RFC: Addition of U+05BE HEBREW PUNCTUATION MAQAF to Dash category

From: Ilya Konstantinov (future@shiny.co.il)
Date: Tue Jan 03 2006 - 09:10:48 CST

  • Next message: Michael Everson: "Evertype.com"

    Hi,

    I would like the group's opinion on my proposal to add the U+05BE HEBREW
    PUNCTUATION MAQAF character to the Dash category. MAQAF is a Hebrew
    character similar to the HYPHEN, both in functionality and form. To give
    an English approximation of its function, it connects words together,
    whether to make a term out of two words (e.g. Tel־Aviv, Home־Owner) or
    to connect words which are joined when both are written in Hebrew (e.g.
    InHebrew vs. In־ENGLISH, assuming ENGLISH was written in Latin letters).

    I'm not sure why HEBREW PUNCTUATION MAQAF was introduced into Unicode
    the first place, as it seems to be equivalent to the HYPHEN. Perhaps its
    due to the fact that it appears in traditional Hebrew texts, whereas
    other modern Hebrew punctuation (such as COMMA and PERIOD) was borrowed
    from Latin in modern times. In modern Hebrew texts, MAQAF is often
    substituted by HYPHEN-MINUS or HYPHEN, as there's no MAQAF character
    on the Hebrew-Israeli keyboards.

    By adding MAQAF to the Dash category, aside from putting it where it
    belongs (in my opinion), we'll make the character folding rule of:

     pD -> HYPHEN-MINUS

    apply to it. This would be beneficial, as the Hebrew-Israeli keyboard
    doesn't have a key for MAQAF and therefore users cannot easily search for it.

    Comments?
    How do I go about submitting such a proposal?

    Thanks.

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