Re: tlug: IPA (evolving from the topic: Japanese input)

[Matt Gushee <matt@example.com>]

Well, I think I should hold my tongue a bit on this ... I personally
find this discussion fascinating, but since it's tangential to the
topic of Linux, and I feel partly responsible for it getting out of
hand -- since I wrote the first (and probably one of the least
well-reasoned) rebuttal to Karl-Max.

But I'd like to recommend a book to anyone who's interested in the
subject: _The Language Instinct_ by Steven Pinker (New York, William
Morrow and Co., 1994). Pinker, a prominent linguist/cognitive
scientist, addresses a number of crucial linguistics both
intelligently and very readably. Whether you accept his explanations
or not (he's a Chomskyan and proud of it), he will at the very least
make you think twice about statements like

 > > There would be no end to the benefits English speakers would enjoy by
 > > having their illogical spelling system cleaned up once and for
 > Oh boy, how true.....
 > > all.

I never thought English spelling made any sense either ... until I
read Pinker.

 > > would make the sacrifice. Oh, and speech-to-text and text-to-speech
 > > systems would be a sinch.

Not likely. Unless you want us all to start talking like robots.

Anyway, I'd better shut up before I make any more inflammatory
statements ;-)

Cheers,

Matt Gushee
Oshamanbe, Hokkaido
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