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Picture−Parts CardsThese cards are designed to visually reveal the human mind's ability to substitutelanguage for natural things. But there is no need to explain anything. A young mindwill simply, spontaneously start recognizing the similarity between thenatural−looking images and the multi−colored pictographs, the first level ofabstraction, then notice the second level abstraction where the pictograph is dividedinto parts indicated by different colors, then the third level abstraction wherealphabetic letters are substituted for the picture−parts.picture−parts.com/

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Blissymbols 1

Blissymbols

BlissymbolsType Ideographic

Languages Blissymbols

Time period 1949 to the present

ISO 15924 Blis, 550

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols.

BlissymbolsCreated by Charles K. Bliss

Date 1949

Setting and usage Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Users some thousands of users  (date missing)

Purpose constructed language

•• International auxiliary language

•• Blissymbols

Sources Ideographic written language

Official status

Regulated by Blissymbolics Communication International

Language codes

ISO 639-2 zbl

ISO 639-3 zbl

Blissymbols or Blissymbolics was conceived as an ideographic writing system called Semantography consisting ofseveral hundred basic symbols, each representing a concept, which can be composed together to generate newsymbols that represent new concepts. Blissymbols differ from most of the world's major writing systems in that thecharacters do not correspond at all to the sounds of any spoken language.

HistoryBlissymbols was invented by Charles K. Bliss (1897–1985), born Karl Kasiel Blitz in the Austro-Hungarian city ofCzernowitz (at present the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi), which had a mixture of different nationalities that “hatedeach other, mainly because they spoke and thought in different languages.”[1] Bliss graduated as a chemical engineerat the Vienna University of Technology, and joined an electronics company as a research chemist.As the German Army invaded Austria in 1938, he was sent to the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald.His German wife Claire managed to get him released, and they finally became exiles in Shanghai, where Bliss had acousin.Bliss devised Blissymbols while a refugee at the Shanghai Ghetto and Sydney, from 1942 to 1949. He wanted tocreate an easy-to-learn international auxiliary language to allow communication between different linguisticcommunities. He was inspired by Chinese characters, with which he became familiar at Shanghai.Bliss’s system was explained in his work Semantography (1949,[2] 2nd ed. 1965,[3] 3rd ed. 1978.[4]) It had severalnames:

Blissymbols 2

In 1942 I named my symbols World Writing, then chose in 1947 an international scientific termSemantography (from Greek semanticos significant meaning, and graphein to write) .... My friends arguedthat is customary to name new writing systems after the inventors .... Blissymbolics, or Blissymbols, orsimply Bliss ....[3] (1965, p. 8)

As the “tourist explosion” took place in the 1960s, a number of researchers were looking for new standard symbols tobe used at roads, stations, airports, etc. Bliss then adopted the name Blissymbolics in order that no researcher couldplagiarize his system of symbols.Since the 1960s/1970s, Blissymbols have become popular as a method to teach disabled or handicapped people tocommunicate. In 1971 Shirley McNaughton started a pioneer program at the Ontario Crippled Children’s Centre(OCCC), aimed at children with cerebral palsy, from the approach of augmentative and alternative communication(AAC). According to Arika Okrent, Bliss used to complain about the way the teachers at the OCCC were using thesymbols, in relation with the proportions of the symbols and other questions: for example, they used “fancy” termslike “nouns” and “verbs”, to describe what Bliss called “things” and “actions”.[5] (2009, p. 173-4). The ultimateobjective of the OCCC program was to use Blissymbols as a practical way to teach the children to expressthemselves in their mother tongue, since the Blissymbols provided visual keys to understand the meaning of theEnglish words, especially the abstract words.In his work Semantography Bliss had not provided a systematic set of definitions for his symbols (there was aprovisional vocabulary index instead [3] (1965, pp. 827–67)), so McNaughton’s team might often interpret a certainsymbol in a way that Bliss would later criticize as a “misinterpretation”. For example, they might interpret a tomatoas a vegetable —according to the English definition of tomato— even though the ideal Blissymbol of vegetable wasrestricted by Bliss to just vegetables growing underground. Eventually the OCCC staff modified and adapted Bliss’ssystem in order to make it serve as a bridge to English.[5] (2009, p. 189) Bliss complaints about his symbols “beingabused” by the OCCC became so intense that the director of the OCCC told Bliss, on his 1974 visit, never to comeback. In spite of this, in 1975 Bliss granted an exclusive world license, for use with handicapped children, to the newBlissymbolics Communication Foundation directed by Shirley McNaughton (later called BlissymbolicsCommunication International, BCI). Nevertheless, in 1977 Bliss claimed that this agreement was violated so that hewas deprived of effective control of his symbol system.[1]

