scameter
6th March 2008, 03:33 PM
I was pondering the various languages of the world recently and I began to wonder: why is it that comes languages, such as Arabic and Japanese, read and are written from right to left, while other languages, such as English and French, read from left to right? I assume that it is a difference of location, but cultures such as the Jews and Arabs interacted heavily with European cultures, such as the ancient Greeks and Romans, so that hypothesis isn't entirely concrete. So, what do you think is the cause behind it? One speculation I made is that it deals with handedness; perhaps when languages written from right to left were invented, the writers were left-handed, since writing to the left would allow them to see what they were writing without their arm getting in the way, and vise versa for left-to-right languages, being written by right-handed individuals. And, remember, back then books weren't really popular, but rather things without covers were used, such as tablets and scrolls, and thus when one wrote from right-to-left, there was no cover or other side of the book to bother the left arm, and again vise versa for left-to-right writing.