Is there consensus on how to count aksharas in the Devanagari script? The doubts I have relate to a visible halant in orthographic syllables other than the first.
For example, according to 'Devanagari VIP Team Issues Report' http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2011/11370-devanagari-vip-issues.pdf, a derived form from Nepali श्रीमान् should be written श्रीमान्को <U+0936 DEVANAGARI LETTER SHA, U+094D DEVANAGARI SIGN VIRAMA, U+0930 DEVANAGARI LETTER RA, U+0940 DEVANAGARI VOWEL SIGN II, U+092E DEVANAGARI LETTER MA, U+093E DEVANAGARI VOWEL SIGN AA, U+0928 DEVANAGARI LETTER NA, U+094D, U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER, U+0915 DEVANAGARI LETTER KA, U+094B DEVANAGARI VOWEL SIGN O> and not श्रीमान्को <U+0936, U+094D, U+0930, U+0940, U+092E, U+093E, U+0928, U+094D, U+0915, U+094B>. Now, if the font used has a conjunct for SHRA, I would count the former as having 4 aksharas SH.RII, MAA, N, KO and the latter as having 3 aksharas SH.RII, MAA, N.KO. If the font leads to the use of a visible halant instead of the vattu conjunct SH.RA, as happens when I view this email, would there then be 5 and 4 aksharas respectively? A further complication is that the font chosen treats what looks like SH, RA as a conjunct; the vowel I appears to the left of SH when added after RA (श्रि). Richard.