What is ideographic writing?

An ideographic writing system is a writing method that uses graphic symbols to represent objects or ideas. This system maintains a single written form for morphemes or lexical items.

Here are some examples of ideographic writing:

• Chinese
• Japanese (some forms)

• What is morphemic writing?
• What is morphophonemic writing ?
• What is phonemic writing?
• What is phonetic writing?

• Concept module: ideographic writing
• In overview module: Glossary (Literacy): I
• In modular book: Glossary of literacy terms
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 2 July 1998

© 1999 SIL International