Open source dmd on Reddit!

[Bill Baxter]

On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 4:11 PM, Nick Sabalausky <a at a.a> wrote:
> "Nick Sabalausky" <a at a.a> wrote in message
> news:gpc4m6$30nt$1 at digitalmars.com...
>> "Walter Bright" <newshound1 at digitalmars.com> wrote in message
>> news:gpc2ik$2t80$1 at digitalmars.com...
>>> Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>>>> That's one thing that's kind of nice about Japanese. Native words and
>>>> loanwords are written in different alphabets (sort of like uppercase vs
>>>> lowercase), so unlike English, you generally know if a word is a
>>>> properly-pronounced native word or a potentially-differently-pronounced
>>>> loanword. (Not that this is necessarily the original reason for the
>>>> separate native/foreign alphabets, but it's at least a nice benefit.)
>>>
>>> I don't see having 3 alphabets as having some sort of compelling
>>> advantage that remotely compares with the cost of learning 3 alphabets
>>> and 3 spellings for everything.
>>
>> Native Japanese words never use the Katakana alphabet, and loanwords never
>> use the Hiragana alphabet (those are the two phonetic alphabets). So in
>> Japanese, each word has at most 2 written forms: one using the
>> non-phonetic Chinese Kanji characters (ie, the third alphabet) and one
>> using just whichever -kana is appropriate. Also, suffixes and articles
>> (ie, not the "magazine" type) are always (to my knowledge) in Hiragana,
>> never one of the other two alphabets.
>>
>> Also, the "two" phonetic Japanese alphabets are really comparable to
>> either uppercase vs lowercase or cursive vs print. So in the same sense
>> that Japanese has three alphabets, we really have four.
>>
>
> Also, I'm not saying that their way is either better or worse overall. I'm
> just saying that it does at least have certain benefits.

I can tell you that my son is having a much easier time learning to
read hiragana than roman letters.   He knows his ABCs but he still
can't really read much of anything using what he knows.   The hiragana
on the other hand, once you know 'ka' for instance it's pronounced
precisely 'ka' wherever you see it.  So he calls them out on all the
signs he sees.  The only mistake he makes is sometimes reading right
to left instead of left to right.   But he gets frustrated trying to
pronounce English words.

The nice thing about hiragana being so easy to learn, is that they can
use those as pronunciation guides for kids.  So in kids books any
non-hiragana word will have "furigana" I think they call it, above the
kanji, which are the pronunciation of the kanji written in hiragana.

It actually made me think that it would be nice if there were two
systems for spelling English words, just for the purpose of making it
easier for kids to achieve literacy.  I mean one system that is
regular, systematic, and compact, in addition to the goofy one we've
become accustomed to.

--bb

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