Earlier quoted context omitted.
a cyrillic keyboard to my laptop that I'd have to memorize what latin key it replaces. My laptop flips to French fairly regularly (machine was created with an image containing French and English keyboards) and it is frustrating as it is only easier in the sense that it is poking around for the 1 key to find e with grave or the like vs playing with keystrokes until I land on alt+0232 on numpad. Phones with touchscreen…
I tried using my phone to type words into Google Translate while in Armenia. Typing Armenian was a non-starter. I'm not dyslexic, but felt it when faced with words that looked like "արարողակարգը" (random copy-paste from Wikipedia[1]). The second language was often Russian, and typing in Cyrillic was a little better, especially once I found the alphabet is derived from Greek rather than Latin -- so р is r, and н is e,…
Kazakhstan is changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin-based
161–170 of 422 posts
Re: Kazakhstan is changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin-based
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okay, how about this then: If it is in Latin script, the tourists from countries with Latin-based languages can phonetically butcher whatever it is they're attempting to communicate with the other party. If it is in Cyrillic script, the tourists from countries with Latin-based languages can just stare at a person blankly or point at words on paper/signage if the other party is close enough. Provided they traveled at…
Cyrillic is not hard to learn.
Re: Kazakhstan is changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin-based
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish we would. Conversions would be so much simpler.
> I wish we would. Conversions would be so much simpler. Not really, and you'd have to do it more frequently. The US already has a standard, and a lot of existing stuff built to it. Adopting the metric system isn't going to change the size of the pipes in my house's plumbing, the units in my recipes and cookbooks, etc.
1 kilometer is 1000 meters
1 kiloliter is 1000 liters
etc.
1 mile is 1760 yards
1 foot is 12 inches
1 gallon is 4 quarts
etc.
dunno, seems simpler to me.
Re: Kazakhstan is changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin-based
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
I might imagine that someone would refuse to speak Russian to underline his anti-Russian position, but I never met such a person.
You should visit Ukraine. Ha
Re: Kazakhstan is changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin-based
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was in Moldova a few years back and the friends I was visiting only spoke Romanian. Almost all native Moldovans speak Russian and Romanian (and can read/write both alphabets). Some people would only talk to my friends in Russian though, even when they kept saying they only knew Romanian. One of my friends said this was a political thing, with some people using the choice of their default language being who they sup…
I might imagine that someone would refuse to speak Russian to underline his anti-Russian position, but I never met such a person.
Re: Kazakhstan is changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin-based
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wish we would. Conversions would be so much simpler. Not really, and you'd have to do it more frequently. The US already has a standard, and a lot of existing stuff built to it. Adopting the metric system isn't going to change the size of the pipes in my house's plumbing, the units in my recipes and cookbooks, etc.
at the most basic: 1 kilometer is 1000 meters 1 kiloliter is 1000 liters etc. 1 mile is 1760 yards 1 foot is 12 inches 1 gallon is 4 quarts etc. dunno, seems simpler to me.
Re: Kazakhstan is changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin-based
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lots of latin-alphabet languages have letters that don’t exist in English. Czech, for example, has 42 letters[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_orthography
By that logic German uses a thirty letter alphabet, but no one says so.
I mean.. really?
I'm so astonished by that logic I don't even know what to tell you. Different languages can have different rules you know.
Edit: thanks for the downvote. How dare I tell a person who just claimed half of Europe is composing their alphabets wrong because Germans do it differently that they are short sighted.
Re: Kazakhstan is changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin-based
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is that there is little political/military threat from France towards Canada. I'm Polish, and thanks to the latin alphabet we're using, the country has it much easier to be close to the west. People have easier time learning English, and it eases the communication a lot. If we were using cyrylic, the country would be naturally leaning more towards Russia - which, considering the history, wouldn't be go…
> People have easier time learning English, and it eases the communication a lot Is this really so? Are you sure having a different alphabet would make it harder for people to learn a western language? I am Russian, and I can safely say that pretty much every literate adult in Russia who has at least a basic school education can read Latin letters just fine, because there is no way around it; the alphabet is taught a…
Re: Kazakhstan is changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin-based
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
> When overwhelming majority of people speak Russian and Russia is the most important trade partner, I think that it's only logical to have Russian as one of the official languages in the country It makes perfect sense if you want to move away from Russia to dramatically broaden your national potential over time. Russia has a very modest economy versus its population size. Canada and South Korea have overtaken it, an…
> Their GDP per capita has fallen below much of Eastern Europe I think that was the product of the 90s and you can see it still in full swing in Ukraine (African level of GDP). Since those crazy times of societal collapse their GDP PPP per capita actually rose up to the level of Turkey IIRC; without sanctions they would probably be even a bit higher and become even more threatening, which might not be in US+EU's best…
Re: Kazakhstan is changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin-based
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is that there is little political/military threat from France towards Canada. I'm Polish, and thanks to the latin alphabet we're using, the country has it much easier to be close to the west. People have easier time learning English, and it eases the communication a lot. If we were using cyrylic, the country would be naturally leaning more towards Russia - which, considering the history, wouldn't be go…
> People have easier time learning English, and it eases the communication a lot Is this really so? Are you sure having a different alphabet would make it harder for people to learn a western language? I am Russian, and I can safely say that pretty much every literate adult in Russia who has at least a basic school education can read Latin letters just fine, because there is no way around it; the alphabet is taught a…