RE: Typing in Chinese: was Re: [Futurework] Chinese as the world language? Arabic...

[Lawrence DeBivort]

Greetings, all,   Arabic does have vowels: a i, and u. In usage, these take either a 'short' or a 'long' form. The short form is not written when a word is spelled out; only the long vowels are written as letters.  Because short vowels are not written, the Arabic speaker/reader has to know the word before he/she can know how to pronounce it. Because non-Arabic Muslims, who are likely to speak other languages and may not speak Arabic well enough to know the correct pronunciation of words, additional markings may be added to Arabic words to specify what the correct pronunciation is. This is particularly important for those who are reading or chanting the Quran.   To someone who is learning Arabic, this provides only an initial obstacle. The real challenge of Arabic comes later in the learning process. Arabic is based on formal patterns of root letters, and the patterns carry generic meaning that serves to give nuance and meaning to the root letters.  In pattern, Arabic is quite a beautiful language, but I don't think it qualifies as one simple enough to be a candidate for a global language. Even the Arabs struggle with the rigors of Arabic, and various Arab regions have developed distinct verbal forms and dialects of Arabic that are often quite different from the traditional formal written Arabic. Educated Arabs from different regions may well use formal Arabic to converse, rather than their home dialects. In some regions, modern writers have started writing in the dialects themselves, rather than use the formal written Arabic.   As (formal) Arabic is intimately tied to the Quran, it will be difficult for the Arab and Muslim worlds to move away entirely from formal Arabic to the easier dialects.   Like the Academie Francaise, the Arabs have worried about the pollution of their language with words from the West, principally words from English and French. Efforts have been made by the Damascus academy to create new Arabic words -- that is, words that fit the traditional root and patterns structures of Arabic -- to serve modern needs, words for things like computer, telephone, etc., and these efforts have met with the same difficulties as met the Academie's efforts to combat 'Franglais.'   Cheers, Lawry -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of William B Ward Sent: Sat, August 23, 2003 6:47 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Typing in Chinese: was Re: [Futurework] Chinese as the world language? Keith,   Arabic does not have written vowels. They do put a short lower left to upper right slash that is the 'i', something like a comma that is the 'u' sound, and a hyphen that is the 'a' [the latter two marks are above the letters while the former is below for school children and probably muezzins [my son used to sit in from the of the TV and could do the call to prayer perfectly. He wanted to be a muezzin when he group up but was broken hearted when he found that most mosques were moving to taped calls].   Actually, I just attached a list of the characters to this email and had forgotten that stand alone letters differ slightly from the beginning, middle, and ending so there are often 4 variations [ I don't think most typewriters can do the stand alone characters. Trying to type in Arabic, even for Arabs, is a challenge. On typewriters there is an upshift and downshift key to get the initial and terminal forms.   A Lebanese physician did develop a printing alphabet that resulted in a single figure for each letter but it hasn't caught on in some 30 years. I believe it has to do with the feeling that it was moving the language of the Qur'an away from its roots.   Also, in a different post, re:           Chinese - It has lost all the appendages that other languages still have -- conjugations,         declensions, irregular verbs, subjunctives, ablatives, and so on -- nightmares that         plagues learners of most other languages.   to make Hebrew masterable by European Jews coming to Israel, a lot of the complex grammar was simplified as in Chinese above. This is the Hebrew which is taught in Ulpans. Palestinian staff of mine picked it up in a snap since Hebrew and Arabic are so similar.   Bill       On Sat, 23 Aug 2003 06:57:55 +0100 Keith Hudson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Hi Bill, > > At 19:28 22/08/2003 -0400, Bill Ward wrote: > >The characteristics below make [Chinese] very computer friendly > unlike Arabic > >which has three different forms of each letter -- beginning, > middle, and > >end of word. > >Bill > > > >On Fri, 22 Aug 2003 20:31:55 +0100 Keith Hudson > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >writes: > >There are no words of more than one syllable and every word has > only one > >form. It proceeds by means of subject and predicate -- that's all > -- and > >explicated by means of metaphors. > > Fascinating -- what you say about Arabic. I didn't know that. But I > must > say that I love the Arabic calligraphy in its different variations. > But I > made a discovery of my own concerning written Arabic when I was in > Istanbul > some three or four years ago. In the Blue Dome I heard the voice of > a > muezzin reciting the Qoran and then came across him in an alcove > kneeling > in front of his script and microphone. He was reciting it in a > beautiful > way (he had the most marvellous tenor voice) and I ventured to have > a look > at his script when he'd finished. I noticed some interesting dashes > at > high, medium and low levels adjacent to the words here and there and > asked > him about these (we conversed in sign language, of course, being > mutually > incomprehensible!) which I suspected were simple intonation marks. > He > confirmed this, and he gave me a master class there and then! It was > only > months later that the penny dropped and I realised that these marks > were > very similar to the pitch marks (neumes) of the music of the Jewish > Cantors > and the earliest liturgical music of the Christian church. This > later > became formalised in the notation book written by Englishman, Robert > de > Handlo, in the 14th century (after whom I named my music publishing > > business). So, we not only have the Islamic scholars to thank for > having > translated the ancient Greek writers and then reintroducing them > into the > West which helped to stimulate the Renaissance, but also the Islamic > > muezzins who formulated the beginnings of notated music that we use > today. > > But thinking of the beautiful calligraphy of Arabic, this reminds me > of the > equally beautiful Chinese and Japanese calligraphy and a putative > commercial venture many years ago when I attempted to introduce the > > Japanese to a new keyboard. In a purely aesthetic way I had become > interested one week-end in the graphical structure of Japanese and > Chinese > ideograms and I impulsively wrote to Toshiba (I seem to remember it > was > this firm) with an idea of the way they could be typed. I reckoned > that the > many thousands of Japanese, Korean and Chinese ideograms could be > simply, > albeit crudely, represented on a 8 x 8 grid and 'played' in chordal > fashion > by the left and right hands on a piano-like keyboard. I sent off my > letter > with the usual sealed envelope inside it containing the idea -- and > then > promptly forgot all about it!  Some months later I received a reply > to say > they had considered it carefully but for various reasons declined > the idea. > I was actually invited to meet the writer of the letter, their > Research > Director, who was visiting Manchester the following month and he > would > explain more if I needed to hear. But I didn't bother. The prospect > of > travelling to dirty, grimey Manchester (as it was in those days) > didn't > appeal to me. > > Keith Hudson > Keith Hudson, 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath, England, > <www.evolutionary-economics.org> > > >