THE KNOT SCRIPT – THE LOST WRITING SYSTEM OF THE LATVIAN LANGUAGE

2016 ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Uģis Nastevičs
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems

The article analyses a writing system of the Latvian language that has been scarcely researched before. The evidence of the usage of the knot script and song clews is present in the Latvian folklore, although it has been commonly considered as a metaphor. At the beginning of the 20th century there were individuals still using it prior to the conventional literacy increase due to the general education. Similar knot scripts can be found in several cultures around the globe. The article encompasses a study of previous researches and evidence in periodicals, Latvian community in Lithuania, education of commoners in Latvia, reciprocal comparison of the Latvian knot script writing systems, interview with a contemporary witness and experiment on reconstruction of the Latvian knot script.

scholarly journals Emergence of a New Written Culture: The use of Hebrew script among the Krimchaks and the Karaim

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 61-78
Author(s):  
Zsuzsanna Olach
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Religious Texts

Conversion to a religion usually has a positive impact on the written culture of a given community. The conversion may or may not result in the adoption of a new writing system. In the Turkic world, we find examples for both cases. The Karaims, by their conversion into Karaitism, adopted the Hebrew script. They used the Hebrew alphabet up till the beginning of the 20th century in their everyday life for writing; for example, private letters and secular and religious texts in Karaim.Another Turkic speaking group, the heterogeneous Rabbanite community of Krimchaks (whose majority is of Sephardic origin) also used the Hebrew script to write their vernacular.Some characteristics of the writing systems of the Karaim and of the Krimchaks have been described, but no comparative research has thus far been carried out. In this study, the peculiarities of the Hebrew alphabet used by both Turkic speaking peoples will be discussed and illustrated. For instance, the new characters, which were introduced in order to indicate specific Turkic phonetic values, and the ways the same Hebrew vowel sign or letter is used in the different Krimchak and Karaim manuscripts.

An Error Analysis of Hiragana and Katakana Writing Systems in the Learning of Japanese as Third Language at UiTM

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Norhazlina Husin ◽  
Nuranisah Tan Abdullah ◽  
Aini Aziz
Keyword(s):  
Error Analysis ◽  
Foreign Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
The Other ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Main Challenge

Abstract The teaching of Japanese language as third language to foreign students has its own issues and challenges. It does not merely involve only teaching the four language skills. Japanese language has its own unique values. These unique values also tend to differentiate the teaching of Japanese language as a third language from other third language acquisitions. The teaching of Japanese language as third language to foreign students also involves the teaching of its writing system. This makes the teaching of Japanese language rather complicated because Japanese language has three forms of writings, namely: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Students are required to fully understand the Hiragana system of writing first before proceeding to learn the other two forms of writings. The main challenge in the teaching of Japanese writing systems is the time allocated that can be considered as very limited as other language aspects need to be taught too. This, which relates directly to students’ factor very much contribute to the challenges foreseen. Students are likely to face problems in understanding and using the writings as they simultaneously need to adhere to the findings teaching and learning schedules. This article discusses on the analysis conducted in terms of the learning of the Hiragana and Katagana systems of writing among foreign students. The discussion in this article is based on the teaching of Japanese language to students of Universiti Teknologi MARA(UiTM), Shah Alam. Keywords: Third language, Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji

In search of the perfect orthography

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. Venezky
Keyword(s):  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
International Phonetic Alphabet ◽  
Experienced Reader ◽  
Cultural Considerations ◽  
Advanced Stages ◽  
One To One ◽  
The One ◽  
Psychological Processing ◽  
The Ideal

Philologists, linguists, and educators have insisted for several centuries that the ideal orthography has a one-to-one correspondence between grapheme and phoneme. Others, however, have suggested deviations for such functions as distinguishing homophones, displaying popular alternative spellings, and retaining morpheme identity. If, indeed, the one-to-one ideal were accepted, the International Phonetic Alphabet should become the orthographic standard for all enlightened nations, yet the failure of even a single country to adopt it for practical writing suggests that other factors besides phonology are considered important for a writing system. Whatever the ideal orthography might be, the practical writing systems adopted upon this earth reflect linguistic, psychological, and cultural considerations. Knowingly or unknowingly, countries have adopted orthographies that favour either the early stages of learning to read or the advanced stages, that is, the experienced reader. The more a system tends towards a one-to-one relationship between graphemes and phonemes, the more it assists the new reader and the non-speaker of the language while the more it marks etymology and morphology, the more it favours the experienced reader. The study of psychological processing in reading demonstrates that human capacities for processing print are so powerful that complex patterns and irregularities pose only a small challenge. Orthographic regularity is extracted from lexical input and used to recognise words during reading. To understand how such a system develops, researchers should draw on the general mechanisms of perceptual learning.

