The Spread of Writing: Every Year
The spread of writing from its inception to modern times.
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Notes
• Societies that used coins with writing on them are not included, e.g. pre-Roman Gaul used Greek-style coins
• Mongolian script is still used in Inner Mongolia; not shown as Mongols are a minority there. Mongolia is planning to reintroduce Mongolian script by 2025.
• Nabataean Script dates from the 2nd Century BCE, but is only shown from 1 CE as it was within the low population area
• Minor or controversial scripts not shown: Quipus, Vinča symbols, Nsibidi, Neolithic Chinese symbols, Rongorongo
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Original Map
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Music
Philip Ayes - What We Discovered
Philip Ayes - Critical Thinking
Deskant - Black Bullet
I noticed after exporting there are a couple of animation errors: Belize goes pink for less than a second around 1788, and the Sahara goes grey for a similar amount of time around 1909. Just ignore this. Thanks for watching!
@@papazataklaattiranimam Yes, that's why you don't see a separate colour for Persian.
pogs in the chat
Mistakes or not, I love this videos and wait for them, great job Ollie.
@@OllieBye Is there any chance that up to the year 850 CE 6:22 that you could zoom further in on Eurasia so that Iberia and Morocco are only barely included within the left margin? We can exclude Iceland up to that point and you already include Central America as a separate diagram overlaying Sub-Saharan Africa, which we can certainly exclude up to the 11th Century CE. It's just that in the earlier years, it gets really hard to see the detail and read the words, even on a full screen view on a desktop. There's a whole lot of room in the Atlantic Ocean and Sub-Saharan Africa that we can miss, in order to fit the key in. Thanks.
@@Banana_Split_Cream_Buns It's kind of beyond the point where it can be edited at this point, but thanks for your thoughts.
It's crazy what a massive impact Greek had to the world. Considering Latin and Cyrillic were based on them. Fascinating!
You mean the Semitic Phoenician alphabet?
@@jasonbourne9819 the big difference is that the Greek alphabet is still alive today, 3000 years later
@@jasonbourne9819 Phoenician alphabet is what the Greek alphabet is based on, but it is quite different in a number of ways. Interestingly the original "Greek" script, the Minoan one, that predates both by 1000 years, is still not deciphered.
@@GeorgeDenis. There was also an innovation between the Phoenician abjad and the Greek alphabet, vowels. While between the greek alphabet and the latin/cyrillic alphabets, no such change happened, only phonetic details and how it looks. And to the defense of the ancient Greeks, another big difference is that alphabet was the least of their numerous and various achievements. It's hardly possible to think of an equal during antiquity in terms of mathematics (maybe Babylon ?), science and philosophy. In terms of literature and architecture they were also amongst the top tiers. But granted, regarding their alphabet, and also their knack for colonizing across the seas, they were inspired by the Phoenicians.
I mean, come on, inventing an alphabet is not rocket science. I'm Greek.
The Mongolian script has been co-official in Mongolia again since 2020. They're working on having all official documents in that script available too in 2025
Mongolian Empire 2.0? Hmmm?
@@nightraven2975 It's partially because of the effect of China's repression of ethnic and cultural minorities (which has been getting worse compared to before), especially the Mongol minority living in China's Inner Mongolia province that this triggered Mongolia, the country, into finally doing that 2023/07/16 EDIT: Ya be, it seems I have unexpectedly started a comment war down here with my remarks.... oh well, I have no intention of giving out false info, but i did my best to provide the best info i have with my knowledge. Oh well.... If my information makes you feel uneasy feel free to either confirm/debunk me, but the best way to figure things out for yourself is to do your own research. Research the extremes both sides say and draw your own conclusion. I have my own.... "very strong" opinions on China, and have already made my stance clear to myself, but I do my best to make sure I'm well informed of the truth as closely as possible. Also if you're one of those people who talk rudely on the internet or just troll for the sake of trolling.... you're not going to get anywhere trying to convince me that your words is correct. I have a natural skepticism to strangers I have no relationships with, and have a very strong incentive not to believe anything you say. That applies, whether you're on China's side, or not. Why don’t, you for one, provide actual information debunking me instead of acting like an idiot? (And I address this directly to the toxic nationalistic idiots, the types that would get upset at people for absentmindedly calling Taiwan a country. To my eyes you are no different from the fools whom you claim to "support American imperialism" or support whatever unjustified Western-backed action or whatever anti-Western nonsense you guys complain about.) I impulsively posted a long thread of comments replying to some of y’all, but I may or may not reply back. I’ve been undergoing some severe life changes which includes how I must evaluate how I handle my online presence, and dealing with the idiocy that plagues humanity. But good heavens, many of y'all reek of internet cancer.
@@boaoftheboaians Why you are so brilliant to see that?
@@yufengyue7100 not sure tbh, I just randomly picked it up at some point while following news from China But it might also have to do with the fact that I’m from the Philippines and am someone who actively promotes reviving Baybayin (one of the major Suyat scripts mentioned in the video), so I see Mongolia in a similar situation with us except they’re the ones who are ahead of us in taking action to revive their traditional writing
@@boaoftheboaians Hasn't Inner Mongolia been using the traditional script and preserving it more than Mongolia itself which used Cyrillic? The Mongols of Inner Mongolians are effectively bilingual unlike Mongolians
as a north african, i am proud to see Tifinagh existing in our area for such a long time especially since a lot of people here claim our native culture does not exist and is just an 'extention' of arabic. We can clearly see exactly when arabic was introduced
Arabs love to destroy other people's language cause that's what quoran ask them to do
tell that to those who use the same arguments european colonialism uses to justify their colonialism which is '' oh there was nothing here before us ''.
Exactly
Everything Africa has is because of colonialism. Africans are happy substance farming and living in poverty like their ancestors.
Stil proud of my native language Tamazight
The oldest script from the Indian subcontinent is the one that originated in the Harappan Civilisation, which came into existence around 5000-4500 years ago. It is yet to be deciphered. Early vedic scripts are from 1400-1200 bce
In Tamilnadu, india. We found book called "silapathigaram" 5000 ago with grammatic version.
@@mixxy8953 sangam literature even older than this.. It's a poem and mix of tamil and malayalam
Stop lying and embarassing the whole country Silapathikaram is not 5000 years old @@mixxy8953
@@mixxy8953 sillapathikaram is not 5000 years old it is only 2000 years old its not fully in tamil its in a mix of old tamil and old malayalam dont say wrong
Nah Vedic guys didn't write anything. Brahmi script came after Vedic period was already over and it was used to write Prakrit/ Pali
One questionable element of this video is listing Egyptian Hieroglyphs as a sub-group of Cuneiform. While this was once assumed to be the case simply because they were close together and Cuneiform was older, we have since found Hieroglyphic tags from 3200-3400 BCE at Abydos, pointing to an origin of Hieroglyphs before the development of full cuneiform. Additionally, Egyptian hieroglyphs are stylistically very distinct from Cuneiform, bearing more resemblance to pre-literate Egyptian artwork (much as Cuneiform bears clear connection to Mesopotamia pictographs), so while the concept of writing may have been introduced from Mesopotamia, the signs themselves were almost certainly indigenous to Egypt.
A few additional notes vis-a-vis Africa and writing: 1) I don't know that ancient south Arabian or ge'ez were spread as far south into ancient Ethiopia as is depicted on the map; on the other hand there were many important sites on the Eritrean coast (IE: Adulis, the premier entrepot of the aksumite empire), which bear inscriptions and which should be depicted as "literate". 2) while I don't know what criteria, exactly, are being used to determine "literacy" in an area, there are multiple ancient Greek inscriptions in ports down the coast of Sudan and Eritrea (grace a Ptolemaic trade centered expansion along the red sea). Kosmas Indicopleustes records one of these, also in Adulis, in his Christian Topography. 3) Old Nubian "split" from Coptic, as far as I know, earlier than ~930Ad. 4) again, don't know how you're qualifying "literacy" in a language, but Greek was used for a period in aksum as a trade language, and many inscriptions feature Greek prominently. 5) There is a conspicuous lack of Tiffanigh on this map. The script was used pretty consistently from the ancient era by the Tuaregs in particular, even if in sand and thus non permanent. There are, however, a good amount of funerary inscriptions and devotions of love which survive to the present. 6) there should be some penetration of Arabic onto the Madagascan coast grace a Swahili traders, and Arabic should be spread across the entire Swahili and Somali coast during the medieval period.
