From: Marco Cimarosti (marco.cimarosti@essetre.it)
Date: Fri Nov 07 2003 - 05:34:34 EST
Peter Jacobi wrote:
> IMHO this doesn't fit well actual Tamil use and raises a lot
> of practical problems.
>
> Either there must be an accepted list of these ligatures (but lists of
> archaic usage tend to grow), or one is bound to put a preemptive ZWNJ
> after every SHA VIRAMA in modern use, to prevent conjunct consonant
> forming.
>
> If this archaic ligature problems extends to other grantha
> consonants, even more preemptive ZWNJs are necessary for
> contempary Tamil.
"Archaic" ligatures are supposed to be present only in a font designed for
reproducing an "archaic" look. Those fonts should not be used for
typesetting modern Tamil.
There is nothing special with Tamil here: this would be true for any other
script.
E.g., if you typeset this English e-mail with a Fraktur OpenType font many
"archaic" ligatures might appear, such as "ch" or "ss". Moreover, unexpected
contextual forms could appear: e.g., the "s" in "special" could look very
different from the "s" in "ligatures" ("long s" vs. "short s").
ZWNJ's etc. should be inserted only in special cases, e.g. when the presence
or absence of a ligature would change the meaning of the word, or anyway
affect the meaning of the text.
_ Marco
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