Word splitting & hyphenation conventions in roman transliteration

[U Hayavadana]

At 16:12 13.02.99 -1000, Raja wrote:
>No, there are 52 letters in the
>rOman AElfabet.  Do you see any
>fisikal similarity between, say,
>"G" and "g"?

there is a lot of fisikal similarity between s and S, z and Z, y and Y,
o and O, p and P, v and V, w and W, x and X, c and C, u and U... :-)

but you don't even need the other 26 if you write like me! and no indian
script has capitals either.

>Another point: wen thuh rOman
>AElfabet haes bIn mawdifaid to
>akomodaet awl indiyan fOnIms,
>it wil involv a lawt mOr thaen
>jast 52 leters.  Luk aet a paej
>awf ViyetnAmIs taekst to sI wawt
>ai mIn.

look at the transliteration scheme from geneva used by academic writers
over the past 100 years or so and you'll see that it isn't as complex as
vietnamese. see for instance the csx+ fonts. you just add some 6
murdhanya's. long vowels you can just write double, like in finnish and
some other languages.

>> and there are no
>> ligatures (samyuktakshara's). because printing technology in a linear
>> script (one letter next to another) is much more simply implemented
and
>> we can use the technology that is already developed for western
>> languages (like standardised computer and printing equipment), and so
>> producing printed materials becomes easier. this is an important
>> advantage if we want to spread literacy among many millions of
people.
>
>Gud nyUs:  printing technology for
>Indian scripts already exists.
>People in India aren't illiterate
>because of inability to print books
>in Indian script.  So this is not
>an issue.

i hope you were thinking, like me, of the new possibilities for fast
production of printed materials using computers, not of the already
existing composing by hand with lead letters on a stick. in practice we
see that a lot of computerised data entry in indian printing is specific
for a particular font scheme, dtp software etc., and if you want to use
the same material in another printer's shop, you may have to enter all
the text all over again. even though there's iscii, it isn't followed by
everybody. but in western languages, if you've entered text in some word
processor, say, wordperfect, you can easily extract that text (and
usually text formatting too) for use in m$ word etc., and you can use
the material in dtp software. the practical advantages are enormous. you
can save great amounts of time. and that helps in spreading literacy.

h



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