Three main classes:

One may classify writings - also phonetic picture-writings - by the proportion "number of signs : number of sounds", yielding three main classes:

	1) There are much more signs than sounds:	syllable writing	(proportion n:1)
	2) There are as many signs like sounds:	letter writing	(proportion 1:1)
	3) There are much less signs than sounds:	position writing	(proportion 1:n)

So, the proportion "signs : sounds" is a clear pointer to how a writing is working. It also is a hint about the phonetic complexity of a language: Syllable writings are practicable only with a relatively small number of syllables, that is a relatively simple syllable structure. Also position writings are practicable only with certain syllable structures (see below). An integer number proportion n:1 or 1:n indicates a regular syllable structure.

Also the number of sounds is interesting. It is also a hint to the phonetic complexity of a language.

English writing mainly is a letter writing. But it also has signs for sound groups, for example the sign j denotes the sound group tsh. And vice versa, for some sounds (sh, ng) more than one sign is used. The sound value of the sign s for example depends on its position, in the sign group sh its another than else.

Syllable Writing

An example:   it is based on the following phonetical system:

           4  vowels:                   i  e  a  o
           4  humming consonants:       n  m  l  v
           4  not humming  cons.:       s  f  t  p

All syllables have the structure "consonant + vowel", e.g. "si", "ti", "ta". So there are only 8*4 = 32 syllables. Examples of words: ti, sino, pivili, sifetapo. Any possible series of syllables can be spoken easily. Now to every syllable is assigned a sign, out of which ideograms are composed, with writing direction from bottom to top.   Example:

soposa "face"; detailed

More syllable writings you find in the link-list at the end of the main article "phonetic picture-writing"

There are numerous ways to design a syllable writing. It is important, that the signs are constructed regularly, so that they can be learned easily (e.g.: left half of a sign = consonant, right half = vowel). For, even with a simple phonetic system (e.g. 10 consonants, 5 vowels, 5 diphthongs) syllable-writings can have 100 ore more signs.

Letter Writing

Example:   the simple phonetic picture-writing with only 12 letters, well described in the main article:







Example of a word:

ela "face"; detailed:

It was already explained in the main article: if a phonetic picture-writing is realized as a letter writing, 2 not written filling sounds (1 vowel, 1 consonant) are necessary to make speakable any combination of letters. Graphical improvement is possible by overwriting of signs

More letter writings you find in the link-list at the end of the main article

Position Writing

A position writing has much less signs than sounds. Is it possible to construct a phonetic picture-writing with these few signs?   Yes, in 2 ways:

1) With the Point writing with 7 signs a sign is read as a consonant or a vowel, depending on it's position

2) The same is true for the bar writing with only 4 signs (bars). With it, ideograms are composed of signs not in a linear, but a 2-dimensional way.
Example: This ideogram is composed matrix - like out of 2 * 4, that is 8 signs (in an unvisible square raster):

potapofi "house"; detailed:

7 8 5 6 3 4 1 2

The signs are read in the order shown left. So every row is read from left to right, und rows more at bottom are read earlier. In each row there are 2 signs

The same sign may be spoken differently, due to its position in a row. If it's found left (at the beginning of a row), it is spoken as a consonant. - If it's found right (at the end of a row), it is spoken as a vowel. So it's made sure that the whole ideogram can be spoken easily.   Here's the whole table of signs:

                             S i g n           -Pronunciation-
                                               consonant Vowel

                                 \                 p       u
                                 /                 t       o
                                 |                 l       e
                                 -                 m       a

The selection of sounds and their assignment to signs in this table are not optimal, but done so for easy extension (see the extended versions in the article Some bar writings). The above simple bar writing does not utilize a great part of the sounds a man can speak, and it does not make possible good ideograms. Enormous Enhancement is possible by:

                - Using more signs:     .  [point]    and / or      o   [curl]
                - Allowing spaces  (empty signs)  in a  row  (important!)
                - Allowing  more  than  2  signs  in  a  row   (important!)

The following examples show, what nice ideograms one can form with 4 signs only, if more than 2 signs per line and spaces are possible (for better understanding, the basic screen is also shown).





But generally a position writing is much more unpracticable than a letter or syllable writing, because of the higher average word length and the more complicated procedure. But it also has advantages, for example the unlimited size of ideograms (breadth and height), if more than 2 signs per line are allowed.

