L2/06-292 To: Unicode Technical Committee From: Deborah Anderson, Script Encoding Initiative, UC Berkeley Subject: Re: Public Review Issue #83: Glyph change for Cyrillic Omega with Titlo I have reviewed the correspondence and public feedback regarding Public Review Issue #83 Changing Glyph for U+047C/U+047D Cyrillic Omega with Titlo. Background: The original question about U+047C/U+047D Cyrillic Omega with Titlo was posed by Alexander Kh. on 20 May 2005 over the Unicode list on why this particular combination appears in Unicode. The characters appeared in Unicode 1.1, but there is no decomposition into CYRILLIC OMEGA and COMBINING CYRILLIC TITLO. Ralph Cleminson suggests (pp. 3-4 in L2/06-042) that U+047C (/U+047D) is probably meant to represent the character used in exclamations (as "o!"), and this identification has been repeated by others (Grinchuk 2005, Kruykov 2005, and Berdnikov & Lapko 1999). Such an explanation would account for there being no decomposition into omega + titlo. Cleminson and Grinchuk say the character used in exclamations is typically represented with an omega that is broad-shaped. (Images are provided by Cleminson in L2/06-011, and Grinchuk lists reference works in his feedback dated 14 December 2005.) As to the exact identification of the diacritic, Grinchuk (14 Dec 2005) and Kruykov (5 Sept. 2005) call it a "great apostrophe" and Grinchuk says it derives from Greek smooth breathing and circumflex (but it is not a titlo). Cleminson prefers not to enter into the debate, but also states firmly it is not a titlo (L2/06-031, L2/06-942). Note: Mikhail Grinchuk (14 December 2005) and Alexej Kruykov (5 Sept. 2005) state that the omega and diacritic combination is called a "beautiful omega" (krasivaya omega). Suggested Action: a. Modify the glyph to a broad-based omega with a diacritic, such as that in the Cleminson's Dilyana font. b. Add the following annotations: * used in exclamations * the name is a misnomer, as the diacritic is not a titlo. This is acceptable to Ralph Cleminson; I await word back from Grinchuk and Kruykov. References: Berdnikov, Alexander and Olga Lapko. 1999. яld Slavonic and Church Slavonic in TeX and Unicode.ѠIn EuroTeX ӹ9 Proceedings, see http://www.uni-giessen.de/partosch/eurotex99/berdnikov2.pdf Cleminson, Ralph. 2006. Feedback on PRI #83. L2 Doc L2/06-031. Feedback received 9 Jan 2006. ----------. 10 Jan 2006. L2Doc L2/06-011 Cyrillic Omega with Titlo. ----------. 26 Jan 2006 L2 Doc L2/06-042 Proposal for Additional Cyrillic Characters. Grinchuk, Mikhail. 2005. Feedback on PRI #83. L2 Doc L2/06-031. Feedback received 14 December 2005. ----------. 2006. Feedback on PRI#83. L2 Doc L2/06-274. Feedback received 25 July 2006. Kruykov, Alexej. 5 September 2005. Email to Unicode list. ----------. 1 October 2005 Email to Unicode list. Deborah Anderson Researcher, Dept. of Linguistics, UC Berkeley Proj. Leader, Script Encoding Initiative http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei NOTE NEW Email: dwanders@sonic.net (or dwanders@berkeley.edu)