Michael Everson wrote:

>
> At 21:02 -0400 2004-07-30, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>
> > > Any translation of any text is a translation.
> >
> >The Qur'an is by definition untranslatable and inimitable.
>
> Don't be obtuse. Any text in any language can be translated into
> another language so long as there is a person who understands both
> languages.
>
> >Next you'll be mocking belief in transsubstantiation.
>
> I'm a Buddhist. I don't "believe" in transubstantiation. But that has
> nothing to do with whether as set of sentences in the Arabic language
> can be translated into a set of sentences in another language,
> whether that is English, or Tamazight, or Mandenkan, or Polish, or
> whatever.

It happens to be a cornerstone of Muslim faith that the Qur'an is
untranslatable and inimitable. You cannot use an interpretation in any
other language in a religious context.

I guess it's about time to request your commentary on the Unicode
"definition" of abugida -- your explanation of why it wasn't a
distortion of the original intent.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...