Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium Volume 12 Issue 1 Article 2 2-13-1986 The Variety of Scripts and Reading Insup Taylor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/dlls BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Taylor, Insup (1986) "The Variety of Scripts and Reading," Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium: Vol. 12 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/dlls/vol12/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. 1 The Variety of Scripts and Readlng Insup Taylor Life Sciences, Scarborough Campus University of Toronto, Canada A variety of writing systems are used today around the world. They differ In appear­ ance, number of symbols, and above all, In the linguistic units coded. In this address, I will describe four writing systems and 10 of their extant varieties or scripts, and then discuss how they are learned. Table 1 presents an overview of the writing systems and scripts to be described. Table 1. Variety of Writing Systems and Scripts System Script Ling. Unit No. of Symbols Logography colored shape word 130? Blissym bol word SOO? Chinese character morpheme 50,OOO? Syllabary Cree--Esklmo syllable 44-48 (+ ?) Val syllable 210 (+ ?) Japanese Kana syllable 46 (+ 60) Alphabet English phoneme 26 Finnish phoneme 37 (+ 6) Hebrew consonant 22 (+ 9) Alphabetic Korean Hangul phoneme 24 syllabary syllable 2,OOO? In Table 1, under "No. of Symbols," a Question mark Indicates that the number Is unspeciftable, for reasons to be given under each script. A logography codes meaning unit, while a syllabary, alphabet, and alphabetic syllabary codes phonetic units. Histori­ cally, writing systems developed In this order. I wlll consider three themes: 1. The characteristics of a language dictate, to some degree, the type of script pre­ ferred by that language. 2. The way a script represents meaning and/or sound has a great Influence on how word recognition In that script Is Icarned. 3. However, a script Is not the sole Influence on reading achievement and Iit!'racy attainment; socio-economlc factors also play a role. 2 Logography Each logograph represents a small meanlngrul unit, a word or morpheme. It may not be associated with any sound, or It may be associated with more than one sound. Consider one kind or logograph, the Arabic numeral 4. Its meaning remains constant, even to a dear-mute who cannot read It aloud, or to speakers or diverse languages who sound It out variously as four (English), quatre (French), yotsu or shi (Japanese) and net or sa (Korean). In this sense, a logograph represents meaning primarily and directly and sound only through the meaning. For rudimentary "reading and writing," a handful or logographs are adequate. Two such examples are eolored shapes ror chimpanzees and Bllssymbols for cerebral-palsied children. For proper reading and writing, a rull logography, a system of logographs, Is necessary. The Chinese system Is a prime example of a logography. Colored shapes lor chimps The simplest logographs may be the colored plastic shapes devised by the psycholo­ gists Premack and Premack (1972) to teach chimpanzees to communicate with human trainers. The plastic shapes are backed with metal so that they adhere to a magnetic board. Each arbitrary colored shape represents one word, and a rew such shape-words are mounted on a magnetic board to make a "sentence," as shown In Fig. 1. Sarah 0 (red) take ~ (yellow) apricot c:::) (blue) e&1J Figure - Sarah take apricot In chimps' symbols The shapes are relatively easy to learn for several reasons. The number of shapes to be learned Is small, about 130. These shapes are easily dlscrhnlnated, not only because their quantity Is small but also they vary In three visual dimensions: shape, color, and size. Each shape as a whole pattern, without any kind of analysis of Its Internal struc­ ture, Is paired with Its meaning. The meanings of words tend to be concrete and sim­ ple. The words need not be pronounced. Finally, to "wrlte" a sentence, required shapes are simply arranged In a sequence, as In Fig. 1. Blissymbols lor the cerebral-palsied A system called Blissymbols was Invented by Bliss (1965) as a universal written language. Some symbols are simple outline drawings of objects (Fig. 2a); some arc compounds or two or more simple symbols (b); some are arbitrary symbols for unplctur­ able and/or abstract concepts (c); and some are compounds of two or more of tl;csc simple symbols (d). (a) (b) (c) (d) 00 0 1§l +!~ -!! oii(.t)!o (tA.Y (whl'e'y' house arage y<':-I, no treat (or trlek; below) ~ o xffi! ~ ~! n ~ , treat-+thlng + spcelal-+[most + good-+(mlnd + and + Inicnslty)] Figure 2 The system of BIIs.