From owner-freebsd-chat Fri Jun 12 23:19:29 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id XAA06425 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Fri, 12 Jun 1998 23:19:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from mail-gw3.pacbell.net (mail-gw3.pacbell.net [206.13.28.55]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id XAA06415 for ; Fri, 12 Jun 1998 23:18:54 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jackv@earthling.net) Received: from eliot.pacbell.net (ppp-207-214-220-172.snfc21.pacbell.net [207.214.220.172]) by mail-gw3.pacbell.net (8.8.8/8.7.1+antispam) with SMTP id XAA24802; Fri, 12 Jun 1998 23:18:44 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jack Velte" To: "Duncan Barclay" , "Terry Lambert" Cc: , , Subject: Re: internationalization Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 14:15:33 -0700 Message-ID: <01bd9647$bd5a5460$LocalHost@eliot.pacbell.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.71.1712.3 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.1712.3 Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org >On 12-Jun-98 Terry Lambert wrote: >>> > > The origins of Kanji as an ideogrammatic writing system owe more to >>> > > the need for Imperial China to control the availability of persistent >>> > > information available to Chinese Serfs in support of a feudal society >>> > > than they do to their information density compared to alphabetic >>> > > writing systems. >>> > >>> > I have absolutely nothing to add to the discussion, I just want to >>> > hold up the above paragraph as a shining example of why I like these >>> > mailing lists so much :-) >>> >>> I agree, I tend to save more of Terry's articles for the >>> non-computing content than those of other people (as well as saving >>> many for the computing content of course)! >> >> I don't know if I'm supposed to be flattered or offended... I thought >> that the information density of Kanji was relevent. ;-). while agreeing that the information density of Kanji is low (or high, depending how you measure it -- you can say more with fewer characters, anyway), i disagree it was the need to control information. languages evolve and grow and aren't planned [much]. they may have had a lot of cruft over the system to separate "high class" from "lower classes" (like german and old english), but i can't really believe it was planned to hold the peasants down. enough was already holding chinese peasants down... >>> Terry, how do you manage to keep all this in your head, or are you a >>> more advanced version of the JKH Tcl script with AltaVista plug in? >> >> No one can rival Jordan... he's a much better humorist than I will >> probably ever be. boy, jordan can be funny sometimes. it's hard to respond to some of jordan's postings because no response can even come close. >> Some people watch television; I read. A lot. At one point in time, I >> actually ran out of science fiction books to read at my local Carnegie >> Free Library (the Weber County Library at the time), and had to start >> on the history and biography sections. > >I think I almost read all the SiFi too when I was younger (much smaller me too. dr timothy leary said SF was very dangerous mind altering stuff. be careful out there! :-) -jack To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message