Abby writes her notes down. "Professor, were Ancient Runes directly influenced by the Sumerian writing system?" Abby wonders how a system of writing that orginated in Northern Europe could have its roots in a writing system that was started in the ancient Middle East.

She giggled at the prefect. "symbolic means it's a written language using symbols, and logophonetic means both signs for words and sounds. Consonantal alphabets are also known as abjads. In a "pure" consonantal alphabet, vowels are not written."

"They are... and they aren't, the Futhark alphabet is now considered, C&V Alphabetic." She said winking.

"Smart Boy." She said touching her nose.

"Because, wiith the years we, the wizard and human race I mean, became smarter and more sophisticated, so our ability to understand became more so." Alessia answered.

Alessia smiled at the boy who was squinting and shaking his head. Bless him. She went over, closed his textbook and said, "Don't worry, darling," she whispered, patting his hand. "It'll get easier soon..." He should pay attention to her... not the book... this would help.

"No, honey, not directly. But it all had to start somewhere and that's where writing systems started." she aswered sweetly.

"Good Question! I already mentioned logophonetic, consonantal alphabetic, syllabic systems and C&V Alphabetic. Class, Give me the names of others... and some of the languages and writing systems that fall under them." She asked... She didn't mean to spend this much time on writing systems, but it was good knowledge.

Dominic sat there listening to what the others had to say, unsure really on any judgment about Alessia Lupa yet, but then he heard her asking about other types of system. Confused about her question, he nonetheless raised his hand, knowing his house could use the points if nothing else, "The Cuneiform system used phonograms and logograms, and other symbols that represent a syllable or sound..." he paused hesitantly before going on. "Some of the earliest writings from Uruk contain logographic symbols that represented numbers, objects, and names. Cuneiform writing also included determinatives, which were symbols used to indicate which to class of words a word belonged to, such as plurals, men rivers, gods, and wooden objects"

Sarah listened to the Professor's answer to her question.Fair enough,people evolve and learn.
Having said that Sarah's ability to learn this sort of Ancient Runes,well,it didn't exist.Stuck..in deep doo doo..no comprende..however you wanted to say it that was the situation Sarah found herself in.
Not wanting to appear any more stupid than she thought she already did,she just scribbled down all that Lupa had mentioned and waited for the next part of the lesson to begin.

Barry said "Uh maybe the uh Logographic system? The Chinese,Jurchen,Khitan
,Mixtec,Naxi and Nushu come from it and thats all I know" well that was a try at least, at least he knew something

Uhhh. This was confusing. Juniper cautiously raised her hand. "Would... would ancient Greek and, say, ancient Egyptian be sort of like cuneiform systems?" she said. It was a long shot, but... if she didn't guess then she would always wonder. And there was no harm in guessing, after all. At least, Juniper did not think there was.

The flush stil colouring Clifford's cheeks deepened when the Professor giggled at him. That's right.. GIGGLED! Baaah, he was so dumb.. and now she thought he was dumb too. GRR.

He really didn't have the foggiest what her next question meant, but raised his hand anyway, wanting to give it a shot and show that he wasn't entirely stoopid.

"What about logographic?" He tried, struggling to remember the stuff Evangeline had helped him to read just before the lesson. "That system of writing uses bazillions of different signs and symbols." He explained, clearing his dry throat nervously. "A sign can mean a word.. or just part of a word.. so there are loads of 'em that aren't used every day."

Herminny raised her haned and said, "Chinese writing can fall under the C and V alphabetic system because they use symbols to represent letters"

Herminny then said,
"also the Egypians used heirogliphics which I believe is an example of logoform writing because they used pictures to represent letters"

Abby raises her hand. "Phoenician alphabet is a direct descendant of the Proto-Snaitic script. It differs in that Phoenician is more graphical than pictorograph. It is similar to Runes in that respect."

"Egyptian Hieroglyphics are characters made by graphical figures. They can be animals or objects."

