In a message dated 2001-08-14 11:20:58 Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > I consider this mentality to be simply wrong, and feel that > listing transliteration scripts for languages would give undue > respectability to using transliteration scripts, especially given that > Unicode removes the need for most transliteration scripts. Most people cannot read *all* scripts, even all scripts that are in common contemporary use, and so there will always be a need for transliteration (or transcription, but let's not go there again). Unicode makes it possible to render "hadith" in Arabic, along with lots of other different scripts, all in plain text. This is wonderful, but it does not change the facts of the human problem. I cannot read "hadith" in Arabic, but I can read the Latin transliteration, so the transliteration is a boost to communication. That said, I agree that this does not make Latin an "official" script for the Arabic language in any sense. -Doug Ewell Fullerton, California
