Re: tlug: Re: Japanese input

[Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com>]

> 	As far as I think, using only kana characters include not just
> political/cultural problems. The tradition of the mixed use of kanji and
> kana in Japanese is thought to be rooted in her developing processes of
> the mutually related language and the writing system in the past, as
> well as of her expansion of concepts and knowledge of the world. The
Hmmmm......all languages were influenced by written language.
However, as it turns out, the development normally hadn't a lot
to do with the specific writing system - as long as it allowed
expressing words and sentences correctly - which all writing
systems currently in use do.
> inherent agglutinating nature of the Japanese language looks to make the
> mixed use of kana and kanji work very well, and this may be the
> background of the fact that the Japanese language has successfully
> expanded its vocabularies by applying Chinese words (in Chinese kanji
> characters) especially to abstract concepts.
Sure ? How many foreign words do you think we adopted in German?
We have them from all directions: Latin, Greek, Italian, French,
English, Japanese, Chinese, Russian etc. etc.
> 	As I'm not a linguistic expert, I can not jump to the conclusion that
> we can not eliminate kanji. But practically speaking, not using kanji
> characters will bring problems to Japanese, as listed below:
> 
> 	1. Conflict words: different words sharing one and the same sound.
We have lots of them in German, too. Not much of a problem.
> 	2. Confusion between elements of a sentence: it will be hard to
> distinguish independent words and auxiliary words. This will diminish
> readability, anyway.
This is a problem in pretty much all languages. It is minor,
however.
> 	3. 2. may make it necessary to introduce word spaces into Japanese, but
> it will not be in good harmony with the agglutinating nature of
> Japanese, and it will lead to unnecessarily redundant use of spaces and
German is rather agglutinating, too. The solution is simple:
separate words have spaces between them. Aggltinated words
don't.
> kana characters. This may also be a minus factor for readability and
> efficiency of writing and reading.
Actually it would improve readability. I always found the lack
of spaces in Japanese text a bit confusing. Well, you get kinda
used to it: but having them would be a definite plus.
> 	Your idea is not a heretical one. Many Japanese people (those of the
> Kana-moji-kai movement, for example) had had the same idea. I think that
> we became less interested in the idea of abolishing kanji, as our own
> understanding of our language matured in these decades.
Or was it just that technology became a lot better in getting
along with this ? This in combination of human inertia could
explain it as well ( and probably more realistically.... ).
> 	I hear that today there are controversies about using the simpler form
> of "ss" instead of a ligature of a long (old calligraphic) "s" and a
> short "s" in German. Some of the discussions may have political
You are right. It is a shame. That thing ( the "sharp s" ) ought
to be thrown out without even losing a word about it ( I
personally just use plain ASCII - this works without a hitch in
German - there really is no need for things like a "Latin 1"
character set ).
> tendencies, but other undeniable part of the issue should be based on
Should. But there is none. Just some idiots that want to make
themselves important at the detriment of the rest of the
population and waste tax money on that.
> practical concerns, I guess. Possible obstacles to abolishion of kanji
> characters will be greater than the reactions to the currently proposed
> simplification of German orthography.
Yes. That's it. The real, technical problems can be solved.
However, to get it politically solved is quite another
questions. It's there that I don't see any light at the end of
the tunnel......

The problem is that its writing system puts Japan constantly at
technical disadvantages: in the beginning it was the inability
to use the Gutenberg printing system, then it was the inability
to use typewriters, then it was the inability to use computers
for text processing ( at least until enough memory became
available ) then it is that many programs available for
alphabetic languages are unavailable ( for editing English I
have the choice between a dozen or so editors, for Japanese it's
only two, the editor coming with TkDesk probably will never be
able to handle Kanji, etc., etc., etc..... ). This is a real
PROBLEM. Back in the DOS days the Japanese DOS was always at
least one year behind: Linux is no different. It appears to me
that free programmers in Japan use up all their time getting the
relevant stuff kanjified.

Let's face it: being constantly put at a technical disadvantage
mostly means having a handicap against the competition. This is
deadly in todays highly competitive environment.

                                 Karl-Max Wagner
                                 karlmax@example.com
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