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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Lunatic orthography (was Re: Esperanto as a stepping stone?
Message-ID: <1995Jan12.190214.14090@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System)
Reply-To: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
References: <D23yws.FBA@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <1995Jan9.034726.9666@midway.uchicago.edu> <3f0bipINNook@SUNED.ZOO.CS.YALE.EDU>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 19:02:14 GMT
Lines: 33

In article <3f0bipINNook@SUNED.ZOO.CS.YALE.EDU> horne-scott@cs.yale.edu (Scott Horne) writes:
>In article <1995Jan9.034726.9666@midway.uchicago.edu>, deb5@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
><
><Compared to Japanese script, which combines logographs (kanji),
>
>_Kanji_ are not "logographs".

_The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language_, p. 200:

"Logographic writing systems are those where the graphemes represent
words.  The best-known cases are Chinese, and its derivative script,
Japanese _kanji_ (pp. 195, 313).  The symbols are variously referred to
as _logographs, logograms_, or--in the case of oriental languages--
_characters_."

And if kanji are *not* logographs, what are they? 
>
><two syllabaries (hiragana and katakana), and an alphabet (Roman script),
>
>What on earth gave you the idea that Japanese uses the Roman script?

Have you ever seen "NHK" written out?  Some Japanese brand names ("Sony"
pops to mind are always written in Roman script; in addition, Roman
letters can be found interspersed with kanji, hiragana, and katakana
in all sorts of Japanese writing, especially advertising copy.

So I don't know where I get these crazy ideas.  Maybe from the local
Yaohan.

-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
