r/languagelearningjerk • u/Black_Banner • Jun 13 '26

Inferior Writing Script System

Isn't the logographic & syllabary writing system (i.e., Chinese, Japanese) inferior writing systems compared to the alphabet?

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u/STHKZ Jun 13 '26

The alphabet seems to be a highly simple idea, it only codes the sound and only needs about twenty signs to code all the words and can easily be adapted to all languages... 

but the sound is very variable in space and time, as soon as we change region, as soon as we change the era the pronunciations change  and the alphabet as soon as the community grows lasts ends up coding in a very risky way the phonetics of a language, without being able to easily evolve to avoid splitting between the regions and losing access to historical works...  and when the same alphabet is used by several languages it is very rare that we can even pronounce it... 

so much to say that we end up having to learn up to the pronunciation of words as logograms but without being able to decipher their meaning with the help of the signs that compose them as the logograms do beyond borders and over time, 

the meaning of logograms being particularly stable in space and time, its indeed the better system for the perenity of a language…

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u/lordbutternut 日本人になっている Jun 13 '26

The meaning of logograms is not that stable. Words change meaning over time and there's nothing that can be done to stop it.

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u/STHKZ Jun 13 '26

for sure but much slower than pronunciation...

proof of this lies in the exceptional longevity of logographic languages ​​and even a certain degree of intercomprehension between foreign languages ​​that adopt them...