The Art of Language 1 Preview

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Art of Language 1 Preview THE ART OF LANGUAGE CONTENTS Introduction 4 Ge‘ez 52 Syriac 100 Georgian 56 Tamil 104 Arabic 8 Greek 60 Thai 108 Armenian 14 Hangul 64 Tibetan 112 Bengali 18 Hanunó’o 68 Tifinagh 116 Burmese 22 Hebrew 72 Vai 120 Cherokee 26 Japanese 76 Chinese 30 Javanese 82 Glossary 124 Cree 36 Khmer 88 Contributor’s bios 126 Cyrillic 40 Mongolian 92 Bibliography and thanks 127 Devanagari 46 N’Ko 96 Acknowledgments 128 3 THE ART OF LANGUAGE Right: a carving that reads ’Everything happens for a reason’, based on the Tibetan calligraphy of the Buddhist monk Tashi Mannox. INTRODUCTION It’s a great loss that, no matter how open we are to new and interesting teach best practices and model usage. country’s official seal. Nobody uses the Glagolitic script any more, but sights and sounds and tastes when we travel, oftentimes our attitude As I got curious about why the scripts had evolved the way they had, there are at least two sculpture trails in Croatia that wind between vast toward writing is completely different. I discovered their stories are as compelling as their mystery: the man stone Glagolitic letters, as if Croatia were the Easter Island of Eastern As soon as we leave the Latin-alphabet world, we feel lost, who was assassinated for bringing literacy to his people; the alphabet Europe. Adinkra symbols are literally woven into (and printed on) frustrated, anxious. It doesn’t matter how elaborate or graceful the whose every letter has a secret mystical meaning; and the culture that fabrics in Ghana, and one of the most popular tattoo designs in Bali is local script is: we stare at it, not even able to turn letters into sounds, esteems writing so highly that if someone dies without learning to read the om symbol in the beautifully fluid but endangered Balinese script. thinking, Just tell me how to get to the darn railway station. and write, the priest teaches those skills to the corpse so it can pass If you practise the calligraphy exercises offered in this book, you I admit, I was just as uncomprehending and impatient when faced successfully into the afterlife. may realise something arguably even deeper about writing. Writing with non-Latin scripts until, quite by chance, I started carving the Each culture’s script is an expression of that people’s history, its is an expression of its cultural origins, but the act of writing is an world’s rarest and most endangered scripts in wood. (Brief note of religion, its tools, its experience of wars won and lost – even its flora extension of the body, of the turn of the human wrist. It’s a form of explanation: I’m not a linguist by training, nor even a wood-carver. I’d and climate, for writing on palm leaves produces a vastly different grace, almost a dance. When I lecture on the Endangered Alphabets I just stumbled across some of these – to me – exotic and astounding script than incising writing into bamboo. As this book will show you, have the audience trace a single Balinese letter in the air, with the tip of scripts and learned that perhaps 85 percent of the world’s alphabets writing is like a slow-growing local plant whose roots are astonishingly their index finger. And it dawns on them: the movements of their hand are on the verge of extinction. So I decided to preserve a few in wood. deep. A traveller who ignores local writing is missing as much as one are the gestures of a Balinese dancer. As one does.) After a year or so of this, I founded the Endangered who ignores local architecture. Expanding your knowledge of the world’s non-Latin scripts, and your Alphabets Project, with the goal of helping indigenous and minority Consequently, I came to realise that writing conveys a great deal love of practising them, is inherently empathetic. It immediately breaks cultures revitalise their traditional scripts, some of which have been in more than sound and meaning. The very shapes of the letters are part down that ‘Why can’t everyone else be like us?’ mentality. It may not use for over a thousand years. of the landscape. A culture’s traditional script may be as beloved as its help you find the railway station, and you may, in fact, miss your train In the process I discovered – as you will, by reading this book – flag, even when nobody can still read it. And as this book shows, many copying down an ordinary piece of street signage, in all its complex, some things about writing. From the get-go, I was fascinated by the scripts have managed to thrive in our information age even as Latin sinuous beauty, into the pages of your travel journal. enigmatic shapes of the letters and words themselves. It was like letters have overtaken others. We should celebrate their success and But that’s why we travel, isn’t it? puzzling over the vast bluestones at Stonehenge: you can tell they engage with them. have shape, design, purpose – but