According to Okrent (2009, p. 190), there was a final period of conflict, as Bliss would make continuous criticismsto McNaughton often followed by apologies.[5] Bliss finally brought his lawyers back to the OCCC, and both partsreached a settlement:

In 1982, the OCCC got an exclusive, noncanceable, and perpetual license to use Blissymbolics, and he [Bliss]got $160,000. Easter Seals, the charitable foundation .... paid the settlement. .... Bliss spent the money on a bigpublication run of his own Blissymbols teaching manual.[5] (2009, pp. 192-4)

Blissymbolic Communication International now claims an exclusive license from Bliss, for the use and publicationof Blissymbols for persons with communication, language and learning difficulties.[1]

The Blissymbol method has been used in Canada, Sweden, and a few other countries. Practitioners of Blissymbolics(that is, speech and language therapists and users) maintain that some users who have learned to communicate withBlissymbolics find it easier to learn to read and write traditional orthography in the local spoken language than dousers who did not know Blissymbolics.

Blissymbols 3

The speech questionUnlike similar constructed languages like aUI,[5] Blissymbolics was conceived as a purely visual, speech-lesslanguage, on the premise that “interlinguistic communication is mainly carried on by reading and writing”.Nevertheless, Bliss suggested that a set of international words could be adopted, so that “a kind of spoken languagecould be established – as a travelling aid only”.[3] (1965, p. 89-90).So, whether Blissymbolics constitutes an unspoken language is a controversial question, whatever its practical utilitymay be. Some linguists, such as John DeFrancis [6][7] and J. Marshall Unger [8] have argued that genuine ideographicwriting systems with the same capacities as natural languages do not exist.

SemanticsBliss’s concern about semantics finds an early referent in John Locke,[9] whose Essay Concerning HumanUnderstanding prevented people from those "vague and insignificant forms of speech" that may give the impressionof being deep learning.Another vital referent is Leibniz’s project of an ideographic language called "universal character", based on theprinciples of Chinese characters. It would contain small figures representing "visible things by their lines, and theinvisible, by the visible which accompany them", as well as adding "certain additional marks, suitable to makeunderstood the flexions and the particles." [3] (1965, p. 569). Bliss stated that his own work was an attempt to take upthe thread of Leibniz’s project.Finally there is a strong influence by the work The Meaning of Meaning by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards,[10]

which was considered a standard work on semantics. Bliss found especially useful their "triangle of reference": thephysical thing or "referent" that we perceive would be represented at the right angle; the meaning that we know byexperience (our implicit definition of the thing), at the top angle; and the physical word that we speak or write, at theleft angle. The reversed process would happen when we read or listen to words: from the words, we recall meanings,related to referents which may be real things or unreal "fictions". Bliss was particularly concerned with politicalpropaganda, whose discourses would tend to contain words that correspond to unreal or ambiguous referents.

