S10: Writing systems
  
 

7. Ideographic and logographic scripts
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Sumerian scripts 3500 BC
Egyptian hieroglyphs 3000BC
Chinese script: 1500 BC

At first pictograms represented physical objects only, later also ideas, and finally the pictograms lost the meaning of the objects depicted but came to represent the sound of its spoken form, and so turned into phonograms.

Chinese:

 


Japanese:

  • Kanji script: 3000 chinese characters found their way into Japan, but found a different pronunciation there.

  • Kadmon:

 
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Copyright United Nations Statistics Division and International Cartographic Association, July 2012