Glossary for Geospatial Science

ideograph:� A symbol that represents meaning without indicating pronunciation.� Often opposed to �phonetic.� Chinese is often, but erroneously, called an ideographic language.� Its origins (like those of Western alphabets) were ideographic and pictographic, but it is more accurately described as a �morphosyllabic:� a combination of syllabic characters with nonphonetic techniques, such as determinatives, to suggest the meaning category of written items.