Ferengi (was Re: Scripts in 3-D?)

On 12 Jan 00, at 14:47, Daniel A. Wier wrote:

> This could be something kinda Star Trek-like, as is the form of chess they
> played in The Next Generation (at least)...
>
This reminds me of something that keeps cropping up in my head,
but that I never really work on for too long: A possible rationale for
the way Ferengi documents appear in Star Trek.

It seems to me that the script is ideographic, though given the
relatively low number of symbols (ISTR 50-ish, but that's a
guesstimate), there are some special rules about words being read
as groups of symbols rather than on a more logographic one-to-one
basis.  Anyhoo, that's not the point I was trying to make, though it
is related to it.

What gets me thinking is that 'lines' (for want of a better word) of
script split in the middle and branch off into two different
directions, or into two parallel lines.

IMO those splits happen at the point where clauses or phrases
split, ie at the words {and}, {but}, {with}, {notwithstanding} and/or
relative or dependant clause markers.

It seems to me that such a language would have to have an
exceedingly free word and phrase order, as although lines split,
they never recombine.  Actually, since IMO the characters of the
script don't directly represent words, there's no reason why the
workings of the written script should match the syntax of the
spoken language.


---
Pb

"There's only one thing worse than not knowing, and that's not guessing."