Origins and History of Language

What was the name of the land where the Sumerians lived

• France

• Mesopotamia

• Egypt

• Greece

Who were the people who made cuneiform writings on clay tablets?

• Egyptians

• Pheonicians

• Romans

• Sumerians

Every Sumerian learned cuneiform writing because it was important that everyone memorize the symbols so that they could use the written language to communicate efficiently.

• True

• False

• blank

• blank

How was the Phoenician writing different from hieroglyphics and cuneiform writing? Select 2 answers

• Phoenician writing only had 22 to 30 symbols

• One Symbol stood for a single consonant plus a vowel sound

• A picture symbol stood for a whole word or part of a word

• The Phoenician system was also complicated and awkward

Where does the word "alphabet" come from?

• The Romans

• The Phoenicians

• The Greeks

• The Eqyptians

Why did the Sumerians need to invent writing?

• To record and communicate the increasing amount of information

• To tell bedtime stories to their children

• To record songs

• To create books for everyone to memorize

What was the writing of the ancient Egyptians called?

• Phoenician

• Alphabet

• Cuneiform

• Hieroglyphs

What was the name of the people who invented the first true alphabet?

• The Romans

• The Greeks

• The Baltics

• The Celtics

How many languages are spoken around the world?

• About one million

• About three hundred thousand

• About three thousand

• About one thousand

How did other languages develop from the parent language, Indo-European language? Select 3 answers

• Speakers of the language moved into other areas of the European continent

• Speakers of the language taught it in schools

• As speakers of the language moved, they took the language with them and the parent language began to change

• After thousands of years, each group's language changed so much that one group couldn't understand the other