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Category: Writing Systems
What is your opinion on the inclusion of emojis in Unicode?
Ah, Philip my old friend. I know why you’re asking, and you know where this is going. What does Nick Nicholas’ Quora Bio on emoji say? Emoji: Blot on the purity of Unicode What does Nick Nicholas think about the inclusion of emojis in Unicode? CLEANSE THEM WITH FIRE! ⛐⛏⛔⛑✘☹☠ Why does Nick Nicholas think […]
Can linguists differentiate between all the sounds of the IPA?
Thanks, Khateeb! When I was in second year phonetics in university, our exam was to do just that. Our lecturer would say some sounds, we had to write them down in IPA. With some provisos. Most diacritics would count, but some of them, such as the forward/backward, raised/lowered diacritics for vowels, would not: too subtle. […]
Will we one day communicate with pictures instead of words?
If i ever met someone from the Unicode technical committee again, I’m showing them this question, and yelling THIS! YOU MADE THIS HAPPEN! Rebuses do not make an international language. This is not the first attempt at an international symbolic language. Not by a very long shot. For a look at this kind of thing […]
How does IPA keep up with the constant change of sounds in the languages?
Several ways to tackle this question. And it’s a very good question. Both consonants and vowels in the IPA are defined, not against a word of a language (they can indeed change), but against an articulatory gesture. Because people’s oral cavities are pretty much the same, that works. [ç] is defined as a Voiceless palatal […]
Why is the communist symbol (☭) an emoji?
There are two problematic premises in this question. The first is that the primary semiotic of the hammer and sickle is “mass random murder of dissidents”, rather than “common ownership of the means of production”. The legacy of Communism may have been tainted by what Lenin and Stalin did; but that does not make the […]
What character can we use as an irony mark?
Irony punctuation – Wikipedia There have been various proposals over the years, though none have taken off. In internet discourse, where irony marks are pretty necessary, the smiley has prevailed; it’s more about “I’m only joking! I’m only joking!” than about actual amusement. Some Ethiopian languages use a special temherte slaqî or temherte slaq punctuation […]
Which Western language has the most un-phonemic spelling system?
Irish, especially before the mid-20th century spelling reforms, quite possibly; its marking of slender vs broad consonants is still pretty baroque even now. It led to the following comment on the Lojban mailing list in 1993 by And Rosta: “Some of the English might say that the Irish orthography is very Irish. Personally, I have […]
What is the most beautiful writing system (script)?
Originally Answered: What is the most beautiful written script according to you? Armenian. Not because my wife’s Armenian. She doesn’t speak the language. Not because the alphabet’s well-designed. I think all the letters look the same. In fact, precisely because I think all the letters look the same. The results look like this: Beautifully flowing. […]
Is Braille Alphabet universal, or is it specific and different for each language?
Braille – Wikipedia; English Braille – Wikipedia; Unified English Braille – Wikipedia Braille is an encoding of alphabets; since the alphabetic repertoire is going to be different within Roman script, let alone other alphabets, there will be differences in the repertoire. Not all Braille alphabets will have a W, or a É, or a Ч. […]
How can my native language (Sgaw Karen) be added to Google Translate?
I refer you to: I want to add a new language to Google Translate. How do I do that? What are Google Translate requirements and criteria to add new language into the list of translated languages? How do I add malayalam language to Google translate for translating from english to malayalam? It’s a straight-out prioritisation […]