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Re: S'pht & Pfhor languages - do S'Pht Speak? | ||
Posted By: Max Etchemendy | Date: 12/31/02 1:06 a.m. | |
In Response To: Re: S'pht & Pfhor languages - do S'Pht Speak? (Max Etchemendy) Okay, maybe this explanation is clearer. How does the translator device decide which Roman characters to assign (and in what order) to S'pht words if S'pht is really *never* spoken? Pretend you're a translator for a second. (Or a translator program. Or whatever.) You see a string of blocky characters that form the S'pht word for "vengeance." Now, you somehow need to represent this in Roman characters. If this language is *never* spoken and has no relation whatsoever to actual sounds, why do you choose "Narhl" instead of "Watermelon" or "Snake" or "Fiat Voluntas Tua"? Perhaps you could assign Roman letters to S'pht characters without attempting to convey any sense of sound, but that would be incredibly misleading (you might as well use numbers or other characters, like !@#$%, etc.) and you'd probably end up with something like "Ytwfbcvz" (i.e., something that doesn't even look like a word) instead of at least marginally sensible sets of sounds, like "Narhl." Anyway, just more explanation... |
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