From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_%28punctuation%29
Quote:
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Spaces were not used to separate words in Latin until roughly 600 AD – 800 AD. Ancient Hebrew and Arabic did use spaces, partly to compensate in clarity for the lack of vowels. Traditionally, all CJK languages have no spaces: modern Chinese and Japanese (except when written with little or no kanji) still do not, but modern Korean uses spaces.
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From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interword_separation
Quote:
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The early Semitic languages—which had no vowel signs—had interword separation, but languages with vowels (principally Greek and Latin) lost the separation, not regaining it until much later.
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Much of this latter article seems to be unreferenced, but this particular quote is tied to Saenger, Paul (2000).
Spaces between Words. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4016-X. This is a fascinating subject. I've always liked learning about writing systems.