ある言語を書き取る文字やその書き言葉の体系は,それ自体がその言語の話し言葉を対象とした言語学の1つの形である.言語を意識的に分析することなしに,人は文字や表記体系を考案することはできないからだ.そして,それを読み書きする能力を後から身につけた人もまた,間接的に考案者の言語分析を追体験することになるからだ.
Daniels (54) は「言語学史としての書き言葉の歴史」のなかで,次のように述べている.
Ordinarily, speakers have no insight into the nature of their language or what they are doing when they are speaking. But when a language is written, it is consciously written, and every writing system embodies an analysis of its languages. And that analysis is known not only to the deviser of the writing system (however great an accomplishment the act of devising a writing system may be), but also---consciously---to everyone who learns to write, and even read, that writing system. Ergo, every writing system informs us of 'native speaker analysis' of every written language, and such analyses have touched on virtually every level of analysis known to modern linguistics.
書き言葉の発明は,それ自身が話し言葉の言語学的分析の証拠とみなすことができる.したがって,言語学史書の最初に置かれるべき話題である.なるほど,その通り.
・ Daniels, Peter T. "The History of Writing as a History of Linguistics." Chapter 2 of The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics. Ed. Keith Allan. Oxford: OUP, 2013. 53--69.
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