--- "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@...>
wrote:

> Michael Everson wrote:
> >
> > At 14:13 -0400 2005-10-04, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> >
> > > > The definition is not absolute, as the facts
> > > > about the world's writing systems are not
> > > > absolute.
> > >
> > > (a) When was that posting? Why have you never
> > > alluded to it before?
> >
> > I don't remember, and I don't have time to dig in
> > the archives right now, but it was a few weeks
> > ago. I didn't allude to it because I am busy.
> >
> > > (b) Until you do so, you have no warrant
> > > whatsoever for insisting that
> > > Blyssymbolics is a writing system -- which it
> > > cannot be if it is, as you state, a language.
> >
> > You are at fault because you are being absolutist.
>
>
> No, I have stated my definition of "writing system,"
> under which Blissymbolics doesn't qualify. You now
> say you have a different one, under which it does.
>
> > Human activities are not always easily
> > pigeonholed. Blissymbolics, like SignWriting,
> > is a way of writing non-spoken "utterances". Sign
> > Language is a language. And Blissymbolics is a
> > language. Bliss is unique in being *both*.
>
> You will need to explicate this. A writing system is
> an auxiliary means of representing a language, not a
> language in itself.

Why not?

It shouldn't be too hard for speakers of Blissymbolics
to invent a writing sytem for their poor language
which they will surely be shocked to learn so far
lacks one.

Andrew Dunbar.

> Someone at sci.lang is just now claiming that
> writing must have preceded speaking, because our
> ancestors might have scratched imitations of an
> antelope's track in the dirt to enlighten other
> hunters. This is not a productive use of the
> term "writing."
>
> > Have you ever met a non-speaking person?
>
> No. (As a linguist, of course, I include those who
> use Sign among speaking persons.) Except for those
> whose dementia has proceeded so far that they are
> not capable of communicating semantic content beyond
> the emotion level.
> --
> Peter T. Daniels
> grammatim@...
>
>
>

http://en.wiktionary.org -- http://linguaphile.sf.net/cgi-bin/translator.pl





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