谈古典意音文字的“借音符”——以汉字和古埃及圣书字为例

古典意音文字都综合运用了表意和表音两种方式来记录语言。古典意音文字的音符不同于拼音文字的字母,是"借音符"。借音符有以下三个特点:第一,借音符是兼职的,其表意(表词)功能并不中止。第二,借音符与语音系统之间不存在对应关系和分配关系,不同于拼音文字的字母。因此,借音符的数量一般会远远多于拼音文字的字母数量。第三,借音符表音是不完全准确的。

Theancientself-originatingfullwritingsystems,suchasSumerianwriting,Egyptian hieroglyphs,Chinese writingand Mayan writing,applybothsemantic methodsandphonetic methodstorepresent words.Withoutthephoneticrepresentation methodstheancientself-originatingwritingscouldnotrealizethegoalofacompleterecordingoflanguage.Theessenceof phoneticrepresentationmethodsinancientself-originatingwritingsystemsis“phoneticloan”,i.e. borrowingsemanticsignsas“loanphonograms”toexpressthesoundofnew words.It'scalled“rebus”bywesternscholars.BythecomparativestudybetweenphonogramsinChinesewritingand thoseinEgyptianhieroglyphs,wefindthatthe“loanphonograms”sharethefollowingcharacteris-ticswhicharequitedifferentfromthealphabetinphoneticwritingsystems:1.theyhaveboth semanticandphoneticfunctions;2.theyhavenocorrespondingrelationorassignedrelationwiththe phoneticsystemofthelanguage;3.theyarenotalwayspreciserepresentation.