🚀 go-pugleaf

Posting-Front-End: GNU Emacs 18.40.2 of Thu Mar 19 1987 on mind (berkeley-unix)


Mark Towfigh writes:


*Unlike Arabic, Modern Persian is written with no accents.  Accents are
*only used in children's books and occasionally in print with a foreign
*word.  This would perhaps be analogous to similar occurences in English.

While I don't know Persian, I do know some Arabic.  Please explain
what you mean by "accents" when referring to Arabic.  From the
sentences quoted, it seems that you are referring to the signs in
vocalized text:  the vowels fathah, dammah, kasrah, their nunated
forms, and the no-vowel sign sukun.  They are, as far as I know, only
used in the Quran (because errors in vocalization might lead to
blasphemy), children's books, and books which teach Arabic to
non-native-speakers.  So I'm not sure what you mean by "unlike Arabic."

*Since the Persian alphabet has only 32 letters, moreover, that would
*leave at least 20 spaces for the 6-odd accents which are so
*infrequently used.

Arabic has 28 letters, or 29 if you count hamzah.  Well, okay, it has
31 if you count ta'-marbutah and alif maqsurah (I hope I haven't
forgotten anything), and 7 signs:  the three vowels, their nunated
versions, and sukun.  And Arabic doesn't have capital letters either.

Just in case Arabic ever becomes that popular . . .

				--Apoorva

[Now if you want an even neater-looking script, how about Kannada?
 A lot more letters though . . .]