But how about:
U+05C4 HEBREW MARK UPPER DOT
What the heck is *that* thing for, and how would it be distinguished if it isn't this holam? Note that U+05C4 does not participate in any decomposition, so that isn't an issue here.
The identity of this mark has been debated in a couple of forums. I don't recommend it for the kholam male, though, because the upper dot is often larger and higher then the holam mark.
We're using the upper dot for two purposes: in Masoretic notes and to indicate Hebrew letters used as numbers. In both cases the upper dot is visually centered above the consonant.
In the past, SIL were using it for above puncta extraordinaria: which occur only a few times in the Biblical text, and whose signifigance is debated by scholars. I think this is a misuse, since there is no corresponding below puncta extraordinaria in the Unicode Hebrew block. SIL seem to have come around to this view, and we are both currently using U+0307 and U+0323 for the above and below puncta, despite rendering problems in many current apps. Because the puncta are typically larger and further above and below the consonants than the upper and lower dots used for Latin script, and may also not be round, we favour separately encoding the two puncta marks in the Hebrew block.
John Hudson
Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com Vancouver, BC [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The sight of James Cox from the BBC's World at One,
interviewing Robin Oakley, CNN's man in Europe,
surrounded by a scrum of furiously scribbling print
journalists will stand for some time as the apogee of
media cannibalism.
- Emma Brockes, at the EU summit