"Not what I was asking for, Mr... Denton..." This was the Hufflepuff prefect! "Mr. Denton! Professor Kazimeriz told me to expect your visit... I've not seen you yet." She said smiling. "I hope you aren't... afraid of me."

"Yes, Egyptyan is Logophonetic and Greek is C&V Alphabetic. So yes they are like cuneiform systems." Two points.

"Mr. Weasley, such a bright little Ravenclaw, take five points." Less said with an appreciative nod.

"Not exactly, Darling. Chinese falls under Logographic, though Korean is C&V Alphabetic." She patted the girl's hand.

"Not exactly what I was asking, Sweety..." She smiled.

"Let's move on." She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear under her hood and continued, "To be fair, that wasn't an easy question. In fact it was somewhat of a trick... As Miss Brandywine said and was awarded points for, No-one knows exactly how old the runes are, or when they were invented."

She turned to the female Slytherin Prefect and said "As Miss Green said, Rune-like symbols have appeared as cave markings as early as the late Bronze Age (circa 1300 BC), two points, and they are mentioned in the Muggle religious book 'the Bible.' " She summonned another cup of coffee and sugared it as she continued talking.

"So let's step into a muggle fictional time machine and get hurled 500 years after this, bringing us to about, oh, 800 BC. Which nation can we see emerge?"

"The ancient Greeks Professor?" Tobi ventured a guess with his hand raised.

Herminny raised her hand and said "Ancient Greece", hoping she would finally get one right.

"Oh, and probably the Ancient Romans too," Tobi added, shooting his hand back up.

Abby gets out the machine and looks around. "We should be in Northern Italy. Euturia to be exact. Ancient Runes were also present in Sweden and among the Germanic people."

Jake raised his hand uncertainly, many dates were whizzing around in his head. "Was it something to do with the Greeks?"

He wasn't certain, but something happened to do with them at this time, and he couldn't think of much else. Jake bit his lip, a tad worried.

Juniper hesitantly raised her hand again. She had no idea. But she could guess. Guessing was good. "Maybe Babylon or Assyria?" she said. It was a guess. Juniper had never claimed to be good at Ancient Runes.

"Oooooh!," Melly let out as she heard the many students answering her questions. However, before she was able to note down everything they had said, she heard the teacher asking something for which she believed to know the answer. Or at least she hoped she did. "The Etruscan civilization, Professor?," She asked. "If I'm not mistaken, they were the ones who gave birth to the Roman Civilization, were they not?" Well, she had read something of the sort somewhere at least.

Daphne's eyelids started to droop, her mind leaving the classroom. She tried to keep her eyes open, but the stuffy room was too much. She put her head on her desk, and pretended to hold her quill as if to take notes. In another minute she drifted off to sleep.

Qaz kept jotting down notes. She wasn't all that fond of the historical perspective....she'd rather just get down to the Runes themselves....but a little background never hurt anybody, so she tried to stay focused.

Evangeline sat there, taking notes of everything the Professor was saying. She liked Professor Lupa already, she was nice. And eager to teach, it seemed. It was weird to realise that only six years after she had started her Hogwarts education she was learning the origins of the Runes, but ah well.

Her smile widened when the Professor said that not only she had said something right but had also earned two points. YAY!

Trying to be discreet, but probably failing a bit at that, Professor Kapoor entered the Runes class and took a seat. He'd done a bit of research on them, but they were never really his strong suit. And, since Professor Lupa had given him the generous gift of his own set of runes, he wanted to find out more about them. What better way then to attend one of Lupa's own classes.

Herminny is flabbergasted, thinking a professor is in Ancient Runes class with her, I guess it's never too late to learn new things, this professor was sure proving it.

Abby notices another person walk into the classroom. She doesn't recognize the man. I think I saw him at the opening feast. He must be auditing this class like Professor Kazimirez. I sure don't want to see him again anytime soon.

"Was it the greeks Professor?" Chris said with his hand raised

Miles jotted down what the Professor was saying, intrigued, as he had never really understood Ancient Runes. Instead of answering the question, which many people had done already, he continued to write, not used to writing so much. Hehe.