you can’t work out what it is. In less Soyombo, one of the scripts invented to write Mongolian, has not TIM BROOKES commonly used scripts, it’s an intriguing mystery to unravel; in others, been generally used for more than a century, yet it is so deeply part of THE ENDANGERED ALPHABETS PROJECT robust communities of millions of native speakers (and readers) exist to the country’s identity that a Soyombo letter is front and centre in the BURLINGTON, VERMONT © Tim Brookes 4 5 CRILLIC (BelarusGeorgiaRussiaUkraine) MONGOLIAN (Mongolia) GEORGIAN (Georgia) CHEROKEECREE (North America) ARMENIAN (Armenia) GREEK HANGUL (Korea) JAPANESE (Greece) CHINESE (China) (Japan) HEBRESRIAC (Middle East) TIBETAN (SE Asia) TIINAGH (North Africa) DEVANAGARI ARABIC BENGALITAMIL (AfricaMiddle East) SCRIPTS (IndiaBangladesh) KHMERBURMESETHAI NKO (SE Asia) PER CONTINENT HANUNOO (West Africa) GEE (Philippines) (Ethiopia) TAMIL VAI (Sri Lanka) (Sierra LeoneLiberia) AFRICA KAIJAVANESE NORTH AMERICA (Indonesia) Arabic (p8), Ge’ez (p52), N’Ko (p96), Tifinagh Cherokee (p26), Cree (p36) (p116), Vai (p120) MIDDLE EAST ASIA Arabic (p8), Hebrew (p72), Syriac (p100) Bengali (p18), Burmese (p22), Chinese (p30), Cyrillic (p40), Devanagari (p46), Hangul (p64), EUROPE Hanuno’o (p68), Japanese (p76), Kawi-Javanese Armenian (p14), Cyrillic (p40), Georgian (p56), (p82), Khmer (p88), Mongolian (p92), Tamil Greek (p60) (p104), Thai (p108), Tibetan (p112) 6 7 THE ART OF LANGUAGE ARABIC ARABIC WHO & WHERE The third-most-common writing system in the is used by more than double that amount: Typically, Arabic is spelled according to ‘true’, world, after the Latin alphabet and Chinese approximately 660 million people. historic pronunciation – but informal writing, characters, is Arabic script. Its vast reach Arabic letters have their roots in in text messages and online, is increasingly reflects that of Islam, which starting in the Phoenician, by way of Syriac and Nabataean. spelled as spoken, and sometimes this shows 7th century spread the holy Arabic text of The earliest known inscriptions are thought up in commercial slogans and political ads. the Quran along with the more workaday to be from the 3rd or 4th century AD, As iconography was disfavoured in Islam, HOW TO USE IT Arabic of trade and record keeping. Scores found in what is now Jordan and Saudi calligraphy developed as one of the empire’s Strictly speaking, Arabic is not an alphabet but an abjad, the term a somewhat angular shape even when later written with a reed of languages adopted Arabic writing and Arabia. At first, letter forms were limited, principal decorative arts, with graceful Arabic for systems in which vowel notation is limited. Written right to left, pen on parchment. When paper was brought to the caliphal court developed variations on the alphabet. and used only to aid recall of oral poems letters adorning manuscripts as well as the abjad has 25 consonants and three long vowels, two of which in Baghdad in the 8th century, the smooth new writing surface Persian, Dari and Urdu use a version with or trade agreements. The system was monumental buildings. During the Ottoman double as consonants (oo and w; ee and y). All short vowels are inspired more flowing shapes, including the concise writing style additional letters and a distinct style, while made fully phonetic – one letter for one Empire, Istanbul took up the mantle of Islamic indicated with small symbols called harakat (motions) above and called naskh (copying), used for many of the translations and some African languages such as Mandinka, sound – in order to reproduce the Quran, culture, and the city is still considered the below the letters – in theory, at least. In practice, the harakat are texts produced during the Islamic Empire’s golden age, as well Hausa and Swahili are sometimes written considered the literal word of God, with capital of Arabic calligraphy – even after 1928, used only in children’s books and the Quran. A good Arabic reader as copies of the Quran. This fundamental style and the graceful in a system called Ajami. In Southeast Asia, the utmost precision. That phonetic quality when Kemal Atatürk decreed that Turkish can differentiate identical combinations of consonants from context: thuluth (‘one-third’, used above and, more elaborately, on p12) ,for instance, can were standardised by a vizier in the Baghdad court, Ibn Muqlah ,ب and ك ,ت an Arabic-based script called Jawi is used is somewhat hypothetical, however, as be written in Latin letters. Arabic typeface Without vowel marks, the letters for Malay, and even farther east, for Tausug Arabic is highly diglossic – that is, the design, a more recent creative endeavour, represent a verb, kataba (he wrote), or a noun, kutub (books), while who established rules still used today, in which the letter’s size is ,together could mean ‘poetry’ (pronounced proportional to that of the dots made by the reed pen tip.
