Re: Origins of Cree and Tamil (was RE: Effect of the Medium (was: C

suzmccarth wrote:

> > That's true. Yet, some hypothesis sound intrinsically more naive
> > that others...
>
> Like this one, you mean! :)
>
> "I always thought that the key idea of Cree script was to indicate
> vowels by rotating the singns in each one the *FOUR* cardinal
> points north, east, south and west."

Uh? Actually I did not mean this as an hypotheis, but just as the statement
of as a self-evident matter of fact...

Aren't Cree syllables with the same consonant represented by the same shape
rotated?

> [...]
> > To me, that seems like a very intuitive idea, that could have
> occurred to
> > many people. But perhaps that's just becaused I'm used to it.
>
> Maybe naively, I am thinking about a matrix, or an array, a table,
> whatever you call it, as an invention, something like the concept of
> zero.

Oh, then we agree to disagree: I always thought that the "invention" of zero
is a big misunderstanding.

How can you "invent" a number? If you have three apples and eat all of them,
you have *no* more apples! That "no" is the "concept of zero".

You may say that someone invented a *symbol* to represent number zero in
calculations, and you can certainly say that *digit* zero was a fundamental
invention. But not zero itsefl.

--
Marco