@@hiddenhist spot on you mentioned everything i wanted to mention
@@hiddenhist I'm guessing it only counts it if the people themselves use it and its the official language not just traders, I have no clue
I want to also add that Pallava script was used throughout Indonesia, and scripts like Khmer, Kawi, Old Mon, Cham etc evolved from Pallava script. So Pallava should have been shown in Southeast Asia and Tamil Brahmi was different from Brahmi script used elsewhere from the very beginning.
Abydos? So our writing came from the Goa’old?
Remember : many of the writing systems remained in use alongside new, dominant ones. For example, cuneiform is here replaced by arameic around 500 bc, however it was in reality used well into the first century AD. But showing this would make the video a mass.
Yeah maybe it would work if you showed individual areas instead
@@based4560 or over lapping shading?
@@tommy-er6hh that would work but look really messy if there were many of these and there is only a select number of distinguishable colours one can use
Runes were used in Älvdalen until the early 1900’s
Yes, I did consider that, but I was also worried about the video becoming too hard to follow. The approach I used in the end also has drawbacks, but hopefully is understandable at least.
My country ethiopia(ኢትዮጵያ)is the only African nation with it's own alphabet(ፊደል) even after 3000 years of trials and tribulation in the horn of africa and it's surrounding middle-east. Proud to be an 🇪🇹💪
fascinating upload of the stasis and progress of different areas around the world, ranging from centuries to only a few years. Both conquests and trade effected those changes, and subsumed other languages. I love stuff like this 😊
Scripts by Countries (Official+Co-Official) 1) Latin = 148 Countries (133+15) 2) Arabic = 27 Countries (18+9) 3) Cyrillic = 13 Countries (8+5) 4) Indic = 11 Countries (9+2) 5) Sinic = 2 Countries (China+Singapore) 6) Japanese, Korean Hangul, Greek, Armenian, Georgian, Ethiopic, Hebrew = 1 Country each
There is a mistake, cyprus have greek as the main language
Korean hangul has north and south korea. Sinic is three countries, china singapore and taiwan
Ethiopic is 2 countries Ethiopia and Eritrea
Greek is 2 countries Greece and Cyprus
malysia Chinese uses sinic
As Indonesian, we learn 2 writing system and 2 language. 1) National Language with Alfabet Latin 2) Regional Language with Ancient letters are inherited from the ancestors of each region. As for me, I am Madurese. Our letters is called Carakan Madura. Its look like Thai but different.
Bahasa Indonesa is written in Latin letters, that's a fact. Nobody uses ancient letters anymore
I heard you use Arab writing system ❤
@@xavallokiyoSome hobbyist who doesn't want other to read their notes do! Like I am with Hanacaraka and Pégon
Very similar to Balinese and Javanese, with only some minor differences.
I love Indonesia. Salaam from France
I’m so thankful you included Hungarian runes for as little as they could’ve been dominant ❤
I didn't realize how long it took the Japanese to develop writing and it's impressive that the Central Americans developed writing despite being in total isolation from everyone else.
they weren't in isolation they had an entire 2 continents of native cultures to interact with from the Inca, maya, Nahuatl, to the plains of north America
@@Lordkrillin21 What I mean by that is that the spread of ideas and trade didn't happen on the scale as it did in and around Eurasia. Maybe I should have specified.
@@WildsDreams45 Yeah, North and South were conected but its a really narrow space and the climate was really diferent since you had to travel north to south or viceversa, menaing the climate changed far more
They built great cities and pyramids. Meso-American civilisation developed independently and was one of the six main cradles (Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Mayan, Inca)
Japan before influence from China either through Korea or directly was literally dirt country.
8:21 It's interesting that the purple area suddenly appears. Thank you King Sejong for making letters for Koreans.
ᄛ ㅱ ㅸ ㅿ ㆍ
韩语的发明算是一种必然，毕竟中韩口语的语法结构是不一样的。
The invention of Korean is inevitable. After all, the grammatical structure of spoken Chinese and Korean is quite different.
@@HotKimchi-co9vr We still don't know how they were pronounced, right?
@@basura4136 Although the exact pronunciation is still unknown, linguists have agreed upon a rough estimation; ㅸ sounded similar to the V sound in modern English, ㅿ corresponded to Z, and ㆍ sounded similar to ㅓ in modern Korean. Both ㅸ and ㅿ were mainly used to transcribe the gradual weakening of some former ㅂ and ㅅ sounds, which later completely disappeared. e.g. Old Korean Syerapel(徐羅伐; capital of Silla) → Syepel(徐伐) turned into Middle Korean Syevul(셔ᄫᅳᆯ), later becoming Modern Korean Seoul(서울). Similarly, Old Korean Chesem(初叱音) turned into Middle Korean Chezem(처ᅀᅥᆷ), which later became Modern Korean Cheoum(처음).
You forgot about the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah in the 1810's and 1820's. Great video overall!
Very well produced! It's good to see one of your videos again! :)
Very interesting work and professionally animated. I liked Latin letters changing font with time, especially with the invention of typography. (Cyrillic lettrrs and font changed also with time, but as for Latin, it's a detaio and isn't the main purpose of the video).
@Joël We zijn Germanen geen vikingen
hungarian runic 7000 years ego....kzhead.info/sun/dMaupqmfhWukbI0/bejne.html
Love how well the areas of high population density match with the borders of the major civilizations and empires as well as their natural paths of expansion. That alone tells pretty much the entire story of the spread of cultures, ideas, religions and technologies that makes the world we live in today. And on top of it all the animation is smooth as butter
Unsurprisingly before the explosion of modern technology, humans were pretty picky when it comes to habitable terrain. good weather, reasonable temperature, arable soil, reliable water source, etc.
Think about how would you make this video yourself. You probably would draw lines around borders of known civilizations and empires, right?
Hello ! May Allah protect and guide you to his light and happiness in this life and the hereafter, God bless, Ameen. Excuse me for giving a little presentation of Islam, because it is very misunderstood nowadays, especially on those « Antichrist's » times, where media and politics are mixed to distort history and truth. And terrorists (puppets of the Antichrist) who misinterpret verses, out of ignorance and political motivations, and take them out of historical context (just like radical atheists do by the way), don't help either. Thank you very much for your time. Islam is an arabic word that means the Surrender to the One and Only God, our Creator, Protector, Provider, who gives us life and all that we have, we are safe and sound by his will and grace, we are His and to Him we return, and we have to thank him in this trial life by submitting to him by our free will, or later in the Day of judgment when it's too late to save our own skin. Islam was the original Religion descended to earth from heaven with Adam and Eve (peace and blessing be upon them) in the beginning of humanity. and was passed to people with the succession of the 124 000 prophets and 315 messengers of God to all nations and civilizations since, passing by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ismaël, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon and Jesus (Peace and blessing be upon them) during the history of mankind, the last replaces and completes the previous, until the succession of the last messenger of God fourteen centuries ago, Muhammad (Peace and blessing be upon him) to complete the noble morals of all mankind, to bring humans and jinns out of darkness into light, and to purify people's religion and belief from corruption and polytheism, and return it to purity and true monotheism, like it was in the times of the prophets (Peace and blessing be upon them). Many Religions that we know nowadays, at their beginning were true and under Islam, initiated by one of the prophets of God, but their original teachings, history and scriptures have been corrupted over time with falsification and polytheism, or lost and replaced with false ones. That's why Islam is the only Religion accepted by God nowadays, which consists in bearing witness that there is no god besides Allah (God in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus and the Gospel), and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, just like Jesus and Moses and others are His servants and messengers. Never a messenger of God said he was God or literally son of God, it was the people after him who changed the words of God and corrupted the Religion. God is unique and absolute, He does not need to have a family and sons or to associate anyone else with His kingdom, He can simply create whatever He wants, everything belongs to Him, and to Him everything will return. Allah said in Surah Al-Mu’minun : “God has never begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him. Otherwise, each god would have taken away what it has created, and some of them would have gained supremacy over others. Glory be to God, far beyond what they describe. The Knower of the hidden and the manifest. He is exalted, far above what they associate. (91-92 / Translated by ITANI). Allah means the one and only God, the God of all prophets and creatures, the creator of the universe and mankind, and the Master of the Day of judgment, where our destiny, Hell or Paradise, is decided based on our faith and deeds in this trial life, and above all, Allah's mercy. Allah said in Surah Al-Ikhlas : In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. Say, “He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none comparable to Him.” (1-4 / Translated by ITANI). Allah said in Surah An-Nisa : O FOLLOWERS of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God's Apostle - [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary - and a soul created by Him. Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, "[God is] a trinity". Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son: unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God. Never did the Christ feel too proud to be God's servant, nor do the angels who are near unto Him. And those who feel too proud to serve Him and glory in their arrogance [should know that on Judgment Day] He will gather them all unto Himself: (171-172 / Translated by Muhammad Asad). Allah the Most Merciful said in Surah Ali-Imran : Behold, the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him; and those who were vouchsafed revelation aforetime took, out of mutual jealousy, to divergent views [on this point] only after knowledge [thereof] had come unto them. But as for him who denies the truth of God's messages - behold, God is swift in reckoning! Thus, [O Prophet,] if they argue with thee, say, "I have surrendered my whole being unto God, and [so have] all who follow me!" - and ask those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime, as well as all unlettered people, "Have you [too] surrendered yourselves unto Him?" And if they surrender themselves unto Him, they are on the right path; but if they turn away - behold, thy duty is no more than to deliver the message: for God sees all that is in [the hearts of] His creatures. Verily, as for those who deny the truth of God's messages, and slay the prophets against all right, and slay people who enjoin equity - announce unto them a grievous chastisement. It is they whose works shall come to nought both in this world and in the life to come; and they shall have none to succour them. (19-22 / Translated by Muhammad Asad).. Salam (Peace) ----------
Yes when a society becomes larger and larger and more complex it needs writing for e.g. taxes bill loans relegion
@@maktiki Yes, from the beginning of antiquity you will find out more quickly how many cows an average person had than about the system of the state in which he lived. Taxes first.
