From: Michael Everson (everson@evertype.com)
Date: Wed Apr 28 2004 - 12:15:59 EDT
At 11:51 -0400 2004-04-28, jcowan@reutershealth.com wrote:
>Michael Everson scripsit:
>
>> N2746
> > Final proposal for encoding the Phoenician script in the UCS
>
>I know you're busy,
Yes, I am. I am in Philadelphia trying to make sense of the
complexities of N'Ko, a RTL script used in West Africa.
>but I still want to see an explication here of exactly
>why these various abjads are being encoded separately from Hebrew, given
>that there is a one-to-one mapping and a continuous path of mutual
>intelligibility.
The same can be said for Coptic, Greek, and Gothic.
Because Hebrew is only *one* of Phoenician's descendants and because
there is a requirement to distinguish the two in plain text. There
exist Hebrew texts and Greek texts which use this script to display
the Tetragrammaton, for instance. There exist books which have
nothing to do with Hebrew which discuss the Phoenician script qua
script. Structural one-to-oneness does not by default exclude a
script from being separately encoded. Compare the scripts of India.
Theban is something else again. For instance.
If you wish to represent Phoenician-language text with Hebrew
transliteration, nothing prevents you. Plenty of people do. You can
transliterate it into Mongolian too. The user community for the
Phoenician script is not limited to the set of Semiticists who can
read ancient Semitic languages. Phoenician, Greek, and other scripts
are often discussed in educational material
Including a wonderful book you once sent me, John, from which a
sample is taken and presented in the proposal.
To unify Hebrew and Phoenician scripts would be ahistorical at best.
A silly unification.
Phoenician has been on the table for encoding for 12 years. I am
actually astonished to see it suggested that it should be unified
with Hebrew. Print a newspaper article in French with Fraktur or
Gaelic and people will be able to read it. Print a newspaper article
in Georgian with Nuskhuri letters and no one wil be able to read it.
Print a newspaper article in Hebrew with Phoenician letters and no
one wil be able to read it.
-- Michael Everson * * Everson Typography * * http://www.evertype.com
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