On Thu, 27 Jul 2000, Abdul Malik wrote
> > Robert Brady wrote:
> > > On Thu, 27 Jul 2000, Abdul Malik wrote:
> > > > How am I to encode the different forms in unicode?
> > >
> > > For the last three, you can do something like
> > > BENGALI LETTER WHATEVER
> > > BENGALI VIRAMA
> > > BENGALI LETTER BA
> > > for the -va form, and
> > >
> > > BENGALI LETTER WHATEVER
> > > BENGALI VIRAMA
> > > ZERO WIDTH JOINER
> > > BENGALI LETTER BA
> > > for the -ba form.
>
> >
> > That's what I was going to post, but you were quicker ;-)
>
> What about the first example?
>
> > However, this mechanism (VIRAMA + ZWJ) should only be for forcing a
> > particular *visual* representation of the *same* orthographic entities:
> > halfConsonant + fullConsonant vs. ligature.
> >
> > In this case, Abdul Malik claims that there are also *phonetic*
> differences
> > ("bbo" vs. "bvo", "cvo" vs. "cbo", etc.). So why using this hack rather
> than
> > including a proper "va" letter?
>
> (the phonetic differences are real)
>
> > Of course, I see the problem: "ba" and "va" would be identical in most
> > cases, and this may lead to confusion (imagine having two keys showing
> > identical letters: which is which?).
>
> Yes indeed, I would put it stronger:
> Ba and Va when in isolation: both look the same, are pronunced the same, and
> are called by the same name by speakers of Bangla
> so a hack method looks to me to be more favourable.
> Having said that, It is definately *not* an ideal or good solution.
>
> > Nevertheless, there are several examples of characters that are exactly
> the
> > same visually, but have been kept separate on the bases that they are
> > logically different.
> >
> > E.g., the isolate and final forms of U+06CC ARABIC LETTER FARSI YEH are
> > identical to U+0649 ARABIC LETTER ALEF MAKSURA [...]
>
> So how do I know wich key to press on my keyboard?
>
Shouldn't it(ba or va) be the same key on your keyboard? As both Ba and
Va are
differing only visually and give different results only for the
particualr combinations(as in your example).
>
>
>
> Abdul
>
Dhrubajyoti Banerjee
E.T. Gist/Software Umashankar Co-op Housing Society
C-DAC Plot No. 155/1/5
Pune University Campus Aundh
Ganesh Khind PUNE-411007
PUNE-411007
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