The relation of vowel letters to phonological syllables in English and German

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-234
Author(s):  
Martin Neef
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Language System ◽  
English I

Assuming that a writing system is inevitably dependent on a language system, the main function of written representations is to give access to the basic representations of the language system. In this paper, I want to deal with graphematic phenomena, i.e. the relations of written representations to corresponding phonological representations. In particular, I will delve into the relation of written representations to the phonological factor of the number of syllables, based on data from English and German. Though in these languages, there is neither a specific written element relating to the syllable number nor an isomorphic relation between vowel letters and the number of syllables, two questions are worth examining: Can a word have more syllables than vowel letters? Can a word have less syllables than uninterrupted sequences of vowel letters? The first question will be answered positively for both languages although there are some severe differences to be stated; the second question will be answered positively only for English. I will show that these results are side-effects of more basic regularities of the writing systems under consideration.

scholarly journals Revitalising Naxi dongba as a ‘pictographic’ vernacular script

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67
Author(s):  
Duncan Poupard
Keyword(s):  
Future Development ◽  
Yunnan Province ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Standard Chinese

A script can be a window into a language and all the culture contained within it. China’s minority peoples have a multitude of scripts, but many are in danger of falling out of use, a decline spurred by the adoption and promotion of standard Chinese across the country. Nevertheless, efforts are being made to preserve minority writing systems. This article reveals how the primarily logographic Naxi dongba script (often labelled the world’s ‘last living pictographs’), used in China’s southwestern Yunnan province to record the Naxi language, can be practically used as a modern writing system alongside its more widely known traditional role as a means of recording religious rites, and what exactly separates these two styles of writing. The efforts that have been made to achieve the goal of modernisation over the past decades are reviewed, including the longstanding attempts at Unicode encoding. I make some suggestions for the future development of the script, and employ plenty of examples from recent publications, alongside phonetic renderings and English translations. It is hoped that overall awareness of this unique script can be raised, and that it can develop into a vernacular script with everyday applications.

scholarly journals Neurocognitive Basis of Dyslexia in Different Writing Systems

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Liu ◽  
James R. Booth
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Chinese Writing System ◽  
Chinese Writing ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

An important issue in dyslexia research is whether developmental dyslexia in different writing systems has a common neurocognitive basis across writing systems or whether there are specific neurocognitive alterations. In this chapter, we review studies that investigate the neurocognitive basis of dyslexia in Chinese, a logographic writing system, and compare the findings of these studies with dyslexia in alphabetic writing systems. We begin with a brief review of the characteristics of the Chinese writing system because to fully understand the commonality and specificity in the neural basis of Chinese dyslexia one must understand how logographic writing systems are structured differently than alphabetic systems.

scholarly journals RULE-BASED SYLLABIFICATION OF KOREAN WORDS WRITTEN IN LATIN USING DETERMINISTIC FINITE AUTOMATA MODELS

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-85
Author(s):  
Rouly Doharma Sihite ◽  
Aditya Wikan Mahastama
Keyword(s):  
Success Rate ◽  
Statistical Approach ◽  
Markov Models ◽  
Finite Automata ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Research Focus ◽  
Finite State ◽  
Catch Up

