Re: Bopomofo keyboards in Taiwan

At 11:31 +0200 2005-09-02, Marco Cimarosti wrote:

> > Learning the values of 26 letters isn't learning a language, but I
>> mean, come ON.
>
>Michael, what people is trying to say is that learning the values of
>26 letters is *not* enough to be able to use them to spell syllables.

I understand what you are saying, but my point is that it doesn't
take all that much time and effort to get from the one to the other.

>My pre-school son knows that "T" sounds /t/ and "A" sounds /a/, but still he
>does not know how to spell /ta/. He says "I don't know what letter /ta/
>looks like". Similarly when reading: he can tell that he sees a /t/ followed
>by an /a/, but he can't grasp that the two letters form a sequence to be
>pronounced /ta/.

He will, though, won't he? Yes, of course he will. Just as the Vai
typist (who has been forced by fate to learn the 26 letters) will
soon be able to learn that T + A = TA. Just as we learn that we have
to press the shift key to get capital letters, or deadkeys to get
accents.
--
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com