The marks that you see on this paper render English into an alphabetic system of writing.  Alphabetic writing systems are relatively late occurrences in the development of writing.  They also suffer from a major disadvantage, these marks are only intelligible to a speaker of English. Most ancient writing systems such as Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Mesopotamian cuneiform and Mayan glyphs were based on word signs.  This made the writing systems extremely complicated with hundreds of thousands of symbols.  It did, however, have the advantage of making the system intelligible to speakers of any language.

 Your assignment is to devise a simple writing system based on word signs. The words and numbers to be included in this language are given at the end of this assignment.  You will submit your work in hard copy to your TA in your discussion section. You should turn in a dictionary for the system and a 4 to 5 sentence paragraph (with English translation) using the system.  Your results will be evaluated on the basis of how elegant your system is.  An elegant system should be easy to write, with unambiguous symbols and the minimum number of symbols possible.  The individual who devises the most elegant system in the opinion of the TAs and the instructor will be awarded a prize in class.  (You must be present to win.)  We hope this exercise will give you a better understanding of the logic underlying these ancient writing systems.

 Numbers:   1 - 100 you cannot use a zero.

 Words:        I, son, daughter, father, mother, sheep, ewe, ram, lamb, man, woman, transgendered, young, old, city, house, army, temple, god, wheat, field, canal, slave, many, few, conquer, buy, sell, trade, dinars (monetary unit), burn, harvest, kill, worship, tax, great, small, send, receive, make, to be, north, south, east, west.

 You may add a few additional words if you need them to write your paragraph, but remember to use only nouns and verbs.  You can also add symbols for proper names for your paragraph.  Print neatly or type those portions of the assignment in English characters.

 Your assignment is due in hard copy at the next discussion session meeting.   Late assignments will be docked one point per class-day late.