[sw-l] Are SignSpellings really synonyms?

[Valerie Sutton]

Ingvild Roald from Norway wrote:
> I think this is just a discussion about what to call these different
> ways of writing the same - I agree that they are not synonym signs or
> words but they are synonyme symbols = symbols that means the same and
> can be interchanged in the same sign without chanign the meaning.
> Maybe we should call them 'equivalent' symbols, to avoid
> misunderstandings ...

Yes. I understand now, that the word synonym can be applied to symbols
as well as complete words or signs, so yes...these symbols are
symbol-synonyms I guess ;-)

> But hte fact that the very same sign, with focus on the same
> particulars, can still be written in different ways, needs to be
> looked into. With the Roam alphabet of our western spoken/written
> languages, we can choose between capital letters and ordinary letters.
> In some languages the capital letters are used a lot more than they
> are in other languages (I don't know if German still uses capital
> letters for all nouns, but at least I know that English uses a lot
> more capital letters than Norwegian does).

Yes. That is true. And the rules for when to use capital letters seems
to be changing over time...fewer people are using capital letters when
writing email in English, for example...and yes...the Norwegian rules
for capitalization are quite different...

So maybe these symbol-synonyms are simply like capital letters versus
lower-case letters?...hmmm...If so, then that is not the same as
different spellings for the same signs...just as we have different
spellings for the same words in English...

I was seeing these symbol-synonyms more as the difference between two
spellings for the same word...In English we have:

color
and
colour

and both are correct...but the word colour will come after the word
colorizing in the dictionary...even though it is a different spelling
for the word color...



> Still, if a message is written all with capital letters or all without
> them, it is as understandable as before. So I think this is a little
> like what we are facing here: which of two perfectly usable symbols
> should be preferred in each instant. And that will show with time and
> usage.

That is a very different perspective...very interesting....and whether
they are like capital letters, or like different spellings for the same
word...either way...I think when we start printing large dictionaries
sorted by SSS we will get a better feel for what is happening...It
could make a great research project of a graudate student!!

Val ;-)