Re: tlug: kanji or romaji for Japanese? (was: parallel-port IDE)

[Jonathan Byrne <jq@example.com>]

On Mon, 19 Oct 1998, Scott Stone wrote:

> This would indicate to me that something IS wrong with the Japanese
> language, if you have to explain yourself verbally via the writing system.

Haven't you ever heard native English speakers spelling things over the
phone to solve problems with homonyms or get the write spelling of unusual
names?  All languages have this, to varying degrees.  This is also
completely changing the topic, since the original claim was that kanji could
and should be done away with.  The evidence against that has been amply
presented.
> 
> Everyone always says that the technology-vs-japanese issue would be
> different if computers had been invented in Japan or whatever, but... how?

They would most likely have been kanji-enabled from the outset.  If not,
they would have been kana-enabled from the outset, with kanji following as
soon after that as technically possible.  As a result, we would have far
fewer problems with m17n today.

> I was thinking about this the other night and wondering, _how_ would
> computers (or, maybe now we also need to consider the phone?) be different

The phone, of course, is not dependent on any particular writing system or
language, so areas where it would be different are much smaller.

Jonathan

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