Editing Blissymbols (section)

==History==
Semantography was invented by [[Charles K. Bliss]] (1897–1985), born Karl Kasiel Blitz to a [[Jew]]ish family in [[Chernivtsi]] (then Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary), which had a mixture of different nationalities that "hated each other, mainly because they spoke and thought in different languages."<ref name="Stott">Grant Stott (1997). [http://www.blissymbolics.us/biography/ A Great Australian. The Inventor of Semantography (Blissymbolics)]. Retrieved 18 October 2011.</ref>

Bliss graduated as a chemical engineer at the [[Vienna University of Technology]], and joined an electronics company. After the [[Anschluss|Nazi annexation of Austria]] in 1938, Bliss was sent to concentration camps but his German wife Claire managed to get him released, and they finally became exiles in [[Shanghai]], where Bliss had a cousin.

Bliss devised the symbols while a refugee at the [[Shanghai Ghetto]] and [[Sydney]], from 1942 to 1949. He wanted to create an easy-to-learn [[international auxiliary language]] to allow communication between different linguistic communities. He was inspired by [[Chinese character]]s, with which he became familiar at Shanghai.

Bliss published his system in ''Semantography'' (1949,<ref>Bliss, C. K. (1949). ''Semantography, a non-alphabetical symbol writing, readable in all languages; a practical tool for general international communication, especially in science, industry, commerce, traffic, etc., and for semantical education, based on the principles of ideographic writing and chemical symbolism''. Sydney: Institute for Semantography. OCoLC: 26684585.</ref> exp. 2nd ed. 1965,<ref name="Bliss">Bliss, C. K. (1965). [http://www.symbols.net/semantography/ ''Semantography'' (''Blissymbolics''). 2d enlarged edition. ''A simple system of 100 logical pictorial symbols, which can be operated and read like 1+2=3 in all languages'' (...)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004230959/http://www.symbols.net/semantography/ |date=October 4, 2011 }}. Sydney: Semantography (Blissymbolics) Publications. OCoLC: 1014476.</ref> 3rd ed. 1978.<ref>Bliss, C. K. (1978). ''Semantography: Blissymbolics''. 3rd enlarged edition. Sydney: Semantography-Blissymbolics Publications. {{ISBN|0-9595870-0-4}}.</ref>)
It had several names:
{{blockquote|In 1942 I named my symbols World Writing, then chose in 1947 an international scientific term Semantography (from Greek ''semanticos'' significant meaning, and ''graphein'' to write) … My friends argued that is customary to name new writing systems after the inventors … Blissymbolics, or Blissymbols, or simply Bliss<ref name="Bliss" /> (1965, p. 8)}}

As the "tourist explosion" took place in the 1960s, a number of researchers were looking for new standard symbols to be used at roads, stations, airports, etc. Bliss then adopted the name ''Blissymbolics'' in order that no researcher could plagiarize his system of symbols.

Since the 1960s/1970s, Blissymbols have become popular as a method to teach disabled people to communicate.
In 1971, Shirley McNaughton started a pioneer program at the [[Ontario]] Crippled Children's Centre (OCCC), aimed at children with [[cerebral palsy]], from the approach of [[augmentative and alternative communication]] (AAC). According to [[Arika Okrent]], Bliss used to complain about the way the teachers at the OCCC were using the symbols, in relation with the proportions of the symbols and other questions: for example, they used "fancy" terms like "nouns" and "verbs", to describe what Bliss called "things" and "actions".<ref name="Okrent">Okrent, Arika (2009), ''In the land of invented languages''. New York : Spiegel & Grau. pp. 175–6. {{ISBN|978-0-385-52788-0}}.</ref> (2009, p.&nbsp;173-4).
The ultimate objective of the OCCC program was to use Blissymbols as a practical way to teach the children to express themselves in their mother tongue, since the Blissymbols provided visual keys to understand the meaning of the English words, especially the abstract words.

In ''Semantography,'' Bliss had not provided a systematic set of definitions for his symbols (there was a provisional vocabulary index instead <ref name="Bliss" /> (1965, pp.&nbsp;827–67)), so McNaughton's team might often interpret a certain symbol in a way that Bliss would later criticize as a "misinterpretation". For example, they might interpret a tomato as a vegetable —according to the English definition of tomato— even though the ideal Blissymbol of vegetable was restricted by Bliss to just vegetables growing underground. Eventually the OCCC staff modified and adapted Bliss's system in order to make it serve as a bridge to English.<ref name="Okrent" /> (2009, p.&nbsp;189) Bliss' complaints about his symbols "being abused" by the OCCC became so intense that the director of the OCCC told Bliss, on his 1974 visit, never to come back. In spite of this, in 1975, Bliss granted an exclusive world license, for use with disabled children, to the new Blissymbolics Communication Foundation directed by Shirley McNaughton (later called Blissymbolics Communication International, BCI). Nevertheless, in 1977, Bliss claimed that this agreement was violated so that he was deprived of effective control of his symbol system.<ref name="Stott"/>

According to Okrent (2009, p.&nbsp;190), there was a final period of conflict, as Bliss would make continuous criticisms to McNaughton often followed by apologies.<ref name="Okrent" /> Bliss finally brought his lawyers back to the OCCC, reaching a settlement:

{{blockquote|In 1982, the OCCC got an exclusive, noncancelable, and perpetual license to use Blissymbolics, and he [Bliss] got $160,000. Easter Seals, the charitable foundation .... paid the settlement. .... Bliss spent the money on a big publication run of his own Blissymbols teaching manual.<ref name="Okrent" /> (2009, pp. 192–4)}}

{{anchor|licensing}}Blissymbolic Communication International now claims an exclusive license from Bliss, for the use and publication of Blissymbols for persons with communication, language, and learning difficulties.<ref name="Stott" />

The Blissymbol method has been used in Canada, Sweden, and a few other countries. Practitioners of Blissymbolics (that is, speech and language therapists and users) maintain that some users who have learned to communicate with Blissymbolics find it easier to learn to read and write traditional orthography in the local spoken language than do users who did not know Blissymbolics.