Re:Boustrophedon
by Grustaf on Tuesday October 24, 2017 @02:57PM
(#15544238)
Exactly. And I think the idea to encode direction is a bit anachronistic, in those days they didn't even use punctuation or spaces so it was pretty hard to read anyway, you'd have to do a lot of thinking. And of course with Semitic writing you didn't even encode the vowel sounds.
In hieroglyphic inscriptions the animals etc do face the direction of reading (which varies), but I'm not sure this was in order to help people read it easier.
Re:Boustrophedon
by jdmichal on Tuesday October 24, 2017 @07:13PM
(#15546020)
I was told in my university class that the glyphs faced the direction of reading because they were thought of as talking to the reader. And, of course, it's rude to talk to someone when you're facing away from them.
In hieroglyphic inscriptions the animals etc do face the direction of reading (which varies), but I'm not sure this was in order to help people read it easier.