--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Nicholas Bodley" <nbodley@...> wrote:

> On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 06:34:15 -0000, suzmccarth <suzmccarth@...>
> wrote:
>
> > I started working in Windows 98 with njstar and MoTaml software

and

> > found it quite good but when I wanted to put up my multilingual
> > website I bought a Windows XP laptop(the reason for switching

from a

> > Mac which I used earlier is sad but too long to revisit) Then I
> > found that the language resources on WinXP was amazingly

satisfying

> > until I tried the Indic languages.
>
> Lack of support for Indic languages is not restricted to Opera, I'm

sure!

>
> > I don't think the problem is political but maybe more a
> > misunderstanding. Since Indic languages appear to be written with
> > an "alphabet", they got alphabetic encoding not syllable encoding.
> > My feeling is that Tamil looks like an alphabet and functions

like a

> > syllabary.
>
> With my tiny knowledge of Indic scripts, I wonder whether British-

based

> education in India (quiet possibly with no wrong intentions at all)

had

> some influence toward regarding Tamil (at least) script as

something to be

> described as an alphabet. Undisciplined dilettante that I am, I

think

> Tamil is either an abjad or an abugida; many Qalamites know while

only 1/4

an abugida apparently and yes I think I must have the font properly
enabled since we can paste into google and get results. I will follow
reports coming out of workshops in Sri Lanka for a while.

On Gleason I simply haven't been in touch for 20 years. I did his
general linguistics course in Toronto in the 70's and later used his
work on Panjabi, thank you for reminding of the other author. His
father was a botanist.

Suzanne McCarthy