The famous Danish philologist R.K. Rask, one of the founders of historical linguistics, has left in a manuscript of 1823 the outline of a minor treatise "Almindelig Skrivekunst" (i.e. "general art of writing/spelling"). It deals with issues of writing systems and develops, as well as discusses, suggestions for a rational Roman-script transliteration of "Oriental" alphabets. The following is an annotated translation by Otto Back (Vienna) of the Danish handwritten original, preceded by the translator's introductory remarks.
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