Re: Aramaic unification and information retrieval

From: Peter Kirk (peterkirk@qaya.org)
Date: Mon Dec 22 2003 - 09:12:45 EST

  • Next message: Werner LEMBERG: "cp1362 mapping?"

    On 22/12/2003 04:48, Michael Everson wrote:

    > At 04:27 -0800 2003-12-22, Peter Kirk wrote:
    >
    >> In view of this, I call for a review of the roadmaps and in
    >> particular of the status of the Aramaic, Palmyrene, Nabataean,
    >> Elymaic and Hatran scripts.
    >
    >
    > We heard you the last time, Peter. We know that this is a concern of
    > yours.

    I have been told before that if I want serious action to take place I
    should not rely on these lists, but should submit a formal request via
    the feedback form. That is why I have done so.

    > ...
    >
    >> The separate status of Phoenician may also need to be reconsidered.
    >
    >
    > Absolutely not. Phoenician is the mother of these scripts and Greek
    > and Old Italic besides. Greek and Old Italic did *not* descend from
    > "Hebrew", and it is pernicious to go on suggesting that Phoenician
    > should be unified with Hebrew. ...

    This argument is irrelevant. Greek etc are of course separate scripts
    and no one is suggesting unification here. Cyrillic and Coptic descend
    from an ancient form of Greek, not from modern Greek, and the modern
    small Greek letters are of more recent origin, but that is not an
    argument for disunifying ancient and modern Greek.

    But note that my main concern at present is with Aramaic and its
    variants, not Phoenician.

    > ...
    >
    >> Note that I am calling for a review only of scripts listed in N2311
    >> as not in current use.
    >
    >
    > Please do not force us to undertake this review NOW. We do not have
    > the resources to do so effectively and already this thread has taken
    > up far too much time and energy. We have explained to you that nothing
    > actionable is happening with any of this material at present. How many
    > times do I have to say that?

    Maybe nothing is happening, but something should be happening, for the
    reasons described in my submission that scholars are confused. I will
    continue to call for the errors to be corrected until they are
    corrected, or at least until there is a recognition that there is an
    issue here which requires proper attention when time permits. So, if you
    don't want to do this review NOW, at least say that you are planning to
    do this review and that pending the review the status of these
    roadmapped scripts is uncertain.

    -- 
    Peter Kirk
    peter@qaya.org (personal)
    peterkirk@qaya.org (work)
    http://www.qaya.org/
    


    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Dec 22 2003 - 10:00:06 EST