Hello Gregg, From: Gregg Reynolds <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >- Tanween ending >> in meem: fathatan+superscript meem will trigger the "tamweem" symbol, >> and so forth for kasratan+superscript meem and dammatan+superscript >> meem. No new character code is needed, just a protocol that explains >> that the combination will trigger the corresponding glyph. > >I must respectfully but vehemently object. You can't just merrily >redefine the semantics of codepoints that are already well-defined. >Fathatan means fathatan; any software that does not display it correctly > is broken, by definition. Ditto for superscript meem. If the one >follows the other, they must both be displayed.
Well that is an interesting argument but I'm wondering what the practicality of it is. The only use case I can think of where someone would type a tanween and then a superscript meem would be when he is writing a document that lists various symbols used in Arabic. If he wants to simply write these letters next to each other, then it would be wise for him to put a space in between anyways since some of these symbols would be stacked on top of each other otherwise. So if the user puts a space between the tanween character and superscript meem he can display these characters next to each other. Other than this what else use case can you think of? >> Silent/sequential tanween: fathatan+sukuun code will trigger the >> silent tanween/sequential tanween glyph, and so forth for >> kasratan+sukuun and dammatan+sukuun. Sukuun is a good choice for a >> codepoint here since the noon sound of the tanween is in a way >> silenced. No new character code is needed, just a protocol that >> explains that the combination will trigger the corresponding glyph. > >Same objection. What if the author *wants* a sukuun over an -atan? By >the way, what exactly is a "silent/sequential" tanween? All tanween >variants have names in Arabic that translate quite well into English; >why not use them? By my reading, there is no such thing as a "silent >tanween"; there is an assimilated tanween, but assimilation and silence >are not the same thing. "Sukun" is definitely the wrong term. > >See section 1.10 of http://www.arabink.com/patacode/encoding.pdf; see >also the bottom of p. 31 / top of p. 32. Yes I mean the assimilated tanween. I used the word sequential because in this list the word sequential has been used most commonly to refer to this character so I wanted to make sure list participants understand what character I'm talking about. Thanks for the cue for using the word "assimilated". Sounds good to me. >> New canonical equivalences (this one is not absolutely needed for the >> Madinah Mushaf): ---------------------- - Basic tanween canonical >> equivalence: fatha+fatha needs to be made canonically equivalent to >> fathatan, and so on for kasratan and dammatan. >> > >Here's the problem with this: why stop there? You can use precisely the >same argument to say that two consecutive vowels within a word should be >interpreted as one vowel + vowel lengthener. E.g. kitAb spelled kitaab. > Technically speaking, the alif in kitAb in fact denotes a lengthening >of the preceding fath, just as the second vowel in -atan denotes /n/. >Now consider kitaabaa - should the final aa be an alif or a fathatan? > >Plus, what does this do for searching and sorting? A search for e.g. >fathatan won't find two consecutive fathas. So if you do this sort of >thing you'll get surprised users. OTOH, nothing says an editor can't >map two consecutive punches of the fatha key to the fathatan codepoint. This canonical equivalence of fathatan with fatha+fatha, etc. is personally not very important for me. This is one of the things Tom wants to propose and feels strongly about. At this point I haven't comprehended the real importance for this canonical equivalence so I would suggest you direct your questions about this one to Tom. Thanks, Mete -- Mete Kural Touchtone Corporation 714-755-2810 --
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