Re: Number of writing systems

i18n@... wrote:

>
> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>
> > suzmccarth wrote:
> > > Maybe a simpler definition of writing system is needed. What do you
> > > think of this? "A writing system is a pairing of a script and a
> > > language." Do you know whose expression this is? It sounds like
> > > something Joshua Fishman might have said.
> >
> > Then you have to define "script."
> >
> > But this can't be Michael's definition either.
> > --
> > Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...
>
> What would be *your* definition? surely you are qualified enough to
> posit a pretty good one, no?

As has been published in many, many places, my definition is:

"A system of more or less permanent marks used to represent an utterance
in such a way that it can be recovered more or less exactly without the
intervention of the utterer."

Perhaps it was foolish of me to expect the readers of this list to have
been aware of that.

Now that you've attempted to call my bluff, and exposed your own
shortcomings, as David Niven once memorably put it, why don't you share
Michael's definition, since he seems to have retreated into a defensive
shell of silence?
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...