Pictograms are standardized images used for communication and were used in ancient writing systems. They continue to be used today to convey basic information. Pictographs can be found in many regions of the world and were often used in commerce. As they become more complex, cultural understanding may be required. Many cultures switched to logograms or alphabets as writing expanded.
Pictograms are small standardized images that represent concepts or ideas and are used as a means of communication. Many ancient cultures used pictographs in their early writing systems, and some languages have a direct line of descent from pictographic writing systems. Written Traditional Chinese, for example, clearly shows its roots. While they may look similar to hieroglyphs, pictographs are different because they are literal visual representations, unlike hieroglyphic written languages, where images can sometimes represent the objects they resemble, but are also used to represent sounds, and sometimes the hieroglyph it bears no physical resemblance to the concept it represents.
Because pictograms transcend language, as anyone can understand the most basic of them, they continue to be used around the world today in communications designed to deliver basic information to people. For example, at the start of a trail, a small plaque might display a pictogram of a person hiking to indicate that the trail may be used for hiking and include a picture of a tent to show that camping is permitted or a pictogram of someone on a horse to illustrate that riding is permitted. Pictograms can also be mixed with well-known ideograms, visual symbols that represent well-known concepts, such as a circle crossed by a line to indicate that anything inside the circle is not permitted.
Some fascinating examples of pictographs produced by ancient cultures can be found in many regions of the world. Native American rock art from some areas, for example, uses pictographs to tell stories, and examples can also be seen on discovered objects from the Middle East, early primers on written Chinese, and in many other places. Developing a pictograph system was the first step for many cultures when they started writing, and evidence seems to suggest that many writing systems have their roots in commerce. Merchants wanted a way to record inventories, sales and other information and started using pictographs for this purpose.
Basic pictographs may not require any cultural understanding or knowledge of the author’s language. As they become more complex they can start to become more abstract and people may need to be able to draw inferences from the information provided in the pictogram. Most written languages that used pictographs became extremely cumbersome as interest in writing expanded, which is why many cultures began switching to logograms like those seen in Traditional Chinese, which can represent whole words or morphemes , depending on how they are used, and may bear only an abstract resemblance to the words they represent. Other cultures have made the leap to an alphabet, where letters are used to represent sounds and do not represent individual words or concepts.
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