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

From: Reynolds, Gregg (greynolds@datalogics.com)
Date: Tue Jan 11 2000 - 17:45:19 EST


> -----Original Message-----
> From: A. Vine [mailto:avine@eng.sun.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2000 4:26 PM
>
> I find it interesting that in writing the characters, the direction is
> definitely LTR, top-to-bottom, juxtaposed with the theory
> that there is no
> inherent directionality in Japanese letterforms.

I take it you mean the stroke ordering (and/or flow) tends to be LTR? I
hadn't thought of that; I'm far too lazy to learn to both read and write. I
wonder if there's a connection with handedness (hand polarity?) I'm a
lefty, so I have to push the pen on a LTR stroke (awkward), and LTR lines
get smudged. Speculation: stroke flow is LTR because most people are
righties and it's easier to pull the pen or brush. Which clearly proves
that most writers of Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, etc. are left-handed.

-gregg



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