Pasigraphy
A pasigraphy or pasigraphy ( Greek πᾶν pan / pas- , German 'all' and γράφειν graphein , German ' to write' ) is a script that should be understandable for people of different languages . Pictograms in places where people from many different nations and languages come together (for example at international airports) are a step in this direction. The pictograms that the designer Otl Aicher created at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich were suitable as orientation aids, but far removed from the status of a complete font.
By definition, pasigraphy is a universal font with generally understandable characters . This idea goes back to Leibniz . His idea is called scriptura universalis in Latin or écriture universelle in French . Both mean universal script. Leibniz experimented all his life with drafts for a universal language and a universal font. In a memorandum, he suggested to Peter the Great that a questionnaire should be used to determine the core vocabulary of remote languages from the Russian colonial area. For the Chinese writing Leibniz interested for these reasons and he was in frequent correspondence with Jesuit who in the China mission worked.
Such a constructed language ( lingua characteristica universalis ) requires maximum adaptation to logical-philosophical and mathematical structures. According to Leibniz, the words should not only reflect ideas, but also illustrate their relationships.
The universal symbolic language should serve three purposes.
- an international auxiliary language
- a simple system of symbols to express existing and possible knowledge
- serve as a tool with formal rules for discovering new truths from already known ones.
People who tried to create a universal font
- For the first time the word Pasigraphy 1797 is expected 'by Joseph de Maimieux in his treatise Pasigraphie ou premiers éléments du novel art-science d'écrire et d'une langue imprimer en de manière à être lu et entendu dans toute autre langue sans traduction used have been. Its system is based on twelve basic characters, which form the basic vocabulary through combinations of three to five characters each.
- The French Jean François Sudre constructed his solresol on the seven solmization syllables (do, re, mi ...). This written language could be sung, written and spoken.
- Around 1807, C. Demainieux gave free public lectures on pasigraphy in Paris .
- In 1864 Karl Obermair founded a pasigraphic association in Munich . Bachmeier's system was based on marking the characters with Arabic numerals. The different meanings of the words are displayed by underlining or crossing out the numbers and by placing lines above them. This idea found widespread support in its time.
- In the same year as Bachmeier, Moses Paic presented his system of a universal language in Vienna, both through writing (pasigraphy) and through the sounds (pasilogy) by fixing concepts by means of Arabic numerals and their sound fixing for international traffic . Examples: 'I hear' is written: 2074+ 111 and spoken: dullomaba . 'You hear' would be: 2074+ 112 resp. dullomabe . This results from the fact that each digit is assigned a sound. The system is difficult insofar as the rhythm is also used as a distinguishing feature - dala ( 2171 ) is emphasized sponderously and means 'Schweigens' (genitive of silence), dalas ( 2176 - 'Singens') is to be intoned trochaic ; also iambs , Pyrrhichii , dactyls are required to Paic's universal language to use.
- AD Lutomirski , a language teacher from Rotterdam , developed a pasistenography in 1887 , a shorthand that in his opinion should be suitable for all spoken languages. It is made up of five alphabetic and seven grammatical characters - plus a point or a line as a distinguishing feature.
- The German Koreanist Andre Eckardt created a font based on the Chinese characters , which he called Safo (= symbol).
- The Austro-Hungarian Jew Karl Kasiel Blitz ( Charles K. Bliss ), who got to know the Chinese script on his escape in the Shanghai ghetto , created the Bliss symbols . Bliss noticed that the characters were pronounced differently in different provinces of China, but were understood the same across China. But his so-called semasiography was forgotten until decades later a Canadian organization for the disabled was looking for easy-to-learn symbols for the spastic paralyzed.
literature
- Heinz Becker (Ed.): The BLISS system in practice and research . Heidelberg 1994.
- Pierre Janton: Introduction to Esperantology . Hildesheim 1993, ISBN 3-487-06541-X .
- AD Lutomirski: Pasistenography or guide to a short handwriting that is suitable for all spoken languages and can be learned in a few hours . Rotterdam 1887.
- Karl Obermair: Brief instructions for the practical use of pasigraphy . Salzburg 1955.
- Moses Paic: System of a universal language both through writing (pasigraphy) and through the sounds (pasilogy) . Vienna 1864.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Augspurgische Ordinari Postzeitung, Nov. 3, 1807, No. 263, p. 2 - as digitized version ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
