> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marco.Cimarosti@icl.com [mailto:Marco.Cimarosti@icl.com]
> Sent: Monday, January 10, 2000 6:48 AM
...
> And, as I am at it, also CJK ideographs and Japanese kana are
> sometimes seen
> printed as horizontal RTL (see the titles in any Japanese or Taiwanese
> newspaper). So why they too are in bidi class "L", rather
> being neutral?
>
> E.g.:
> 3042;HIRAGANA LETTER A;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
> 30A2;KATAKANA LETTER A;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
> 4E00;<CJK Ideograph, First>;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;;
>
Happy New Year, Unigang.
Just got back from Tokyo, where I found the following examples of RTL
Japanese:
- A tranlation of one of Dickens' novels: text LTR, running headers
RTL katakana (stoopidly, I didn't buy it on the spot, thinking I would
return later to pick it up, and never got around to it.)
- Signage at temples and shrines. Usually a single line of only a
few kanji; reads RTL, but should be construed as a sequence of columns one
kanji deep, according to my native-speaker companion
- An Arabic phrase book, which uses interlinear katakana
transliteration, RTL so as to mirror the RTL Arabic. This one I bought, so
when I get around to it I'll put a snippet up on my website.
BTW, in each case the characters retain their ordinary orientation; it's the
sequencing of characters that runs LTR or RTL. That is, RTL lines are not
mirror images of LTR lines.
So I'd say for Japanese at least neutral would be accurate.
-gregg
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