GrammarThe grammar of Blissymbols is based on a certain interpretation of nature, dividing it into matter (material things),energy (actions), and human values (mental evaluations). In an ordinary language, these would give placerespectively to substantives, verbs, and adjectives. In Blissymbols, they are marked respectively by a small squaresymbol, a small cone symbol, and a small V or inverted cone. These symbols may be placed above any othersymbol, turning it respectively into a “thing”, an “action”, and an “evaluation”:

The main manifestations of our world can be classified into matter, energy, and...mind force. Matter issymbolised by a square to indicate that the structure of matter is not chaotic...The symbol for energyindicates...the primeval [first age] action of our planet, the throwing-up of volcano cones...The symbol forhuman evaluation...suggests a cone standing on its point, a position which in physics is termed labile [likelyto fall, unstable]....All words relating to things and actions refer to something real, which exists outside of ourbrain. But human evaluations...depend upon the mind of each individual.[3] (1965, p. 42-43)

When a symbol is not marked by any of the three grammar symbols (square, cone, inverted cone), they may be a nonmaterial thing, a grammatical particle, etc.

Blissymbols 4

Examples

This symbol represents the expression "world language", which was a first tentative name for Blissymbols. Itcombines the symbol for "writing tool" or "pen" (a line inclined, as a pen being used) with the symbol for "world",which in its turn combines "ground" or "earth" (a horizontal line below) and its counterpart derivate "sky" (ahorizontal line above). Thus the world would be seen as "what is among the ground and the sky", and "Blissymbols"would be seen as "the writing tool to express the world".This is clearly distinct from the symbol of "language", which is a combination of "mouth" and "ear". Thus naturallanguages are mainly oral, while Blissymbols is just a writing system dealing with semantics, not phonetics.

This sentence means "I want to go to the cinema." This example shows several features of Blissymbolics:•• The pronoun "I" is formed of the symbol for "person" and the number 1 (the first person). Using the number 2

would give the symbol for singular "You"; adding the plural indicator (a small cross at the top) would produce thepronouns "We" and plural "You".

•• The symbol for "to want" contains the heart which symbolizes feeling and the verb indicator at the top.•• The symbol for "to go" is composed of the leg symbol and the verb indicator.•• The symbol for "movie theater" is composed of the symbols for "house" and "film"; "film" in turn is composed of

"camera" and the arrow.

Towards the international standardization of the scriptAs told above, Blissymbolics was used in 1971 to help children at the Ontario Crippled Children’s Centre (OCCC,now the Bloorview Kids Rehab) in Toronto, Canada. Since it was important that the children see consistent pictures,OCCC had a draftsman named Jim Grice draw the symbols. Both Charles K. Bliss and Margrit Beesley at the OCCCworked with Grice to ensure consistency. In 1975, a new organization named Blissymbolics CommunicationFoundation directed by Shirley McNaughton led this effort. Over the years, this organization changed its name toBlissymbolics Communication Institute, Easter Seal Communication Institute, and ultimately to BlissymbolicsCommunication International (BCI).BCI is an international group of people who act as an authority regarding the standardization of the Blissymbolicslanguage. It has taken responsibility for any extensions of the Blissymbolics language as well as any maintenanceneeded for the language. BCI has coordinated usage of the language since 1971 for augmentative and alternativecommunication. BCI received a licence and copyright through legal agreements with Charles K. Bliss in 1975 and1982. Limiting the count of Bliss-characters (there are currently about 900) is very useful in order to help the usercommunity. It also helps when implementing Blissymbolics using technology such as computers.In 1991, BCI published a reference guide [11] containing 2300 vocabulary items and detailed rules for the graphicdesign of additional characters, so they settled a first set of approved Bliss-words for general use. The Standardscouncil of Canada then sponsored, on January 21, 1993, the registration of an encoded character set for use inISO/IEC 2022, in the ISO-IR international registry of coded character sets. After many years of requests, theBlissymbolic language was finally approved as an encoded language, with code zbl, into the ISO 639-2 and ISO639-3 standards.

