Re: Deseret alphabet
From: | John Cowan <cowan@...> |
Date: | Thursday, August 28, 2003, 19:47 |
Barry Garcia scripsit:
> >Like P and B in the capital Latin alphabet.
>
> Yes, but P and B are in a script that "evolved"
It would be interesting to know how the shape of rho got to be transferred
to representing the sound of pi. Does anyone understand it?
> >Like K and G in the capital Latin alphabet.
>
> As are the above two, which also evolved.
The proper pair is C and G, since K was rare in Latin usage. We actually
know the name of the person who created the letter G: he was a teacher of
reading and and writing named Spurius Carvilius Ruga, who somewhere around
293 B.C.E. got tired of explaining to his students that the letter C had
two sounds, one as in CASSIVS and one as in RVCA. The idea caught on.
Even evolved alphabets aren't devoid of occasional acts of invention.
> I also dislike scripts such as Cherokee, which look like a bunch of Latin
> letters and arabic numerals went into battle and came out with
> amputations, mental problems, prostetics, speaking another language :).
Not really Sequoyah's fault. He had much prettier glyphs in mind, but
was persuaded to use mostly Latin sorts because that's what the printer,
one Samuel A. Worcester, had available.
--
"But the next day there came no dawn, John Cowan
and the Grey Company passed on into the jcowan@reutershealth.com
darkness of the Storm of Mordor and were http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
lost to mortal sight; but the Dead http://reutershealth.com
followed them. --"The Passing of the Grey Company"