Mixed Writing

Also mixed kinds of writings are possible, hybrids of the 3 classes of phonetic picture-writings described above. The above position writing, for example, one might consider as a special kind of syllable writing, with syllable signs composed out of a consonant sign and a vowel sign. But if, in this position writing, any number of signs in one row is allowed, it makes no sense to take it as a syllable writing.   Some mixed writings:

1) Diphtong writing: The phonetic picture-writing with 12 letters has only 3 vowel signs (horizontal lines):   e, a, o   (i is an acoustical filling vowel).
But it'easy to double the number of vowel signs by assigning letters also to the diphtongs ei, ai, oi, ui, au. Now it's not more possible to use j (spoken like y in yes) as filling consonant: For it was impossible to discern a-j-a from ai-j-a acoustically. Instead one might use h or ng (like in 'sing'). The sequence of vowel signs a-a now is spoken as aha, but the sequence ai-a as aia: here it's not necessary to speak a filling consonant. (Also one might use diptongs and triphtongs consisting of 2 syllables, like ie, ia, io, iai, ioi, iau etc.).

Also consonant combinations like ts, ks, ps, st, pl, pr, kv may be written by special signs. (nt, nk, mp, lp etc. are problematic, as they cannot be spoken well at the beginning of a word: here one had to speak the filling sound i before). The sequence of the signs ts-pr (2 signs) now is spoken as tsipri, whereas the sequence o the signs t-s-p-r (4 signs) is spoken as tisipiri.

Evaluation: More signs make possible better ideograms, nice diphtongs let the language sound nicer. But many consonantic diphtongs make words difficult to speak and less melodious. Also it's better to use diphtongs like ei, ai, oi, ui instead of vowels not common in many languages, like y and ö, or instead of the dark u. (The y one might use because it's melodious).
A diphtong writing is recommendable, if a letter writing had too less signs, but a syllable writing too many.


2) Pairs-of-syllables writing: An example with the following phonetic base:
9 consonants:   t,k,p, l,n,m, s,š,f   5 vowels:   i,u , e,a,o

Now, with the 9 consonants and 2 vowels i,u we form 18 syllables: ti,ki,pi .... tu,ku,pu ... These 18 syllables are written by 18 signs. Also there are 3 letters for e,a,o. A word, consisting of the syllable signs si-pi-tu, is spoken as sipitu, a word, consisting of the signs ti-a-ti as tiati. But the sequence of the signs tu-a is spoken as ta, because an u before a vowel sign is not spoken. To shorten the word acoustically and to avoid the rather ugly diphtongs ue, ua, uo.
More examples: The sequence of the signs tu-a-tu is spoken as tatu, ti-a-tu as tiatu, tu-a-pu-a as tapa, su-o-pi as sopi, su-e-fi as sefi.

The filling consonant j is still necessary between written vowel signs: a-a is spoken as aja, ti-ti-a-a as titiaja, tu-a-a as taja.

We name this system of writing 'pairs-of-syllables writing', because for each consonant there are 2 syllable signs beginning with this consonant. That we use for an easy-to-learn classification of signs and sounds:




Signs narrowing on top get assigned the spoken syllables ti,ki,pi, the corresponding turned down signs (broadening on top) get assigned the syllables tu,ku,pu. Also vertical lines (single or multiple), which are centered, get assigned the spoken syllables lu,nu,mu, the corresponding signs shifted to the left get assigned the syllables li,ni,mi. So a syllable sign ending with -u always is formed by turning or shifting a syllable sign ending with -i. (Exception: the signs mu / mi). By si,ši,fi, su,šu,fu we can name another 6 signs.

Another good possibility of classification: The 9 consonant signs of the phonetic picture-writing with 12 letters, namely s,f... , now are named si,fi... If they are followed by a vowel sign, the i is not spoken (like in letter writing). Thus no word is longer than in pure letter writing. sy,fy... are the signs si,fi... doubled, or with added vertical lines on the left and right or with added vertical line in center (broad signs). sy,fy... followed by a vowel sign, e.g. a, are spoken as sya,tya... which sounds melodious. By this classification, one may extend the pure letter writing without changing it (assumed there was no letter for the vowel y).

Evaluation: If you want a phonetic picture-writing having about twice as many signs than sounds, and no consonant combinations, you might choose this system.


3) Mixed letter- and syllable-writing: often used signs are named by single sounds, seldom used signs by syllables. By such syllables, where either the consonant or the vowel has no attached sign. Example: Seldom signs get attached the syllables ri,re,ra,ro, the r has no attached sign (otherwise, for example the syllable ro might also be written by the letters r-o, so the writing was ambigous). Or seldom signs get attached the syllables sy,fy,ty,ky ... , the y has no attached sign. A filling consonant (j) and a filling vowel (i) are necessary like with a letter writing.