<iyrnholli, like /lcvl'ml other "unlver.ml languageli" Invcnted ov('r till' 3 past rew hundred years, has never caught the public's fancy. However, a limited number or BlIssymbols (up to 500), are used by some cerebral-palsied children who can­ not articulate speech (Kates, MacNaughton, & Silverman, 1978). A child in a wheel­ chair Is provided with a table of symbols In a tray that sits on his or her lap. To communicate a message (e.g., "I want water"), the child simply points to required sym­ bols In sequence. Underneath each symbol Is the English word written small to help English readers communicate with the symbol user. The words could, of course, be written In any language. Learning 200 or so Blissymbois Is not difficult, because each simple shape need not be analyzed or be associated with sounds. Learning complex Blissymbols, especially those or types (c) and (d), might be difficult for some handicapped children of low IQ. Several mirror-Image Blissymbois represent two concepts that are similar save one subtle aspect. The case In point Is a left slanted line and a right slanted one representing the and A (or Is It other way around?) respectively. Some Blissymbols, such as Fig. 2d, are formed by absurdly elaborate embedding, requiring analysis and time to process. Without analysis, such symbols can be confused with other symbols sharing a few of the same embedded elements. The Bllssymbols do not appear to be the optimal means of communication for severely language handicapped children. (For "Optimal script for the language-handicapped," see Taylor, In press.) Chinese Characters The only rull logography used In modern world appears to be the Chinese system. It has been used continuously for over 4,000 years. Today it Is the sole writing system In the Republic or China and Taiwan, the major system In Japan, and a supplementary one In South Korea. Chinese characters an Chinese, Japanese, and Korean By way or preview, Fig. 3 shows the same sentence in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. If) A- t;- / 7:";0 b -;tL.-.. 11. "P ~ I cl- / OJ" 4 cr" (...1- ~ if l!l J..... G '" ~ ~ "J,o I oJ I.-f c..Y. d 4--E C:" / Figure 3 - I Am A Chinese in Chinese (a), Japanese (b), and Korean (c, d) Note that the word Chinese is Identical In the three languages, though pronounced somewhat differently: /zhong guo ren/ In Mandarin, /chu goku Jln/ In Japanese, and /chung guk In/ In Korcan. Only Chinese ha.~ tone variations, bctween four and nlnc, depending on dialect. Each Chinese character (henceforth, character) represents one morpheme. But, one Chinese word (or Chinese loan word In Japanese and Korean) Is not always one charac­ ter: It often consists of 23 morpheme characters. For example, the word 'Chlnesc' requires three characters (Fig. 3), each of which Is one morpheme (,middle, kingdom, 4 man'). The flrst two characters alone mean ·Chlna'. These two plus the character for 'language' means 'Chlnese (language)'. One character represent one spoken syllable In Chinese and Korean, but can represent more than one In Japanese. Compare the character for 'kingdom, nation' In Fig. 3: It Is /guo/ (CV) In Chinese, /guk/ (CVe) In Korean, but /goku/ (CVCV) In Japanese. (C=consonant, V=vowel) The Japanese and Korean sentences require postposltlons that Indicate case roles of nouns, and verb endings that Inflect for tense, levels of politeness, and so on. The sen­ tences In Fig. 3 end In present tense verbs In two alternate levels of politeness, a neu­ tral level before the slash U), and a polite level after It. A writer chooses one level or the other, depending on his or her relation with the addressee. There are a few more levels of politeness, as indicated by a series of dots. The Chinese sentence requires ncl­ ther postposltions nor verb endings that Inflect. The "grammatical morphemes" (Inflectional endings, postposltions, function words, etc.) In Japanese and Korean tend to be written In phonetic scripts. Indeed, It Is the neces­ sity of expressing grammatical morphemes that compelled Japanese to Invent phonetic scripts. Japanese, but not Koreans, tend to use Chinese characters even for native words, such as 'I' In Fig. 3. Here we haOle seen how three languages can use the same script, similarly for some pur­ poses, and dissimilarly for others. The different uses are necesslated by di fferences In languages: the Chinese language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan Family whereas Japanese and Korean belong to the Ural-AI talc Family. Japanese and Korean are similar only In syntax, but not In speech sounds, and hence not In vocabularies. Speakers of the three languages cannot communicate to each other by speaking; they can communicate to a limited degree through writing In characters.