Symbols & Writings

I made my own symbol. It's a representation of my nickname. Two S' conjoined. Wish I had a picture of it online to show.

:blink: I had no idea that the planets had symbols..Well. Apart from the symbol for the moon which is pretty commonly seen.

Not sure about a personal favourite symbol, but I've always been intrigued by things like Egyptian hieroglyphs and Cantonese/Mandarin writings..As hieroglyphs are obviously very clear, representative symbols, whilst Mand/Canto were once similar symbols but have evolved over time to produce a sort of..Shorthand symbol to communicate with.

:blink: That was probably explained poorly but I tried.

Envy wrote:

:blink: I had no idea that the planets had symbols..Well. Apart from the symbol for the moon which is pretty commonly seen.

Not sure about a personal favourite symbol, but I've always been intrigued by things like Egyptian hieroglyphs and Cantonese/Mandarin writings..As hieroglyphs are obviously very clear, representative symbols, whilst Mand/Canto were once similar symbols but have evolved over time to produce a sort of..Shorthand symbol to communicate with.

:blink: That was probably explained poorly but I tried.

I first saw the planet symbols when I was a kid in the anime Sailor Moon! :silly:

Oh, I've didn't think about Chinese, Japanese and similar writings in the context of this thread, I think about them as script/writing more then as symbols, but they are also very nice symbols. I know quite a number of people that have such symbols tattooed on themselves.

black_magnolia wrote:

I first saw the planet symbols when I was a kid in the anime Sailor Moon! :silly:

Oh, I've didn't think about Chinese, Japanese and similar writings in the context of this thread, I think about them as script/writing more then as symbols, but they are also very nice symbols. I know quite a number of people that have such symbols tattooed on themselves.

No way! I watched Sailor Moon so much as a kid and never noticed! Either that or I noticed and later forgot. It was years since I last watched Sailor Moon.

^.^ My mother has a top with the words for all of the animals in the Chinese zodiac on it..The symbols have been manipulated to look like the animals/beasts they represent. It's a very interesting design..

When I think of Chinese writing, I only have to think of either the symbol for 'heart', 'person' or just my surname to think of pictures.

心 <-- Meaning 'heart', but can mean 'centre' etc..Looks like an abstract heart with the arteries sticking out at parts..Below is a picture of it normally, seeing as it looks a bit odd when typed up.

人 <-- Means 'person' generally..It's supposed to be a pair of legs. Looks the same when it's normally handwritten so I won't bother finding a different image.

張 <-- And this is my surname. Won't say what the English translation is, but basically, my father's side of the family is descended from a clan of archers. The first part of the symbol is an abstract archer's bow.

Everything was once more detailed and not so abstract. Even today, symbols are still being simplified! My surname could be written in shorthand as 张 these days. The process of simplification is pretty interesting..In my mind anyway.

Do you have pictures for the other symbols, Envy? The only one I can see is the one for \"heart\", that keeps re-drawing itself. The others are just coming up as little squares, and I'm curious now!

Morgana wrote:

Do you have pictures for the other symbols, Envy? The only one I can see is the one for \"heart\", that keeps re-drawing itself. The others are just coming up as little squares, and I'm curious now!

Ah right. Very awkward to find, but I'll give it a go.

'Person'. The site I found that image on also had a great explanation.

\"The Mandarin Chinese character 人 (rén) shows the two legs and torso of a human body. Early forms of this character showed hands, feet and head, but this was gradually simplified to the present form.\"

(Mandarin and Cantonese are written the same way and have the same meaning, just pronounced differently. The Japanese people who use Kanji also write the same way as Mand/Canto users with the same meaning/pronounciation as far as I'm aware..It's awkward to explain. There are some odd exceptions and other alternative meanings I think..) :blink:

The one above would be my surname. The traditional, full way of writing it would be the top image, and the lower one is the 'simplified' version.