That was the first acronym that leapt to my mind too. But I think it's
"International Phonetic Alphabet" (the one with characters like
backwards "e" describing the actual sounds, that you see in some
dictionaries as a pronounciation guide.
But I don't think, if the statement about a common written language, whose
readers have no clue how to pronounce the ancient Brithini language it
is based on, it is accepted, Western can be any
such thing. I do agree that to have spread, Western must offer concrete
benefits over a written form of the native language, I just don't think those
benefits are phonetic, but rather magical/logical - the same thing, in the
western world view.
Richard
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