Blurb:

The original edition of Writing Systems represented the first time that modern linguistic principles were brought to bear on an investigation of the various ways in which the world's cultures have made spoken language visible and permanent. This new edition brings the story up to date; it incorporates topics which have emerged since the first edition (such as electronic techniques for encoding the world's scripts), together with new findings about established topics, including the ultimate historical origin of our alphabet. Featuring a series of detailed case studies of scripts of diverse types, and giving due attention to the psychology of reading and learning to read, the book is written so as to be accessible to those with no prior knowledge of any writing systems other than our own.