suzmccarth wrote:

> Now from my reading of this text I would expect that there might be
> some similarities in the cognitive process of reading Tamil and
> reading Japanese. This is my main interest but not the only one.
>
> Ancestry is not so important, not even the label or definition but
> that scripts with similar pertinent features be classed together. So
> scripts would be classed as having syllabic organization because
> that is a useful feature to know.

But the Japanese child doesn't have the option the Tamil child does, of
internalizing the fact that all the consonants and all the vowels are
written separately and (well, except /u/) similarly.

> > One might object that an alphasyllabary should preferentially
> > partition CVCCV as CV-CCV.
>
> I don't see how that applies to Tamil either. Like Cree, Tamil has
> the V or CV (long or short vowels) unit followed by an optional C.
> However this C is not attached to anything in either case. So I
> think the partition is CV-C-CV.

Don't leave the pul.l.i out of your transliteration! C with no vowel
takes two symbols. You could transliterate it CVC•CV .
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...