RE: writing direction

From: Debbie Garside (debbie@ictmarketing.co.uk)
Date: Tue Mar 24 2009 - 08:12:54 CST

  • Next message: Howard Gregory: "Re: writing direction"

    Damn this pesky US dictionary that changes my s's to z's as I send it (ha
    ha)

    Of course, both are correct in the OED but s is more prevalent within the
    true English language - the English as spoken in England!

    Debbie

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Tex Texin [mailto:textexin@xencraft.com]
    Sent: 24 March 2009 15:29
    To: debbie@ictmarketing.co.uk
    Cc: 'Vinod Kumar'; 'Unicode Mailing List'
    Subject: RE: writing direction

    Not even below the equator Debbie?

    I prefer cursive scripts which is why I weave in and out of lanes
    rather than just stay in a straight line.

    http://www.i18nguy.com/driver-side.html

    tex

    Quoting Debbie Garside <debbie@ictmarketing.co.uk>:

    > But it will never make sense to me to drive anti-clockwise around a
    > roundabout ;-)
    >
    >
    >
    > Debbie
    >
    >
    >
    > _____
    >
    > From: unicode-bounce@unicode.org [mailto:unicode-bounce@unicode.org] On
    > Behalf Of Vinod Kumar
    > Sent: 24 March 2009 07:25
    > To: Unicode Mailing List
    > Subject: writing direction
    >
    >
    >
    > Please have a look at
    > HYPERLINK
    >
    "http://www.laughitout.com/2009/02/why-werent-you-successful-with-arabs.html
    >
    "http://www.laughitout.com/2009/02/why-werent-you-successful-with-arabs.html
    > The writing direction appears to have a profound influence on
    > many everyday happenings just as the cola ad shows. Yesterday (Feb
    > 18, 2009) there was a news that the Taliban has enforced
    > driving on the right side of the road in the Swat valley of
    > Pakistan because they write from RtoL. Earlier, because of
    > the British legacy, they
    > used to drive along the left of the road just like us
    > Indians. But it beats me to tell the connection between reading
    > from right to left and driving on the right!
    >
    > A quip from my friend Vijayaraman: "Reading Direction" and
    > "Driving direction" relationship is something one can ponder
    > about! If there is such a thing, I wonder how Japanese would
    > drive their cars - they certainly write top to bottom!
    >
    > Thinking deeper into it, there might be a connection between
    > writing and driving directions. When you drive along, the trees
    > and buildings on the left of the central vertical plane of vision
    > move right to left and the trees and buildings on the right move
    > LtoR. This is the case whether you drive along the left or the
    > right.
    >
    > Now consider the incoming traffic. On one way roads, or roads with
    > dividers the incoming traffic is absent or can be ignored.
    > Otherwise, as on most Indian roads, the incoming traffic has to be
    > watched carefully. When driving on the left of the road (India),
    > the incoming traffic will move from LtoR. If we read from LtoR,
    > the characters move in our visual space from RtoL. Hence, if the
    > predominant writing direction is LtoR, you should be driving on
    > the right of the road as in US to watch out for the incoming
    > traffic. So LtoR writing (English, French) is compatible with
    > driving on right hand side of the road! US wins over UK.
    > Incidently, the Taliban has got it wrong here because they read
    > from RtoL and should be driving on the left of the road as we do
    > now in India and Pakistan .
    >
    > Now consider driving along, reading the sign boards on the side of
    > the road you are on. This is normal as you wish to read the board
    > "Uncle Tom's Cabin", get down in front and have a mug of beer.
    > Obviously the left of the road driving is comaptible with LtoR
    > writing. UK wins over US. The Taliban is now right in insisting
    > that everybody should drive on the right and read the signboards
    > strictly written RtoL in Pashto, Urdu or Arabic.
    >
    > The match is evenly poised. Are there other considerations for
    > deciding which side of the road a country should drive given its
    > predominant writing direction? Changing the writing direction
    > looks impossible, but changing the driving side has a faint
    > glimmer of chance.
    >
    > K Vinod Kumar
    >
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