Re: PinYin - Reformed Latin-script Mandarin writing

In a message dated 2000/05/07 01:39:05 AM, Kou quoted me & wrote:

>>         - making standard Mandarin _somewhat_ more "accessible"
>>         to foreigners, MSL (Mandarin as a Second Language) learners,
>>         and, eventually, AI-augmented computer technology
>
>One might have wished that you hadn't drawn such a clear-cut distinction
>between "foreigners" and "MSL learners" since there is quite a degree of
>overlap.
>
    Yes... but I was thinking of both foreign & domestic MSL learners. Again
I was not too clear in wording my meaning.

>>     PinYin could never really replace the ancient logographic (written)
>> language. The literal & literary riches of the logographic Chinese
>>stretches from the archaic Oracle Bone Script (circa 3000 BCE,
approximately) >>to contemporary Chinese "concrete/language" poetry. That is
nearly 5,000 >>some years of history.
>
>I certainly wouldn't dispute this. I am a Chinese character fiend, and can
>be transported to fits of ecstacy just mulling over some obscure 40+-stroke
>character. I wouldn't want to overplay it, but the sheer age of the
>characters affords them a mystico-symbolic aura like the "gua" of the I
>Ching or the arcana of the Tarot, even though one might overlook it reading
>the front page of "Renmin Ribao".
>
    aiyah! I find everyday poetics even in the local Chinatown signage & see
little difference 'tween the mystico-symbolism of the I Ching, the elliptical
beauty of T'ang Dynasty poetry and everyday poetics of Chinese signage.
    Example of signage:
        for a music store (English gloss)=> beautiful/Star(s)//Music(also
means Joy)/Trade-Shop

    as the French say _objets d' trouve_... ;)

>
>>     Maybe the "West" needs to create its own logographic system. Now
>> that would be a language reform. ;)
>
>>But for the better? This I might dispute.
    True, I like the Roman alphabet a lot myself. I have a fondness for Roman
alphabet languages without accents, diacritics, etc.. Now only if English was
less confusing & convoluted ... & closer to a fonetik, pidjin-spelin.
    (This is just my personal, entirely subjective aesthetic: I tend to be a
reductionist/minimalist... avoiding  more "complex" morphologies and
grammars... I admire them, but prefer something "simpler" & closer to
elliptical/poetic language & the idea of  _ostranenie_ - "making the Familiar
strange.")

    zHANg