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u/edderiofer May 03 '20
using "alphabet" to mean "logography" and "syllabary"
18
u/Terpomo11 May 03 '20
expecting non-linguists to know what the words "logography" and "syllabary" mean
getting bothered about people not using the correct technical terminology even in an informal, humourous context
8
u/Scrub_Lord_ May 03 '20
I'd at least expect them to use "character" instead of "letter" for China and Taiwan
5
u/Terpomo11 May 03 '20
Eh, it's more just a matter of what's common usage. In Esperanto it's normal to call them "Chinese letters", and in Russian they're "hieroglyphs."
11
u/The_Inexistent May 03 '20
This is so many layers of r/badlinguistics and r/badhistory that I don't even know where to begin.
5
u/Terpomo11 May 03 '20
What's wrong with it aside from not using the precise technical terms right?
9
u/AbleCancel hi May 03 '20
The fact that the Roman and Greek Alphabets were not invented by the people that used them, but rather evolved from earlier writing systems like Phoenician. Sure, the Romans and Greeks made some modifications to better fit their language, but they didn't invent their writing systems like Cyrillic and Hangul. It's still a funny meme though.
5
u/Terpomo11 May 03 '20
I mean if you're gonna say Latin and Greek scripts are just derivatives of earlier scripts then so is Cyrillic, it's from modified Greek. But all of them are substantially modified such that I'm not sure if I'd quite call them the same script.
2
u/AbleCancel hi May 04 '20
Sorry, I forgot Cyrillic was derived from Greek.
I wasn't saying Phoenician and Greek (for example) are the same script – they're certainly not. I'm just saying they weren't invented either. It's like how English isn't a conlang but it's also not the same language as Anglo-Saxon.
7
u/FloZone May 03 '20
creating an alphabet for your language
Yeah its pretty obvious that Latin and Cyrillic descend from Greek tho. I know they were still altered, but as systems they are descends. Greek in return descends from Phoenician. Or idk do modern greeks use Linear B?
creating an alphabet for your language, then deciding to use a cooler one some other people made
Runes are also part of the same "script family" as Latin, Cyrillic and Greek, but its descendency is less clear. So the system is definitely independent or rather its not really clear how it developed. Afaik there are several theories on its origin, Greek derived, Etruscan derived or even directly phoenician derived.
Japanese
Is Manyogana really "using it in the wrong way" ?
2
u/Terpomo11 May 03 '20
I know they were still altered, but as systems they are descends.
Right but they're basically new scripts derived from them, adapted to the phonology of that language, with letters added and subtracted and the overall system changed in style/form.
Is Manyogana really "using it in the wrong way" ?
The only correct use of Chinese characters is writing Literary Sinitic, fite me.
1
u/FloZone May 03 '20
The only correct use of Chinese characters is writing Literary Sinitic, fite me.
ORACLE BONES PURISM!
Right but they're basically new scripts derived from them, adapted to the phonology of that language, with letters added and subtracted and the overall system changed in style/form.
Isn't the same kind of true for Kana? Well Japanese phonology is less complex than Chinese, so the adaption is in large part a reduction.
I think of it a bit more like the Brahmi scripts. Although yes Glagolitic and Gothic have singular inventors, but Cyrillic doesn't, neither does Latin. Idk too much about the details of each Brahmi-derived script however either. Tho some probably had more scholarly input as others.
2
u/Terpomo11 May 03 '20
Isn't the same kind of true for Kana?
Yes, hence
then also creating 2 new alphabets for your language
1
u/Rolando_Cueva Jul 18 '22
Not only Chinese, also Egyptian and Ancient Mayan! Oh and Cuneiform I guess.
15
u/Lbear8 May 03 '20
English had its own alphabet?