Recommended publications
  • A Method to Accommodate Backward Compatibility on the Learning Application-Based Transliteration to the Balinese Script
    (IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, Vol. 12, No. 6, 2021 A Method to Accommodate Backward Compatibility on the Learning Application-based Transliteration to the Balinese Script 1 3 4 Gede Indrawan , I Gede Nurhayata , Sariyasa I Ketut Paramarta2 Department of Computer Science Department of Balinese Language Education Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha (Undiksha) Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha (Undiksha) Singaraja, Indonesia Singaraja, Indonesia Abstract—This research proposed a method to accommodate transliteration rules (for short, the older rules) from The backward compatibility on the learning application-based Balinese Alphabet document 1 . It exposes the backward transliteration to the Balinese Script. The objective is to compatibility method to accommodate the standard accommodate the standard transliteration rules from the transliteration rules (for short, the standard rules) from the Balinese Language, Script, and Literature Advisory Agency. It is Balinese Language, Script, and Literature Advisory Agency considered as the main contribution since there has not been a [7]. This Bali Province government agency [4] carries out workaround in this research area. This multi-discipline guidance and formulates programs for the maintenance, study, collaboration work is one of the efforts to preserve digitally the development, and preservation of the Balinese Language, endangered Balinese local language knowledge in Indonesia. The Script, and Literature. proposed method covered two aspects, i.e. (1) Its backward compatibility allows for interoperability at a certain level with This study was conducted on the developed web-based the older transliteration rules; and (2) Breaking backward transliteration learning application, BaliScript, for further compatibility at a certain level is unavoidable since, for the same ubiquitous Balinese Language learning since the proposed aspect, there is a contradictory treatment between the standard method reusable for the mobile application [8], [9].
    [Show full text]
  • Innovative Applications of Typography Ancient African Typographic Symbols in Contemporary Publication Design
    Typography in Publication Design Innovative applications of Typography Ancient African Typographic Symbols in Contemporary Publication Design Sophia Oduol, Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Lesotho, [email protected] Key words: typography, iconology, Ancient African symbols, deciphering and transformation 1. Introduction The awareness of the power of typography in communication can be traced back to the earliest civilizations of mankind when production of type was through scratch marks made on flat surfaces using sharp objects. Twentieth century records show well developed type from Mesopotamia, Chinese calligraphy, Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Phoenician alphabet. How do you make any sense of history, art or literature without knowing the stories and typography of your own culture and all the world's main religions? Polly Toynbee (1947). Contemporary typography is significant because it brings attention to civilization within the African continent. African countries have type and symbols that have been used to communicate written messages. Many of these remain undiscovered by the mainstream theorists. Saki Mafundikwa in his book ‘afrikan alphabets’, has made presentations on African letterforms, and he continues to unearth innovative and little understood symbols. This paper aims to explore how the Ancient African iconology has been reborn in to contemporary typography and is used in today’s publishing. The study is placed in the context of the history, meaning, deciphering and transformation of Typography. A conceptual framework is constructed, based on critical theory from arts disciplines, notably from the history of African Iconography from the Igbos and the Adinkra. This paper also finds that typography has now transformed into informal, colloquial icons, where everyday published communiqué can occur through signs rather than speaking.
