Hi, Mariano,
There seems to be a vague symbolism of
the kind you describe in the Roman alphabet, and little wonder, since if
characters are somewhat mnemonic (say, a round shape for a rounded vowel) they
are easier to learn; also, in the course of history new letters have sometimes
arisen as variants of already existing ones corresponding to phonetically
similar sounds, e.g. <U>, <V>, <W>, or <I>, <J> in
the Roman script, or omikron and omega in Greek. Latin originally had the
same letter <C> for [k] and [g], and <G> was introduced as a
modification of <C> by Emperor Claudius. But generally the phonetic value
of a letter is not predictable from its shape -- note the characteristic
differences between the Roman script and closely related writing systems (Greek,
Etruscan, Cyrillic) or very different phonetic values of the same character or
combination of characters in various languages using the same
script.
A consistent phonetic alphabet showing in
an iconic fashion the articulatory features of sounds was invented in the mid
19th century (ca. 1867) by the Scottish teacher Alexander Melville Bell, father
of Alexander Graham Bell (the same who emigrated to America, invented the
telephone and established the Bell Telephone Company, now AT&T). It was
called Bell's Visible Speech, and had its ardent enthusiasts, including some
British phoneticians of the time and George Bernard Shaw, who mentions it in
"Pygmalion":
HIGGINS [to Pickering]. ... I'll shew you
how I make records. We'll set her talking; and I'll take it down first in Bell's
Visible Speech; then in broad Romic; and then we'll get her on the phonograph
...
The character of Higgins owes much to the
great phonetician Henry Sweet, who modified BVS to create the even more
scientific Organic Speech system.
Bell's and Sweet's proposals did not become
as popular as the IPA (most people are traditionalists and prefer an elaborate
version of something familiar to a revolutionary new start) and is now
largely forgotten. Phoneticians worldwide understand the IPA notation and nobody
seems to be eager to abandon it in favour of something more
rational.
I've found some useful online information
relevant to you query.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 6:53 PM
Subject: [phoNet] graphic symbolism
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.