Monotonic (was Back to Hebrew, was OT:darn'd fools)

From: John Hudson (tiro@tiro.com)
Date: Tue Jul 29 2003 - 14:17:49 EDT

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    At 06:35 AM 7/29/2003, Peter Kirk wrote:

    >This reminds me of the polytonic Greek issue. If I understand correctly,
    >the Greek government decided to do away with the distinction between
    >accents because this was easier to implement with 1960's computers.

    1982. The reasons were manifold, and technological limitations probably
    played a role, but benefits to literacy were more frequently cited
    important. One Greek wit characterised it this way: in 1982 the Greeks
    decided to become monotonous.

    I understand that there has been something of a resurgence of polytonic in
    recent years and, for quality literary publishers, it never went away.

    John Hudson

    Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com
    Vancouver, BC tiro@tiro.com

    The sight of James Cox from the BBC's World at One,
    interviewing Robin Oakley, CNN's man in Europe,
    surrounded by a scrum of furiously scribbling print
    journalists will stand for some time as the apogee of
    media cannibalism.
                             - Emma Brockes, at the EU summit



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