I'm looking to study different languages made from symbols. Of course every language is simply just symbols but I really like Sanskrit, etc. just languages with unconventional symbols. where can I find more online?
2007-08-14 15:59:55 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Sanskrit uses the Devanagari script, which is a writing system still in use by many South Asian languages. It's similar in concept to the Roman alphabet. It isn't "unconventional" in any sense that I can think of.
2007-08-14 16:05:41 · answer #1 · answered by Kat 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Google the term 'ideogram' or 'ideograph'. An Ideogram is a visual symbol and a word at the same time--used in Asian languages, although there has been a lot of controversy over whether these characters actually look like anything. Probably better to do your research in a book, since it's hard to put ideograms into computer sites.
2007-08-14 23:19:21 · answer #2 · answered by holacarinados 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Chinese Characters which are used in East Asian countries can be considered to be "symbols" as they are derived from real life objects (ideograms). For example the characterãç° meaning rice fields in Japan looks like 4 rice patties. å±± means mountain in Japanese and it looks like a mountain with 3 peaks.
Another language made by "symbols" would be the Moso langage found close to Tibet and Burma. The characters that they use are pictographs and is considered one of the last few types of pictographic languages. It is usually used by the local religious leaders but not by the local people.
2007-08-15 00:01:27 · answer #3 · answered by Francis C 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't really know what you mean by "unconventional" unless you mean anything that doesn't use the Latin alphabet. In that case, some languages like that would be:
Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese)
Japanese
Korean
Hebrew
Arabic
Bengali
Farsi (Persian)
2007-08-14 23:21:09 · answer #4 · answered by Belie 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