-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 02/07/08 07:29, Dotan Cohen wrote: > On 07/02/2008, Ron Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> > However, I vehemently disagree that email should be ascii. This is >> >> >> >> But that's how the US maintains it's hegemony over the Internet... >> >> >> >> Well, that and the fact that (compared to "calligraphic", >> >> pictographic & hieroglyphic languages) Greco-Latin alphabets are >> >> small, simple, regularized, easy to print, and a perfect basis for >> >> extensible vocabulary. >> > >> > Greek is not in ASCII, >> >> Never said it was. >> >> > and Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and all the >> >> >> Russian derives from Greek. > > Russian is Cyrillic,
Knew that... > which is in fact of Greek and Hebrew origin. Not Didn't know that... > surprising since it was invented to spread Christianity, and those are > the languages of the Original and New Testaments. > >> Note that I specified Greco-Latin. > > Greco refers to Greek, no? Or is there some Greek speaking culture > that uses Latin letters? I've never heard of them. Maybe "Greco-Latin" was the wrong way to write what I meant. A longer, but hopefully clearer, method would be "alphabets of Greek and Latin descent". >> > European languages that have modified Latin scripts are just as small >> > (Hebrew is smaller), simple (Arabic is simpler), regularized (if you >> > mean that there is only a small, repeating set of symbols), easy to >> > print (unless you have a ball-hammer printer), and are perfect basi >> > (sp?) for extensible vocabulary. >> >> With the semitic languages, the problem I see is that one letter can >> "flow" under another letter, and dots here and there change the >> meaning of the letter. >> > > In Arabic, most letters combinations flow into one another as does > cursive script in Russian and English. But Western alphabets also have "print" script. Do semitic languages have "print" script? > There are still the same amount > of letters, in fact, when typing Arabic one does not pay attention to > the way the letters flow into one another. The OS does that part > automatically assuming that a supportive font is installed. Interesting. But it seems to make console apps difficult. > Hebrew, on > the other hand, has final letters that are used only on the end of > words, like capital letters in English at the beginning of sentences. > And like English capitals, the user must specify that [s]he wants a > final letter with the appropriate key. Being how there are only five > of those (in addition to 22 regular Hebrew letters) the alphabet the > becomes 27 letters: only one more than English. Also interesting. What about the "dots". Is that just a figment of misunderstanding? - -- Ron Johnson, Jr. Jefferson LA USA PETA - People Eating Tasty Animals -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFHqxPFS9HxQb37XmcRAmsUAJ9Gjabgh6gn55Eo1tY4UD8Zop+VrgCeOURL Fa9Z9ZGmikGTruxTvwY+ZTc= =2sqR -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
