楔形文字(cuneiform writing)

古代中东地区曾被几种语言广泛使用的一种文字。原先是用一支斜尖的芦苇在软泥板上刻画，所以笔画呈楔形。已经证实的最早用楔形文字书写的文献是苏美语文献，这种语言是西元前4千纪～西元前2千纪之间美索不达米亚东南部和加尔底亚地区的居民所使用的一种语言。早期的楔形文字是一种图画文字，所记事物用图画表示，只能根据通常的发音组合来解读，而不是按图画本身所描绘的东西来理解。到西元前3千纪，图画型的楔形文字逐渐演变成按照惯例书写的线形笔画文字。入侵美索不达米亚的阿卡德人和闪米特人都曾用楔形文字书写他们的语言，之後其他一些中东语言也曾使用。西元前7世纪～西元前6世纪阿拉米语作为交际语广泛流传，腓尼基文字使用增多，随着波斯帝国的壮大、美索不达米亚失去政治独立性等因素，楔形文字的使用越来越少。19世纪中期，欧洲学者逐渐解读出古代楔形文字，其价值才开始受到重视。

English version：

cuneiform writing

System of writing employed for a number of languages of South Asia in ancient times. The original and primary writing material for cuneiform texts was a damp clay tablet, into which the scribe would press a wedge-shaped stroke with a reed stylus. A configuration of such impressions constituted a character, or sign. Proto-cuneiform signs dating from c. 3200-3000 BC were drawn rather than impressed and were largely pictographic (see pictography), though these features were lost as the script evolved. A single cuneiform sign could be a logogram (an arbitrary representation of a word) or a syllabogram (a representation of the sound of a syllable). The first language to be written in cuneiform was Sumerian (see Sumer). Akkadian began to be written in cuneiform c. 2350 BC. Later the script was adapted to other South Asian languages. Cuneiform was slowly displaced in the first millennium BC by the rise of Aramaic, written in an alphabet script of Phoenician origin. Knowledge of the value of cuneiform signs was lost until the mid-19th century, when European scholars deciphered the script.

参考文章

• 为什么会有楔形文字中国史