    [Show full text]
  • FEEFHS Journal Volume VII No. 1-2 1999
    FEEFHS Quarterly A Journal of Central & Bast European Genealogical Studies FEEFHS Quarterly Volume 7, nos. 1-2 FEEFHS Quarterly Who, What and Why is FEEFHS? Tue Federation of East European Family History Societies Editor: Thomas K. Ecllund. [email protected] (FEEFHS) was founded in June 1992 by a small dedicated group Managing Editor: Joseph B. Everett. [email protected] of American and Canadian genealogists with diverse ethnic, reli- Contributing Editors: Shon Edwards gious, and national backgrounds. By the end of that year, eleven Daniel Schlyter societies bad accepted its concept as founding members. Each year Emily Schulz since then FEEFHS has doubled in size. FEEFHS nows represents nearly two hundred organizations as members from twenty-four FEEFHS Executive Council: states, five Canadian provinces, and fourteen countries. lt contin- 1998-1999 FEEFHS officers: ues to grow. President: John D. Movius, c/o FEEFHS (address listed below). About half of these are genealogy societies, others are multi-pur- [email protected] pose societies, surname associations, book or periodical publish- 1st Vice-president: Duncan Gardiner, C.G., 12961 Lake Ave., ers, archives, libraries, family history centers, on-line services, in- Lakewood, OH 44107-1533. [email protected] stitutions, e-mail genealogy list-servers, heraldry societies, and 2nd Vice-president: Laura Hanowski, c/o Saskatchewan Genealogi- other ethnic, religious, and national groups. FEEFHS includes or- cal Society, P.0. Box 1894, Regina, SK, Canada S4P 3EI ganizations representing all East or Central European groups that [email protected] have existing genealogy societies in North America and a growing 3rd Vice-president: Blanche Krbechek, 2041 Orkla Drive, group of worldwide organizations and individual members, from Minneapolis, MN 55427-3429.
    [Show full text]
  • Runes Free Download
    RUNES FREE DOWNLOAD Martin Findell | 112 pages | 24 Mar 2014 | BRITISH MUSEUM PRESS | 9780714180298 | English | London, United Kingdom Runic alphabet Main article: Younger Futhark. He Runes rune magic to Freya and learned Seidr from her. The runes were in use among the Germanic peoples from the 1st or 2nd century AD. BCE Proto-Sinaitic 19 c. They Runes found in Scandinavia and Viking Age settlements abroad, probably in use from the 9th century onward. From the "golden age of philology " in the 19th century, runology formed a specialized branch of Runes linguistics. There are no horizontal strokes: when carving a message on a flat staff or stick, it would be along the grain, thus both less legible and more likely to split the Runes. BCE Phoenician 12 c. Little is known about the origins of Runes Runic alphabet, which is traditionally known as futhark after the Runes six letters. That is now proved, what you asked of the runes, of the potent famous ones, which the great gods made, and the mighty sage stained, that it is best for him if he stays silent. It was the main alphabet in Norway, Sweden Runes Denmark throughout the Viking Age, but was largely though not completely replaced by the Latin alphabet by about as a result of the Runes of Runes of Scandinavia to Christianity. It was probably used Runes the 5th century Runes. Incessantly plagued by maleficence, doomed to insidious death is he who breaks this monument. These inscriptions are generally Runes Elder Futharkbut the set of Runes shapes and bindrunes employed is far from standardized.
    [Show full text]
  • UAX #44: Unicode Character Database File:///D:/Uniweb-L2/Incoming/08249-Tr44-3D1.Html
    UAX #44: Unicode Character Database file:///D:/Uniweb-L2/Incoming/08249-tr44-3d1.html Technical Reports L2/08-249 Working Draft for Proposed Update Unicode Standard Annex #44 UNICODE CHARACTER DATABASE Version Unicode 5.2 draft 1 Authors Mark Davis ([email protected]) and Ken Whistler ([email protected]) Date 2008-7-03 This Version http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/tr44-3.html Previous http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/tr44-2.html Version Latest Version http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr44/ Revision 3 Summary This annex consolidates information documenting the Unicode Character Database. Status This is a draft document which may be updated, replaced, or superseded by other documents at any time. Publication does not imply endorsement by the Unicode Consortium. This is not a stable document; it is inappropriate to cite this document as other than a work in progress. A Unicode Standard Annex (UAX) forms an integral part of the Unicode Standard, but is published online as a separate document. The Unicode Standard may require conformance to normative content in a Unicode Standard Annex, if so specified in the Conformance chapter of that version of the Unicode Standard. The version number of a UAX document corresponds to the version of the Unicode Standard of which it forms a part. Please submit corrigenda and other comments with the online reporting form [Feedback]. Related information that is useful in understanding this annex is found in Unicode Standard Annex #41, “Common References for Unicode Standard Annexes.” For the latest version of the Unicode Standard, see [Unicode]. For a list of current Unicode Technical Reports, see [Reports].
