Texting

[Jan Ivarsson TransEdit]

James A. Landau's version of the correspondence betwwen Friedrich and Voltaire is not absolutely correct. This is how it is usually given:

"Friedrich der Grosse (1712-1786), der "alte Fritz", König von Preussen, Musiker und Schlossherr in Sanssouci, schrieb seinem Freund, dem französischen Philosophen Voltaire:

     p                         ci
                  à
 venez                      sans

Und der Franzose antwortete ihm: G a "

It was an invitation (Come for supper), and this version corresponds better with French pronunciation of the alphabet ("c" is [se], "j" is closer to [ji], but "g" closer to [je]).
When will we get phonetic letters on the Internet? Sigh.

Jan Ivarsson

----- Original Message -----
> At 3:56 PM -0500 2/13/03, James A. Landau wrote:

> >It isn't even anything new.  Consider the following 18th Century example of
> >texting, due to Fredriech der Grosse and his penpal Francois-Marie Arouet:
> >
> >          P                  C
> >      je vais     a      sans
> >
> >and the answer
> >
> >       J a
> >
> >(Translation:  Je vais souper a Sans Souci ("I am going to eat at Sans
> >Souci");
> >                     J'ai grand apetit ("I have a big appetite" or "I'm quite
> >hungry")...
>