Complex scripts

The symbols used in these complex scripts often represent both sound and meaning. As a result, these scripts generally include a large number of symbols: anything from several hundred to tens of thousands. In fact there is no theoretical upper limit to the number of symbols in some scripts, such as Chinese. These scripts could be called logophonetic, morphophonemic, logographic or logosyllabic.

Complex scripts may include the following types of symbol:

Pictograms and logograms

Pictograms or pictographs resemble the things they represent. Logograms are symbols that represent parts of words or whole words. The image on the right shows some examples of pictograms from the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic and Chinese scripts. The Chinese characters used to look like the things they stand for, but have become increasingly stylized over the years.

Ideograms

Ideograms or ideographs are symbols which graphically represent abstract ideas. The image below shows a number of ideographic Chinese characters.

Compound characters

The majority of characters in the Chinese script are semanto-phonetic compounds: they include a semantic element, which represents or hints at their meaning, and a phonetic element, which shows or hints at their pronunciation. Below are a few such compound characters which all share a sematic element meaning 'horse'.

Sometimes symbols are used for their phonetic value alone, without regard for their meaning, for example when transliterating foreign names and loan words.

Complex scripts currently in use

Chinese (Zhōngwén)

Japanese (Nihongo)

Complex scripts used mainly for decorative, ceremonial or religious purposes

Naxi

Nushu

Complex scripts that are no longer used

Ancient Egyptian Demotic	Ancient Egyptian Hieratic	Ancient Egyptian Hieroglypic
Vietnamese (Chữ-nôm)	Jurchen	Khitan
Linear B	Mayan	Tangut (Xīxìa/Hsi-hsia)