Re: script count?

At 07:37 -0500 2003-12-12, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

>This involves nothing but a very strange definition of "script." No one
>denies that there are four or more components of the Japanese writing
>system, each with its own function. But to call the components "scripts"
>is nothing short of bizarre.

Why? The Hiragana and Katakana syllabaries are
scripts, and the Latin alphabet is a script, and
Han logowhatsits are a script.

Janet Smith says "Modern Japanese is written in a
mixture of three basic scripts: kanji, a
logo-morphographic script; and hiragana and
katakana, two syllabaries. Additionally, rômaji,
'romanization', eimoji 'English script' (roughly,
non-Japanese words written in their [native]
alphabetic script), and a variety of kigô
'symbols' are commonly interspersed in texts."
(Japanese Writing, chapter 16, Daniels & Bright
1996).

> > Which brings me to, in all the discussion, I saw
>> no mention of Greggs Shorthand. I would consider this a script. It is still
>> in common use and it is still being taught in many schools. I guess that
>> might be somewhat of the difference in using the word "script" vs. "writing
>> system"
>
>Is there much call for typing in Gregg on a computer?

Not presently.
--
Michael Everson * * Everson Typography * * http://www.evertype.com