Nicholas Bodley wrote:

>On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 15:31:17 -0500, Peter T. Daniels
><grammatim@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>>>According to a story, probably true, Geo. Eastman invented "Kodak" as a
>>>word that should be easy to say in most of the world's languages.
>>>
>>>
>>There are probably a lot more languages that don't allow final
>>consonants than do.
>>
>>
>
>Indeed. One wonders about Mr. Eastman's knowledge of languages. Thank you
>for the reminder.
>
>Happy new year!
>
>
>

I have heard the same about the derivation of "Exxon", which replaced
the earlier "Esso". I don't think anyone in the business world is
interested in the writing systems of *all* languages, only the ones
pertinent to the markets where one intends to do business.

Which makes me wonder if there is a "Zipf's power law" among the number
of languages versus some economic indicator about the ranking
desirability of doing business there (in some vague undefined sense
right now).

Best,

Barry


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