Re: RTL PUA?

Petr Tomasek wrote:

>> Not in Hebrew. The only common ligature is the aleph_lamed, a
>> post-classical import from Judaeo-Arabic.

> Not true. See:
> Collete Sirat. Hebrew Manuscripts of the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press 2002,
> fig. 114 (p. 176) or fig. 127 (p. 189) or fig. 134 (p. 193).

I wouldn't classify any of those examples as 'common'. I also wouldn't
classify all examples of touching letters -- of which many occur in
rapidly written text -- as ligatures. Aleph+lamed on the other hand is a
regularly occurring distinct formation in whole classes of manuscripts
(and persisting in typography). I have a good collection of books on
Hebrew palaeography, and while there are many examples of Hebrew letters
being very tightly spaced there are relatively few instances of what I
would consider ligatures, i.e. formations in which the ductus or spacing
of the specific sequences of letters is modified to facilitate connection.

JH

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