On 6/4/97 6:28 PM Unicode Discussion (unicode@unicode.org) wrote:
>On 6/4/97 at 6:42 PM -0500, David Goldsmith wrote:
>
>>Chris Newman (Chris.Newman@innosoft.com) wrote:
>>
>>>What about a multi-valued attribute where each value may be in multiple
>>>languages?
>>
>>Since Unicode can support multiple languages, can you give an example
>>where language tagging is necessary *and* there is only plain text
>>present?
>
>And if the two languages being used are Chinese and Japanese?
>
Again, this is exaggerating the Chinese/Japanese problem.
FACT. It is true that some Unihan characters are typically written
differently within the Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean, and Mainland Chinese
typographic traditions.
FACT. These differences of writing style are within the general range of
allowable differences within each typographic tradition.
E.g., the official "Taiwanese" glyph for U+8349 ("grass") per ISO/IEC
10646 uses four strokes for the "grass" radical, whereas the PRC,
Japanese, and Korean glyphs use three. As it happens, Apple's LiSung
Light font for Big Five (which follows the "Taiwanese" typographic
tradition) uses three strokes.
(This is easily confirmed by accessing
http://www.unicode.org/unihan/unihan.acgi$8349.)
FACT. Japanese users prefer to see Japanese text written with "Japanese"
glyphs.
FACT. It is also acceptable to Japanese users to see Chinese text
written with "Japanese" glyphs.
E.g., I just borrowed from Lee Collins a standard Japanese dictionary
which quotes Chinese authors (e.g., Mencius) to show how a character is
used. When doing so, they use "Japanese" glyphs, not Chinese ones.
In particular, it is acceptable within Japanese typography for a small
stretch of Chinese quoted in a predominantly Japanese text to be written
with "Japanese" glyphs.
FACT. Han unification allows for the possibility that a Japanese user
might be required to use a Chinese font to display some Japanese text
(e.g., if it uses a rare kanji).
FACT. Ditto for JIS or an ISO 2022-based solution.
FACT. Unicode doesn't include all the characters in actual use in Japan
today, particularly for personal names.
FACT. Neither does JIS or an ISO 2022-based solution. There are vendor
sets which include many of these characters, and Unicode is working with
the IRG and East Asian national bodies to add them.
=====
John H. Jenkins
jenkins@apple.com
tseng@blueneptune.com
http://www.blueneptune.com/~tseng
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