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A Pictograph (also spelled
American and British English spelling differences

American and British English spelling differences are one aspect of American and British English differences.The spelling systems of Commonwealth of Nations countries, for the most part, closely resemble the British system....
 pictogram or pictogramme) is a pictorial representation of an object. Earliest examples of pictographs include ancient or prehistoric drawings or paintings found on rock walls. Pictographs are also used in writing and graphic systems in which the characters are to considerable extent pictorial in appearance.

Pictography is a form of writing
Writing

Writing is the representation of language in a textual Media through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and the recording of language via a non-textual medium such as Magnetic tape sound recording....
 which uses representational, pictorial drawing
Drawing

Drawing is a visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, marker pens, stylus, or various metals like silverpoint....
s.






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A Pictograph (also spelled
American and British English spelling differences

American and British English spelling differences are one aspect of American and British English differences.The spelling systems of Commonwealth of Nations countries, for the most part, closely resemble the British system....
 pictogram or pictogramme) is a pictorial representation of an object. Earliest examples of pictographs include ancient or prehistoric drawings or paintings found on rock walls. Pictographs are also used in writing and graphic systems in which the characters are to considerable extent pictorial in appearance.

Pictography is a form of writing
Writing

Writing is the representation of language in a textual Media through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and the recording of language via a non-textual medium such as Magnetic tape sound recording....
 which uses representational, pictorial drawing
Drawing

Drawing is a visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, marker pens, stylus, or various metals like silverpoint....
s. It is a basis of cuneiform
Cuneiform

Cuneiform can refer to:*Cuneiform script, an ancient writing system originating in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC*Cuneiform , three bones in the human foot...
 and, to some extent, hieroglyphic writing, which uses drawings also as phonetic letters or determinative
Determinative

A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantics categories of words in logographic scripts....
 rhymes.

Early written symbols were based on pictographs (pictures which resemble what they signify) and ideograms (symbols which represent ideas). They were used by the ancient Chinese culture since around 5000 BC and began to develop into logographic writing systems around 2000 BC. Pictographs are still in use as the main medium of written communication in some non-literate cultures in Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, The Americas, and Oceania
Oceania

Oceania is a geography, often geopolitics, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The term "Oceania" was coined in 1831 by French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville....
. Pictographs are often used as simple, pictorial, representational symbols by most contemporary cultures.

Pictographs can often transcend languages in that they can communicate to speakers of a number of tongues and language families equally effectively, even if the languages are cultures are completely different. This is why road signs and similar pictographic material are often applied as global standards expected to be understood by nearly all.

Pictographs can also take the form of diagrams to represent statistical data by pictorial forms, and can be varied in color, size, or number to indicate change.

Modern use

Pictographs remain in common use today, serving as pictorial, representational signs
Signs

Signs is the plural of sign. See sign .Signs may also refer to:*Signs , a 2001 album by Badmarsh & Shri*Signs , an American girl group...
, instructions, or statistical diagrams. Because of their graphical nature and fairly realistic style, they are widely used to indicate public toilet
Toilet

A toilet is a plumbing fixture and disposal system primarily intended for the disposal of the excretory system: urine and feces. Additionally, vomit and menstrual waste is sometimes disposed in toilets in western societies....
s, or places such as airport
Airport

An airport is a location where aircraft such as Fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and Non-rigid airship take off and land. Aircraft may also be stored or maintained at an airport....
s and train station
Train station

|}A train station, railway station, railroad station, or station yard is a facility at which passengers may board and alight from trains and/or rail-transported freight may be loaded or unloaded....
s.

A standard set of pictographs was defined in the international standard
International standard

International standards are standards developed by international standards organisations. International standards are available for consideration and use, worldwide....
 ISO 7001
ISO 7001

ISO 7001 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization that defines a set of pictograms and symbols for public information....
: Public Information Symbols. Another common set of pictographs are the laundry symbols
Laundry symbols

A laundry symbol, also called a care symbol, is a pictogram which represents a method of washing, for example drying, dry cleaning and ironing clothing....
 used on clothing tags and chemical hazard labels.

Pictographic writing as a modernist poetic technique is credited to Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an United States expatriate poetry, critic and intellectual who was a major figure of the Modernist poetry movement in the first half of the 20th century....
, though French surrealists
Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
 accurately credit the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America . There are several partially overlapping definitions but the term Pacific Northwest should not be confused with the Northwest Territory or the Northwest Territories of Canada....
 American Indians
Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii....
 of Alaska
Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
 who introduced writing, via totem pole
Totem pole

Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved from large trees, usually cedar, but mostly Western Redcedar, by cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America....
s, to North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
.

See also

  • Asemic writing
    Asemic writing

    Asemic writing is a wordless open semantic form of writing. The word asemic means "having no specific semantic content".Illegible, invented, or primal manuscripts are all influences upon asemic writing....
  • Chinese character
    Chinese character

    A Chinese character, also known as a Han character , is a logogram used in writing Chinese language ,'' Japanese language ,'' less frequently Korean language ,'' and formerly Vietnamese language .''...
  • DOT pictograms
    DOT pictograms

    The DOT pictograms are a set of fifty pictograms used to convey information useful to travelers without using words. Such images are useful in airports, train stations, hotels, and other public places for foreign tourists, as well as being easier to identify than strings of text....
  • Emoticon
    Emoticon

    An emoticon is a textual portrayal of a writer's mood or facial expression. They are often used to alert a responder to the tenor or temper of a statement, and can change and improve interpretation of plain text....
  • Icon (computing)
    Icon (computing)

    On computer displays, a computer icon is a small pictogram. Icons have been used to supplement the normal alphanumerics of the computer. Modern computers now can handle bitmapped graphics on the display terminal, so the icons are widely used to assist users....
  • Ideogram
    Ideogram

    An ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept. They can be a straighforward pictogram, or a more abstract symbol that is comprehensible only on the basis of prior convention....
  • Pecked curvilinear nucleated
    Pecked curvilinear nucleated

    Pecked curvilinear nucleated, in archaeology, is a form of prehistoric rock carving. The term was originally proposed by Teresa Miller and Reed Haslam in 1976 to describe a widespread type of rock carving in western North America....
  • Petroforms
  • Rock Art
    Rock art

    Rock art is a term in archaeology for any man-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces...
  • Writing system
    Writing system

    A writing system is a type of symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language....
  • Yakima Indian Painted Rocks
    Yakima Indian Painted Rocks

    Indian Painted Rocks is a tiny state park right outside Yakima, Washington, Washington state at the intersection of Powerhouse and Ackely Roads....


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