Re: Greek characters in IPA usage

From: Doug Ewell (doug@ewellic.org)
Date: Mon Aug 17 2009 - 23:16:20 CDT

  • Next message: Julian Bradfield: "Re: Greek characters in IPA usage"

    Asmus Freytag <asmusf at ix dot netcom dot com> wrote:

    > Your simple question needs to be restated:
    > What is more appropriate:
    > a) continue as before
    > b) a disruptive continuity
    > c) a less disruptive encoding that embodies a clean fallback
    >
    > My vote is for "c" (realized via VS). In my take, the
    > "latinization" of these characters in the IPA context is primarily a
    > typographical issue. There's little else that distinguishes them from
    > ordinary alphabetical characters that are simply part of a special
    > notation. They are not used in contrast with other shapes of the same
    > letters. Using a VS allows that to be expressed, retains compatible
    > support for all tools, and users who coninue in the old ways are
    > "punished" by poor typography rather than by failed searches.

    I've come to agree with Asmus on this, though I'm not sure it's for
    exactly the same reason.

    A VS that means, essentially, "render this Greek letter using Latin
    typographical norms" will be needed and used by almost nobody, which
    means existing IPA content (without the VS) will continue to be valid
    and rendered acceptably, even by VS-ignorant engines. But the "good
    typography" solution will at least be available for those who care.

    --
    Doug Ewell  *  Thornton, Colorado, USA  *  RFC 4645  *  UTN #14
    http://www.ewellic.org
    http://www1.ietf.org/html.charters/ltru-charter.html
    http://www.alvestrand.no/mailman/listinfo/ietf-languages  ˆ
    


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