Why no Cyrillic?

[John Dunn]

Perhaps in answer to Richard Robin I might be allowed to quote part of my off-list answer to the original query:

<The more enthusiastic proponents of Cyrillicisation (and the more computer literate) sometimes suggest that these problems can be overcome, but it is worth remembering that (a) not everyone has access to the most up-to-date hardware or operating systems; (b) not everyone has access to institutional support and (c) those who have institutional support are dependent on whatever e-mail facilities their institution cares to provide. 

So I hope that you will bear with our Luddite tendencies for the time being.>

I agree with the view that transliteration is an important part of literacy in Russian, and to reinforce what Susan Bauckus has said, would observe that the continuing need to use transliteration in e-mails and text messages has led the Russians to develop their own system that uses conventions very different (e.g. 4 for ч[ch] and 6 for ш[sh]) from those found in the systems we have come to know and, if not exactly love, then at least put up with.

John Dunn.
  

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Robin <rrobin at GWU.EDU>
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2009 16:41:39 -0500
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Why no Cyrillic?

*Дорогие SEELANGовцы!*

I'm going to play my broken record over again. Cyrillic could travel well
over e-mail platforms if everyone obeyed the well established rules (the
short version: UTF-8). But there's always a way to use a recalcitrant
institutional e-mail address and still send and receive Cyrillic. See
http://www.gwu.edu/~slavic/gw-cyrillic/cyrilize.htm#cmail<http://www.gwu.edu/%7Eslavic/gw-cyrillic/cyrilize.htm#cmail>.
(It explains the "UTF-8" as well as what to do when you get gibberish.)

I realize that I sing this song a lot. But exchange of information in
written Russian is a part of 21st Century Russian literacy. We don't allow
our first-year students to hand in transliterated homework. We even insist
that they learn Cyrillic script. (I don't know any Russian teacher who buys
the *"I never use script in English!"* excuse.) Computer literacy is
analogous.

That said, I will be the first to admit that I sometimes accompany my
Cyrillic to this list with transliteration (на всякий пожарный случай - na
vsiakii pozharnyi sluchai) when I need to reach the widest audience.

But I would hope that as a profession, we are striving towards overcoming
the technical difficulties of Cyrillic in e-mail, both public and private,
precisely because for those who deal in Russian, it is part of our
communicative sphere.

Sincerely,
Richard Robin

P.S. And I'll be glad to take a look at whatever e-mail from a Russian
company didn't arrive with Cyrillic intact. That should never have happened
and should be fixable. Or else I'm going to end up eating a lot of crow!



John Dunn
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Address:
Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
40137 Bologna
Italy
Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it

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