The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 36, September 3, 2006, Article 28

MORSE CODE A LANGUAGE?

Doug Andrews writes: "I must respectfully disagree with my good
friend Serge Pelletier regarding the "Victory" Canadian five cent
piece, who counted four languages on the coin, including "the Morse
one," referring to the Morse code words appearing just inside the rim.
The Morse code legend, intended to motivate the country at the height
of World War II, says, "We win when we work willingly." The five cent
60th anniversary commemorative issued in 2005 dropped the Morse code
border.

I am not an expert in linguistics, but I doubt that Morse code can
be labeled as a language. More accurately, it is a binary medium
for electronic communication using a system of dots and dashes. The
motto on the five cent piece is expressed unilingually in English.
At the height of its popularity, Morse code was used extensively for
communication in many languages other than English, notably by the
German and French navies.

An example of a Canadian coin that DOES bear four languages is the
1999 $2 commemorative marking the formation of Nunavut Territory in
the Arctic. It has legends in Latin, French, English, and the
language of Canada's Inuit aboriginal population, Inuktitut."

[Morse Code is certainly not a natural language, and neither is
Braille.  I put the term "language" in "quotes" since I knew there
would be some "questions" about this...  -"Editor"]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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