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A letter is a written message from one party to another containing information. Letters guarantee the preservation of communication between both parties. They bring friends or relatives closer together, enrich professional relationships and provide a satisfying mean of self-expression. Letters contribute to the protection and conservation of literacy, which is the ability to write and read. 〔Gary Blake and Robert W. Bly, ''The Elements of Technical Writing'', pg. 125. New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1993. ISBN 0020130856〕 Letters have been sent since antiquity and are mentioned in the ''Iliad'' 〔Homer, ''Iliad'', 6. 167–70.〕 by Homer (lived around 7th or 8th centuries B.C.). Works by both Herodotus and Thucydides, also mention letters.〔Ebbeler, J. (2009) "Tradition, innovation, and epistolary mores" in Rousseau, P. (ed.) ''A companion to late antiquity.'' Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. 270. ISBN 978-1-4051-1980-1〕 ==History of letter writing== Historically, letters have existed from the time of ancient India, ancient Egypt and Sumer, through Rome, Greece and China, up to the present day. During the seventeenth and eighteenth century, letters were used to self-educate. Letters were a way to practice critical reading, self-expressive writing, polemical writing and also exchange ideas with like-minded others. For some people, letters were seen as a written performance. For others, it was not only seen as a performance but also as a way of communication and a method of gaining feedback. Nowadays, letters make up several of the books of the Bible. Archives of correspondence, whether for personal, diplomatic, or business reasons, serve as primary sources for historians. At certain times, the writing of letters has risen to be an art form and a genre of literature, for instance in Byzantine epistolography.〔"Epistolography" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'', Oxford University Press, New York & Oxford, 1991, p. 718. ISBN 0195046528〕 In the ancient world letters were written on a various different materials, including metal, lead, wax-coated wooden tablets, pottery fragments, animal skin, and papyrus. From Ovid, we learn that Acontius used an apple for his letter to Cydippe.〔Ovid, ''Her''. 20〕 As communication technology has diversified, posted letters have become less important as a routine form of communication. For example, the development of the telegraph drastically shortened the time taken to send a communication, by sending it between distant points as an electrical signal. At the telegraph office closest to the destination, the signal was converted back into writing on paper and delivered to the recipient. The next step was the telex which avoided the need for local delivery. Then followed the fax (facsimile) machine: a letter could be transferred electrically from the sender to the receiver through the telephone network as an image. Today, the internet, by means of email, plays a large part in written communications; however, these email communications are not generally referred to as letters but rather as e-mail (or email) messages, messages or simply emails or e-mails, with only the term "letter" generally being reserved for communications on paper. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Letter (message)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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