(1) With tens of thousands of Japanese characters - or kanji, based on Chinese ideograms - to choose from, the possibilities would seem limitless.

(2) Mankind is coming back a full circle - from ideograms through alphabet to ideograms .

(3) Perhaps there is a sound that goes with the symbol, as with Chinese ideograms; maybe there are multiple sounds also with Chinese ideograms as they are rendered orally in diverse dialects.

(4) While it is possible that the Egyptians borrowed the idea for ideograms and phonograms from the Sumerians, many experts think that would be very unlikely.

(5) Early written characters were based on pictograms and ideograms; it is commonly believed that pictograms appeared before ideograms .