Bidi Classification

From: Michael Everson (everson@indigo.ie)
Date: Thu Aug 14 1997 - 16:34:24 EDT


I'm working on the proposal for Egyptian Hieroglyphs for Plane 1. Egyptian
has directionality problems; one reads into the faces of the animals and
people, which means that texts can be either R-L or L-R. I was at an
exhibition of Egyptian stuff at the Detroit Institute of the Arts and there
were numerous examples of objects with identical texts mirrored on both
sides of a centre line. A long Book of the Dead papyrus was on display,
generally it was R-L; modern editions almost universally print L-R.

Issue: Shall Egyptian be given a default directionality? How do we decide
what it is? How will it be overriden?

--
Michael Everson, Everson Gunn Teoranta
15 Port Chaeimhghein Íochtarach; Baile Átha Cliath 2; Éire (Ireland)
Gutháin:  +353 1 478-2597, +353 1 283-9396
http://www.indigo.ie/egt
27 Páirc an Fhéithlinn; Baile an Bhóthair; Co. Átha Cliath; Éire



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