We’re here since 3500 years and we will also stay here -some Greek guy
This video is extremely impressive! While it is missing quite a few important writing systems, it is still amazing, especially with how accurate it is with the distributions of the writing systems that this video is not missing. It must have taken ages to research and animate this video! I hope that in the future an updated version of this video that is not missing any writing systems will be created, but until that happens this video is more than enough to suffice! The effort you must have put into this video brings tears to my eyes!
yeah though tbh I'm a bit disappointed the map doesn't show the new native american scripts and african scripts which have popped up recently. We're in a golden age for new writing systems and the video completely misses that.
lol those are hardly writing systems, nobody cares about 3 tribes who painted clay on the walls, were talking about things that matter here @@doigt6590
@@doigt6590 I think it's because it only shows the ones that are predominant. That would also explain why nu-Tifinagh is not shown despite being very very relevant in Algeria Basically this video really needs hatches. and I also wish it went into more detail with Chinese scripts but I guess documentation is lacking
@@abarette_ it shows a couple of non predominant ones too, but even if that was the case, it should say so otherwise we are lead to believe that the video is going to be exhaustive when it isn't.
@@doigt6590No it doesnt, those scripts are not official or even widely used
You even documented the demise of the Aral Sea! I saw that, and was duly impressed!
Ah, but you missed Lake Chad, which has gone through a similarly horrible demise. But heck, this is about written language, yet, these details aid in understanding how and why language migrates. Good on you!
It makes sense. That area went from "fish" to Cyrillic :)
timestamp?
@@intolerablescamp1436 the fishes in pacific ocean communicate in the auszronesian pacific islander language. Like that: Humbakaka Humba bunga!
@@shauryasaxena13 10-25
Bravo to Armenian and Georgian for keeping track of their writings from 400 to now ! More than 1500 years wow!!!
Thank u 🇬🇪🇬🇪🇬🇪
I think there's been a mistake Because Georgian was created in BC, not CE. But I couldn't Agree with you more 🇬🇪
This video os incorrect. Georgian writing was in use since 7 bc , it is earlier than armenian in this video it’s other way around…
@@demetrenikabadze5468 No the video is based on FACTS. There is no scientific edvidence that georgian script existed back to 7 BC. It`s just your story about king Parnavas, but we armenians have similar stories aboout existence of alphabet before Mashtots. But the facts are cruel and today the first scripts for both armenian and georgian track back to 5 centuary AC. (BTW I believe that our nations had alphabets before christianity)
@@georgeevernight2814 1. I am not devaluing armenian culture i am georgian we share a lot of shit we are like brothers kind of… 2. Oldest armenian surviving documents are dated from 9th-10th century but at that point it was fully developed, since it takes time to develop grammar and shit it is agreed that they had it from at least 5-6 countries 3. Oldest georgian surviving script os dated at 5 th century but was already fully developed -> applied same logic as to armenian or any other writing and it is agreed that it should have been developed far earlier so about 7 bc is agreed since it corespondens with history too It is not a competition… we used greek for w long time and to this day have a lot of greek words :) my point was about accuracy of video not about devaluing other cultures !
Wow. This must have taken a long time. I like the detail that how over time the writing style of some writing systems, such as the Latin and Greek scripts, changes.
This has to be one of the most fascinating videos I've ever seen. It's a venn diagram of various interests in history, language/culture, and geography. One minor point: while mainland China switched to the Simplified script, Taiwan kept the Traditional script.
This is a very high quality video showing the evolution of written language over time. I can't even begin to imagine how much time and effort went into this. Thank you
I've noticed one detail besides the written language evolution itself: Aral Sea shrank in the 2010s.
Bro he even shown the Aral sea shrunk at the end 😭
fake history
You just ask few old profesional historians, they'll tell you the dates and regions and than just make a video for it. Its one day job at max.
@@ps4games164 Make one on languages, I'm expecting it on your channel tomorrow smart guy
Imagine the hard work behind this!
No hard work only practice
I could watch these all day.. TY brother
Fantastic detailed work, thank you
Its incredible how early and how vastly varied writing systems developed in India.
Check a map, India is a big place with many diverse cultures, it's rather unsurprising really.
@@AwesomeAsh99 Diversity came along with time new philosophies different from Vedics arose, but still they are united because of dharmik practices.
@@AwesomeAsh99 Actually India is smaller than China, America, Europe, central Africa etc - yet linguistically it is far far more diverse. It is indeed surprising that so many different writing systems would continue to develop in an area which already had established writing systems.
@@iaf010 Many Religions, Many Local Empires that's why Many Writing Scripts and hence Many Languages
it is a good thing for the cultural diversity, but a disadvantage for standardization, if all indians use a same offcial writting system, it could have become the 7th official language for United Nations,
Hangul, while being created in the 15th century, only became widely used in Korea after Korean independence from Japan, Hanja remained the main writing system in use all throughout the Joseon period. Good video nonetheless!
Although not used in formal occasions, Hangul was widely used in the Joseon dynasty among women and the lower class. There are also evidence of Hangul being widely used among royals and aristocrats. Hendrick Hamel, a Dutch merchant that lived in Korea for over a decade recorded that Koreans use three types of writing system, including Hangul. Also, King Sukjong wrote to his relatives using Hangul.
That's like not acknowledging medieval French as the alphabet system as the widely used one in France because the medieval French highclass used Vulgar Latin instead.
While the transition certainly was not as quick as shown in this video, it was widely used by the lower class and sometimes even by kings. The first issue of The Independent (Korea's first modern newspaper, founded in 1896) was written in Hangul, and explains that this was done so that anyone, regardless of background, could read it. This suggests that Hangul was mainstream by the end of Joseon.
Japanese encouraged Hangul usage
@@fisheye9559 That's outright false. Have you ever read anything about Sōshi-kaimei(forced usage of Japanese alphabet names).
