On 26/10/1999 at 6:51 μμ G. Adam Stanislav wrote:
>As for the distinction between letters and characters, well, in Slovak
>there is no such distinction. We have the same word for both. The only
>difference I can see is that letter is from Latin, character from Greek.
The basic distinction is between "letter" ("gramme", as in "Grammar") and "phoneme" ("phthong", as in "diphthong"). As for "character", one cannot but agree with Mark Davis that it is a "vastly overloaded" term. In Greek (and outside computer jargon) it may mean: engraver, engraving, the engraving of a letter or any symbol at all. CH is definitely a phoneme, I can't say if it is a letter. An average Greek speaker, however, would not think so.
Best Regards,
Constantine Stathopoulos,
Iris Media Internet Solutions.
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