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We could get by without most vowels anyway, that's basically SMS text speak. We cld gt by wtht mst vwls aynw, tht's bscly SMS txt spk.
by HPsquared 4y ago
We could get by without most vowels anyway, that's basically SMS text speak.
We cld gt by wtht mst vwls aynw, tht's bscly SMS txt spk.
- gumby 4y agoLosing the vowels works in languages like Arabic because of the structure of the language, with consonantal clusters (e.g. ktb, tlb) being semantic “roots”. So you usually know from context, and if you don’t know the absolutely precise word, you know the meaning, which can sometimes be more informative. Indo-European languages don’t work that way.
- zarzavat 4y agoIt’s not a hypothetical actually. Many non-Semitic languages have adopted Semitic writing systems. e.g. Persian, Urdu, Yiddish. Sometimes they always write the short vowels in, e.g. Urdu and Yiddish, but other times they don’t e.g. Persian. So it’s at least possible to write an Indo European language without vowels. Desirable? Probably not.