Cuneiform vs Hieroglyphics

Reflection Questions:

1. What form of writing (hieroglyphics or cuneiform) did you find more challenging to complete? Describe why it was harder.

Personally, I found the cuneiform writing to be more challenging. This is because it had more characters to associate with spoken sounds. As we have previously learned, cuneiform is not a language but a way of writing that records information based on their sonics. Due to this, when I wrote my two sentences, I struggled to find certain characters that would signify the sound of my word. For example, there is no direct translation to the "ch" or "f" sounds in cuneiform. Therefore, I had to work my way around the sounds and combine certain cuneiform characters to meet my writing needs. Moreover, many characters in this writing system looked similar, with minor differentiations between them. As a result, it took time for me to find certain characters and to later remember what sounds the characters represented. Ultimately, cuneiform is a complex writing system and it was challenging for me to complete.

2. If you could choose one form of writing (cuneiform or hieroglyphics), which would it be? From your choice, what reasons can you give to help the reader understand why you made that choice. 

If I could choose one form of writing, it would be hieroglyphics because it uses pictographs to portray meaning of words and phrases. I have always been interested in Ancient Egypt alphabets because I find it fascinating how pictures can be used to replace "traditional letters" (such as those we use in English). Furthermore, hieroglyphics could be written with ink and modern writing utensils like pencils; on the other hand, the beauty of cuneiform is to write it on clay tablets. In addition, I enjoy drawing images and using emojis in modern day writing, so this would be similar to when using hieroglyphics. As mentioned before, cuneiform takes a longer tome to be written and it has very similar-looking characters which turned out to be a challenge for me. Therefore, hieroglyphics would be a suitable writing system for me to use in a timely manner. Overall, if I were to use one type of writing system, it would be hieroglyphics because it is faster and more artistic.