Another Short History of Linguistics (4)

We don’t have sufficient species of sound to represent the universe, yet we have enough pictures to represent whatever we want, but the trick is that sound communication is the most convenience one. Again it tell us the species of sound is the most important resource in a language. For this reason the pictogram is only the assistant of sound’s communication. In our everyday speaking, sound play the key role, if anything the sound could not work then find picture to remedy. Sound and picture helping each other, sound make the expression faster and picture make an expression fully. Yet one day a language joined these two symbols together for the purpose of simplification, then of course, some of the old purpose will lost. It turned to be like the conjoined twins always disturb each other. That was the Phoenician writing system revolution---alphabet.

Now let’s check what this revolution bring to the language. 

First of all, after this revolution, the writing system had been simplified. Think about, even in the time of Shakespeare, English had only 20,000-30,000 words, another two thousand years before Shakespeare, how many words would existed there? It could be only few thousand words, with such handful words, it was no necessary to using a complex writing system. So it was the right choice, to limit a writing symbol spread in one dimension:

That is to say any alphabet could only adding to right. While the pictogram no this limit, they can add to right, top or turning 45 to 90 degree, we have say these two direction as two dimensions. Besides, the pictogram can make a certain position just empty as a symbol. In this way, the pictogram fully used the space of a paper. Furthermore, there were some silent elements as the radical that we have talked before, it is the third dimension of pictogram, although it is hard to express by a picture. That is to say, the pictogram can spread a writing symbol in three dimensions (according Cartesian coordinate, the relationship of all three is multiply). The first two dimensions can be seen from the picture directly. While the third dimension is to distinguish a character that have the same pronunciation with others. The alphabet can only spread in one dimension. To distinguish another word, any time, it have to add a new alphabetic letter, as the rule forced the letter have sound so a new sound should be added, even reluctantly. In this way the word getter longer and longer in both pronunciation and writing. It is easy to understand as alphabet system limited the basic writing elements, this system is easy to master. But if the information is soaring up, any detail of new information will cost a whole element to express, so it would be overstaffed. The pictogram system at beginning had too much excess symbolic signal. It seemed awesome, but when the information soaring up, especially every word is digging its detail. The pictogram turn to be driving a light cart in a familiar road. Everything turned to be easy and adaption. As the pictogram save the place of paper, any document in United Nation’s six working languages, the Chinese one cost less paper than others.