Re: Interesting Brain/Language Nugget of Info

Nik Taylor scripsit:

> Right, but Arabic and Hebrew, to use two examples of RTL, have long used
> ink, forcing Arabs and Israelis to kind of "twist" their hand to prevent
> smudging.  So, surely, switching to LTR would be extremely useful for
> them.  So, why haven't they?  The left-brain/right-brain theory makes
> sense to me.
Why haven't the English-speakers updated their orthography for the
last six hundred years of sound change?  It would extremely useful
for them.  The dead-hand-of-history theory makes sense to me.

Another datapoint: Yiddish is written scriptio plene (with full vowel
symbols) and yet still RTL.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
       I am a member of a civilization. --David Brin