SHEQEL and L2/19-291

From: Mark E. Shoulson via Unicode <unicode_at_unicode.org>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2019 22:23:39 -0400

Just looking at document L2/19-291, https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19291-missing-currency.pdf "Currency signs missing in Unicode" by Eduardo Marín Silva.  And I'm wondering why he feels it necessary for the Unicode standard to say that a more correct spelling for the Israeli currency would be "shekel" (and not "sheqel").  What criterion is being used that makes this "more correct"?  I think it's more popular and common, so maybe that's it.  But historically and linguistically, "sheqel" is more accurate.  The middle letter is ק, U+05E7 HEBREW LETTER QOF (which is not "more correctly" KOF), from the root ש־ק־ל Sh.Q.L meaning "weight".  It's true that Modern Hebrew does not distinguish K and Q phonetically in speech; maybe that is what is meant?  Still, the "historical" transliteration of QOF with Q is very widespread, and I believe occurs even on some coins/bills (could be wrong here; is this what is meant by "more correct"?  That "shekel" is what is used officially on the currency and I am misremembering?)

Just wondering about this, since it seems to be stressed in the document.

~mark

Received on Wed Jul 24 2019 - 21:24:08 CDT