From: Richard Wordingham (richard.wordingham@ntlworld.com)
Date: Thu Apr 06 2006 - 14:09:22 CST
Kenneth Whistler wrote:
> If you and John Jenkins would stop talking about the Phaistos Disc
> "script" and the "users of the script", there would be much less
> controversy about encoding.
>
> Furthermore, your suggested properties aggravate the problem,
> by claiming that these are all "letters" (gc=Lo). That claim
> has undesirable implications -- for example, they would automatically
> be included in the definition of identifiers.
>
> 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.
I'd like to suggest another change to the properties.
The proposal says, 'Consensus is that the text of the disc was written from
outside to the centre; some overlapping signs suggest this as the order that
the stamps were pressed into the clay. Such a reading would be into the
faces of the characters, a practice which is also found in Egyptian and
Luwian. Because the overwhelming majority of texts which discusses Phaistos
characters uses left-to-right scripts (Latin, Greek, Cyrillic), we propose
that the Phaistos Disc characters be encoded with left-to-right
directionality.'
But if the characters are specified as having a directionality of 'other
neutral' and having the Bidi-mirrored property, they will almost
automatically match the direction of the script discussing them, be it Latin
or Syriac. Moreover, users will be able to flip the characters to the
direction of their choice by use of LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE U+202D and
RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE U+202E. I therefore suggest that instead of
101D0;PHAISTOS DISC SIGN PEDESTRIAN;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; etc.(E&J)
or
101D0;PHAISTOS DISC SIGN PEDESTRIAN;So;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; etc.(KW),
the properties be specified as:
101D0;PHAISTOS DISC SIGN PEDESTRIAN;So;0;ON;;;;;Y;;;;; etc. (RW).
I have no strong view on whether they should be letters or symbols, provided
their correct meaning is whatever meaning they had when impressed.
I think 'other neutral' may also be the appropriate directionality of
Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Richard.
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