Tifinagh still exists to this day. There is currently a significant increase in support for the Amazigh language to be studied into school curricula. Morocco has already officially recognized the language as the second official language after Arabic in 2011. Approximately 30% of kindergartens in Morocco have begun teaching the language, with expectations of reaching 50% by 2026 without forgeting that almost 50% of the population in Morocco know how to speaks the amazigh language , but they dont know how to write it in tifinagh script , that almost looks similar to the Greek script
Do you mean that half of the Berbers do not know how to write their language, right? Because the percentage of speakers does not exceed 30%
Its more than than 80% of Amazigh in Morocco they dont know how to write with Tifinagh Script , But speaker are between 35% and 60% some of them natively , Even you if you are Moroccan you already speaks 20% of the language vocabulary and accent
@@Sceptrumy What is this exaggeration? There are only about twenty words. As for the Moroccan dialect, it is a mixture of classical Arabic, French, and Spanish. The dialect is even closer to classical Arabic. I think the opposite is true, because Berber is the one in which all modern and contemporary vocabulary is taken from Arabic. I am a Moroccan from the city of Fez. Just so you know, I did the genetic analysis(J;74%) because you like to challenge lineages🙄
@@user-gs7xq6lm8f It seems like you are proud of your Arab heritage. That's cool but being Arab doesn't mean you are better than anyone else + Moroccan Darija is influenced by the Amazigh language, especially in how people talk and pronounce words. When you say I did the genetic analysis (Middle East DNA), it feels like you are not Moroccan anymore like an invader who came from Middle East if i was you i wont be proud of it , Sorry never mind, but you should know tamazigh languages are actually older than Arabic. And yaay it is official language in Morocco. Some public schools are already start teaching it from 2017 , I hope by 2050 everyone in Morocco will be speaking it fluente. 3wacher Mabrok khoya Arabi maghribi
@@Sceptrumy It's strange what you say when someone says I'm better than anyone else.???? Secondly, I am Moroccan of Middle Eastern origins. I did not say I am Middle Eastern, even though Berbers have Eastern European origins. As for dialect, the fact that you do not know Arabic is what made you think that it is influenced by your language. If you are proficient in Arabic, you will know the Arabic dialect closest to classical Arabic. There is no influence that you need to mention or teach people about at all, some twenty words and nothing more. The influence of the Latin languages on classical Arabic in contemporary times is even more than the influence of one or two words from your language, and most likely they are names of vegetables that were not present among the Arabs and animals that were not in the peninsula, so it is natural for them to call them by the names of those who know them. As for pronunciation, it is completely different. The reason we pronounce it this way is because we wanted to use melodious Arabic, which is why there are many sukoons in it. On the contrary, your language is influenced by Arabic. If I automatically turn on the Tamazight channel now, I'm sure it won't be two minutes before I hear an Arabic word. As for teaching your language, I assure you that it is completely ineffective. All members of my family study in private schools where it is not taught at all, and even in public schools there are professors who understand, and I know them, who do not do anything in the Berber class because it will not benefit the student in any way, and teaching it is a waste of time. Arabic is our mother tongue and the language of the Qur’an, religion and Islam. French is a language imposed on us because of colonialism. English is the language of science. I do not find a final reason why we are ignorant. We study a language that has nothing to do with us. I am speaking about non-Berber speakers. As for you, you can do as the Kurds did, which is to teach your language only in your regions. Despite what you said in the end, I bring tears to my eyes because I see how 12 centuries of coexistence between Arabs and Berbers was lost because of a few thousand electronic flies.
wow this is amazing! I have to binge every video on this channel probably. So much knowledge so quickly! Very productive learning approach!
2:25 - Alexander the Great starts his campaign of conquests 2:40 - 2:45 First Punic War 2:49 - 2:53 Second Punic War 3:20 - Here comes Caesar and the Gallic wars 5:40 - After the Prophet's death the first Caliphate expands from Persia to Morocco 8:35 - Portugal and Spain begin their colonial expansion 8:41 - Hernán Cortés conquest of the Aztec Empire and his tributaries 8:44 - Francisco Pizarro conquest of the Incan Empire 8:59 - First stable french and british colonies in North América 9:02 - The Russian Empire pushes eastward into Siberia and reaches the Pacific Ocean 10:02 -The Scramble for Africa 10:12 - Atatürk reforms include the adoption of a latin based Turkish language I'm sure i passed over some important events, but that's all the remarkable events that changed language comes to my mind. I'm consious that my history knowledge is pretty Eurocentric.
1066 the Norman Conquest of England and the beginning of middle English.
10:11 - Armenian Genocide
@@arro2546 Damn that's a scary sight
6:08-charlamagne's conquest and christinization on the germanic pagans 6:25-byzantine monks saints saint cyril and methodius develop the first slavic script, the glagolitic in great moravia 6:33-the bulgarian empire develops cyrillic as a result of great moravia expelling the disciples of saint cyril and methodius 6:50- christinization of kievan rus I think those are pretty important too Not to mention your medieval section is very empty
@@arro2546 a beautiful lie
What a great animation. I am 70 and thought that I knew something about world history. Your video really set me straight. Thank you.
Very nice video, it definitely gives a better insight of how writing spread across the world than just reading about it or by static images. Now if only it could be accompanied by a timeline describing key moments of why a writing system spread over other regions...
I really love this style of maps, plus showing indus script as writing even though it isn't deciphered means that u made a very good research
This was really cool to see! especially with how different civilizations use such scripts and spread them over time.
I love the Aral Sea detail at the end
As a Croatian I am very proud of our glagollitic history. Its beautiful. Bašćanska ploča is just something else. Everyone should learn glagollitic.
Hello I'm Russian, there was a attempt to use glagolitic (on Russian it's called glagolitsa) in Rus'.
Ⰶⱁⰲⱁⰸⰰ Ⰳⰴⰰⰳⱆⰴⱁⱌⰰ
@@debian1500 thats it name yes cyrlic is based on it
Fantastic video. Very educational. One thing worth noting is that East Asian scripts such as Hangul were typically written vertically until the introduction of the Latin left-to-right format used in books. I just noticed that stylistic transformations were accounted for for some other scripts. Thank you for sharing knowledge!
Thank you for including Ge'ez it's one of the only native alphabets still in use in Africa and has been in use in ethiopia for thousands of years, merotic was also used before but after combing native cushitic language with elements of Semitic language we got Ge'ez! It's also the language of the Ethiopian Tewahedo church, Ethiopia being one of the first Christian countries in the world.
Ethiopian Christians believe in Tawheed? As in one God, rather than the trinity?
It evolved front sebean alphabet from Yemen habesha where In Yemen before they entered horn of Africa sebean is influenced by both Egypt alphabet and Greek the same Greek that converted Ethiopia to Christianity but building church.
Their painting in Yemen every writing, pagan statue the same one but older excist with habesha painting saying saba Queen of South.
@@aboyaq7259 Is Jesus God?
@ICTOAN☦️ That is very illogical to me my brother. That is all.
Excellent work, very well done.
The late bloom of the Cree writing system in Canada is pretty cool. Depending on the sources, the writing system is attributed to either James Evans in Manitoba or Mistanâkôwêw in Saskatchewan. Today nearly 100 000 people speak and write Cree.
Why It coloured same as tibetian? and it also classified with tibetian. I know these have no relationship. Is this just error?
Im not sure why its on the map tho because more canadians speak english and french tho so surely it should be latin
@@namename3130 This is true for most provinces but in the northern territories and northern Quebec (where it shows on the map), majority of the population is Native, and at least some of them use the Cree writing system (or have used it in the past) along with the Latin alphabet. Might not be *that* widespread though, I'm not an expert. Its use has definitely been decreasing in the last couple of decades - spoken Cree too, I think, in favor of English.
@@namename3130 its because canada is a leftist dystopia
@@humonculeverotostre6804 It's standard for most varieties of Inuktitut in Nunavut, Nunatsiaq (Northern Quebec) and, unless I'm mistaken, in Labrador as well. It's also widely used in a "western" version, with special diacritics for final consonants rather than simple superscript ‹Ca› letters, alongside Standard Roman Orthography (SRO) for Plains (y-dialect) and Woods (th-dialect) Cree in the Prairie provinces, and in Moose and Swampy Cree in northern Manitoba and Ontario, as well as for James Bay Cree in an eastern version more similar to that used for Inuktitut.
I liked that you showed the shift in fonts in Latin, however, I would have demonstrated the longevity of Fraktur in Germany compared to its neighbors. Fraktur was probably the main font for German until the 18th or 19th century.
Didn't Fraktur get used all the way until WWII, even as part of the Nazi propaganda?
@@LucarioBoricua Yes, certainly, it is even maintained today on some street signs, decorative writing, etc. Unfortunately, after initially supporting Fraktur quite extensively, the Nazis banned the script because they thought it came from Hebrew, and the contemporary German left also dislikes it for being traditional. Thus WW2 was tragically the script's last major period of use.
@@Livinivs well I think it's good to have a more universally understandable writing system
@@eVill420 But it makes pre-1945 literature more or less ilegible for the average german.
@@Aligartornator13 I can easily read handwriting of US or Western European people where thay write every letter straight and separate from others, but found it's difficult for them to read a Polish handwriting where we connect all letters in one word and write with cursive, also adding more tails and rounds to the letters.
Writing is an incredible invention. We really do take for granted the idea of being able to communicate such complicated ideas, the fact that it was only invented a handful of times throughout human history, that many civilizations couldn't even conceptualize what writing was! Not to mention calligraphy, and the art of masterful word weaving as Shakespeare once did. A fossil of a living language, forever immortalized and trapped in time. Truly incredible and endlessly fascinating.
It's actually what wizards and the Egyptian priests were using. Magic was literacy.
