Talk:Simplified Pictograms (One World)

I know that this isn't the real world, but I just wanted to note that this situation is completely the opposite in the real world. "Kana" is a Japanese system for writing syllables, and they have no meaning whatsoever. Kana are the "purely phonetic auxiliary symbols". In fact, there is such a system in place that meets your aims: Chinese characters (called "Kanji" in Japanese and "Hanzi" in Mandarin). In the old days, the Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese could all communicate using hanzi (and modifying their grammar), even though their languages weren't related at all.

Your point of departure is very recent. So firstly, Japanese "kana" would already have been created and widely known, as they are in OTL, which are not ideograms. Also, since the Chinese already had perfectly acceptable ideograms that Japanese also knew (and still know) the meaning of, they wouldn't change their writing system. If anything, Chinese characters would be the lingua franca of Asia. (It is already the case in China, where people unable to understand each other's speech can read each other's writing.)

Finally, just "a few hundred" characters wouldn't cut it. Seeing as how there are tens of thousands of words in these languages (and they already put the 3000+ Chinese characters together in various ways to create new words), those few characters would probably not be up to the task, unless the auxiliary language only communicated simple ideas.

Thus, personally, I would maybe go with "Simplified Chinese Characters", as most of these are not to far from the "Traditional" variety to be understood with a little practice, yet they tend to be far quicker and easier to write.

I am completely fluent in kana (I can make any word - Japanese, English, or otherwise - using them) and know the meanings and readings of a few hundred kanji, so let me know if I can be of any help. --Riction 10:06, 24 March 2007 (UTC)