Q: describing how one reads text

[Joel S. Berson]

At 6/7/2009 09:28 AM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
>boustrophedon

That's the word I was looking for (and due to not remembering it well
enough, did not find it in the OED) for text that's "(Written)
alternately from right to left and from left to right, like the
course of the plough in successive furrows."  But I am looking (also)
for a word -- if one exists -- to describe text that's written always
in the same direction on successive lines.

(And in passing, would "boustrophedon" apply also to text written
vertically, if lines were written alternately from top to bottom and
bottom to top?)

Joel

>Quoting "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>:
>
>>Is there a word to describe how one's eye moves when reading
>>(Occidental) text -- horizontally along the line, then down one line
>>and back to the starting edge?
>>
>>I have a very faint recollection of a word that applies to text where
>>one went one line down but continued reading from the edge that was
>>the end of the preceding line (that is, left to right, then right to
>>left, etc.) -- but it's so faint that all I seem to remember is that
>>it began with a "b".
>>
>>Joel
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org