Personally i believe, because i have no evidence of it, humans were capable of inventing written language whenever the need for it arrived. So as population grew and the need for keeping record - language was found there. The need for a written language seems very low if we are talking tribes of 50-200 people. Also with all the cave paintings all around the world (not in a singular location), it shows we are pretty creative and in the end if you are creative enough yourself, you could probably invent your own language without any influence from previous writings.
@@Munchausenification You bring up a good point! Tons of societies created what could be called a system of "proto-writing" to record information. What makes them different from true writing is that they are not sophisticated enough to communicate complicated ideas.
@@noaht6338 oh thats very cool, i have to read about these proto-writings later. Always nice to learn something new
Only English native speakers cares about Shakespeare 🥱
Pretty interesting that 5 of the 6 major script families of 1 CE survived up to today (most of which remained the largest used scripts too).
This was one of the best videos I've seen you produce. The amount of research you must do to make this is staggering to imagine! I have only two suggestions for SE Asia: 1. Hinduism (and the related written language) made a big push into almost all of SE Asia starting from 290 BC. The ancient settlement Oc Eo on the Mekong Delta has produced artifacts such as Roman coins and Sanskrit steles. 2. A very minor point, but the earliest Chamic inscriptions (on the coast of central vietnam) go back to the some time during the 4th century: the Đông Yên Châu Inscription. There is some argument as to whether it was Chamic or Old Malay, but it was undoubtedly written in Sanskrit.
Several things you have missed in SE Asia is that there were Pallava in used before the invention of Old Khmer. Plus, there also Old Mon used along the western part of the mainland SEA; which later developed into Burmese and Mon and influenced together with Old/middle Khmer to be Tai script family(Sukhothai, Lanna, Lao, Taiyai, etc.) Not to mentioned about the used of script that scholars called Post-Pallava Script that is being used during the transition of Pallava and Old Mon and Old Khmer for 2-3 century.
He said only areas with high population would be shown, showing every single language would clutter the map.
@@tetraxis3011 This video unfortunately creates the impression that a lot of areas that did have writing didn't though. The framing of the video should be entirely different if they're going to decide not to include a bunch of writing systems that were around.
Jawi still exists and is still taught in Malaysia (though it isn't really used much in the more populated areas). Jawi is most prominent in Kelantan, where alot of the signs are primarily in Jawi.
Exactly! ❤ from Thailand 🇹🇭
@@1000g2g3g4g800999 this video has a very Eurocentric perspective
This is a really professional and in detail map! This is a lot of information packed into one video, amazing job!
The nordic runes are totally missing...
Wonderful way to show the spread of literacy, which of course, reflects the spread of civilizations (by that, I simply mean urban life, don’t shoot fire arrows at me, anyone, please). Thank you this must have required a ton of work. It’s excellent!
Lmfao i mean without writing much of what we do would've been impossible to achieve or replicate 😂 so youre not wrong its just an important part of what makes or breaks a civilization
Chinese writing system is called Hanzi, not hanja or kanji. Each type of script has its own name. Jiaguwen, zhuanshu, lishu, kaishu. Chinese deserves its own name for the proper nouns!
Loved everything about this vid, including the color scheme and the music. Just a phenomenal job. I'll be showing this (with credit) in my linguistics classes.
Hello ! May Allah protect and guide you to his light and happiness in this life and the hereafter, God bless, Ameen. Excuse me for giving a little presentation of Islam, because it is very misunderstood nowadays, especially on those « Antichrist's » times, where media and politics are mixed to distort history and truth. And terrorists (puppets of the Antichrist) who misinterpret verses, out of ignorance and political motivations, and take them out of historical context (just like radical atheists do by the way), don't help either. Thank you very much for your time. Islam is an arabic word that means the Surrender to the One and Only God, our Creator, Protector, Provider, who gives us life and all that we have, we are safe and sound by his will and grace, we are His and to Him we return, and we have to thank him in this trial life by submitting to him by our free will, or later in the Day of judgment when it's too late to save our own skin. Islam was the original Religion descended to earth from heaven with Adam and Eve (peace and blessing be upon them) in the beginning of humanity. and was passed to people with the succession of the 124 000 prophets and 315 messengers of God to all nations and civilizations since, passing by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ismaël, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon and Jesus (Peace and blessing be upon them) during the history of mankind, the last replaces and completes the previous, until the succession of the last messenger of God fourteen centuries ago, Muhammad (Peace and blessing be upon him) to complete the noble morals of all mankind, to bring humans and jinns out of darkness into light, and to purify people's religion and belief from corruption and polytheism, and return it to purity and true monotheism, like it was in the times of the prophets (Peace and blessing be upon them). Many Religions that we know nowadays, at their beginning were true and under Islam, initiated by one of the prophets of God, but their original teachings, history and scriptures have been corrupted over time with falsification and polytheism, or lost and replaced with false ones. That's why Islam is the only Religion accepted by God nowadays, which consists in bearing witness that there is no god besides Allah (God in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus and the Gospel), and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, just like Jesus and Moses and others are His servants and messengers. Never a messenger of God said he was God or literally son of God, it was the people after him who changed the words of God and corrupted the Religion. God is unique and absolute, He does not need to have a family and sons or to associate anyone else with His kingdom, He can simply create whatever He wants, everything belongs to Him, and to Him everything will return. Allah said in Surah Al-Mu’minun : “God has never begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him. Otherwise, each god would have taken away what it has created, and some of them would have gained supremacy over others. Glory be to God, far beyond what they describe. The Knower of the hidden and the manifest. He is exalted, far above what they associate. (91-92 / Translated by ITANI). Allah means the one and only God, the God of all prophets and creatures, the creator of the universe and mankind, and the Master of the Day of judgment, where our destiny, Hell or Paradise, is decided based on our faith and deeds in this trial life, and above all, Allah's mercy. Allah said in Surah Al-Ikhlas : In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. Say, “He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none comparable to Him.” (1-4 / Translated by ITANI). Allah said in Surah An-Nisa : O FOLLOWERS of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God's Apostle - [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary - and a soul created by Him. Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, "[God is] a trinity". Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son: unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God. Never did the Christ feel too proud to be God's servant, nor do the angels who are near unto Him. And those who feel too proud to serve Him and glory in their arrogance [should know that on Judgment Day] He will gather them all unto Himself: (171-172 / Translated by Muhammad Asad). Allah the Most Merciful said in Surah Ali-Imran : Behold, the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him; and those who were vouchsafed revelation aforetime took, out of mutual jealousy, to divergent views [on this point] only after knowledge [thereof] had come unto them. But as for him who denies the truth of God's messages - behold, God is swift in reckoning! Thus, [O Prophet,] if they argue with thee, say, "I have surrendered my whole being unto God, and [so have] all who follow me!" - and ask those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime, as well as all unlettered people, "Have you [too] surrendered yourselves unto Him?" And if they surrender themselves unto Him, they are on the right path; but if they turn away - behold, thy duty is no more than to deliver the message: for God sees all that is in [the hearts of] His creatures. Verily, as for those who deny the truth of God's messages, and slay the prophets against all right, and slay people who enjoin equity - announce unto them a grievous chastisement. It is they whose works shall come to nought both in this world and in the life to come; and they shall have none to succour them. (19-22 / Translated by Muhammad Asad).. Salam (Peace) ----------
I enjoyed the music also!
@@islamisthetruewaytogod6812who asked for that, why are you pushing your nonsense to others, just stop please
You should've included the N'ko script from Mali and Guinea, because it has been gained almost standard usage for the languages of southern Mali and Guinea. Also Tiffinagh, which is used officially in Morocco, and less so in Algeria. Also Cherokee, in the Cherokee nations, or Yi script in China. You could also have represented the historical scripts Tangut, Jurchen, Khitan.
Just see my comment. I am not a scientist. But notice what I see.... - other african syllabic alphabets and hieroglyphes...
I feel like the Gicandi (which was created allegedly around 3,000 BC), Lusona (About the 1st century BC. It’s more ideographic but it’s so interesting I just had to add it), Nsibidi (Anywhere from 2,000 BC and 400 AD) and Vai (Some time after the 6th century BC but WELL before any year in the AD range) scripts could’ve been covered. Also just to let you know if you search up the Vai Script it’ll say it was invented around the 19th century but that’s actually false. Maurice Delafosse was a French Scholar who lived in Africa talked with many native people who wrote in Vai who said the script was actually ancient. He of course didn’t believe this and did some searching around. He came upon inscriptions and it turns out that they were right. Vai was actually much older than originally thought. I believe it has a connection with either the Libyco-Berber or Proto Saharan script I can’t remember. If you google his name it’ll pop up. Libyco-Berber (which came about in the 1st Millenium BC) probably should’ve been mentioned aswell. African history outside of the Nile is VERY underestimated/overlooked.
