Ideogram

An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek idéa 'idea' + gráphō 'to write') is a symbol that represents an idea or concept independent of any particular language.

While remaining logograms assigned to morphemes, specific Chinese characters like ⟨中⟩ 'middle' may be classified as ideographs in a narrower sense, given their origin and visual structure.

Their use could also be extended via the rebus principle: for example, the pictorial Dongba symbols without Geba annotation cannot represent the Naxi language, but are used as a mnemonic for the recitation of oral literature.

While Chinese characters generally function as logograms, three of the six classes in the traditional classification are ideographic (or semantographic) in origin, as they have no phonetic component: Example of ideograms are the DOT pictograms, a collection of 50 symbols developed during the 1970s by the American Institute of Graphic Arts at the request of the United States Department of Transportation.

According to tradition, the Greeks had acquired the ability to write, among other things, from the Egyptians through Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BC), who had been directly taught their silent form of "symbolic teaching".

[9] According to the classical theory, because ideographs directly reflected the forms, they were the only "true language",[10] and had the unique ability to communicate arcane wisdom to readers.

[12][13] Europe only became fully acquainted with written Chinese near the end of the 16th century, and initially related the system to their existing framework of ideography as partially informed by Egyptian hieroglyphs.

[14] Ultimately, Jean-François Champollion's successful decipherment of hieroglyphs in 1823 stemmed from an understanding that they did represent spoken Egyptian language, as opposed to being purely ideographic.

Champollion's insight in part stemmed from his familiarity with the work of French sinologist Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat regarding fanqie, which demonstrated that Chinese characters were often used to write sounds, and not just ideas.