainlanguage.gov

George Orwell: Politics and the English Language

How language shapes our perception of reality

Native English speakers are the world’s worst communicators - BBC Worklife

Then we have the Thousand and One Nights - Arabic or Persian or Indian?

Microsoft Word - Khouri_ One Thousand and One Nights.doc

The Thousand and One Nights (Persian and Arabian) - World Literature Books - Mabee Learning Center at Oklahoma Baptist University

Which has been translated into pretty much every language:

Translations of One Thousand and One Nights - Wikipedia

From Lane (with nothing about sex!)

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Wikipedia

And from Burton:

The Arabian Nights translated by Richard Francis Burton

And there are so many layers of place as well as language:

The Thousand and One Nights - Map & Timeline - Annenberg Learner

A Thousand and One Nights: Arabian Story-telling in World Literature | 4 Corners of the World: International Collections and Studies at the Library of Congress

On bus route 29 in London, the languages are very different, depending on who joins the group and on what part of the city they go through:

Microsoft Word - Final Diversity and Inclusion Vision for Publication Print.docx

What happens to a story when it travels? This is 'linguistic migration' - but the listener will retell the story in a different way to how they heard it:

Multiethnolects: How Immigrants Invent New Ways of Speaking a Language - The Atlantic

Language and migration - Language on the Move

Language migration - Wikipedia

Another commute, by train, takes us through the suburbs of Birmingham and very different Indian languages:

Chapter 1: Variation and Change in English

Birmingham pupils speak 108 languages

Languages of Birmingham, Popular Local Spoken Languages of Birmingham, India - Yatra.com

Hearing languages in everyday life - as rooted in time and place, but also dynamic and living:

Bilingualism in the Early Years: What the Science Says

National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life

We are looking at 'slanguages': within languages, there's a hierarchy of accents and dialects, or patois and creoles:

Slanguages | Creative Multilingualism

SLANGUAGE A fun, visual way to learn a new language

BBC News - Mind your slanguage

`SLANGUAGE': IS IT HERE TO STAY?\ THREE VARIETIES OF SLANG MAKE A BIG DENT ON THE YOUTH CULTURE | | greensboro.com

1.1 Language and identity: 1.1.3 Regional contexts

Jamaican Patois - Wikipedia

How do artists draw on their languages for creativity?

Focus in creative learning: Drawing on art for language development | ArtsEdSearch

MoMA | Language and Art

And today, the UK is very mulitlingual:

Languages of the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

The rebirth of Britain’s ‘lost’ languages - BBC Culture

Polish is second most spoken language in England, as census reveals 140,000 residents cannot speak English at all | The Independent | The Independent

Boris Johnson: Too Many Areas In The UK Where English Is Not The First Language | HuffPost UK

We can excel in all the languages we learn - and creatively which it strengthens:

The Benefits Of Learning a New Language and Being Bilingual | Teacher.org

Why Bilingual Students Have a Cognitive Advantage for Learning to Read | Waterford.org

Language Learners: 15 Useful Skills You Get from Speaking a Second Language - Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips

Here's a programme from BBC Radio 3 which looks at all of this:

The impact of being multilingual

Free Thinking

How German argument differs from English, the links between Arabic and Chinese and different versions of The 1001 Nights to the use of slang and multiple languages in the work of young performers and writers in the West Midlands: John Gallagher looks at a series of research projects at different UK universities which are exploring the impact and benefits of multilingualism.

Katrin Kohl is Professor of German Literature and a Fellow of Jesus College. She runs the Creative Multilingualism project. https://www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk/about/people/katrin-kohl and https://www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk/creative-multilingualism-manifesto

Wen-chin Ouyang is a professor of Arabic literature and comparative literature at SOAS, University of London. Her books include editing an edition for Everyman's Library called The Arabian Nights: An Anthology and Politics of Nostalgia in the Arabic Novel: Nation-State, Modernity and Tradition.

You can hear more from Wen-chin in this Free Thinking discussion of The One Thousand and One Nights https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b052gz7g

Rajinder Dudrah is Professor of Cultural Studies & Creative Industries at Birmingham City University. His books include the co-edited South Asian Creative and Cultural Industries (Dudrah, R. & Malik, K. 2020) and Graphic Novels and Visual Cultures in South Asia (Dudrah, R. & Dawson Varughese, E. 2020).

Saturday, 26 September is the European Day of Languages 2020 and Wednesday, 30 September is International Translation Day 2020 which English PEN is marking with a programme of online events https://www.englishpen.org/posts/events/international-translation-day-2020/

You might also be interested in this Free Thinking conversation about language and belonging featuring Preti Taneja with Guy Gunaratne, Dina Nayeri, Michael Rosen, Momtaza Mehri and Deena Mohamed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07fvbhn

Here is a Free Thinking episode that looks at the language journey of the 29 London bus https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00014qk

Steven Pinker and Will Self explore Language in this episode of Free Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04hysms

Arundhati Roy talks about translation and Professor Nicola McLelland and Vicky Gough of the British Council look at language learning in schools https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b5hk01

BBC Radio 3 - Free Thinking, The impact of being multilingual

Radio 3 - Listen Live - BBC Sounds

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the rebus principle: how the alphabet was invented

The 'rebus principle' is at the heart of all written languages with an alphabet:

The idea that symbols could be used to represent the sounds of a language rather than represent real objects, is known as the rebus principle and is one of the most significant ancient discoveries leading to the development of writing.  Not only did this principle apply to the development of the Ancient Egyptian written language, but it was also the precursor to the development of the alphabets used in modern languages as well.