@@HiddenPulse04 Hello. Thanks. I think Vai has to be compared to the Kromanti and other systems employed by some Marroons ( both Nengue and Saramakka ) in Suriname. 45 years ago I saw the Vai, and 15 years ago the Kromanti, and I thougth immediately it is the same... If "officially" it has the same pretention as being discoverder thanks a dream end 19th century... one did say me it wasn't true, it came from Liberia...confirming what I was thinking. Adyaki Basiton Benti should have been an African, first enslaved in Jamaica, where he learned to write a few english . Later sold in Suriname, became he a main leader of the Nengue-rebels and developped a strategy to inforce an agreement according freedom to his allies. I suppose that they did remain some connections and that those having the secret decided to make it known ( opposed to the "idea" that " whites only did know to write" ........Question of self-esteem necessary for mental freedom....°. But I forgot the name of ... Vai... And couldn't find it back.... Thank you very much.
@@HiddenPulse04 Could you source the inscriptions on Vai he found ? I wasn't able to find any . also ancient to us might have a different meaning to them , as time is procieved different To us Ancient typically means thousands of years back while to them it could mean 50 -40 years .
I've been to Sichuan China, I saw a different writing like almost sign in the street they used it and have a translation of Chinese character in bottom. I was thinking how they learn it. It's so crazy
All the other compliments aside, nice choice of music!
In fact, many primitive tribes, such as Gauls in France and Thracians in Balkan, adopted scripts based on Greek letters. Although these words are usually short inscriptions, I don't know whether they are included in what you said.
In the Romanian teritory as well, but they are not included on the vid
First you do history if the world, know you do history of writing. There is simply no excuse to not subscribe. Congrats, dude, you earned a sub and I have to say you definitely deserve it :)
Love your vids man. Love how Greek influenced so much.
Amazing achievement. Well done! I don't know if this a correction but pre-Assyrian Empire Hebrew-Canaanite-Phoenician didn't yet use Aramaic/Squared Aramaic script, but used paleo-Hebrew letters. Possibly that's what you mean by Sinaiatic.
Poor old New Zealand.
The high density population areas going dark gray in the Americas hit unexpectedly hard
I can't imagine the work that must have taken. This is awesome ! Thank you !
I’m a little confused about the Cree on here. I looked it up and it’s pretty fascinating. A writing system derived by a missionary inspired by the Cherokee system invented by Sequoyah, but unrelated to it. Neat! I’m a bit confused by its representation in the map, though, since, AFAIC only maybe 120,000 people speak it, not all of them can read and write it, and most of them use English or French and the Latin alphabet most of the time. I’m not dissing the accomplishment, it’s amazing, and I wish the Cherokee had that kind of success, but the way it’s depicted on the map confuses me
because it's revisionist apologia (somehow) derived from white guilt over genocide you would be right to dismiss the so called """cree""" script given that it has little basis given the incomplete and decayed structure of the cree language or languages, even while ignoring that the script was invented by whites in the first place
@@brendon1689 please do go on! I’d like to know more. I know for instance that most American Indian languages (540 or so documented) are extinct, and most of the remaining ones are critically endangered, with very few native speakers of anything left, and even the languages that are still frequently spoken have a heavy overlay of English, much smaller vocabularies than in olden times, and are in pretty bad shape. For instace, when they shot Dances with Wolves they decided all the Sioux dialog would be in Lakota only to discover that barely an Lakota spoke barely any Sioux, and that was kind of on a limited level. So they ended up hiring linguists from some universities who studied native languages, and had them teach Lakota to the Sioux for the movie. This led to a mini renaissance in the language, with a lot of them learning it, but I don’t know if it lasted.
@@brendon1689 It is quite widely used, especially among Cree who have continued to use and pass down the language through the generations as their first language. Younger generations, especially in the western provinces, may tend to use Standard Roman Orthography (SRO), but that is if they already know the language well enough. Syllabics are generally felt to be the most authentic means of writing the language, to the extent that a widespread legend has come into being some time during the past several decades whereby it was "given" to a chief named Calling Badger (English version of his name) in a dream. I'm not sure what you mean by "incomplete and decayed structure of the cree language or languages". Cree (in its various regional forms) has a complex and highly developed structure, a "polysynthetic" type quite different from what we're used to in most languages of western Eurasia and Africa, including a distinction between primary and secondary third persons and "direct" versus "inverse" verb marking to indicate who is subject versus object rather than specific subject and object markers or case markers as in most other languages of the world.
For anyone who wants to learn about Sudanese Ancient and Medieval Kingdoms :- Ancient Periods: Upper Paleolithic - 30,000 BCE (A group) Pre-Kerma - 3900 BCE Kerma - 2500 BCE Kush - 1070 BCE Medieval Periods: Kingdom of Alwa - 357 AD Kingdom. of Nobatia - 400 AD Kingdom of Makuria - 501 AD Kingdom of Fur: 571 AD All the medieval kingdoms mentioned above existed all at the same time and were aware of each other.
What an impressive and engrossing overview of this spread... imagine the effort taken to make it
fantastic video because it not only explains from a historical point of view the evolution of writing, but also for the various conquests, that made the scriptures come, that have made them standard in parts of the world. keep publishing these phenomenal videos because they teach me so much, history is not forgotten, because as the ancient Romans said: VERBA VOLANT SCRIPTA MANENT = the words fly but the written remains forever ✍🏼❤
No Rapa Nui writing system?
El mapa no incluye las islas del Pacífico.
@@andonibisama5080 oh ok
es el Aradir :0
Ostras no me esperaba para nada al Aradir comentando en este video.
This video is amazing, pure history!
God, I’ve been looking for a video like this for years. Writing timelines are so confusing without a visual representation. Thank you so much for this!
I can't really speak for the rest of India because I am just a specialist in Nepalese scripts, but Devanagari really doesn't take hold in Nepal until the introduction of print in the 20th century. Before then people write in Pracalit, and sacred texts are often rendered in Ranjana.
A lot of this video seems to be just prettily animated guesswork
Bro he has no idea of scripts used in indian subcontinent, funny how he simply misses out major old scripts of india and simply terms them all as devnagari which is like a much younger script. In bihar alone there were like 4-5 different scripts in use untill last century, of which 3 still remain, namely, devnagari, tirhuta and kaithi.
@@adityadraws9535 You're right. South Asia in general is really the most diverse and rich in terms of the history and variety of scripts, and it's all glossed over with devanagari. Feels kind of colonial to me.
@@ShakuShingan not exactly colonial....its more like fault of our own leaders in past who failed to promote their own regional scripts and ended up using devnagari. No one forced devnagari except our own local leaders, coming from bihar, a state that has 5+ distinct languages and 3+ scripts (originally) i know what it feels like. My native language maithili had a script of its own called "tirhuta", just like bhojpuri has "kaithi", but the bihar govt ignored all of them and imposed adopted devnagari for some reason. Tirhuta is Still pretty much alive thanks to the maithil Brahmins who passed it on to their next generations and made sure there was someone in a group of 10-20 people who knows the script.....but kaithi has almost gone extinct. Tho both of them can be made alive again but yeah it would be hard to replace devnagari now.
@@adityadraws9535 Yea, I don’t see an issue with multiple scripts being used. They all have the same abugida base so it’s not as if people are going to be illiterate in Devanagari just because they can read another in addition. I feel like part of it is trying to erase local identities and create a homogenous Indian identity.
Judging from this, it kinda proves that Roman Empire still lives on.
Great Video. As an addition I could tell, that in Germany until 1939 the old scripts gothic and Fractur were used until the change was commanded by Hitler. It is so interesting to see especially in the middle East how things have developed. Thank you very much!
Nice video! This is a really interesting topic. I was gonna try to catch you out by mentioning Rongorongo since I heard about it in a podcast, but you have mentioned it in the description. I think the concept of uniquely concieved scripts is pretty cool. It's interesting to see what people come up with, and if there are any similarities between scripts.
