microsoft

[jess tauber]

Re the QWERTY keyboard- I don't know how relevant this is but this particular keyboard design was actually created to SLOW DOWN the typing speeds actually possible from trained users, in the days of mechanical typewriters that actually jammed up because the last striker didn't have enough time to settle back in before the next one went flying- this design problem was solved rather quickly, but by that time so many people were using the QWERTY behavioral "repair" that it was too late to get them to use more rationally designed layouts that had been suggested originally.

Such keyboard layouts are out there in the computerized world- might it not be time for people to start fresh and be weaned away from QWERTY especially if we want to start to get them thinking linguistically about their native languages? Most of the nonalphabetic portion of a keyboard these days is more rationally laid out anyway. Just a thought.

Jess Tauber
phonosemantics at earthlink.net