IPA is not a script

From: Michael Everson (everson@indigo.ie)
Date: Mon Nov 16 1998 - 14:24:03 EST


Ar 10:54 -0800 1998-11-16, scríobh John Cowan:
>Michael Everson scripsit:
>
>> Not at all. Of course IPA is Latin -- it simply doesn't make _use_ of case
>> distinctions, which is a matter of practicality to ensure simplicity and
>> legibility of transcriptions.
>
>I can't agree. IPA is shape-sensitive in a way that Latin is not:
>the letterforms are (in principle) fixed, a bit like the Zapf
>Dingbats block.

We disagree! IPA has plain and italic styles. Sure, there are some
restrictions on preferred glyphs, but the letters are NOT fixed.

>Unicode kludges around this, but doesn't really
>satisfy it.

Except for the three "Greek" characters UCS does fine for representing the
Latin characters used for the IPA.

>Xerox Character Code, OTOH, had a completely separate
>IPA block, caseless and with fixed glyphs.

I just can't accept IPA being another script different from Latin. It's not
even historically true. It reminds me of the EZH/YOGH issue.

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



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