    [Show full text]
  • Tungumál, Letur Og Einkenni Hópa
    Tungumál, letur og einkenni hópa Er letur ómissandi í baráttu hópa við ríkjandi öfl? Frá Tifinagh og rúnaristum til Pixação Þorleifur Kamban Þrastarson Lokaritgerð til BA-prófs Listaháskóli Íslands Hönnunar- og arkitektúrdeild Desember 2016 Í þessari ritgerð er reynt að rökstyðja þá fullyrðingu að letur sé mikilvægt og geti jafnvel undir vissum kringumstæðum verið eitt mikilvægasta vopnið í baráttu hópa fyrir tilveru sinni, sjálfsmynd og stað í samfélagi. Með því að líta á þrjú ólík dæmi, Tifinagh, rúnaletur og Pixação, hvert frá sínum stað, menningarheimi og tímabili er ætlunin að sýna hvernig saga leturs og týpógrafíu hefur samtvinnast og mótast af samfélagi manna og haldist í hendur við einkenni þjóða og hópa fólks sem samsama sig á einn eða annan hátt. Einkenni hópa myndast oft sem andsvar við ytri öflum sem ógna menningu, auði eða tilverurétti hópsins. Hópar nota mismunandi leturtýpur til þess að tjá sig, tengjast og miðla upplýsingum. Það skiptir ekki eingöngu máli hvað þú skrifar heldur hvernig, með hvaða aðferðum og á hvaða efni. Skilaboðin eru fólgin í letrinu sjálfu en ekki innihaldi letursins. Letur er útlit upplýsingakerfis okkar og hefur notkun ritmáls og leturs aldrei verið meiri í heiminum sem og læsi. Ritmál og letur eru algjörlega samofnir hlutir og ekki hægt að slíta annað frá öðru. Ekki er hægt að koma frá sér ritmáli nema í letri og þessi tvö hugtök flækjast því oft saman. Í ljósi athugana á þessum þremur dæmum í ritgerðinni dreg ég þá ályktun að letur spilar og hefur spilað mikilvægt hlutverk í einkennum þjóða og hópa. Letur getur, ásamt tungumálinu, stuðlað að því að viðhalda, skapa eða eyðileggja menningu og menningarlegar tenginga Tungumál, letur og einkenni hópa Er letur ómissandi í baráttu hópa við ríkjandi öfl? Frá Tifinagh og rúnaristum til Pixação Þorleifur Kamban Þrastarson Lokaritgerð til BA-prófs í Grafískri hönnun Leiðbeinandi: Óli Gneisti Sóleyjarson Grafísk hönnun Hönnunar- og arkitektúrdeild Desember 2016 Ritgerð þessi er 6 eininga lokaritgerð til BA-prófs í Grafískri hönnun.
    [Show full text]
  • Neural Substrates of Hanja (Logogram) and Hangul (Phonogram) Character Readings by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
    ORIGINAL ARTICLE Neuroscience http://dx.doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2014.29.10.1416 • J Korean Med Sci 2014; 29: 1416-1424 Neural Substrates of Hanja (Logogram) and Hangul (Phonogram) Character Readings by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Zang-Hee Cho,1 Nambeom Kim,1 The two basic scripts of the Korean writing system, Hanja (the logography of the traditional Sungbong Bae,2 Je-Geun Chi,1 Korean character) and Hangul (the more newer Korean alphabet), have been used together Chan-Woong Park,1 Seiji Ogawa,1,3 since the 14th century. While Hanja character has its own morphemic base, Hangul being and Young-Bo Kim1 purely phonemic without morphemic base. These two, therefore, have substantially different outcomes as a language as well as different neural responses. Based on these 1Neuroscience Research Institute, Gachon University, Incheon, Korea; 2Department of linguistic differences between Hanja and Hangul, we have launched two studies; first was Psychology, Yeungnam University, Kyongsan, Korea; to find differences in cortical activation when it is stimulated by Hanja and Hangul reading 3Kansei Fukushi Research Institute, Tohoku Fukushi to support the much discussed dual-route hypothesis of logographic and phonological University, Sendai, Japan routes in the brain by fMRI (Experiment 1). The second objective was to evaluate how Received: 14 February 2014 Hanja and Hangul affect comprehension, therefore, recognition memory, specifically the Accepted: 5 July 2014 effects of semantic transparency and morphemic clarity on memory consolidation and then related cortical activations, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Address for Correspondence: (Experiment 2). The first fMRI experiment indicated relatively large areas of the brain are Young-Bo Kim, MD Department of Neuroscience and Neurosurgery, Gachon activated by Hanja reading compared to Hangul reading.
