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madprogramer
madprogramer
07:59
I am too ashamed to ask this on the site so I'm asking chat
How to deal with someone who insists all scripts/writing system should be called alphabets?
Even if they aren't
(Ex. insistence that Hanzi/Kanji be called "the Chinese alphabet", Arabic "the Arabic alphabet")
I had a presentation course a few years ago and got into a spat about it with the instructor who insisted "our language (not English) only uses the word alphabet (or a synonymous word) for different scripts"
Even though an important point in my presentation was the distinction between alphabetic/non-alphabetic writing systems
 
14 hours later…
user6726
user6726
21:40
I suggest that you give in. Seriously. It is wrong-headed to try to impose your preferences for word choice based on linguistic technical arcana on somebody outside the field. We have way too many obscure technical distinctions, and it's impolite to force others to talk like you.
Example: the letters of the Tigrinya alphabet are known as "fidel", which speakers translate into English as "letter". This despite the fact that the system is technically known as an "abugida" and abugida derives from the Ge'ez which Tigrinya speakers usually know.
It's always a mistake to insist "you're using the wrong word, you need to use these words from some foreign language / alien discipline". Your point probably got lost over an unimportant issue, namely whether you should import words from another language in order to talk about simple ideas.
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