Re: definition of plain text

On Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:37:20 +0200
Peter Cyrus <pcyrus_at_alivox.net> wrote:

> Perhaps, awkwardly. But that is ultimately equivalent to marking the
> gait on every letter, in which case I probably wouldn't need to
> distinguish between initial and non-initial letters.

If you allow C(R)V(C) as a 'fixed' syllable structure, the
location of the syllable boundary in words like /tatrat/ would be
significant, as in Thai. /tata/ would also be awkward if you had null
initials, as, again, some claim for Thai. (There are languages that
need to be analysed as having a phonemic contrast between null initials
and initial glottal stops, even if German isn't one of them.)

You might be able to handle syllable breaks just by having an
optional syllable break character, analogous to CGJ and ZWSP.

Marking gait on every letter may not be necessary, but gait-selecting
characters present issues. They're analogous to the deprecated numeric
shape selectors U+206E and U+206F, whose use is strongly discouraged.
These characters need explicit support in rendering engines, which is
an argument against gait-selecting characters. You might be able to
propagate gait by contextual substitution, *if* you could propagate it
through automatic line breaks.

Richard.
Received on Sun Oct 16 2011 - 18:11:49 CDT