Blissymbols 5

A proposal was posted by Michael Everson for the Blissymbolics script to be included in the Universal Character Set(UCS) and encoded for use with the ISO/IEC 10646 and Unicode standards.[12] BCI would cooperate with theUnicode Technical Committee (UTC) and the ISO Working Group. The proposed encoding does not use the lexicalencoding model used in the existing ISO-IR/169 registered character set, but instead applies the Unicode and ISOcharacter-glyph model to the Bliss-character model already adopted by BCI, since this would significantly reducethe number of needed characters. Bliss-characters can now be used in a creative way to create many new arbitraryconcepts, by surrounding the invented words with special Bliss indicators (similar to punctuation), something whichwas not possible in the ISO-IR/169 encoding.However, at the end of 2009, the Blissymbolic script is still not encoded in the UCS. Some questions are stillunanswered, such as the inclusion in the BCI repertoire of some characters (currently about 24) that are alreadyencoded in the UCS (like digits, punctuation signs, spaces and some markers), but whose unification may causeproblems due to the very strict graphical layouts required by the published Bliss reference guides. In addition, thecharacter metrics use a specific layout where the usual baseline is not used, and the ideographic em-square is notrelevant for Bliss character designs, that use additional "earth line" and "sky line" to define the composition square.Some fonts supporting the BCI repertoire are available and usable with texts encoded with private-use assignments(PUA) within the UCS. But only the private BCI encoding based on ISO-IR/169 registration is available for textinterchange.

References[1] Grant Stott (1997). A Great Australian. The Inventor of Semantography (Blissymbolics) (http:/ / www. blissymbolics. us/ biography/ ).

Retrieved 18 October 2011.[2] Bliss, C. K. (1949). Semantography, a non-alphabetical symbol writing, readable in all languages; a practical tool for general international

communication, especially in science, industry, commerce, traffic, etc., and for semantical education, based on the principles of ideographicwriting and chemical symbolism. Sydney: Institute for Semantography. OCoLC: 26684585.

[3] Bliss, C. K. (1965). Semantography (Blissymbolics). 2d enlarged edition. A simple system of 100 logical pictorial symbols, which can beoperated and read like 1+2=3 in all languages (...) (http:/ / www. symbols. net/ semantography/ ). Sydney: Semantography (Blissymbolics)Publications. OCoLC: 1014476.

[4] Bliss, C. K. (1978). Semantography: Blissymbolics. 3rd enlarged edition. Sydney: Semantography-Blissymbolics Publications. ISBN0-9595870-0-4.

[5] Okrent, Arika (2009), In the land of invented languages. New York : Spiegel & Grau. pp. 175-6. ISBN 978-0-385-52788-0.[6] DeFrancis, John (1984), The Chinese language : fact and fantasy. Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-0866-5.[7] DeFrancis, John (1989), Visible speech : the diverse oneness of writing systems. Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1207-7.[8] Unger, J. Marshall (2004). Ideogram: Chinese characters and the myth of disembodied meaning (http:/ / books. google. com/

books?id=fRqKreZFVTYC& pg=PA26). University of Hawaii Press. pp. 14, 16, 26. ISBN 978-0-8248-2760-1. . Retrieved 25 July 2011.[9] Locke, J. (1690). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. London.[10] C. K. Ogden & I. A. Richard (1923). The meaning of meaning; a study of the influence of language upon thought and of the science of

symbolism. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & co., ltd; New York, Harcourt, Brace & company, inc. LC: 23009064.[11] Wood, Storr, & Reich (1992) Blissymbol Reference Guide. Toronto: Blissymbolics Communication International. ISBN 0-9690516-9-7.[12] Michael Everson (1998). Encoding Blissymbolics in Plane 1 of the UCS. (http:/ / std. dkuug. dk/ JTC1/ SC2/ WG2/ docs/ n1866. pdf)

Retrieved 19 October 2011.

Blissymbols 6

External links• Official website (http:/ / www. blissymbolics. org/ )

• Blissymbol Communication UK (http:/ / www. blissymbols. co. uk/ )• Blissymbolics.us (http:/ / www. blissymbolics. us/ ), Blissymbolics Resources including lessons, phrases,

dictionary etc.• An Introduction to Blissymbols (http:/ / www. crockford. com/ blissym/ lesson1. pdf) (PDF file)• Standard two-byte encoded character set for Blissymbols (http:/ / www. itscj. ipsj. or. jp/ ISO-IR/ 169. pdf), from

the ISO-IR international registry of character sets, registration number 169 (1993-01-21).• Michael Everson's First proposed encoding into Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 of Blissymbolics characters (http:/ /

std. dkuug. dk/ JTC1/ SC2/ WG2/ docs/ n1866. pdf), based on the decomposition of the ISO-IR/169 repertoire.

