Re: Mende Kikakui Number 10

From: Philippe Verdy <verdy_p_at_wanadoo.fr>
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2016 08:52:59 +0200

Given that there's no digit for zero, you need to append combining
characters to digits 1-9 in order to multiply them by a base
10/100/1,000/10,000/100,000/1,000,000. The system is then additive. I don't
know how zero is represented. Note that for base 10, when the first digit
is 1 (i.e. for numbers 11-19), the combining character is not 1E8D1 (TENS)
but 1E8D0 (TEENS), i.e. the slash-like glyph. But the description says that
TEENS is only for numbers 11-19, not for number 10.

But I agree that there should be a reference in
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1E800.pdf, to the description in
http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode8.0.0/ch19.pdf (section 19.8, pages
722-723) that would explain how to render 10 (add some rows in table 19-6
for the numbers 10/100/.../1,000,000).

This leaves a hole in the description. I'm not sure that the glyph for PU
is exactly the glyph for 10. Or what is the appropriate sequence:
ONE+TENS (1E8C7,1E8D1) or ONE+TEENS (1E8C7,1E8D0) ? The description is
ambiguous, and probably both sequences should produce the equivalent glyph.
However the letter PU (when meaning number 10) looks more like the glyph
produced by ONE+TEN (1E8C7,1E8D1).

Then how to represent zero ? Probably by a syllable or word meaning "none"
(don't know which it is), or by using European or Arabic digits (as
indicated in Chapter 19).

2016-06-10 8:15 GMT+02:00 Andrew Cunningham <lang.support_at_gmail.com>:

> Ok looking at issue again I guess the other alternative is to have a
> discontiguous set of numbers. Represent 10 as U+1E8C7 U+1E8D1 and map it
> within the font to the PU glyph.
>
> And hope that font developers don't create a glyph based on shape of
> U+1E8C7 and U+1E8D1, but PU instead.
>
> Andrew
>
>
> On Friday, 10 June 2016, Andrew Cunningham <lang.support_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> > Currently I am doing some work on the Mende Kikakui script, and I was
> wondering what the best way was to represent the number 10.
> > In the early proposals for the script there was a glyph and codepoint
> specifically for the number 10. When the model for Mende Kikakui numbers
> was changed before the finalising of the code block, the number ten was
> removed. But using existing digits and numbers we can produce 1-9 and 11 ->
> but we can not produce the number 10 from digits and numbers.
> > The number ten uses the same glyph as syllable PU U+1E88E.
> > Should I use U+1E88E to represent both the number 10 and the syllable PU?
> > Andrew
> >
> > --
> > Andrew Cunningham
> > lang.support_at_gmail.com
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> Andrew Cunningham
> lang.support_at_gmail.com
>
>
>
>
Received on Fri Jun 10 2016 - 01:54:27 CDT

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