Re: Telugu script withering away?
Ramana R. Juvvadi (juvvadi@horizoncomp.com)
Fri, 25 Jul 1997 11:22:02 -0400
Let me elaborate on some of the points raised in the course
of discussion.
(1) Comparison with Japan and China
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India is a lot smaller economy than Japan and lot more diverse than
China. Unfortunately or Fortunately we are not in a position to
junk English. Ironically, it is our familiarity with English
that contributed to lack of demand for Indian language software
or Indian language translations. What is the need for translating
unix OS or Feynaman's lectures when most of the target users
know English?
One one hand we have people In India who don't know any script. On
other hand, we have people who know Roman as well as some other
script. I think the number of people who know only Telugu script
but not Roman is very small. I do not mean to say that everybody
who knows Roman script knows English very well.
(2) Script is easy to learn
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I said "I" find any Indian script very easy to learn. On the other
hand "I" also believe that unix command line can be easily used
by common man. That doesn't mean I find many people to buy
the argument. People are more likely to brand me as a nut
and continue with their life.
BTW, I just meant that Indian scripts are easy to learn. I do not find
Chinese or Japanese script very easy to learn. Chinese or Japanese
have a different problem in Romanizing their script. Most literate
Chinese or Japanese probably don't know Roman script.
(3) Economic impact of script
----------------------------
I am also skeptical of kAki lekkalu. I think it is pointless
to quantify the effect of script on econnomy. However, qualitative
arguments can still be made.
I think most people don't learn Turkish because it not a big
economy. But I think the reason most people don't learn Japanese
is because of its script. I have a hunch that more people
would learn Japanese if it had Roman script.
Ramana