The Story of the Typewriter, 1873-1923Herkimer County Historical Society
History
The Story of the Typewriter, 1873-1923
Herkimer County Historical Society
Typewriters -- History
Sizulu-- Lowo o gcina isikati sake u yena o nesikati eside
ukusandisa emhlabeni.
Sesotho-- Ea sa senyeng linako tsa hae ke eena ea phelang
halelele lefatseng.
Sixosa-- Ongaciti ixesha lake nguyena o nexesha elide
ukulandisa emhlabeni.
Setshangaan-- A lavisaka shikati utomi wa yena u tayengeteleka
muhlabeni.
Spanish-- Economizar tiempo es alargar la vida.
Dutch-- Tyd uitwinnen is zyn leven verlengen.
Taal-- Tijd te spaar maakt gebruik langer.
Quoc-Ngu-- Loi ngày gio, bang song lâu nam.
Hawaiian-- Malama pono anamika manawa, He mea ia e hooloihi
aku ai ike ola.
Maori-- E poto taima e ora roa.
Romanized-Malay-- Me-niampumakan waktu itu me-nambahi panjang umor.
Eskimo-- Uvdlunik aungnertusârinek inûtnertunarpok.
Hova-- Tsy mandany andro foana no manalava ny aina.
The languages of the American Indian are represented by only three
examples, Sioux, Winnebago and Aztec. "To save time is to lengthen
life" takes nineteen words to say in Winnebago. Evidently the moral
of this motto was never applied very seriously by the Winnebago
Indians. If it took them as long as that to say everything, it is
perhaps no wonder that the Winnebagos are nearly all dead.
Many other languages in this extensive list are worth lingering over,
but we must pass on to the most interesting feature of the collection,
namely those languages that are written in non-Roman characters. In
the languages we have thus far considered, the mechanical problem, from
the typewriter standpoint, was an easy one. Where special accents are
required, they are easily supplied by the simple expedient of using
"dead," i.e., non-spacing keys. The adaptation of the typewriter,
however, to write the non-Roman languages was in some instances a
very difficult mechanical problem. There are twenty-four languages
in this list, written in no less than eight different characters,
Russian, Hebrew, Greek, Armenian, Burmese, Hindi, Arabic and Japanese
(Katakana).
The Russian group includes four languages, Russian, Servian, Ruthenian
and Bulgarian. The character in which these languages are written is
known as Cyrilian, an invention of St. Cyril in the ninth century,
and is based on the Greek character, to which its resemblance will
be noted. The languages written today in the Greek and Cyrilian
characters correspond almost exactly to the present limits of the
Orthodox Greek Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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