The Hebrew point HOLAM combines in two different ways with the Hebrew letter VAV. When HOLAM appears above the top right of VAV, the combination is known as holam male and is pronounced as a vowel. In modern typography holam male is not always distinguished from consonantal VAV followed by the vowel HOLAM, written with HOLAM above the top left of VAV, but the distinction is clear and significant in some texts, especially older texts. Holam male is very common in pointed Hebrew texts; consonantal VAV with HOLAM is less common but not extremely rare.
Unicode does not currently specify how to distinguish between these two sequences. Several different ways have been used in existing texts, or recommended for use with Unicode Hebrew fonts. To avoid proliferation of ad hoc solutions, it is proposed here that the UTC specify an encoding for holam male.
Four possible solutions are outlined below. The (tentatively) preferred solution is to encode holam male, when distinguished from consonantal VAV with HOLAM, as the sequence <VAV, ZWJ, HOLAM>.
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