Re: Specialty words

[Bruce Grant <bgrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Grove wrote:

>     One of the problems of trying to match word patterns is that the VMS
> does not
> use double characters as frequently as would be expected in any natural
> language that
> I can see. Whether syllabic or alphabetic - you would expect a certain
> amount of 'doubling' (except if there is a character that signifies - double
> the preceding letter). We also have a problem with the consistent 'end
> forms' - specifically the an, ain, aiin, aiiin types. This may indicate that
> a character's shape depends on where it is in the word (like Arabic) and
> makes it difficult once again to make the comparison you suggest - if STAR
> is ABCD, but the T is written differently in PLANET - then you don't really
> see it as the same character.
>
>     John Grove

Maybe the language suppresses double letters, as Spanish appears to do compared
to French.

Or, maybe it's Arabic, and they neglected to write in the superscript characters
(shaddas) to indicate doubling. (My copy of "Teach Yourself Arabic" indicates
that the shaddas are not always there in present-day printed matter.)

Bruce Grant