"Love of Language" details master calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya's contributions to the written form of art. Calligraphy relates to much more than just art however, it is an important aspect of Islamic culture, a form of worship. His form of calligraphy exists "with the primary function of proclaiming the importance of the written word through beautiful writing." Zakariya spent a total of 14 years studying this art form, but he speaks modestly about his skill, stating that a calligrapher is always learning.

What I found very interesting about this article was the fact that calligraphy in associating with a written language is not universal. This art of writing is emphasized in Arabic, Chinese and Japanese, but how often do you come across an English master of calligraphy?

One distinction I noticed is the emphasis of each form. Asian and Arabic calligraphy is connected strongly with spirituality. The only source of western calligraphy I found was based mainly on the art form, and emphasis of the aesthetic of the written words in and of themselves, rather than connecting it to a greater spirituality.

There are several studies on the effects of calligraphy writing on cognitive processing, which I found interesting. One had to do with the stroke sequence errors of Chinese children. In Chinese, the order in which a character is drawn is of great importance, especially is relation to calligraphy. One study, by the department of Curriculum Studies of Hong Kong, examined the "importance of and the possible educational implications for the teaching of stroke sequences in the teaching of handwriting based on the empirical results." If this aspect of the language has an impact on the manner in which student learn, then would students exposed to a language like English that does not place any emphasis on the order in which one writes encourage a different type of learning?

There are also studies that look at the benefits of a writing system that is based on phonetics. A written language that does not involved year and year of study actually facilitates language learning, argues Toh Su Ling of the National University of Singapore, and make language learning more wide spread throughout a culture or society, calling this outcome "The Alphabet Effect".

This article compels the reader to understand the role of written language within a culture. How does a culture’s written language affect cognition?

Love of Language:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/5269651.html

Children's stroke sequence errors in writing Chinese characters:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/tr11753670676705/

The Alphabet Effect:
http://www.usp.nus.edu.sg/writing/uwc2101c/suling/paper3/paper3.html#INTRO