Re: tlug: kanji or romaji for Japanese? (was: parallel-port IDE)

[Scott Stone <sstone@example.com>]

On Mon, 19 Oct 1998, Manuel M. T. Chakravarty wrote:

> Scott Stone <sstone@example.com> wrote,
> 
> > On Mon, 19 Oct 1998, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> > >     Scott> I think that this is what someone once meant by the 'babel'
> > >     Scott> concept - human languages tend to diverge into more and
> > >     Scott> more fragmented languages instead of converging on one
> > >     Scott> language.
> > > 
> > > I don't see this.  Definitely so, in programming languages.  But in
> > > human languages we're converging.  To the extreme displeasure of
> > > anti-Unicode fanatics and the French Academy, I might add.
> > 
> > I'm not talking about languages WRT computers, I'm talking about languages
> > in general.  Look at all the different dialects of German spoken in
> > Germany, and the different dialects of English spoken in America.  Human
> > language is divergent, I tell you.
> 
> There are many dialects of German today, but there have
> always been many and I don't think they are getting more.
> And as a consequence of more or less centrally organized
> education at least many (definitely not all) Germans can
> speak and understand Hochdeutsch (the official language)
> -- that was definitely different at times where people were
> less mobile and didn't have mass communication.
> 
> Manuel
> 

hm, well, maybe the Information Age is turning things around as far as
language divergence goes.  nothing could make me happier.  Well, that's
not entirely true, but it would make me very happy nonetheless :)

--------------------------------------------------
Scott M. Stone <sstone@example.com, sstone@example.com>
               <sstone@example.com>
Head of TurboLinux Development/Systems Administrator
Pacific HiTech, Inc (USA) / Pacific HiTech, KK (Japan)
http://www.pht.com		http://armadillo.pht.co.jp
http://www.pht.co.jp	        http://www.turbolinux.com


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