Re: Rating Languages

Amber Adams scripsit:

> It's kind of
> like how English forms a lot of its compound words from Latin and Greek
> roots, I think.
The analogy I like:

Consider the English word "sphygmomanometer", which is a borrowing from Greek.
Suppose that it were always written in Greek letters, and could be
pronounced either /sfIgmoum&n'om@t@r/ or /'blVd'prES@r'mit@r/ depending on
the context.  Now extend that to every other Greek borrowing in English,
and see what your written language looks like.

And this is an easy version, because after all Greek is another alphabet,
very like the English alphabet, whereas Chinese characters are nothing
like the Japanese syllabary!

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
Please leave your values        |       Check your assumptions.  In fact,
   at the front desk.           |          check your assumptions at the door.
     --sign in Paris hotel      |            --Miles Vorkosigan

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