SignWriting Terminology

[Trevor Jenkins]

On Tue, 21 Mar 2006, Steve Slevinski <slevin at signpuddle.net> wrote:

> I'm a bit confused by equating the roman alphabet to SignWriting.  The
> roman alphabet is a sequence of ordered symbols. ...

Not sure I agree with the notion that the Roman alphabet is a sequence.
Certainly not one in any mathematical sense. The ordering of the symbols
is purely arbitrary. We could just as easily remember the list as A, Z, B,
Y, ... M, L or any other random arrangement Z, Y, W, ... C, B, A.  The
underlying meanings of the letters would not alter any. Easy to
demonstrate by looking at Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, German, French,
Greek, Russian, or a myriad languages using Roman symbols. There are
additions to and deletions from the list. The more mathematically compent
can correct me but surely alphabet is a `bag' rather than a sequence
defined over some order.

Whereas there is (some deliberate) order in the symbols of SignWriting.

Regards, Trevor

<>< Re: deemed!