Re: Scripts

On Thu, 2002-07-11 at 10:51, Jake X wrote:
> >On Sun, 7 Jul 2002 00:17:50 -0700 Barry Garcia <barry_garcia@...>
> >writes:
> > > CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
> > > I Never thought so, mostly because i hadn't learned that scripts
> > > could go
> > > right to left, until i learned about Hebrew and Arabic (and by then
> > > i had
> > > already learned how Devanagari goes).
>
> IIRC, Braille is both, depending on line, but I think left-right first. In
> other words, so that the blind need not find the beginning of the next line,
> the line below begins just under where the line above ended and runs the
> opposite direction. Is that not correct? Anyhow, I like that way best. Oh,
> that and bottom to top, just to be different.
> Does anyone know of conscripts like that. Does anyone want to incorporate
> that idea in their script?
I believe left-to-right-to-left etc. writing styles are called
'boustrophedon', because it was likened to the way oxen plough.
Ancient Greek when it went from being RTL to LTR went through a
boustrophedon stage, many runic inscriptions were done boustophedonly,
too. As for bottom-to--top, I don't think I've heard of any that do
that. Seems like it'd be more trouble than it's worth. Actually, for
your average right-hander, LTR, TTB is probably easiest because your
hand/arm covers the bottom-right of the page. Unless all the Ancient
Chinese scribes were left handed, I have *no* idea how their direction
originated.

Tristan.