スペリングの英語史を著わした Horobin によると，17世の英語社会には従来のローマン・アルファベットではなく万国共通の普遍文字を考案しようとする動きが生じていた．
16--17世紀には正音学 (orthoepy) が発達し，それに伴って正書法 (orthography) への関心も高まった時代だが，そこで常に問題視されたのはローマン・アルファベットの不完全性だった．この問題意識のもとで，完全なる普遍的な文字体系が模索されることになったことは必然といえば必然だった．しかし，17世紀の普遍文字の考案の動きにはもう1つ，同時代に特有の要因があったのではないかという．それは長らくヨーロッパ社会で普遍言語として認識されてきたラテン語の衰退である．古い普遍「言語」が失われかけたときに，新しい普遍「文字」が模索されるようになったというのは，時代の流れとしておもしろい．Horobin (25) より引用する．
Attempts have also been made to devise alphabets to overcome the difficulties caused by this mismatch between figura and potestas. In the seventeenth century, a number of scholars attempted to create a universal writing system which could be understood by everyone, irrespective of their native language. This determination was motivated in part by a dissatisfaction with the Latin alphabet, which was felt to be unfit for purpose because of its lack of sufficient letters and because of the differing ways it was employed by the various European languages. The seventeenth century also witnessed the loss of Latin as a universal language of scholarship, as scholars increasingly began to write in their native tongues. The result was the creation of linguistic barriers, hindering the dissemination of ideas. This could be overcome by the creation of a universal writing system in which characters represented concepts rather than sounds, thereby enabling scholars to read works composed in any language. This search for a universal writing system was prompted in part by the mistaken belief that the Egyptian system of hieroglyphics was designed to represent the true essence and meaning of an object, rather than the name used to refer to it. Some proponents of a universal system were inspired by the Chinese system of writing, although this was criticized by others on account of the large number of characters required and for the lack of correspondence between the shapes of the characters and the concepts they represent.
21世紀の現在，普遍文字としての絵文字やピクトグラム (pictogram) の可能性に注目が寄せられている．現代における普遍言語というべき英語が17世紀のラテン語のように衰退しているわけでは必ずしもないものの，現代の普遍文字としてのピクトグラムの模索への関心が高まっているというのは興味深い．17世紀と現代の状況はどのように比較対照できるだろうか．
関連して「#2244. ピクトグラムの可能性」 ([2015-06-19-1])，「#422. 文字の種類」 ([2010-06-23-1]) を参照．
・ Horobin, Simon. Does Spelling Matter? Oxford: OUP, 2013.
・ サイモン・ホロビン（著），堀田 隆一（訳） 『スペリングの英語史』 早川書房，2017年．
英語の書記体系を題材に「社会言語学」してみたらどうなるだろうか．Coulmas の論文は，そのような試みである．
新しいメディアやコミュニケーションの発達，そしてそれに伴う言語行動パターンの変化により，近い将来，英語の書き言葉はどのように変化していくのだろうか．誰にとっても未知の領域ではあるが，Coulmas (271-72) が論点をいくつか挙げている．
・ The admittance of spell checkers and electronic dictionaries in ever-lower grades at school could alter public attitudes toward the importance of spelling.
・ By virtue of easy access to materials in other languages and automatic translation software, language contact in the written mode has acquired a new dimension.
・ Non-native written English text is made public on an unprecedented scale.
・ Communities of vernacular writing are more easily formed. To what extent is this potential actually exploited?
・ More people partake in word play (Leetspeak, Lolcat) and Internet memes like Doge.
・ Non-standard and loaded spellings (e.g., imagiNation, a book title prior to Scotland's independence referendum) and cacography (wot? magick, marshall law) can gain currency in ways unimaginable only a generation ago (by 'going viral'). The exposure of the reading public to text on the Internet that has not gone through the traditional filters has grown exponentially. Will this have an effect on what is considered Standard English?
・ The authority the written word was traditionally accorded could be undermined and the grip of norm-preserving institutions (i.e., school, government printing offices, newspapers, dictionaries) on the language could weaken as a result.
・ New forms of writing practices evolve as the new media take hold in society. The handwritten CV is already anachronistic, while it is becoming more common for employers to screen job applicants' social media pages. At the same time, digital literacy is becoming ever more important for any employment and full participation in society.
Coulmas の挙げている論点から浮かび上がってくるのは，世界中のメディア空間においてますます多くの非標準的な英語表記が飛び交うことにより，従来の標準的な書記からの逸脱が進行するのではないか，という近未来像だ．もちろん他に論点はあり得るし，標準からの逸脱に抵抗する力学も何らかの形で作用するに違いない．一度ゼミなどで議論するにふさわしい話題とみた．
・ Coulmas, Florian. "Sociolinguistics and the English Writing System." The Routledge Handbook of the English Writing System. Ed. Vivian Cook and Des Ryan. London: Routledge, 2016. 261--74.
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