Tuesday, March 24, 1998
John Clews' question is much like one I asked last week (attached). It
seems to me that the Unicode(tm) Standard 2.0 uses ZWJ with Devanagari
to do two jobs: 1. After any consonant it indicates the 'independent half
form' is wanted (fig. 6-15); 2. After ra it indicates the eyelash ra is
wanted (bottom of page 6-39). Am I missing something? A clarifiction
would be helpful. I think the problem arises for both Unicode(tm) and
ISCII because they have adopted phonetic not graphic encoding (which I
favor) but the eyelash ra is mainly a graphic not phonetic distinction.
Adding a separate character code would be one solution; is there another
one that's more attractive?
There are are also two forms of RA(sub): one looks like an inverted
V; the other like clock hands at 2:40. The former is used under round
bottom consonants when RA is the second character of a conjunct; the other
before all other consonants, i.e., those with a vertical bar). Since the
choice depends on the preceding consonant, rendering software should be
able to decide what is needed, but how would one specify the independent
form of each? (There are also some '+ ra' conjuncts with idiosyncratic
forms (e.g., k + ra, t + ra and s' + ra) but their display would require
the preceding consonant so no independent form would be possible.) In
Lambert page 46: "To represent [ra] following another character, a
diagonal stroke is placed against the upright stroke of those characters
that have one, or beneath the mid-point of the lower part of a rounded
character." Maybe this is best left for another day.
Regards,
Jim Agenbroad ( jage@LOC.gov )
The above are purely personal opinions, not necessarily the official
views of any government or any agency of any.
Phone: 202 707-9612; Fax: 202 707-0955; US mail: I.T.S. Dev.Gp.4, Library
of Congress, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, D.C. 20540-9334 U.S.A.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 11:04:52 -0500 (EST)
From: "James E. Agenbroad" <jage@loc.gov>
To: Unicode <unicore@unicode.org>
Subject: Eyelash RA in Unicode 3.0?
Monday, March 16, 1998
Having had conflicting advice from those whose opinions I value on how
to encode the "eyelash RA' (see "R5" near the bottom of page 6-39 of
Unicode 2.0) I wonder if 3.0 could clarify the encoding of four cases:
Independent half form In a conujnct before HA or YA
RA(sup) 1 2
RA(h 3 4
ZWJ seems to have one purpose at fig.6-15 and another at R5. Both RA(sup)
and RA(h) form conjuncts with HA and YA.
Regards,
Jim Agenbroad ( jage@LOC.gov )
The above are purely personal opinions, not necessarily the official
views of any government or any agency of any.
Phone: 202 707-9612; Fax: 202 707-0955; US mail: I.T.S. Dev.Gp.4, Library
of Congress, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, D.C. 20540-9334 U.S.A.
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