    [Show full text]
  • Assessment of Options for Handling Full Unicode Character Encodings in MARC21 a Study for the Library of Congress
    1 Assessment of Options for Handling Full Unicode Character Encodings in MARC21 A Study for the Library of Congress Part 1: New Scripts Jack Cain Senior Consultant Trylus Computing, Toronto 1 Purpose This assessment intends to study the issues and make recommendations on the possible expansion of the character set repertoire for bibliographic records in MARC21 format. 1.1 “Encoding Scheme” vs. “Repertoire” An encoding scheme contains codes by which characters are represented in computer memory. These codes are organized according to a certain methodology called an encoding scheme. The list of all characters so encoded is referred to as the “repertoire” of characters in the given encoding schemes. For example, ASCII is one encoding scheme, perhaps the one best known to the average non-technical person in North America. “A”, “B”, & “C” are three characters in the repertoire of this encoding scheme. These three characters are assigned encodings 41, 42 & 43 in ASCII (expressed here in hexadecimal). 1.2 MARC8 "MARC8" is the term commonly used to refer both to the encoding scheme and its repertoire as used in MARC records up to 1998. The ‘8’ refers to the fact that, unlike Unicode which is a multi-byte per character code set, the MARC8 encoding scheme is principally made up of multiple one byte tables in which each character is encoded using a single 8 bit byte. (It also includes the EACC set which actually uses fixed length 3 bytes per character.) (For details on MARC8 and its specifications see: http://www.loc.gov/marc/.) MARC8 was introduced around 1968 and was initially limited to essentially Latin script only.
    [Show full text]
  • MATE MASIE (Mah-Teh’ Mah-See’-Eh)
    MATE MASIE (mah-teh’ mah-see’-eh) The Ancestorhood of Nana Yao (Dr. Bobby E. Wright) ODWIRAFO KWESI RA NEHEM PTAH AKHAN Short Glossary of terms: Afuraka/Afuraitkait (Ah’-foo-rah-kah’/Ah’-foo-rah-ette’-kah-ette’): Ra (Rah) and Rait (Rah-ette’) are the Creator and Creatress of the world. Together They function as One Divine Unit---The Great Spirit of the Supreme Being. When moving through matter (Afu), during the process of Creation, They take on the titles: Afu Ra and Afu Rait. In the language of ancient Keneset and Kamit (ancient Nubia and Egypt), Afuraka/Afuraitkait is the male/female name of the first landmass or continent of Earth. These male and female names literally mean the Ka (land, hill) of Afu Ra (the Creator) and the Kait (land, hill) of Afu Rait (the Creatress). These titles are over 40,000 years old. Afuraka is the original pronunciation of the english corruption “Africa”. Afurakani (African--male) Afuraitkaitnit (African--female) Afurakanu (Africans--male) Afuraitkaitnut (Africans--female) Trustory [troo’-stoh-ree(true-story; trust-ory/trust-worthy story)]: A true and accurate account of past events. Trustorical; trustorically. For more details please see our book: AFURAKA/AFURAITKAIT – The Origin of the term ‘Africa’ www.odwirafo.com/nhoma.html Copyright © by Odwirafo Kwesi Ra Nehem Ptah Akhan, 13,004 (2004), 13015 (13014). 1 Preface The Akan (ah-kahn’) people live primarily in the West Afurakani/Afuraitkaitnit (African) countries of Ghana and Ivory Coast. As one of the largest biological-cultural (ethnic) groups existing in the region for centuries, the Akan population suffered great losses as many Akanfo (Akan people) were taken from their homelands during the Mmusuo Kese (‘Great Misfortune’---the Enslavement era).
