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Writing systems
Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that one must usually
understand something of the associated spoken language to comprehend the text. By contrast, other possible symbolic systems
such as information signs, painting, maps, and mathematics often do not require prior knowledge of a spoken language.
Types of Writing Systems
Writing systems can be conveniently classified into broad "types" depending on the way they represent their underlying
languages.
1. Logographic Writing
A system of this kind uses a tremendous number of signs, each to represent a morpheme. A morpheme is the minimal
unit in a language that carries some meaning. Logograms are commonly known also as "ideograms". Logograms are visual
symbols representing words rather than the sounds or phonemes that make up the word, it is relatively easier to remember or
guess the meaning of logograms, while it might be relatively harder to remember or guess the sound of alphabetic written
words.
So, a logogram, a sign in a logographic system, may represent a word, or part of a word (like a suffix to denote a plural
noun). Because of this, the number of signs could grow to staggering numbers like Chinese which has more than 10,000
signs (most of them unused in everyday usage).
Chinese, Jurchen, Khitan, Mixtec, Naxi, Nushu, Tangut
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