From: Asmus Freytag (asmusf@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Wed Mar 09 2005 - 23:09:59 CST
At 02:43 PM 3/9/2005, Andrew C. West wrote:
>As it happens I have to hand an apposite example of a conjectural reading
>based
>on parallel passages, and its representation in a printed book (see
><http://uk.geocities.com/BabelStone1357/ShangZhouGuWenziDuben_61.jpg>. In this
>example of a Chinese oracle bone inscription from about 3000 years ago the
>same
>textual formula is repeated several times for different dates, and the editor
>has been able to fill in any gaps by reference to the parallel examples. The
>conjectural readings are indicated in the modern Chinese transcription by
>means
>of an enclosing square around the supplied ideograph.
>
>In my opinion, having a mechanism for enclosing a CJK ideograph in a
>square box
>to indicate a conjectural reading, as in this example, is within the scope of
>Unicode, as it is representing a graphic feature of the textual transcription
>(and the fact that it symbolises a conjectural reading is neither here nor
>there).
The character to use would be U+20DE COMBINING ENCLOSING SQUARE.
Yes, it's in a section of diacritical marks for symbols, but this use is
part of a notational convention, as opposed to standard text in a
particular language, so going for that enclosing square (if the font and
renderer support it) would be apropos.
A./
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