ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N1658
L2/98-022 DATE: 1997-12-08
DOC TYPE:	Expert contribution
TITLE:	Proposal to encode Coptic in ISO/IEC 10646
SOURCE:	Michael Everson, EGT (IE)
PROJECT:	JTC1.02.18.01
STATUS:	Proposal.
ACTION ID:	FYI
DUE DATE:	--
DISTRIBUTION:	Worldwide
MEDIUM:	Paper and web
NO. OF PAGES:	4

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A. Administrative
1. Title	Proposal to encode Coptic in ISO/IEC 10646
2. Requester's name	Michael Everson
3. Requester type	Expert request
4. Submission date	1997-12-08
5. Requester's reference
6a. Completion	This is not a complete proposal.
6b. More information to be provided?	Yes

B. Technical -- General
1a. New script? Name?	No. There are some Coptic characters already in the standard.
1b. Addition of characters to existing block? Name?	No. Addition of cheracters of an existing script to a new block, or extension of the Greek Symbols and Coptic block
2. Number of characters	57+
3. Proposed category	Category C
4. Proposed level of implementation and rationale	Level 3, because of combining marks used
5a. Character names included in proposal?	Yes
5b. Character names in accordance with guidelines?	Yes
5c. Character shapes reviewable?	Yes
6a. Who will provide computerized font?	Michael Everson, Everson Gunn Teoranta
6b. Font currently available?	Michael Everson, Everson Gunn Teoranta
6c. Font format?	TrueType
7a. Are references (to other character sets, dictionaries, descriptive texts, etc.) provided?	No.
7b. Are published examples (such as samples from newspapers, magazines, or other sources) of use of proposed characters attached?	No
8. Does the proposal address other aspects of character data processing?	No

C. Technical -- Justification
1. Contact with the user community?	Yes. Tito Orlandi, John Fiscella, Kamal Mansour
2. Information on the user community?	Scholarly and ecclesiastical community.
3a. The context of use for the proposed characters?	Used to write Coptic.
3b. Reference
4a. Proposed characters in current use?	Yes
4b. Where?	By scholars and churchmen.
5a. Characters should be encoded entirely in BMP?	Yes.
5b. Rationale	Other Coptic characters are already in the BMP.
6. Should characters be kept in a continuous range?	No
7a. Can the characters be considered a presentation form of an existing character or character sequence?	Like Cyrillic and Gothic, Coptic is derived from Greek, but is a unique alphabetic writing system.
7b. Where?
7c. Reference
8a. Can any of the characters be considered to be similar (in appearance or function) to an existing character?	No
8b. Where?
8c. Reference
9a. Combining characters or use of composite sequences included?	Yes, but further research is required on the combining characters used in Coptic.
9b. List of composite sequences and their corresponding glyph images provided?	No
10. Characters with any special properties such as control function, etc. included?	No

D. SC2/WG2 Administrative To be completed by SC2/WG2
1. Relevant SC 2/WG 2 document numbers:
2. Status (list of meeting number and corresponding action or disposition)
3. Additional contact to user communities, liaison organizations etc.	TC46/SC2
4. Assigned category and assigned priority/time frame
Other Comments

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Issues

Further research is required on the signs and punctuation marks used with Coptic. These should be added to the proposal. The code table shows (in the last two columns) samples of precomposed characters in current coded character sets (fonts) for Coptic. The possibility of encoding these characters as fully composed characters for compatibility with existing encodings should be discussed. The code table also shows the existing Coptic characters in the standard in their correct alphabetical order. Obviously these will not appear in the final code table.

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Names and code table

xx00 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER ALFA xx01 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER VIDA xx02 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA xx03 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER DALDA xx04 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER EIE xx05 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER SOU xx06 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER ZATA xx07 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER HATE xx08 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER THETHE xx09 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER IAUDA xx0A COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER KAPA xx0B COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER LAULA xx0C COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER MI xx0D COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER NI xx0E COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER KSI xx0F COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER O xx10 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER PI xx11 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER RO xx12 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER SIMA xx13 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER TAU xx14 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER UA xx15 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER FI xx16 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER KHI xx17 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER PSI xx18 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER OOU 03E2 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER SHEI 03E4 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER FEI 03E6 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER KHEI xx1C COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER AKHMIMIC KHEI 03E8 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER HORI 03EA COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER GANGIA 03EC COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER SHIMA 03EE COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER DEI xx21 COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER STAUROS xx22 (This position shall not be used) xx23 (This position shall not be used) xx24 (This position shall not be used) xx25 (This position shall not be used) xx26 (This position shall not be used) xx27 (This position shall not be used) xx28 (This position shall not be used) xx29 (This position shall not be used) xx2A (This position shall not be used) xx2B (This position shall not be used) xx2C (This position shall not be used) xx2D (This position shall not be used) xx2E (This position shall not be used) xx2F (This position shall not be used) xx30 COPTIC SMALL LETTER ALFA xx31 COPTIC SMALL LETTER VIDA xx32 COPTIC SMALL LETTER GAMMA xx33 COPTIC SMALL LETTER DALDA xx34 COPTIC SMALL LETTER EIE xx35 COPTIC SMALL LETTER SOU xx36 COPTIC SMALL LETTER ZATA xx37 COPTIC SMALL LETTER HATE xx38 COPTIC SMALL LETTER THETHE xx39 COPTIC SMALL LETTER IAUDA xx3A COPTIC SMALL LETTER KAPA xx3B COPTIC SMALL LETTER LAULA xx3C COPTIC SMALL LETTER MI xx3D COPTIC SMALL LETTER NI xx3E COPTIC SMALL LETTER KSI xx3F COPTIC SMALL LETTER O xx40 COPTIC SMALL LETTER PI xx41 COPTIC SMALL LETTER RO xx42 COPTIC SMALL LETTER SIMA xx43 COPTIC SMALL LETTER TAU xx44 COPTIC SMALL LETTER UA xx45 COPTIC SMALL LETTER FI xx46 COPTIC SMALL LETTER KHI xx47 COPTIC SMALL LETTER PSI xx48 COPTIC SMALL LETTER OOU 03E3 COPTIC SMALL LETTER SHEI 03E5 COPTIC SMALL LETTER FEI 03E7 COPTIC SMALL LETTER KHEI xx4C COPTIC SMALL LETTER AKHMIMIC KHEI 03E9 COPTIC SMALL LETTER HORI 03EB COPTIC SMALL LETTER GANGIA 03ED COPTIC SMALL LETTER SHIMA 03EF COPTIC SMALL LETTER DEI xx51 COPTIC SMALL LETTER STAUROS xx52 (This position shall not be used) xx53 (This position shall not be used) xx54 (This position shall not be used) xx55 (This position shall not be used) xx56 (This position shall not be used) xx57 (This position shall not be used) xx58 (This position shall not be used) xx59 (This position shall not be used) xx5A (This position shall not be used) xx5B COPTIC SYLLABIC MARK xx5C COPTIC HYPHEN xx5D COPTIC DIVISOR xx5E COPTIC DOUBLE PUNCTUATION xx5F COPTIC SINGLE PUNCTUATION

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HTML Michael Everson, everson@indigo.ie, http://www.indigo.ie/egt, Dublin, 1997-12-08