[lojban] Re: Orthography

[John E Clifford <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

--- John E Clifford <clifford-j@sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

 As a detail, two of the characters
> repeat standard numerals, which is iffy ? we
> probably shouldn?t do that if we can avoid it
> but, on the other hand, the contexts of
> occurrence will almost always be significantly
> different so no actual uncertainty need arise.

Looking over the whole range of possibilities, it
seems only A is a problem; numeral 6, which
appeared to conflict with b, can better be taken
as character 95 than 31 (that is, the top line is
normal for it).
 

> The new A (and hence a) needs to be a character
> that exists both with and without the top line.
> 55, 60, and 63 are out because there capped
> forms
> are numerals.  That leaves 58 (in inverted h),
> 59
> (58 with a bottom line),  61 (the mirror of 59)
> and 62 (H). The vowel characters are asymmetric
> ,
> so only 59 and 61 (for A and E) will work.
> 
> Next we need four left-right mirror pairs: for
> bp, gk, zs, and nm. 62 and 126, being
> symmetric,
> are well out of this.  So are 55 (square U), 63
> (8 without the top), 118 (inverted 55) and 62
> (H).  58 is out because its mirror is numeral
> 4,
> 82 is the mirror of numeral 7, 111 mirrors
> numeral 6, 122 mirrors 9, and 114 and 116 are
> arguably too close to numeral 7 (a half line
> dropping from the end).  That leaves 59 and 61
> (numeral 4 with a bottom line)

These were, of course, just assigned to a and e. 
But, since bp no longer needs a new form, an
adequate set remains.

, 83 and 101
> (square C), 90 and 108 (F), and 27 and 45 
> (inverted F) just freed. The new pb pair frees
> up
> the old p, 31 (mirror of numeral 6).  This
> leaves
> x, which , not having a mate, need not be
> asymmetric and thus could be something like 62
> (H, but would this be a problem for English
> speakers?) or any of the remaining forms. 
> There
> are several other single forms remaining, in
> case
> we want to rethink the pairings of l and r,  m
> and n, which, while sensible, are based on
> different principles from that for the first
> run
> of consonants.

Some reshuffling might make sense: vowels should
probably be as simple as possible, for example,
and they are not now.  There is at least one
non-problematic mirror pair unused: 92 and 106
(square ? without the dot) and a couple of
inversion pairs (mirroring along a different
plane -- possibly to indicate a different
relationship from voicing).


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