Fwd: Unicode Transliteration Guidelines released

From: David Weinberg (davidweinb@googlemail.com)
Date: Mon Jan 28 2008 - 14:49:48 CST

  • Next message: Kenneth Whistler: "Re: Fwd: Unicode Transliteration Guidelines released"

    I'm still waiting for an answer -- or a reason why none is forthcoming.

    ---------- Forwarded message ----------
    From: David Weinberg <davidweinb@googlemail.com>
    Date: 27.01.2008 22:37

    Mark,

    why UNGEGN and not ISO?
    or: What is the purpose of these trans"literation" charts?

    Only when we know the purpose, we can see whether they serve it well or do
    not.

    I agree with Jony that there should be hundreds of transcription charts --
    one for each pair of languages.
    But there should be only ONE transLITERation chart for each script pair.

    David

    2008/1/27, Mark Davis <mark.davis@icu-project.org>:
    David, Jony,

    These are not made of whole cloth. The goal of the transliteration
    schemes is to follow established sources, deviating sometimes where
    necessary for reversibility. In both of these cases, the sources are
    the UN.

    The sources are generally described in the comments in the source
    file. So for Arabic, you'd look in:

    http://www.unicode.org/cldr/data/common/transforms/Arabic-Latin.xml

    and find a reference to the UNGEGN tables:
    http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom1_ar.pdf

    Similarly for Hebrew, which also follows UNGEGN:
    http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom1_he.pdf

    Now of course, there may be problems in the data. If you find any, you
    can file a bug requesting a change, as described in the document. Or
    if you would like to see some alternate methods added, you are free to
    propose them (as described earlier in this thread).

    Mark



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