Why do we read left to right?

Arpeggionist

Not all of us do, first of all. The reason that's generally explained in Israeli schools has to do with the development of writing in the Mediterranian. Earliest writings, said our teachers, wrote "as the bull walks" with each line going in the opposite direction of the line above it. As time passed, different methods of writing were explored. In Semitic languages, many writers took to carving their writing in stone slabs, which is best done from right to left (since the stone chippings fall to the left of a right-handed writer with a pick-axe). Some of these old stone slabs have been found, along with cave carvings and other examples of writing in Acadian, Assyrian, Moabite, Babylonian, and of course Hebrew. By the time the Hebrew language was far enough in its development as a written language, and people started using paper, right to left was pretty much "set in stone" as it were. In Indo-European languages, however, there was a different trend in writing techniques. Many Greeks took to writing in ink on papyros scrolls (papyros is where we get the word "paper"). Ink smudges would be a problem for right-handed writers going right to left, but the problems were considerably less for people writing from left to right. So Greek, Latin, Phoenician, and eventually Scandinavian and English writing was meant to be read from left to right. Aug 07 09, 3:32 PM

Arpeggionist

Eventually, all this became a problem for musicians singing in Semitic languages. Western musical notation is written from left to right, since it was eveloped by Europeans (mostly in Italy and France). This created a problem when trying to write lyrics in Hebrew, Arabic or Yiddish within the confines of traditional Western notation. The problems were solved in a number of ways. I have in my posession a document written to teach (apparently) 12th- to 14th-century Jews about cantilation, used to learn how to read the Torah on the Sabbath. In this score, the music is written from right to left, with the names of the signs below it. Salamone da Rossi in the 1620s would write each word of the Hebrew lyrics he set to music from right to left, under a musical part written from left to right. Nowadays most composers in Hebrew and Arabic will simply write each syllable under the corresponding notes (left to right), which can be extremely confusing; or they will transliterate the words into Latin characters, which can create diction problems. (In writing an opera primarily in Yiddish, I've taken to transliterating the libretto into Scandinavian characters, to settle some of the uniqueness of Yiddish vowels.) In Indo-European languages, however, there was a different trend in writing techniques. Many Greeks took to writing in ink on papyros scrolls (papyros is where we get the word "paper"). Ink smudges would be a problem for right-handed writers going right to left, but the problems were considerably less for people writing from left to right. So Greek, Latin, Phoenician, and eventually Scandinavian and English writing was meant to be read from left to right. Aug 07 09, 3:32 PM