In Hebrew there are eleven slots each of which could be filled:Except in the original context it should have meant "infinite", asHow can that be, if there is a finite number of characters that can be
there is actually an infinite number of potential default grapheme
clusters.
part of a cluster, and a (presumably) finite upper bound on the number
of characters in a cluster?
There is no such finite upper bound. Theoretically, that is. In practice
the size of grapheme clusters will be fairly small. A grapheme cluster
with 9 characters in it, say made of 3 lead Hangul jamos, 3 vowel jamos,
and 3 trail jamos will be among the larger ones you will encounter.
But there is no theoretical bound.
Base character Sin or shin dot Dagesh Rafe 2 vowels 2 accents Upper dot Lower dot (yet to be encoded) Masora circle
But in practice not more than six or seven occur together anywhere in the biblical text, which is probably the most complicated.
But then, as Kent says, it would still be a valid grapheme cluster, though meaningless, to have any combination of an unlimited number of any of these or any other combining marks, hence the infinity.
-- Peter Kirk [EMAIL PROTECTED] (personal) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) http://www.qaya.org/
