switching scripts

[James Ward]

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Dear Peter,

Curious!  What stimulus could be making Roman letters the "script of
choice"?  Urdu and especially the modified Uighur alphabet as used in
Xinjiang demonstrate that variations in consonants and vowels can be
symbolized pretty adequately with the use of new diacritics.  Wouldn't
this indicate that the script choice embodies a changing cultural
situation?  Is there some kind of desire to create distance from the
prevalence of Urdu?  Or is it more or less a trend based on utility?...

James

On Tuesday, April 8, 2003, at 07:27  AM, Peter Hook wrote:

> Dear James,
>
>         You will find that (in the Northern Areas of Pakistan) a similar
> situation obtains with Burushaski (Nastaliq ceding to Roman) and with
> (if I'm not mistaken on this - John Mock at UCSC is the expert) Wakhi.
>
>         All the best,
>
>                 Peter