Article Sources and Contributors 7

Article Sources and ContributorsBlissymbols  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=523376645  Contributors: 213.219.29.xxx, 64.9.34.xxx, AlainV, Amire80, Andy Dingley, AnonMoos, Ashley Y, AugPi,AxelBoldt, Betacommand, Burgundavia, CRGreathouse, Charmii, Chester Markel, Chris55, ChrisGualtieri, Conversion script, Cybercobra, DePiep, DerBorg, Dominus, DopefishJustin, Eekiv,Emk (ja), Error, Evertype, Fishal, Flapdragon, Flibirigit, Furrykef, Geosymbols, GerardM, Heimhenge, Heron, Hirzel, Hyenaste, IJzeren Jan, Icey, Iketsi, John Vandenberg, Joshua, Kadooshka,Koavf, Ksanyi, Kwamikagami, Malcolm Farmer, Meiskam, Mlandau, Muckapedia, Nesnad, Nikola Smolenski, Norm mit, Omline, PLA y Grande Covián, Pne, Poule, Qaz, Rich Farmbrough,Rjwilmsi, Rpyle731, Saizai, Samaritan, Sardanaphalus, SchuminWeb, SebastianHelm, Shibboleth, Shii, Sjheiss, Some jerk on the Internet, Stephan Leeds, Tabletop, The Anome, Tregoweth,Tsuruya, Verdy p, Xabadiar, 52 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Blissymbolics.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Blissymbolics.svg  License: Creative Commons Zero  Contributors: User:TsuruyaImage:Bliss cinema.png  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bliss_cinema.png  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Duesentrieb, Evertype, Gerbrant, Graphophile,Perhelion, Pne, Razorbliss, Yareite

LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Lesson One: An Introduction to Blissymbols

Douglas Crockford

c© 2003 Blissym Language Institute

www.blissym.com

It is easier to learn to read and write in blissymbols than it is to learn to read and write in

your own native language. I hope to prove this to you in this first lesson.

But first, raise your right hand.

������hand

Examine the blissymbol ��� (hand). There is a long vertical line that represents the fingers,

and a short diagonal line that represents the thumb. This is the simplest possible draw-

ing of a hand, yet it is recognizable and memorable. This memorability is what makes the

language easy to lean. The simplicity of this blissymbol makes it easy to write, particu-

larly when compared to pictographic languages like Chinese or Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

Indeed, this blissymbol is easier to write than most of our letters.

You have learned your first blissymbol: ��� (hand). You will never forget it. You will remem-

ber it every time you look at our own hand.

Many of the blissymbols resemble children’s drawings. Again, that means that they are

recognizable, easy to remember, and easy to write.

�� ���sun

������moon

�������star

�� ����tree

� �fire

1

���������cup

����� �����dish

���� ��� ��fork

�� �����knife

�� �� ��spoon

���� ������building

�� � �����door

�� ��� �� �������window

����� �����bed

�������chair

����"!� ������baggage

#$�&%�eye

#'����ear

�� ���sword (

�wheel

����electric

��� �� � ������mail

���")��*���)��*�horse

��� � �stairs

��� �����table

+,water -

��� ���ship

+� �-�����

siphon

#$��.��plant

/(��(��

car

Each blissymbol can be learned more quickly than a word of a foreign language. Even

so, a huge set of unique symbols could be overwhelming. That is why Blissym reuses

symbols. For example:

������hand

�� ����0�finger

1� ������thumb

�� ����2�wrist

You just learned the blissymbol ��� (hand). Knowing that, you can learn the blissymbols for

features of the hand with no effort. You might even have guessed them.

�� ���point

��� ���touch

��� ������handclasp

We can form new symbols by rotation.

