Cambodian/Khmer

[magid]

I'm proofing in Khmer today. It looks like a language with a very pretty alphabet, but works a bit differently, since there aren't many spaces, if any, in sentences. This is also the first language I've looked at that uses a symbol other than a dot for a period; it's suprising how disconcerting it is.

ETA Plus, it's very hard to see italics, for some reason.

Comments

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

That looks incredibly difficult. I remember walking around in Japan looking at a map and at street signs, both in Japanese, and being unable to determine whether two characters in two different type faces were actually the same character or not. I suppose having the whole alphabet helps a lot, but even so. Whew.

This is also the first language I've looked at that uses a symbol other than a dot for a period; it's suprising how disconcerting it is.

Come come, you read Torah:

[magid.livejournal.com]

I don't have to understand it, so it's a lot easier than trying to follow street signs. I'm checking typographic stuff, and finding sometimes they didn't follow their style, or put things in italics that shouldn't be, or there seems to be a math equation missing, stuff like that.

Two dots just looks like an emphatic period, nothing like the other letters, and sifrei Torah don't have any punctuation at all. This looks like a handwritten almost-9 (open at the top), or a 4-9 cross. Which is to say, like a lot of the rest of the language, so it doesn't parse as punctuation.

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

In Japan, I was just trying to verify equality between two words, not trying to understand either one, and even so I sometimes failed. I suppose you have at most two typefaces to deal with, so that's easier.

I was thinking of most tanakhs, with colons instead of periods. But yes, if the punctuation doesn't look different from a letter, that's trouble.

At least there isn't a similar-looking character which replaces the interword space!

[magid.livejournal.com]

At least there isn't a similar-looking character which replaces the interword space!
But there aren't interword spaces! It's so strange to see a sentence with reasonably complicated ideas compress to a single string that isn't even remotely as long as the sentence.

Actually, just one typeface, in roman, italic, and bold. Though I'm not comparing typefaces, I'm comparing a document mostly in Khmer to the English document it was translated from.

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

Modern Greek uses a colon where English uses a question mark. It always looks strange to me.

[magid.livejournal.com]

That would confuse me more.

What do they use for a colon, then?

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

A dash, I think.

[magid.livejournal.com]

OK, I'd get very confused, having to remember a punctuation mark shift for so many marks.

[(Anonymous)]

When I was first learning to write in (English) script, I wasn't sure whether the entire sentence was to be joined or only the letters within the individual words.

In Hebrew, question marks (and probably some other non-symmetrical punctuation) and Arabic numerals always strike me as looking wrong.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Was English your first language? If not, how is it done in your first language?

*nod* about the non-symmetrical punctuation in Hebrew. I think I didn't run into Arabic numerals much outside dates (years); rabbinic texts tend to use the letters-as-numbers rather than Arabic numerals. 'Twas odd when I did see it, though.

[(Anonymous)]

English is my first language. I suppose I wasn't yet familiar enough with script to know, and it seems that if one is instructed only that the letters are joined when writing script, asking to what extent -- by word or by line -- is a fair question. Why should it be obvious? Hebrew script, with which I was already familiar, of course is not joined at all.

Yes, in most non-modern or traditional applications, as well as in elementary language instruction, Hebrew numbers do seem to be written out, and as well letters are used for numerals, such as with years. It's in the modern Hebrew applications that one often sees Arabic numerals in the midst of Hebrew text; just check the newspaper. Thanks for helping me realize that difference. That difference may partly account for the oddity. Perhaps the Arabic numerals and non-symmetrical punctuation look less odd to people who encounter modern Hebrew applications all around them as they learn the language, most notably native speakers (reader-writers?). I can't imagine the characters not seeming backwards, though.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I never thought about whether it was by word or by line, though some of that must be because I remember bits of my penmanship workbook that had a number of words on one line to comy.
(I've never thought of lines being at all important in English, outside poetry; different editions of the same book might have very different line lenth, and it doesn't matter, while it's much more important in Hebrew.)

Obviously, I didn't read enough modern Hebrew/ newspapers; my time there was spent in yeshivah (basically), and buying produce and baked goods in Machaneh Yehudah :-).

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

okay, huhwha?? How and why are you proofing something in Khmer?? How can you compare it to the English from which it was translated without understanding it? Are you just THAT GOOD??

And yes, the alphabet is beautiful, but I think the balinese alphabet is even prettier. :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'm working on a math glossary translated into many languages; I can't understand some of the languages, but I can compare it to the English and check on all the art and layout. It's surprising how many issues I've found even without knowing the language. (And technical stuff isn't at all like looking at pages of uninterrupted text; there's all sorts of equations and variables and such scattered about, which makes it easier to see if something's missing.)

OK, I am just that good ;-).

I'm looking at Laotian today, which is so far the prettiest in this book. I should look at the Balinese, though.