Say It With Pictures

Say it with pictures, written by Susan Lennox. Focus question. How were pictures used to communicate in the past? And why are they still used today?

《用图画表达》，苏珊·伦诺克斯著 重点问题 过去人们是如何用图画传递信息的？ 为什么直到今天图画还在被使用呢？

Introduction. Would you know what to do if you saw this sign? This traffic signal is easy to understand with just pictures. People have used pictures for much longer than they've used written words. Picture languages have been used to tell stories and give information. Using pictures makes messages easy to understand for many people. Two languages, Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mayan glyphs, are among the most recognizable picture

引言 如果你看到这个标识，知道它是什么意思吗？ 这个交通信号只用图画就很好理解 人类使用图画的时间比使用文字久远得多 图画文字一直用来讲小故事、传递信息 对很多人来说，图画传递的信息更容易懂 埃及象形文字和玛雅象形文字，是辨识度最高的图画文字

the language of the gods. Travelers to modern Egypt find hieroglyphs everywhere. Famous ruins have many picture symbols. Tall monuments and temple walls are carved with them. That is because for almost 3000 years, 3100 BCE to 332 CE, Egyptians believed that written language was sacred. Language was a gift from the gods. It was the ruler's duty to use this gift. Scribes working for the king or pharaoh had this duty. Writing was not easy. Scribes had to know over 700 symbols called hieroglyphs. The sons of scribes were sent to a special scribe school at age six or seven to learn them. It took several years for a student to become a scribe. Young scribes had to understand how to use and place glyphs properly.

神明的语言 去现代埃及游玩的人到处都能见到象形文字 著名古迹上有很多图画符号 高大的纪念碑和神庙墙壁上都刻着它们 这是因为在近三千年里，也就是公元前3100年到公元332年，埃及人认为文字是神圣的 文字是神明送给人类的礼物 用好这份礼物是统治者的责任 给国王也就是法老干活的书吏要承担这份责任 学写字可不容易 书吏得认识七百多个叫象形文字的符号 书吏的孩子六七岁就要去专门的书吏学校学这些符号 学生要学好几年才能成为正式书吏 年轻书得学会正确使用和排列这些符号

Egyptian hieroglyphs. There were two types of Egyptian hieroglyphs. One type stood for whole words such as duck, walk, or sun. Another type stood for sounds. They were like letters in our modern alphabet. Some glyphs stood for letter combinations such as sh. There were 24 of these types of glyphs in the Egyptian writing system.

埃及象形文字 埃及象形文字一共有两种 一种代表完整的词，比如鸭子、走路、太阳 另一种代表发音 它们就像我们现在用的字母 有些符号代表字母组合，比如“sh”这个音 埃及书写系统里一共有24个这种类型的象形符号

Hieroglyphic messages were written in rows or columns. They were read from right to left. The system did, however, have a special symbol for writing about the king. Symbols about the pharaoh or his family were always placed in a rectangular or oval shape. The shape stood for flat earth and the sun passing over it. It showed the Pharaoh's power overall.

象形文字可以写成行，也可以写成列 读的时候要从右往左读 不过这套文字里有一个专门指代国王的特殊符号 和法老或者他家人相关的符号永远放在长方形或椭圆形框里 这个形状代表大地和越过大地的太阳 它彰显了法老至高无上的权力

Clay, stone, paper. The earliest examples of hieroglyphs date back to around 3100 BCE. Tiny clay tags were carved with glyphs. Later, hieroglyphs were carved into stone. These marks were used to present important news. The carvings were often made on large stone slabs called stele. Hieroglyphs were also carved on tombs. Carving glyphs into stone was a lot of work. Eventually, scribes began using reed pens and ink to write glyphs on a special kind of paper. Writing was much easier than carving. It let scribes record information more quickly. Carved stone hieroglyphs were used less and less.

黏土、石头和纸 最早的象形文字可以追溯到公元前3100年左右 小小的黏土标签上刻着象形符号 后来，人们把象形文字刻在石头上 这些标记用来记录重要的信息 这些雕刻通常刻在叫石碑的大石板上 象形文字也会刻在坟墓上 在石头上刻符号非常费功夫 后来书吏开始用芦苇笔和墨水，在一种特殊纸上写象形文字 写字比刻字容易多了 这让书吏能更快记录信息 刻在石头上的象形文字用得越来越少了