Re: Optimum number of symbols

From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@...>

> Nik Taylor scripsit:
>
> > Was this an alphabet or a syllabry, or something in between?
>
> Definitely an alphabet.   Each of the 21 initial consonants of
> Mandarin (b p m f d t n l g k h j q x zh sh ch r z c s) has a distinct
> letter.   The final letters are a bit more complex, e.g.
> Pinyin "wu" is represented by "u" alone, the finals "an", "en",
> "ang", "eng" are represented by single letters (which can be
> compounded with "u" "i" "yu"), the letter "er" represents the
> stand-alone syllable "er" or the postfinal retroflexion "-r", etc.
Bopomofo. It's still used in RC/Taiwan, I think. There are also tone marks,
which consist of slashes for Mandarin tones 2 and 4 and a v-mark for tone 3;
I think tone 1 is a horizontal line.

It's included in Unicode, and an extension has been added recently to
include non-Mandarin forms of Chinese.

~Danny~