Re: Japanese RTL (was RE: Mongolian (was RE: Syriac and Mongolian

From: John Cowan (jcowan@reutershealth.com)
Date: Tue Jan 11 2000 - 18:18:08 EST

"Reynolds, Gregg" wrote:

> Speculation: stroke flow is LTR because most people are
> righties and it's easier to pull the pen or brush.

Yes, this is generally accepted.

> Which clearly proves
> that most writers of Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, etc. are left-handed.

No, merely that they retain the writing direction which is most natural for
inscriptions on stone, where the left hand holds the chisel and the
right hand hammers leftward. I believe that stonecarvers even
today carve texts RTL in all scripts. 

-- 

Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>
Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,  || http://www.reutershealth.com
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau,           || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.            -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:20:58 EDT