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From: jlg@lanl.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Writing from right to left
Message-ID: <21285@lanl.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 8-Feb-85 15:14:30 EST
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Posted: Fri Feb  8 15:14:30 1985
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Xref: watmath net.religion.jewish:1420 net.nlang:2565

> >Japanese and Chinese write bottom to top (although modern times have seen
> >variations, such as top to bottom, particularly in commercial signs) due
> >to scrolls.
> 
> Referring to `Chinese Calligraphy' (Chiang Yee, Harvard University Press),
> I can find NO example that runs bottom-to-top, and that's going back to
> approximately 2000 B.C., when the characters were etched into animal bones.


There's a good reason for writing from top to bottom if you're using ink -
your hand doesn't rest on characters that you've already completed (but may
still be wet).  If you write left to right and are left-handed you may rest
your hand above the current line, but left-handers are comparatively rare.

J. Giles

By the way, I just posted this note to net.rec.photo:

> > -----------------------------
> > Believe it or not, Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (Merriam-Webster,
> > 1983) lists "lens also lense".  I was amazed.  I still wince when I see the
> > less-standard form.
>
> It was probably always spelled 'lense'.  Daniel Webster himself probably
> introduced the 'lens' spelling as part of his spelling reform campaign.
> A way of testing this is to ask our British readers which spelling they
> use most - the british remain mostly immune to Websterisms.


So, what about it?  Is this one of Webster's changes?  I don't know where
to look to find out.