From: Mark Rosa (ll077003@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp)
Date: Wed Feb 23 2011 - 21:29:34 CST
Rick, thanks for the encouragement!
I had been hoping for more comments from established contributors on what to do, but even without them I've already started on the proposal and should have it done perhaps by early next week. I downloaded one of the forms from unicode.org and began filling it in, with a long section afterwards with pictures of actual kaida writing and explanations of the characters used in them.
The font is very much a work in progress -- I installed it on a Windows computer just to test it, and while it works fine, I noticed that I hadn't even given the font a name! (It's "Untitled", in case you install it and can't find it.)
I still need to add several characters, and will probably add the "sūchūma" quantity shapes also; they're not much of a burden to put in.
As for the name list, I'll change "UNIT" to "SYMBOL", and remove "YAEYAMA" from the names. I had included it since similar characters use place names (Aegean, etc.) and the word "kaida" isn't English; it certainly won't be familiar to anyone seeing these characters for the first time, whereas the Yaeyama islands are well-known. But I can go with just "KAIDA" if that fits the naming rules better.
How are long vowels handled in character names? We can't have accented characters, right? I used the "word processor romaji" kludge for long Japanese vowels and wrote "gō" as GOU; "shō" as SHOU, etc. for now.
Item 3 in section B of the proposal form is difficult to answer. Here are the choices:
3. Proposed category (select one from below - see section 2.2 of P&P document):
A-Contemporary
B.1-Specialized (small collection) here?
B.2-Specialized (large collection)
C-Major extinct
D-Attested extinct here?
E-Minor extinct
F-Archaic Hieroglyphic or Ideographic here?
G-Obscure or questionable usage symbols
The script is small (under 160 characters). It's not quite extinct yet; teetering on the edge, and not used for daily purposes anymore, but there are a few people who remember its heyday who are very much alive. How old is "archaic"? If that has a technical meaning and refers to anything not in daily use today, OK, but I can't see something that was still used in the 1920s being called "archaic"! The ideographic part of course fits perfectly.
In any case I'll save a preliminary proposal-in-progress and post a link here so that people can see it.
Mark Rosa
<ll077003@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
----- Original Message -----
>> From: Rick McGowan <rick@unicode.org>
>> To: Mark Rosa <ll077003@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
>> Cc: "Deborah W. Anderson" <dwanders@sonic.net>
>> Date: 2011-02-23 07:00:45
>> Subject: Re: Kaida font (work in progress)
>>
>> Mark,
>>
>> So, just checking here... Do you have whatever information you need from
>> "us" to move forward on a proposal for this? If not, please feel free to ask
>> for further info and/or guidance.
>>
>> I downloaded the font and your thesis, as I mentioned. The font will need
>> some work, but it does illustrate the things well enough for a first-pass on
>> a proposal, though not for eventual production later.
>>
>> What I would probably suggest is that you write up a proposal -- a few pages
>> -- with a names list, chart, and basic info. (Use Unibook if you can figure
>> it out.) Then also submit the thesis, or parts of it, into the Unicode
>> document register as background material.
>>
>> You asked at one point:
>>
>> > I used the words "IDEOGRAPH", "NUMERAL", and "UNIT"; are these appropriate? And as I understand it, Unicode character names can consist only of capital Latin letters, so I didn't use any digits or accented letters, and used English names rather than native ones. If such letters and names are permitted, I'd like to put macrons on long vowels, haceks on some of the consonants, and apostrophes after aspirated consonants. I guess those are out, though, right?
>>
>> The "name police" might want a change later, but... "UNIT" seems odd, like
>> something we haven't used before. I'd just go with "SYMBOL".
>>
>> We usually don't have 2-part names of scripts, so either YAEYAMA or KAIDA,
>> but not both, might be appropriate.
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Rick
>>
>>
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