Transliteration is still a challenge in helping people to read or write from one to another writing systems. Korean transliteration has been a topic of research to automate the conversion between Hangul (Korean writing system) and Latin characters. Previous works have been done in transliterating Hangul to Latin, using statistical approach (72.2% accuracy) and Extended Markov Models (54.9% accuracy). This research focus on transliterating Latin (romanised) Korean words into Hangul, as many learners of Korean began using Latin first. Selected method is modeling the probable vowel and consonant forms and problable vowel and consonant sequences using Finite State Automata to avoid training. These models are then coded into rules which applied and tested to 100 random Korean words. Initial test results only 40% success rate in transliterating due to the nature that consonants have to be labeled as initial or final of a syllable, and some consonants missed the modeled rules. Additional rules are then added to catch-up and merge these consonants into existing proper syllables, which increased the success rate to 92%. This result is analysed further and it is found that certain consonants sequence caused syllabification problem if exist in a certain position. Other additional rules was inserted and yields 99% final success rate which also is the accuracy of transliterating Korean words written in Latin into Hangul characters in compund syllables.

Can History Stand Alone? Drawbacks and Blind Spots of a “Disciplinary” Curriculum

2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (9) ◽  
pp. 2471-2495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Thornton ◽  
Keith C. Barton
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
General Education ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Research Question ◽  
History Education ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Content Selection ◽  
The Subject

Background/Context Over the past quarter-century, many historians, politicians, and educators have argued for an increase in the amount of history taught in schools, for a clear separation of history and social studies, and for an emphasis on disciplinary structures and norms as the proper focus for the subject. Unfortunately, discussions of history education too often rest on the problematic belief that the academic discipline can provide direction for the nature of the subject in general education. Description of Prior Research Throughout much of the 20th century, U.S. history educators made common cause with other social educators to promote principled and critical understandings of society. Both groups stood in opposition to calls for more nationalist views of history education. In the mid-1980s, however, this situation began to change, as a coalition of historians, educational researchers, and political pressure groups promoted history as a subject distinct from and independent of the larger realm of the social studies. This new coalition has been unable to avoid conflicts over the selection of content, however, and approaches favored by nationalists often clash with the more critical and inclusive perspectives of historians. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study In this article, we trace the relationship between historians and other social educators during the 20th century and explore how the forces favoring a realignment of history and social studies coalesced in the mid-1980s. We argue that this coalition has led to an unproductive emphasis on history as a “separate subject” and a resulting lack of attention to the goals of history in general education. Research Design This analytic essay draws on curriculum theory, historical sources, and contemporary cognitive research to outline the changing relationships between historians and other social educators and to examine the limitations of a purportedly disciplinary curriculum. Conclusions/Recommendations The academic discipline of history cannot, by itself, provide guidance for content selection because educators face restrictions of time and coverage that are not relevant in the context of academic historical research. In addition, educators must concern themselves with developing students’ conceptual understanding, and this necessarily requires drawing on other social science disciplines. If students are to develop the insights that historians have most often promoted for the subject, historians must return to their place within the conversation of social studies education.

Core syllables vs. moraic writing

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-51
Author(s):  
Eugene Buckley
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Language ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Syllable Weight

Abstract It is generally accepted that the units of writing systems represent categories found in spoken language; in phonographic writing, these categories traditionally include the syllable and segment, which correspond to syllabic and alphabetic systems. But it has been claimed that some or most “syllabaries” are actually based on moras, well known from phonological theory as units of syllable weight. I argue that apparent moraic systems are in fact built on signs that stand for core CV syllables, and consequently that moras do not appear to play a central role in any writing system.

Foreign schriftdenken in ausbau languages

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Constanze Weth ◽  
Daniel Bunčić
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Slavic Language ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
The Creation

Abstract The concept of schriftdenken describes how the knowledge of a writing system in use guides the creation of a writing system for a yet to be standardized language. Trubetzkoy described this effect with reference to the invention of the Glagolitic alphabet in the 9th century with Greek as the reference writing system. This paper demonstrates schriftdenken and measures to increase orthographic differences in two writing systems with a relatively young history: Luxembourgish (a Germanic language) and Rusyn (a Slavic language). In the Luxembourgish context, schriftdenken and orthographic separation are revealed by the historical context, whereas in the Rusyn context, both practices are related to different geographic contact situations in the countries where Rusyn is spoken and written. The reference languages for Luxembourgish are German, French and Dutch; for Rusyn, they are Russian, Ukrainian, Church Slavonic, Polish and Slovak.

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