Re: intrinsic advantage of Latin alphabet over bopomofo (for Chinese)??

On Mar 25, 3:53 am, LEE Sau Dan <dan...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
"Peter" == Peter T Daniels <gramma...@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

    >> (But  it is unambiguous when converted to idea: sun/day.)

    Peter> If you think that "sun" and "day" are a single "idea," then
    Peter> your universe of ideas must be very limited indeed.

That's the case in Chinese/Japanese.   It's a _unified_ idea.  This is
a place where English  and Chinese/Japanese differs.  "sun"/"day" is a
unified concept.  "moon"/"month" is a unified concept.  "goat"/"sheep"
is also a unified concept in Chinese, too.

If you can't tell a sheep from a goat, or a bright light in the sky
from a period of time, or a light in the sky from a period of time,
then you have serious mental problems.

It seems that you have  problems with unified, abstract ideas, such as
the generic currency symbol.

You haven't explained what use "the generic currency symbol" had.

    >> You  may think  that this  example won't  work in  a  sentence,
    >> right?  You're wrong.   The name of Japan,  日本 can be
    >>  pronounced <nihon> or <nippon>,  depending  on  how  the
    >>  reading  likes  to  pronounce  it.

    Peter> Is it now your claim that two people with different accents
    Peter> are not saying the same word when they pronounce what
    Peter> everyone else would consider the same word differently?
    Peter> E.g. AmE <greasy>.

You still haven't defined "word".

/nihon/ ~ /nippon/ is quite clearly a single word in Japanese. We
realize you're unable to comprehend how the word "word" applies to
Chinese, so we don't use it with you.

    >> Whichever  pronounciation is  used,  the meaning  is  still the
    >>  same: "Japan".  So, it converts  ambiguously to speech, but
    >> unambiguously to ideas.

    Peter> There is absolutely nothing whatsoever "ambiguous" about
    Peter> that example.

The ambiguity  is in how  it should be  pronounced.  Tell me  how 日本
should be pronounced.  Nippon?  Nihon?

It should be pronounced however the individual customarily pronounces
it in that context. Just as someone from the northern US says
"grea[s]y" and someone from the southern US says "grea[z]y."

The unambiguously is in what it means: 日本 is "Japan".

    >> Now,  you've  more  and  more  convinced me  that  according
    >>  to  YOUR definitions of  "writing" and "ideograph", Kanji's in
    >>  Japanese is NOT "writing", but IS ideographic.

    Peter> I'm sorry that you have such a poor understanding of
    Peter> English. Maybe you wasted too much time learning Esperanto.

Much less than arguing with you.

You shouldn't argue about things you haven't studied.

.

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