The question of the making of alphabets has long been the
subject of debate, and Berry (1968) posits certain scientific principles and
social factors which must be taken into account in order to create a successful
alphabet. He states that "an alphabet is successful in so far and only in so far
as it is scientifically and socially acceptable." (1968, p. 737). In a later article (1977) he shifts the emphasis slightly from the scientific aspect and stresses
the social aspect more. Fishman (1977) points out that a language community
in a bi- or multilingual situation may be guided by two opposing forces when }
forming their attitudes to a possible orthography, as they may desire their e~~~
orthography to be similar or dissimilar to those of the languages around lbv-vt
them.