On 08/07/2003 3:19, Jony Rosenne wrote: > Just a reminder that the statement of the problem has not been agreed to. I > don't see a vowel sequence in Yerushala(y)im.
Jony, even if you don't accept the problem as regards Yerushala(y)im, you must accept that modern Hebrew typography can use more than one vowel attached to a consonant. Just take a look at the pronunciation guide of foreign words in some dictionaries (e.g., Dagut, "Milon Angli-Ivri/Hebrew-English Dictionary of Contemporary Israeli Hebrew", Kiryat Sefer, Jerusalem, 1998). Granted that in this particular case, the two vowels are not both combining characters, the point is that two vowels CAN attach to a single consonant in valid, modern Hebrew usage. But regarding Biblical text, the issue is not what's right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable, in Hebrew. The issue is to use Unicode to transmit faithfully the Hebrew texts created long before the development of typography or computers. We don't have the right to change the representation that was handed down to us. Also, there are missing letters and there are missing letters. There are cases of a single text (e.g., Holzhausen Bible of 1889, Lowe and Brydone Bible of 1948, as documented by Yannis Haralambous) where the "missing letters" in some words are simply not present in the representation and the vowels are placed on the consonants that do appear (not only Yerushala(y)im, but also "ke(ch)o(l )asher" in Ezekiel 9:11, for instance, where the kaf is combined with a dagesh, sheva, holam, and tipcha), while the missing letters in other words are denoted by an asterisk, space, or other visible device (in one, case, an isolated dagesh with a tsere and mapach in BHS, Isaiah 54:16). The point is, whether or not there is a missing letter in Yerushala(y)im, the Masoretic (and most common) orthography is to write the word AS IF the lamed had two vowels (and maybe a cantillation mark as well). This should be encoded differently than the cases where the orthography is to attach vowels to visual indicators of missing letters. So even if Unicode had a code point for "MISSING LETTER", it wouldn't be usable for both Yerushala(y)im and for the 30 or so cases of visual indications of missing letter in Tanakh that are documented by Haralambous. Ted Ted Hopp, Ph.D. ZigZag, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1-301-990-7453 newSLATE is your personal learning workspace ...on the web at http://www.newSLATE.com/
