ALPHABETS: FROM IDEOGRAMS TO ASCII in Spring 2027 (LI1099FB1)

Firstbridge courses are offered to degree seeking freshmen and registration is done via webform in pre-arrival checklist.

Course Master:

FIRSTBRIDGE IN LINGUISTICS (LI1099)

Term:

Spring 2027

Discipline:

LI (Linguistics)

Credits:

4 credits

Type:

CCI

Level:

Undergraduate

Can be taken twice for credit?:

Pre-requisites:

None

Co-requisites:

None

Professor(s)

Raphael Bloch-Laine

Notes

This course traces the remarkable story of alphabets — how they emerged, spread, and adapted to human voices and technologies. Beginning with ancient ideograms and the Phoenician and Sanskrit scripts, we examine how letters came to represent sounds, and how writing systems were borrowed and reshaped by diverse cultures from Persia to Thailand. We then turn to the International Phonetic Alphabet and to digital systems such as ASCII, exploring how language became encoded for computers. Combining linguistic analysis, cultural history, and visual study with calligraphy workshops, the course invites students to see alphabets as living technologies that shape the way we think and communicate.

Learning Outcomes

Students will comprehend how information is produced and valued in order to discover, evaluate, use, and create information and knowledge effectively and ethically. In FirstBridge, students will demonstrate the conversational nature of scholarship, and recognize their potential role and responsibilities as contributors to that conversation. For each discipline taught in FirstBridge, students will identify reference works, journals, databases and/or major works in history, in order to start effective research in the field. (FB LO1)
Students will acquire the study skills, time management, and interpersonal skills needed to meet the demands of university-level academic work at a Liberal Arts College individually or as a team. Students will value the multiple meanings of place through experiential learning at AUP and beyond in the Parisian or global context. (FB LO2)

Syllabus

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Schedule

Start Date:

Monday, January 18, 2027

End Date:

Friday, May 14, 2027

Day	Start Time	End Time	Room
Tuesday	13:45	15:05	SD-2
Friday	13:45	15:05	SD-2