Writing came much later than language in human history. In fact, it’s very recent in our timeline, so how would cave drawers write dialogue without an alphabet?
There’s cave paintings of the same animal depicted in multiple positions and overlapping each other. Scientists now believe that this may have been an early attempt at animation, as waving a flickering torch in front of the images may have given the animal drawings the illusion of movement. Our early ancestors were more intelligent, creative, and clever than most people give them credit for.
Writing was a new and disruptive technology, and Socrates complained that it would make people forgetful and lazy (and we only know that because Plato wrote it down).
.
Of course, he also may have been worried that it would displace old men as repositories of information.
Some people say fire. Some say the wheel. Some fast-forward a million years and say nuclear fission or the internet. My own nominee for humanity’s greatest invention (not discovery, not luck, not a gift of the gods) is language.
Language came first, then the tower of Babel, then pictures, since after they couldn’t understand each other, they tried drawing to tell each other what was going on…
pschearer Premium Member 12 months ago
First came pictures, then came picture-writing, then came letters of the alphabet, then came dialog balloons. (Chinese skipped the alphabet step.)
KennethPrice2 12 months ago
Egyptians put Personal names inside of dialogue ballons.
ToborRedrum 12 months ago
Pretty sure people were talking to each other long before anyone could draw or write.
Doug K 12 months ago
I’m not sure which came first …
… but in my dictionary “Language” comes before “Pictures”
Rhetorical_Question 12 months ago
Speaking was prior to writing. Pictorial images came before scripted expression. Cartoon Strips merger pictures and text together.
Ichabod Ferguson 12 months ago
Writing came much later than language in human history. In fact, it’s very recent in our timeline, so how would cave drawers write dialogue without an alphabet?
cervelo 12 months ago
How about an hybrid, sign language?
The Orange Mailman 12 months ago
Spoken language first, but in some cases pictures ARE a language.
e.groves 12 months ago
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Jeffin Premium Member 12 months ago
I never had a thought balloon about that before.
unfair.de 12 months ago
if the sports team coach has to explain something to some of his foreign players a drawing board works even without knowledge of each others language.
Ignatz Premium Member 12 months ago
She said “language,” Caulfied, not “writing.”
DaBump Premium Member 12 months ago
Maybe there wasn’t all that much time between the two.
rshive 12 months ago
Cave people were too busy surviving to worry about dialogue balloons.
holdenrex 12 months ago
There’s cave paintings of the same animal depicted in multiple positions and overlapping each other. Scientists now believe that this may have been an early attempt at animation, as waving a flickering torch in front of the images may have given the animal drawings the illusion of movement. Our early ancestors were more intelligent, creative, and clever than most people give them credit for.
The Wolf In Your Midst 12 months ago
Writing was a new and disruptive technology, and Socrates complained that it would make people forgetful and lazy (and we only know that because Plato wrote it down).
.
Of course, he also may have been worried that it would displace old men as repositories of information.
oakie817 12 months ago
but how do you know that wasn’t their ‘language’?
Richard S Russell Premium Member 12 months ago
Some people say fire. Some say the wheel. Some fast-forward a million years and say nuclear fission or the internet. My own nominee for humanity’s greatest invention (not discovery, not luck, not a gift of the gods) is language.
Teresa Burritt (Frog Applause) creator 12 months ago
I agree. Pictures first.
Bilan 12 months ago
Which came first, the word chicken or a picture of an egg?
rshive 12 months ago
Somebody drew a picture. And then another somebody asked “What’s that?”
Robert Miller Premium Member 12 months ago
Language came first, then the tower of Babel, then pictures, since after they couldn’t understand each other, they tried drawing to tell each other what was going on…
cabalonrye 12 months ago
Language. It’s faster to say “there’s a bear in that cave” than to draw it.
Daphne Stern Premium Member 12 months ago
Speaking came long before writing
Laurie Stoker Premium Member 12 months ago
Well, that settles it.
AndrewSihler 12 months ago
Ah, the age-old and apparently immortal confusion between “language” and “writing”.