RE: Errors in the Indic FAQ

From: Andy White (Andy__White@btinternet.com)
Date: Mon Nov 18 2002 - 15:21:28 EST

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    A brief reply to Marco

    Marco wrote:
    > In some Indic scripts (e.g., Devanagari), left-side matras
    > reorder around the whole consonant cluster; in some other
    > scripts (e.g., Tamil, Malayalam), they reorder around the
    > base consonant only:
    >
    > Devanagari: Ta Virama ZWNJ Ta MatraI -> MatraI Ta+Virama Ta
    >
    > Tamil: Ta Virama (ZWNJ) Ta MatraI -> Ta+Virama
    > MatraI Ta
    >
    > (Notice that ZWNJ is redundant in Tamil, as the rendering
    > would be identical without it.)
    >
    > My assumption is that Bengali, in this respect, behaves with
    > Tamil and Malayalam.

    No in general Bengali behaves like Devanagri in this respect, Only where KhandaTa is concerned is Malayalam logic true.

    > ... The purpose of ZWJ and ZWNJ us one of the few things in
    > Indic Unicode which is quite clear.
    It is not clear.

    > A sequence of consonant+Virama+ZWJ always shows a half form
    > glyph (such as a the Half-Ta in Devanagari or the Khanda Ta
    > in Bengali)...
    >...What's wrong in saying that it is a half form [i.e. Khanda Ta]

    Yes a consonant+Virama+ZWJ shows a half form but what makes you think that a half Ta should look like a KhandaTa?
    Why should the Bengali script not be allowed to have a Half Ta?
    In some fonts the Bengali half Ta is drawn as a smaller raised Ta whilst khandaTa is given as a separate glyph.
    Remember that Khanda Ta is considered a separate character by Bengalis.
    >
    ... ...

    Andy



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