aaa@link.UUCP (Wale Akinpelu) (04/17/85)
From postnews Wed Apr 17 10:03:34 1985 >>In article <309@link.UUCP> you write: >>>English: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z >>> >>>Yoruba: a b d e e f g gb i h j k l m n o o p r s s u w y >>> . . . >>>(Please note the dots) >>>A quick comparison shows the similarities. Is there any explanation >>>for the similarities? >> >>Um, well, yes there is. Somebody with a little knowledge of >>linguistics has blessed the land of Niger with a Roman alphabet >>with minor syntax hacks to try to make it fit the (probably >>very different) linguistic structure of that language. >>This happens all the time; I don't even know who did it >>but it's common enough that I feel confident with my explanation. >>It makes much more sense than assuming that both Rome and >>Nigeria evolved the same alphabet independantly from the Greek! >>After all, Rome and Russia both started with Greek; we got >>our alphabet and they got Cyrillic. Anyplace you see a Roman >>alphabet (even with dots or squiggles), western man has been >>there before you, imposing his taste -- and his type fonts. >>Ian Darwin, Toronto uucp: {ihnp4|decvax}!utcs!ian >>Envoy-100: I.Darwin Bitnet: ian@utoronto >> Ian - I disagree with you completely. There are evidences to show that the Yoruba alphabets exist before the exploration activities. For example, one of the "native doctors" in my family before the arrival of the colonial masters used the alphabets to produce a procedure on how to heal sick people. This is document is still within the family and I remember very well that my grandfather used to talk about the reaction of visitors when they saw the document. Maybe there is a better explanation to this mistery. Can any other person out there explain the similarities? Wale Akinpelu AT&T Bell Laboratories ihnp4!hou2a!link!aaa