Re: Dumb Americans (was INTERNATIONALIZATION: JAPAN, FAR EAST)

Article View: comp.std.internat

Article #599

#599

From: Boyd Roberts
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1993 21:41

38 lines
1738 bytes

In article <2605@titccy.cc.titech.ac.jp>, mohta@necom830.cc.titech.ac.jp (Masataka Ohta) writes:
> 
> In Japanese, the only natural sorting is on pronouciation, whose
> information is missing from character code. Otherwise, any sorting
> is almost as good as other sorting.
> 

Applying your argument to languages that use the glyphs 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8 and 9 to represent integers then it is only `natural' to sort
them based on their pronounciation.

So in Japanese I will find myself sorting them in ascending order:

    1 ichi
    9 kyu
    5 go
    3 san
    4 shi
    7 shichi
    0 zero
    2 ni
    8 hachi

But that would be wrong, because I can pronounce:

    0 as rei
    4 as yon
    7 as nana
    9 as ku

So just how will you sort these glyphs based on `natural' pronounciation?

Is it a case of ``gaijin dakara wakaranai''?

Boyd Roberts			boyd@prl.dec.com

``When the going gets wierd, the weird turn pro...''

Technical Details

Message-ID: <1993Jan4.214109.8143@prl.dec.com>

Path:

arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!ames!haven.umd.edu!decuac!pa.dec.com!decprl!decprl!boyd

References:

<8490@charon.cwi.nl> <1hvu79INN4qf@rodan.UU.NET> <1i0oj2INNp4v@life.ai.mit.edu> <1i13rrINNars@rodan.UU.NET> <1993Jan1.163927.20277@prl.dec.com> <2605@titccy.cc.titech.ac.jp>

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

Newsgroups: comp.std.internat
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!ames!haven.umd.edu!decuac!pa.dec.com!decprl!decprl!boyd
From: boyd@prl.dec.com (Boyd Roberts)
Subject: Re: Dumb Americans (was INTERNATIONALIZATION: JAPAN, FAR EAST)
Message-ID: <1993Jan4.214109.8143@prl.dec.com>
Keywords: ISO10646 Unicode
Sender: news@prl.dec.com (USENET News System)
Nntp-Posting-Host: spooky.prl.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation - Paris Research Laboratory
References: <8490@charon.cwi.nl> <1hvu79INN4qf@rodan.UU.NET> <1i0oj2INNp4v@life.ai.mit.edu> <1i13rrINNars@rodan.UU.NET> <1993Jan1.163927.20277@prl.dec.com> <2605@titccy.cc.titech.ac.jp>
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 21:41:09 GMT
Lines: 38

Reply to Parent Message