Comparing evaluation:

Ease of Learning

- A syllable writing has many signs, which increases learning time

- With a letter writing, signs can be learned quicker. But therefore, it's necessary to learn the rule when to speak the filling sounds i/j to make any combination of letters pronouncable.

- With position writings, this trend is intensified: The learning effort for the signs themselves is even smaller, the effort to learn rules higher.

If you consider the signs of a writing as its hardware, the rules as its software, one may say: The more effort is done with the one, the less effort is necessary with the other, and vice versa.




Ease of beginning

Only with a syllable writing, beginning is as easy as you want: One may give to a pupil 2 or 3 tiles with syllable signs and teach him their pronunciation. Then he may combine these tiles at will and try to invent or imitate ideograms. The pupil will be able to speak any new ideogram correctly as series of the single syllables. With other kinds of phonetic picture-writings, an ideogram is not always spoken as series of the shown letters, because sometimes filling sounds are necessary (with letter writing), or pronunciation of letters is changing (with position writing).

Ease of beginning and ease of learning are highly important in social respect, as all people should be able to write - also in developing countries and in bad times. Also for this reason, a writing should be as interesting as possible to attract pupils - phonetic picture-writing here is outstanding.




Synchronism of language and writing

When using a letter writing, one can write down each spoken sound of a dictation immediately after hearing. Using a syllable writing, a man or maschine had to wait until the syllable is completed. So, with a letter writing, language and writing are synchronized in smaller steps.

But another point of view may be more important:

Only with a syllable writing, language and writing are evenly synchronous. As one can write signs, one after the other, without problems, one can speak syllables (with appropriate structure, e.g. "consonant + vowel" ) one after the other without problems: The series of syllables "ti", "ta", "ti" can be easily spoken as "titati".

With a letter picture-writing, the series of letters "ttat" would be spoken as "titati" (using the filling sound i). Obviously writing and language here are asynchronous. Also the spoken syllable "ta" for example is not a smooth series of the sounds t and a: if one would speak these sounds without sluring, the result was an abrupt "t-a".




Visualizing and speed

If one hears a slowly spoken text of a phonetic picture-writing, one can visualize it (imagine it written down) after some exercise. This is best possible with a syllable writing: The synchronism of language and writing and the representing of some sounds by only one sign make that easier.

With other kinds of phonetic picture - writings, visualizing is slower. I know that by experience, but it also can be made plausible by a rule of experimental psychology. The rule of Merkel (1885) says:

The reaction time of a person, asked to choose a certain thing out of n things, increases logarithmical with n.
Measurements indicate about   T = 200 + 180 * log n [msec]

Example: With a syllable writing with 8 consonants and 4 vowels, giving 32 syllables of structure "consonant + vowel", the reaction time per syllable was = 200 + 180 * 5 = 1100 msec (as dual logarithm of 32 = 5 respectly vice versa 2 ⁵ = 32 )

With a letter writing (12 letters), the corresponding reaction time for 2 letters is = 2 * (200 + 180 * 3,6) = 1698 msec, thus well 50 % more.

One might say, that reading a syllable writing is quicker because there is a kind of parallel processing (minimally 2 sounds are read at the same time), whereas reading a letter writing is completely serial.

(When reading words or texts, the reaction time per sign is smaller. For words are recognized also by their overall outline. Also, when reading, there is no time necessary for bodily reaction - pressing a button or something like that).




Syllable signs as words

With a syllable writing, some or all signs may be words. Example:





This ideogram means 'hurrying man'. It is composed out of 3 syllable signs, which, as words, mean "angle", "wave" and "point".
This fact, that single syllable signs already are words, has many advantages: It makes it easier to learn the signs (especially if this artificial language was the mother language of the learner), to read the signs and especially to visualize: The above ideogram in fact is the series of the forms "angle", "wave", "point"




Optical Quality and Word Length

Syllable writings have, even when based on simple phonetic system, more signs than other kinds of phonetic writing. That's why they allow, on principle, ideograms to be more expressive, more elegant, more compact, quicker writable. But an ideogram must not become acoustically too long, and thus it must contain less (say about the half) syllable signs, than it could contain letter signs.

But many ideas seem to be expressed better with a set of simple signs, but more signs per ideogram - then a letter writing was better.

Most flexible is 'drawing' things by bar writing, because of the unlimited size of ideograms (besides in the simple version shown above) and the composition of ideograms of small parts (which gives the ideograms a special kind of beauty).

The whole question also depends on the vocabulary (for plants supposely an other phonetic picture-writing is optimal than for physics), and on the special writing.

