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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>
  • To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>, Hebrew Computing list <hebrewcomputing AT yahoogroups.com>, Biblical Languages <biblical-languages AT lists.ibiblio.org>
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  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Tidying up Unicode Hebrew: Please indicate your support
  • Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 13:49:53 -0700

If you would like the problems with Unicode and biblical Hebrew to be fixed once and for all, please read on, or skip to "==================", read the letter that follows, and if you agree add your name and other details and return it to me.

I have had an interesting variety of responses in just a few days to my recent message "A threat to the integrity of the Hebrew language?" Most have been strongly opposed to the other proposal which I which I suggested was a threat. Only one person has given it qualified support. There has little comment on my alternative proposal, but then that is to be expected from an audience of people who mostly have limited understanding of the detailed technical issues. Further responses are of course welcome.

Peter Constable, the author of the proposal which I was responding to, has told me that in the light of criticism already received "this proposal has a very low likelihood of being pursued". On the other hand, it has apparently not been withdrawn or rejected. On that basis I will continue to collect reactions to it, but I will not distribute them further for the moment.

The most interesting response has been from some people within the Unicode Technical Committee. They have indicated that there is a real possibility that the problem could be fixed properly, by correcting the errors in the combining classes. I was told earlier that "UTC absolutely will not consider changing combining classes", but it seems that this position is not really quite so absolute. But if these classes are to be changed it will still require considerable evidence that scholars and other users of biblical Hebrew, software implementers and content providers are united in supporting the principle of the change.

And so, to give you an easy way to demonstrate your support, I am distributing the following letter, which is intended to be from the biblical Hebrew community to the Unicode Technical Committee, and also to the Internet Engineering Task Force because the UTC needs to convince the IETF to agree to this change. Please read the letter, and if you agree with it, fill in your name and other details and return the whole letter to me. I will add your details to a master copy, and send it on at an appropriate time. If you wish to make more detailed or personalised comments, I can pass them on as well.

Note that this letter calls for acceptance in principle of changing the combining classes but does not specify the details of such a change. The list of "custom combining classes" in Appendix B of ftp://publisher.libronix.com/drop/Tiro/SBLHebrew-Distribution/SBLHebrew-Manual.pdf may be taken as a starting point for drafting a detailed proposal. See also the section "The normalisation issue" of this manual (a draft, I think). Another, essentially equivalent, starting point is the list of canonical combining classes for the proposed new biblical Hebrew only characters in http://scripts.sil.org/cms/sites/nrsi/media/BibHebAltCharsProposal.pdf section E.3. But, as I have written in the last paragraph of the letter below, it is important that there is wide consultation before specific proposals for change are considered.

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


==================

To: The Unicode Technical Committee and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
From: Experts on ancient Hebrew and Aramaic

We, the undersigned, comprise a group of:

Scholars of biblical and other ancient Hebrew and Aramaic;
Implementers of software and fonts for input, processing and display of these languages;
Content providers making available texts in these languages.

We understand that some errors were made in specifying the combining classes of some of the characters in the Hebrew Points and Punctuation section (U+05B0 to U+05C4) of the Hebrew block of the Unicode standard. These errors were introduced in earlier versions of the standard and are still present in version 4.0.

The errors relate to the Hebrew vowel points and some other combining characters. It was intended that these vowels and points should be used for all stages and varieties of the Hebrew language. However, the canonical combining classes defined for these characters are not appropriate for ancient Hebrew and Aramaic texts, including the Bible, but only for modern languages including modern Hebrew in which vowel sequences are not used. With these classes as defined, the Unicode normalization procedure reorders these vowels and points in such a way that semantically significant distinctions in these ancient texts are lost. Therefore these texts, which are in regular use by large communities, cannot be represented properly in Unicode.

The canonical combining classes as currently defined are also in conflict with the principle that "Characters have the same class if they interact typographically, and different classes if they do not" (The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0, section 3.10, p.51, http://www.unicode.org/book/ch03.pdf). These Hebrew vowels and points do interact typographically with each other and with other marks with which they co-occur, especially Hebrew Cantillation Marks (U+0591 to U+05AF). The errors are therefore an inconsistency within the Unicode standard.

We recognize that The Unicode Standard Stability Policy (http://www.unicode.org/standard/stability_policy.html) does not generally allow changes to be made to the canonical combining classes of existing characters. However, we note that this policy does allow for exceptions to be made "when there is a clear and evident mistake identified in the Unicode Character Database". We consider that "a clear and evident mistake" has been identified in these combining classes for Hebrew Points and Punctuation, in that the classes as currently defined conflict with the general principles of Unicode and make it impossible to use these characters for the purpose for which they were defined.

The disruption to existing texts which might result from this change will be minimal. Modern Hebrew texts will be unaffected as vowel sequences are not used. Only a small number of content providers have attempted to encode in Unicode the ancient texts which might be affected. In general they support changing these combining classes because this fixes a problem which they have identified. They have indicated that they will make minor adjustments to their content if necessary in line with adjustments to the Unicode standard.

We call on the Unicode Technical Committee and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to allow changes to be made to the canonical combining classes of the combining characters in the Hebrew Points and Punctuation section (U+05B0 to U+05C4) of the Hebrew block of the Unicode standard.

We also call on the Unicode Technical Committee and the IETF to consult broadly with the community of scholars, implementers and content providers for all stages of the Hebrew language, including with ourselves, before formally considering specific proposals for adjustments of these canonical combining classes or for other changes to the Hebrew block of the Unicode standard. There are a number of other small issues with Unicode support for ancient Hebrew, and it may be necessary to propose a small number of new characters or other changes. It is important that any changes made now are made correctly and in ways which are acceptable to all users of Hebrew texts.

Name: Peter Kirk
Position: Associate Editor, Key Terms in Biblical Hebrew project
Affiliation: Independent researcher working on a project led by SIL International
E-mail address: peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com

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  • [b-hebrew] Tidying up Unicode Hebrew: Please indicate your support, Peter Kirk, 07/21/2003

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