Re: Devanagari handwriting?

Pascal A. Kramm wrote:
> They just bear it, same as with amny other over-complicated thing in
> Sanskrit not found in most other languages (e.g. dual case).
I suspect your contributions to the list would be better received if you
could avoid the embedded value judgements.  Sanskrit was at one time a
living language, which developed naturally by the same process as modern
English, French, German, etc; it's not as if someone sat down to design
it and threw in all these "over-complicated" features out of some
misplaced aesthetic goal.

And of course, speakers don't really  "just bear" the most onerous
features of their language; those are exactly the features which are
modified with each new generation and eventually evolve out of the
language's descendants, replaced by something that is in some sense
"simpler" (but which may result in other added complexities).

Writing systems are a separate beast from language, though they are subject
to similar constraints and simplifying tendencies over time.  In any
case, the Hindi writers I know are able to write it at least as fluidly
and quickly as I write English; the overline is added as an
afterthought, much the way I dot my 'i's and cross my 't's.  I'm just
impressed at how well everything lines up - but then, handwriting on
unlined paper is for me an exercise in keeping non-parallel lines from
intersecting. :)

-Marcos