I recently became aware of some confusion about the role of the Unicode ZWJ
(Zero-Width Joiner) in Devanagari consonant glyph formation.
The short answer is that ZWJ is really only necessary to prevent two
consonants from forming *a conjunct or a ligature*. ZWJ is not necessary
otherwise, because the process of "killing" the vowel causes the normal
formation of the half-consonant in the expected places.
Attached are two small images that show how the ZWJ is used to inhibit
sub-joined conjunct formation.
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Mark Leisher
Computing Research Lab I have never made but one prayer to God,
New Mexico State University a very short one:
Box 30001, Dept. 3CRL "Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous."
Las Cruces, NM 88003 And God granted it. -- Voltaire, letter
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