I thought if had (it is used in French where it is clearly a typographic
ligature buf handled and sorted like two letters), as opposed to the ae
ligature (which is typographic ligature in French, but a true letter in
other
languages).
A strong case can be made that the _ae_ and _oe_ ligatures ought to be represented by the corresponding single Unicode characters in languages where these are considered to be letters of the alphabet and by <a, ZWJ, e> and <o, ZWJ, e> in languages where they are better considered as typographic ligatures (though with some distinction in meaning from <a, e> and <o, e> intended).
But an attempt to make such a distinction would certainly fail unless it could be counted on that fonts almost universally would create the proper ligatures when ZWJ as used.
I expect current practice will continue.
If you want either an _ae_ or an _oe_ combination to be ligatured then enter the Unicode character that looks like the ligature regardless of its alphabetic status in the language.
Jim Allan
