From: Peter Kirk (peterkirk@qaya.org)
Date: Thu Oct 23 2003 - 04:03:41 CST
On 23/10/2003 01:24, jarkko.hietaniemi@nokia.com wrote:
>>no countries as far as I know using Arabic script but not Arabic, Persian
>>or Urdu as official languages (except perhaps Pashto in Afghanistan).
>>
>>
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>Equating countries and languages is wrought with danger...
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>Currently: Hausa, Kashmiri, Kurdish (written in Latin, Cyrillic, and Arabic), Sindhi.
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>In recent history: Kazak, Kyrghyz, Turkish, Uighur.
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>Until early Middle Ages: Aragonese, Maltese.
>
>(Source: www.omniglot.com, and Aragonese and Maltese from my faulty memory...)
>
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I'll give you Uighur, which *currently* surely has official status in
Arabic script in China, and perhaps Kashmiri if Arabic script is used in
the Indian-controlled parts of Kashmir. Kurdish is written in Arabic
script only in countries where Arabic script is used for the official
national language, similarly Sindhi and many other languages of Pakistan
- but I was assuming that Mark's chart counted all of these people under
Arabic, Persian and Urdu. I'm prettty sure that Latin script is official
for Hausa. I can list lots more languages which used to be written in
Arabic script, but that's not my point.
-- Peter Kirk peter@qaya.org (personal) peterkirk@qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/
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