On roman letters and other stories: An essay in heterographics

Charles Lock

On roman letters and other stories: An essay in heterographics

Institut for Engelsk, Germansk og Romansk

1 Citationer (Scopus)

Abstract

This essay questions the assumption that the roman alphabet is more purely phonetic than any other, and that other scripts and writing-systems are less efficient, whether for the production of texts or for their comprehension. Those who habitually use roman letters are asked to consider their competence to understand other writing systems. The work of Stanley Morison emphasizes the ideological significance of alphabets and of particular letter-forms. M.B. Parkes and Paul B. Saenger are cited to indicate how punctuation and spacing are aspects of the roman-letter writing system that cannot be treated as purely phonetic. Beyond the world of roman letters there is a focus on Syriac and the Xi'an stele, which was printed by Athanasius Kircher in 1667 and marks the first publication in the west of a substantial text in Chinese.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Tidsskrift	Journal of World Literature
Vol/bind	1
Udgave nummer	2
Sider (fra-til)	158-171
Antal sider	14
ISSN	2405-6480
Status	Udgivet - 2020

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Det Humanistiske Fakultet

Citationsformater

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abstract = "This essay questions the assumption that the roman alphabet is more purely phonetic than any other, and that other scripts and writing-systems are less efficient, whether for the production of texts or for their comprehension. Those who habitually use roman letters are asked to consider their competence to understand other writing systems. The work of Stanley Morison emphasizes the ideological significance of alphabets and of particular letter-forms. M.B. Parkes and Paul B. Saenger are cited to indicate how punctuation and spacing are aspects of the roman-letter writing system that cannot be treated as purely phonetic. Beyond the world of roman letters there is a focus on Syriac and the Xi'an stele, which was printed by Athanasius Kircher in 1667 and marks the first publication in the west of a substantial text in Chinese.",

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T1 - On roman letters and other stories

T2 - An essay in heterographics

AU - Lock, Charles

N1 - Special issue of JWL: 'The Chines Scriptworld and World Literature'

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - This essay questions the assumption that the roman alphabet is more purely phonetic than any other, and that other scripts and writing-systems are less efficient, whether for the production of texts or for their comprehension. Those who habitually use roman letters are asked to consider their competence to understand other writing systems. The work of Stanley Morison emphasizes the ideological significance of alphabets and of particular letter-forms. M.B. Parkes and Paul B. Saenger are cited to indicate how punctuation and spacing are aspects of the roman-letter writing system that cannot be treated as purely phonetic. Beyond the world of roman letters there is a focus on Syriac and the Xi'an stele, which was printed by Athanasius Kircher in 1667 and marks the first publication in the west of a substantial text in Chinese.

AB - This essay questions the assumption that the roman alphabet is more purely phonetic than any other, and that other scripts and writing-systems are less efficient, whether for the production of texts or for their comprehension. Those who habitually use roman letters are asked to consider their competence to understand other writing systems. The work of Stanley Morison emphasizes the ideological significance of alphabets and of particular letter-forms. M.B. Parkes and Paul B. Saenger are cited to indicate how punctuation and spacing are aspects of the roman-letter writing system that cannot be treated as purely phonetic. Beyond the world of roman letters there is a focus on Syriac and the Xi'an stele, which was printed by Athanasius Kircher in 1667 and marks the first publication in the west of a substantial text in Chinese.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - roman alphabet

KW - writing systems

KW - Stanley Morison

KW - Syriac

KW - Xi'an stele

KW - punctuation

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2405-6480

VL - 1

SP - 158

EP - 171

JO - Journal of World Literature

JF - Journal of World Literature

IS - 2

ER -

On roman letters and other stories: An essay in heterographics

Abstract

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