4 ms·
In addition, Arabic has symbols that can appear either above or below each letter that usually change the meaning of a word completely. For example: عالِم (pr
by Cyph0n 11y ago
In addition, Arabic has symbols that can appear either above or below each letter that usually change the meaning of a word completely.
For example:
عالِم (pronounced a'alim): scientist
عالَم (pronounced a'alam): world
Notice the difference is essentially the "i" and "a" yet the entire meaning changes.
I'd imagine this would add complexity to the mechanisms employed by printing equipment back then.
- kuschku 11y agoSo, like world and word? Where a single letter changes the entire meaning?
- Cyph0n 11y agoNo, the letters are exactly the same. The change is caused by adding an accent above or below the letter, in this case the letter pronounced like "l" in English.
- kuschku 11y agoWell, English has situations where the word is written the exact same way, but pronounced differently. The case that accents change meaning is also existing even in many european languages. So, it’s not like latin-1 doesn’t deal with those issues either. I’d assume it’s more other issues that are problematic with Arabic script.
- thaumasiotes 11y ago> the letters are exactly the same. The change is caused by adding an accent above or below the letter This is a pretty myopic view of what's significant in writing. Why are you calling the consonant a "letter" and the vowel an "accent"? Would you apply the same rigorous distinction to é, which is a full letter (specifically Latin Small Letter E with Acute, U+00E9), vs é, which is a letter e with a combining accent above?
- Cyph0n 11y agoThe correct terminology is a diacritic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_diacritics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_diacritics
- thaumasiotes 11y agoThere is no meaningful difference, for this purpose, between letters and diacritics; it is nonsense to say that "fit" vs "fat" is an easy, simple contrast because 'i' and 'a' are "letters", while the analagous distinction in Arabic is tricky because it is represented in different glyphs. They're all glyphs.