Ar 14:05 -0500 1999-10-04, scríobh Scott Horne:
>> Not Mayan. Not Rongorongo. Not Indus. Not Cherokee, really (Sequoyah knew
>> about writing and had samples, but didn't read English).
>
>Nor Akkadian, nor Chinese....
Right. I wasn't trying to be comprehensive this time.
>> But mostly writing
>> has been spread by diffusion, primarily due to religion, but sometimes due
>> to business.
>
>One and the same, really.
That's pretty facile. I was thinking that the Phoenicians weren't out to
convert the Greeks, and that most of the Buddhist missionaries weren't
looking to line their pockets.
>> >Who decided, for instance, to use rare IPA
>> >symbols to write some African languages?
>
>They're much better than ! and || and other bizarre symbols that have
>been devised for the representation of clicks.
I guess these work, but Zulu I think replaced them with Latin letters like
c and q.
>> In 1983 the Nigerian Federal Ministro of Education worked with Herman Zapf
>
>Please don't deprive the great Hermann Zapf of one of his _n_s.
It was a typo. I also typed "Ministro".
>> But
>> on the whole the hooks quite nicely represent the ejective and impulsive
>> consonants they are intended for.
>
>*Implosive* consonants, you mean.
That's funny. I must of been thinking of the pulmonary tract.
I think I'm tired.
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