I don't know, but you might find something along those lines at http://www.conknet.com/~mmagnus/ (I haven't explored the site myself; I just stumbled across it a while ago).

Urban

----- Original Message -----
From: Mariano de Vierna y Carles-Tolrá <m.v.ct@...>
To: <phoNet@egroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 6:53 PM
Subject: [phoNet] graphic symbolism


>
>
> Hello.
>
> It is the firs time i write to the list. I'm Spanish speaking,
> also know
> some Japanese and English.
> I don't know if the following is a proper question to this group
> but as I don't find anything about the subject and there could be some
> chance i ask you.
>
> I have fund that the roman alfabet seems to have some graphic
> symbolism. Letters that use to be read as interrupt sounds are mostly
> represented
> by a vertical stroke:
>
> <p> <t> <k> (or <q>) <b> <d> <g>
>
> and those of them that are read as voiced have a round stroke in their base:
>
> <b> <d> <g>
>
> also letters that are read as fricative sounds have ondulatory or zif-zag
> shapes:
>
>
> <f> <z> <s> (and <j> in Spanish that sounds /x/)
>
>
> I would say that liquids (consonantic as well as vocalic sounds) show that
> nature:
>
> <r> <l>
>
> they realy would graphicaly be consonant and vowel at the same time, for
> example:
> the <r> is a low stroke with a small loop, and the <l> is a big loop.
> Letters that are nasal would be represented from my point of vew just as a
> low horizontal
> line but they have vertical strokes as a necessary artifac to be seen.
>
> <n> <m>
>
> Letters for vowels seem to show also a graphic trend from a vertical
> extensión of the stroke
> to colapse if we put them in phonetical order (i show it for the five
> elementary letters, that
> happen to be almost good for some roman languages and Japanese):
>
> <i> <e> <a> <o> <u>
>
> the <i> even have a high separate point (and we can't imagine that its
> design was done watching
> a spectrogram!), the <e> is what would be expected in between <i> and the
> openness of the <a>,
> and the <u> is what would be expected of the collapse of the roundness of
> the <o> (because making
> for the <u> a smaller circle than the one for the <o> would be not enough to
> distinguish them).
>
> All that is sometimes more clearly seen in handwriting. I hope that i have
> given enough explanations
> to see what i mean by graphical symbolism of the letters. I would like to
> remember here that corean
> alfabet "hangul" was invented as a system graphicaly symbolizing tonge
> positions, mouth and throat,
> so that graphical symbolism shouldn't be a strange though for linguistics.
> But roman alfabet symbolism
> would have to be a trait got without clear conscience of it trough the
> evolution of writing.
>
> So, i would like to know if you know any study or bibliography about that
> subject and if you have
> though or fund that kind of symbolism.
>
> I think it would be usefull for making a phonetic alfabet with graphic
> symbolism motivated
> in human psicology rather than increasing the number of arbitrary symbols.
>
> And is a suggestion for making new letters and, or, alfabets to make them
> with graphic
> symbolism.
>
> Yours,
>
> Mariano
>
> Santander - Cantabria
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>