Terms "constructed script", "invented script" (was: FW: Re: Shavian)

From: B (11@onna.com)
Date: Fri Jul 06 2001 - 03:11:32 EDT


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>Fictional or invented scripts

Even a "fictional" script is real in a certain sense. Some people could write letters in Tengwar. But those same people could also use Latin (or whatever other) characters to write that letter.

Invented scripts include:

1. Hangul -- tell this to my Korean friends
2. Hiragana -- tell this to my Japanese friends
3. Cyrillic -- tell it to the Russians, Ukrainians, etc.
4. the Cherokee script -- tell it to the Cherokees

All four are in Unicode, in Plane 0. And why not?

I wonder: why aren't languages with simple syllabic structures written in hiragana? It seems to be built for them. Is Japanese the world's only language that uses hiragana? I think katakana is used for Ainu, but is that it for katakana (i.e. Japanese and Ainu being the only 2 languages that use it)?
I have heard that in Chinese in one area (I forget), some Japanese loanwords are written with the original hiragana. I have no evidence to confirm or deny this. It seems that my rule (if you see even one hiragana, you are reading Japanese) might have exceptions. But I doubt it does.

By "invented", do you really mean "invented before the year xxxx"?



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