h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Morse Code - a Method of Communication - A88047679
Author: SashaQ - happysad - U9936370

Here's a little Entry to fill a gap in the Edited Guide

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Hi Sasha

Do you think it might be good to give tables showing Morse's original code and the modern International code?

Have you heard of Bubblish? There used to be a few h2g2 Researchers who posted only in Bubblish. It took me about five years to realise that Bubblish was in fact morse code laid out in bubbles.

Hi Gnomon - thanks for reading

Good suggestion to include a table of the codes indeed I shall work on that shortly

I have encountered Bubblish, yes That's probably something to mention in the Entry, too, that 'dots' and 'dashes' can be different shapes as well as being audible, etc

I've added the table, mentioned Bubblish, and added more to the end of the Entry

That looks great!

Thank you

I've always wondered whether there is any logic to the choice of symbols, or failing that, whether there is a helpful system of mnemonics.

In my schooldays I made up a list of mnemonics, connecting the longer symbols with their shorter components, such as NIB, FIN, PAN, JAM and so on.
NI=B .-..
F=IN ..-.
P=AN .--.
J=AM .---

Q=MA --.- so I remembered "you have to queue for Ma"
L is .-.. so I thought of "get out of it" (or "go to L")
X=NA so I thought of "aN AXe"
Can't remember what I did for C but now we have CNN...
Aso Z is MIZ

NI=B -...

D is "Dad did it" -..

U is EAU ..-

and so on

Yes, when I was adding the table to the Entry, I wondered if there were any pattern. The shortest letters make ETINAM

Good set of mnemonics - those help with learning indeed

That's handy if you want to say 'Man me mate name Matt, am at matinée - meet team Tina et Mina at nammet time eat meat et tea?'

Quite why you would want to say that is another question.

<BB<

Fascinating indeed that 'nammet time' can be transmitted so quickly! You may well have found the logic behind the choice of symbols