Ancient EgyptianHieroglyphics and the dawn of （古代EgyptianHieroglyphics的黎明）.pdf

henu.html 9/27/05 12:15 AM Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics and the dawn of writing The first attempt to visualize speech involved the use of marks which stood for a whole word or concept. Such symbols are usually called logograms, literally word marks. Since concept signs can be iconic or arbitrary, I prefer to use the term, ideogram, to refer to an iconic word sign and reserve logogram for arbitrary word signs. The problem is that most logograms began as ideograms. For instance, our numbers 1,2, and 3 began as tally marks similar to the Roman numerals I, II, and III. Since only a fraction of the population that uses the numbers, recognizes what the shapes originally represented, they are properly classified as arbitrary logograms. Sound signs have a similar problem. Only a fraction of the population recognizes what the letters of the alphabet originally represented, so they must be classified as arbitrary. This is not possible with hieroglyphic sound signs since they still look like their reference category. Mmouri (owl) Can you see how the M shape could have been derived from the image of the owl? Check out the close up. Symbols that in some w