Re: Synthetic scripts (was: Re: Private Use Agreements and Unappr oved Characters)

From: Kenneth Whistler (kenw@sybase.com)
Date: Fri Mar 15 2002 - 18:09:34 EST


Ben Monroe wrote:

> As it is a personal spelling, I never expected
> Unicode to map a code point to this character to me.

For those not following the Japanese in the UTF-8, Ben's name
is Monryuu Ben in kanji. This is a sound-based name coinage
for an English name. Mon 'gate' ryuu ~ ryoo 'dragon'. (Sorry,
but I can't tell just from the kanji just exactly what
pronunciation you would use.)

And sticking the dragon inside the gate, which is then
structured like a radical, is creating a phonological rebus
that departs from the ordinary way that radical + phonological
component characters are constructed. No wonder your teacher
marvelled at how to pronounce it -- Han characters aren't
constructed by putting two syllables together in one character
to create a disyllabic pronunciation.

> But it is similar to
> the Watanabe situation.

Only in so far as it involves a person's preference for how
to write their name -- but otherwise it is rather dissimilar
from the Watanabes.

>
> Should I really have any reason to expect Unicode to deal with this?

Nope. Any more than it should deal with the fanciful but
ubiquitous good luck coinages like the shuang1xi3 'double happiness'
"character".

Although you will find traditional characters that contain fish,
birds, horses, cows, pigs, and turtles(!) inside a gate radical,
but alas, no dragons.
 
> Is there a method to synthesize this without resorting to a picture?

Not to synthesize it per se, but certainly to describe it:

U+2FF5 U+9580 U+9F8D

> And do I win the prize? :D
> (I can document a year's worth of school work, notes, tests, and a personal
> seal using this spelling.)

Nope, nice try, but bzzzzt. Rick wants a legal document, not a
personal rebus and a chop. ;-)

--Ken



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