> From: Philippe Verdy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> In shorter term you agree that it contains a mix of a mathematical > notation used > to write specific regular expressions No; I said "yes" in agreement to Michael's statement: this is linguistic notation, not mathematical notation. Some linguistic notation is influenced by notation in certain fields of mathematics; but whether this is true for this particular use of tilde (I never encountered this usage in my math studies that I recall), we weren't talking about that symbol, were we. > 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. Sorry, but the asterisk does *not* mean "undetermined" (unless you're using a different definition of that term than I'm familiar with). The subscript x means there is no particular value assigned; the asterisk absolutely does not mean that no value is assign; it only means that the assigned value is a hypothesis rather than something attested from observed usage. > 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 ? NO!!! Rather than making ill-conceived suggestions for improvement based on uninformed guesses about established conventions in a field of study with which familiarity is limited, it is sometimes better to stick to merely observing the usage and listening to the explanations offered, inserting only questions as needed to fill in gaps in understanding. Peter Constable
