Re: Inherent "a"

From: James E. Agenbroad (jage@loc.gov)
Date: Mon Apr 01 2002 - 09:06:41 EST


On Fri, 29 Mar 2002, Doug Ewell wrote:

> Avarangal <avarangal@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I need to allocate a U+codepoint for inherent "a", to be used for
> > Tamil research. Can anyone suggest a temporary location or is it
> > possible to find such code point within the existing code point
> > for Tamil.
>
> While we're waiting for someone with better knowledge of Indic scripts
> to reply...
>
> 1. An *inherent* A wouldn't have its own code point, would it? I don't
> think of it as having an existence outside of the consonant it goes
> with. Tamil KA is U+0B95, which represents K plus the inherent A. If
> you wanted to represent only the K, you would use U+0B95 plus the Tamil
> virama, U+0BCD, to kill the A. But how could you represent an inherent
> vowel by itself?
>
> 2. Assuming you have an answer to #1 above, the only way "you" could
> allocate a Unicode code point for this character would be to use the
> Private Use Area. You could choose any code point from U+E000 to U+F8FF
> for this purpose. (There are unofficial assignments for some of these,
> but you are perfectly free to ignore them.) Do *not* assign a code
> point in the Tamil block, or anywhere else except the Private Use Area,
> even if it's only for temporary and internal use. To do so would be
> very non-conformant.
>
> -Doug Ewell
> Fullerton, California
>
                                            Monday, April 1, 2002
There is always 0B85 for this vowel when it is not "inhering" to a
consonant.

     Regards,
          Jim Agenbroad ( jage@LOC.gov )
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