[Elecraft] Is CW a Language?

[Craig Rairdin]

It's a small point, but CW is at best an alphabet, not a language. Your
examples prove it. It can be used to convey a message in any language that
shares the characters it represents. You could use a typewriter to create a
document when handed a written message in any language that shares the same
characters that are represented on the typewriter. You're not translating;
you're transcribing.

The same attributes you cite for Morse would apply to the American English
alphabet (the letters a-z with no diacriticals). It can be used to convey
messages in English, Hawaiian, and one other language I'll leave as an
exercise for the reader. But it's an alphabet, not a language.

You could also make the same statement with respect to Unicode. Unicode is a
standard way used by computers to represent letters and ideograms of all the
world's languages. You can give me a message in literally any language and I
can represent it in Unicode. But Unicode isn't a language; it's just a
universal alphabet.

Craig
NZ0R

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Sandy W5TVW
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 4:56 PM
To: k6dgw at foothill.net; Elecraft Reflector
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Is CW a Language?


Morse telegraphy  (landline OR wireless versions.)  IS definitely a LIVING
LANGUAGE!  No doubt!
Perhaps one of the most universal living languages today.  Unlike learning
say German, French, Latin or whatever, if you write using the Latin
alphabet, you can transmit to another and receive any message
regardless of the sender's or the receiver's language!

It is extremely unique in this regard.  Telegraph operators that used to be
on ships could send messages in whatever language (plain text or cipher)
and communicate even though, basically, they couldn't speak or write
or read the language they were sending via Morse!

Even prisoners used it in prison camps by tapping on walls or pipes.

You must learn it like any different language from your native one
to make use of it.  It takes practice and more practice.  I know it ain't
easy!  (But then could you converse with other people when you were
a baby or a young tyke?  It took practice and more practice!)

Hopefully, the present people running the ITU, ARRL, FCC and other
entities, will preserve this VERY unique method of communication.
It's slow...yes,  it's "old"...yes, but it ain't obsolete!

My 2 penny's worth!

73,

Sandy W5TVW

(Yeah, I had a helluva time learning it and hated it at first!  But it's
just about
all I use to QSO on the "wireless" today!)