Re: CHAT: Chinese romanization

Douglas Koller wrote:
>
> John Cowan wrote:
>
> > Conceptual unity.  "Ma2" looks like a word with a number attached.
> > "Mah" looks like a word.  It would be easy for alphabet users to lose
> > the apparently unnecessary digit, just as it's easy to lose the
> > tone mark.  Losing a whole letter is far less likely.
>

IIRC, Bahasa Indonesia uses "2" to mark the plural, which is formed by
repeating the singular form (eg *dog = dog *dog2 = dogs, pronounced
*dog-dog).  Do correct me, someone, if I got it wrong.  I always kind of
liked that, and the same idea for tones seems fun to me, too. Could lead
to all kinds of subtleties, with people  using raised or lowered
numerals to express variations!

        Shaul Vardi