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08385_Field_TCGG T150.txt
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1996-04-10
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986b
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example of what is now called redundancy in languages
and code; one of the difficulties in deciphering the
Rosetta stone lay in the fact that a polysyllabic word
might give each syllable not one symbol but a number of
different ones in common use, in order that the word
should be thoroughly understood. (The effect when
literally transcribed into English is one of stuttering.) On
the other hand the Semitic languages show an early
recognition of redundancy. Ancient Hebrew script had no
vowels: modern Hebrew has none, too, except in children’s
books. Many other ancient scripts have no vowels.
Slavonic Russian went a step further in condensation: in
religious texts, commonly used words were abbreviated to
a few letters, in a manner similar to our present-day use
of the ampersand, abbreviations such as lb and the
increasing use of initials, e.g., U.S.A., Unesco, O.K.