Writing

The Secret History of Writing episode 3

The Secret History of Writing episode 3

History / 4 minutes of reading / / By

The Secret History of Writing episode 3: The written word is so important in everyday life that there can be few more radical acts than forcing an entire nation to learn a new script. Yet that is what happened in Turkey in 1928 when the founder of the modern Turkish nation, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, decreed that the Arabic script, which had been used to write the Turkish language for more than six centuries, would be replaced by the letters of the Latin alphabet. His motivation lay in events that happened in Europe in the 15th century, at the beginning of […]

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The Secret History of Writing episode 2

The Secret History of Writing episode 2

History / 4 minutes of reading / / By

The Secret History of Writing episode 2: In 1448, in Mainz, Germany, a goldsmith named Johannes Gutenberg was experimenting with a lead alloy and a hand-held mould. His aim was to speed up the process of putting ink on paper. But what he did was speed up history. Gutenberg’s printing press spelled the end of the Middle Ages and ushered in the modern world of science and industry. Every innovation since has been built on this foundation. Yet behind Gutenberg’s invention lay centuries of development and change in the way words were written, without which he could never have succeeded.

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The Secret History of Writing episode 1

The Secret History of Writing episode 1

History / 4 minutes of reading / / By

The Secret History of Writing episode 1: 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

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