Suggestions in Unicode Indic FAQ

From: Keyur Shroff (keyur_shroff@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Jan 29 2003 - 06:42:30 EST

  • Next message: John Cowan: "Re: Indic Devanagari Query"

    Hello,

    There are few discrepancies in Indic FAQ. Though it was reported earlier by
    Andy White, I see they still have place there in the FAQ. I also clarified
    it but by mistake I sent the mail to Yahoo groups where this mailing list
    is archived and hence my mail never reached to this mailing list. You can
    refer to the link http://groups.yahoo.com/group/unicode/message/16352

    The following are the suggestions.

    SUGGESTION-1:

    In the FAQ
       http://www.unicode.org/faq/indic.html#2
    it is mentioned that

    ISCII: Unicode:
    Halant + Halant Halant + ZWJ

    produce similar result. This is wrong. In ISCII, Halant+Halant is known as
    explicit halant and its Unicode equivalent sequence is Halant+ZWNJ. So ZWJ
    should be replaced by ZWNJ.

    SUGGESTION-2:

    In the FAQ
       http://www.unicode.org/faq/indic.html#16

    It is mentioned that following are equivalent

    ISCII Unicode
    KA halant INV KA virama ZWJ
    RA halant INV RAsup (i.e., repha)

    In fact there is no way in Unicode to produce RAsup directly, i.e., without
    using base consonant. The sequence "RA virama ZWJ" will actually produce
    half-RA (or eyelash-RA) which is used commonly in Marathi. eyelash-RA can
    also be produced with the sequence "RA Halant Nukta" sequence both in ISCII
    (known as soft halant) and Unicode (just for conformance with ISCII).

    Also, in the same answer the following sequence is recommended.

    ISCII Unicode
    INV halant RA SPACE virama RA (RAsub)

    SUGGESTION-3:

    Use of SPACE character as consonant may create problem for state machine
    which finds language/syllable boundary. In fact we need a codepoint for one
    invisible consonant (similar to INV in ISCII) in Unicode which can solve
    this problem with Unicode.

    After inclusion of INV character the following can be recommended.

    ISCII Unicode
    KA halant INV KA virama INV
    RA halant INV RA virama INV (i.e., repha)
    INV halant RA INV virama RA (RAsub)

    The INV character in Unicode can also be used for displaying dependent
    vowel matras without dotted circle.

    Unicode
    INV Vowel sign O
    INV Vowel sign AI

    etc. This can replace existing definition of "SPACE" as invisible consonant
    depending on the context.

    Any other pointers!!?

    - Keyur

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