Re: Boustrophedon (was: Re: Question about the directionality of "Old Hungarian" (document N3531))

From: Andreas Stötzner (as@signographie.de)
Date: Fri Nov 07 2008 - 04:25:47 CST

  • Next message: Andreas Stötzner: "Re: What to call it (was: Re: Boustrophedon (was: Re: Question...))"

    >> "Rovas" means "rovás" naturally.
    I doubted this instantly:
    > No, it does NOT! According to the **same** Hungarian-English
    > dictionary, the meaning of "rovás" is 'notch', 'score'.
    – and have been right, obviously. Even if it is a name, most names in
    most languages have a lingual root which can be described by other
    words than the name itself.

    > "Rovásírás" is given as 'runic writing', 'runes'.
    > And those terms explain what the word means -- but that is a different
    > thing from being definitive as to the name of the script in the
    > context of other scripts and the study of writing systems.
    >
    > The best name for this script for the UCS is "Old Hungarian".

    I think, Michael Everson has a point here. Though we have the runic
    range named “Runic” and not “ Old Germanic” we have the old turkish
    ‘Runes’ named “Old Turkic” because *run-* is a germanic root and as
    such inappropriate to the turkish script. In the same sense I would
    refuse the notion “Alphabet” for anything that is not descendant from
    Old Semitic/Hebrew or Greek.
    If “székely-magyar rovás” makes sense in Hungarian this is by no means
    a reason for claiming “Szekler-Hungarian Rovas Writing” makes equally
    sense in English. In German, “Szekler-Schrift” or “Altungarisch” would
    be decent, but not “Szekler-Ungarische Rovas-Schrift” – this is just a
    mess.
    To conclude, naming it just “Rovás” might eventually be acceptable,
    such treatening it as “Bopomofo” or “Thai Lue”. Yet it would be as
    intelligent as naming Greek “Glyphs” just because this is the
    prorietary name for “engraved characters” in that language.
    – Since “Old Hungarian” is the appropriate, unambiguous and established
    (!) term in English, it should be that.

    A:S

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    Signographisches Institut Andreas Stötzner i.A. (Pegau/Sa.)
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