Re: Writing Systems and Biscriptal Children

nicole perrin wrote:
>
[snip all the things about the book]

        Did he speak of the left-handed people? They are supposed to be more
balanced in the way they use their brain hemispheres, as opposed to the
right-handed people who are more left-oriented, and that whatever script
they use or sex they are. I generally don't buy the things about the
brain hemispheres and such, but this I do, as the fact that the right
hemisphere is the hemisphere for rational thinking and the left
hemisphere is for abstract and creative thinking (in fact, I am
left-handed and I like to think that I am creative also thanks to that.
Thus I find it easier to live in a world dominated by right-handed
people :) ).

> So, obligatory conlang reference:  those of you who do have gender in
> your language, is it masc/fem?  and are masculine nouns more powerful?
> or, more interestingly, to the female (and male too, but this probably
> has more to do with females) conlangers on the list, do you find
> yourselves dissatisfied with these horrid male-dominated natlangs and
> left brain alphabets, and is this why you conlang - and, do you make
> your conlangs/concultures/conworlds female dominated?  It's funny, China
> was so male dominated and their women came up with Nu Shu, but Chinese
> uses ideographs...hmm.
>
        I don't know exactly. Azak, Moten and Notya don't have any gender
division, even for the pronouns. Azak resorts to adjectives when gender
is relevant, and Moten has different words for gendered people, as well
as special affecitve diminutives (-mas for men, boys and -zes for women,
girls) but that's all. Reman has no grammatical gender except for the
pronouns, and it's a Romance language, which explains the survivance of
this. Tj'a-ts'a~n has lots of genders with optional subgenders. The
gender 'human' can optionally make a distinction between masculine,
feminine and group genders, but it's only optional. Same for the gender
'animal'. Finally Chasma"o"cho has grammatical gender, but
inanimate/animate distinction, with animate being defined in a very
broad way: everything that is living (including plants and microbes) and
everything coming from living things without transformation (flesh,
organs, wood are thus animate, whereas food is inanimate because it has
been prepared). Also, sensations are mostly inanimate, whereas feelings
are mostly animate. Emotions are in between. Add some exceptions, and
you have it.

        About the scripts, Azak uses an alphabet for roots and a syllabary for
suffixes, that's the strangest script I have (especially when you know
that the "syllables" of the syllabary are always VC, with also two of
them VCVC!). Reman, Moten and Chasma"o"cho are written with the Roman
alphabet or something derived from it. Notya is written with a kind of
alpha-syllabary, and Tj'a-ts'a~n with ideograms that are also used for
their phonetic value (each ideogram corresponds to one syllable, and
two-syllable roots and affixes are written with the ideograms
corresponding to the pronunciation, not the meaning -often both :) -).

        As you can see, I am rather eclectic :) . Oh, BTW, Azak is a little bit
female-oriented in the way people are named in it, and the family
structure of the Sky People (who speak Tj'a-ts'a~n) is very matriarchal
(the Sky People are an alien species where male and female sex are
equally strong in body and in mind). But for the rest, I tend to be
somehat equal.

        For an interesting matriarchal society where feminine names are used
for strong or feared things, you should see the page about Almaqerin of
Dider Willis at:

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/9443/langrefs.html

        I think it's one of the most interesting matriarchal conculture I ever
read about.

> </rant about really annoying book that was a waste of a read -- sorry>
>
> Nicole
--
        Christophe Grandsire

        Philips Research Laboratories --  Building WB 145
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        Phone:  +31-40-27-45006
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