Greetings all.

> > Do people here know of other cases where advances in publishing
> > technology influenced the loss, or gain, of characters?
>
> This kinds of things always happened. Just a few examples:
>
> - It is difficult to trace circles using a soft brush and liquid ink,
> because the centrifugal force would "shoot" drops of ink all around the
> circle. For this reason, when brush and china ink became the usual writing
> tools in China, all the circles in the Chinese script became squares. Even
> the character to write "sun", which used to be a circle with a round dot

in

> the middle, become a square with a horizontal line inside.
>

Hmm.....I haven't heard this reason before. I had been told by my Shodou
(calligraphy) teacher that the reason full circles aren't used is that in
drawing them, one is apt to tear the Washi paper. Neither your reason nor
my teacher's reason is fully satisfactory, since Hangeul is also done with a
brush and they have lots of circles......but they use 2 separate strokes to
make the circle /ng/ letter.

Well, live and learn.

Best regards,
Jason Glavy
Yokohama, Japan