Logogram


A Chinese logogram, which is also an [[ideogram.]] A logogram, or logograph, is a single written character which represents a word or a morpheme (a meaningful unit of language). This stands in contrast to other orthography, such as syllabaries, abjads, and alphabets, where each symbol primarily represents a sound or a combination of sounds. Chinese characters, used in Chinese and Japanese, is a logographic system. Korean used Chinese characters as well until widespread use of Hangul occured after World War II, as did Vietnamese before French missionaries landed in Indochina. A good example of modern western logograms are the numbers - 1 stands for one, 2 for two and so on; the ampersand & is used for and, while @ sometimes stands for at. Compared to alphabetical systems, logograms have a disadvantage in that one needs many of them to be able to write down a large number of words. An advantage is that one does not necessarily need to know the language of the writer to understand them - everyone understands what 1 means, whether they call it one, eins, uno or ichi; likewise, people speaking different Chinese dialects cannot understand each other in speaking, but sometimes can in writing, especially if written in Traditional Chinese. In addition, a logogram-based system uses fewer characters to express something than an alphabetic system, a benefit enjoyed by Chinese and to some extent Japanese users of cell phone web browsers and other devices which display information on a small screen.

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References

de:Logogramm fr:Logogramme

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