Marco wrote:
> Michael Everson wrote:
> > 600 characters it is then.
>
> If Nüshu is actually logographic, think that this may be too early a
> conclusion.
I agree with Marco's conclusion, but for different reasons. As Tree
indicated, the best collections now number around 1500 glyphs. Whether
those 1500 glyphs represent 1500 characters, or considerably fewer
(with multiple variants of the same character) as some experts feel,
is TBD. However, the conservative position for the Roadmap would be
to set aside about 1500 positions, and then wait for detailed proposals
to resolve the glyph/character analysis sometime in the future.
In fact, what I would suggest, for Roadmap neatness, would be
exactly 6 rows (6 x 256 = 1536).
Where I differ from Marco is in the assumption that this is a
logographic script. As Lars stated, and as Orie Endo also says in
her analysis, Nushu is not logographic, but rather a phonologically
based orthography. The analogy in Unicode to look for is the Yi
script, apparently, where a large syllabary is built up from units
that are structurally akin to ideographs (and even use a radical-based
classification system for lookup) but which orthographically just
refer to sound units. And if this is the case, then a repertoire
somewhere in the range of 600 - 1500 for a Chinese dialect would
be a reasonable number.
It is this conclusion about Nushu that leads me to support the idea
that it is definitely a distinct script, and not just a funny way
to write a limited set of Han characters.
--Ken
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