----- Original Message -----
From: "Muke Tever" <muke@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2003 4:50 PM
Subject: Re: NATLANG/Learning : Sanskrit
> [UTF-8]
>
> From: "Jean-François Colson" <bn130627@...>
> > > > This site has a good introduction to how hanzi might work
> > > > in English:
> > > >
> > > >
http://www.zompist.com/yingzi/yingzi.htm
> > >
> > > Yes, a great page!
> >
> > I don't understand why it would be required to use several yinzi to
> > polysyllabic words. Japanese "kun'yomi" readings of many characters are
> > polysyllabic. Aren't they?
>
> Well, it's yingzi, not eiji. :p
> If we were going to be sensible, we'd not do it as the Chinese do it but
as the
> Japanese do it, and have one sign with several readings--for English, we'd
have
> to have native readings, French/Latin readings, and Greek readings for
most
> characters.
>
> e.g., the sign for 'light' would have:
>
> Anglo-yomi 'light'
> Roma-yomi 'luc-'
> 'lu-' in lumen/lumin- [probably not 'luna-' though]
> 'lumière' [nanori only]
> Hellen-yomi 'phot-'
>
> We'd also need to keep alphabet as okurigana, too, so:
> 光 "light"h
> 光ent "lucent"
> 光id "lucid"
> 光minous "luminous"
> 光on "photon"
> 光書s "photographs" (or somesuch)
Hmm..I'd like to use characters adapted to English. So, we borrow a few
simple Chinese characters, but add English phonetics. So, 'course' would be
a combination of the characters for 'teach' and 'horse'. This would also
stand for a bizarre teaching horse, an a fully pictoral character, but the
less said about that, the better.
> I've always wanted to build a kleptographic system along these lines but
never