In a message dated 2001-10-10 9:16:17 Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes to [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
> You may consider trying to classify the artificial scripts a bit more. > For example I *think* (I'm a bit rusty on my Elvish) that for Tengwar would > be either Abjad (like Hebrew), or maybe Featural (like Hangul), and Cirth > would be Alphabet (like Runic). Alternatively, you may consider moving the "artificial" classification to a subcategory inside the main categories (alphabet, abjad, syllabary, etc.), or even doing away with the distinction altogether. *All* scripts are man-made and thus "artificial" in a sense. The only exception to this would be if you subscribe to some article of religious faith that says a particular script was furnished directly by God. Cyrillic was created as a better way to write Slavic languages, Russian in particular. Shavian and Deseret were created as better ways to write English. The former met with overwhelming success, the latter did not (to say the least), but the success of Cyrillic does not make the circumstances its creation any less "artificial." Even Tengwar and Cirth, although created to support languages introduced in works of fiction, were invented according to some of the same principles that guide the creation of so-called "real" scripts. -Doug Ewell Fullerton, California
