[Biblical-languages] A threat to the integrity of theHebrewlanguage?

Karljürgen Feuerherm cuneiform at rogers.com
Fri Jul 18 17:29:24 EDT 2003


Ken,

I made the same remark about kludginess on the Unicode list, and
particularly emphasised that in my view the better solution would be to fix
the inconvenient bits in the existing encoding; but as PK pointed out, the
political consequences seem to preclude that (and JC, if you're listening,
no slight is intended by the use of the term 'political').

So it looks like it will be one kludge or another; the matter is keeping it
to a minimum.

As far as that goes, a lot of discussion went on on the nature of the break
character, and that has some not too great consequences as well.

Let's hope for the best.

K
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Penner" <pennerkm at mcmaster.ca>
To: <peter.r.kirk at ntlworld.com>; "'Biblical Languages'"
<biblical-languages at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003 1:22 PM
Subject: RE: [Biblical-languages] A threat to the integrity of
theHebrewlanguage?


> Please let me know how you react to these two proposals and which
> general approach you prefer. I will pass on any comments I receive
> (unless requested otherwise) to those who are considering the
> proposal,
> via the Unicode list, or more personally if requested or if
> that seems more appropriate to me.

Dear Peter,

My PhD research is on the changes in the Hebrew verbal system between the
Bible and the Mishnah, using the Dead Sea Scrolls as evidence. Besides this,
I am currently encoding Qumran Hebrew texts into Unicode. I certainly do not
want to see the Biblical texts encoded differently than the Dead Sea Scrolls
or the Mishnah! Your "alternative proposal" using a BREAK character is far
preferable. Even though at first glance it looks like a kludge, it is more
elegant (simple) than the original proposal. Kludges are to be avoided
because they do not take all possible future scenarios into account. But the
Biblical text is a closed set; there are no unforeseen circumstances. Even
if there were, your proposal using a BREAK character is still extremely
versatile.

The Dead Sea Scrolls include scrolls of biblical texts (not always agreeing
with BHS), and quote biblical material in otherwise non-biblical documents
(as so do the rabbinic writings). If I wished to vocalize such texts, which
encoding would I use? The current encoding? Or the new?

Feel free to quote me by name.

Ken Penner, M.C.S. (Regent College), M.A. (McMaster)
Ph.D. (cand.), Religious Studies,
Biblical Field (Early Judaism major)
McMaster University
Hamilton, Canada
pennerkm at mcmaster.ca
Vocabulary Memorisation Software:
http://socserv.socsci.mcmaster.ca/westerholm/flash or http://sensoft.nav.to

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