�� ��������namaste

������"���� 3clap

����������� 343applaud

2

We can put our two hands together. The 5 (exclamation point) suffix intensifies the symbol.

(Remember the ��� 6�7585 symbol. You will need it later.)

�� �� 1�forward

�� ��� 1�����catch

�� ���� �� 1�throw

The 9�9 : (forward) arrow is a very important symbol in Blissym. We can use it to show the

action of something coming to the hand 9;�9 : � (catch) and something leaving the hand ���9;9 :(throw).

���� ������open

�� �� ������close

���� �������������open hand

�� �� ��� ����������fist

The blissymbol �<�<�� (open) looks like a box with the lid removed. Knowing �<;<�� (open), it is

easy to guess the blissymbol �=<�=<�� (close). We can combine �=<�=<�� (close) and �;� (hand) to make �=< � =< � �(fist).

So far we have mostly looked at nouns. We can change symbols into verbs with a > prefix.

������hand

�� ����0�finger

���� �������������open hand

�� �� ��� ����������fist? ������

manipulate

? �������0�tap

? ���� �������������pat, pet

? �� �� ��� ����������knock? ������@3

hit

? �� ����0�A3poke

? ���� �������������@3slap

? �� �� ��� ����������punch

Again, we can use 5 (exclamation point) to intensify the symbols.

�������thing

��������������tool

A small square is a 9<� (thing). It is an arbitrary symbol, but it is easy to remember. A 9<; in a��� is a � BCD � B (tool). This symbol resembles a stone hand axe, one of our earliest tools. It is our

3

ability to make and use � BCD � B that puts us humans at the top of the heap.

A picture language can be good at representing visible objects, but how can it represent

things that cannot be seen, like the sky or the wind? A language must be capabile of

representing the unseen as well as the seen.

� �sky

�� ��earth, ground

The blissymbol for =�= (sky) is breathtakingly simple. It is a long horizontal line at the

top. Its companion, <�< (earth), is a line at the baseline, recalling again the ground line of

children’s drawings.

�� ��world

We can combine =;= (sky) and <;< (earth) to make =<;=< (world). The world is where we live

between the earth and the sky.

��")����E�planet

���)����E�GFEarth

If you are uncomfortable with a flat =<�=< (world), then you may prefer to use HI J KLM (planet), a

large circle with a 22.5◦ axis running through it. We are currently located on HI J KLM8N (Planet

Three). (Can you guess the blissymbol for the planet Mercury? Jupiter? The undiscovered

planet beyond Pluto?)

O'P����gas

� O'P��� �air

�� O'P��� ��atmosphere

Our first experience with gas is as bubbles in water. We live and breathe in a vast ocean

of air, but we are generally unaware of it. The blissymbol QRS � (gas) suggests a rising bubble.

We can combine =�= (sky) and QRS � (gas) to make = QRS �= (air). We can combine =<�=< (world) and = QRS �= (air)

to make =< QRS �=< (atmosphere).

4

�� �� 1�forward

!�� �� 1�blow

!� � �� 1�wind

If we rotate QRS � (gas), giving it a direction, it will TU�9 : (blow). We put it in the sky and get TU=�=9 :(wind), a blissymbol for something you cannot see. Blissymbols are ideograms, pictures

of ideas.

We cannot see emotions, but we can feel them. How can we express emotions and feel-

ings in symbols?

V,emotion

V� �� �� 1�love

Blissym uses the familiar W symbol as the root symbol for emotion. By combining W with9�9 : , we get W;9�9 : (love), from the heart.

V, �����like

V, ��dislike

V, P�����happy

V, X�����sad

These are just a few of the emotions or feelings we can represent. The suffix (posi-

tive/negative or up/down) identifies the emotion.

We can also represent ideas and processes of the mind.

� ��mind

� ��Y�idea

��� ������knowledge

���"�������������fact

The blissymbol H;K (mind) comes from the shape of the tops of our heads. The blissymbolH<�K<� (knowledge) combines H�K and Z<�[<� (building), the mind’s storehouse.

