Re: Constructed vertical writing systems?

On Tuesday 22 April 2003 03:34 am, Tristan McLeay wrote:
> I'm not sure if the Mongolian script has another name, but it's
> vertically-written. Interestingly enough, the next line is to the right of
> the previous (unlike Chinese and kin).
        This odd behavior is easily accounted for if you look at its "geneology": And
Phonecian begat Aramaic, and Aramaic begat Sogdian, and Sogdian begat Uighur,
and Uighur begat Mongolian. In other words, Mongolian's semitic heritage is
responsible for this quirk: if you take a Mongolian text and rotate it 90° to
the right, it will appear written as right-to-left. Probably right-handed
Mongolian scribes got tired of smudging the ink and said, "I know! Let's
rotate the paper a bit!" So you see, right-handedness can be a great source
of inspiration. ;>
        :Peter
--
Oh what a tangled web they weave who try a new word to conceive!

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