Re: tlug: Re: Japanese input

[Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com>]

> 	How important are non-Latin-originated/influenced words in German?
A lot of scientific stuff is Latin. English is worse: it's
pretty close to ahlf of the words that are of Latin origin.
> JIKAN O TSUIYASU". Most of the key elements of the sentence are Chinese
> words or words derived from Chinese expressions. Clearly, Chinese and
I know.....
> 	As auxiliary words usually work to semantically join independent words,
> separating independent words naturally separates auxiliary words also,
> as proved in my roma-ji transliteration above. Some of the spaces will
> be meaningless and redundant, because they are not needed at all if
> switching of kanji and kana characters are correctly done. It will more
> or less damage the natural flow and continuity of reading and writing,
One could say that in German as well - pretty much any language.
Actually, pronunciation - wise Japanese has a subset of the
syllables used in German. The rest of the pronunciation is
pretty much the same as well. The grammar is different - it is a
lot simpler.
> and influence the rhythms expected in ordinary Japanese. Changes in our
> language are possible and also inevitable. But artificial changes
> require to be well rationalized and justified, not just by a single
> utilitarian factor.
I'd like what discussions went on back in the Middle Realm of
Egypt 3000 years ago when they started trashing their Kanji
system........
> 	Yes, you may be right. I can agree with your point.
> 	However, the human inertia only in the sense does not necessarily make
> all human spiritual activities aneamic, even when such activities are
> utilizing the language and writing system, part of which can be more or
> less inert.
> 	It's true. But the world whose culture, literature, and language
> activities deeply related to our current writing system is the world our
> technologies need to serve (in text processing in particular).
> Simplicity or ease of implementing text processing routines does not
> guarantee the depth, wealth and subtlety in writing that we have
> obtained through the use of kanji and kana characters and the Japanese
> language for centuries.
Sounds a lot like the stuff they used to preach in Germany back
in the 60's and 70's used to justify why 70 % of school
curricula were non-scientific and why 40 % were
culture/literature stuff. The end result was that the importance
of science and technology was grossly underestimated.
Consequently we fell back in that and also consequently we ran
into serious economic trouble, lots of unemployed etc. etc....It
became worse and worse until even the bigwigs got the hell
scared out of them, trashed all that stuff and cried "technlogy
full steam ahead" and if anything got in its way "get that out
of the way ! Quick !". Good. We have trouble still, but at least
things stopped getting worse at an alarming rate.
> 	Even if there are disadvantages in the small technical field of
> computer software, this does not mean any total disadvantage. If the
Oh, minor you say ???? Don't forget that computer technology is
one of the key workhorses of modern civilization ! Be sure that
computer technology, particularly the combination with
communications technology are about to change our life to an
extent that has never happened in human history before. This is
a key technology and history sure won't have a lot of mercy on
those that lag behind in that.
> disadvantages had been so grave and serious, we would have remained
No. Not as long as no serious competitive pressure is around.
However, Japan only narrowly evaded the fate of getting
colonized by the Spanish and the Portugese in the 16th century.
If a determined attack would have been made, Japan would have
fallen. And why ? Because European powers had the Gutenberg
advantage which in turn was based on a simple writing system
that had sped up their scientific/technological development to a
point that they were number one in the world. The combined
advantage of advanced shipbuilding, firearms and ballistics as
well as sufficiently evolved astronavigation to enable global
navigation gave them the power to stomp into the ground whom
they wanted to - the middle American cultures sure were highly
evolved, but half a century and a few well equipped ships from
Europe eradicated them.

Japan just got out of focus of the big powers then because it
wasn't economically important. That was its luck. Otherwise it
would have ended like Malaysia, the Philippines or the like.
> uncivilized. Computer engineering is a field of engineering that may
> have interrelationships with various differet cultural issues and
> activities, but it is impossible for computer engineering to totally
> cover the vast fields of the culture and to substitute it. Our culture
> encompasses us all, but we can not encompass the entire culture.
I would be careful to take all that culture stuff too serious.
It may be a nice pastime, sure. But that's all it is. In the end
it buys nothing. In the end it's technology that pays your
bills. Sounds hard, but is a fact. In Germany a lot of people
are about to stomach that lesson right now.

                                      Karl-Max Wagner
                                      karlmax@example.com
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