links for 2009-10-23

• Language Log » Embuggerance & Feisty
  ah, those well known scholars Embuggerance & Feisty (2008). Cambridge University Press, no less.
  (tags: hilarious meta google fail languagelog)
• Flickr: Matthew Watkins' Photostream
  this has to be some of the most delightful, innovative iPhone art I've seen!
  (tags: whimsy iphone art flickr brushes inspiration)
• 五十年内，废除简化字如何 (Fifty years on, how about we abandon the simplified script?)
  "我们国家之所以落后…汉字难是很重要的原因。从这种感情出发，他们急于要改革汉字。这两种感情，一种要爱护汉字，一种要改革汉字，看上去是矛盾的，对立的，其实都是一个出发点：爱祖国。" — or, sometimes loving something necessitates changing it.
  (tags: chinese 中文 简体字 script language orthography reform modernpressures change)
• Persian helped promulgate Islam in China « Islam in China
  On xiaoerjin – Chinese written phonetically in Arabic script, by Chinese Muslims who would be fluent in spoken Chinese but literate only in Arabic! Conclusion: romanization not inevitable, though in modern times, quite irresistible.
  (tags: romanization arabic script orthography xiaoerjin 消经)