Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>]

On 17/07/2003 01:45, Pere Casanellas wrote:

> Dear Peter,
>
> Linguist's Software has an excellent font with Babylonian supralinear 
> pointing (Hebraica II Supra). I think Phil Payne, from Linguist's 
> Software, is well diposed to redesign this font as UNICODE, if a 
> proposal for these characters is approved. Maybe he could give some 
> help to make a proposal (they have an Hebrew Unicode font with 
> Tiberian vocalization).
>
> I am writing my thesis on the Targum. I am using mainly Yemenite 
> manuscripts with supralinear vocalization and could help if necessary. 
> I could  contact other scholars of the International Organization of 
> Targum Studies, by means of the Targum List, if necessary. I could 
> give some help starting on September.
>
> This standard would be useful for many scholars.
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> --
> Pere Casanellas
> E-mail: pere.casanellas AT btlink.net
>         pcasanel AT pie.xtec.es
> http://www.pere.casanellas.com/bible
> Barcelona
> CATALONIA (Spain)
>
> ==================================================
>
> At 03:16 16/07/2003 -0700, Peter Kirk wrote:
>
> > On 16/07/2003 02:51, Trevor & Julie Peterson wrote:
> > Someone has been working on a proposal for the Babylonian and other 
> > non-Tiberian vowel points, but progress has been slow or 
> > non-existent. Probably more expert help is needed, which you, Trevor, 
> > might be able to give. I could put you in touch with the intending 
> > proposer, off list. Mind  you, the Aramaic, Phoenician etc outline 
> > proposals have not been progressing for several years either, but 
> > they are in the queue and the roadmap so a little ahead of the 
> > Babylonian etc pointing. But it is the kind of queue which can be 
> > jumped quite easily if anyone wants to put in the necessary effort 
> > e.g. to draft a formal proposal and to gather some scholarly and 
> > technial support. The proposals that languish are ones which are put 
> > forward for completeness rather than usefulness.
> >
> > --
> > Peter Kirk
Thank you, Pere. I am sending a blind copy of this to my contact who is 
working on a proposal for such scripts. I am sure she will be 
interested. I hope she may contact you directly.

I have seen the Linguist's Software Hebrew Unicode fonts, and I am 
impressed, although I prefer to use the SIL ones as I was involved in 
defining them (and for cost reasons!)

The International Organization of Targum Studies may also be interested 
in the existence of a separate Unicode proposal for Aramaic. If this 
does proceed, it would presumably be unclear whether Targumic, biblical 
etc Aramaic, printed in the same Aramaic square script that is generally 
used for Hebrew, should be encoded as Aramaic or as Hebrew. Such an 
issue would be appropriate for the Unicode list. My comments on the 
subject there were restricted by my limited feel of the entire corpus of 
ancient Aramaic texts (excluding Syriac), how it is split between Jewish 
texts e.g. biblical, Targums, Talmud; inscriptions and papyri; and 
anything else. If the Jewish material is the majority and is written in 
Hebrew (i.e. Aramaic square) script, there would be a strong argument 
against introducing into Unicode a separate Aramaic script for 
inscriptional material only.

--
Peter Kirk
peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~peterkirk/