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<DIV><FONT face="Courier New">It was from the perspective that Kathy notes
below, and these definitions, that I was drawing the distinction between an
alphabet and a featural script. If one works with a smaller set of terms
and has to choose the best one to apply, the term you end up choosing will of
course be different. If the choice is limited to "alphabet",
"logographic", and "syllabary" (like what Adam Frost did in his paper) then
clearly "alphabet" is the best way to describe SignWriting. If your
definition of "alphabet" includes the possibility of a featural script being a
subtype of alphabet (as apparently is the case for some people), then (assuming
that locations and movements are the analogues of consonants and vowels in sign
languages) SignWriting fits the definition of a featural alphabet. And, if
you use the lay definition of the term "alphabet", which appears to include many
of the different writing systems distinguished by experts (perhaps silently,
since most people in Western countries don't even know that such systems are
possible), and which depends heavily on the notion that symbols are arranged in
a conventional sequence that is used for "alphabetization" (e.g. sequencing of
words in a dictionary for ease of lookup), then SignWriting fits that definition
of alphabet. It seems that this last definition is the one that Valerie
Sutton and Steve Slevinski are using.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New">Nothing of what I said earlier is meant in any way
to be disparaging of SignWriting or sign languages; I am supportive of
both. It was simply a matter of clarifying the technical terms that are
defined by experts such as Daniels and Bright, how they apply in specific
situations, and which one best applies to SignWriting. In and around the
terminological confusion, the discussion also brings out the nature of
SignWriting as a script, its versatility and usefulness, as well as some of the
challanges involved in using it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New">Albert</FONT></DIV>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=kaylynnkathy@hotmail.com href="mailto:kaylynnkathy@hotmail.com">Kathy
H.</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=slling-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu
href="mailto:slling-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">A list for linguists
interested in signed languages</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> September 27, 2007 11:05 AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [SLLING-L] Definitions of
writing systems</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><FONT size=3><FONT
color=#000000><FONT face="Times New Roman">
<H2 style="MARGIN: 3pt 0in; TEXT-INDENT: 0in; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=left><FONT color=#000000><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><SPAN
style="mso-list: Ignore"><FONT
size=3></FONT></SPAN></SPAN></FONT> </H2></FONT></FONT></FONT></B>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
color=#000000 size=3>Here are some types of writing systems,
from </FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=3>Daniels,
Peter T. and William Bright. 1996. <U>The World's Writing
Systems</U>. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><STRONG><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=3></FONT></STRONG> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
color=#000000><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">abjad:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></B>A type of writing system that
denotes only consonants</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
color=#000000><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">abugida:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></B>A type of writing system whose
basic characters denote consonants followed by a particular vowel, and in
which diacritics denote the other vowels</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
color=#000000><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">alphabet:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></B>A type of writing system that
denotes consonants and vowels</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
color=#000000 size=3> </FONT></o:p></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
color=#000000><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">alphasyllabary:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></B>A writing system in which vowels
are denoted by subsidiary symbols not all of which occur in a linear order
(with relation to the consonant symbols) that is congruent with their temporal
order in speech</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman"
color=#000000 size=3> </FONT></o:p></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
color=#000000><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">featural script:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></B>A type of writing system whose
characters denote phonetic features</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
color=#000000><FONT face="Times New Roman"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">logosyllabary:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></B>A type of writing system whose
characters denote morphemes, and a subset of whose characters can be used for
their phonetic syllabic values without regard to their semantic
values</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=3></FONT></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=3>Hope this helps.</FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p></o:p> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000 size=3>Kathy</FONT></o:p></P><BR>
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