Writing: Why left, right, & vertical?

From Rainbow Post 17
Side point: unless presented with excellent and very persuasive evidence, I am not going to believe anyone anywhere "first" wrote with a hammer and chisel in stone. That just strikes me as - - improbable.
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From https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/7304/why-is-english-written-and-read-left-to-right
Many languages that existed before the invention of ink were written right to left since this is the more natural for right handed people to hold a chisel in the left hand and the hammer in the right. After ink became the main method of writing, writing from left to right became preferable since it avoided smudging the ink.
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The above source ignores the existence of left --->> right writing on clay by the Phoenicians for similar reasons: Avoid smudging of previous writing by a right handed person.
 
Mea Culpa Rainbow: Post 17 was from Iceaura, not you.

Iceaura: Check my my Post 21, mistakenly addressed to Rainbow.
 
Dinosaur said:
Some where I read the following.

Left to right due to cultures which first wrote on clay or paper with a stylus or pen-like device. A right handed person would not smear previously written data.

Right to left due to cultures which first wrote with a hammer & chisel on stone. Hammer in dominant right hand

Vertical due to cultures (example Chinese) which first wrote with a paint brush​
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I appreciate what you've shared! I didn't know about that before. All I know is that left-handed people are smarter than the right-handed ones.
 
naturallygorg said:
All I know is that left-handed people are smarter than the right-handed ones.
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Evidence bears this out.

Left-handers - despite being at a distinct physical disadvantage in a ubiquitously right-handed world, and thus more prone to death - are actually on the increase; demonstrating that left-handedness has an evolutionary advantage.
 
From NaturallyGorg Post 23
I didn't know about that before. All I know is that left-handed people are smarter than the right-handed ones.
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From DaveC426913 Post 25
Left-handers - despite being at a distinct physical disadvantage in a ubiquitously right-handed world, and thus more prone to death - are actually on the increase; demonstrating that left-handedness has an evolutionary advantage.
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The above might very well be valid claims.

However, they require more than the claims of the Posters to be accepted as true.
 
Dinosaur said:
However, they require more than the claims of the Posters to be accepted as true.
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2 claims:
1] Lefties are at a physical disadvantage in a predominantly right-handed world.
2] Lefties are on the increase.

Both are generally considered to be common knowledge.

But here's a guy who wrote a book:

"In his book Right-Hand, Left-Hand, Chris McManus of University College London argues that the proportion of left-handers is increasing and left-handed people as a group have historically produced an above-average quota of high achievers."

"...a significantly greater proportion of talented left-handers, even among those who played instruments that seem designed for right-handers, such as violins. Similarly, studies of adolescents who took tests to assess mathematical giftedness found many more left-handers in the population"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness#Intelligence
 
Please do not flame other members
Posted by DaveC.
Both are generally considered to be common knowledge.
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Look it up, dickhead!

They still smudge what they've written. No-one can read what they write. I wonder what evolutionary advantages will arise with technology.
 
From Iceaura Post 16
Side point: unless presented with excellent and very persuasive evidence, I am not going to believe anyone anywhere "first" wrote with a hammer and chisel in stone. That just strikes me as - - improbable.
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In spite of my Post 21, I sympathize with your above opinion: It is reasonable.

If using something similar to a modern alphabet on a medium like clay had been the first written language, it is very likely that the first writing would have been left to right.

I am pretty sure that something like a modern alphabet was a late development with the first written language using some form of pictographs on stone, making right to left more convenient for a right handed person.

BTW: I think the Phoenicians might have been the first to write from left to right due to using a stylus on clay. I do not think they ever wrote from right to left.
 
Dinosaur said:
I am pretty sure that something like a modern alphabet was a late development with the first written language using some form of pictographs on stone, making right to left more convenient for a right handed person.
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The most persuasive guess I've seen for first incised writing (making simple symbols or alphabets important, rather than pictures) was that it was on flat sticks (split from convenient wood types) using an edge or point tool (even just charcoal). That would explain not only the predominance of left to right, but the existence of boustrophedon script carved into rocks (it's just a transcription of what you get by going left to right on one side of a stick, flipping it to go left to right on the other, and then transcribing it as if unfolding it at an end hinge).
 
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