Re: Optimum number of symbols

On 23 May, Raymond Brown wrote:


>Apparently not.  It was only when certain texts were held to be sacred and,
>in the case of Hebrew, the language was moribund as a spoken language or,
>in the case of Arabic, the language starting developing different spoken
>dialects (like modern English is doing), that a need was felt to mark the
>vowels so that the sacred texts would be read correctly.  Even now, Arabic
>is normally written without vowel marks, the latter being used almost only
>in texts of the Koran. The revived modern Hebrew in Israel is not normally
>written with vowel marks.


>>Everything else being equal, wouldn't
>>you have to agree that such a script is improved by marking vowels?

>It depends on the language, I think.  It would be interesting to learn the
>observation of our Hebrew speakers on this list (and, indeed, Arabic
>speakers if we have any).
    IMHO, it indeed depends upon the language!
In Hebrew, for the most part, word-building is very
systematic and one usually only needs the consonants
in order to figure out what the word is.
    As a Hebrew-speaker, not only would I be slowed down
by the vowels, I'd be absolutely _insulted_ by them
in normal usage! It would be sort of like having your nose
constantly rubbed in the most boringly obvious!
Like all those legal warnings on items; you know:
"Warning! This knife may cut!" or "This bottle contains
poison which, if ingested, may be harmful!"
    There _are_  times when vowels are put in and
a Hebrew-speaker wouldn't feel insulted. One is
to vocalize or otherwise clarify the pronounciation of a word,
especially one of foreign origin, whose vowels can't be
predicted on the basis of Hebrew rules.
    Another is religious texts --- and not only are
vowels marked, but musical indications for exactly how
one must chant the word are also likely to be present .
It's accepted today, in religious texts, by Hebrew speakers
as "the traditional way it's done" (although, within prayerbooks
for example, any explanations or instructions which are provided
by the editors will be in regular unvoweled Hebrew).
       Having said all this, I wouldn't like to try to read
an unvoweled version of a lang where I couldn't predict
all the words. I mean, when I write notes in English,
I'll often drop vowels in some words to save time and
effort and I don't have a problem reading back what I wrote.
But I sure wouldn't want to have to read an entire novel
in English without vowels! Talk about torture!


Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a

A word is an awesome thing.