From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: tsd@tsdye.com (Thomas S. Dye) Subject: Re: OT: collage of scripts Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2011 07:48:25 -1000 Message-ID: References: <4C630D7B-BD05-4ED4-98A6-5CC6308EED48@gmail.com> <4f2e5228-5cbf-4e4e-bdae-81e32f0017d9@email.android.com> <83sjmey1p5.fsf@yahoo.it> <69A7E2DF-5095-4E59-B5D3-29FDD406270F@gmail.com> <81vcrapklx.fsf@gmail.com> <11431.1319732898@alphaville.dokosmarshall.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:47941) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RKZUt-00082h-FN for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 30 Oct 2011 13:48:40 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RKZUr-0001Lw-NN for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 30 Oct 2011 13:48:39 -0400 Received: from oproxy4-pub.bluehost.com ([69.89.21.11]:41163) by eggs.gnu.org with smtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RKZUr-0001Lm-Em for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 30 Oct 2011 13:48:37 -0400 In-Reply-To: <11431.1319732898@alphaville.dokosmarshall.org> (Nick Dokos's message of "Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:28:18 -0400") List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: nicholas.dokos@hp.com Cc: Matt Lundin , Org Mode Mailing List , Carsten Dominik Nick Dokos writes: > [I hope you'll forgive me the off-topic ruminations] > > Jambunathan K wrote: > >> If you do a=20 >>=20 >> C-h C-\ RET tamil-itrans RET=20 >>=20 >> you will see a nicely aligned table which gives translation table for >> tamil characters - (OK, Tamil is the language I speak) - which look like >>=20 >> http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?msg=3D56;filename=3Dtemp.png;at= t=3D1;bug=3D9336 >>=20 > > Jambunathan's mention of Tamil brought to mind a picture that > I had seen long ago and found mysterious, beautiful and fascinating. > It is Fig. 40, p. 168, in Hofstadter's "G=C3=B6del, Escher, Bach": I look= ed > for a copy on the web, but I only found the complete book. > > The picture is a collage of scripts, from the undeciphered (at least > in 1980, the time of publication) script of Easter Island to Tamil > to Assyrian cuneiform. > > I have no idea what each snippet says - yet there are people around > today (and in some cases, perhaps, there *were* people some time ago, > but no longer) who can (or could) extract meaning from each of these > snippets. Conversely, there are scripts that I can extract meaning from, > that other people find mysterious. I can't help the feeling that there > is something deep going on here, I just don't know *what*! > > Nick > > > Hi Nick, A book by David Bellos, Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything, got a good review in the NYT Book Review this week. I'm not sure from the review if it gets to the heart of your rumination, but the author's proposal that translation "provides for some community an acceptable match for an utterance made in a foreign language" made me think of your post. All the best, Tom =20 --=20 Thomas S. Dye http://www.tsdye.com