Re: Lin & BrSc: orthography & phonology

Raymond Brown wrote:
>
>I had in the past thought of various ways of extending the range of symbols
>for BrSc.  I have not been keen on using upper and lower case letters
>separately, as the use of the shift-key, it seems to me, will actually slow
>down typing.  Indeed, my own inclination has ben to use _only_ lower case
>letters.  But I have been tempted to include the digit symbols.
>
>I was persuaded by one conlanger that this was not "a good thing" - numbers
>are numbers & words are words.  However, in these days of texting, the use
>of {4} to mean "for", and 2 to mean "to" or "too" (as well, of course,
>"four" and "two" respectively) shows that the general public have no
>aversion to using digit symbols as non-numeric symbols.
>
>Dutton (the inventor of Speedwords, which was the starting point for BrSc)
>extended the 26 letters of the modern Roman alphabet by using {&} also, tho
>only in two words:
>& /{nd/ = 'and'
>&e /"{nde:/ = 'also'
>
>Srikanth oddly, perhaps, did not use {&} but he did make use of a whole set
>of non-alphanumeric symbols.  I have often considered using some
>non-alphanumeric symbols to denote sounds in BrSc, e.g. &, #, @ - but not
>quite as many as in Lin!
>
>So, I ask three questions:
>1. Am I right to avoid the constant use of the shift-key (unlike Lin and
>X-SAMPA) ?
In my mind definitely.

>2. Is there any real objection to using not only the {2} and {4} of
>texters, but also the other digit symbols to denote sound?
Not really, but it'd be preferable not to use {1} because it looks too much
like {l} in most fonts, and {0} because of the similarity with {O}.

>3. Is there any real reason not to use at least some of the
>non-alphanumeric symbols?
Most of the non-alphanummeric symbols require one to use the Shift or Alt Gr
keys, so to include them as alphabetic characters pretty much kills the
point in not using the upper case letters as extra graphemes. At least on my
keyboard, the signs that doesn't invlove a extra key-stroke are {§} and {+},
plus some on the nummeric keyboard, which I'd avoid because they'd require
alot extra hand-movement when typing.
Also, you must needs use the apostrophe for something!

It may be noted that the digits and non-alphamumericals don't have
established cursive versions, wherefore it would be pain to write BrSc by
hand if it included them in the orhtography, altho' this problem wouuld
doubtlessly be solved over time.

                                             Andreas

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