A Discussion on the Classification of the Graphemic Structure of Naxi Dongba Script
This article reviews scholarship on classifying the formation and structural types of Naxi Dongba script, a pictographic writing system that attracted early international attention but only recently underwent character-based research. It surveys three influential classification systems: Fang Guoyu's pioneering "Ten Scripts" theory, Wang Yuanlu's "Five Scripts" system (which merged several of Fang's categories under "pictographs" and introduced "semantic borrowing"), and Yu Suisheng's more refined "Six Scripts" framework (pictographs, indicative characters, associative compounds, phono-semantic compounds, phonetic loans, and borrowed forms), each further subdivided with quantitative analysis. Yu's system is considered the most comprehensive and rigorous synthesis. The author then critiques these frameworks, arguing that despite their contributions, all remain constrained by the categorical framework of Chinese "Six Scripts" theory, revealing structural limitations. The paper aims to identify these deficiencies to establish a foundation for future, more independent classification research on Dongba script formation.
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