SignWriting Terminology

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
March 21, 2006

Stephen Slevinski wrote:
>> alphabet is a sequence of ordered symbols.


Steve! I think I know where your confusion is....The definition you  
wrote above is for the word ALPHABET, but not specifically for the  
ROMAN alphabet.

There are many alphabets in the world..

GREEK Alphabet
ROMAN Alphabet
RUSSIAN Alphabet


I guess all Alphabets place symbols in a sequence or order...that is  
for sure, and that is why SignWriting is considered an alphabet too...

But what makes the ROMAN alphabet ROMAN? The symbols themselves look  
different than the symbols in the GREEK alphabet...

And there is another thing that is unique to the ROMAN alphabet...the  
Roman Alphabet is used to write MORE than just one spoken  
language...GREEK writes GREEK, but is not used to write Spanish, but  
the Roman Alphabet is used to write Spanish, French, English and many  
other western spoken languages...that is why SignWriting is more like  
the ROMAN ALPHABET than other alphabets...because it writes multiple  
signed languages...here is a description I wrote years ago:






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