Author Topic: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?  (Read 6479 times)

Peter Ahlstrom

  • Administrator
  • Level 59
  • *
  • Posts: 4902
  • Fell Points: 2
  • Assistant to Mr. Sanderson
    • View Profile
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #30 on: October 01, 2008, 12:27:53 AM »
Glyph is fine. A B C いだほ 日本 are all glyphs. It's incorrect to call いだほ letters, because hiragana is a moraic writing system: each symbol encodes for a vowel and a length and a consonant (or the lack thereof...plus ん encodes for length and consonant with no vowel). Letters encode only for vowel or consonant, not both, and length is usually not included unless there's a diacritic.
All Saiyuki fans should check out Dazzle! Emotionally wrenching action-adventure and quirky humor! (At least read chapter 6 and tell me if you're not hooked.) Volume 10 out now!

neiana

  • Level 4
  • *
  • Posts: 99
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
    • My Livejournal Account
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #31 on: October 01, 2008, 03:36:39 AM »
Then glyph is, if I understand correctly, any type of formation of lines/curves that are used as a communications device?

Peter Ahlstrom

  • Administrator
  • Level 59
  • *
  • Posts: 4902
  • Fell Points: 2
  • Assistant to Mr. Sanderson
    • View Profile
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #32 on: October 01, 2008, 05:23:02 AM »
Basically. Glyphs can be any kind of symbol that conveys information nonverbally. Even the patterns of signal flags used on sailing ships could be called glyphs.

But calling all of them characters isn't wrong either. Glyphs can be thought of as examples of characters.

http://unicode.org/reports/tr17/#CharactersVsGlyphs
All Saiyuki fans should check out Dazzle! Emotionally wrenching action-adventure and quirky humor! (At least read chapter 6 and tell me if you're not hooked.) Volume 10 out now!

neiana

  • Level 4
  • *
  • Posts: 99
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
    • My Livejournal Account
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #33 on: October 01, 2008, 07:19:09 AM »
huh.  That's interesting.

Is the Korean system considered moraic?  It seems so according to what you noted earlier.  These are the things that aren't put in the $20 language books at the JC level.  :D

Though if you can consider hiragana and kanji both glyphs, and glyphs can be considered characters, then why call the Chinese system (and thus kanji) "character writing" and not "glyph writing"?

Peter Ahlstrom

  • Administrator
  • Level 59
  • *
  • Posts: 4902
  • Fell Points: 2
  • Assistant to Mr. Sanderson
    • View Profile
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #34 on: October 01, 2008, 08:26:41 PM »
The internet ate my post. Bah.

Korean is alphabetic, but the letters are stacked into syllables instead of being next to each other. I think it's an elegant solution, myself.

Japanese is the only common moraic writing system that I know about. A lot of people might call it syllabic rather than moraic, but you have to keep in mind that while konbanwa looks like 3 syllables it uses 5 morae: ko n ba n wa.

For an example of a true syllabic writing system see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_syllabary

Who calls the Chinese system "character writing"? It's ideographic writing. Each symbol stands for an idea rather than for the sound of the word for that idea. (Though many of the more complex characters also contain a radical that does indicate the sound.)
All Saiyuki fans should check out Dazzle! Emotionally wrenching action-adventure and quirky humor! (At least read chapter 6 and tell me if you're not hooked.) Volume 10 out now!

SarahG

  • Level 13
  • *
  • Posts: 544
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #35 on: October 01, 2008, 08:42:32 PM »
I believe that Amharic is also syllabic - not that I know anything about it beyond what an Ethiopian friend told me when she gave me a mug with several rows and columns of cool-looking characters.  That's my favorite mug - gives me the deceptive impression that I'm a linguist.  :)
He ate my horse.

neiana

  • Level 4
  • *
  • Posts: 99
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
    • My Livejournal Account
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #36 on: October 01, 2008, 09:23:30 PM »
Korean is alphabetic, but the letters are stacked into syllables instead of being next to each other. I think it's an elegant solution, myself.

ha! I must not have been fully awake when I thought Korean as anything other than alphabetic.