The optical quality of a phonetic picture-writing only can be evaluated if one knows a certain number of ideograms and texts. Not ideograms specially selected to demonstrate the quality of this special writing, better a basic set of 350 words, evenly surveying all common themes.

The average acoustical word length is distinctly longer with bar writings than with other kinds of writings.




Phonetics

All kinds of (well designed) phonetic picture-writings produce well sounding, phonetically clear words / ideograms. With syllable writings, the syllable structure can be designed exactly: for example, allow only syllables with structure "consonant + vowel" (acoustically very clear, but may be too monotonous), or allow also syllables with structure "consonant + diphthong" (examples: mei mai, moi).

Important: There should be a clear acoustic separation of neighboring words, and of sentences. The normal (very short or missing) sound gap between spoken words, and the accent (always at the beginning of a word, or always at the end), perhaps are not sufficient, with fluid speaking, to let a hearer decide, if for example "ti ta ki" or "ti taki" or "tita ki" or "titaki" was spoken.
One can use not written particles (grammatical words) to indicate the borders of words, columns and sentences. For this, a syllable writing, with which each syllable, and so each word, begins with a consonant and ends with a vowel, is especially advantagous: One may use as particles before words single vowels, e.g. o, a, e . After these vowels, any word, as beginning with a consonant, can be fluidly spoken. The sentence "o tita a ki" for example can easily be spoken and can be separated into words easily and definitely by a hearer.

And by a computer too, for: Analyzing such a sentence, extracting its words, can be done in a purely acoustic, technical way - because of its clear phonetics. In opposite to this, in most 'natural' languages word borders mostly cannot be recognized by acoustic means only - a hearer often tries, after hearing a sentence and understanding it partially, to reconstruct it according to a supposed sense. (Thats the reason why a bad telefone line, allowing correct syllable recognizing of only 10 % , allows correct sentence understanding of 42 % - to a man only, not to a computer.

Details about these questions you find in the article Phonetic systems for artificial languages and at the descriptions of the single syllable-, letter- and position writings.




Beauty, psyche

Optical and acoustic beauty of a writing / language are an important point of view, but also depending on one's taste: Are simple, clear ideograms, like made possible by a syllable writing, nicer than the ideograms of a letter writing, which mostly are composed out of more lines? Anyway, small ideograms are more practicable - easier to write, read and remember.
In any case, on should consider the mental and spiritual aspect of sounds, writings and ways to write - they are as less neutral in this respect, as music or pictures are neutral in that sense.




Technical Effort

With a syllable writing, more compact ideograms are possible. Thus it is quicker to read and write (important for taking notes) and needs a little less space and writing material (this means in the Middle Ages: save expensive paper; in the computer ages: more text on a screen).

When printing by types, for a syllable writing many kinds of types are needed.(But most syllable signs, when turned up, represent another sign; it's the same with 1-sound-letters: thus the number of necessary kinds of types is decreased). But the number of needed examples of types is far the smallest with a syllable writing (because a text contains much less signs).

A keyboard with syllable keys would double the speed of typing, but it seems to make sense only with a smaller number of syllables. But also syllables can be entered as two or more single sounds - then the keyboard can be as minimal as with a letter writing. But then not each sign appears on a key, unfortunetaly.




Fitness for Computer

All kinds of phonetic picture-writings can be displayed on a screen without problems. Once the signs are in a computer symbol table, ideograms formed by them may be used for illustration also in texts in an other language. They are easier to create (just type them) and use much less computer memory than normal graphics.

The number of bits, which are necessary to store a text, is smallest if the text is stored syllable-wise. This kind of storing is possible with any kind of phonetic picture-writing, but only with a syllable writing it is completely synchronous with the writing (1 spoken syllable = 1 sign on paper = 1 sign in the storage).

For automatic speech recognizing, becoming important in future, phonetic clearness of a language is the deciding factor. All kinds of phonetic picture-writings can be based on a very clear phonetic system, producing a limited number of clear syllables, and phonetically very clear words. Then, with all kinds, automatic speech recognition can be performed as syllable-wise speech recognition, which is easier and more reliable than other methods: because each syllable is a place of high sound intensity, separated from other syllables by gaps of low sound intensity. (The huge number of syllables in most 'natural' languages, except Japanese, makes it impossible to use this kind of speech recognition for these languages. Also syllable sluring like in "can-not" is a difficulty)

Also for logical text processing by EDP, generally artificial languages without changing words are advantagous. Because then, when looking for an idea, like "house", it's not necessary to look for related grammatical forms too, like "houses"