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Re: Optimum number of symbols

From:And Rosta <a-rosta@...>
Date:Friday, May 24, 2002, 2:18
Mike S:
> Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote: > >"True" Alphabet > >Advantages: > > Paucity of characters, presumed ease of learning > > Flexibility > > Easier to make abstract descriptions of a language when one must deal > > with single phones > > This might be included under the flexibility category, but I think > it's worth mentioning: universality. No other basic system lends > itself to every language ever spoken in such a trivially easy way.
I don't think an alphabet lends itself in a trivially easy way to a language with lots of lexically contrastive suprasegmental features such as tone, nasalization and voice quality. Well -- the result may be trivially easy, but the number of characters needed is unsatisfactorily large. (Cf. the numberless threads on this list about romanizations of Chinese.) --And.

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John Cowan <jcowan@...>