Re: Optimum number of symbols

Kala Tunu scripsit:

> imagine a young child learning how to write his own mother tongue. he can
> anticipate a word in a text from the context and the first or few letters or
> signs of a following word: "i'm tir(e)d, i'm go(i)ng t(o) b(e)d".  [...]
> now, this is worth only for people who can speak the language they learn to
> write. imagine you learn english as a second language and read: "i'm tird, i'm
> ging t bd" while you barely know "tired" and "bed".
But this is because English has such complicated spelling rules that are
hard to learn.  The kinds of mistakes people make writing Spanish (at
least around here) are much simpler to decipher even for a non-speaker
such as myself: they screw up ll and y, v and b, and sometimes final
l and r (e.g. |fabol| for "favor").

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_