--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, Michael Everson
<everson@...> wrote:

> At 02:03 +0000 2005-09-02, suzmccarth wrote:
>
> >So definitely English keyboards are the winners but I am
> >hypothesizing that working with the English alphabet, any
> >alphabet, and then working backwards from there to
> >standardizing or reforming orthographies in syllabaries

changes

> >the way the syllabary functions.
>
> What do you mean by "change" and "function" here?

Cree amd Vai are known as unusual and classic examles of a
literac that functioned outside of any type of school setting. But,
once the orthography is made more phonemic and the set is
expanded, and standardized as Vai was in 1962 and Cree in
Quebec in the 80's then it moves into the school system and
basically nobody learns it but it decorates the wall as a form of
cultural awareness and pride but not a functionning literacy.

Okay, that may be too harsh but it is a risk. This is what i have
been told by some about Cree.

Suzanne