On 17/02/2004 14:13, Philippe Verdy wrote:
From: "Peter Constable" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
So, the expression *hxC(V)- ~ *shxC(V) is saying, in relation to certain
phoneme sequences known to exist in later varieties, that an earlier
precedessor to the language(s) in question is believed to have had hC or
shC, and hCV or shCV (with the vowel colouring on the h unknown or left
unspecified).
In shorter term you agree that it contains a mix of a mathematical notation used
to write specific regular expressions (alternation noted '~' where regexp uses
'|', C and V being variables), and some plain-text characters (here only "hx"
and "shx").
More or less, but I think that here hx is also a variable, probably
intended to mean "any one of ha, he or ho", leaving s as the only true
plain text letter.
It true that this looks more like a mathematical notation, but it still contains
phonological/phonetic letters which are the only ones that are addressed by the
proposal (here the subscripted x for undetermined vowel tainting of the
preceding h).
Also the complex expression could be as well written more simply as:
*(s)-hxC(V)-
without the alternation. My opinion is that parentheses are just there for
grouping and that the minus sign operator is used in this notation to denote the
optionality (where regexps use '?')
It is clear that you do not at all understand the notational convention
here. Perhaps that helps to prove the point that this is not text but
technical notation. In fact here the parentheses denote optionality, the
hyphen that the word continues, and the asterisk that the whole thing is
a reconstruction, not an attested word.
I see some similarities between the undetermined vowel tainting letter (the
subscripted x) and the leading star in the expression, used to denote an
undetermined infered historic letter. Shouldn't both use the same glyph with
just a distinct positioning? Could it be that the undetermined vowel tainting
letter be shown as a subscripted star ?
It is not for Unicode to tell people how to improve their writing
systems or technical notations, but only to describe and encode those
systems and notations as they exist.
--
Peter Kirk
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (personal)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (work)
http://www.qaya.org/
