> I would put Morse
> code in the class of phonetic alphabets, where the sounds equate
> to symbols in a symbolic alphabet that can be combined to form
> elements (i.e. 'words') in any language that employs that symbolic
> alphabet.
> Above about 20 WPM or so, CW does become sort of a 'language'
> for me ... I hear words, not letters, but the real 'language' is
> still English of course.
I agree with the professor. I would equate the phenomena of recognizing
entire words when receiving at high speed to the recognition of printed
words by their "shape" when reading. None of us stops to sound out every
word we read phonetically, yet that's how they (or most of them) are really
constructed. We see the word in its entirety and instantly know what it is
and what it means.
This doesn't make printed text into a language distinct from English (or
Spanish or French or whatever), it is just a characteristic of a person who
is fluent with the language.
Just as printed English has its own "idioms" -- like indenting paragraphs,
starting a chapter with a large capital letter, marking footnotes with
superscripted numbers, etc. -- CW has also developed idioms that are unique
to it. "fb", "om", "73", etc. evolved not so much because they represent
commonly used words and phrases, but because brevity is an asset when
communicating in Morse Code.
The idioms don't always translate well into other modes of conveying the
language. While we do say some of them ("73's", "XYL", and "QSO" come to
mind), we don't say most of them ("es", "BT", "fb", etc.). I would argue
that saying most of these sounds about as dumb as someone saying "lol" when
you tell a joke. Just laugh out loud, it's more natural.
Almost none of the print idioms translate into conversation. We don't raise
our hand to indicate a footnote as we talk. We don't move our head slightly
to the right when starting a new paragraph.
The point is that prosigns, abbreviations, q-signals, and other components
of CW don't make it a unique language. They just add expressiveness, just as
punctuation marks do in print.
All that to say that CW isn't a language. It's an alphabet. :-)
Craig
NZ0R
K1 #1966
K2/100 #4941
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