* Lars Marius Garshol
|
| I don't think anyone is advocating anything else, but at the same
| time it is clear that they have something in common, which is that
| the basic graphic units of both kinds of script denote syllables.
| This sets them apart from alphabets and abjads, where the units
| denote more basic phonetic units.
* Peter T. Daniels
|
| That's like putting birds, bees, and bats together because they all
| have wings.
To some extent that is true, but birds and bees have fundamental
differences of a kind that I am not sure abugidas and syllabaries do.
What fundamental difference do you see that keep abugidas and
syllabaries so far apart that they are not even allowed a common
supertype below 'script'?
* Lars Marius Garshol
|
| Do you dispute that single-member classes are inherently suspect?
* Peter T. Daniels
|
| Obviously not, since "alphabet" appears in my system.
Did you mean "I obviously do dispute that single-member classes are
suspect, because I have the class 'alphabet' in my system"?
Do you really think that there is only one alphabet? If so, what is
your response to the following statement:
"Alphabet
A type of writing system that denotes consonants and vowels with
separate characters.
There are 36 instances: Armenian, Asomtavruli, Avestan, Buryat,
Carian, Cirth, Coptic script, Cyrillic, Deseret, Etruscan script,
Georgian script, Geyinzi, Glagolithic, Gothic script, Greek, Latin
script, Lycian, Lydian, Manchu, Mandaic script, Meroitic, Modern
syriac, Mongolian clear script, Mongolian script, N'ko,
Nusxa-xucuri, Ogham, Old Persian Cuneiform, Orkhon, Osmanya, Punic
script, Runic, Shavian, Sidetic, Thaana, Utopian."
Are these really all the same script? If not, what classes do the ones
that are not _the_ alphabet belong to?
Also, you refer to your system. Where is that defined? Which classes
does it consist of? Is "alphasyllabary" included, for example?
* Lars Marius Garshol
|
| Does this mean that the members of these two classes are identical,
| except that 'Phags pa is a member of one, and not of the other? If so,
| which of the classes is it a member of, and why is it only a member of
| one?
* Peter T. Daniels
|
| It means that Bill's definition of "alphasyllabary" excludes hPags
| pa, and my definition of "abugida" includes hPags pa. For me, it's
| functional: the unmarked character includes the unmarked vowel. For
| Bill, it's formal: the vowel indicators are physically different
| from the consonant letters and can go anywhere, but hPags pa vowels
| are barely distinguishable from consonants and only go after.