Mandrin is a poly-tonic language when spoken, but a pictographical language when written. It's actually more complex than the Greco-Arabic base typographic alphabet--you'd still have to poke a few keys to make a word in written Mandrin, but with what strokes isn't as straightforward, IMO.
The problem with "leetspeak" is that it's a phonetic shorthand of english--that disturbs me, as well, since we're supposed to not have to "say" the word when we read it. It's all in how we learned our ABCs, and I learned words from reading before I learned to say them correctly, unlike most everyone else. *points to his hearing aids* |