Quote
Who calls the Chinese system "character writing"? It's ideographic writing. Each symbol stands for an idea rather than for the sound of the word for that idea. (Though many of the more complex characters also contain a radical that does indicate the sound.)

All of my Asian-language professors (Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese & Korean).  All of my Asian friends (My Chinese friends often compliment me on my "good characters").  All of the books I own concerning Chinese (my Mandarin textbooks, my Cantonese textbooks, as well as two dictionaries for Mandarin.  Oh, and my Vietnamese/Korean texts in the 'history of the language' section) and just about every internet site I've gone to in order to translate.

Peter Ahlstrom

  • Administrator
  • Level 59
  • *
  • Posts: 4902
  • Fell Points: 2
  • Assistant to Mr. Sanderson
    • View Profile
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #37 on: October 01, 2008, 09:42:07 PM »
*shrug* All writing systems use characters. Even ASCII is a character encoding system.
All Saiyuki fans should check out Dazzle! Emotionally wrenching action-adventure and quirky humor! (At least read chapter 6 and tell me if you're not hooked.) Volume 10 out now!

SarahG

  • Level 13
  • *
  • Posts: 544
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #38 on: October 01, 2008, 09:52:11 PM »
Why does everyone on this forum know so much about Japanese and Korean and Mandarin?  Do LDS foreign missions only take place in Asia?
He ate my horse.

Reaves

  • Level 23
  • *
  • Posts: 1226
  • Fell Points: 1
    • View Profile
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #39 on: October 01, 2008, 11:24:08 PM »
Why does everyone on this forum know so much about Japanese and Korean and Mandarin?  Do LDS foreign missions only take place in Asia?

EUOL went on a mission in Korea, yes? Good question...

Anyway I think much of it is coincidence...I know miyabi at least isn't a LDS lol ;)
Quote from: VegasDev
RJF: "AHA! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Cairhien, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a warder when he is only the distraction! Get him Rand! Buzzzzzzz!

neiana

  • Level 4
  • *
  • Posts: 99
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
    • My Livejournal Account
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #40 on: October 01, 2008, 11:32:49 PM »
Why does everyone on this forum know so much about Japanese and Korean and Mandarin?  Do LDS foreign missions only take place in Asia?

Books like Mistborn appeal to a large group of people.  It just so happens there is a cross-section of Japanese otaku in the same interest circle.

Korean?  No way I could fathom why so many...

Mandarin?  Beijing Olympics 2008 might be a clue. :D

Andrew the Great

  • Level 19
  • *
  • Posts: 967
  • Fell Points: 0
  • If that never happened again, it would be too soon
    • View Profile
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #41 on: October 02, 2008, 12:01:49 AM »
If it makes you feel better, I'm absolutely clueless when it comes to Asian languages.
Sign on wall: "We're doing everything we can to get you to the math lab and get you help."
Random girl: "That explains so much about the way my professors have been teaching..."

"Look! I can play Mary had a little lamb on my rape whistle!"

Executor of Chaos' Opinions in the Event of His Absence

dawncawley

  • Level 11
  • *
  • Posts: 462
  • Fell Points: 0
    • View Profile
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #42 on: October 02, 2008, 12:20:05 AM »
Me too. I have been reading with interest,but have absolutely nothing of any value what so ever to add to foreign language discussions, except that I am intrigued by them :)

Peter Ahlstrom

  • Administrator
  • Level 59
  • *
  • Posts: 4902
  • Fell Points: 2
  • Assistant to Mr. Sanderson
    • View Profile
Re: What would YOU like to see on the warbreaker cover?
« Reply #43 on: October 02, 2008, 07:04:22 AM »
I went Spanish-speaking to East LA, but my sister went to Korea and I took three semesters of Korean for my Linguistics major. My Japanese interest was due to manga, which is also why I went there to teach English for half a year (and had four hours of Japanese class per week).
All Saiyuki fans should check out Dazzle! Emotionally wrenching action-adventure and quirky humor! (At least read chapter 6 and tell me if you're not hooked.) Volume 10 out now!