Hebrew Sof Pasuq etc (was: Unicode Public Review Issues update)

From: Peter Kirk (peter.r.kirk@ntlworld.com)
Date: Sat Jul 26 2003 - 08:04:48 EDT

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    An edited version of my previous posting on this subject. This version I
    am also formally submitting to the public review process.

    I was surprised to see U+05C3 # HEBREW PUNCTUATION SOF PASUQ listed as
    neither Terminal_Punctuation nor Sentence_Terminal. A major use of this
    character is to indicate the end of a verse in the Hebrew Bible
    (although it is missing from the end of a few verses). It is also used
    as the equivalent of a full stop in other Hebrew writings such as prayer
    books. It is certainly used only at the end of a word, and so should
    surely be classed as Terminal_Punctuation.

    Within the Hebrew Bible text, which does not use full stop or any other
    sentence terminating punctuation, the only real analogue of a sentence
    is a verse. When U+05C3 is used in other contexts it is equivalent to a
    full stop. So it would be sensible to class U+05C3 also as
    Sentence_Terminal.

    U+05C0 # HEBREW PUNCTUATION PASEQ is also used only at the ends of
    words, although it does not mark a major break. It should probably be
    classed as Terminal_Punctuation.

    U+05BE # HEBREW PUNCTUATION MAQAF is also often considered to be a word
    divider and so might also be classed as Terminal_Punctuation. Its usage
    is analogous to that of hyphen, which I was surprised to see not listed
    as any kind of punctuation. U+05BE should also be listed in UAX#14 as a
    "break opportunity after" along with U+2010, as line breaks commonly
    occur after U+05BE in printed pointed Hebrew texts.

    -- 
    Peter Kirk
    peter.r.kirk@ntlworld.com
    http://web.onetel.net.uk/~peterkirk/
    


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