Re: Labelling Vai Keyboards

At 15:57 +0000 2005-09-01, suzmccarth wrote:

>First, most of us, including Marco, have agreed that segmenting the
>syllable is an acquired skill not related to intelligence.

I maintain that there is some built-in segmentation petterns in the
script itself. The doublets and triplets convey a certain sound-shape
relationship to the user (in a way the Yi script does not do at all,
though far less well than Ethiopic or Canadian Syllabics do). Perhaps
it would not be as difficult for Vais to learn to segment as it would
be for Yis.

>Second, some of us also agree that there are pragamatic reasons
>(i.e. accessibility) why Vai who are not literate in English will
>not be using a computer.

It is hard to see another scenario.

>On the latter point, on the more practical level, a roman keyboard
>is going to be used more in any case. (Scribner and Cole make it
>clear that Arabic is a single domain literacy, therefore not
>practical for computer use.)

Yes, even if they can read the Qur'an, the vocabulary used is
certainly not what you will find in a laserprinter preferences
settings dialogue box.

>However, Scribner and Cole also state that most Vai iterates are not
>literate in English. So the *typical* Vai literate is not literate
>in English.

And isn't, therefore, using a computer.

>And there is a certain consensus, outside of your personal
>conviction, that alphabetic literacy is a different skill than
>syllabic literacy.

If you have one, it doesn't take decades to learn the other.

>I spend most of my time beside children teaching reading and comuter
>skills. I can guarantee you that dealing with basic computer
>navigation does *not* require being able to segment the syllable.

That still doesn't mean it would take an inordinate amount of time
for a Vai to learn want T is, what A is, and that T + A can be used
to generate his syllable TA.

>Practically speaking your roman keyboard is a must and certainly a
>necessity for any biliterate Vai, who would most likely have learned
>literacy in English first. But ideally, there should be a keyboard
>for a typical Vai literate developed eventually.

Get out a sheet of paper and start figuring out where to put the
syllables on the keys, and what to do to get the syllables that don't
fit on the basic keys, and I'll be happy to help implement it.
--
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com