Historical Development and Formational Characteristics of Sinographic Scripts – Part III: Phonographic Scripts

From the history of the formation and development of various writing systems worldwide, we can observe that the widespread dissemination and adaptation of writing symbols is a common cultural phenomenon. When an ancient writing system is adapted by other peoples, it often gives rise to ethnic or national script types with differing properties. This holds true for the Chinese script as well: not only did it generate the aforementioned ideographic scripts, but also many phonographic scripts. Some of these phonographic scripts are syllabic, such as Japanese kana, Hunan Nüshu, Khitan Small Script, and Jurchen Small Script (now extinct); others are phonemic, including Korean Hangul, and Zhuyin Zimu, among others. This illustrates that after undergoing adaptation, Chinese symbols can be used for both ideographic and phonographic representation. This is a great historical achievement of various peoples and an important reason for the long-term widespread dissemination and enduring vitality of the Chinese script. The formation and development of phonographic scripts constitute a significant phase in the developmental history of Sinographic scripts.