LL-L "Orthography" 2003.09.27 (01) [E/LS]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 27.SEP.2003 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: jpkrause <jpkrause at weblink2000.net>
Subject: LOWLANDS-L Digest - 24 Sep 2003 to 25 Sep 2003 (#2003-248)

> "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to
> dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and
to
> assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to
> which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect
> to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes
> which impel them to the separation."
>
> "Wen in dhe Kors uv húmen events, it bekums nesesarí for wun pípel tú
dizolv
> dhe politikel bands witsh hav konekted dhem with anudher, and tú asúm
amung
> dhe Pauers uv dhe erth, dhe sepret and íkwel stäshen tú witsh dhe Lås
uv
> Nätsher and uv Nätsher's God entaitel dhem, a dísent ríspekt tú dhe
opinyens
> uv mankaind rekwairs dhat dhei shüd deklér dhe kåzes witsh impel dhem
tú dhe
> separäshen."
>
> I would recommend a change — "Hwen" instead of "Wen", "Hwitsh" instead
of
> "Witsh". There are other changes I thought of, too, but I can't remember
> them presently.

Interesting.  How about this instead?
"When in de koars ov human events it bekomms nessessarie for wun piepel too
disolv de politikal bands witsch hav konneckted dem wid anodder and too
asoom among de Pauers ov de Erd de seperat and ekwal steyschon too witsch
the laws ov neytscher and ov neytscher's Godd enteitel dem a diesent respekt
too de opinions ov mannkeind rekweirs dat dey schudd dekleyr de kosses
witsch impel dem too de sepereyschon."

Na nu, daut's vedietschet Enjelsch, nich woa?  Daut kjleene Schreft Oppgow
haft väl Spos.

Trans:  "Well now, that's Germainzed English isn't it?  That little writing
exersize was a lot of fun."

Jim Krause, or should I sign myself Jakob Krüse?

----------

From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Orthography"

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Orthography
>
> However, it is important to understand that in most Chinese calligraphic
> styles, the meaning of the text itself is not very important, if
> it has any
> importance at all.  It goes beyond mere "pretty writing" (which there is
> also, in everyday and commercial use).  It has taken on a life of its own
> and should really be viewed as a separate discipline or field.

Of course the Japanese do "decorative English" as well. An example is in the
film Mystery Train where the Japanese woman has "Mister Baby" on the back of
her jacket. I think a lot of the Chinese/Japanese writing on t-shirts in the
West is also probably meaningless? Though perhaps people in the West would
be more disappointed to find out that their t-shirt was just gibberish?

> exception of some medieval and early post-medieval styles.)   Artistic
> Chinese (and Japanese) calligraphy is traditionally considered
> the ultimate
> discipline within the visual arts, and calligraphic stroke techniques are

Not manga?   :|

I think calligaphic styles of art exist in the West also, though: the snooth
transitions between thick and thin lines of comics and cartoons seem to use
the techniques of cursive calligraphy in the Roman alphabet. Geoffrey Searle
in England used his own kind of calligraphy for writing which was fully
integrated with the style of his cartoons.

In Western calligraphy there are two main kinds of writing: one is the
cursive hand, done with a pen with a fine nib, where strokes are given
thickness by applying pressure to the paper with the pen. The other is the
italic hand, which is done with a flat nib, the angle of the pen defining
the thickness of the stroke. Both require practice to master (I believe most
people in the West can't use either system) but the cursive system seems to
me to be more similar in execution to Chinese calligraphy and a suitably
skilled person might do it with brush. Of course there's also the "biro"
system, but if we're talking about aesthetics then I don't even call that
writing!

Italic and cursive writing styles require different alphabets. The italic
alphabet is naturally simpler, the cursive naturally more florid. However
cursive has been giving ground to italic for a long time now, the main
reason being that cursive script is more difficult to write, and more
difficult to read too. An example is in the film Billy Madison, where the
teacher asks Billy to write the word "bunt" on the board, and it looks like
something else.

Calligraphy may not be popular in the West - you can get calligraphy kits
anywhere but most people don't know how to use them. They often make the
mistake of buying an italic pen when their handwriting is cursive, and vice
versa. Many people can do artistically accomplished lettering in various
styles for posters and suchlike and call it calligraphy, but to me this
isn't the real thing. To me, calligraphy is being able to write fluently and
beautifully in your own hand. However, it's a worthwhile skill if you still
write letters by hand - replies to my letters often start with a paragraph
praising my handwriting. So calligraphy gives your recipient something to
write back about  :)

Such people are also often surprised to see my personal notebooks, which are
in a calligraphic style that might be called described as electroshock  :)

These east-west comparisons remind me of an episode in the history of pi.
The first really accurate calculation of pi was done by a Chinese father-son
team whose names I forget. This wasn't improved upon anywhere in the world
for many years (or centuries?). However, mathematicians in Asia had long
been enamoured of the fact that pi was approximately equal to the square
root of ten. This crude and meaningless coincidence (crude because it's a
very rough approximation, meaningless because there's nothing special about
the number ten in mathematics) was considered beautiful, so they went on
using the wrong value for aesthetic reasons. I think people sometimes
mistake tradition for beauty, in which case they close the door on any new
beauty that might otherwise have entered their lives.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

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