> From unicode-bounce@unicode.org Thu Apr 11 13:45:37 2002
> X-Originating-IP: [62.30.112.2]
> To: <unicode@unicode.org>
> Subject: Re: Inherent "a"
Sinnathurai Srivas wrote:
> May I assume u+0b85 as official?
No.
That is U+0B85 TAMIL LETTER A -- just the ordinary, standalone
letter /a/.
You are, of course, free to use that character (and any other)
in any speculative or experimental reforms of Tamil orthography,
as you please. Just as people are free to use U+0061 LATIN SMALL
LETTER A 'a' in any speculative or experimental reforms of
English spelling, if they choose.
>
> Some explanations for the need for a visible "a".
> In Tamil,
> d/
> The use of visible "a" for educational purposes with consonants are a
> necessity.
For this, of course, you can use U+0B85, and then qualify it
however may be needed to convey the concept of inherency in the
syllabic pronunciation of the consonants. I presume that people
have already been doing this for years in Tamil books about
the Tamil writing system.
>
> e/
> A design plan need to be implemented, anticipating the possible use of
> visible "a" instead of inherent "a" in the distance future.
Let me quote from Sanford Steever's article on Tamil in
Daniels and Bright, 1996:
"Occasional proposals to change the individual [Tamil] symbols to purely
alphabetic characters, by using vowel-initial allographs for
all vowels, with consonant + pulli for all consonants, have
not been taken seriously; and they probably never will be, since the
existing system represents Tamil syllables very well."
Of course, people can go on debating the issue, and it is
even conceivable that a revised orthography may catch on
some day. But the UTC has already gone on record as being
disinterested in redesigning the Tamil writing system, and
considers the current Unicode encoding of Tamil to be appropriate
for the representation of Tamil as it is currently written.
--Ken
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