Why this name? Why is this language called MediaGlyphs?
- Media
a. means of conveying or effecting something
b. a system of communication, information (transfer or representation)
c. intermediary, go-between
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From Latin "medius" (neuter plural: media): "middle".
- Glyph
a. a symbolic figure or a character in a pictographic/ideographic system of writing
b. a symbol that conveys information nonverbally
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From Greek
"glyphein (γλύφειν)":
to carve, cut out with a knife; to engrave; to note down.
The MediaGlyphs language is a system of communication (1b) that uses symbols (2b) to convey meaning (1a), which aims to be the go-between (1c) among world languages.
Also, the glyphs (2a) of this language have a multi-media (1a) nature (picture, movie, sound, colour, shape).
The word was first introduced by Neal Stephenson in his sciencefiction novel "The diamond age" (1995).
Thank you Neal!
How are languages sorted in the explanation files and in the index of the wordlists?
What is the relationship between MG and Chinese?
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MediaGlyphs language has many affinities with the Chinese writing system, since they are both ideogrammatic languages.
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The grammar of MG has been shaped taking the Chinese one as example, but making it simpler and less ambiguous.
Both languages are basically completely isolating - in other words they lack morphology, position of the word components is fundamental for the meaning.
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The glyphs of MG are like the ideograms of Chinese (most of them also used in Japanese and Korean, with usually very similar meaning). MG core vocabulary can be thought of as classic chinese (文言, wen2yan2), where every ideogram represents one concept, one meaning.
On the other hand the composites of MG are equivalent to modern chinese (白話文, bai2hua4wen2), where meaning is usually attached to combinations of two sequential ideograms.
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The Chinese writing system has historically been the lingua franca of China, what allowed communication between peoples speaking different languages. Chinese characters are still used and understood in Korea and Japan. MediaGlyphs proposes itself as what the Chinese writing system has been for East Asia: as the go-between of world languages.
Why Monday's etymology is 1st day of the week rather than the second?
If you prefer Sunday to preceed Monday, you can use the alternative form of "0th day of the week" for Sunday in place of "7th day of the week".