Re: What is an alphabet? Re: Optimum number of symbols

>The romanization of Zhuang (a Tai language of China) is interesting in
>this respect.  Standard Zhuang has six tones, which are written using
>special tonal letters.  AFAICT tone 1 has no special letter.
>Tone 2 is written with a reversed s, tone 3 with Cyrillic ZHE
>[note: that should be ZE], tone 4
>with Cyrillic CHE, tone 5 with a sort of Gaelic-style G, and tone 6
>with a Cyrillic hard sign.  If you squint at these, they look like the
>digits 2-6 respectively.
Cantonese has six tones (well seven, but high-level and high-falling are
almost merged); I'd like to see that notation used. Symbols that look
distinct from numerals and have upper and lower case forms.

I wonder what 7, 8 and 9 might look like for a language that needs them....

~Danny~

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