Of scripts,language, and punctuation marks....

[deponti]

While reading a book this morning,(Georgette Heyer's "Faro's Daughter",if you are interested!) I fell to musing on the various scripts in which our languages are set down. I've learnt English from early childhood, and it took me, therefore, a while to realize that its script is most quirky.....compared to the orderliness of the scripts of most

Comments

On the subject of upper case...

[ext_665276]

In the early days of my journalism career I was told that case actually developed because of the printing press. There was no way to provide a space between words so every word was in upper case to distinguish it from the preceding and succeeding words. That being said, I'm not averse to an e.e. cummings style of writing. Is that a good enough case for cases?

Re: On the subject of upper case...

[deponti]

GLAD to see you back on my blog again Vital :)

Yes, this is the first explanation I've had, for upper case...you made a good case!

[idahoswede]

You do muse over the oddest things sometimes, but it's good because it starts me thinking as well!

[deponti]

Yes...I do, don't I! Thinking of odd things is generally enjoyable, though I don't know where these thoughts come from!

Hope your killer week is winding down satisfactorily....

[birdonthewire]

English is weird, of course. There's that oft quoted GB Shaw's pronunciation of "fish" as "ghoti"!

I suppose, having sentences start with capital letters makes it look nicer! That's my silly logic anyway! :-) Punctuation does make sense though.

Nice post! :-)

[deponti]

See Vittal's explanation, above, which makes sense. Yes, I do remember "ghoti" and also being very tickled about it when I first heard it.

[usha123]

In Kannada, o (hraswa) and O (dheerga) sound can be added to all consonants besides K. Kannada also has e(hraswa) and E(dheerga) as in ke and kE.

Interesting, the topics you write about. Never heard of Abugida till now, though songs the letters sing is very familiar :-)

[deponti]

Yes, that's why I find the Kannada script quite the best!

Glad you find it interesting... :))) How are you doing Usha?