In most languages in the world, and certainly in Europe, we read and write from left to right, and from top to bottom. Is this purely coincidental or does it have to do with our brains? For would it be possible to teach a child to read and write with the words in the correct order forming a sentence, starting from bottom to top and from right to left?
And if we had started ‘in reverse’ since ancient times, would that have had an influence in our daily life, language, grammar, etc…?
Example:
“!dlerew edreekegmo eD.”
Read our way: “The upside-down world!”
And why don’t we start at the bottom of the page?
This seems very ridiculous, but is it?
Answer
I can only partially answer your question, because I am a specialist in classical antiquity. In ancient Greece there are texts that are written from right to left, and even texts that alternate one line from right to left and the next line from left to right, then again from right to left, etc. That is what is called the boustrophedon script (image see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon). In that system the direction of the letters is also rotated, e.g. the E, the Σ. I think that already shows that a writing direction is determined purely conventionally. On the other hand, it is easier for a right-handed person to write a text from left to right. But on the other hand, we should also not forget that Arabic, for example, is written from right to left.
Answered by
Professor Cecilia SAERENS
Old-Greek
Pleinlaan 2 1050 Ixelles
http://www.vub.ac.be/
.