Visd2B36 Vocab

Front 1

Abjad

Back 1

A kind of alphabet in which each symbol stands for a consonant while the reader supplies the approrpiate vowel.

ex) Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic (partial)

Front 2

Achrophonic

Back 2

A pictorial symbol or hieroglyph used to stand for the initial sound of the depicted object.

Front 3

Alphabet

Back 3

A writing system that uses only phoneme, that is basic sounds, to represent language.

Front 4

Bullae

Back 4

Ancient Mesopotamian clay envelope containing tokens representing goods, with the contents written on the outside.

Later replaced by tablets.

Front 5

Canaanites

Back 5

Members of an ancient civilization centred in the north of ancient Canaan, centred along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and the Palestinian territories.

Source of the proto-Semitic alphabet adopted by many: first the Phoenicians, and including the Greeks, then Etruscans, then Roman, leading to its current dominance in the world.

Front 6

Chiaku Wen

Back 6

Bone and shell logographic script, from 1800 BCE to 1200 BCE

First known Chinese writing, which was followed by Chin-Wen, script that was scribed on bronze. Though the Chiaku Wen is the first known Chinese writing, it is so developed that writing almost certainly appeared earlier.

Front 7

Cuneiform

Back 7

Ancient Mesopotamian writing systems.

Cuneiform is used to describe a wide range of scripts originating in the Middle East. The name derived from the triangular styluses that were used to create the forms.

Front 8

Demotic

Back 8

A simpler system of hieroglyphics with more phonetic elements than hieratic or hieroglyphic writing.

Front 9

Determinatives

Back 9

An unpronounced written sign that helps the reader to understand the meaning of a logogram by giving information about the word.

Front 10

Hieratics

Back 10

A cursive writing system used in pharaonic Egypt that developed alongside, and related to, the very formal hieroglyphic system. The word means "priestly writing".

Front 11

Hieroglyphics

Back 11

Ancient writing system in Egypt, meaning "sacred carving" as they are found carved and painted in the tombs of the pharaohs.

Principally ideographic, but have phonetic elements, with the phonetic component increasing over time.

Front 12

Ideograph (or ideogram)

Back 12

A graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept.

Can be a straightforward pictogram (ex. moon for "month") or a more abstract symbol that is comprehensible only on the basis of prior convention.

Front 13

Logograph (or logogram)

Back 13

Written symbol of word or meaning of part of work.

Represents a word or morpheme (the smallest meaningful unit of language). In contrast to phonograms, which represent phonemes (speech sounds) or combinations of phonemes, and determinatives, which mark semantic categories.

Front 14

Manuscript

Back 14

Handwritten document.

Differentiates handwritten script from matter reproduced by other means, such as woodblock printing or the printing press.

Front 15

Oral culture

Back 15

A society that does not have or make use of a writing system.

Oral cultures work well for small groups of people, and small isolated societies seldom adopt writing systems. The idea of fact that cannot be personally perceived is almost indistinguishable from story or myth. All cultures retain aspects of oral culture even though they may have sophisticated writing systems.

Front 16

Phoenicians

Back 16

The Canaaite maritime trading peoples who spread their form of the alphabet around the Mediterranean, thus form the foundation for later forms of the alphabet.

Front 17

Phonogram

Back 17

Symbol that represents a speech sound.

ex) phonetic elements in Egyptian hieroglyphics, syllabaries, alphabets

Front 18

Pictograph

Back 18

Written symbol of object.

Often has meaning beyond the representation of an object, and therefore has ideogrammatic qualities.

Front 19

Script

Back 19

Any type of writing system.

ex) Roman script, Chinese script, Arabic script, etc

Front 20

Sinaitic script

Back 20

Achrophonic adaptation of hieroglyphics originating the Sinai.

Used by Egyptian turquoise miners in the Sinai desert; their exact origin is not know, from c. 15th century BCE

Front 21

Syllabary

Back 21

A system of writing that represents syllables instead of individual phonemes.

Generally needs ore characters than an alphabet, much fewer than an ideographic script.

Front 22

Ugaritic script

Back 22

An alphabet written using cuneiform method, 30 letters.

Includes vowels, from 15th century BCE, found in modern Syria on the Ras Shamra headland.

Front 23

Ascender

Back 23

The part of a letter that sticks up above the height of the small lower case letters.

ex) the top of the "b", "d", "h", or "k"

Front 24

Chancery script

Back 24

A cursive humanist hand that became the model for italic types.

Front 25

Descender

Back 25

The part of a letter that hangs below the baseline letters.

ex) on the "g", "p", "q" and "y"

Front 26

Folio, quarto, octavo

Back 26

Folio (size) - a sheet with one fold to create two page sheets, giving a size like Gutenbergs bible

Quarto - a sheet folded twice to make 4 page sheets (so half the folio size)

Octavo - a sheet folded 3 times to give 8 page sheets (so 16 pages, as each sheet is printed on two sides)

Front 27

Hotspot

Back 27

A dark area on a page caused by a heavy letter or part of letter.

Front 28

Inscriptional capitals

Back 28

Capitals based on the carved capitals which were recognized as the ideal of Roman capitals.

Front 29

Lettera Antica

Back 29

A name humanists gave to their version of combining minuscule and Roman Capitals.

They began by copying the minuscule hand almost exactly, combining it with Roman capitals influenced by Inscriptional Capitals.

Front 30

Matrix

Back 30

A copper bar into which the punch is hammered.

This is put into the bottom of the mould, and then type metal is poured in, each time producing a letter that can be used in the press.

Front 31

Mould

Back 31

The mould holds the matrix.

It is adjustable, so characters of different widths can be used.

Front 32

Punch, Counterpunch

Back 32

Punch - steel form of a character that is hammered into the matrix, which is the mould that forms many copies of that character.

Counterpunch - a hardened piece of steel that is used to form interior shapes, such as the circle in an 'o', by hammering into the punch.

Front 33

Revival

Back 33

A recreation of a typestyle from the past.

ex) The 1920s typeface Bembo is a revival of Griffo's face of ~1500

Front 34

Roman types

Back 34

Typefaces based on the Humanist writing hand, which was based on the Carolingian copies of Greek and Roman manuscripts.

Front 35

Sack of Mainz

Back 35

A 1462 invasion by forces of a German noble that killed many Mainz citizens, and leading to the early printers seeking refuge elsewhere (most notably Venice).

Front 36

Sack of Rome

Back 36

The 1527 Sack of Rome by troops of the Holy Roman Emperor led to instability in Italy (including Venice) and signals the beginning of Parisian dominance of typographic development.

Front 37

Sort

Back 37

The word for a single piece of type.

Front 38

Strike

Back 38

The act of hammering the punch into a copper bar that is placed in the bottom of the mould.