language boo-boo

[Ronald Kephart]

Dear All: I sent the following message to Reuters' "feedback"
address.  I'll let you know if I get a response from them.

Whoever wrote the article found at
<http://news.excite.com/news/r/991229/13/health-hub> which begins
with the sentence "The area of the brain used while reading appears
to depend on the complexity of an individual's native language,
according to a new study" committed a horrendous error in confusing
"language" and "writing system."  The research reported on in the
article showed that the complexity of the writing system, not the
language itself, is what causes different parts of the brain to be
used in reading. As written the article stated that the research
showed that English is a more complex language than Italian, which is
not anything like what the research showed.

Maybe you should think of clearing something like this with a
linguist before contributing to popular misunderstandings about the
relationships between languages and writing systems.  I am available
for a small fee.

Ronald Kephart, PhD
English and Foreign Languages
University of North Florida