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Re: made-to-order alphabets

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Tuesday, September 28, 1999, 2:12
Adam Parrish wrote:
> Quick question on ordering schemes for alphabets: is it > necessary to have one? For some reason it strikes me that the Talin (the > writing system for Doraya) doesn't really have any particular "order," > and that the thought of sequencing them would seem odd to the speakers > of Doraya. Is it a required thing for alphabetic systems to have a > perceived "order"? Does something similar happen in other writing > systems (e.g., syllabaries)?
Well, many times, when a writing system is ordered, it's just a conventional order, a mnemonic aid, and it's not used for ordering. I don't know if all systems have one conventional order, there might be some alphabets/syllabries with variable order. As for syllabries, an example is Japanese, which orders the kana by consonant and vowel, so that, for instance, vowel-only ones are first, a i u e o, then ka ki ku ke ko, then s-, t-, n-, h-, m-, y-, r-, w-, and syllabic n. -- Oh Lord, grant that we may always be right, for thou knowest we will never change our mind. - Scots Prayer http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files/ http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Books.html ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor