Re: tlug: Re: Japanese input

[Taro Yamamoto <tyamamot@example.com>]

Karl-Max Wagner wrote:
> > as proved in my roma-ji transliteration above. Some of the spaces will
> > be meaningless and redundant, because they are not needed at all if
> > switching of kanji and kana characters are correctly done. It will more
> > or less damage the natural flow and continuity of reading and writing,
> One could say that in German as well - pretty much any language.
> Actually, pronunciation - wise Japanese has a subset of the
> syllables used in German. The rest of the pronunciation is
> pretty much the same as well. The grammar is different - it is a
> lot simpler.

	So what? As far as using kanji and kana can better diminish ambiguities
in interpreting texts, it is the way we should go.

> > and influence the rhythms expected in ordinary Japanese. Changes in our
> > language are possible and also inevitable. But artificial changes
> > require to be well rationalized and justified, not just by a single
> > utilitarian factor.
> I'd like what discussions went on back in the Middle Realm of
> Egypt 3000 years ago when they started trashing their Kanji
> system........

	If it is really true that we have to abolish kanji, we will have to.
Even if so, I can not find any sufficiently rationalized reason for me
to accelerate the movement now. I'd rather doubt whether it is really
true.
	BTW, your mentioning Egyptian hieroglyphics make me think about Greek
in the ASCII-centric culture(?) which seems to be becoming influential
especially in this pseudo-computer-era. They are happier than Japanese
speakers and writers, but some people may start saying romanizing Greek
texts should work better on computers. However utilitalian they are, I
guess they will find that just limiting bit combinations on computers to
represent a character will not solve their own problems. If computers
are for solving problems, they will want programmers to continue to
implement Greek processing routines on computers, however much it costs.

> Sounds a lot like the stuff they used to preach in Germany back
> in the 60's and 70's used to justify why 70 % of school
> curricula were non-scientific and why 40 % were
> culture/literature stuff. The end result was that the importance
> of science and technology was grossly underestimated.

	It's just an issue of balance.
	Also, it is not reasonable to depict science and culture as conflicting
extremes.
	They are clearly differnt yet overlapping aspects of our intellectual
activities.

> Consequently we fell back in that and also consequently we ran
> into serious economic trouble, lots of unemployed etc. etc....It
> became worse and worse until even the bigwigs got the hell
> scared out of them, trashed all that stuff and cried "technlogy
> full steam ahead" and if anything got in its way "get that out
> of the way ! Quick !". Good. We have trouble still, but at least
> things stopped getting worse at an alarming rate.

	I can not find any good reason to simply link the importance of
computer technology and the necessity of abolishing kanji, though I can
agree that there are technical challenges in solving non-ascii text
processing problems.
	It seems the two things are not so directly and linearly linked
logically.

> Japan just got out of focus of the big powers then because it
> wasn't economically important. That was its luck. Otherwise it
> would have ended like Malaysia, the Philippines or the like.

	How happy we are! If such economical importance just helps deteriorate
our cultural heritages and future possibilities of our creativity, such
things will not really be so important.

> I would be careful to take all that culture stuff too serious.
> It may be a nice pastime, sure. But that's all it is. In the end
> it buys nothing. In the end it's technology that pays your
> bills. Sounds hard, but is a fact. In Germany a lot of people
> are about to stomach that lesson right now.

	I don't intend to underestimate technology and economical
infrastructures. Also I don't deny that technological and economical
conditions limit our possibilities.
	I just like to shed light to the vast area of complexities and subtlety
of our culture and everyday uses of living languages and scripts. It is
the reality of our language regardless of the existence of the people
who don't like to use kanji on computer for efficincy and utility. The
language will invevitably change itself. But concluding we must abolish
kanji is a hasty judgement as of today.

Taro Yamamoto
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