--- In
qalam@yahoogroups.com, Berthold Frommann
<listen@...> wrote:
>P T Daniels wrote:
> >
> > Would you _please_ READ something about the history of
writing????
> >
> > Seeley's History of Writing in Japan, ... will answer
> > _all_ your questions about the development of Japanese
writing.
> I've stumbled across a review of Seeley's book, written by Roy
Andrew
> Miller:
>
http://www.uni-hamburg.de/Wiss/FB/10/JapanS/Zeitschr/rez35_1
.html
Thanks, Berthold, I think this book review explains the difficulty.
"Surely nothing could be more central to the "history of writing in
Japan" than the genesis and nature of the kana syllabaries,
especially the question of the influence of Indic phonological
theory and praxis upon the development of the kana by way of
Buddhist siddham studies. Of all that there is not one word in
this book, nor a single citation of the monumental study by
Mabuchi Kazuo, Nihon ingakushi no kenky (2 vols., 1962-63) in
which these issues were long ago ventilated in exemplary
fashion."
Maybe Mabuchi Kazuo will answer some of my questions.
Suzanne