Most of the world’s languages are written alphabetically; in an alphabetic writing system the basic components represent sounds only without any reference to meaning. For example, the letter “b” in ...

The Chinese writing system is the most widespread writing system in East Asia. Vietnamese used to use it; Korean still does in some contexts; and Japanese uses it too, but augments it with two ...

When creating a new writing system, the approach often depends on the language's unique structure. For instance, many people might assume that writing should mirror speech directly, and thus create an ...

Few things in Chinese culture are more widely misunderstood outside of China than the Chinese language. The Chinese write very differently from us and indeed from all other literate societies in today ...

“What Chinese writing and emoji have in common is that they both convey meaning through images instead of an alphabet,” write the authors in their introduction.