Rebus writing

One way of using existing symbols to represent the sounds of language is through a process known as rebus writing. In this process, the symbol for one entity is taken over as the symbol for the sound of the spoken word used to refer to the entity. That symbol then comes to be used whenever that sound occurs in any words.

We can create an example, working with the sound of the English word eye. We can imagine how the pictogramcould have developed into the logogram. This logogram is pronounced as eye and, with the rebus principle at work, you could then refer to yourself as(“I”), to one of your friends as(“Crosseye”), combine the form with the logogram for “deaf” to produce “defy,” with the logogram for “boat” to produce “bow-tie,” and so on.

A similar process is taking place in contemporary English texting where the symbol “2” is used, not only as a number, but as the sound of other words or parts of words, in messages such as “nd2spk2u2nite” (“(I) need to speak to you tonight”). In this message, the letter “u” also illustrates the process of rebus writing, having become the symbol for the sound of the spoken word “you.”

Let’s take another, non-English, example, in which the ideogrambecomes the logogram, for the word pronounced ba (meaning “boat”). We can then produce a symbol for the word pronounced baba (meaning “father”) which would be. One symbol can thus be used in many different ways, with a range of meanings. What this process accomplishes is a sizeable reduction in the number of symbols needed in a writing system.