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Re: Q's Re: A conlang idea rolling around in my head

From:Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>
Date:Wednesday, December 3, 2003, 18:57
--- David Peterson <ThatBlueCat@...> wrote:

>But > ever since that time, my mind has > thought about nothing else--NOTHING--but creating a > pictograph language. > It's driven me wild.
<snip> My sincere appologies. I had no idea it was contageous or I would have avoided exposing others to the infection. ;)
> With that said, I have a few questions: >
<snip>
>In a pictograph > language, should you try to > keep it all pictures, or all abstracts?
<snip>
> Q to Gary: What was your language like, with respect > to the models outlined > above? I'm eager to devour any info you can > remember. >
When I started tmy first Pictographic language I was also in my second year of night school studies in American Sign Language and some of my glyphs tended to resemble, at least superficially, a stylized or schematic version of the sign language sign. In general my main focus was on keeping the symbols clean and legible. I wanted to avoid the over-crowded, cluttered and cramped look of most Chinese pictograms. They just have too many lines. I tried to adhere to an absolute maximum of 4 pen strokes for any glyph. If I had to sacrifice "representationalism" for economy of line, I always choose the more abstract but graphically simpler version. Here are a few notes quick-and-dirty with pictures I uploaded to my web space: http://fiziwig.com/glyph.html