Rcrrng Chrctrs

[Steve Robinson]

On Fri, 23 Feb 1996, Mikko Keskinen wrote:

> Cn w ndrstad ths sntnc?  If we can, there are too _many_ characters in 
> normal phonetic alphabet. The English language written without vowels is 
> still intelligible. Th nglsh lngd cld b wrttn lmst wtht vwls, but the 
> consonantal system is supplemented by the - as such unnecessary, 
> excessive - vowels.  More than the consonants is, more or less, _more_ 
> than necessary, that is, overdetermined or overabundant with regard to 
> signification.
> 
> Writing without the spaces dramatizes writing _as_ spacing 
> (Derrida's _e'spacement_).
> 
> Mkk

Hold on here.  At the risk of sounding like a Buchanonan protectionist   
. . . I recently read of a State Department initiative to send vowels to 
Bosnia, to help those poor folks out with some of those unpronouncable 
place names they've got over there.  If the above mangling of God's own 
English is what we've got to look forward to, Derrida notwithstanding, 
I'd say keep them vowels home.