Visible speech
by John DeFrancis · first published 1989
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5HN commenters
2009–2019first – last mentioned
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…sensitivity of cultural heritage claims in south Asia in a region that spans a heavily militarized border. A good popular book about the nature and origin of writing systems in general, worldwide, is Visible Speech by John DeFrancis, http://www.amazon.com/Visible-Speech-Diverse-Interactions-Co... and the definitive compilation of international research on writing systems to the date of publication is The World's…
on “Indus Valley Civilization’s Collapse Explained” ↗…any kind of proof about subvocalization. I'm not committing to a position on whether or not subvocalization, as defined by throat muscle movements, always occurs in reading, but I know from the books Visible Speech by John DeFrancis (a scholar of Chinese) http://www.amazon.com/Visible-Speech-Asian-Interactions-Comp... and Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention by Stanislas Dehaene…
on “Is speed reading really possible? ” ↗…concepts) and do so in a way that is specific to the particular Chinese (Sinitic) language that one speaks. The long story about this can be found in the books The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy[1] or Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems[2] by the late John DeFrancis or the book Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning[3] by J. Marshall Unger. The book Reading in the Brain:…
on “Cantonese Proverbs in One Picture” ↗…concepts) and do so in a way that is specific to the particular Chinese (Sinitic) language that one speaks. The long story about this can be found in the books The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy[2] or Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems[3] by the late John DeFrancis or the book Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning[4] by J. Marshall Unger. The book Reading in the Brain:…
on “Why isn't 'American' a Language?” ↗Very impressive indeed; I only clicked the 'Visible Speech' link thanks to reading your comment; the diagram illustrating the lineage / spread of the the 'Yukaghir Love Letter' is worth the click alone.
on “A Yukaghir girl writes a love letter” ↗…alphabetic writing system that is recently reformed enough that it has very consistent sound-symbol correspondences. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/finnish.htm The late John DeFrancis http://www.amazon.com/Visible-Speech-Diverse-Interactions-Co... and current researcher and author Stanislas Dehaene http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Brain-New-Science-Read/dp/0143... develop historical and international comparisons, backed…
on “What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success” ↗…concepts) and do so in a way that is specific to the particular Chinese (Sinitic) language that one speaks. The long story about this can be found in the books The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy[1] or Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems[2] by the late John DeFrancis or the book Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning[3] by J. Marshall Unger. The book Reading in the Brain:…
on “An Unusual Language That Linguists Thought Couldn’t Exist” ↗Good find. I did some more research on John DeFrancis and found his writings on the topic. Pg 32 discusses the "love letter" being part of a semi-ritualized party game. [1] [1] Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems: https://books.google.com/books?id=hypplIDMd0IC&pg=PA24&dq=is...
on “A Yukaghir girl writes a love letter” ↗…variety of societally relevant efficiencies from writing systems being more rather than less user-friendly in representing speech sounds. The long argument on this point is given by John DeFrancis's book Visible Speech. http://www.amazon.com/Visible-Speech-Diverse-Interactions-Co...
on “If English was Written Like Chinese” ↗Another interesting writer is John DeFrancis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_DeFrancis); the two books I have read are Visible Speech, a general examination of writing forms, with Chinese as an important case (and it was written before Mayan writing translation was commonly known, so it makes an interesting comparison with Breaking…
on “To Abolish the Chinese Language: On a Century of Reformist Rhetoric” ↗Well, you sort of prove my point, that it's a political thing, about the unity of the country. Here's what linguists say: 1. From "Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems" by John DeFrancis: "Chinese [...] is an umbrella designation for at least eight present-day varieties of what are usually called "dialects" but, since they are…
on “Zhou Youguang, creator of the Pinyin writing system, has died” ↗John DeFrancis has a section on the Yukaghir love letter in his Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems. The provenance of the "letter" is a bit obscure but it comes from a Russian political exile to Siberia around 1892. "As the young people assembled for the dance,…
on “A Yukaghir girl writes a love letter” ↗…concepts) and do so in a way that is specific to the particular Chinese (Sinitic) language that one speaks. The long story about this can be found in the books The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy[1] or Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems[2] by the late John DeFrancis or the book Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning[3] by J. Marshall Unger. The book Reading in the Brain:…
on “A proportional visualization of the world's most popular languages” ↗…concepts) and do so in a way that is specific to the particular Chinese (Sinitic) language that one speaks. The long story about this can be found in the books The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy[2] or Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems[3] by the late John DeFrancis or the book Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning[4] by J. Marshall Unger. The book Reading in the Brain:…
on “The Future of Language” ↗