It is difficult to imagine a modern person who does not know how to read and write. The knowledge of writing is so important that they begin to teach it in kindergarten. But writing, in the scale of human existence, appeared relatively recently - about 3200 BC.
The appearance of writing was preceded by the appearance of speech. At the dawn of the emergence of humanity, speech was very simple, the lexicon consisted of the most necessary words. As society developed, speech became more complicated, and the number of words grew. Mankind accumulated knowledge, while the question arose of transmitting it to new generations, in the absence of written language, became ever more acute, this could only be done through oral transmission from teacher to student.
Oral transmission of knowledge is limited. Once there came a moment when there was so much accumulated information that it was already verbally impossible to transmit it in its entirety. It was necessary to somehow fix the knowledge - so that it could be perceived in the absence of the person who owned them. As a result, the first versions of writing began to appear in different parts of the world. At first, writing did not reflect the sound of the language; it was entirely symbolic. Each symbol reflected a particular concept. Basically, such symbols are found on stones, so this type of writing is called pictographic.
The next stage in the development of writing was the emergence of logographic writing, in which the symbols had a graphic appearance that conveyed their meaning. That was exactly what Sumerian writing was. They wrote on stone and clay tablets in those days.
Despite the fact that logographic writing played a very important role in the history of mankind, it remained very imperfect, not allowing to fully satisfy the needs of a growing civilization. He was replaced by a logographic-syllabic writing, in which the letters lost their visualization, becoming combinations of cuneiform dashes.
A close sound writing system appeared at the turn of the second and first millennia BC. Unlike previous writing systems, the new one cost only 20-30 characters. Most modern writing systems trace their history from Phoenician sound writing.
The appearance of sound writing, allowing to convey the sound of words, gave a strong impetus to the development of human civilization. The need for an oral transfer of knowledge disappeared, sound writing made it possible to transfer knowledge in its entirety and accuracy, fixing them first on clay tablets, then on parchment and papyrus, and even later on paper familiar to everyone. If this restrained the spread of knowledge, it was the lack of typography — each text had to be carefully rewritten by hand. But with the advent of typography, this obstacle was removed.
The development of Slavic writing is associated with the names of the brothers Konstantin Philosopher (in monasticism - Cyril) and Methodius. It was they who created the first Slavic alphabet, which laid the foundation for Slavic and, subsequently, Russian writing.
