From: Asmus Freytag (asmusf@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Fri Feb 09 2007 - 12:55:05 CST
On 2/9/2007 10:06 AM, John Hudson wrote:
> Eric Muller wrote:
>
>>> Successful writing systems tend to get adapted for multiple languages,
>
>> The term "successful writing systems" makes me nervous, especially
>> with the "tend to get adapted" part. Unless you define "successful"
>> by "get adapted" (in which case you have a tautology), the value
>> judgment is at best dubious. And anyway, your argument works equally
>> well without "Successful", so why go there?
>
The term 'successful' admits to a definition entirely within the use of
the script for a *single* language. There are some examples of scripts
that have failed - by which I don't mean mere the fact that they were
supplanted (if that's the case), but the fact that they were used in
limited ways, for example only for some types of texts and not others.
But the discussion is about the effects of, not the reasons for adaptations.
A./
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