In the first type, logographic systems, each sign stands for a word. The most prominent example of a logographic writing system is Chinese characters. However, there were many ancient languages that used similar systems, such as Egyptian hieroglyphics. An obvious disadvantage of using these systems is that there are thousands of signs, so they are very time-consuming to learn. (2)_______________, there are advantages too - people speaking different Chinese dialects can all use the same writing, even though their languages are not mutually intelligible.