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From: srg@quick.UUCP (Spencer Garrett)
Newsgroups: comp.std.internat,sci.lang
Subject: Re: Computers and human languages (was Re: What is a byte)
Message-ID: <111@quick.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 19-Aug-87 18:03:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: quick.111
Posted: Wed Aug 19 18:03:29 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Aug-87 16:02:31 EDT
References: <218@astra.necisa.oz> <142700010@tiger.UUCP> <2792@phri.UUCP> <8708171253.AA21033@ephemeral.ai.toronto.edu>
Organization: Quicksilver Engineering, Seattle
Lines: 12
Summary: Languages without accents
Xref: mnetor comp.std.internat:138 sci.lang:1183


I was told once (by a respected linguist, as I recall) that English and
Russian are the ONLY two languages written with unaccented alphabets.  I
know you have to add the qualifier "modern" to make that true, and maybe
"major" as well, although I don't know of any exceptions right off.  I don't
know whether he didn't count Katakana and Hiragana as alphabets or whether
one cannot (or normally would not) write Japanese entirely in one or both
of these scripts.  He seemed to think that an unaccented alphabet was a
substantial advantage in an information age, and I would tend to agree.
(It should be noted in passing that this is not mere cultural imperialism.
This particular professor is extremely fond of Arabic script and has spent
a great deal of time teaching TEX to handle it.)