The Language Construction section provides a general insight into the structure of the Blissymbolic language.
The Blissymbolic language consists of individual Bliss-characters that can be combined to make up Bliss-words. Due to the language's semantic basis, the majority of Bliss-characters are meaning based and therefore, represent an object or idea. Bliss-words are composed of a sequence of one or more Bliss-characters. For example if we take the separate Bliss-characters for 'House' and 'Book' as detailed below:
Description: House (Also known as Building, Dwelling or Residence)
Description: Book (Pictograph symbol suggesting 'open book')
We can combine these characters to make a new word:
Description: Library (Building + Book : Building that contains a collection of books)
It must be noted that some Bliss-characters can be both a single character and a complete word. In the example above, 'House' is both a Bliss-character and Bliss-word. This is comparable with the English Language as it is possible to represent the letter 'a' as a single character and as a complete word in its own right.
The spacing between Bliss-characters and Bliss-words are fundamentally important in the Blissymbolic language. There are three spacing sizes - full space, half space and quarter space. When separating Bliss-words contained in a sentence, each Bliss-word is separated by a full space. It is also possible to separate them by a combination of a half space and punctuation mark. However, characters sequenced to make a Bliss-word should be separated only by a quarter space. For example a Bliss-word made up from a sequence of characters would look as follows:
Description: School (Building + To Teach : Building used for Teaching)
The first character represents a building while the last two characters together represent 'To Teach'. Whereas, if we create the sentence 'School beginning next week', we can see that a quarter space exists between the separate characters in the Bliss-word school, but the spacing separating the words 'School', 'Beginning' and 'Next Week' is a full space. The following sentence represents 'School beginning next week'.
How quickly an individual can learn Blissymbolics depends on a number of factors, namely, their age, their quickness to learn and the severity of their verbal learning difficulties. However, because the Bliss-characters and Bliss-words represent clear meanings, they are easier to learn than traditional orthography. Each Bliss-character and Bliss-word represented on a Bliss board is defined in both Bliss format and the user's native language (gloss). This helps bridge the gap between the Bliss user and their native language and enables non-Bliss users to communicate with them.
Bliss-characters are formed out of basic shapes, many of which are geometric. They are represented in three size variants - full size, half size and a quarter size. The size, position, spacing and configuration of a Bliss-character is directly related to its' associated meaning. It is therefore, fundamentally important when creating the characters to be aware of this so that the intended meaning is conveyed. To facilitate the correct representation, a square is used as a matrix for drawing the characters]. The size of the Bliss character is determined by the proportion of the square it fills. A number of Bliss-characters are represented in all size variants. An example of this would be the character 'X'. When it is drawn full size, i.e. corner-to-corner of the full square, it means 'multiplication'. However, when it is drawn half size together with the evaluation indicator it means 'much' or 'many' and quarter size placed above another symbol it becomes the 'plural indicator'.
Description: The Blissymbolic Matrix Square
The top boundary of the square is called the skyline, the bottom boundary the earthline and the cenre of the square is called the horizontal midline. The position of the Bliss-characters within the square is important in conveying the intended meaning. For example the character representing water is placed on the horizontal midline as detailed below:
Description: Water
However, if the same character were to be placed on the skyline, it would change its meaning from water to cloud - cloud being water on the sky.
Description: Cloud (Water on the Sky)
Bliss-characters are composed of pictographs, ideographs, arbitrary characters, compound words and pointers. Due to the ideographic and pictographic nature of these characters, communication is made accessible to individuals of different cognitive levels. Blissymbolics are taught by describing their meanings rather than referencing phonetics or words. As a result they are easier to learn and communication can take place with Bliss users from all over the world regardless of their geographic location.
Pictographs are graphic representations of the actual object itself. Pictograph originates from the word Picto meaning 'picture' and graph from the ancient Greek word meaning 'writing'. Pictographs are generally recognisable and as such are easy to remember. Charles Bliss stated in Semantography that Pictographs 'have proved successful in the Sciences, in Radio Engineering, on the deadly Highways of the World'. The examples below show some typical pictographs:
Description: Tree
Description: Face
Description: Star
Ideographs represent the idea of something rather than its' physical being. It creates an association between the Bliss-character and the concept it represents. An example of a Blissymbolic ideograph would be in the human representation of a question and answer. Relating this to the real world we talk about an open question as one that is still to be answered and a closed question as one that has been answered. This is represented as follows:
Description: Question
Description: Answer
The rationale behind the above Bliss-words is: A question is a question mark contained within an open enclosure. An answer is a question mark contained within a closed enclosure.
In addition to the arbitrary characters already in use (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 + - x / = > . ?), Charles Bliss created additional characters for words such as 'the', 'this' and 'that'. A dictionary definition of the word arbitrary would state 'random' and 'not bound by rules'. This definition would not accurately represent the Blissymbolic arbitrary characters. Charles Bliss referenced in his book Semantography a clear reason behind his chosen shapes and formations. Arbitrary characters do not represent real world objects, however, they are a necessary part of the language to facilitate in the composition of sentences. Other arbitrary characters are defined as 'Indicators'. Indicators are placed above a Bliss-word/character in order change its meaning. Charles Bliss created the 'thing indicator', 'action indicator', 'time indicator' and 'evaluation indicator'. For example if we take the character for mind:
Description: Mind
We can change the meaning by placing an 'Indicator' on top of the character for mind as follows:
Description: Brain
Description: To Think
The rationale for the above examples are: Mind - the outline of the skull, Brain - the mind with the 'thing indicator' making it a physical thing, and To Think - the mind with the 'action indicator' denoting a physical action. Additionally, indicators can be added to the mind character to represent 'thoughtful', 'thought', and 'will think'.
A compound word is a Bliss-character sequence created by Charles Bliss or one that has been accepted into the standard vocabulary developed by the Blissymbolic Communication International. The Bliss-word library is made up from a sequence of two Bliss-characters - 'Building' and 'Book'.
Description: Library
A user-defined word is a non-approved Bliss-character sequence. The advantage of allowing user-defined words within the language is in the language's extendibility, thus facilitating Blissymbolic users or their instructors in the creation of new words for their own personal use. Similarly with compound words, user-defined characters must be sequenced. However, characters sequenced to make a new Bliss-word must be contained within the 'combined indicators'. The use of these combined indicators delimits the character sequence and indicates that the combination should not be regarded as an approved Bliss-word. An example of a non-approved Bliss-word is false teeth:
Description: False Teeth (Pictograph of Teeth + Make Believe)
Pointers are diacritical markers that enable a Bliss-character to have a number of meanings dependent upon the position of the pointer. The use of pointers facilitates users in being more specific about a certain area, for example, the addition of a pointer to the 'legs and feet' character may indicate 'leg' or 'foot':
Description: Legs and Feet
Description: Leg
Description: Foot
Another example of pointers would be in the representation of tree as a whole entity. The addition of a pointer could indicate a part of a tree as in the example below:
Description: Tree
Description: Branch
