Re: Hangul and Jamo

From: Kevin Bracey (kbracey@e-14.com)
Date: Tue Mar 02 1999 - 06:00:08 EST


In message <9903020955.AA22614@unicode.org>
          Kevin Bracey <kbracey@e-14.com> wrote:

> 11AC (NJ) ~= 11AB (N) + 11BD (J)
>
> Are these really only compatibility decompositions, not canonical
> decompositions? Is G A NJ (1100 1161 11AC = AC05) really not canonically
> equivalent to G A N J (1100 1161 11AB 11BD)? This would imply that the
> composed form NJ has extra formatting information that is lost by
> decomposing (conformance requirement D20). What formatting information?
>
> In section 3.10, stage 1 of Hangul Syllable Composition says to "compose
> the conjoining jamo wherever passible". As the only compositions are
> compatibility compositions, does that mean that the Hangul syllables are
> really only compatibility compositions of the conjoining Jamo?
>

Okay, I've found what TR8 has to say, and it's clarified it a bit. Hangul
syllable composition is definitely a canonical equivalence, but it looks
like we're pretty adamant that NJ is only compatibility equivalent to N+J.

I still don't fully understand the logic here. Why is G+A+NJ different
to G+A+N+J? The syllable still forms in the same way, and I can't see how/
why it would be rendered differently.

Is it just to simplify processing for systems that assume a syllable
consists of 1 L + 1 V + 1 T, rather than an arbitrary number of each, as
Unicode allows?

-- 
Kevin Bracey, Senior Software Engineer
Acorn Computers Ltd                           Tel: +44 (0) 1223 725228
Acorn House, 645 Newmarket Road               Fax: +44 (0) 1223 725328
Cambridge, CB5 8PB, United Kingdom            WWW: http://www.acorn.co.uk/



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