Hello all,
Just wanted to tell of the computer "discoveries" that learning Pali
can lead to. I probably should just have asked a question first,
but then wouldn't have found the unusual 'poem' below.
I was looking for just what effect the wiggly line found over some
letters - called a "tilde" - had on pronunciation. Not being
computer literate I don't know how to make this diacritical mark,
and my Pali homework to my tutor consisted of typed sentences with a
little note after some words in translated sentences saying
e.g."wise ones = pannavanto (with little wiggly lines over
each 'n')"
[ The tutor was very tolerant]
Anyway, when looking at websites about diacritical marks, I came
across the following doggerel about computer symbols:
====================================================
"The following poem is excerpted with permission from Lee Leitner's
"Viewpoint" column which is featured in a bimonthly periodical for
Prime INFORMATION users called INFOCUS magazine. The original authors
were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of
Grand Rapids, MI.
FYI - a "wahka" is the decidedly "proper" (by popular vote) name for
the characters ">" and "<". This is in spite of INFOCUS readers of
Denver who still refer to them as "Norkies". The Michigan crowd
apparently has corrupted the spelling to "waka".
To wit, it is -
------------------------------------------------------------
"...a poem we think is about the lowly wahka. Maybe. Well,
perhaps---we're really not sure what the poem actually is
about. Here it goes:"
<>!*''#
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
!*'$_
%*<>#4
&)../
|{~~SYSTEM HALTED
Transliterated:
Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret at back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat tick dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka number four,
Ampersand right-paren dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket tilde tilde CRASH.
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Well, "waka waka" is fun to say, but I can't believe that truly
geeky nerds could have allowed the confusion of two Boolean operator
characters. I think you'd really have to say greater waka and
lesser waka, each of
which scans the same as waka waka and leaves us with:
>!*''#
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
!*'$_
%*<#4
&)../
|{~~SYSTEM HALTED
Greater waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret at back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat tick dollar under-score,
Percent splat lesser waka number four,
Ampersand right-paren dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket tilde tilde CRASH.
So, now it's an original work by me through the magic of universal
solvent."
<end excerpt>
=========================================================
I still don't know what effect a tilde has on pronunciation or how
to make one. :-)
metta and peace,
Christine
---The trouble is that you think you have time
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