Writing systems: Not optimal, but good enough

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Behavioral and Brain Sciences 35 (5):305 (2012)
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Abstract

Languages and writing systems result from satisfying multiple constraints related to learning, comprehension, production, and their biological bases. Orthographies are not optimal because these constraints often conflict, with further deviations due to accidents of history and geography. Things tend to even out because writing systems and the languages they represent exhibit systematic trade-offs between orthographic depth and morphological complexity

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10.1017/s0140525x12000337

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Writing systems: Not optimal, but good enough – Erratum.Mark S. Seidenberg - 2012 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 35 (6):467-467.

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References found in this work

The World's Writing Systems.Edwin Gerow, Peter T. Daniels & William Bright - 1997 - Journal of the American Oriental Society 117 (1):224.
The Languages of China.W. South Coblin & S. Robert Ramsey - 1988 - Journal of the American Oriental Society 108 (4):644.

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