A rebus is a message spelt out in pictures that represents sounds rather than the things they are pictures of. For example the picture of an eye, a bee, and a leaf can be put together to form the English rebus meaning “I be-lieve”, which has nothing to do with eyes, bees or leaves. Consider the following two examples of rebuses:-

The pictograms   and represent  “I-deer” and form the rebus “idea”.

The pictograms  , , and represent “eye-sea-ewe” and form the rebus “I see you”.

This principle is adopted in many parts of the Ancient Egyptian system of spelling with hieroglyphs.

The Rebus Principle | Egyptology Man

This is very much the same as modern texting:

A rebus-style "escort card" from around 1865, to be read as "May I see you home my dear?"

Rebus - Wikipedia

SMS language - Wikipedia

You can have a lot of fun with it:

Examples of Rebuses

Rebus Puzzles (Pictogram Puzzles)

Rebus Puzzles Brainteasers - Kids Environment Kids Health - National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Here's a very simple video:

Pronouncing pictures! - History of Writing Systems #4 (Rebus writing) - YouTube

And here's something a little more substantial from Prof Handke:

GEN 140 - The Evolution of Writing - YouTube

GEN141 - Modern Writing Systems - YouTube

Here's an interesting idea:

There's a convincing theory that illiterate miners invented the alphabet

How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs · The BAS Library

A new documentary on the BBC looks at how it developed:

From Pictures to Words

The Secret History of WritingSeries 1

 Episode 1 of 3

We take it for granted, but every time we pick up a pen, we are employing the most powerful technology ever invented: the technology of writing. The invention of writing about 5,000 years ago made civilisation itself possible, and every innovation of the modern world is based on the foundation of the written word. But how and where did writing begin, and who began it? In From Pictures to Words, the first of three films about the history of writing, we uncover the hidden links between all the diverse writing systems in use today and trace the origin of our own alphabet to a turquoise mine in the Sinai Desert and a man riding a donkey whose name was Khebded.

Writing is a recent innovation. Our species has existed for about 300,000 years, and for all but the last 5,000 of them, people had to record and transmit vital knowledge without the aid of writing. At the Moon Dreaming site in the Northern Territory of Australia, Yidumduma Bill Harney, an elder of the Aboriginal Wardaman people, explains how Aboriginal culture has been transmitted down the generations orally, without the need to write anything down. So, why did people eventually feel the need to make permanent records in visual form?

According to Irving Finkel, an Assyriologist from the British Museum, it was in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, where the need for record-keeping was first felt. Here, about 5,000 years ago, the Sumerians developed the first city states. The city dwellers depended for their sustenance on taxing the surrounding countryside, and Irving produces a clay tablet from this period that is the distant ancestor of today’s spreadsheet: a grid of boxes ruled into the clay, with symbols that represent numbers, and small stylised pictures that represent commodities, such as an ear of barley. These so-called pictograms would be the basis for the first writing systems, and so we owe writing to the first accountants and tax inspectors.

But the language of accountancy is limited. To represent the full vocabulary of the Sumerian people would require a key conceptual leap, a way to use pictures to represent not things but sounds. This is what Irving dubs the giant leap for mankind, something called the Rebus Principle: the idea is that a picture of an ear of barley can represent barley, but it can also be used to represent the sound of the word barley in Sumerian, which is pronounced ‘sheh’. Thus, the word ‘sheh-ga’, which means ‘beautiful’, can be represented by the pictogram of an ear of barley, followed by the stylised picture of a cow’s udder, which stands for milk, pronounced ‘ga’ in Sumerian.

The Rebus Principle is the key that unlocked writing for all the peoples of the ancient near east. Egyptian hieroglyphs, which developed in the same period, are also based on the same principle. The earliest known complete Egyptian text is found beneath a pyramid near Cairo, inscribed on the walls of the tomb of Pharaoh Teti. The Pyramid Texts are a series of elaborate magic spells, designed to raise Teti to eternal life. Hieroglyphs are indeed magic, because like all writing, while they may not be able raise the dead, they do allow them to speak.

In fact, the Rebus lies behind all the ancient writing systems of the world. The earliest known Chinese writing is found inscribed on bones and turtle shells from 3,500 years ago. Chinese is a picture-based script that uses the Rebus Principle to represent sounds with stylised pictures. The same is true of Mayan glyphs, a writing system that developed in Central America about 2,600 years ago. The similarities between these scripts is striking. Is this evidence of a common root for all writing?

In essence, the Rebus Principle is simply a sort of pun, something that could have occurred to a child. Irving Finkel believes that it was invented many times, as a natural expression of a common human sense of humour! The similarities between ancient writing systems are simply due to the fact that we all share the same human mind.

But today, most people write using alphabets – simple scripts with just a few dozen symbols that seem to have no connection to pictures. Here the story is different, because the alphabet was only invented once. In the company of archaeologist Pierre Tallet, we travel to the Sinai to an ancient Egyptian temple perched high above the desert. This is the place where the cultural exchange between Egyptian scribes and illiterate Canaanite migrant workers created a new kind of script. This script also used the Rebus Principle, but in a radically simpler way, adapting hieroglyphic pictograms to represent the sounds of the Canaanite tongue.

Almost every alphabet in use today, from Arabic to the Latin alphabet, can trace its origins to this script. Our letters do not look like pictures, but in fact in almost every word we write lie hidden the ghosts of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

BBC Four - The Secret History of Writing, Series 1, From Pictures to Words

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