Re: Latin IPA letter a

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

>>> In Times New Roman, which is the default font for MS Word (probably
>>> the best known word processor), the letters “a” and “ɑ” are
>>> indistinguishable in italics.
>>
>> That is a fault of the font.
>
> No, the font does what it's supposed to, which is to give the correct
> rendering of the letter 'a' for use in ordinary text. The problem is
> in Unicode's unification of the generic letter a with the IPA letter
> 'a', which has a restricted glyph range, and, as we now find out, must
> be treated differently when styles are applied.

I think Michael was finding fault, not with the italicizing of "a"
(U+0061) in fonts, but with that of "ɑ" (U+0251), a much less common
letter, one for which I can't find usage other than in IPA, which
*normally* wouldn't be italicized.

--
Doug Ewell | Thornton, Colorado, USA | RFC 5645, 4645, UTN #14
www.ewellic.org | www.facebook.com/doug.ewell | @DougEwell ­