Didge Doo

There are many alphabets in use around the globe. Apart from the Roman alphabet, there are Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and so on. Which, to your eye, is the most beautiful? Have you ever taken the trouble to learn to write it?

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4 Answers

Maurice Korvo Profile
Maurice Korvo answered

To my eye, Arabic. Never learned to read or write it.  I do like the Chinese also.  I have learned some of it. The Calligraphy is very easy on the eye. (The printed is easier to read)

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Didge Doo
Didge Doo commented
I like the Arabic, too. I never learned the Chinese alphabet (or the Japanese Kanji) though I did learn Hiragana and Katakana. I didn't get enough use out of it and have forgotten it now. :(
Maurice Korvo
Maurice Korvo commented
Well, there is no real Chinese alphabet, only words. And some words made of a base word, with other elements added to make new words
hey cameron Profile
hey cameron answered

I like the way Georgian looks. It looks like a fantasy script:

I can write Greek (most of my family is Greek so I've learned to write and read the alphabet and I know some Greek words too), but that's about it.

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Didge Doo
Didge Doo commented
Interesting, Cameron. I'd have expected Georgia to use a form of the Cyrillic alphabet but this quite different. Just had a poke around the Net looking for some more examples. I guess you'd find lots of similarities between Greek and Cyrillic.

Thanks for that.
Tris Fray Potter Profile

I like Japanese, but that might be because I can understand a little of it.  I can read and write Hiragana (main script) and Katakana (Hiragana, but used for foreign words).  I don't know that much Kanji (the symbols, most of them come from Chinese).

日本語 は べんきょします。

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Didge Doo
Didge Doo commented
I once spent a few days teaching a group of Japanese nationals how to use a Japanese language word processor. (It was about 1990 so the software was very simple and almost certainly more complex than modern programs.)

They would type a word (or a phrase) in Romaji then they could select Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji. If one of the first two, the software would do a straight conversion. If Kanji, a selection of symbols would appear at the bottom of the screen and they had to select one with the cursor.\

I'm sure modern software would be much more effective.
Tris Fray Potter
Tris Fray Potter commented
It's a pretty similar concept, but it automatically types romanji unil it you type a letter, or group of letters that make a hiragana symbol. You press 'space' to change it to the kanji or katakana symbol that you want. It takes a bit to get used to, but it's really easy once you know how it works.
Didge Doo
Didge Doo commented
Sounds like the same sort of thing. It may not have improved at all.

We just to have these wonderful, wordless conversations. One of them would get it right and I'd say something like, "Ahhhh," to which I'd get a, "Huh?" and I'd nod wisely and say, "Hai."

Nice people. I enjoyed working with them.
Linilla Schmidt Profile
Linilla Schmidt answered

The nordic alphabets, especially Danish, which I have used every day for the past forty-some years. They have more vowels than the English alphabet.

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Didge Doo
Didge Doo commented
Thanks, Linilla. The Nordic languages have always been a mystery to me. When reading, and I come across words in any language other than my own, I try to pronounce them, but the Nordic languages have me totally beaten. All those accents seem very strange.

I guess my two favourite Swedish words are Lisbeth Salander.
Linilla Schmidt
Linilla Schmidt commented
A Stieg Larsson fan, eh? Too bad he died so young after only a handful of really good novels..
Didge Doo
Didge Doo commented
It was such a shame. He died before realising his success. Apparently he had mapped out a whole series about Lisbeth but didn't have the chance to write them.

Lagerkrantz did a good job on #4 but also indicated that he wasn't really interested in writing any more. Maybe the money will change his mind. I hope so.

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