Many alphabetic systems such as those of Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish and Finnish make the practical compromise of standardizing how words are written while maintaining a nearly one-to-one relation between characters and sounds.
In 1890, James Scotford of Edmore, Michigan, claimed that he had found a number of artifacts, including a clay cup with strange symbols and carved tablets, with symbols that looked vaguely hieroglyphic.
The Chinese, Sumerian and Akkadian cuneiform, and Maya scripts are largely syllabic in nature, although based on logograms.