Re: Continue: Glaring mistake in the code list for South Asian Script//Reply to Kent Karlsson

2011/9/10 Erkki I Kolehmainen <eik_at_iki.fi>:
> Mr. Delex,
>
> You should be aware of the fact that the script codes are governed by the ISO standard 15924 that is produced by the ISO Technical Committee 46. In the registry for that standard the alpha code Beng and the numeric code 375 constitute the script code for Bengali. It is only natural (I'd say mandatory) that the Unicode CLDR documentation refers to international standards where they exist rather than invent something new and contradictory.

In fact the name of the script used in ISO/IEC 10646 and Unicode
predates for long the creation of ISO 15924. The latter just kept the
name already used in ISO/IEC 10646. And at that time, there was still
no opposition by the Indian or Bengali national bodies about this
encoding in ISO 15924 (it's true that there was no requirement for ISO
15924 to keep *only* the name used in ISO/IEC 10646.)

In fact, in ISO 15924, it's perfectly possible to have aliases added.

As well in the Unicode standard, we could still have property value
alias added for the script, not because of its use in specific
languages, but due to common confusion or perception where one would
think that two alphabets are not unified in the same abstract script.

But the problem would immediately explode: how many aliases would we
need to register then for the Latin or Arabic scripts?

Would these added names, only used for technical purpose, offer any
benefit for users? No. You can still speak about the Assamese language
and its alphabet, separately of the fact that this alphabet and the
Bengali alphabet have been technically unified in the UCS (for good
reasons because most of their letters are common by their
"genealogy").

The name chosen for the script (between multiple condidates) does not
matter because it will still be arbitrary. There must be one which
just *unambiguously* designates the correct unified script,
independantly of its use in specific alphabets (or abugidas,
abjads...).

-- Philippe.
Received on Sat Sep 10 2011 - 16:47:18 CDT