It would be totally inconsistent with Digger’s character to be illiterate, don’t you think?
I assume you’re referring to back in the library where she noted that an unknown language could be Wombat, but she couldn’t read the writing. Not an inconsistency; there’s no reason other wombats far away and/or long ago couldn’t have used a different alphabet, and Digger’s the sort of person that would think of that. (Of course, the language probably wasn’t Wombat, but Digger’s point is that she can’t know that for sure; it’s just definitely not the alphabet she knows.)
Richard, I took that earlier bit about the alphabet to mean that Digger was saying that even if the text had been in the wombat language, it wouldn’t have mattered because the alphabet was unfamiliar to her.
It would be similar to a Japanese person being unable to read romanji – unless they’re trained to recognize the phonetics of roman letters (AKA what we use to write English), they would not recognize that 1, ichi, and δΈ€ mean the same thing.
re-posting from the old site… “I suddenly have a feeling of empathy. It was as if despite the fact she’s a comic character she made eye contact with me and said. “Yep. I’ve also snuck away from school to drink underage and walked into the same pub as the teacher who said he had the flu that day. Have fun avoiding eye contact with him forever mate.””
I thought Digger didn’t read the Wombat alphabet?
She couldn’t read the alphabet on the map, and so couldn’t be sure that the words weren’t Wombat written in the strange alphabet.
Much like I wouldn’t be able to recognise the language that a given Braille text was written in.
It would be totally inconsistent with Digger’s character to be illiterate, don’t you think?
I assume you’re referring to back in the library where she noted that an unknown language could be Wombat, but she couldn’t read the writing. Not an inconsistency; there’s no reason other wombats far away and/or long ago couldn’t have used a different alphabet, and Digger’s the sort of person that would think of that. (Of course, the language probably wasn’t Wombat, but Digger’s point is that she can’t know that for sure; it’s just definitely not the alphabet she knows.)
Richard, I took that earlier bit about the alphabet to mean that Digger was saying that even if the text had been in the wombat language, it wouldn’t have mattered because the alphabet was unfamiliar to her.
It would be similar to a Japanese person being unable to read romanji – unless they’re trained to recognize the phonetics of roman letters (AKA what we use to write English), they would not recognize that 1, ichi, and δΈ€ mean the same thing.
Completely superfluous answer to the question that has been answered four times already.
plus more on the previous page…
I was just going to comment on the looks on Digger’s and Murai’s faces after Digger read that. They have the scent of “Oh bugger”
Alphabet aside, the tone of that inscription is SO Wombat.
re-posting from the old site… “I suddenly have a feeling of empathy. It was as if despite the fact she’s a comic character she made eye contact with me and said. “Yep. I’ve also snuck away from school to drink underage and walked into the same pub as the teacher who said he had the flu that day. Have fun avoiding eye contact with him forever mate.””