ప్రపంచ భాషలందు తెలుగు లెస్స 👌. భారత్ మాతాకీ జై 🇮🇳
probably the most underrated roman legacy is the common alphabet almost across the world which have been spread even more by the spanish and the english, crazy to see so many great nations of today not having writing until ""just"" 1500 years ago
It must be added that the (Andes civilizations, which were really big) did have a writting system, although far from a conventional one. Quipu or Qypu has been dated to as far back as 2600 BCE (~600 BC). I also wanted to point out that Aramaic isnt on the list , an important lingua franca back in the day
Did Norte Chico has its own Quipu？
@@mikema1910 Yes, evidence has been found that Quipu was indeed used back in the Caral/Norte Chico times. Obviously this was a rather rustic and basic use, which later on expanded into a whole writing system. Described by Spanish conquistadors as the way Inca wrote history, business and conducted administration of their vast empire.
@@suikamanti9131 Oh，this might be the oldest recording system
@@mikema1910 it could be. the problem lies in how unconventional it is. no one has been able to desipher it and therefore it is imposible to note exactly when it became a full body writting system rather than just a numerical record as it was at the begining. and unfortuantely due to its nature, being organic dyed threads most of it has been lost to time....
@@suikamanti9131 Yo si puedo ayudar. Well, Kipus were a system and yes it registered information, appart from accounts. But it wasnt the only system. According to William Burns Glynn studies, the Killka (wich means paper, writing or mail) it used to have 10 types of symbols with different colors, each one represent a consonant. Inka urku NK RK RK NK (Imagine NK and RK are symbols) Two simbols, that represent each one a word. Ordered like before. Im not good in english, so maybe i can clarify more in spanish.
I'm surprised that you also included the Ba-Shu scripts because there's still debate around them if they are real writing systems or just ornamental patterns.
Im happy to see the language of my people represented in the video. People don't know that we have our own ancient script that is still used to this day in Ethiopia and Eritrea :)
Currently used in the Amharic, Tigrinya, and Tigrayit (though sometimes Arabic script used) languages.
@@ibrodinho هذه اللغات تنتمي لعائلة اللغات السامية/لغات العرب
Ethiopia is one of the greatest empires !! I'm extremely proud of my ancestors
was the Estruscan script meant to be here represented by 'Old Latin'? If so Id argue there was much more widespread use of it and Greek in Celtic communities, especially those regularly engaged in trade. There are many examples of Celtic texts before Roman conquests
大体 AB とかا بとかで最初の2文字なのに、漢字は「楷書」ってなぜか書体の名前でハングルは「ハングル」だし、ひらがなにいたっては「した」とか謎すぎて草
A B come from Semitic languages which used words to describe the shape of the letters. It makes no sense in other languages.
Great work! Although I was expecting Easter Island Rongorongo or some West African scripts to be included...
I've mentioned some scripts that weren't shown in the description.
@@OllieBye Nobody read the descriptions. Another video disregarding history of others.
Amazing work as always Ollie.
Not only was this a detailed language map, but the fact that you animated the Aral Sea shrinking.
It's amazing how it's possible to roughly correspond the spread of certain languages with major world events, like the rise of Rome, the conversion of the nordic states and the start of colonization in America
This is amazing. Regrettably, though, It’s sad that one of the oldest script in Southeast Asia such as Mon script is neglected. Mon, nowaday, is a minority state in Burma, but it root dated side by side with the Khmer script back to at least the 1000CE. From the Dvarvati Kingdom in the modern day central Thailand, It gave birth to many daughter scripts such as the Burmese, Lanna (Tham) in northern Thailand, Isan (tham) in northeast Thailand, Tai Lue in Southern China etc. It’s really hard to comprehend.
Hello ! May Allah protect and guide you to his light and happiness in this life and the hereafter, God bless, Ameen. Excuse me for giving a little presentation of Islam, because it is very misunderstood nowadays, especially on those « Antichrist's » times, where media and politics are mixed to distort history and truth. And terrorists (puppets of the Antichrist) who misinterpret verses, out of ignorance and political motivations, and take them out of historical context (just like radical atheists do by the way), don't help either. Thank you very much for your time. Islam is an arabic word that means the Surrender to the One and Only God, our Creator, Protector, Provider, who gives us life and all that we have, we are safe and sound by his will and grace, we are His and to Him we return, and we have to thank him in this trial life by submitting to him by our free will, or later in the Day of judgment when it's too late to save our own skin. Islam was the original Religion descended to earth from heaven with Adam and Eve (peace and blessing be upon them) in the beginning of humanity. and was passed to people with the succession of the 124 000 prophets and 315 messengers of God to all nations and civilizations since, passing by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ismaël, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon and Jesus (Peace and blessing be upon them) during the history of mankind, the last replaces and completes the previous, until the succession of the last messenger of God fourteen centuries ago, Muhammad (Peace and blessing be upon him) to complete the noble morals of all mankind, to bring humans and jinns out of darkness into light, and to purify people's religion and belief from corruption and polytheism, and return it to purity and true monotheism, like it was in the times of the prophets (Peace and blessing be upon them). Many Religions that we know nowadays, at their beginning were true and under Islam, initiated by one of the prophets of God, but their original teachings, history and scriptures have been corrupted over time with falsification and polytheism, or lost and replaced with false ones. That's why Islam is the only Religion accepted by God nowadays, which consists in bearing witness that there is no god besides Allah (God in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus and the Gospel), and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, just like Jesus and Moses and others are His servants and messengers. Never a messenger of God said he was God or literally son of God, it was the people after him who changed the words of God and corrupted the Religion. God is unique and absolute, He does not need to have a family and sons or to associate anyone else with His kingdom, He can simply create whatever He wants, everything belongs to Him, and to Him everything will return. Allah said in Surah Al-Mu’minun : “God has never begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him. Otherwise, each god would have taken away what it has created, and some of them would have gained supremacy over others. Glory be to God, far beyond what they describe. The Knower of the hidden and the manifest. He is exalted, far above what they associate. (91-92 / Translated by ITANI). Allah means the one and only God, the God of all prophets and creatures, the creator of the universe and mankind, and the Master of the Day of judgment, where our destiny, Hell or Paradise, is decided based on our faith and deeds in this trial life, and above all, Allah's mercy. Allah said in Surah Al-Ikhlas : In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. Say, “He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none comparable to Him.” (1-4 / Translated by ITANI). Allah said in Surah An-Nisa : O FOLLOWERS of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God's Apostle - [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary - and a soul created by Him. Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, "[God is] a trinity". Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son: unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God. Never did the Christ feel too proud to be God's servant, nor do the angels who are near unto Him. And those who feel too proud to serve Him and glory in their arrogance [should know that on Judgment Day] He will gather them all unto Himself: (171-172 / Translated by Muhammad Asad). Allah the Most Merciful said in Surah Ali-Imran : Behold, the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him; and those who were vouchsafed revelation aforetime took, out of mutual jealousy, to divergent views [on this point] only after knowledge [thereof] had come unto them. But as for him who denies the truth of God's messages - behold, God is swift in reckoning! Thus, [O Prophet,] if they argue with thee, say, "I have surrendered my whole being unto God, and [so have] all who follow me!" - and ask those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime, as well as all unlettered people, "Have you [too] surrendered yourselves unto Him?" And if they surrender themselves unto Him, they are on the right path; but if they turn away - behold, thy duty is no more than to deliver the message: for God sees all that is in [the hearts of] His creatures. Verily, as for those who deny the truth of God's messages, and slay the prophets against all right, and slay people who enjoin equity - announce unto them a grievous chastisement. It is they whose works shall come to nought both in this world and in the life to come; and they shall have none to succour them. (19-22 / Translated by Muhammad Asad).. Salam (Peace) ----------
SCHIZO MUSLIM ABOVE
Burmese script IS Mon script. In the same way Hebrew script is Imperial Aramaic
Great work and nice animation. I would like to see a few sources you researched from as I got interested in some details of some earlier writing systems and there specific evolution. Any list or tables aviable? Thx
Yes, both are in the this videos accompanying spreadsheet, which should be in the description.
