Otto Stolz <Otto.Stolz@uni-konstanz.de> wrote:
>Some scripts are neither left-to-right, nor right-to-left.
>
>1.
>
>Mongolian is written top-to-bottom; Japanese and Chinese used
>to be written this way,
[snip]
and frequently still are. Korean hangeul/hanja and Vietnamese chu nom also,
except that hangeul is grouped in syllables which are written top to
bottom, RTL.
>the lines were stacked right-to-left.
Except in Mongolian, where they stack LTR. Mongolia, now out from under
Russian rule, has reverted to the traditional script instead of Cyrillic.
>2.
>
>Some old scripts (Greek, Latin, Hethitic, Runes) were used to write
>boustropheda. A boustrophedon runs back and forth like a ploughing
>ox (thence the name), i.e. the lines are written, alternatingly,
>left-to-right and right-to-left.
[snip]
I hadn't heard of Latin boustropheda. Can you give actual examples? Who
wrote in Hethitic?
3. Mayan was written in solid blocks of columns of two-character rows. The
order is
Column pairs: LTR
Within column: TTB
Within Rows: LTR
Thus, a very short text of three column pairs, each three rows long:
1 2 7 8 13 14
3 4 9 10 15 16
5 6 11 12 17 18
This ordering developed from calendar phrases, which were ordered something
like:
7 great cycle
19 cycle
5 year
9 month
4 day
but more complicated. I can dig out real examples, if anyone wants.
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