From: Peter_Constable@sil.org
Date: Thu Jul 03 2003 - 11:52:52 EDT
Jony Rosenne wrote on 07/02/2003 05:55:02 AM:
> I would like to summarize my understanding:
I agree with you on most points, but would quibble on the first, as I find
it overgeneralizes and is not explicit enough.
> 1. The sequence Lamed Patah Hiriq is invalid for Hebrew. It is invalid
in
> Hebrew to have two vowels for one letter. It may or may not be a valid
> Unicode sequence, but there are many examples of valid Unicode sequences
> that are invalid.
We need to state more carefully *what* is invalid. The facts are that
spellings such as lamed patah hiriq *are* attested in literature and
encoded representations are needed for them. These spellings are invalid
as written representations of Hebrew that are consistent with Hebrew
phonology; but their use in literature is not assumed to be consistent
with Hebrew phonology; they are used *in spite of the fact* that they are
inconsistent with Hebrew phonology. It is not normal for Hebrew spelling,
but the literature to be encoded includes abnormal spellings, and they
have as much need to be represented as the normal spellings.
It appears to me that you are trying to establish invalidity of such
sequences as a basis to argue that encoded representations should involve
some character between the two vowels. I consider this reasoning flawed,
however: the encoded representation is a representation of the *text*, not
the phonology, and the text most certainly does include sequences such as
lamed patah hiriq. It may be that we end up deciding to adopt an encoded
representation for this that involves a character between the two vowels,
but that is a technical-design choice, and not something that we are
compelled to do because of the nature of the Hebrew language and normal
conventions of Hebrew spelling.
- Peter
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Constable
Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA
Tel: +1 972 708 7485
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