Hello ! May Allah protect and guide you to his light and happiness in this life and the hereafter, God bless, Ameen. Excuse me for giving a little presentation of Islam, because it is very misunderstood nowadays, especially on those « Antichrist's » times, where media and politics are mixed to distort history and truth. And terrorists (puppets of the Antichrist) who misinterpret verses, out of ignorance and political motivations, and take them out of historical context (just like radical atheists do by the way), don't help either. Thank you very much for your time. Islam is an arabic word that means the Surrender to the One and Only God, our Creator, Protector, Provider, who gives us life and all that we have, we are safe and sound by his will and grace, we are His and to Him we return, and we have to thank him in this trial life by submitting to him by our free will, or later in the Day of judgment when it's too late to save our own skin. Islam was the original Religion descended to earth from heaven with Adam and Eve (peace and blessing be upon them) in the beginning of humanity. and was passed to people with the succession of the 124 000 prophets and 315 messengers of God to all nations and civilizations since, passing by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ismaël, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon and Jesus (Peace and blessing be upon them) during the history of mankind, the last replaces and completes the previous, until the succession of the last messenger of God fourteen centuries ago, Muhammad (Peace and blessing be upon him) to complete the noble morals of all mankind, to bring humans and jinns out of darkness into light, and to purify people's religion and belief from corruption and polytheism, and return it to purity and true monotheism, like it was in the times of the prophets (Peace and blessing be upon them). Many Religions that we know nowadays, at their beginning were true and under Islam, initiated by one of the prophets of God, but their original teachings, history and scriptures have been corrupted over time with falsification and polytheism, or lost and replaced with false ones. That's why Islam is the only Religion accepted by God nowadays, which consists in bearing witness that there is no god besides Allah (God in Aramaic, the original language of Jesus and the Gospel), and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, just like Jesus and Moses and others are His servants and messengers. Never a messenger of God said he was God or literally son of God, it was the people after him who changed the words of God and corrupted the Religion. God is unique and absolute, He does not need to have a family and sons or to associate anyone else with His kingdom, He can simply create whatever He wants, everything belongs to Him, and to Him everything will return. Allah said in Surah Al-Mu’minun : “God has never begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him. Otherwise, each god would have taken away what it has created, and some of them would have gained supremacy over others. Glory be to God, far beyond what they describe. The Knower of the hidden and the manifest. He is exalted, far above what they associate. (91-92 / Translated by ITANI). Allah means the one and only God, the God of all prophets and creatures, the creator of the universe and mankind, and the Master of the Day of judgment, where our destiny, Hell or Paradise, is decided based on our faith and deeds in this trial life, and above all, Allah's mercy. Allah said in Surah Al-Ikhlas : In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. Say, “He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none comparable to Him.” (1-4 / Translated by ITANI). Allah said in Surah An-Nisa : O FOLLOWERS of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God's Apostle - [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary - and a soul created by Him. Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, "[God is] a trinity". Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son: unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God. Never did the Christ feel too proud to be God's servant, nor do the angels who are near unto Him. And those who feel too proud to serve Him and glory in their arrogance [should know that on Judgment Day] He will gather them all unto Himself: (171-172 / Translated by Muhammad Asad). Allah the Most Merciful said in Surah Ali-Imran : Behold, the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him; and those who were vouchsafed revelation aforetime took, out of mutual jealousy, to divergent views [on this point] only after knowledge [thereof] had come unto them. But as for him who denies the truth of God's messages - behold, God is swift in reckoning! Thus, [O Prophet,] if they argue with thee, say, "I have surrendered my whole being unto God, and [so have] all who follow me!" - and ask those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime, as well as all unlettered people, "Have you [too] surrendered yourselves unto Him?" And if they surrender themselves unto Him, they are on the right path; but if they turn away - behold, thy duty is no more than to deliver the message: for God sees all that is in [the hearts of] His creatures. Verily, as for those who deny the truth of God's messages, and slay the prophets against all right, and slay people who enjoin equity - announce unto them a grievous chastisement. It is they whose works shall come to nought both in this world and in the life to come; and they shall have none to succour them. (19-22 / Translated by Muhammad Asad).. Salam (Peace) ----------
Fantastic animation. I understand Mongolia is going back to Mongolian now, the only vertically-preferred writing system.
There's so much detail! Even the disappearance of the Aral Sea was included!
It's really nice. appreciate your work .
Actually, today's simplified Chinese and so called traditional Chinese are all 楷書/楷书. “汉字” represents "Chinese characters". So I think using “楷书” instead of "汉字" after 1950s would be better. “楷书” in Mainland China “楷書” in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan “漢字/ひらがな/カタカナ” in Japan
What is the pinyin of the characters at the end of first sentence??
@@minera7595kǎi shū
@@jianqiaocao2446 Thanks
Chinese looks like I could stare at it all day.
@@Aman-qr6wi Especially Traditional Chinese, it look so charming
Video: Every Year. Alos Video: Skips 1200 Years
Could someone please explain how Cree and other Canadian scripts are related to Tibetan script?
You don’t know about the ancestral unity of the Tibetans and the Cree, cringe
It's an interesting video. 5:34 One problem was the depiction of the Nagari script which was shown to be Eastern Nagari i.e. Bengali-Assamese script whereas the Nagari script looks quite different & is the much older version or ancestor form of the modern day Devanagari script. Also some major scripts like Punjabi (ਪੰਜਾਬੀ) in the North & Odia (ଓଡ଼ିଆ) in the South-East weren't shown.
Odia also came from.eastern nagari and punjabi (gurumukhi) is based on sharada script
@@surajitmondal823 Odia script looks like a combination of Eastern & Southern variants of scripts, although Eastern influence seems stronger. I feel Odia script may be born out of either a much older form of Eastern Nagari script or both Eastern Nagari script & older form of modern Odia script could possibly be sister scripts with a common ancestor possibly Siddham script.
Just saying, shahmukhi is also used in panjabi, its gurmukhi the name of script
@@nirbhaukhosa2 Yes that's right. But Shahmukhi is still a form of Perso-Arabic script used for Punjabi while Gurmukhi is a unique script among the Brahmic scripts.
2:13 Prakrit Brahmi was only in 400 BC But recent excavation in Keezhadi excavation site in Tamizhnadu got Tamizh-Brahmi script dated back to 600 BC and was confirmed by carbon dating also... Need to be updated
Ok bro. We get it. Tamizh is the oldest most based, sigma, world conqueror, scientific, spiritual, universe best,, star wars winner, alpha, masculine, and the most powerful language in the world. Every language is derivative of Tamil.
Okey
@@rishabhjain7543 why are you gæ
@@rishabhjain7543 Lol
@@rishabhjain7543 even Jesus was tamil🙏🙏🙏
I feel dopamine releases every time I watch this... it's so satisfying
Fun fact - the Irish Ogham alphabet had been extinct for over 1000 years up until this year (2024), when it was revived by... the Irish Eurovision song contest entrant! They designed a costume with references to the war in Palestine. Ironically, almost the very area from which its ancestral Phoenician alphabet hailed. Although unlike other European alphabets, Ogham is not directly based on the Phoenician/Greek/Latin system, it uses its own symbols to approximate the same letters - possibly as a way to bamboozle the Romans.
As Khmer I’m proud of our ancestors that able to persevere our language and writing system no matter how much deep shit we been through for the past five hundred years
Nice video! :) I think I found a minor correction: As far as I know, the Kawi Script is a Javanese Innovation which originated from southeast and central Java, not from eastern Sumatra! Also, there are some older writings (450 CE) from Indonesia from Kutai-Region (Eastern Borneo), which use the Pallava Script and are in Sanskrit. And around 4th century CE, the Old Cham language was written in a southern Brahmi Script in Southern Vietnam.
I too was surprised when I did not see any mention of the early Malay and Indochinese scripts. There were definitely scripts used by the people before Arabic Jawi arrived.
In the Philippines too... The earliest written document in the Philippines is the Laguna Copperplate Inscription which was written using the Kawi Script. It was dated to be from around 900 AD. There are also other artifacts, such as coins which are known as (Bulawan) or (Piloncitos), the Butuan Ivory seal and the Butuan silver strip that also show Kawi letters or inscriptions etched on them.
Idk if it's correct or not but when I was scrolling through Twitter I saw some similar words betweet my language Assamese(it's an Indian Language)and Javanese(that's what people said there when I replied) so my language's script was taken from Magadhi Prakrit . Like the word "itu" In your language is known as "eitu" In my language, and there are some more words I got like "asli" "Apa kabar " And here it is called as "ki khabar".I was shocked when I got that.
One thing that amazes me is how long Greek language, currency, etc., survived in Oxiana/Bactria/Sogdania. At least for a century after the Muslim conquest.
Sehr interessant das mal auf einer Karte in einer Quelle zu sehen. Sehr schön
Great work! :) Goes to my favourites! One thing: Personally I think it would have been better to show all Proto-Sinaitic-derived (alphabetic) scripts in one color scheme, like in cool colors (green, cyan, blue, purple), as opposed to totally native ancient logographic scripts, like in warm colors (yellow, orange, red, brown...). In the video it was close to it, but not exactly as I expected, like with Brahmi scripts :D Maybe it could be difficult with some scripts, but I guess it could be doable. Just my opinion :)