For example: 漢字 from both 日本語 (JP) and 中文 (ZH) are derivative from semantic concepts based on what they saw around them (when both languages were first created), kind of like this:
There’s more examples of it I can come up with such as the following:
Also, both languages allow this writing orientation (R-L vertical):
I mean, they even have words that are “swapable” (mainly how characters are positioned but retain the same definition) as shown:
The thing is, both languages are logographic which allows for this form of conceptualization regarding vocabulary based on “shape”:
That is in contrast with languages that use alphabets (as those are based on sound) while 日本語 (JP) and 中文 (ZH) are “pictorial” if that makes sense, meaning each character conveys a word or concept rather than a single letter that has no inherent definition.
I’m not sure I’m replying correctly to your question, but the Roman letters can be traced back to Egyptian hieroglyphs and those were based on physical forms.
My favourite is the ox head - alp - which was representation for the letter A. If you look at A, you will notice, that if you flip it on its head, it looks like a simplified ox head. That it directly traced back to “alp”. I don’t remember the origin of each letter, I have followed a guy called Useful Charts for yeeeeears and he made a video on the evolution of the alphabet and also made a poster that you could/can(?) buy. Which is so cool, honestly.
Not all letters can be traced all the way back to Egyptian hieroglyphs, but a surprising amount can and they all represent objects that the common man recognized at the time and it helped with comprehension.
In case you’re interested in the evolution of the Roman alphabet, you can check out this video by Useful Charts, or if you’re more interested in just seeing it, you can just look at the poster he made here: