Week 0 - Introduction

My name is Anruo Zheng, and over the next few months, I will be constructing a language based on pictures for the purpose of Universality, and see how well it turns out. 

We’ve had different languages since the beginning of time, and with it comes different cultures. These languages and cultures aren’t usually mutually intelligible. But we all live in the same world, see the same pictures through the same eyes. In this way, the visual world is a language that all can speak, or rather, see.

Imagine we used this language to the greatest extent, where as much of the world population as possible could understand each other.

One such language has attempted this: Blissymbols, created by Charles K Bliss. However, if you look at the language, you’d find that it’s very abstract. Instead of pictures, every word is a sign or symbol. In response, I propose a language with minimal abstraction, where each word is a whole picture, a whole “illustration.” The lack of abstraction will achieve universality as much as possible.

I will be testing the effects of how well this language functions on children in the lower campus, seeing how much they need to be taught before being able to recognize meanings. The less sessions taught, the more universal it would be measured.

For the following weeks, I will start deciding on the basic building blocks of the language, such as the function of separate squiggles or lines. Then, I will be deciding on grammar, such as sentence structure, functional words such as “-ed” for markers for tense, etc. The last part of creation will be deciding on a dictionary for vocabulary.

Until then, I’ll be busy making little drawings, but this time with permission, and not secretly during class!

Thank you for reading.