From: Peter Kirk (peterkirk@qaya.org)
Date: Fri Dec 12 2003 - 15:25:58 EST
On 12/12/2003 11:01, Kent Karlsson wrote:
>>>Except in the original context it should have meant "infinite", as
>>>there is actually an infinite number of potential default grapheme
>>>clusters.
>>>
>>>
>>How can that be, if there is a finite number of characters that can be
>>part of a cluster, and a (presumably) finite upper bound on the number
>>of characters in a cluster?
>>
>>
>
>There is no such finite upper bound. Theoretically, that is. In practice
>the size of grapheme clusters will be fairly small. A grapheme cluster
>with 9 characters in it, say made of 3 lead Hangul jamos, 3 vowel jamos,
>and 3 trail jamos will be among the larger ones you will encounter.
>But there is no theoretical bound.
>
>
In Hebrew there are eleven slots each of which could be filled:
Base character
Sin or shin dot
Dagesh
Rafe
2 vowels
2 accents
Upper dot
Lower dot (yet to be encoded)
Masora circle
But in practice not more than six or seven occur together anywhere in
the biblical text, which is probably the most complicated.
But then, as Kent says, it would still be a valid grapheme cluster,
though meaningless, to have any combination of an unlimited number of
any of these or any other combining marks, hence the infinity.
-- Peter Kirk peter@qaya.org (personal) peterkirk@qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/
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