Eiji (was: NATLANG/Learning : Sanskrit)

Muke Tever wrote:

<<If we were going to be sensible, we'd not do it as the Chinese do it but as
the
Japanese do it, and have one sign with several readings--for English, we'd have
to have native readings, French/Latin readings, and Greek readings for most
characters.
[skip examples]
I've always wanted to build a kleptographic system along these lines but never
get around to doing so.>>

Some ten years ago I read something similar in one of books for studying kanji;
the way the Japanese writing system works, was explained by English Germanic vs.
Romance examples. I made a try to expand the thing too, but soon abandoned it.
<rhetoric questions> Should I give another try? And what about using
"functional" hanzi (like Chinese 了 for perfective) instead of okurigana)?
</rhetoric questions> ;))

> From: "Steg Belsky" <draqonfayir@...>
> > -Stephen (Steg), who tried unsuccessfully to find an "eiji" for 'steg'
> > (=roof, cover)
>
> Well, roof is '屋'... but I dont know one for 'cover' offhand (which would
> probably be better).
IMHO, 屋 both in Chinese (wu1) and Japanese (OKU/ya) means "dwelling place". I
would recommend 蓋 GAI/futa (Jp) : gai4 (Ch, simplified form 盖). Not in the kanji
minimum, but still...

~~~~~~Yitzik~~~~~~
P.S. Yes, I'm back, though mostly in a lurking mode...