[MUD-Dev] Internationalisation: The effect of Tonguesinvirtualsocietes

[Crosbie Fitch]

From: John Buehler

> Huh?  What?  Cave drawings?  Pictographs?  Pictures as a means of
> communication WERE first.  Asian languages use symbols that are
> matched one-to-one with patterns identified by the human brain.
> My personal theory is that sequential thinking, as you call it, is
> a variation of pattern-based operation of the human brain.
> Sequence is a pattern, in other words.  And a very useful one
> because of the variations of concepts that need to be communicated
> through the written word.

Yes, of the two patterns, spatial and temporal, it was probably a
bit of a revolution when some smart alec figured how to represent
time in a drawing by use of a linear or pathed organisation of
pictures as opposed to random layout. A canvas is obviously
primarily spatial, and so it takes convention to indicate
sequence. We're so used to it, that it probably seems difficult to
imagine the convention not being instinctive.

On the other hand, voice is intrisically temporal. Writing as a
sequence of 'word pictures' is a good simulation of voice I suppose.

I expect the linear story in voice form came before pictorial
stories. I saw some rock carvings in Norway that seemed to consist
of unordered mnemonics to stories, i.e. that required the
storyteller to know the sequence, but the mnemonic pictograms would
help flesh out the story.
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