From: Christopher Fynn (cfynn@gmx.net)
Date: Sat May 29 2004 - 21:28:14 CDT
I find it interesting to compare the furore over the Phoenician
proposal with the total calm over the Kharoṣṭhī proposal [N2732] - an
archaic script in which some Sanskrit and Sanskritized Gāndhārī texts
occur.
Couldn't the same arguments the Semiticists who would unify Phoenician
with Hebrew are making be just as easily made by Sanskritists to say that
Kharoṣṭhī should be unified with Devanagri? After all ancient Sanskrit
texts in whatever script are traditionally written and published in
Devanagri or Latin transliteration by scholars that deal with them,
just as it is claimed that Phoenician texts are written and published in
modern Hebrew characters or transliteration by scholars. Gāndhārī
probably has a similar relationship to Devanagri as Phoenician has to
modern Hebrew. There are going to be exactly the same things to deal
with in searching texts etc as Peter, Elaine and Dean worry about with
Phoenician - yet we don't have any howls of disapproval over Kharoṣṭhī
from Sanskritists.
Maybe it's because Indic scholars are more accustomed to reading
different scripts - or perhaps the software people in India are better
than those the Semitic scholars have? :-) Of course Semiticists could
always out-source their work to Bangalore or Hyderabad :-)
- Chris
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