    [Show full text]
  • Bibliography
    Bibliography Many books were read and researched in the compilation of Binford, L. R, 1983, Working at Archaeology. Academic Press, The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology: New York. Binford, L. R, and Binford, S. R (eds.), 1968, New Perspectives in American Museum of Natural History, 1993, The First Humans. Archaeology. Aldine, Chicago. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco. Braidwood, R 1.,1960, Archaeologists and What They Do. Franklin American Museum of Natural History, 1993, People of the Stone Watts, New York. Age. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco. Branigan, Keith (ed.), 1982, The Atlas ofArchaeology. St. Martin's, American Museum of Natural History, 1994, New World and Pacific New York. Civilizations. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco. Bray, w., and Tump, D., 1972, Penguin Dictionary ofArchaeology. American Museum of Natural History, 1994, Old World Civiliza­ Penguin, New York. tions. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco. Brennan, L., 1973, Beginner's Guide to Archaeology. Stackpole Ashmore, w., and Sharer, R. J., 1988, Discovering Our Past: A Brief Books, Harrisburg, PA. Introduction to Archaeology. Mayfield, Mountain View, CA. Broderick, M., and Morton, A. A., 1924, A Concise Dictionary of Atkinson, R J. C., 1985, Field Archaeology, 2d ed. Hyperion, New Egyptian Archaeology. Ares Publishers, Chicago. York. Brothwell, D., 1963, Digging Up Bones: The Excavation, Treatment Bacon, E. (ed.), 1976, The Great Archaeologists. Bobbs-Merrill, and Study ofHuman Skeletal Remains. British Museum, London. New York. Brothwell, D., and Higgs, E. (eds.), 1969, Science in Archaeology, Bahn, P., 1993, Collins Dictionary of Archaeology. ABC-CLIO, 2d ed. Thames and Hudson, London. Santa Barbara, CA. Budge, E. A. Wallis, 1929, The Rosetta Stone. Dover, New York. Bahn, P.
    [Show full text]
  • Recognition of Online Handwritten Gurmukhi Strokes Using Support Vector Machine a Thesis
    Recognition of Online Handwritten Gurmukhi Strokes using Support Vector Machine A Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Technology Submitted by Rahul Agrawal (Roll No. 601003022) Under the supervision of Dr. R. K. Sharma Professor School of Mathematics and Computer Applications Thapar University Patiala School of Mathematics and Computer Applications Thapar University Patiala – 147004 (Punjab), INDIA June 2012 (i) ABSTRACT Pen-based interfaces are becoming more and more popular and play an important role in human-computer interaction. This popularity of such interfaces has created interest of lot of researchers in online handwriting recognition. Online handwriting recognition contains both temporal stroke information and spatial shape information. Online handwriting recognition systems are expected to exhibit better performance than offline handwriting recognition systems. Our research work presented in this thesis is to recognize strokes written in Gurmukhi script using Support Vector Machine (SVM). The system developed here is a writer independent system. First chapter of this thesis report consist of a brief introduction to handwriting recognition system and some basic differences between offline and online handwriting systems. It also includes various issues that one can face during development during online handwriting recognition systems. A brief introduction about Gurmukhi script has also been given in this chapter In the last section detailed literature survey starting from the 1979 has also been given. Second chapter gives detailed information about stroke capturing, preprocessing of stroke and feature extraction. These phases are considered to be backbone of any online handwriting recognition system. Recognition techniques that have been used in this study are discussed in chapter three.
    [Show full text]
  • The Original Pronunciation of Sanskrit Devanàgará – Transliteration – IPA-Symbols
    The Original Pronunciation of Sanskrit DevanÀgarÁ – Transliteration – IPA-Symbols $ a n$D À DØ i L Á LØ u X A Â XØ ? Ã `C C Å `CØ CØ Æ O C # e HØ #H ai DeØ, $DH o RØ $D( au DØe8 N{ k N R kh N+ J g J gh J+ Ç 1 F c WeÝ ' ch WeÝ+ M j GeÛ + jh GeÛ+ _ È × T Ê Þ 4 Êh Þ+ I Ë É ) Ëh É+ > É Ö W t W Z th W+ G{ d G [ dh G+ Q n Q S p S { ph S+ E b E bh E+ P m P \ y M U{ r `O l O Y v Y9 ] Ì Ý Í V s V K h Ù Drafted by Maciej Zieba and Ulrich Stiehl under the auspices of Manfred Mayrhofer. ! Ï [ Improvements by Jost Gippert, Madhav Deshpande, Sunder Hattangadi, John Smith and others. This chart is a compromise, since the original pronunciation of Sanskrit Î YDULRXV is not exactly known in every detail. – 06/09/2002/us. Notes: 1. $ seems to have been pronounced originally as [n] or as [], possibly never as [D]. Not even the pronunciation of this most often used letter $ is exactly known! 2. The original pronunciation of is not known. It occurs only in the verb dS(kÆp). 3. U{seems to have been pronounced as [`] or as [], and likewise the liquid seems to have been pronounced as syllabic [`C] (notation: [`]+ [ C]) or as syllabic [C]. 4. The pronunciation of the semi-vowel Y seems to have been either [Y] or [9].
    [Show full text]