At 07:55 -0400 2005-08-20, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

>Why you prefer the vertical arrangement isn't interesting to me,

Does this mean that you haven't, or won't, read the documente? That'd
be a pity. There is a lot of interesting information about Vai in it.

It was necessary for us to determine a linear order for Vai letters
for sorting. A horizontal order, with consonants primary, masks the
structure of the script, while a vartical order, with the vowels
primary, reveals it.

>but what do you mean by "real structure"?

The Vai script's glyphs have relations between them, where groups of
syllables with related consonants are clustered together, within
final-vowel classes. This is different from the structure of some
other scripts, like Canadian Syllabics, where the glyphs
relationships are consonant-based.

To put it another way, in Vai, CE-JE-NJE-YE are related; CEE CI CA
COO CU CO CE are not.

>What is the "real structure" of the English alphabet?

It hasn't got one, apart from sets like I/J and U/V/W. Its order is
inherited from the Phoenician. Vai, on the other hand, shows an
internal structure.
--
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com