Re: Essential Unity

--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "suzmccarth" <suzmccarth@...> wrote:

>>
> There are 4 writing systems typologies reviewed in this article.
>
> http://www.ubs-translations.org/tictalk/tt48.html
>
> The choice is (chronologically)
>
> 1. Jaffre and Sampson - 2 types - phonographic

or

> logographic/semiographic

(errata Jaffre was 1997, Suzanne)>

2. Unger and Defrancis (1989)- Essential unity

> 3. McCarthy (1995)- 2 types - alphabetic and syllabic
> 4. Daniels (1996)- 6 types, we know those
>
> (I am a lumper not a splitter.)
>
> "Types of Writing Systems: One of the volume's distinctive
> contributions is Daniels' typology of writing systems, which fills
> in points on the continuum between the broad classifications of
> logographic and phonographic.

If someone teaches that your 6 types are a continuum between
logographic and phonographic, they are in deep, deep trouble. To
avoid this, I personally break types into two major classes first
and then describe two continua. The phonographic to morphographic
continuum and the phoneme (or feature) to syllable continuum.
Together that provides a synchronic typology. Then I think of the
scripts in chronological order from logographs to syllabograms to
alphabets and back to syllabograms.

Do you really think of your scripts as a continuum with 6 major
categories or have you been misundertood?

Suzanne