From: Brian Wilson (bountonw@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Jul 11 2007 - 11:38:09 CDT
The Lao convention goes back at least to the 1920's as one of the
dictionaries I have is a reprint of that. The other is from the ministry of
education. I have seen primers from various eras. So there is consensus in
Laos for using an x to represent Lao vowels without a base consonant.
Regarding Thai, they use a dash-like symbol. I was just suggesting that
since a dash is needed for Thai and an x is needed for Lao, then why not
make them both available to each other.
I am not sure what kind of consensus is needed. Hebrew and Arabic is
written from right to left. European language are written from left to
right. We don't have a consensus on which direction a language should be
written in, but each language operates well within its own rules. Both Lao
and Thai are legitimate languages. The pedagogical need to refer to vowels
without a base consonant is not an everyday necessity, but that doesn't
lesson its validity.
On 7/11/07, Philippe Verdy <verdy_p@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
>
> Your opinion just confirms what I feared : it's just notational and
> there's no consensus about the base symbol to use : we have now at least 4
> base characters:
>
> - The dotted circle symbol (as in Unicode charts)
> - An x-like cross symbol ; but I won't like the proposal of reusing
> the Latin x letter due to its metrics, graphical features and styles ;
> - A dash-like symbol (possibly an underscore-like symbol too),
> however reusing the dash may cause line breaking and word breaking issues ;
> - NBSP (and possibly SPACE, but with line breaking issues,
> especially in plain-text Emails)
>
> Philippe.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Brian Wilson [mailto:bountonw@gmail.com] wrote :
> *Envoyé :* mercredi 11 juillet 2007 18:02
> *À :* verdy_p@wanadoo.fr
> *Cc :* James Kass; unicode@unicode.org; Anousak Souphavanh
> *Objet :* Re: Phetsarat font, Lao unicode
>
>
>
> I have just been to Laos last week and purchased the two latest
> dictionaries. I also have seen elementary school primers. These all list
> the consonants and vowels separately as Thai. In Thai, the convention is to
> use a hyphen type symbol as the base character. In Lao, it is to use an x
> type symbol.
>
> I do not see the point in opening up the possibilities for expanding an
> infinite number of base character possibilities. As Thai and Lao are close
> cousins, I would go for over kill and allow vowels in both languages to
> attach to either an "-" or an "x" base character.
>
> Brian
>
>
>
-- Brian Wilson, Director Mission College Translation Center P.O. Box 4 Muaklek, Saraburi 18180 THAILAND Tel: 66-36-344-777 ext 1221 Mobile: 66-86-921-0108 Fax: 66-36-341-629
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