Welcome to the Bliss Workshop! This workshop is for those who wish to teach Bliss to others. From time to time a new session will be added, and throughout, tips will be given regarding teaching Bliss to those who use it for their face-to-face communication and their Blisslnternet communication.
This page is just a brief overview. For more and updated information and a deeper understanding, we recommend that you read this document on Proceedings Characteristics of Blissymbolics.
When you think about teaching Bliss, there are a few primary factors to remember:
-
Key Characters (or Key Symbols), Bliss-characters and Bliss-words
-
Language Structure
-
Generative
Please trfer to the Fundamental Rules of Blissymbolics document for more detailed information about the making of Bliss.
(In Bliss Fundamental Rules Amendment you can find an updated description of the procedures for how the development of new Blissymbol vocabulary is managed.)
Read more ...
The system of Blissymbolics has several features which makes it a preferred means of communication for nonspeaking persons, for persons with limited literacy skills, and for persons who are ready and eager to use Bliss to communicate with persons whatever their language background may be.
Blissymbolics is a language with a wide vocabulary, a grammar which allows for sentences in past, future and present tenses, and markers for possession, plurality, questions and commands.
There are many strategies within the system of Blissymbolics which enable the user to create new symbols. It is a totally generative system with each new symbol interpretable by the receiver through analysing the component parts. In the same way that letters represent sounds that are used to create words in print, meaning-based Bliss-characters are sequenced to define the meaning of each compound symbol or Bliss-word.
The full current vocabulary is built from around 1200 such semantic characters. However, since these Bliss-characters are built from a limited number of elements, called key symbols, the learner need only master the meaning of approximately a maximum of 100 to 120 elements.
After all, it is important to remember that Bliss can be introduced and practically used from a very simple and early level, with a wide horizon for language and literacy development at hand.
Blissymbolics is a communication system originally developed by Charles K. Bliss (1897-1985) for the purpose of international communication. It was first applied to the communication of children with physical disabilities by an interdisciplinary team led by Shirley McNaughton at the Ontario Crippled Children's Centre (now the Bloorview MacMillan Centre) in 1971.
The Blissymbolics language is currently composed of over 6,500 graphic symbols. Each symbol or Bliss-word is composed of one or more Bliss-characters which can be combined and recombined in endless ways to create new symbols. Bliss-words can be sequenced to form many types of sentences and express many grammatical capabilities. Simple shapes are used to keep the symbols easy and fast to draw and because both abstract and concrete levels of concepts can be represented, Blissymbolics can be applied both to children and adults and are appropriate for persons with a wide range of intellectual abilities.
Blissymbols:
- are quick and easy to learn
- can be used at a pre-reading level, but are sophisticated enough to allow expression of thoughts, ideas and feelings
- can be expanded as ability grows
Some symbols are pictographs - they look like the things they represent
housewheelsunelectric
Some symbols are ideographs - they represent ideas:
mindgiveknowledge
Symbols can be combined to create additional meanings:
wheel+sun=machine
For more details on how the Blissymbolics communication system works, please visit our Bliss Workshop.
