Patrick Chew scripsit:

> I think something that would be good to provide for the community
> here, and at large, would be to pull together terms in use, "proper" or
> "improper"... I know that I honestly cannot come up with an articulate
> differentiation between -gram and --graph, which looks like the impetus for
> the above paragraph.

I urge the community to examine and comment on the newly released Unicode
4.0 explanations on pp. 148-151, currently available online in PDF
form (not printable) in http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.0.0/ch06.pdf .

> For instance, a post that pulls together the various morphemes
> used in the study/discussion of writing systems: ideo-, logo-, picto-,
> syllabary, abugida, abjad, alephbet, asiomagraphic, etc...

Explanations of many of these terms are given there, specifically alphabet,
abjad, syllabary, abugida, logosyllabary, and notational system.

There is also another comment on the term "ideograph" here:

This unit [of the Han script] has variously been referred to as an
'ideograph' ("idea writing") or a 'logograph' ("word writing"),
as well as other terms. No single term is completely satisfactory
or uncontroversial. In this staandard, 'CJK ideograph' is used
because it is a widely understood term.

--
"Kill Gorg)B�n! Kill orc-folk! John Cowan
No other words please Wild Men. jcowan@...
Drive away bad air and darkness http://www.reutershealth.com
with bright iron!" --Gh)B�n-buri-Gh�n http://www.ccil.org/~cowan