At 17:53 -0500 2003-12-11, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

> > >> Why? Blissymbolics are the *only* form of communication for some
> > >> people.
> > >
>> >Name them.
>>
>> You want their personal names? I have personally
>> met any number of non-speaking people, cerebral
>> palsics mostly, who are unable to communicate
>> linguistically with their friends, families, and
>> carers without Blissymbolics.
>
>And how are they able to communicate linguistically with them, or it, or
>whatever, such that no writing system accessible to fully abled people
>would also work?

Non-speaking people can't speak. To communicate they may only have
reliable hand movements to point to a Bliss chart, or they may have
to use a head switch, or they may only be able to point with their
eyes. Many Bliss users who function at a high cognitive level cannot,
for whatever reason, read "orthography" as written English (for
instance) is called. I know one man named Lee who is an ordained
minister. He thinks and expresses himself in Blissymbols. He
understands spoken English. He is working on a translation of the
gospels into Blissymbols. And no, it's not a cypher for English. Some
Bliss users are able to transition to standard written language. I
know a young Dutch girl who can read and write Dutch and English; her
first communicative language was Bliss.

Bliss grammar "pidginizes" everywhere because of course the family
and so on is speaking English or Dutch or Hungarian or Hebrew or what
have you. But it has an essential grammar of its own. It is certainly
a writing system, and a language, however.

It being 02:30 I shall leave discussion of SignWriting until
tomorrow. You are badly mistaken, however, about it, I am sorry to
say.
--
Michael Everson * * Everson Typography * * http://www.evertype.com