Fundamental Properties (FP) of Languages: (6)

Phonetic Languages (PL) vs Ideographic Languages (IL);

(Phonology)

In our IPT database containing over 100 languages, we have analyzed and identified similarities and differences between phonetic languages and ideographic languages. Ideographic languages, mainly Chinese, exhibit a “one syllable one meaning” character or word system, where each character carries its own meaning and is pronounced with one syllable. For example, 100 = 百 (bai), 1000 = 千 (qian). In contrast, phonetic languages like English represent 100 as hundred (2 syllables) and 1000 as thousand (2 syllables).

Moreover, in Chinese, most syllables consist of one consonant + vowels, and sometimes two consonants + vowels (sh, zh). In phonetic languages, it is not uncommon to have one word with two (dr, tr) or three consonants (sch, ksh), and in some words may have all consonants without any vowels entirely (e.g. nkt = “female beaver” in Hebrew). While other languages have vowels for the whole word (e.g. aiea = “mongoose” in Hawaiian). These differences between PL and IL are provided for further study. Your additional input is highly appreciated.

(To be continued)