From: John H. Jenkins (jenkins@apple.com)
Date: Wed Apr 05 2006 - 17:30:16 CST
On Apr 5, 2006, at 4:23 PM, Kenneth Whistler wrote:
> The straightforward way to approach a Unicode encoding is to
> encode the Phaistos 45 sign list *as* a sign list and be done
> with it. 45 symbols, used in discourse about the decipherment
> of this thingum from Crete. Add one more oblique stroke symbol
> for the people that want to talk about that mark on the basic
> 45 signs. The encodings of "punctuation" for a sign separator and
> start of text are just bogus. Those are artifacts of unrolling
> the delineation of text elements from the disc, and are no more
> needed encoded as "Phaistos script" punctuation characters than we
> needed characters to represent the lines that box out text on
> cuneiform tablets.
>
> So no script assignment.
>
> No letters. No punctuation.
>
> 45 + 1 signs. gc=So. PHAISTOS DISC SIGN YADDA YADDA
>
> And you'd have an encoding that would sail through.
>
I would be perfectly happy with this, BTW. IMHO the disk is unlikely
to be deciphered and I doubt we'll ever see another example, so
functionally the elements can be treated as symbols without full
support for them as a developed writing system. If and when I'm
proven wrong, we can revisit the issue.
========
John H. Jenkins
jenkins@apple.com
jhjenkins@mac.com
http://homepage.mac.com/jhjenkins/
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