Deciphering hieroglyphics (2)
The
monosyllabic word He (meaning "window") was originally the image of a
man in front with raised arms calling to prayer. The Greeks transformed it into
epsilon and the Romans into E.
With
the other letters a similar process occurred. The final
evolutionary result was the Greco-Latin system (which includes as a derivative
the Cyrillic script that is currently used in Russia and Ukraine).
Other northeastern African languages
also created analogous systems. The ge'ez, traditional and religious language of Ethiopia is
written using its own script based on signs that represent consonants. As in
Arabic, these are modified to indicate the associated vowels. Other languages
commonly used in the Ethiopian region, such as Amharic, Tigrinya, Bin and
Me'en, also use the Ge'ez alphabet,
The
Chinese writing system follows rules analogous to the Egyptian system. It is
based on mainly syllabic logogram-like symbols that express contents and sounds
at the same time.
Chinese
logograms allow the writing of several Asian languages, in particular Chinese
(Hanzi) and Japanese (Kanji), as well as Korean, Vietnamese and other Eastern
languages.
The
dictionary of Chinese logograms Kangxi includes approximately 47,000 logograms,
although the commonly used ones are many less. With 3,000 or 4,000 logos a
person can be perfectly functional in understanding and writing the language.
The
Chinese system is generally composed of monosyllabic characters where each
represents a basic meaning. Mandarin Chinese may require more than one
character and there are numerous polysyllabic logograms. Its
meaning is different to the characters that compose it although there is
usually some relationship between the meaning of both types.
Tables containing the record of
"oracle bones" where the logograms are incisions in bones) with
transcription in Latin alphabet and modern logograms with representation in
Latin letters.
From: "Chronicles of Human Peripecies", D.Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones
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