Re: [lojban] common words

[Jim Carter <jimc@MATH.UCLA.EDU>]

On Sun, 3 Dec 2000, Pierre Abbat wrote:
> Okay, so what do we call "codes" such as ASCII, Unicode, Morse, and Big5 which
> aren't secret? Are they also termifra, as are PGP, Blowfish, and the lead-bound
> code book on a ship?

To me the essence of a "code" is secrecy, so the "American Standard Code
for Information Interchange" has a name which is an oxymoron.  I'm inclined
to call it an "alphabet" suited to a particular medium (te ciska) and
language in the way that Roman glyphs are suited to ink on paper.

Yes, the word "alphabet" normally means a phoneme-level representation and
big5 doesn't qualify.  Even so, it's a lot closer (as seen by me) to an
alphabet than to a cypher.

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