3 ms·
> Think of it as the Egyptian hieroglyphs. I'm sure they were quite clear for people back then. But today? we've lost the link to the original concept. Hm? Egy
by lamby 13y ago
> Think of it as the Egyptian hieroglyphs. I'm sure they were quite clear for people back then. But today? we've lost the link to the original concept.
Hm? Egyptian hieroglyphs are not metaphorical ideograms but part of a "true" phonetic writing system. Nothing has been lost.
- legutierr 13y agoIf I remember what I learned in Egyptology class, this is actually not entirely true. Although pure phonetic writing was possible, in actual practice hieroglyphs were a mixed system wherein individual hieroglyphs were sometimes treated as pictograms in order to give additional contextual meaning to a phonetically spelled word.