To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>, Biblical Languages <biblical-languages AT lists.ibiblio.org>, UNICODE AT LSV.UKY.EDU, hebrewcomputing AT yahoogroups.com
Cc:
Subject: [b-hebrew] Unicode Holam proposals
Date: Sun, 01 Aug 2004 00:14:31 +0100
Please excuse the cross posting of an announcement which is relevant to
members of several groups (and a few individuals receiving blind copies).
I have submitted to the Unicode Technical Committee, in the name of a
small group of Hebrew experts, a new proposal for solving the long
standing problem of distinguishing between Holam Male (full Holem) and
Vav Haluma (consonantal Waw with defective Holem) in Unicode Hebrew
texts. You may read this proposal (which is much shorter than the old
proposal submitted in June) at
http://www.qaya.org/academic/hebrew/Holam3.pdf, or ...Holam3.html. This
proposal is based on using the ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER character to
distinguish between Holam Male and Vav Haluma. This proposal was based
on the consensus preference of a number of experts in ancient and modern
Hebrew who contributed to the discussion.
An alternative proposal has been submitted by Michael Everson, a
generalist script expert and Indo-Europeanist with little knowledge of
Hebrew, and Mark Shoulson, an American Jew. This alternative proposal
(which should soon be available at
http://www.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n2840.pdf but is not what you
currently get when you go to that URL) is for a new character for use as
Holam Haser (defective Holem) only when used with Vav. This proposal is,
in my opinion, based on clear misunderstandings of how the Hebrew script
works.
The Hebrew experts involved in the discussions have clearly rejected the
principle of encoding a new character for a variant Holam. Nevertheless,
some influential people in the Unicode Consortium seem determined to
impose on Hebrew script users a new character which they do not want.
The alternative may not be rendered precisely correctly with some older
rendering engines (but in practice probably can be by any engine which
can handle right-to-left script), but it is based clearly on how the
Hebrew script works.
I invite all interested parties, especially regular users of Hebrew
script, to make comments on the proposal I have submitted, and on the
alternative proposal if they are able to find it. Comments should be
made directly to the Unicode Consortium via
http://www.unicode.org/reporting.html, or by e-mail to
human3 AT unicode.org. They should be made before the Unicode Technical
Committee meeting which starts on 10th August. I will be happy to
receive copies of any comments.
--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/
[b-hebrew] Unicode Holam proposals,
Peter Kirk, 07/31/2004