We have seen lots of things (nouns) and some specific actions like ���\5 (hit) and ���9�9 : (throw).

How do we represent action in the abstract?

5

�� )��E��]���*�legs and feet,

walk

)�"E��]��*�action

The symbol <;J M ^< _ (walk) comes from Egyptian Hieroglyphics. We further simplify it, pro-

ducing J M ^ _ (action).

)��"E��]���*�creation

We combine J M ^ _ (action) and <�< (earth) to make J< M ^< _ (creation).

)��*��man

)���*��woman

������person

Behold J _� (man), a standing figure incorporating the blissymbol J M ^ _ (action). This blissymbol

is based on a Chinese character.

Behold J< _� (woman), a standing figure incorporating the blissymbol J< M ^< _ (creation). It is im-

portant to recognize that the triangle shape is not a skirt, but is symbolic of the special

role of women in the creation of new life.

Behold < � (person), a man or a woman.

Here is another example of using simplification to produce abstract symbols.

���� ������building

��� �����shelter

�� ��protection

The blissymbol Z<;[<� (building) can represent any building, even buildings with flat or domed

roofs. We remove detail elements to produce Z�[; (shelter) and Z;[ (protection). A Z�[� L;HL�H (tent)

is a L�HL�H (fabric) Z�[; . Z�[ has an important role in symbols about family.

)�"*���)���*��couple

�)�"*����)���*��married couple

)� �*�� ���)���*��family

6

Notice that J Z_��[ J< _� is larger than ZJ _� [J< _� , as the people move into important new roles. We can

also replace the J _� and J< _� with < � (person) to make alternate, gender-independent symbols:< � < � (couple), Z< � [< � (married couple), and < Z��[ < � (family).

New symbols can also be made by repetition.

.�grass

.� .�grain

�hair

� �fur

� � �wool�� �

rope, string,

thread, wire

�� �� �fabric, cloth

�� �� �� �clothing

�� )��E��]���*�walk

�� )��E��]���*� ���)��E�"]���*�march

���)�"E��]���*���� )��E��]���*� ���)��E�"]���*�parade

The blissymbols ` (grass) and H (hair) look similar. The difference is that ` is on the ground,

and H is in the sky, perhaps closer to your head. A single blissymbol L�H represents every-

thing which is long, thin, and flexible.

Blissymbols are always used for their meanings, never for their sounds or for their asso-

ciations with English words. For example, the word bow can have several meanings.

������bow

1�-�������bow

���)]�bow

�a� ��� ������bow

In English, the letters b o w can mean a bent standing posture, the front of ship, an

archery weapon, and a looping knot. In the Blissym Language, these distinct meanings

get distinct symbols.

Finally, we look at blissymbols about blissymbols.

7

�� ��pen, writing

�� ��world

� �� � ��Blissym,

World Writing

����blissymbol

The Blissym Language was invented in 1942 by Charles K. Bliss. His goal was to design a

visual language that could easily be learned by speakers of any language, to be used as an

instrument of international peace and understanding. The symbols could be produced

on a modified typewriter. While he was developing it he called it World Writing. That

name survives in the blissymbol 6=<�Z=< (Blissym), formed by combining 6�Z (pen) and =<�=< (world).

That symbol is reduced in size to make the symbol for 69< (blissymbol).

In this lesson we saw about a hundred blissymbols. In the complete language there are

thousands of blissymbols. We have not begun to look at descriptive blissymbols, nor at

particles or grammar. There is still much to learn. I hope that this demonstration has

convinced you that learning Blissym will be fun and rewarding.

Blissym is unique in that it is not a spoken language. It is completely visual. The elimina-

tion of ear and tongue training significantly reduces the amount of learning required for

mastery. You will never be embarassed by your outrageous accent. It is a symbolic lan-

guage. The symbols are simple and memorable. The grammar of the language is simple

and unexceptional. Bliss called it a logical language for an illogical world.

You are not expected to have learned all of these blissymbols from a single lesson, but I

am certain that you will never forget many of them. You have made a good beginning.

Now give yourself ��� 6�75b5 .

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