>David Dunham:
>>
>> (since these types of scripts are really more practical). Someone ought
to
>> use Aztec-style rebus writing (which is probably classified
logosyllabic?),
>> because it's weird and impractical -- I propose Kralorela, just to make
>> them less Chinese.
>But Kralorelan writing isn't weird and impractical.
>It is the spoken language which is described as elegant,
>but I hardly think that an impractical writing system
>would be used by the large and complex imperial bureaucracy.
Maybe I just don't understand how impractical Aztec writing is, compared to Chinese...
I suspect you have never studied Chinese (or in my case, Japanese). The writing system is very impractical compared to the latin alphabet, and painfully hard to learn (for non-Chinese anyway). When you go beyond simple characters (man, eye, tree, etc), the ideographic meaning becomes totally lost.
My conspiricy theory is that the Chinese bureaucrats made the writing system deliberatly hard, to limit the number of qualified bureaucrats, much like bar exams for lawyers today.
I occasionally try and puzzle out Chinese menus, and ask questions of my Chinese friends.
Me: "What's this? It is fish + lamb"
Friend: "Oh, that means fresh."
Me: "What!?"
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